Going into business for yourself can be an exciting and scary time. The reality is that most new business' fail. On the Internet, 95% of the people who are trying to make money don't.

What sets one business apart from another. There has to be a tangible reason for this statistic. It is stated that there are seven factors which can affect why an Internet business owner will fail.

This article will discuss how to avoid these common mistakes.

1) No definitive plan. In order for any business to be successful there needs to be a business plan. With the ease of starting a online business many new marketers fail to define what there business will be about.

2)Wrong Niche. Not only do people not research the niche as to whether it will be profitable, but there are those that choose a niche they don't enjoy. If you are passionate about your website or blog, it is a lot easier to promote it.

3) No plan when building the site. Not only do you need to choose a good web host company, you also want to know how your site should look. Your ultimate purpose is to get people to act a certain way. If your site is too busy, there is little likelihood of people staying.

4) No search engine optimization. Understanding SEO and how it works is imperative to success when trying to reach good search results. If you choose really competitive key words, it will take a long time to see good results. Also if you choose words that no one is searching for, you may get a good search page position, but no one is looking for it so it doesn't matter.

5) Not knowing how many back-links are needed. Too many people think they can write one article or blog post and they will make millions. To understand how many back-links you should have, you need to know your competition. If you do a search on your keywords, find the top site, then see how many links it has. You will need more/better ones.

6) Not adding content. The search engines like fresh content. If you are not adding new content on a regular basis they will eventually ignore your site as old news.

7) No list. The really successful marketers have good email lists. Not always really big lists, but proven ones. You need to build a list that shows the intent to purchase. Would you rather have a list of 100, where each person will buy what you recommend; or a list of 5000, where only one person will buy? Don't just buy a list, build one that is proven to generate sales.

The Internet is like any other business, in order to be successful you need to be organized, purposeful, and trusted by your clients. The Internet customer is far more cynical then a customer who walks into a store, so you need to take the time and effort to prove to them that you want more than their money.