In my thirty years on planet earth, I've attempted to do a few things some might find outlandish and some would probably say were tame. But of all the things I've been involved with, there has been nothing which has given me a greater sense of myself than becoming an Internet entrepreneur.

Starting a business used to cost a lot of money. What? You want to start a magazine? Hope your last name is Kennedy, boy. Did you say you want to open up a real estate company? How's that uncle Trump of yours doing anyhow?

My story isn't much different from all the others as far as the backing goes. I didn't have any. Not one red cent. I didn't even really understand where the calling to be out on my own was coming from until much later in the process. I wasn't one of those wunderkids hawking lemonade out on the streets at the age of five (I preferred to buy it and watch them work, actually).

I did get the entrepreneurial bug early on, however. After college my gut told me that I didn't want to work for someone else, plain and simple. Time spent behind the grocery counter bagging soup and hours collecting data for obituaries at a newspaper were proof enough for me that I needed to make my own way. And, being an only child only magnified this condition I'll call "The I like to be my own Boss thing." I also had an avid interest in jumpers (of the equine sorts) which calls for tons of that commodity we know as "free time," as well as a lot of the green stuff.

I knew I was going to have to make it on my own. I just didn't know how.

My first foray into the business world didn't get me too far; I made barely enough money to keep my horse clothed in hand-me-downs and myself full of Top Ramen noodles. But it taught me that under-capitalization is not a fun time. It also taught me that I could do it on my own under the right circumstances. I needed to find a business where I could use little or no money to get it up and running.

I didn't plan it. I didn't even expect it. But somehow my love of computers and an interest I had in a famous author named Anne Rice would end up being my first stab at business on the Internet.

I know, what I could I possibly find business wise with a lady who made millions writing about forlorn but lovely vampires? Not much at first glance. Most people thought I had lost what mind I had left.

I was on America Online at the time (before the great busy signal debate) and had been doing some serious searching for book groups I would be interested in chatting with. I was a little nervous going into that first chat about Anne Rice's books, believe me. After all, although I was a fan of the woman's writings, I didn't exactly fit what I thought would be the stereotypical fan.

I'm the kind of girl who honestly considers myself a wimp. The kind who's deathly afraid to fly. The kind who would run the other way if she ever really came upon a real vampire walking down the street. I figured I'd find the fringe in that chatroom: scary people who read scary books. But my fear was overcome by the need to discuss her writing and so I signed on into a room called Lioncourt and my life was forever altered.

The first person I met wasn't a musician. She wasn't even some strange college student. She was a seventh grade teacher who had read Rice's first book back in 1976 and was feeling the same things I was. The Internet had opened up a door for people from all walks of life to get together and discuss their favorite things. It had also opened up a door for that seventh grade teacher and I to begin what would become a great friendship as well as a great partnership in business.

We began our first business together without ever meeting each other in person. E-mail was our communication of choice. With hindsight that whole thought is a little scary to me now. What if she'd been some wacko teacher from back East without any real credentials and I was going to incorporate with her?

It was a leap of faith on both our parts. Not only because of the business (a tour company specializing in paranormal tours of New Orleans), but because neither of us had ANY experience whatsoever in the travel industry at the time. In fact, I was the only one who even had real world business experience. But something in that chatroom on that first night on America Online brought us together and brought us into a business that has not only been truly exciting and fun, but profitable without putting our lives on the line to get it going.

How did we do it? I wish I could say it was all business acumen but I'd be a liar if I did. It was a lot of luck. And a lot of help from the Internet.

One of the greatest things about business on the Internet is that with the right pages and the right look, the little guy can stand up to the big guy and cough in his face. Sometimes he can even take a big puff and blow him over. It is the great equalizer, in many respects. It is indispensable for research. We made all of our contacts with the people we would sub-contract through research on search engines like Yahoo and Alta Vista.

After reading about their companies, we would decide if we liked what they had to say and then either move on to the next or contact them and tell them what we were doing. We found that although the tour business itself was about as saturated as it could get, somehow we had come up with an idea that had yet to be touched upon in any great fashion. It was a niche that wasn't being filled.

If someone asked me my best advice for starting a business on the Web (or even in the real world) I'd say find something no one else is doing and do it. Or find something someone else is doing and put your mark on it. Find a niche and you'll have your business.

We bought books on HTML and learned how to create professional, eye- catching web pages. At about $16 a month to store the pages, that was our biggest outlay. When people responded by E-mail to our site, we responded back by E-mail. The only time we sent paper materials out was when receipts for money paid and final itineraries were due. And even then we started with bare bones white paper and just a few graphics.

I do have a bit of a background in graphic design and that helped, but I feel anyone can make a respectable web site with a little time and determination.One of the best sites on the net for starting and marketing a business can be found here at the Web Marketing Information Center for the Internet. I've sat awake many nights going positively blind with all the available information on this site.

We contacted Discover to get credit card machines which accepted the regulars: Visa, Mastercard and of course, their own.

We read articles all over the web on starting a tour company and succeeding with little or no money involved up front. We got our 800# through a company on the Internet and then we started registering the web site at every search engine known to mankind at the time.

Right here I'll say that's probably the single most important thing you can do for an Internet business: Get it out there in the public eye. If no one knows your there, they won't come. It's not like Kevin Coster's Field of Dreams, believe me. With zillions of new web sites daily (especially now), you have to market, market, market and that means register constantly. Trade links with anyone who will have you. Become a search engine tart. Hang out there. If there's a new one, add your business to it.

You'll be glad you did in the end. You may start out with only two hits (visits to your site) a day, but you may well end up with 10,000 or more. With the Internet you just can't ever tell who's going to flop and who's going to be the next Netscape.

We sweated and we planned and then one day when all we could do was sit back and relax (although I'm not sure we EVER relaxed), we got our biggest break. Through that godsend known as E-mail, we sent off a nice little note to the person closest to Anne Rice at the time: Katherine Ramsland, her biographer.

In that note we said a few things: We said how much we admired the biography she had written. We said how much we admired Anne Rice. We said who we were and we assured her that we weren't two little psychotic people from cyberspace. And then we asked her if she would be interested in working with us to create and lead some of our tours.

She took the biggest leap of faith of all. She signed on with us and Talismanic Tours, Ltd. was born.

Now we were lucky as I said before. Not everyone you write to - especially someone as well known as Katherine - is going to answer you. But what have you got to lose? If you're polite and you have an E-mail address that may help you get going, don't hesitate to try it.

Since the time when we started the company a few things have changed. Number one, we now know what we're doing (most of the time, anyway:-) The Today Show followed us around with their cameras and Showtime called. I've started a few more Internet businesses that are working pretty well. Things are definitely a little easier... We're certainly not rich, but we're doing pretty well.

One thing hasn't changed though, and that's the Internet. We still have yet to do one single print advertisement. Everything we do (from correspondence to research to finding new clients) is still done on the World Wide Web with little or no money out of our pockets. Perhaps we could grow the business a lot bigger if we moved off the Internet (or rather incorporated print advertising into our business plan as well), but neither one of us wants to do that just yet; maybe never. We're both too comfortable knowing that because of the Internet, we started something from nothing.

We merely want people to know that if two people who have never met...two people who had barely known what the Internet was, can use it to start a successful business, then nothing should stand in anyone's way when becoming an Internet entrepreneur. You have to get out there, take the leap and do it. Cyberspace is a big place to play. You just have to find the right toys.