Many people start home based businesses and wonder why their home based empires crumble before they ever get started. There are a couple key reasons for this, and these reasons are what I am going to discuss in this article.Many people start home based businesses for the right reasons, but they fail to truly realize the magnitude of work that goes into building a successful one. The work required to build a business is not hard, but it does require research and a willingness to take the time to learn. Many people falsely believe that the process is going to be super easy, and that they will be able to catch on quickly. This is rarely ever the case.Below I am going to list the top 5 reasons why internet home based businesses fail and what you can do to avoid these pitfalls.1. People Expecting money for nothing. This never happens. Like was mentioned above in this article when you start a home based business you need to be prepared to put in the time and the work required to see results. This can take anywhere from a few days, to a few years. It varies greatly depending on the individual and personal skills.2. Not putting enough effort into advertising. This is a combination of both time and money to satisfy this. You need to not only spend money on advertising, but you need to know how to spend that money where it is going to be profitable for you. One of the benefits to the internet is the more unique, intriguing content you can personally put out..the better your site will do. But you may need to invest in some paid clicks, or some other forms of paid advertising while you work on your long term search engine optimization.3. Picking the wrong opportunities is a big problem. Many people end up picking up programs that are not even good to market online. Or they try to take an offline program and bring it online. Now, while this may be a workable scenario in some cases, it is usually more headache then it is worth. If you are looking at promoting products and services on the internet, you should make sure they are already internet ready from day 1.4. Many people refuse to invest in self education. The reality is, self education will make or break your business, and the truth is some of this information will cost money. New business owners do not realize that the cost of this education is usually much less then the cost of trial and error, and the business owner has to choose which route he/she is going to take. The home business owner should put aside a small fund to use towards self education products.5. Program hopping is a big unspoken issue. Many marketers jump from program to program and never get anything done because they never stay with one thing for long enough for it to begin to profit. When you jump from program to program you never get anywhere and keep spinning your wheels in circles. In home based business, especially when just starting you want to stick to the programs that you join and make sure to see them through to profit.By following these simple steps you will avoid the pitfalls that many internet marketers fall into when they start their new businesses. If these steps are followed and the advice taken to heart, you will avoid a huge marketing black hole expense in the long run and will be able to find yourself in profit much quicker.