Any entrepreneur, whether new or experienced, needs help from time to time. As money is a scarce commodity for most beginners, it makes sense to take refuge in free resources. The Internet is full of such useful, professional grade free resources.

Fishing out useful resources from the information sea is a daunting, time-consuming and at times fruitless activity. To make your life a bit easier, I am giving you a list of resources that I always find quite useful.

1. Amazon.com: If you don’t know whether your idea can become a successful venture or you are not sure about the market receptivity, go to this web site and go through the list of top sellers. If a product or book in your area of interest is in the list, read about the reviews and you will get a rough idea about the market potential for your project.

2. Wikipedia.org: Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. It is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. As of today, there are 19 lakhs articles in English; every day hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to enhance the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Read all the articles related to your project and in a matter of a few hours you will feel like a pro.

3. Gutenberg.org: Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Unlike Wikipedia.org where anyone can contribute, Project Gutenberg hosts the books of well-known authors and professional writers. If you ever have a mental block and find it difficult to write sales copy or articles, browse through a few pages here and get ready to experience idea explosion.

4. Webhostingtalk.com: As the business of every online entrepreneur exists on the Internet, and your web hosting provider is the one who presents your website to the world, you must learn every rivet about web hosting and related service providers. Webhostingtalk.com is one of the best places to acquire this knowledge. It is a discussion forum where webmasters and web hosting service providers discuss everything about web hosting in public.

5. WebmasterWorld.com: This site is a service to the web site administrator community. WebmasterWorld members discuss the process of doing business on the internet. Running a website takes a great deal of knowledge. The design, coding, maintenance, promotion, marketing, and management of a website is almost an impossible task for one person alone without extensive training. This is a forum for the members to share and gain knowledge in operating and promoting a website.

6. Forums.digitalpoint.com: This website is a discussion board similar to WebmasterWorld. Here, the rules are less strict and many webmasters like the freedom of expression. Newbies will find it easier to get answers to their questions from other members that are professionals.

7. SearchEngineWatch.com: Is there any point in hosting a website without visitors? Search engines are the main source of traffic for any web marketer. SearchEngineWatch provides tips and information about searching the web, analysis of the search engine industry and help to site owners trying to improve their ability to be found in search engines.

8. Ebay.com: By browsing through the listings of auctions and bids in the top auction site, it is easy to learn the market trend for any product or service that can be marketed through the Internet.

9. PayPal.com: PayPal, an eBay Company, enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. It is a global leader in online payment solutions with 100 million account members worldwide. The service is available in 190 countries and regions around the world, online retailers and businesses are transacting with PayPal.

10. Refernce.com: This website is a leading provider of language reference products and services on the Internet. When you target the world market, you have to use English a medium of communication. Poor English on your website turns off your prospects. Use this resource to fine tune your presentation.

11. Download.com: Automating your business is the key to success of an online venture. Software programs hold the key to automation. Here you will find best commercial shareware and trial ware programs.

12. SourceForge.net: SourceForge.net is the world's largest Open Source software development web site, hosting more than 100,000 projects. You can get free software programs and tools to handle any aspect of your online business.