Just before I turned 48, I made a decision to leave my job at Qantas Airways where I had been for 23 years and throw myself into creating my own job using the internet.

When I first started, I wanted a business that could give me a great income and a lifestyle to match. A lifestyle that would let me choose when I worked and for how long. Of course we all want that and think, how hard can it be to create that for yourself?

Well it took years of effort and mistakes before I got the blueprint and formula right.

Now as I head towards retirement age, I have my own successful home based internet business. I work on average 10 hours a week and I make the equivalent of a full time wage that is far beyond what I earnt at Qantas.

This is the next best thing to retirement. Money coming in every week for very little effort. All the bills get paid. We take holidays twice a year. The kids are in private school. We have 3 cars. We go out to dinner when we feel like it.

The internet has made this possible. And the mistakes in the early days that showed me what not to do!

When I work, I usually earn on average about $500 per hour selling my own products that I have designed, manufactured, promoted and sold. Products that I have legally copied from other companies. Products that have no copyright or patent.

There are literally millions of products out there that millions of consumers need. Millions of consumers that are quite happy to buy from the internet. They don’t know how big or small your company is. They don’t know your background or how much money you have in the bank. They certainly don’t know the kind of information that they used to be able to ascertain, when they walked into a bricks and mortar business. The size, the professionalism and the stock on hand.

The internet has levelled the playing field. It is now possible to compete with all sorts of companies if you follow basic principles and some of the methods that I outline which you will be hard pressed to find written anywhere else. If you make your online business stack up against the competition. If you make your internet business look a lot bigger than it actually is. Then you will have a better than even chance of making money online.

The way I have done with my business.

When it comes to the products we all use, the majority have been around for decades and longer. Often a product goes through only minor changes over time. If they sell well then the manufacturers don’t change them. This is the mantra that most companies adopt.