Whether you're a skilled marketer or not, it is generally agreed that to really succeed in any business, you need a mentor. Someone that can teach you the basics of your business model; that can show you what has worked and what has not.

A mentor is someone you can bounce ideas off. Who will help you explore those ideas and implement the viable ones and, perhaps, fix the others.

With the strong push toward home based business in recent years, it is more imperative than ever before that you find a good mentor or mentoring program.

The best mentor for you is someone who won't think every idea you have is whacky. He will help you explore the markets for your idea and help you decide on your niche(s) and your unique selling proposition (usp). He will brainstorm with you on whether you should offer a product of your own or join an affiliate program. Should you choose the latter (many beginning marketers do), he'll help you determine the best affiliate program for you; one that co-incides with your particular interests so you can stay enthused through the process of building up your home business.

However, your mentor does need to be able to help you see when you've gotten enthused about the wrong idea. If there is no market for your idea, there's no money to be made.

A good mentor or mentoring program will help you through the basic steps of determining a niche, finding or creating a product, building a website, finding a good hosting program, and many more steps that are needed to make your business successful.

One of the largest sites with mentors available is eBay (www.ebay.com) Browse through their Groups and find one that suits you. Attend eBay U. Read all their materials on starting out as a buyer or seller. Put all that information to use and create a home business that way.

If eBay isn't your cup of tea, consider joining the Affiliate Classroom (www.affiliateclassroom.com). While their focus is on affiliate marketing, they, nevertheless, show you step-by-step how to research a market, determine your niche, market your chosen product(s), and all the other parts of building a successful home based business. They also offer forums where you can learn from others.

There are many top marketers willing to sign you up for their mentoring programs, but be aware, these programs tend to be quite costly--either they have steep up-front fees or pretty racy monthly fees.

Unless you're prepared to pay exhorbitant amounts to learn from these "gurus," you might be better off to start slowly with one or both of the other two programs suggested.

In order to make the most of whatever home business opportunity you decide to pursue, consider carefully what sort of mentor or mentoring program would serve you best.

C. Rogers Upson is a published author on several websites and in several anthologies. This article can be published on your website or in your newsletter, so long as the resource information is intact and nothing is changed. Her website is http://www.edragonmarketing.com and she has a blog at http://edragonmarketing.blogspot.com.