I happen to believe that anyone can start a business on the internet and very few ever get beyond the start up phase.

What you see as you surf the internet is all of the so called guaranteed ways you can start making money. I see ads leading to websites that are so silly it is hard to believe someone actually took the time to type them.

No work required, no selling, no sponsoring, never pay anything, free to join, earn $1000's, get rich, and so on. Everyone of these things could be true at some point in an Internet business, but not when you first start out.

So what are some of the reasons starting an Internet based business is hard to make money with, but will be easy to set up.

1. You do not know what you do not know! To make money on the internet is going to require skills. None of these are so hard to master that you can not do them.

All of them are so hard to stick with that you may give up before you ever start making money. There is a learning curve to Internet marketing. If you are the type of person who is willing to work at implementing what you learn, and who actually can learn, then give it a try.

2. Your focus, or lack of it, will kill you. I know this from personal experience. Keeping your eye on the ball is hard to do when working on the Internet.

Between a never ending supply of emails, and how easy it is to get side tracked at home, you will find it hard to actually accomplish anything.

3. Getting visitors to a website or blog is the hardest thing you will do. I don't care if you are doing pay per click advertising, article marketing, social bookmarking, forum marketing, or standing on the corner of a busy intersection yelling out your website address.

Even crappy little websites and blogs make money if they have enough traffic and one decent product to sell. You can see this online with all of the websites that offer no interesting content, but do have Google Adsense ads. None of these earn what they used to, but all of them still make money if they have enough traffic.

The best advice I can give you on starting an Internet marketing business is put together a plan and then stick to it. If you will write a daily to do list you will get a lot done. If you write short term and long term goals, and read them everyday, you stand an excellent chance of staying focused.

This article has not been about the abc's of starting a business online. Nor has it been about choosing a product to sell.

Understanding what you are getting into is just as important as wasting time on all of the other stuff. You are going to have to learn Internet marketing skills, traffic skills, and how to stay focused. If you are willing to do that you can make money like the rest of us.