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Online Businesses

June 21st, 2008 by

The age of the internet has ushered in a completely new business age! It has opened up tremendous opportunities for home based businessess and continues to do so. Tools are becoming more user-friendly which makes it easier for the non-programmer to participate. You have to be willing to put your learning cap back on (yes, there is a lot to learn!) but if you are willing, it can be done.

OK, you say, I would like to start a business online (on the internet), what next? Well, that is a good question. There are a lot of possibilities and once again the first step is to focus on what you like, what you are good at, what interests you and what does not. Do not dwell on this too long. Its an intuitive process as much as an analytical one and its easy to analyze oneself into a state of paralysis.
Dont do that-please! You are far better of concentrating on one or two things you know you like and start experimenting and trying a few things (prefably one at a time). Most business programs that you can purchase online are not too expensive and will almost always come with a money back guarrantee. Do not be afraid to try out some of these programs and if you really do not feel comfortable pursuing a particular program ask for your money back. The sellers understand that their product(s) will not always be a good fit for everyone who purchases.

On the other hand, if you find something that has potential for you consider it carefully and do not be too quick to discard it when you find out that it will require some real work

Generally speaking there are three primary categories of online home businesses:

1. Online Stores & Services

There are thousands of online store and service business possibilities. If you can think of a product or a service there is probably someone selling it on the internet. There are numerous vendors selling fully developed online stores where you can both purchase a website, products to sell, all the ecommerce credit card processing capabilities as well as product fulfilment. In essence they are online franchises. You have to concentrate on marketing and selling. Your uccess will be dependent on your marketing and promotion efforts as well as on the strength of the brand, the quality and demand for the products, ease of purchasing for the customer to name but a few factors.

Another option is to set up your own website which is not as daunting a prospect today as it was several years ago. There are many webhosting companies (think of these as malls that let you open up a shop for a monthly rent) that provide you with very user friendly tools to set up your own website, e-commerce facilities and so forth. You decide what you want to sell and source products for your online business direct from manufacturers or distributors. Clearly you also have to do the fulfillment,invoicing etc. While this certainly adds additional complexity and tasks to your business it also gives you much more control on the plus side. If you have a particularly unique concept you may become the next ebay or amazon.com which is impossible if you have purchased on online store franchise.

2. Online Marketing (Affiliate) Businesses

These businesses focus on marketing and promotion. You may be thinking - Hang on a moment, aren’t all online businesses focused on marketing and promotion? Its a good question. The answer is, Yes! But these online marketing businesses focus exclusively on marketing, promoting and selling products,services and information. This arena of marketing is often referred to as “Affiliate marketing or sales”. With these businesses you are not doing any product fulfillment, e-commerce transactions etc. You are basically selling information, products and services online for a commission. You may have heard of Google’s Adsense program for example. Here Google allows you to put a certain number of advertisments on your website for free. If someone clicks on the ad that is on your website you get paid. To make a reasonable living you will need to have a lot of people clicking on the ads on your website so you need to spend time promoting and getting traffic (visitors) to your website.

There are litterally hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs on the internet, many of which are free to join.

3. Paid Surveys Online

Another bona-fide way to earn money online is to join a company that specialises in online surveys. Make sure it is a reputable one that has been in business for a few years. You can earn anywhere between $7-75 per survey depending on the length and complexity. You will likely be reviewing products (which you can often keep), websites or services. You can do these in your own time and schedule which make it ideal for students, at home mums, semi-retired, retired people or anyone for that matter looking to earn some extra income or a decent part-time income.

Each company logs the number of surveys you have done and the monies you have earnt. When you log in you will be able to see this information. Usually once you have earnt a mininium of $50 or $100 in your account or some preset agreed limit, you will get paid.

Thats a very short summary of the various home online business opportunities. Remember there are a lot of bona-fide opportunities to make money online (as well as scams - try to resist the temptation to think of all online business opportunities as scams. It can be a way to simply stop yourself from taking action!. Anyway the purpose of this website is to steer you towards quality online business programs. However if you find yourself in some other nook of the internet be wary of any program that asks for a large ammount of money upfront (generally more than $5000) unless it is a reputable (well known) online franchise of course. If you want to generate a part time income online “paid surveys” are a good and straighforward option. Likewise many business opportunities on the web can generate some extra income but in order to make a reasonable income or unreasonable income you will need to put in the work and be willing to go through the learning curve. The good news is that there are many people making a lot of money online. You can too if you put in the work and are willing to learn, persist, learn, persist and learn!

To Your Success!

Brian
For the team at Home Business Expert Match

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