To illustrate this point, let me show you what happened in trying to promote my business on a free web site. Before we get into this, though, let me assure where I'm coming from. It's not to persuade you of idea of paid domain names and site hosting as end-all, beat-all solution to success. There's much more to it than that.

I've always been restricted by budgeting concerns. Could I have taken food off table to pay for business expenses that may or may not have earned enough to pay for themselves? For reasons too detailed for this article answer in beginning was "no". I'm sure most newcomers to this marketplace have same concerns.

On other hand, when I finally did register my domain name, I soon began seeing more traffic on my site. My domain host is not most expensive one out there, but what paying for a web site gives me is a shorter web address and less down time than with my free hosting service.

Where am I going with this, you ask? Here's where. It was months of submitting to classifieds, free for all links pages, and search engines with very little gain that finally convinced me. Even though I used funds from family budget as a leisure expense it has been worth it. I have made sales, and traffic is improving.

For you it may be a question of advertising money, or more basically, time to invest online. Whatever issue, it is experimentation that pays off. Please learn from activities that fall short of profit. That's extra value of self-teaching.

Don't be afraid to try and fail. Be more afraid of not trying for lack of all answers. After a sufficient length of time in business - and I mean months to years, not overnight - your efforts should pay off. You will then be able to try and succeed.

__Take breaks when you need them.

You're a person, not a machine. Don't force yourself to keep going when you're burnt out. Take some time off to do something you enjoy, and FORGET about work for a while. It really helps! You'll feel more refreshed and ready to tackle your next task.

__Stick to an approximate schedule.

I say 'approximate' because one of benefits to working from home is flexibility! But setting a 'regular' schedule (barring occasional deviation) helps you to stay on track and get things done.

__Keep your sense of humor - but don't be a wimp.

You're WORKING from home, so don't get swindled into caring for neighbor's kids everyday ('as a favor') or running errands for friends or family ('because you have lots of time'). No doubt some people will think that 'working from home' is equivalent to 'munching snacks while watching daytime TV'. Learn to say a guilt-free NO!

Treat yourself right, and enjoy benefits of being one of lucky people who can say, 'I work fro