BUSINESS. A big word. A big commitment. A big step.

Very quickly, we can round everything up about staring an online business in four very simple steps. Understand. Prepare. Do it. Sell it. There are no short cuts to working at home, let’s put it this way. If you’re looking for a short cut that you can use to start a work at home business, you may want to ignore this article. But in order to start your own online business, there are tons of things to be done. The best thing is for you to hold on to your day job (if you still have one) and take all four steps we recommend here and THEN you quit your day job.

Understand

Research industry. That’s first thing you should do if you are really serious about starting an online business. Starting new online business is not difficult at all. In fact, it is relatively easy and needs minimal funding. Do your homework; look at what your competitors are doing. See how successful they are, emulate their good points and avoid their bad ones. Define your services or products by researching on feasibility of your online business. Remember, working at home is a career, not a part-time job. Even if you’re still under employment, you’ll still need to know everything there is to know about your online business environment and industry. No two ways about it.

Prepare

Next, you need to write your work at home business plan. Even if you don’t have everything right down pat about your new work at home business, you’ll find that fog of uncertainty will start clearing up when you write your work at home business plan. It’s when you’re sitting there, writing, preparing and planning your online business that jigsaw puzzle pieces starts floating into place quite effortlessly.

20 Ways To Boost Your Traffic And Sales With eBooks

1. People love to get free stuff. A free eBook is perfect. They will visit your web site to get free valuable information.

2. Give away full version of your eBook in exchange for testimonials. You can use these customer statements to improve your ads' effectiveness.

3. When you write and give away a free eBook you will become known as an expert. This will gain people's trust and they will buy your main product or service quicker.

4. Publish your web site in eBook format. Put eBook on a disk or CD-ROM then include it with your direct mail packages. This can increase number of people that buy your product or service.

5. Offer your eBook as a free bonus for buying one of your main products or services. People will buy product or service more often when you offer a free bonus.

6. Allow people to download your eBook for free, if they give e-mail addresses of 3 to 5 friends or associates that would be interested in your eBook. This will quickly build your e-mail list.

7. Create a directory of web sites in eBook form. List peoples web sites in directory that will agree to advertise eBook on their web site or e-zine. This will give them an incentive to give away or advertise your eBook.

8. Allow other people to give away your free eBook. This will increase number of people that will see your ad in eBook. You could also include a mini catalog of all your product or services that you offer in eBook.

9. Gain new leads by having people sign up and give you their contact information before they can download your eBook. This is a very effective way to conduct market research.

10. Make money selling advertising space in your eBook. You could charge for full page color ads, classified ads or banners ads. You could also trade advertising space in your eBook for other forms of advertising.