1. First of all, determine your area of interest and a niche market that has potentials. Choose an area that would utilize your existing resources, knowledge and expertise.

2. Research and study scope of your market. If you serve both domestic and international markets, your will have a stronger chance for survive. If you only serve domestic, find out what services would make your business more competitive.

3. Clarify scope of your business and ask questions before opening your checkbook. Do you have efficient resources available to build a B2B or B2C portal from scratch? Do you need to leverage current website, customers and sales staff to produce additional revenue? Do you want to do all IT functions in house or should you out source? Do you have a sufficient revenue-generating model? If you are running a one-person operation, do you have enough time and technical skills?

4. Identify your clientele and need to come up with some unique ways to attract your customers and keep them coming back. Remember, content is king!

5. You are running a portal for profits. Identify and develop some solid revenue models. In past, it has been proven that banner advertising model and transaction model may not be as effective as expected.

We don't have to wait long to eat - just pop food into microwave and click start. In minutes we have a full meal.

We don't have to wait weeks for communication back and forth - just type and click send button in e-mail. In seconds, information is sent and received.

Because of this "instant" mentality we have grown accustomed to, we as a society have come to believe that if we can't get what we want in a matter of minutes, it's not worth having. Waiting is becoming a thing of past.

I have found this to be especially true when it comes to internet businesses. Because everything is available at click of a mouse, slowly growing an internet business never enters our minds. We try to find quickest and easiest route to automatic $5,000 per month promised to us at every turn.

Without careful thought, we plunge into several affiliate programs (sometimes unrelated to each other), throw up some free websites, blast our "open for business" announcement to 4,000,000 people, and then sit back waiting for all 4,000,000 to beat a path to our electronic doorway.

We watch calendar, and when, in 7 days, we haven't made our $1,500 or we run into technological difficulties, we throw up our hands in disgust, claiming that entire internet is a hoax, and walk away.

Let's pause for a moment and take a look at weed and oak. John and Jim are young, newly married, and have just moved in next door to each other. Both yards need work in order to gain "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval."