The internet offers unique opportunities for making money.Whether it is an established 'bricks and mortar' businesses looking to expand sales online, to work-at-home mums looking to supplement their incomes, thousands of Australians are realizing the potential the internet has to offer for reaching new markets and generating meaningful revenues. The low set-up cost of the internet makes it possible for anyone with a modest investment to start an e-commerce business.

But no matter how great the idea, how revolutionary your product or service is, unless it is backed by a well-thought-out Internet Marketing strategy, you will most likely be disappointed by your e-commerce experience.

Establishing a meaningful online presence is the biggest challenge in setting up an online business. When you set up an online business, no matter how much traffic you can generate, your visitors don't know you. You need to establish your credentials and develop an identity that tells your visitors that you are not an unemployed weirdo trying to dupe visitors from your dark and unheated basement. Your website should seem to represent a genuine business that can really deliver. In short you need to establish trust. How can you do that?

Develop a professional looking website.

A good website is quintessential to your online presence. Even the first glance can make or break a great business transaction. Your website should be neat and clean, It should be accessible to people of all abilities and it should have a well-structured navigation system. There should be no broken links and all the essential pages should be there.

If you are not a web designer, employ one. An amateur website says amateur business. When engaging a web designer, always check their online portfolio of work to ensure they know what they are doing. Contact the owners of the websites in their portfolio and ask them about their experience with the web designer. Contact a Search Engine Optimisation company and ask them for a quick appraisal of the designer's websites. It will take 5 minutes, should cost you nothing, and will tell you whether or not the web designer has any concept of building sites that are search engine friendly - many don't! A typical web site build will cost from $2,000 upwards depending on complexity

If you can't afford to pay out for a web designer, look at a web site builder solution. This is a free tool that comes with all our web hosting accounts and lets anyone, regardless of skill level, create a decent web site. Check out the demo here

On top of web design, setting up an online business is going to require some financial investment to do it right. You should expect to pay around $1500 to get yourself set-up with a securely hosted online store that can process credit card payments for a year.