Looking for a home business idea?

There are many different ways to make money from home and here are my 7 favorite ideas:

1. Telecommute Jobs. I spend a lot of time online and I can’t tell you how many people I meet online who are looking for a “job” that they can do online from home and make a ton of money … or at least replace their full-time income. I wish I could say that these jobs were plentiful and that there are companies who will beat your door down to hire you.

Truthfully, the very best way to find these types of jobs is OFFLINE. Most people who are doing this type of work talked their “offline” boss into allowing them to work their same position from home … or they got the work through someone they know.

Please beware of the many scams on the internet. Legitimate work at home employers should not ask you for money or to pay for postage for any reason. I suggest checking out all potential companies and potential employers by doing a Google search on the company name and on the hiring person and to also check with the Better Business Bureau before making any decisions.

Read some more information about Telecommute Jobs.

Suggested Skills: computer, data entry, telephone, customer service, sales/telemarketing

2. Party Plan/Direct Sales/MLM (Multi-Level Marketing). Most of us are familiar with the direct sales/party plan business model and it’s certainly a viable option to make some money from home. It’s a great way to jump in an own your own business without the investment and risk involved with starting your own business from the ground up.

The investment is usually under $200 and should give you most of the tools you need to get your business up and running. Most will offer representative replicated websites for free or for an affordable rate giving you an instant online presence too.

Another benefit is that you will have other representatives who will train and mentor you as you start your business and you’ll have access to company training and sales tools as well.

Believe it or not, on my WAHM 2 WAHM site we have over 300 companies listed that fall into this category with product lines ranging from cosmetics and skin care to wine … travel companies to candles … pet supplies … to “green” companies … and literally everything in between.

My suggestion is to make a list of everything that you have a passion for i.e. wine, travel, candles, dogs, investing, babies, books, etc. and then you can go to WAHM 2 WAHM and search by keyword and see what companies are out there to have a look at. We also offer tips on what to look for in not only a company but also how to select a sponsor (mentor) who is a match for your personality type.

Skills: friendly, helpful, email, phone skills, good follow through, persistence, self-starter,

3. Affiliate Programs/Affiliate Marketing. An affiliate program is simply a program that pays you to drive traffic to someone else’s products and/or services. If the traffic you send results in a sale you will be paid a referral fee which is either a percentage of the commission or a flat fee per sale. This allows a merchant to have 100’s or even 1000’s of affiliates promoting their product or service simultaneously without costing them a dime in advertising. These payouts are made on a “performance” basis. It’s truly a win-win. These programs range from Jane Doe’s custom hair bows to well-known companies like Wal-Mart, Amazon, and eBay.

Read the entire list of top home business ideas.

Get Your Business in the News.

Do you invest in public relations for your business?  Doing so doesn’t have to be expensive.  In fact, if you want to approach your local market, the only necessary cost involved is your time and a little brain power.  Local newspapers, magazines and e-zines are always interested in something new and different to report on.  If you can get a little creative, you can get your business in the news, generating free publicity.  Free is good, don’t you think?

Creative and Catchy

Do you have a new product launching, or a new way to use an existing product?  Brainstorm, if necessary, and come up with something unique and story worthy.  Create a theme that applies to the benefit of your product or service.

Promotional Times printed a story in their newsletter recently that cited a company that was offering a new water-saving washing machine.  To promote it, they developed the tagline, “How thirsty is your washer“, and issued press releases based on the new theme.  It attracted sales.

If you’re working from home, you probably don’t sell appliances, but you get the idea.  Put a creative spin on the major selling feature of your product.  If possible, come up with your own winning slogan to accompany it.

Current Trends

Don’t forget to consider trends while you’re contemplating your approach.  If you can make your campaign tie in naturally with what’s hot in the market, then cash in on it.  When anti-aging is big in the news, play up your line of mail order anti-oxidants using the anti-aging benefits as your prime selling feature.  Your online dollar store might be the perfect for a story on savings and convenience during recessionary and stress-filled times.  See where I’m going with this?  Find the appropriate need and fill it.  The nice thing about trends is that they present an immediate market, if you get in on them early.

How to Get in Print

Once you have your great and interesting product all ready for the public, you can proceed with contacting publication editors, reporters or issue your own print announcements.

-          Call or email your local newspaper or reporter, giving them a brief overview of what new and wonderful thing you’re offering, and invite them for an interview

-          Issue your own press releases.  You can do this online as well.  There are places to submit that are free, as well as ones that you pay for.

-          Hold an event and invite the local press.  The event could be an open house, ribbon cutting, seminar on your product, Christmas party, doesn’t matter.  What matters is the press exposure that you’ll get.  I would caution you though, to make the event interesting enough that it actually gets written up in the paper.

-          If your local newspaper has a Business Monday (or whatever) section, or your city has its own business magazine, then let them know about your wonderful new product/use.

-          Offer a press release, interview or article to any appropriate website owners.  If they deal with local issues or markets, then odds are they are going to be interested.

The best part about using creativity as your number one marketing tool is that it is limitless.  You can take one product and come up with numerous different slants on how to use or promote it.  This is the stuff that makes marketing fun.  So, go ahead and get your business in the news.  You’ll enjoy yourself and get some free publicity to boot.

This post is courtesy of Shirley Anderson.

5 tips to run a successful website for your work at home business.

Working from home is an ideal position for many, especially small business owners.  Although it requires a lot more focus on customer attraction than any “at location” position, the rewards can be astonishing.  With all of the major factors that constitute the start of any at-home company, the most detailed and important factor is attracting  potential customers; I mean, how else will they know you exist, if you’ve taken the physical aspect away?

Obtaining a website and company domain, are essential for a successful at-home business.  This is a dwelling of potential customers, vendors, and even, fans…if your services and/or products are truly high quality.  So, you obtain the domain and layout the design for your company website, and as you sit back and sigh with exhaustion, you start to realize and say to yourself: “How will people know I am finally done?”

You must think of your website as a marketing tool, a tool in which will promote and attract your business prospects.  Your key question, in which you need a great answer for, is: “Why would someone visit my site?
The objective of attracting customers does not only entail a few great quality products and self-promoting company information on your website, but instead, providing exciting details that make potential customers come back for more, and with some extra friends.

Getting visitors to your site is a challenge within itself, especially if you are in an industry, in which already has 10 billion other websites featuring similar products and services.  For the best exposure, follow these steps:

1. Be sure your website is listed on most of the top search engines, like, yahoo.com, google.com, msn.com, and ask.com.

2. Local search!  If you want local customers to find you, the best place to advertise is on local search engine advertisements.

3. Promoting on other websites through affiliations, is another great source for exposure.

4. Paid ads through google or yahoo, can also increase the amount of traffic to your site.

5. Be your biggest promoter and list your company url on every site that you have, including blogging sites, and other highly viewed sites, like myspace.

This is a guest post by Giselle Rivera. You can learn more about Giselle by visiting our featured writers page.

Do you have what it takes to run a successful home business?

Now that you are in your own home business, no doubt you had to make some adjustments that where necessary. New techniques and a new way of thinking will assure your real success.

But how can you be balanced and still have some fun? Very successful people have known this secret for a long time. We want to live our lives in a way that we can still have some fun.

Well, as with everything, the right balance is the answer. No matter if we are young or a little older, we need to sit down and make time work for us. The time we spend in our business is important because this will translate into financial freedom and prosperity.

On the other hand, we need to spend some time to recuperate and refresh ourselves so that we can continue on our way to the top. How you will accomplish this in the right way will make the difference between failure and success in your home business.

This is vital to know and this has been a secret way for successful people to become what they are. You see, you want to have the right frame of mind and attract success and money to you and you can do this more easily when you are in harmony  with yourself.

There is a great law in our universe and it is called the law of attraction, which means that you will attract to yourself what you want. But you have to sort out some things here, because while it is true that you want success and money, it is also true that you want even more. This is not your only endeavor!  You also want to enjoy life and have some fun, but everything needs to be in it’s right place.

Time management is the answer! But wait, don’t think that it is difficult for you, it’s really simple and easy. With a regular schedule and some routine and the support of those who are close to you, it will all work out right.

There are people that are raking in truckloads of money and still have fun and everybody can do it. It’s just a matter of learning simple techniques from those who are already on the top.

So here is what you want to do, just make  a good time schedule and be serious about your dedication to your home business.

Stick to your schedule and then take out some time to relax and have some fun. But remember the law of attraction! So be dedicated to your goals in life and to your home business plans and be passionately about it, it will work!

By being balanced, you can have some fun, too. Keep your goal in mind however!. You want to create your own wealth and have the financial freedom that so many people desire. Set your priorities in the right prospective!

When you do this you, have what it takes to be a successful business person and still have some fun.