Work at Home Business Ideas

Here are some excellent businesses that you can
start, operate and grow from your home. All these
work at home businesses have the following desirable
features:

**Low Startup Costs

**Ease of Entry

**High Income Potential

**Home Based and Operated

**Worldwide Sales Potential

**Residual, Recurring and/or Passive Income Potential

1. Consulting

A consultant is someone expert in a field who, for a fee,
advises businesses or individuals on various matters of
concern.

Many times we tend to feel that our knowledge, skills
or abilities are nothing unique. However, many lack
those same assets and would gladly pay us for our
knowledge and services.

Although it is possible to make a living from consulting
with individuals, the big money is in performing services
for businesses.

Do you have knowledge of bookkeeping, accounting, tax or
similar business matters? Some have made excellent money
specializing in small business consulting.

Are you a computer hobbyist with business or internet
experience? You could make money in web design, internet
marketing, search engine optimization, or some other
specialty.

Some lawyers have combined their legal experience with their
love of the Internet and specialized in intellectual
property and computer law.

For further information and resources about consulting,
visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/consulting.html

2. Finding

A finder is someone who, for a fee, finds something
needed by a business or individual. A finder`s fee
is the amount paid to the finder for locating what
was required.

Finder`s fees are paid for finding money (loans,
equipment leasing, et cetera), equipment (mining,
construction, et cetera), personnel, companies for
sale, locations (fast food franchises, vending
machines, et cetera) and just about anything else
that people are willing to pay for.

Simply match sellers with buyers and you can earn
finder`s fees.

For further information and resources about finder`s fees,
visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/finder.html

3. Auctions

An auction is an event where items are sold to the highest
bidders. An internet auction, online auction or e-auction
is an auction where you can buy and sell items on the
Internet.

Many thousands now make their living or fortune from
selling products and services on eBay and similar auction
sites. So can you!

For further information and resources about auctions,
visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/auctions.html

4. Drop Shipping

Drop shipping is a method of selling products without
stocking inventory yourself. When you make a sale you
contact the manufacturer or authorized distributor who
ships it to the customer with your invoice and shipping
label. Advantages include no warehousing, shipping, or
inventory costs.

For further information and resources about drop shipping,
visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/dropship.html

5. Affiliate Programs

An affiliate or associate program is a method of selling
products on the internet through commission sales. When
someone you refer to a website buys, the company you are
an associate of (or affiliated with) pays you a commission.

In many cases, it is also possible to make money from the
efforts of people that you introduce to the affiliate program.
You can also expand your product line by joining and
promoting more than one affiliate program.

For further information and resources about affiliate programs,
visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/affiliate.html

6. Webmastering

A webmaster is a an internet specialist reponsible for all
aspects of web sites.

Areas where businesses need assistance include web site
design, logo, banner or graphic design, web hosting,
e-commerce, internet marketing, web programming, scripts,
security, web site maintenance, copy writing, mailing list
management, and many other areas.

For further information and resources about webmastering,
visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/webmstrbus.html

7. Self-publishing

A self-publisher creates, produces, and sells information
products. Information products may be in the form of books,
booklets, videos, audio cassettes, compact disks (CDs),
electronic books, files, databases, private websites, and
other media.

The information products that you create are unique. You
have exclusive control and ownership of your own products.

For further information and resources about self-publishing,
visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/selfpub.html

8. Instant Publishing

An instant publisher sells information products produced by
someone else who grants them reprint (or resale) rights.
Often self-publishers will sell such products to complement
their own information products.

For further information and resources about instant publishing,
visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/instantpub.html

9. International Trade

International trade involves importing and exporting.
Importing involves buying goods and services from suppliers
in another country. Exporting involves selling goods and
services to customers in another country.

For further information and resources about import-export,
visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/impexp.html

10. Mail Order

Mail order is a method of conducting business through the
mail. Goods and services can be sold through direct mail
(and also via catalogues, magazines, newspapers, radio,
television, web sites, and other media). Customers can order
by mail or by other means (fax, telephone, internet, et
cetera). Delivery of orders can be made by mail or alternative
means (such as by courier for physical goods or by fax, e-mail,
telephone, or electronic files for information).

For further information and resources about mail order,
visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/mailord.html

RESOURCE BOX

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/ has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.

For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

Leading eCommerce Consultant Admits You Should Only Listen to One Real Expert! (And it's not him)

Let me share with you a secret that most marketing experts and consultants don’t want you to know... (many of them don’t even understand this secret themselves.)

The secret is... There is only one true expert who can show you how to drastically improve the effectiveness of your website and your marketing. With dozens of so-called guru’s, consultants and experts ready and willing to give you (or charge you for) their advice, there is actually only one person you should listen to on a regular basis. Only one! And his name is Eric Graham... No, no... just kidding...

The only “experts” that you should listen to and trust are your visitors. The visitors that come to your website or view your ads are the only true experts. They will share their expert opinions with you by the actions they take while on your website.

Not sure what headline to use at the top of your page... You have a couple of options:
Pay an “expert” consultant like me to look it over for you and give you copywriting recommendations, for a few hundred dollars an hour.

Or...

“Ask” your visitors which one is best, by split testing each element of your headlines and letting your visitors vote with their credit cards... The one that converts to sales best wins!

Trying to figure out how much to charge for you new ebook? You can hire an expert... I can talk to you all day about advanced pricing theory and explain to you how prices with a “7” in them (such as $17, $97, $777) usually convert better. I can walk you through an analysis of the price points of competing/similar products...

Or...

Simply test 3 or 4 different prices to see which one is most profitable. Often the greater perceived value of a higher price actually converts better than a lower price. But you won’t know if that’s true for your product and your visitors until you test it. Again your visitors will teach you more about pricing than any consultant ever could. You just need to “ask” these experts by testing.

If done properly, the questions you can get your “visitor experts” to answer about your website by simply testing, is endless.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you should never hire a consultant or expert -- after all my clients happily pay me a lot of money to help them improve their conversion rates. And I am worth every penny! ;-)

But what you need to understand here is that the best experts, became experts by studying and testing, testing and testing different elements over and over until they developed a set of “best practices”. So, by hiring someone who has been in the trenches you can save time and money in the long run.

However, every website, business, product and visitor demographic is different. Just because something works at one website, doesn’t automatically mean it will work at yours. The best consultants will tell you that you still need to test everything. So in the end it’s still your visitor who’s the true expert.

Just imagine the results you could achieve over the next year, if you took the time to test only one new element every week. Even if half of the tests were failures and didn’t produce improvements in your conversion rates, you would still discover 26 ways to improve your sales. Even if each improvement only boosts your conversion rate by 1/10th of 1%, you would have improved your conversion rate by over 2.6% (and probably much more!)

Look over your current sales statistics, and ask yourself, “How much more profit would I be making if my conversion rate jumped by 2.6%?”

With most sites currently converting at an appalling 1% to 2%, a 2.6% improvement could triple your sales...

Let me ask you a question: Imagine you have a website selling information on how to learn to play the guitar, getting 1,000 visitors per day. And I came to you and showed you how I can change a few things about your page, improve your search engine positioning and triple your traffic? Would you be excited? Sure.

Then, why not get equally excited about optimizing your website for maximum conversion rates?

Many online businesses will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars optimizing their sites for the search engines. But then they waste 99 out of every 100 visitors that they spent so much time and effort getting, simply because they failed to invest in “asking the experts” (their visitors) first. Had they taken the time to optimize their site for conversion rate, before driving the traffic their results would be 10x more profitable.

The great news for you is, so few online businesses are currently testing anything! This means that you are in a position to absolutely dominate your competition by simply listening to the true experts... Your visitors!

Copyright 2004 Eric Graham

Want to improve your conversion rates? Eric Graham is the CEO of several successful online companies. A top authority on eCommerce & Internet Marketing, he's an in-demand speaker & consultant. Visit http://www.web-site-evaluations.com today for an in-depth evaluation to boost YOUR websites conversion rate!

How to Achieve E-commerce Success -You Gotta Plan!

Before becoming a netpreneaur, I was an entrepreneur. First, I owned a successful child care center which grew to capacity in less than two years. When I sold that, I bought a little flower shop that had less than 300 customers and grew it to what it is today, one of the most successful, award winning companies in South Florida with more than 7,000 customers who purchase from us on a regular business. To better serve our customers, we took our business to the Internet. We still have a brick and mortar storefront, yet everyday we receive more and more customers via the Internet.

How about you? Do you or did you have a traditional business or professional practice? Is it successful? Unless you were born under the star called “LUCKY,” you probably did lots of planning. A business plan, a marketing plan, maybe even a succession plan for what to do with your business when you were through.

You may have heard the statistics that half of all small businesses fail in their first year and of those, only 25% make it through to five years. According to youngbiz.com it can be even less for e-businesses.

Build it and they will come! Not! You can have a terrific site, with lots of bells and whistles and if people don’t know you exist, you never get any visitors, let alone customers.

Planning is the key to success in business. Amazon.com had a plan, Bill Gates had a plan, eDiets had a plan, and I’ll bet they still do. Once a business launches on the net, you will need a marketing plan to be successful. Your biggest challenge will be to find time to plan. However, if you don’t find time now, you will find yourself with plenty of it (time, that is) later on, and no business to speak of.

Unlike a business, generally created to get financial backing from investors, Netpreneurs create marketing plans for themselves. Where do you start? First you have to ask yourself these questions. Where do you want to be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years? How many customers do you want or better yet, how much money do you want to make? Who are your customers? Do you know what they want, need and expect? Can you give it to them? What are your competitors doing? What are you doing that is different? How will you promote your business?

Now Create your Website marketing plan.

Put it in writing! Not only do you have to plan, you have to write it down! Take a notebook or idea book and write the following: your vision, mission strategies, goals and the time frame you wish to accomplish these goals. Keep this notebook next to your computer to refer to. It will help you stay focused.

What is your vision for your business? Your vision is what you want your web site to accomplish. Write your vision statement in your notebook. The vision statement for my flower shop is to “Make a reasonable profit via the Internet by providing a quality product, delivering exceptional service, at a price my customers will pay.”

What are your goals? What do you believe you can accomplish that may be a bit of a stretch but doable? If the goals are too easy, you are not getting the most out of your planning process. And you could be losing money. Can make a profit of 20% in 3 months? Can double your customer base in 6 months? If so, write it in your notebook.

What steps do you need to take to achieve your goals? How much do you have to sell to achieve your goals? You must first know your profit margin to determine this figure. Then you have to figure out how you are going to find the customers to make your goals come true.

What are your marketing strategies? Start with those goals you know you can attain. How will you reach your market? Are you going to use search engine optimization, email, newsletters, networking, advertising on related sites, advertising in trade magazines, or write an article to submit to online publications? Participate in online forums, message boards and newsgroups. Include your URL (Internet address) in your signature file.

What is the time-frame for accomplishing your goals? Create a time-line for every goal in your notebook. Next to each goal, write down the starting and ending dates of when you plan to accomplish that goal as well as what type of marketing strategies you are using.

Are you keeping track of your marketing results? If you are doing any advertising whether it is online or offline, track the results. You can track online advertising using ad tracking software such as adtrackz.com, to track all the links you place online. Analyze web site statistics to find out how visits found you. For offline advertising, place codes or words in your advertising to keep track. Your online order forms should have a place to enter the code. To learn how customers found us, we use a numeric code on all advertising/marketing materials.

What is your return on investment? How much money did the marketing strategy cost? How much money did you take in? Subtract the second figure from the first and that is your profit (or loss).

Keep track of those marketing campaigns that worked and those that didn’t. Do more of the first. Reevaluate the second. Can you change one thing in the strategy and achieve different results? Try it! Add new strategies to the mix.

Stay focused on your goals. Nothing feels better than accomplishing a goal. Except maybe, all the money you are going to make when you do!

© 2004 - Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) – an Internet organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” She can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com.