So you’ve decided to start your first online venture…  Do you want to good news or the bad news?  The bad news is that you have a great deal to learn.  The good news is that it’s fun and that much of the basic information can be found inexpensively or even free.  The bad news is that many of the sites that you will come across are scams (at worst) or not credible.  The best news is that you’ll be able to distinguish the valuable from the worthless sooner than you now think you will be able.

One sensible way to start your e-business education is to find a free course with the basics of starting online.  There should be no (or minimal) charge for the rudimentary information.  If you actually follow the lessons and apply what you learn, that will get you well on your way toward distinguishing between the scams and the legitimate offers, between the metaphorical wheat and the chaff.

You will discover that the reality of starting your business will fall somewhere between the extremes of the unscrupulous types who tell you that you can work half an hour per week in your pajamas and retire in a year and the other extreme of thinking it is an impossible task, as you may be thinking now.  Yes, you’ll need to get organized.  You must structure your time efficiently, and promise yourself and your family that your excitement over your new adventure will not occupy every available minute.

Look for free information about some of the topics you learned about in your introductory course at article sites, like A1Articles.com or EzineArticles.com.  Search for trustworthy blogs and site and keep looking until you find several.  Locate sources for information concerning topics such as your business niche selection, search engine optimization, design of online business websites and many more topics.

It’s not yet time to go on a buying spree.  Put the brakes on any shopping urges.  Your next step is to sit down with pen, paper and a copy of your budget.  From the list of things that you don’t yet know how to do, decide what you find interesting and and what sounds so boring that you would rather outsource the tasks.  I promise you that you can learn to do anything on your list; none of it is all that difficult.  Simply decide whether you want to invest your available funds in learning resources or in labor to actually perform each task.

Now, at last, the time for shopping has arrived.  Fight any urge you have to immediately buy an amazing sounding product, whether it’s a course or a remarkable piece of software.  At this point, you should do two things:  1) Add the web page to your favorites list so that you know you can find your way back to it later.  2) Analyze the structure of the sales copy, because eventually you want to be able to write a sales pitch that works as well as that one apparently did on you.  Then, find a lot more products in the same category, so that you can later compare the alternatives.

In most cases, I force myself to abide by a three day cooling off period before buying an informational product or new software.  I make exceptions in the cases of a few people whose products I know well and always trust.  After those three days have elapsed, if I am still convinced by the miracle cure that I discovered, I use my bookmark to find it again, pull out my payment card and buy to my satisfaction.

Beware!  Buying can make you feel good, but your new purchase does you no good unless you use it, and using it means implementing the strategies that you learn about or the procedures for which the software was designed.  In other words, you must act!