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.

Business Start-Up Advice For Entrepreneurs

Maybe you are reading this article in a cubicle somewhere. Or maybe you are surfing the internet on the weekend because you have an idea for a business, and all you need to know is what to do to first! Allow me to give you some business start up advice. Begin by nailing down what you will market as your information product.

That begs the question, "What is an information product?" An information product is any knowledge in your head that others would find valuable. Let me repeat that, any knowledge or experience in your head that others would find valuable can be packaged and sold.

Business Start-up Advice #1 - Utilize Lots of Mediums

You can share this knowledge with others through a variety of media. That can be a digital product, a physical product, an e-book, a video, an audio, or all of the above. Many of my products have an all of the above component. Some are written, some are videos, some are audios, some are multi-media productions.

Business Start-up Advice #2 - Develop Your Own Name

You must have at least one product that is your very own. Why do I say that? Because you want to build your own brand and not someone else's. I am okay with network marketing. That is fine. If you want to do Avon or Shacklee or Amway or whatever you want to do, go for it. But I still contend that you must have at least one product that is your very own so you are building your own brand and not necessarily someone else's.

You should be the one to control your business and your time. It is crazy to work for a small percentage of money or to let someone else tell you how to do things in your business. You should be in control and of your time and your products. When it is your own, you could keep anywhere from 90 to 95% of the profits.

Consider that all of the well-known information marketers have their own products. Guys like Dan Kennedy, Alex Mendoza, Ray Edwards, and Armon Moore have a product to promote to build their own brand.

Business Start-up Advice #3 - Get Out of the Time for Money Trap

And you get out of the trading time for money trap. A lot of you are in that trap right now, whether you are working a 9 to 5 job, or even if you are doing consulting. You are still trading time for money. When you can create something one time and sell it over and over and over, you get out of that trading time for money trap.

Business Start-up Advice #4 - Become the Expert in Your Niche

Imagine being able to give people information, an e-book that you have written, or CDs that you have made. Anything that sets you head and shoulders above the next guy. That is massive credibility for your offline business.

Imagine bringing people in through lead generation systems, and giving them a free report. Giving them something they can touch and feel. Your information products can bring in tons of leads and establish you as an expert in your niche.

Take the plunge and begin committing to paper the ideas you have in your head. Create information products from those ideas, and build your business. Then in a short while, you may be giving someone else business start up advice.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2010

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

Stephen Beck can help you with your online business ideas and show you how to earn 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.

Dealing With Free vs. Paid Information Products In A Home Internet Business

I help people market information products in their home internet business for a living. One of the most common questions that I get all the time is whether someone should be concerned if they are selling an information product about a topic for which there is free information available. They believe that the presence of the free product eliminates demand for the paid product.

While some people believe free eliminates demand for paid, I have found the opposite to be true, especially in situations where the free product fails to cover as much depth as the paid product. You should be excited when you see a free product because that shows there is interest in your target market.

Keep in mind that there are several topics that you can locate information on at no cost. The challenge is that it would take a significant amount of time to locate the information. Convenience is worth spending money on. It is more convenient to find information in one location. The average person does not want to search on a bunch of websites and put the information together. They want it right now and in your home internet business you can provide it to them.

Think about all the situations where people spend money to save time. Think about all the situations where people pay more for higher quality, especially if the quality of the free products is low. This is exactly what you are doing when you create a product to sell on the internet.

That being said, you should offer a free mini-course to get a person in your marketing funnel. If they are satisfied with your free course, they will want to know more about what you have to offer from your paid resources. They also believe that the paid resources are better and more valuable. Paying for something creates value. Therefore, by consolidating good information you will have the opportunity to make money even if you compete with free resources.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck shows families how to sell information online. Go get his 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so you can begin today.

How Can You Be Sure To Be Paid When You Sell Information Products?

An important part to the process when you sell information products is receiving the payment. You can either go with a company that allows you to receive payments for both physical and digital products or a company that allows you to accept only one type of product, which is the option I recommend for newcomers.

Clickbank is the best option if you are just getting started and are selling digital products only. What is great about them is that they do not charge monthly fees. Another benefit is you do not have to personally review credit card transaction details. You cannot use Clickbank for physical products but there is another option for you if you sell physical and digital products.

What happens if you want to sell information products that are in physical format? You have two options, either option #1 where you provide the physical product as a bonus to the digital item or option #2 where you use a different payment processing company to handle the physical product.

1ShoppingCart is another payment processing company you can use. One of the advantages to their service is that they allow you to do digital and physical products. The downside is that they charge a monthly fee to use their services, unlike Clickbank. As a result, it is only worth it if you are making enough in sales to justify the monthly cost.

Another option that you can use is PayPal or MouseECommerce. A PayPal account is free to set up. PayPal is good for situations where you want to sell digital and physical products because you can use Clickbank for the digital and PayPal for the physical product. Suppose you wanted to sell an ebook and also sell an audio CD that complements the ebook, you can have them buy the ebook using Clickbank and then offer the audio CD on the download page with a mini-sales letter and a PayPal Buy It Now button. The sales letter should have an additional offer to buy the physical CD?s and then process and ship using PayPal.

This gives you some options to choose from for handling product sales online. 1ShoppingCart is a great option if you sell both types of products and you have the budget for it. Clickbank is great for digital products only and PayPal is great for physical products and you can always combine the two services using the strategy above when you sell information products.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck helps people how to start their own coaching business. Go grab his 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so your family can begin now.

Sell Information Online With The 5 Benefits Of Autoresponders

Autoresponders are a great way to make money when you sell information online. When you use an autoresponder the proper way there are a number of benefits that you can derive from it when promoting online business opportunities.

1. Automates the sales process
There are many parts of your sales process that you can automate with an autoresponder. It should include a link to the email address for your autoresponder so that they can get a number of exposures from you. Repeated exposures results in more visitors buying from you. Another great way to automate the sales process is to add product testimonials and descriptions to your email series.

2. Automation of Selling Advertising
If you supplement your profits with advertising, use an autoresponder to aid in this process along with using it to sell information online. You can add emails that provide a detail rate quote to go out to subscribers upon request with a link to place an order. It can follow up with those who are interested and you can also blast out special offers to the entire list of interested parties.

3. Offer an email course
People go online for information and one way to offer it is in an email course. Your email course should have information of value and not be a bunch of sales offers. Valuable information sells more valuable information. Include in the course strategies and tactics to help your prospect so that they will get a sneak preview of what the information you sell is like and why they would want it. You should clearly articulate the benefits of your product offering. Finally, you must ask the prospect to buy from you if you want to make sales.

4. Provide a trial version of your product
An autoresponder can be used to give out samples of what you offer when you sell information online. Your prospects need to get a sample in order for them to decide to buy from you. Giving samples of what you offer also allows you to get their email address. You can set up your autoresponder so that it automatically allows you to provide trial instructions as well as follow-up and closing.

5. Send out reminders
Autoresponders are also a great tool to send out reminders to your prospects of your product offering. Some people just forget what you have to offer and reminders increase the amount of people that buy from you. With these reminder emails, you can also promote other products that you offer as well as products that you might derive an affiliate commission from related to your market.

With these 5 tips you will get the most bang out of your buck with your autoresponder. It will help you to sell information online and make more money.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck teaches families how to write pdf ebooks. Get his free website traffic report at http://www.familyebiz.com/blog/ so your family can start now.

The Sell Your Knowledge Funnel Process

The sell your knowledge funnel process is an excellent illustration of how to build a business selling information over the internet. Once you understand it, you will know exactly how to build your business online.

What I want you to do is to get in your mind a picture of a huge funnel. This funnel should have a wide opening at the top and a small opening at the bottom. Entering the top of the funnel is easy because of its large width. However, emerging from the bottom of the funnel is more difficult. This is because of how narrow and thin the bottom end of the funnel is.

This funnel is exactly how the process that you use to make money on the internet works. It is easy to sell your knowledge if you are offering it for free in a report. It becomes a little more difficult when you charge $10 for information. It becomes even more difficult if you are charging $37 or $67 for additional information. This is why you need to have multiple products in your eBook business.

Why do you want to set your business up to sell your knowledge like this? You do so because at the top of your funnel is where you are going to have the most amount of people. As you continue to move through the funnel you are going to have less and less people. Generally speaking more people will buy your $10 eBook than your $500 home study course. This is because when you charge more, it requires a higher level of commitment.

As a result, it is important that you take the time to build confidence in you in the mind of your customers. You need to demonstrate to them through your marketing process when you sell your knowledge that you care about them and not just their money. The key to these online business opportunities is to build trust in the mind of your customers. This will help them to understand your message and they eventually become promoters of your message, which is how you find affiliates.

This is exactly how the funnel works in your internet marketing business. As you begin your real online business, your main focus is to find something to sell. If you can do that, you know you can make money. That being said, the business owners who recognize this process will make more money and will have more customers doing higher value transactions with them because of this. As the needs of their customer, they are able to meet those needs.

By helping your customers to become more confident with the information you teach them, you create a stronger base of customers. Your funnel should have products that grow in complexity and value as you move up the price points. The better your products and services do this, the more money you will make. Now you do not have to start your business like this. You do however want to keep it in mind so you can factor this into your decision making process as your business grows and you sell your knowledge more effectively.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck teaches entrepreneurs how to increase their home-based business opportunities. Go grab his 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so you can start now.

Mini-Course & Email Marketing Strategies For An Internet Marketing Business

The mini-course is an effective tool in the hands of an internet marketing business owner. Of course, it is only effective if you know all the different steps involved with actually setting one up.

When your web site visitor signs up, he or she receives part 1 immediately. I welcome them to the course and give them a link to the 1st lesson. This is the first email and they receive it immediately. The 2nd email is part 2 of the mini-course and it will highlight a different point. In the 3rd email, I may go ahead and promote an affiliate program. In the 4th email, I promote part 3 of the mini-course. These emails should be 2-3 days a part. This will allow them to be frequent, but not overbearing.

If you are doing a product launch with a teleseminar, you may want to use a mini-course as well. You do not have to launch the mini-course first; you can do both at the same time. The primary purpose of the mini-course is that it gives a valid reason in the mind of your subscriber for emailing them so frequently.

The next step after the mini-course is delivered is to offer content that is of value to your subscriber every 7 days. This content can be in the form of a newsletter or tips. In your internet marketing business, you include the mini-course and the follow up tips in your follow up emails in your autoresponder.

There is also another feature part of every autoresponder that allows you to email your list at the same time. This feature is referred to as a broadcast. In an internet marketing business a broadcast is used for time sensitive information. You can use it to promote upcoming events or to reminder your subscribers about deadlines for special offers you have made. A broadcast email gets emailed out to every subscriber that is currently subscribed to your list at the time you send it.

I trust that you see the value of creating an email list using a mini-course to keep your visitors coming back to your web site for your internet marketing business.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009 You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck enjoys teaching people how to use mini-courses in their home business. Get his 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so you can begin today.

How A Mini-Course Helps EBook Business Owners Sell Information Products

Would you like to know the one thing you can add to your web site today that will help you to increase your ability to sell information products?

There are a lot of things you can do but one of the best things is to offer website visitors a mini-course on the first page of your web site. You do not want to distract your website visitors with an onslaught of options. Offer them a mini-course that hits a hot item for your prospects and they are very likely to want that course and come back to find out everything else that you have to offer.

In order to get your mini-course, the visitor has to provide you with their first name and email address. Some real online business owners also ask for their biggest question about the topic of interest. A mini-course is better than a free report or a newsletter because they have to provide a correct email address in order to get the actual course. It also builds curiosity as long as you make sure that the course answers a very specific question that people in the niche you serve want answers to.

The strength of the mini-course over other methods used to sell information products is that it lowers the resistance to receive emails. With most other forms of email marketing you are restricted to mailing your list once a week or month. However, with a mini-course you can email them every few days.

As an example, if you wrote a mini-course about direct mail you would split it up into several parts. In the 1st part you can cover the initial package that you send to your prospects. The 2nd part might cover how to split test your mail packages, etc.

A mini-course does not necessarily have to have unique content. You can use content that you used from a blog, article submissions or even transcribed audio or video content and include it as different parts to your mini-course.

A mini-course is not designed to be a thesis. It should be broken down into different, smaller pieces. Otherwise if you try to provide too much information in one shot, the prospects simply will not want to read the rest of the course and they will unsubscribe from you.

The bottom line to having success when you sell information products with a mini-course is to make sure you provide valuable information in bite-sized pieces. This will keep the interest level high and will make your web site visitors want to know more about what you have to offer.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck teaches families how to improve their home internet business through better ebook features. Go get his 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so you can begin right now.

Master How To Sell Information With EBooks

by Stephen Beck

You have put all of your hard work into creating your eBook and now you want to know how to make money with it. The key to mastering how to sell information is to understand the features of an electronic book and how to drive sales to it.

Driving sales is critical in your internet marketing business. Having a cool web site if you dont make money on the internet is pointless. Having an eBook that includes the following will help increase your sales:

1. Title Page and Copyright Information
The title page is the first area your customers are going to see so its important that it is formatted properly. A good cover graphic makes a great impression, but you can also go with just regular or bold text font. What you do not want to forget is to include your copyright.

2. The Body
The body is the heart of your eBook business. You want to make sure that the information you include in the body is relevant and valuable to the niche you are serving. If not, expect lots of refunds and lots of complaints.

3. Clickable Links
This is an area that many people neglect and they dont even realize how much this is costing them. Clickable links allow your readers to view additional information online that can give you the opportunity to make more money. Its not enough to have the link itself. It must be clickable; otherwise the readers typically wont visit the web site.

4. Resource Box
The resource box allows you to brand yourself along with making additional money as well. In your resource box, you should include information about yourself and your company. Make sure you include resources that the niche you are serving with your eBook would be interested in. Otherwise, you wont get the results you are looking for.

5. Free Bonuses
People love getting a deal and one of the best ways to make them feel like they are is to provide a bonus. Your bonus could be an additional report, a pre-recorded audio or even a video. When promoting a bonus, assign a monetary value to it (i.e. what would you charge if you were to sell it). In many cases your bonuses alone is worth more than what the buyer is paying for the main product.

By focusing in and including these five areas you will master how to sell information. These five features of your eBook drive the overall sales process and ensure that you maximize your ability to make money on the internet. Neglecting them limits the amount of success you can have.

Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck teaches entrepreneurs how to increase their home-based business opportunities through mini-courses. Go grab his 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so you can improve your online business now.