Let's call them A and B, and look at A first.

A. Run Your Existing Business Online

It doesn't matter what your online business is. It could be a plumbing or building business, or a courier, getting messages to people the same day or even the same hour. You might be a hairdresser, teach people to juggle or entertain children's parties. It doesn't matter. You want to get a website so you advertise online.

Most people make lots of mistakes when they think about the internet, and that is the first: that you need a website to start an online business - or a blog, Squidoo lens or any other specific online presence. You don't. You can run a business and advertise it online without any of these. A simple online advert with a telephone number and physical address of your home, or store if you have one, will be enough to get you more customers.

However, a website can offer you many benefits that could add a zero or more onto your annual turnover. I encourage everybody that asks me about websites to get one, not because I can sell one to them because I can't (it's not my field), but because it offers so many different advantages that there are too many to enumerate here.

You will find it easier to advertise with a website; prospective clients or customers will have a better opinion of you and more confidence in you (so long as your site shows them that you are an expert in your niche), and you can run your website automatically - it's like a 24/7 mall store without you paying for staff!

If you already have a business that is making money, you can multiply that several times by using a website. There are ways to direct it to your local customer base or worldwide, whichever is best for your product. Image a store standing prominently in a street where everybody in the world can walk along every day! All you have to do is entice them in, and that's where you need good advice. Now the second way:

B. Make Money on the Internet with a New Business

If you can do something, or know a lot about something, people will pay for it. By far the major reason for people using the internet is to find information, and if you have that information, then they will pay you for it.

Also services: Lots of people search online for services, either nationwide or local, and if you can provide these services then you can make money online.

However, to do so you need to know how to go about it. I used to a brilliant soccer player, only I didn't know how to kick the ball. That's a fact, but not the only one. I was also a reasonable golfer, but I didn't know how to grip the club. A lot of you probably know all about that!

I could run fast and dribble past anybody with a soccer ball. But when it came to shooting I duffed it most of the time: what we call in Scotland a toe-basher. I kicked the ball with the front of my boots - the toes. Once I was taught how to use my instep I never looked back. I could have played for Manchester United and Scotland, but I spent so much time learning how to kick the ball that I forgot the rest. I was cack-handed at golf and once I learned how to hold the club properly I could hammer that ball down the fairway almost 450 yards! What do you call a hole in one at a par 5? An ostrich?

Actually, these are both exaggerations (yes they are!), but what is true is that I had to be taught how to kick a ball properly and how to grip a golf club. I had been doing these totally the wrong way, and once I learned both, my games improved significantly. "So what's that got to do with how to start an online business or how to make money on the internet?" I can hear you ask. Quite a lot actually!

Most people already doing it are doing it the wrong way, and those who have to start will start doing it the wrong way, just as I kicked a soccer ball and gripped a golf club the wrong way. Get it right and it clicks, but you need the right teacher. That teacher doesn't have to be a millionaire - just has to know how to make money online, and how to start an online business the right way.

Heck, what pro soccer millionaire is going to teach you to play soccer for under $25 a month? How much is Tiger Woods going to charge you for golf lessons? And guess what? Once you pay for the teaching you don't get the right guy - you get "a member of his team" like I did when I paid almost 7 grand to be mentored by Corey Rudl. I got somebody called Colin!

Nothing against Colins, but the object of this article is that you can learn how to start an online business to make money on the internet and it needn't cost you a fortune. But it will cost you something, because if you got it all free then you will get what you paid for. What is important is that you can't do it yourself: you will 'toe-bash' or play 'cack-handed' until you are shown the correct way to do things.

If you want success, take steps now to learn how to start an online business and make money on the internet properly. Like sports, get the technique right and the rest will follow if you work at it.