Then, I got an email from a person who had visited my "pretty" website. He commented I obviously had been busy. He very kindly did not mention how "unbusiness-like" my site was. He very graciously offered to help me set up my site in a more professional way. He also advised me to get a "non-free" website where I would not be limited to what I could do. And he said it all without hurting my feelings!

Of course I accepted his offer. He set up a template for me, worked on teaching me html, answered questions, and fixed my mess-ups while I was learning. And he STILL helps me out of jams! Who is he? His name is James Pendleton. His website is http://www.jgptophost.com . He has been an invaluble friend to me. If you are looking for a good webmaster, you won't find a better one.

This article sounds like an ad, but it really isn't. My point is that we all need each other. Great businesses can be built when we finally realize that we can do more when we help each other. When we learn to trust each other, great things happen. Pool your resources - offer your strengths to someone who can use them, and often you will find other person will offer you something in return. Then you BOTH will be better for it!

But if you take what I've made from day one and divide it by number of hours I put into it, you'll find that I probably could have done better with a part-time job flipping burgers.

And who knows, maybe I could have even spent more time with my family because when I clocked out from my part-time job, I would be off for evening.

When you are bit by Internet bug, you'll find yourself watching sun come up on some days...after an all-nighter!

The sad truth is that vast majority of "gurus" out there leave out this part of story. It doesn't sound quite as awesome to hear someone say they are making money with their website, but they might do better offering "fries with that."

At this point you are probably thinking: "Man! Chuck, what's up with all gloom and doom?"

I'm trying to set your expectations appropriately. In my last job, one of most important lessons that I learned was to "set customer's expectations."

When I went into a job that I knew would probably take 4 hours, it was better to tell customer that it would take 8.

If I was done in 4 I was a hero. If I ran into major problems and it took 8, then I was right on time.

But if I had told customer that I should be done in 4 hours and it took me 8....

VERY upset customer!

It is all about perception.

You need to set your own expectations. Don't think that you can "build it and they will come."

Don't think that you can put up a site and instantly put it on auto-pilot.

If you don't use right approach to your business, you can easily find yourself on list of "Internet failures."

The bright side to this story? Today, through "school of hard knocks" I have learned how to get a website up and running in a much shorter time frame, and with far fewer mistakes.

Looking back on it, what would I have done differently?

I would have invested in some training materials so I could learn what others have found to work, and not work.

I would have gotten my own domain name a lot earlier.

I would have invested in a decent log analysis tool instead of spending hours "counting clicks."

And, I would probably have doubled my "expected time to completion" :-)