The internet has revolutionized the way that people run their business- especially online. The purpose of this article is to share with home-based business owners who are starting out the best way that they can utilise the internet to get more sales and make more money.You need to give in order to get- Oftentimes, people visit your website and don’t purchase. This is an unfortunate fact of life. You are not going to convince everybody to purchase on first visit to your website. You need to try and capture customer information (an email address) when they visit your site. One of the best ways to do this is offer a freebie on your website that can only be sent via eBook. A popular option is an eBook. The more informative that you make the eBook, the more trustworthy you look and the more likely your potential customers will pay attention to you. Once you have their email address you can send them a regular newsletter and eventually many of your subscribers will buy your product.Marketing and public relations are the key drivers of home-based business success- Unfortunately many home-based business owners don’t do enough marketing and, when they do, they are ad-hoc in their approach. In order to be truly successful you need to make sure that marketing and public relations are an integral part of everything that you do.You can’t do it all alone- You cannot be successful in a vacuum. You will need help from others- whether you outsource some of your tasks or whether you get referral partners to help you promote your business.It’s the content of the message, not the number of times that it is heard- Web 2.0 technologies and social media have changed the message. These days it is no longer about getting your message out there as much as possible through as many channels. As a home-based business owner you need to look at connectors who will vouch for your business. You need other people talking about you. In order to do this you need a powerful message that people will want to talk about.If you lie you will get caught- if you lie online you will get caught and people will talk about it. There is no quicker way to ruin your reputation.In this article I have shared with you 5 things home based business owners need to understand to succeed online.