Looking for ideas on starting an online business at home?

Currently I sell a few things on eBay, but I am not making enough really. Could do alot better I think. Just looking for some ideas on what else I could do online like eBay to make extra cash? Thought I would see what kind of response I would get! I don't want to get into the online thing of doing survey's or the like. Let me know if you have any ideas please. I would appreciate it a bunch. Luna

First, you have to determine what you want to do on the Web. There are many ways to make money on the Web, and you need to choose the best way - what you can do, what your resources can afford, and what you think is needed.

The Web offers tremendous opportunities for those who know how to harness it. You hear of stories of people who earn thousands if not millions of dollars from doing business on Web. While there are many scams (same way in the traditional business world), there are various ways you can legitimately make money on the Web.

Here are the main business models you can adopt:

1. Sell products on the Web - Big boys like Amazon or Lillian Vernon online catalog or smaller businesses like BigKidsVideo.com or Candle4Less.com all sell products on the Web.

You can either sell: (a) through your own storefront through your own website or applications such as Yahoo Stores; or (b) sell through online auctions like eBay

2. Information Delivery. Others such as About.com or PowerHomeBiz.com create content and monetize their content in a number of ways:

a. Advertising - From the article "How to Generate Advertising Revenues for Your Web Site" http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol28/adreve... , there are several ways you can earn money from advertising:

1. Join an advertising network. Advertising networks are organizations that aggregate Web sites that offer advertising space, and sell banner ads (and other advertising options) across them. Traffic requirement is often a minimum of 5,000 monthly impressions, although many do not accept sites hosted by free page services.

Burst Media http://www.burstmedia.com
Fastclick (ValueClick). http://www.fastclick.com
Advertising.com. http://www.advertising.com
Tribal Fusion http://www.tribalfusion.com

2. Participate in contextual advertising networks. Contextual advertising are text ads delivered based on the content of the web page using an automated system.

Google Adsense https://www.google.com/adsense/
Yahoo! Publishing Network (currently in beta and available to US publishers only) http://publisher.yahoo.com/
Intellixt http://vibrantmedia.com/site/web_01a5.ht...
Quigo Adsonar http://www.quigo.com/adsonarexchange.htm
IndustryBrains http://www.industrybrains.com
Commission Junction Evolution http://www.cj.com

3. Sell advertising for your site directly. This is admittedly a more difficult route for a small business site wanting to earn advertising revenues. But hey, as they say: "no pain, no gain!"

b. Affiliate Programs - you sell other people's products that your audience may be interested in; and you get a certain commission after the desired action was done (whether a sale, a lead, subscription to email newsletter, or however this is defined)

c. Paid online content. Hoovers.com or WebmasterWorld.com Supporters forum all require paid subscription before accessing the information

d. Content licensing and syndication. Some publishers such as the Associated Press get paid every time their content is published elsewhere

You can easily narrow your search by thinking about what your interests are. Do you enjoy selling things on eBay? What draws you to doing business online? Would you consider selling tangible products (as a distributor) online? Do you want to have your own website and "brand" your name on the Net?

Having some ideas about what you think you would enjoy doing will help you immensely. Then you can avoid any online business opportunities that do not match your interests. Some online businesses require phone calling to be successful so if you do not like to use the phone then stay away from those. Some business opportunities can be promoted both online and offline if you like that flexibility.

Best wishes,