Among the most common reasons:

• I don’t know enough about (niche)
• I may not succeed
• I have no idea how to begin

It’s this mental barrier/s which keep many from generating a decent income online.

Let’s look at a couple of the reasons.

“I don’t know enough“: There’s a state of mind referred to as “learned helplessness”.
You naturally will not know “everything” about debt consolidation or hair loss or cellphone ringtones starting out, but there’s nothing to stop you from doing something about it.

As an Internet entrepeneur, you simply cannot expect your business to be handed to you in an ebook or a business-in-a-box, not if you’re planning to create a long term, sustainable business.

There is some “brain grease” involved in all of this.
Squeezing a little time out of your day, maybe an hour before bed or when you wake, moves your business ahead by 30 to 60 hours a month, if you’re already holding down one or two jobs.

It feels that the “I don’t know” is code for “I don’t want to put in any effort and yet see my paypal account magically fill up”.
Maybe in an alternate dimension, but not this one.

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“I may not succeed“: That’s part of the “entrepreneur equation”.
You could fail, and there’s a great chance of that too.

On the other hand, there’s the opportunity to succeed spectacularly too.
A lot of it depends on your own effort.
For more information on this, refer to the point above.

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“I have no idea how to begin“: Although this sounds similar to “I don’t know enough” and might have a faint smattering of learned helplessness, knowing where to begin is a matter of being able to put the pieces together.

You might already know about list building, traffic generation, monetization, but unless you have a macro perspective of how the pieces fit together, you could be at a loss of “how to begin”.

The great thing about business is that it’s usually very logical and follows established principles of supply and demand.

Create something that people are interested in and they’ll come over.

Is American Idol creating a stir among cellphone-carrying teenagers?
Why not create a site optimized to promote cellphone ringtones?

If you’re hearing that the Apple iPhone has great technology features and mediocre cell reception, you could either focus on something that could enhance the Cingular network reception, or look at software and applications to further enhance the functionality of the phone.

Having an outcome in mind is just like setting out on a road trip. If you can picture the destination in your mind’s eye, the rest of the journey is much easier.