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Starting an online business can be great.  You can work from home, or anywhere else for that matter.  All you need is a computer or laptop, and you are set.  If you know you want to start an online business, but aren’t sure yet what type to start, here are some ideas:

•  eBay – If you like to sell things, this is a perfect business.  You can get stuff to sell at garage sales, flea markets, stuff around your house, or make things to sell.  You could also start a business where people drop off stuff for you to sell on eBay, and you get to keep a portion of the profits.
• Create an online store – If you like to sell things, you can create an online shopping cart and sell things online.  If you don’t have anything to sell, you can find a dropshipper, where you won’t have to deal with any merchandise at all.  You will just pass along orders to a company, and they will do the shipping.  You get to keep the profits!
• Sell a service – If you have some knowledge that others don’t, you can sell your services online.  For example, you can start a tutoring website where you help others with certain subjects.  You can also write for others, program, or many other things that people need but don’t always know how to do themselves.
• Create your own product – If you know a lot about a certain topic, you can create your own product on it.  If you create an ebook, audio, or video teaching someone something, you can sell it online.  If you have a program set up to automatically give the customer the digital product once they pay, you can start making money 24 hours a day, even when you are not around!
• AdSense – if you have a lot of knowledge about something, you can create a website sharing that knowledge with others.  You can then put Google AdSense on the website, and earn money when someone clicks on a link.

As you can see, there are many different types of online businesses you can start!  Hopefully that will give you an idea on how to start.

Jimmy Brown wrote a great article about finding ideas for creating an e-book, so I wanted to share it: 

Idea Hangouts:  Where to Find Hot Product Ideas to
Use For Creating Your Next Best-Selling eBook

By Jimmy D. Brown of “Small Reports Fortune”

…………………….

46,094.

That’s how many times I’ve been asked “Where can I find
hot product ideas to write about in my next eBook?

Really.  I’ve been keeping count.  )

OK, so it’s probably not quite that many times, but you get
the idea.

I get asked that question a LOT.

And so, I’ve decided to share my favorite “idea hangouts”. 
That’s right … “idea hangouts”.  It’s been my experience
that there are specific places where hot product ideas are
always gathered.  I call them “idea hangouts”.

*** Idea Hangout #1 ***

One of the “idea hangouts” that I’ve identified is
Amazon.com.

Amazon.com is the web’s largest bookstore. 

It’s also a community center for new product ideas.  I use
it as one of my top brainstorming resources.  Again and
again I visit this site to come up with topics to write
about.

What makes Amazon.com so useful as a research tool for
getting new ideas is their searchable database of books. 
There are thousands of great ideas lurking in there if you
just know how to use it.

And that’s what I’m here for. )

I’m going to show you how to find hot product ideas with
Amazon.com anytime you want.

It’s really a matter of three simple steps …

STEP 01 : >>> Decide Upon A Broad Category.  When
brainstorming ideas, you must begin with a broad category
to work with.  Some examples might be:  weight loss,
marketing, dating, travel, baseball.

So, you need that ahead of time.  Figure out a broad subject
that you know is popular (I.E. You know that losing weight
is ALWAYS going to be a popular subject, as is “making
money.”).

As an example for this article, I’m going to choose GOLF.

STEP 02 : >>> Search Amazon’s Database.   After picking
your broad topic to research, it’s time to visit Amazon.com. 

Specifically, you’re going to SEARCH their database of
books they are selling.

Upon arriving at their site, locate their SEARCH form.  At
the time of this writing, it was in the upper left hand
corner of their main page.  Pull the menu down and select
BOOKS from the options.

In the space provided, type in whatever broad category you
chose.  I’d type in “Golf”. (You don’t need quotation marks)

If you did indeed start with a broad category, then hundreds
(or even thousands) of book listings should appear as a result
of the search.

STEP 03 : >>> Brainstorm Ideas From The Listings.  Let the
brainstorming session begin!  Now it’s time to look at the
books that are listed and write down as many possible ideas
as you can find.

Look for the different TYPES of books written about the
subject, identifying different THEMES, STYLES and
SUBCATEGORIES.

Let’s look at an example …

When I searched for “Golf”, I was able to immediately spot
dozens of great ideas.  Here are a handful …

1. Becoming a better golfer.  There are many golf books
available in this area, covering everything from “A-Z of Golf
Shots” to specific topics such as “Improving Your Short
Game.”  There were lots of different themes from “learning
to break 100″ to “shaving 10 shots off your score” to “7
shots that will change your golf game forever.”

2. Guides to Golf Courses.  Again, we have many different
ideas here.  Specific golf guides like “Florida golfing”,
“golfing in Tennessee” and “golfing the Robert Trent Jones
trail” appear, as well as books on “the best golf courses in
America,” “best kept secrets:  great golf courses you’ve
probably never played,” and “golf vacation guides.”

3. Profiting from Golf.   More ideas pour in with “opening a
golf repair business,” “becoming a golf retailer,” “learning
how to caddy” and “buying & selling used golf clubs.” 
What about “running an online golf auction”, “organizing a
golf tournament for profit” or even “writing information
products about golf!”

4. Golf and Business.  There are millions of dollars in
business deals negotiated on the golf course every single
year.  And there are books available to teach folks how to get
it done.  “How to negotiate business deals during golf
outings,” “Legal golf tax deductions for businesspeople,”
and “business seminars and golf:  how to mix training and
fun for maximum profit” are just a few more ideas worth
exploring.

5. Golf Products.  My, my, my there are so many ideas
floating around in here!  Everything ranging from reviews of
the latest golf equipment to ratings of golf courses to
discounts on golf packages.  Resource guides to finding the
best deals on golfing products, how to negotiate discounts,
and how to find the best products for your specific golf game
also come to mind as product ideas.

One Broad Category (Golf)
+ Amazon.com Searchable Database of Books
= 28 Potential Product Ideas

See how easy that was?  I found TWENTY-EIGHT potential
new product ideas (and there were MANY MORE that I
didn’t mention in this article) from a simple brainstorming
exercise using ONE “idea hangout.”

There’s got to be a best-seller in that bunch somewhere. 
And certainly with a little “mix -n- match” I can come up
with a hit product with these ideas.

Not bad, eh?

So, now it’s YOUR turn.  It’s a simple system for coming up
with product ideas anytime you want.

Like right now.

…………………….
Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Small Reports Fortune” – if
you can write 7-15 page small reports, you can earn a living
online working just a few hours each week from your home.
Look for his EXCLUSIVE formula “Creating A Six-Figure Income
With Small Reports”
…………………….

Once you decide that you want to start a home-based business, you still have a lot of choices in what type of business you want to start.  Here are a bunch of ideas that will hopefully help spark an idea that you will be interested in.

• Crafts – If you are creative, you might consider creating jewelry, clothing, candles, or anything else, and sell it.
• Web Based Business – If you love being on the computer, there are many types of online businesses you can start.  You can create your own products, or sell someone else’s products.  (I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.)
• Writing – If you love to write, there are a lot of businesses you can start from home that involve writing.  There is the obvious, such as writing articles for magazines, or trying to write a book, but you can also write content for websites, or help ghostwrite things for others.
• Travel Agent – If you love to travel, you can become a travel agent from home.

What you should do is first think of what you enjoy doing (since you’ll be spending so much time working on it!) and what are you are good at.  Once you do that, hopefully it will be easier to figure out what type of home based business you want to start.

If you’ve started a Squidoo lens, you might have noticed that there are a lot of different choices, and that you can be rated really well, or have a real low lens ranking.  Here are a few tips to help you get around your lens better, and that could help you get a higher ranking:

Make changes to your Squidoo lens every few days.  Even if you don’t really have any new information to put on it, at least edit it and change around the order of your modules.  Frequently edited lenses do better than ones that are created and then never changed.

Have some modules that require interaction, like polls, or a guestbook.  If others comment on your lens or vote on your lens, you will be rated higher.

If you have an RSS feed, you might want to put it into your lens.  That way people can find out about your blog, and you can get traffic from your lens.

Hopefully some of these tips will help you with Squidoo!

One way to get the word out about your business is with business cards.  You can hand them out, and leave them places to get your business known.  One way to cut the cost of business cards is to create them yourself.  You can easily download some free business card software, and use one of their templates to create your own business cards.  You can then go to a place like Staples, buy business card paper, and print them yourself.  That is the most inexpensive way to go. 

If on the other hand you don’t want to make them yourself, but don’t want to pay a lot either, you can use VistaPrint.  They will send you 250 free business cards, you just have to pay for shipping.  What is the catch you ask?  On the back, it does have a small ad for VistaPrint at the bottom.  I am looking at one of mine right now, and the exact words on the back are ”Business Cards are FREE at www.vistaprint.com!”  I have gotten these myself, and am happy with them.   The quality of the card is nice, and they did a great job with the business cards.  You can choose between 42 designs, and can add the text that you like.   If you don’t want the ad, and want to be able to choose from more templates, you can pay $9.99 for their premium business cards, where you will get a choice of 300 designs.

I have found that it feels more professional when talking about your business to someone, to just take out a business card and give the person one.  Maybe that will get them to visit your website, or to pass it along to someone else.  You never know!Š

You’re the boss!  I am sure almost everyone has had a job where they were told to do something that they thought was a waste of time, and didn’t make sense.  Of course, since they were the boss, you had to listen and do it.  Not when you work for yourself!  If you think something is a bad idea, you don’t do it!

You also don’t have to sit around waiting for your 7-8 hours to be up to go home.  If you want to get a certain amount done before the end of the day, and you get it done in 4 hours, you can stop after that if you want. 

It really can be great to have your own business, since all the time and effort is going into something you want.  Plus, no matter how hard you worked at your job, you probably got the same pay.  With your own business, the more you work, the more you can make!

I have to tell you, one really nice benefit to working at home is making your own hours.  While I try to work pretty normal hours, I sometimes take a break in the middle of the day to run errands.  It’s really great because if you time it right, people are at work and school, and not on lunch break.  You can go food shopping, run to the mall, or go anywhere else you need to, all without a line, traffic, or crowds.  It’s also a lot easier to make appointments for anything – doctors, dentists, to get a haircut, etc… since you can go anytime, instead of being available only a few hours each evening or on weekends.

Plus, then weekends are more relaxing, since you got those errands done in the middle of the week.  It’s not a reason to quit your job, but it is a really nice little benefit!

While this doesn’t exactly fall under the category of running your own business, it is a nice way to pick up a little bit of extra income.  There are many companies that offer Mystery Shopping jobs.  Here is a list of a bunch of them to get you started.  It’s really great.  You get to go to a store, restaurant, hotel, apartment complex, etc… and buy something, eat, or whatever makes sense depending on the store, and what they want you to check out.  You then report back to the company, letting them know about the service you received, the food (if it’s a restaurant), and things like that.  In turn, you get a small fee, or a product (if a store), or food (if it’s a restaurant).   Sometimes you get the food and a small fee, which makes it even nicer.

While it in no way could replace an income, it is a nice way to get a free meal, or pick up a few extra dollars every now and then.  You can choose the ones you’d like to do, based on their availability. 

Personally, I enjoy doing the restaurant ones.  It’s nice to get a free meal every now and then, plus I like the fact that I can report back on the service to make sure that the restaurants are offering good service.  I have to admit though, more often than not, the servers are all very kind, and I have very rarely had a problem while doing a mystery shop. 

So while this can’t exactly replace an income…while you are starting up your business, here is a way to get out for a little while, and earn a little bit of money.

You may have heard about Squidoo lately.  It’s a social website where you can make lenses on any topic, and others can take a look at it.  It’s really great for two things.

First off, you can have multiple ways to monetize your lens, and you can make money.  So you don’t even need a web site in order to make money!  There is Google AdSense, where you will get a portion of the money earned.  You can also add modules where you can earn money.  Some of these modules include Amazon products or other stores.  By spending a few minutes creating a lens, you can earn some money.

Secondly, this is a great place to advertise your websites and get traffic.  If you add links to your website, or an RSS feed, you can get people to go to your websites!

Setting up a lens doesn’t take much time, and doesn’t require any programming knowledge at all.  So it makes sense to spend the time, since you can get a lot of out it!  While I created my Squidoo lenses recently, I have already gotten some traffic out of it, and am sure I will be seeing more in the future!  In the future I will give you tips on how to get your lens to be ranked higher.

One way to earn money from home, and on the web, is through Google AdSense.  In the next few posts I’ll talk about it, and how you can make it work for you.

If you have a website, you can use Google AdSense.  All you need is traffic!  If you put Google AdSense on your page, and then people visit your site, they might click on some of the ads.  If they do, you will get paid for the click!

If you have a site or sites with a lot of content on it, this is a great way to earn some extra income.  There are people who make their entire income from AdSense, but it is also a great way to add on a little bit of income to your current website(s).

Do you need to know how to program to use Google AdSense?  That’s the best part.  You don’t need to know how to program at all.  If you go through the Google interface, you will be able to easily choose what you want the ads to look like on your site.  Google will then give you the code, which you can easily copy and paste right into your website.  Then, the next time someone comes to your site, they will see your ads!

In the next post, I will talk about types of websites that are great for Google AdSense.