Some tax-preparation web sites are cheaper than their desktop counterparts. But they don't always have most complete version of tax help that desktop software does. There can also be additional costs of state filing services, sometimes at more expense than federal counterparts. A recent PC Magazine rated top three Tax Web Sites as: TurboTax (*****), TaxCut and Complete Tax (both ****).

Make a file tray marked Tax Stuff every January. While sorting your mail put all 1099's, W-2's, and any tax-related material into it. You can also put colored accordion file pocket folders in your ‘tax box’ for incoming tax documentation. Use your credit cards to simplify your accounting. Select which cards you will use for business, travel or expensed transactions, household, personal, and use only one card for all your internet transactions. Label your cards until usage becomes second nature to you.

Credit card buyer-protection programs are useful in a merchandise or service dispute. Keeping only one credit card number exposed to web limits your exposure to fraud. I use three cards only: business, personal, and web.

At month end use your credit card statements, auto/transaction log and checkbook to track expenses for your ledger or computer program instead of chasing all receipts.

Keep a compartment, or envelope in your briefcase where you can easily stuff any receipts or notes. Then, use it. Have a drop box in your office for expensable receipts from your briefcase or pockets. At home make a place to put any receipts that refer to warranties or personal property records.

After April 15th, archive all tax-related files separate previous year from your active files into an available (but not daily use) archive box. Put in a back-up disk or CD of your accounting program for that year along with data. Also, put your calendar and a carbon copy phone message book in tax archive box – it’s all proof of business use.

Place prior records into garage or closet storage. Mark each box on outside by tax year and put all related tax backup documentation into it. Include a copy of tax return itself, as well as any 1099s, W-2s etc.

Keep a transaction log for auto mileage and miscellaneous transactions. You must have a log to deduct auto expenses, and when you maintain a transaction log IRS does not require that you keep receipts for expenses under $75.00. This documentation goes into your ‘tax box’ which becomes your ‘tax archive box’.

You can set up your Personal Digital Assistant (e.g., PalmPilot) to use an Expenses Notes section to easily maintain your daily business expenses.

Save yourself money and stress by using these tips to get a jumpstart on 2004 taxes. Tune-up your own file system, or if you don’t have one, use cost-effective FileSolutions TM file kits.

Or you can go all way with new electronic preparation and filing to make sure this year is better than last April 15!

Before you make a final decision, work out what your profit margin will be and do a rough calculation of how much money you will make based on estimated traffic from Wordtracker.

Step 4 – Choose and Register a Domain name

The next stage is to decide on and register a domain name. There are many websites selling domain names and you should be able to get one easily for less than $10 per year. There is no need to sign up for a domain name with your web hosting company if they are charging more than this as domain names can be transferred easily between hosting companies.

Try to choose a domain name that has some of your keywords in it. It’s also an advantage to have a name that is relatively short and easy to remember.

Step 5 – Find a Web Hosting Company

There are hundreds of web hosting companies available. Some even provide hosting for free. I advise against using free services if you are setting up a business, as this can look unprofessional, especially since most of them use advertising on your site as a way to recoup cost. This is fine for a personal website, but if you are serious about making money you need to choose a reputable web hosting company.

Ensure that you are happy with disk space and bandwidth allowances that your hosting company provides. Other things to consider are customer support services, reliability in terms of percentage of down time expected and interface for uploading files. There are many websites that offer reviews and comparisons of different hosting packages.

Step 6 – Build your Website

At last, you are now ready to start building your website. Many people skip research stage and dive straight into this part, but your chances of success are much higher if you spend time on research part first.

Depending on your knowledge and experience in this area you may decide to do this yourself, or pay for a web designer to do this for you. If you are doing it yourself, it helps to know HTML, but there are also many web page editors such as Front Page and Dreamweaver which you can use to construct your website with little or no knowledge of HTML.

Try to ensure that your site is clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate and that it looks professional. Have someone proofread your copy to ensure that there are no mistakes. Also ensure that you use your keywords from your Wordtracker research in title of your page, headings and throughout your copy. Use one or two of your chosen keyword phrases per page and don’t overdo use of your keywords as search engines may consider this as SPAM.

Step 7 – Market your Website

Finally you need to market your webpage. It is simply not true that you can just build a website and wait for visitors to come without doing any form of internet marketing.

Internet marketing is a huge topic, out with scope of this article. The sort of techniques that you may want to consider include reciprocal linking, writing and publishing articles, pay per click (PPC) advertising such as Google Adwords and Overture, classified and solo ads, participating in discussion forums that allow a signature in your postings and advertising on related (but not competing) websites.

These 7 steps take time and effort, but if you do your research and persevere you are likely to see excellent results.

Don’t forget, that once you have been through this process once, you can repeat it again and again until you have multiple websites making an income for you while you sleep, or relax on beach!