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For Blackney, an investment in time more than money, figuring out her product and developing the relationships and team needed to make her effort a success, proved most crucial.

Meanwhile, she has used inexpensive technologies to build her own media brand, as she says, "without the red tape".

Those technologies include Blogger's free platform, podcasts, streaming audio, social networks like MySpace and MyBlogLog and print-on-demand technology to launch her boutique publishing house without the need for high overhead or large runs.

"The Internet provides a lot of financial opportunities that weren't there previously. It's a great place to build a new business - as long as you are willing to put in the hours it takes for success," Blackney said.

"My investment was more than a dozen years on the ground building my brand and my business model," she said.

Kraus admits he spent less time planning his enterprise, but his brand is no less ingrained in his product.

Produced by TS Designs, Burlington, NC, the Pennsylvania entrepreneur's shirts are printed with an eco-friendly process on organic cotton, shipped in recycled envelopes with 10 percent of each sale going to a series of charities listed on Kraus's site.

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