Rising gas prices have everyone looking at the way they spend a dollar. Do you shop at a mall, a store or do you order online? Is takeout an alternative to eating out, or is the higher gas price being passed along in the takeout fee?

Will your company allow you to work from home instead of commuting? If your employer will not allow working from home and you have a long, gas-expensive commute, what are your choices: Move closer to your job, change jobs, start an internet business? Is an online business for you?

Contrary to the ads and myths around the internet, there is no 'magic bullet' for instant wealth. Unless you're incredibly lucky, in fact, there is no such thing as instant wealth. Like any other successful venture, an online business requires a considerable investment in planning, hard work, persistence and very careful spending. While a huge budget is not a guarantee of success, the more limited your budget, the more important planning, hard work and persistence become.

One of the first steps is to decide which of your interests are most likely to appeal to buyers. This is an important step because you need to enjoy what you're doing and buyers have to want what you are offering. This is a large part of the planning phase and is usually called market research. Market research simply means look at what people are buying and where. Visit sites that offer products or services similar to what you would like to offer. How do they present themselves and their products. If there seem to be too many sites doing what you would like to do, how can you present yourself differently?

As you do market research, remember that the best product on the best-looking website will just sit there unless you have traffic -- people visiting your website. Not everyone who visits your website will buy, but if no one visits there will be no sales at all. Consider the ways you can generate traffic. It's best to have more than one traffic generating stream. Lists are well and good, but it takes time to grow them and not all list building schemes are beneficial to you.

Start your own blog. There are many free blog sites you can use that 'ping' to well-known search engines each time you add a new post. A blog gives you a chance to establish a relationship with your readers so that when you do launch a product, they'll be more likely to visit your product website.

Writing articles is another way to build traffic. Your articles can be about your favorite hobby, your observations on the world condition, the best way to organize family holidays; whatever. The important thing is getting your name out there and guiding people to your blog or website. Once again, you are establishing a relationship with readers and that is the most important key to building traffic. Be sure to check with article directories and article submission sites to follow their guidelines.

Careful spending is critical to any long term business effort. The temptation will be to buy anything and everything that offers a shortcut to opening your business's doors. Too few of those systems actually benefit anyone but the person who sells them. The first question you need to ask yourself is 'has the person made their 'fabulous income' through using the system or by selling the system?'

Other ways to spend money will be on tools to get your website up and running. These tools may be useful and effective, but take the time to look for 'free' tools that do the same thing. There are plenty of them out there and these tools will do the job for you until you have the money to upgrade -- if you still think an upgrade is necessary.

Is an online business for you? If you're expecting instant wealth with little work, then quite probably no. If you're willing to commit yourself to a consistent daily effort working for yourself harder than you've ever worked for an employer, the answer could well be yes. In the meantime, keep your day job until you've gotten your online business on a solid footing.