The biggest barrier to making money online is often yourself. Really, it is. From experience, getting past the initial push to get started is the largest hurdle you’ll face.

The tools needed are by and large free or cheap - hosting costs very little per year, domain names cost next to nothing and the site building tools - a text editor and FTP client all have free options.

Sure, there are all manner of tools being sold which claim to make you rich. You don’t need any of these to make money. There are those that can help, even some I recommend. By and large though, you don’t have to invest in these products to be successful - all you need is an idea and some determination.

Where most people fall down, is getting past the initial research phase of whatever plan they have in mind. They’ll spend forever figuring out all the tricks they might need to be successful, but they’ll never actually build anything. While they’re busy reading the advice and wisdom of others they’re not earning anything. To make matters worse, someone who’s pro-active has discovered new techniques (and monetized them), so there’s more material to be researched.

It’s a never-ending cycle that traps countless numbers of potentially rich people. They get caught in their own desire to be thorough; to make sure the plan won’t fail.

Here’s the thing - if a plan that cost you nothing fails, what have you lost? Just go build something. You can build it, test it, then optimize later once you’ve got a bit of experience. All the while you’ll be earning at least something. More than you would if you sat about reading forums/eBooks all day long.

If I can build an eCommerce site - and break even - in a few hours, without stopping to make sure X was properly optimized for Y, then you can build an Automated Income Stream. Just close the eBook and build it!