June 14, 2010

Practical Online Business Ideas

Are you looking for some online business ideas? Sometimes the ideas on the internet can be hypothetical, but if you are like me, you want to hear a real-life person’s story. You want to hear how he or she build a business from scratch and not because they are internet marketing experts. I know exactly what you mean.

So a little bit about us. My wife Kerry and I really are the couple next door. We are not gurus. We are just two people who happened to get into internet marketing by accident. We stumbled upon the secret to creating information products that are very profitable, require little time, and give us tremendous amounts of freedom. I am a poster child for somebody who started an internet company late in life. I did not start this thing until I was in my 40s. In fact, I started all of this because I was going to seminary and did not have my regular income.

Online Business Idea #1 – Start With What You Know

Basically if we can do it, you can do it. Before I had my online business, I was a remodeling contractor for 20 years. My wife started a little company called Curriculum Connection. And it was designed to help home schoolers find curriculum. All of a sudden, she was asking me, “Steve, how do we build web pages? How do we go online?” So I had to figure that out. And I was definitely just groping in the dark, but I figured out how to do it. And then on top of that, I decided to attend seminary.

There we were over 2000 miles from home and with no family, no friends, and no job. We needed the income we were used to having from my remodeling jobs, and we needed it fast.

That got me looking for the perfect business. And I know that you probably have your hands full, too. You have a lot going on, but you can take your idea for a business and begin building it today. Soon you might even see your income surpass your current job.

Online Business Idea #2 – Define Your Criteria

So I sat down and wrote out my expectations for my perfect business. I wanted to create a product one time and then get paid for it repeatedly. I only had a small amount of time to work each week, so I needed to be paid well in that time. I needed a product that was easy for me, my wife, and my partners if I ever had any. I really wanted a business that would run automatically with very little input from me. I was looking for a weekly, even monthly, paycheck. I also wanted very few start-up costs. Sounds realistic, right?

Well, a lot of people would say I was asking for the moon. But think about this. The only thing I know of that will meet all of those criteria is selling information products on the internet. Because with an info product, you can create something one time and get paid over and over and over.

You can invest a few hours a week and get paid really, really well. You can sell a product, have it get delivered, get paid, have your affiliate partners get paid all without you doing a thing. Just set it and forget it. And you can turn every sale into a monthly income stream.

Online Business Idea #3 – Start Small

It was very low start-up costs. In fact, that is one of the questions I am routinely asked. “Steve, how much does it cost to start an online business?” For $15 a year for a domain name, and that is kind of high these days, and $50 a year for hosting, and $20 a month for an autoresponder, you can set up an online business. And that is really all it takes to get started.

So if you have an idea, start today! Take these online business ideas and begin to market your products. You will find yourself headed to more financial freedom.

Stephen Beck will give you online business advice and show you how to make your first $1000 on the internet. Go get a FREE link to his webinar replay, where Stephen shows you exactly what you should do: http://www.youronlinebasics.com/go.html.