In the course of my home business coaching activities, I have often found that people head into the startup of their online home based businesses with a wildly unrealistic mindset.

Many have been told that they can sign up for a few programs, build a website around them, add a bunch of banners and links onto their site, then sit back and watch the money roll in and never have to work again.

There is a misconception that you can come online and set up an Internet based business and be making big money within a few days. This is absolute hogwash and it has not been my experience nor the experience of anyone I have come in contact with through my online business activities.

The harsh reality is that there are more people who fail at their home businesses than there are people who actually succeed.

Newcomers to the world of online home based business are not usually aware that they may actually have to work harder at their home businesses than they did at their traditional jobs. They are typically not aware of the many hours of marketing time that they will need to put in to be successful.

Many people that are new to online marketing also make the mistake of thinking that a single marketing strategy will suffice. Naturally, some avenues will produce better results than others, but I have found the best course of action is to adopt a broad based approach to your online marketing by spreading your time and resources over several different methods.

If you are new to Internet marketing, you might be well advised to take a course to find out what is required of you to be successful in an online business. It does not matter what type of business you are starting, if it is online, it must be marketed online, and possibly offline as well.

It always amazes me how frequently people that start an online home based business actually believe that they can get rich by doing absolutely nothing, or at least with very little effort. These are otherwise intelligent people. Why would they believe this? My conclusion is that they believe because they want to believe. They believe because they see claims to this effect everyday and everywhere on the Internet. They are told that it is possible. They not only want to believe it, for their own reasons, but they need to believe it.

In my opinion, you need to give yourself at least a year to make an online business get some traction and start to generate some meaningful income. The proper mindset is to think long term, not instant gratification.

I am always surprised at the number of people who drop out of their online home based business after the first month or two. I ask myself, what do they expect, miracles? You probably wouldn't bail out of offline business after a month so why would you expect an online business to be any different?

Aside from the fallacy of instant riches without any effort, the expectation of a free ride is a frequent misconception of many that think they want to start an online home based business. If you're afraid, or unwilling, to invest a little money to start your own business...you are not looking at a home based business...you are looking at a work at home job. If you want to make money online, you must also be willing to invest in yourself. It's as plain and simple as that.

Kirk Bannerman operates his own successful home based business and also coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. For more information visit his website at Legitimate Home Based Business