Practical Online Business Ideas

Are you interested in starting an internet business? Do you have an idea already, or do you need some online business ideas? I have been building my own internet business over the past ten years or so and can share some real-life examples of what to do and what not to do.

Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself. My wife Kerry and I call ourselves "The Couple Next Door" because we are just like you when it comes to internet marketing. Neither one of us has a degree in computers or in business. Instead, we have built up a large base of knowledge and experience when it comes to starting an internet business. It happened almost by accident when I was in my 40s. I started going to seminary and needed an income to support my family. So I began creating information products.

Online Business Idea #1 - Use the Knowledge in Your Head

The truth is that if we can do it, you can, too. Like I said, I have not always had an online business. For 20 years, I did home remodeling. Then my wife started up a little company called Curriculum Connection. She wanted to help other homeschoolers find curriculum to use. As it grew, she began asking me, "Steve, do you know how to build web pages? How can we get online with our products?" So I started working on it, and even though I was clueless at first, I quickly figured it out. At the same time, I was in 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 - Write Out Your Expectations

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?

You might say I had unrealistic expectations. But think about it. There is a business that would meet all my needs: creating and selling information products online. Once you have created it, you can sell it over and over again.

You start off by spending a little time packaging quality content, market it on the internet, and then sell it quickly and painlessly. You really could almost put the whole thing on auto pilot.

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.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2010

You have permission to reprint this article as long as you don't make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck can help you with your online business set up and show you how to make your first $1000 online. Grab a FREE link to his webinar replay, where Stephen shows you everything you should do: http://www.YourOnlineBasics.com.

Set Up An Online Business With 6 Simple Steps

If you are interested, you can set up an online business and make money doing it. All it takes is a little bit of guidance and some hard work. But once it is set up, you can really do well. One of my favorite ways is to sell "one off products." I use the information in my head about a topic. I'm very familiar with, host a webinar, or a teleseminar, record it, and then sell it over and over again.

When promoting a one off product, you will want to follow these six easy steps.

1.) Pick a familiar subject. It should be something you can talk about for at least one hour, and I am convinced that everyone has a topic like that, whether it is pie making, photography, or automobile repair. No matter the topic, keep it simple because your goal is to quickly put out some good, helpful content that will generate cash flow.

2.) Create an outline. Let me give you a simple way to do this. Get out a sheet of paper, and write your topic in the middle of it. Then brainstorm some subtopics for your main topic. Write these down and see if you can come up with two good details about each one of these subtopics. You need maybe eight to ten subtopics with two details for each one. Once you have those, you have an outline for sixty-minute presentation. How easy is that?

3.) Connect with a free teleseminar service. You can find on to use for free and will allow you to host up to 250 people at one time. When I first started my online business, I could only host 100, so this is a great improvement. Remember to record your seminar an download it at the end.

4.) Tell people about your teleseminar. But who exactly do you invite? Your website, blogs, and email lists are a great place to start. I would just go nuts with this stuff and tell everybody I know that I am having this wonderful teleseminar.

5.) Sell tickets to your teleseminar. I gotta credit Jim Bob Howard for sharing this with me. There is a great sight called Event Bright, and it is free to use. Your customers pay Event Bright, and then Event Bright pays you. But the beauty is you do not pay any money until you start making money by selling tickets. They save you a lot of hassle.

6.) Record your teleseminar. Do it one time, and then use it over and over and over. You can sell the recording as an audio CD. You can have the recording transcribed and sell it as an Ebook. You can sell it together, the audio and transcription, for more money. You can combine one off products into a home-study course. There are really an endless steam of options you can come up with to make more money off of your one recording.

So what are you waiting for? Why not set up an online business today?

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2010

You have permission to reprint this article as long as you don't make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck can show you internet marketing basics and how to make your first $1000 on the internet. Go get a FREE link to his webinar replay, where Stephen shows you everything you should do: http://www.YourOnlineBasics.com.

Article Marketing: Your Key To Starting An Internet Business

Do you have an idea rolling around in your head? Would you like to know how to start an internet business? It is actually very easy, and something you can work on today.

In the past few years, I have begun a number of businesses. I have even been able to help others get their businesses off the ground, and each time I get started, I always use article marketing. I do this because well-written articles will bring in high search engine rankings and in turn more traffic to my site. Let me show you why it works.

1.) Articles can be submitted to an authority site such as Ezine Articles.

Because this site requires original content, Google ranks these submissions higher than others. Often within a few weeks after I submit an article, I see it ranked high. My articles are usually 300 to 700 words with a resource box pointing directly to my website. The authority of these sites build my reputation as an expert on webinars.

2.) Articles can also generate direct traffic to your website.

Lots of people with blogs and websites pick up articles from these directories and post them. For example, pretend you have a website about dogs. Other people with related sites like puppies.com, dogs and more dogs.com, or a dog blog will come and get your article. They post it on their site with your resource box, and then when people read their blog, you get free advertising. Their readers click on the link to your site, and voila! You just got free and easy traffic.

3.) Articles can build up backward links.

A backward link is like a vote. Many times my pages and my interior pages show up in Google because lots of other people have posted my articles to their sites. For each one of these, I get a backward link, and as I start to amass backward links, I rank higher and higher in Google.

Getting on the first page of the search results for your keyword and staying there are two different things. There are lots of other people competing to be on the first two pages, and the competition is fierce. Article marketing can be the best tool to keep you on top.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2010

You have permission to reprint this article as long as you don't make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck can teach you what it takes to start an internet business and how to make your first $1000 on the internet. Go get a FREE link to his webinar replay, where he shows exactly what you can do: http://www.YourOnlineBasics.com/go.html.