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 an immense amount to learn.  The good news is that there is a lot of reliable information on the Internet that you can find for free or for relatively little money.  The bad news is that many of the sites that you will come across are scams (at worst) or not credible.  The good news is that you’ll be able to tell the difference sooner than you think.

One of the best ways to start your exciting education if to locate reputable course with the essentials of starting online.    As long as you are diligent in following the lessons and applying what you learn as you go, 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’ll find that you have a lot to do, although some of the unscrupulous marketers will try to trick you into believing that if you follow their plans, you won’t have to work very hard at all, and everyone will magically start to send you money.  You must manage your time with care, and promise yourself and your family that your excitement over your new adventure will not occupy all available time.

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 business sites and other such related topics.

Don’t rush out to buy anything, yet.  The next step is to sit down with some paper and pencil.  From the list of things that you don’t yet know how to do, determine what interests you and and what sounds so boring that you would rather outsource the tasks.  Don’t worry, you can learn to do anything on that list.  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.  If you find yourself tempted to buy an instructional product that you find, say a course on affiliate marketing or a set of videos about search engine optimization, hit your pause button.  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) Put on a pair of “critic’s glasses.”  Analyze the structure of the sales page that you found so convincing.  At some point in the not too distant future, you want to become a copywriter as skilled as the one that had you reaching for your wallet.  Now, go off to find some comparable products and go through the same process.

I impose a mandatory three day waiting period before I buy something I’ve just found.  That gives me time to consider it rationally, removing myself from the emotional responses elicited by the well presented offer.  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!