The fact that it’s so easy to create a web business was what really did it for me. If I wanted to take advantage of an opportunity, it cost me next to nothing to try and I lost little if it failed.  It wasn’t long before I knew exactly how to find the right products and bring them to the right customers.  That’s what I’m going to show you in this book. I’m not going to give you any strange theories or fancy ideas. I’m just going to tell you exactly what I did and what I’m still doing so that you can do the exact same thing.

Of course, I can’t guarantee that you’ll have the exact same results as me. Heck, I bet if I were starting from scratch today I’d have different results too. I might even have better results. All I can do is tell you what I did and explain precisely how I did it. My system works for me; I can’t think of a single reason why it shouldn’t work for you too.

Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

Before you even turn on your computer though, the first question you have to ask yourself is whether you’re cut out for this kind of work.

The fact is, building a home-based business isn’t for everyone. Some people like the commute. They enjoy having a boss who tells them what to do, and they like the routine of working nine-to-five for a bog-standard salary than can barely pay the mortgage. Personally, I think they’re nuts.

More reasonably, there are people who are concerned about the risk of starting up their own business. They’re not sure it’s worth the investment of time and money, and they’re scared of the responsibility that comes with running their own company. They wonder if there isn’t another way to escape the rat race.

I’m sure there is. You could win the lottery or wait for your Aunt Betty to keel over and leave you her condo. Maybe you could sit down with a pen and paper and draw the blueprint for The Next Big Thing. Anything can happen.

For me, what happened was creating a successful, self-running Internet marketing system. It didn’t happen without effort. It didn’t happen without at least some initial investment of both time and money. And it doesn’t happen now without me having to make sure that the taxes are filed and the paperwork done. But it happened. I’m my own boss. I work from home according to my own schedule and I get to pocket all the cash my business makes. If you’re prepared to give an e-business the time, the work and the money it needs to get started and get growing, it should happen for you too.

The Internet-Your business tool

In effect, my system is built on three foundations: the Internet, marketing and the product.

In this book, we are going to look closely at each one of those. In particular, we’ll spend a lot of time talking about the marketing because this really is what the Internet does best.

Let’s just begin by taking a quick glance at why the Internet is the greatest business opportunity since the railroad.

The Internet actually started in 1969 as the ARPANET, a Defense Department system designed to let survivors share files after a nuclear attack. From a handful of top secret computers, it’s grown to fill more than 10 million hosts and millions of domain names.

And it’s still growing. According to a recent survey, the volume of Internet traffic is expected to double annually over the next five years. Consumers are expected to account for 60 percent of all Internet traffic over that period with the rest of the market made up of business users.

What does that mean for you?  It means customers-millions of them.  No other business tool can put the products you sell to so many people so easily. Nothing even comes close.