The home based business industry has flourished since the turn of the century. This is mainly due to the fact that the internet has provided numerous opportunities for people to earn good money from the comfort of their own homes.There are many stories in the media about the latest online success story from the multi-billion dollar guru to the university student who is making a small fortune using just a laptop in his bedroom.Having a home based business is very appealing to many people, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet, or those who have a very stressful job with long commutes and long hours. Many of these people mistakenly think that it is easy to set up a home based business thinking that all they have to do is create a website and the orders will come flooding in. “Build it and they will come”Needless to say it is not that easy, especially now that internet marketing has become so competitive. It can be a lot of hard work setting it all up, it is also important to be aware that in the early days you will earn little or no money and what you do earn may have to be reinvested back into your business in order for it to grow.If a website is likely to be a major part of your home based business, then it is vital to take advice and have a fully optimized web site created by someone who knows what they are doing. This is particularly important if you are going t need to set up a shopping cart on your website. Lots of newbie internet marketers fall into the trap of trying to create their own with little or no knowledge of what they are doing. Needless to say they are usually disappointed and disillusioned when they get little or no traffic and subsequently very few sales. This is the most likely time for people to give up thinking that internet marketing doesn’t work.If you have a cash flow problem in the early days there are plenty of free options available to you such as blogs and other web 2.0 sites that enable you to write articles and create one page web sites.The most important thing with any home based business is traffic. You need to get visitors to your site, whether it is a blog or a web site. The most important thing is to ensure that your blog or website has good quality content that is updated on a regular basis. The search engines want to find unique content on your website.Many people find writing difficult in the first instance or may not have the confidence to publish their own words on the net. If that is the case you may want to consider hiring a professional copywriter to write your articles for you, or maybe to purchase a bundle of articles that you can edit. This may well be money well spent and would help you to get your home based business off to a good start.One of the one aspect that many newbie home based business owners forget about is their market research. Is there a market for your product or service and what is the competition that you will need to beat in order to get custom? If having done that you feel that your home based business is viable you need to do your keyword research to find the best keywords to use in your articles so that you attract traffic to your site. It is pointless having most amazing interesting site, even if it has good information if no one is searching your keywords. The chances are you won’t be indexed in Google and it is highly unlikely that anybody will find you.Preparation, research and planning done in the early stages will build a solid foundation for your home based business. It will be time well spent and will give your business the very best chance of being successful both now and in the future.