You must start by separating the facts from the hype, if you want to start a legitimate online business. If it seems too good to be true, commonsense will tell you that it is. Despite this many people still "fall" for these claims. The reason is that these claims tug on our emotions, dreams, hopes and desires. They take advantage of lack of complete understanding; the fact that many people are just a bit in the dark as to how things "work" with an online business. Additionally, there is a pile of testimonials that support the claims of making a ton of money overnight. This additional element is what pushes people to suspend commonsense. People figure, "What do I have to lose? It is not that much money....and what if it really works?" The trouble is that this sort of thinking can lead to a string of purchases that really do not amount to much online progress but instead really start to add up dollar wise. People who go to weekend guru seminars really need to guard their wallets, because the hype is on maximum drive at these events. No doubt that the seminar attendee will pick up some valuable information. It is a well known sales tactic that giving away free information earns buyer trust and that it will encourage people to want more. This formula really works

This formula should be used by everyone with a product or service to sell; whether the business is online or offline. It is just that the emotions and the expectations are so out of whack with so many online plans that they seem to border on being schemes. Anyone who wants to establish a legitimate online business needs to guard against unrealistic expectations and develop a plan and timeframe for getting things done. Those who do this will remove themselves from the ranks of opportunity seekers and place themselves on the path of establishing a real online presence.

So, the first important step to developing a legitimate online business is to realize that it will take time and planning to establish an enduring online presence. A systematic approach that has proven methods will help your business be found online. There needs to be a commitment to sticking to a plan and discipline to follow these methods in a consistent fashion.

The second step is to understand what your particular strengths and interests are. This can help you identify an online business model that will be right for you. You must consider the way you expect to monetize your site. Will you sell goods or services, generate leads, have a membership site/subscription program or have a content site that sells advertising space? These models all generate money. Sometimes it is possible to overlap these models, but with a startup business in particular it is best to focus on just one.

Step three is to research your target market. You must know if there is a demand /interest for what you want to do. Are people buying in your selected market? If your visitors are already getting what they want from your content, they are may not be the best target for advertisers. Thus the advertising model would not be appropriate here. There is an abundant supply of free resources that will clue you in to what people want. You can type in a keyword at Google trends to see what the interest in your topic is. The highest rated articles in any given category on Digg will give you ideas too.

Step four is to do thorough keyword research. This means that you find out the number of searches, the amount of competition for those keywords/keyword phrases and also if these are buying terms. If any one of these three requirements is not met, your online business will have a difficult time getting launched. You can invest in all kinds of software to do your keyword research or you can make the decision to have experts do it for you. This is one place that you really do not want to mess up.

Step five is to select a domain name that has your keywords in it. This really is beneficial, so do the best you can.

Step six is to be smart about your website's development. This means that you understand that your site really has two types of visitors; human and robots. It has to be user friendly to both of them. If the search engine spiders cannot make their way around your site; much of what you have done will be ignored. Your site must be code friendly and search engine optimized (SEO). Very often people think that it is enough to just place a list of keywords in the meta tags. Stuffing keywords is always a big mistake whether it is in your meta tags or on your web page. Good SEO is so much more than meta tags and meta descriptions. Great SEO is a full time job. When your keyword research is done right and you work consistently on SEO, your site will build an online presence. When this happens you will be found by search engines and human visitors.

When you build your website, you also need to build it for your human visitors. It needs to have a professional look (no spelling or grammatical errors and a polished look regardless of the style you choose) but it does not have to be fancy. It needs to deliver what your visitors expect for the search terms they used to find you. Your site needs to easy for people to navigate to find what they want. This will help you convert visitors to customers.

When this is done, a way to measure and track your website visitors is needed. This will give you the information you need to constantly make improvements and get the results that you want. Google analytics is free and is a great place to start.

These are the basic steps for creating a legitimate online business. It involves a lot of commitment in time, energy and money. Those who do it all themselves will be investing a lot of time in learning the details of what needs to be done. They will also need to spend a lot of time in order to get the SEO portion done right. People who do not have the time or interest in learning about all of this can just hire experts who will get it all done right in a timely fashion. It's nice to know that affordable expertise is available (and cheaper than a lot of weekend seminars).