I recently posted about things to consider before you start so you should really check that out as well.

But let’s look at 10 ways people are making money on line.

1: Affiliate Marketing

This is where you promote other company’s products and services on your website. When a sale is made, you get a commission on that sale. You’re going to need to be able to generate your own traffic, write about the products in a way that convinces people that are worthwhile, but retains your credibility. You’ll need to also learn a bit out PPC (pay per click) marketing.

2: Blogging Blogging

A blog is a website filled with articles, reviews, stories, anecdotes and journal-style writing. I’m sure you’ve visited many. You’ll need to build traffic (people coming to your site) and then you can sell advertising or incorporate affiliate marketing on a blog to earn money. You’ll need to be able to write in a way that people find interesting, understand social networking (Facebook, etc) affiliate marketing (see above) and web marketing.

3: eBay & Auction Selling

This is where you buy and sell products on an online marketplace like Ebay, Amazon Auctions, or Craigslist. For example, you spot bargains, buy them and sell them on for a profit. You can also accumulate stuff in the real world from your neighborhood. Now you know why people arrive at yard sales at 8am. You can sell used goods, buy goods wholesale, or use a drop-shipping service. The Ebay learning service is a great resource.

4: Internet Research Business

If you’ve been involved in research and or libraries you can provide a service to companies doing internet research. Think about law firms  and even private investigators here! You’ll take your research skills and add customer service to undertake this top 10 home based business opportunity online

5: E-Commerce

You’re going to take on Amazon! Selling products or a technology-based service on your own website. be careful as this is arguably the most difficult one of all and where many of the biggest failures have occurred. You’re going to need just about every web based skill imaginable. These are the most risky Internet home based businesses.

6: Arts & Crafts

If you have a skill and a passion for creating your own arts and crafts, the web is the perfect place for you to display them. Alongside your creative talents, you’ll need to think about photography (pictures are important here) sales and e-commerce.

7: Freelance Services

Why not use your skills in administrative work, copy writing, photography, programming, etc. You’ll bill at an hourly rate. One of our members started on the administrative route and became so overloaded that she hired a friend, and another, and another…. She now runs the relationship side and farms out the admin work to her team. Once again your sales relationship management and networking skills will be key.

8: Recruiting

Use your network and professional experience to create a resource for companies to hire people. You get a fee  when each hire is made. Focus on your specialized area – a niche. You are going to need sales, relationship building and networking skills to make this a success.

9: Consulting

We have two consulting businesses. You’re again going to take your skills and experience and sell them on a contract base. Don’t underestimate sign off times for big companies. Relationship management, sales, customer service and presentations skills are critical.

10: Tech support

Small businesses can’t afford full time tech support for their PC’s, Mac’s and networks. Take your skills in this area and start a virtual support business. you can either negotiate contracts or hourly rates. There’s a huge demand for this. In addition to your tech skills you’re going to need patience by the truck load (but you know that!) and relationship and sales skills.

There you have it, the top 10 home based business opportunities online, complete with the skills you need. At We Dared To Dream we can help you work out which is best for you and take you step by step till you’re making money.

You’ve been bitten by the start up bug. You want to start out on your own… It just feels daunting and you’re not sure where to start or what to do. It’s strange how many people never get past that point. What’s even stranger is that when you burst through that obstacle it suddenly seems to obvious!

Here’s a tip that we share with our members and once they’ve thought about it, everything seems so much easier.

Move step by step!

Huh? I can hear you thinking. But check this out. If you want to take a long journey and you use Google maps for directions. You don’t get one direction from the start point to the destination. You get a series of turns, roads, junctions and directions.

It’s the same thing with starting a business. You can break it down into easy to manage steps that will have you wondering why you didn’t start ages ago.

If you are thinking about business own start up then check out these steps. It’s this easy!

Here are four things you’ll need to do before your launch and you won’t even give up your day job.

1) Develop and test an idea

2) Create a business plan

3) Establish your cash needs

4) Set Up For Launch

Already we have broken your journey down into four steps. Now we look at each of these and break them down into smaller steps. Just like that Google road map!

So lets look at the first area – your idea. I am assuming that you have one. No worries if you don’t, that’s OK as well. We help people find ideas that work for them.

We are going to break the idea phase into smaller steps

a) Know yourself

We help people understand their own skills, their experience and their personal objectives for the business. These should be both personal and financial. If you don’t know yourself, how can you know if a business idea is right for you?

b) List ideas

Many people have one idea. However, we push members to think of quite a few because this often helps you look differently at your original idea. It also throws up surprises! Get your friends and family yo to help you. We have a range of tools that can help you do this – it’s quite fun.

c) Narrow your list

You should look at each of your ideas and see how it works with your skills, experience and personals goals that you outlined in one. After all, if the idea isn’t a good fit with yourself, it’s probably not going to be a success.

Not too difficult so far? You’d be amazed how many people miss these steps and get bitten at a later date!

d) Test your idea

You’re going to spend some time researching the validity of your ideas. You’ll look at it from several angles that include a competitor perspective, a customer viewpoint and also resources and finance. What will you need and how much will it cost to set up your idea?

Don’t worry – this is a quick check to try and find obvious holes in your idea. We’ll get more rigorous at the business plan phase.

You’re about to embark on your business own start. Beginning a business seems like a huge challenge, but when you break it down into manageable chunks and then move step by step, the whole thing becomes much simpler.

Good luck!

Can you indulge me for just a moment? I want to play at being the contrarian. Let’s swim against the stream and be a bit rebellious. I need to have a rant for a moment.

If you visit a site that claims to tell you the top small business opportunities you should run a mile or at least be very careful. These lists are worthless and I’ll show you why.

Lets talk about the best way to find the right opportunity for you! Opportunities that match your experience, ideas that fit with your skills. Businesses that you can afford and that you’d actually like to do.

So what if we could talk about you for a moment and what you’d like to do. What if we could take inventory of your experience, your interests, your skills and your passion and come up with something that each day you’ll get out of bed and be excited to be a part of. Well, that’s what Rob and I are interested in.

So let’s look at three hilarious top 10 businesses lists I’ve seen recently.

My mouth dropped as I read that the number two franchise is McDonald’s. Now I’m not saying anything against the Golden Arches. However, there’s one little catch here. You’ll need somewhere between $1-2 million dollars to play. That’s great if you have millions of dollars, but most of the people we meet, don’t have that type of money.

Next up is a top 10 small businesses list that claims that shoe washing is the best idea for stay at home moms. The idea is that you wash people’s training shoes for them with chemicals that make them fresh. Here’s a basic question for yourself. How much would you pay to have your sneakers cleaned? $5, no? Ok, $10, how about $25, I doubt it. They claim that you’ll be earning handsome money! This is their number one idea!

And finally, another Top 10 list gave its best idea as “The internet”. Their advice is to “Just stick up a web site and watch the cash roll in.” Of course, it’s that easy! That makes me so mad.

If you are looking for a list of top 10 businesses ask yourself why. Rob and I have a strong point of view that your best idea will be based upon

Your experience

Your skills

Your passion

It’s not about top 10 businesses lists at all. It’s all about you!

Note that we didn’t use the word great. If we were investing in a business we’d far prefer to be putting money into a good idea with a great team and plan than a great idea with a rotten team and plan. Graveyards are full of businesses with great ideas and rotten execution.

In fact Venture Investors (VC’s) have told us that it’s really all down to 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

At WDTD our goal is simple. We’ll help you take your inspiration and make the perspiration easier.

Back to those ideas. let’s help you get inspired!

One of the great benefits of working out of home is the flexibility and convenience. Combine this with the very low cost of starting out. It’s no wonder that 1.4 million women every year will start their own business.

We often get asked “I want to start my own business, but I’m not sure what I should do?”

Here are six trends that we are seeing

1) Consulting

This is the classic example of using your prior experience and contact list. Our businesses use many consultants because it’s cheaper to pay someone for a few days or weeks than go through the process of hiring someone. Outsourcing is a huge trend and you can take advantage of it. This area is vast.

We have two consulting businesses. One works with Fortune 500 type companies on major strategic issues. The other is focused on internet start ups. the reason we can do this is because of our experience in both fields and specifically Angelique’s years of consulting all over the world. It’s an example of what we have previously talked about. Using your experience.

2) Freelance

Take your skills and your contact list and start out at home. A great example of this is our book keeper. She manages our basic accounting work out of her home for all our businesses and does it for several other companies as well. She makes more money than she did in her previous job, works less hours and her time is totally flexible.

Another lady we know well does company business report writing. The ideas here are almost endless. We have also worked with a lady who is setting up an admin service for other small companies who don’t want to pay for a full time secretary. She’s building a network of women who are at home and passing them work based on the number of hours each women wannest to do per week.

3) Online marketing

Women are leaving previous jobs and becoming on line marketers. Working a few hours a day they are quickly building incremental income. We helped one lady do this as she was planning to have a child in 18 months and wanted to move her job to her house. She just had her first daughter – congratulations Lara!

Another area that women are actively involved in is using their experience in software like Adobe to start website development business. If you have a computer and an internet connection, you’re half way there. The cool thing here is that the start up is low cost and very quick. We have often hired a woman who turns round photoshop projects at high speed and creates beautiful work. Thanks Stephanie!

4) Food, catering & event planning

You don’t need a big business here. We’ve seen women making great money out of starting selling food they have cooked at home. The profit margins here are excellent. If you have a good set of contacts at companies you could start a catering business.

5) Health and fitness

Fitness training, exercise studios, and many more ideas. We worked with a lady who has started several specialist exercise studios. She was previously in the world of food products but had a passion for this. Liz is doing spectacularly well. Niche health and fitness is one of the top trends for small business. Don’t just think of humans. Pet related wellness is another growth area.

One of our friends came to us. She was frustrated at work, bored and becoming disillusioned. She and her husband agreed that she’d transition to a work at home mom. She was personally into physical therapy and started a massage business. Again, very low cost start up and a steadily increasing list of clients. She’s been amazingly innovative in growing her business to the point where she has now taken on a 2nd women to cover her demand. She’s happier and making decent money that is paying for all sorts of extras for the family.

Remember that your business idea does not have to be a multi million dollar monster. If it strikes the right personal and financial balance it can quickly change your life.

6) Interior design and staging

We know several businesses run by women doing exactly this. Even with the slump in home sales there is a constant demand for staged houses and there is a segment of the market that is always looking to improve their home space. Talk to a few realtors about staging. We know one lady who runs a staging business out of her apartment and keeps all the staging products in a pair of rented garages.

We wanted to give you a flavor of the ideas what we are seeing women using to change their lives. Remember that most of your best ideas will come from your experience or your hobbies and passion. Just make sure you plan your moves carefully and get the right support.

Be successful

Rob & Angelique