There are hundreds of online business ideas that anyone can do on the web. It starts by first understanding and researching the business ideas you have and then determining what business fits with your talents, lifestyle and goals.
I personally use a combination of business methods that I not only enjoy doing but also give me the flexibility to set my own schedule. That's important.
Affiliate marketing brings me the majority of my income. Building sites around niche topics is a favorite past time of mine. The down side is I will create new sites faster than I can promote them. This is where planning and scheduling comes in handy.
I start by building a site around a niche topic, I'll then add informative content that my research has shown people want to know about that's related to the niche. Later I'll complement the site with affiliate products that would interest my readers.
That all might sound simple enough, but to be honest, my first sites were a disaster and the products I chose to promote didn't sell very well either. It was Rosalind Gardner's Super Affiliate Handbook that set me straight with affiliate marketing. All I had to do was grasp and practice the strategies that Rosalind demonstrates in her guide and my sites took off.
Another online business idea that's a favorite of mine is creating information products and ebooks. I like to write and share my knowledge with others so writing e-books was an easy fit for me.
Originally I got hooked on this business idea from reading the One Minute Ebook which taught me ropes in step-by-step fashion which is what I needed starting out. I also liked the "do it once and profit forever" concept that having your own e-book brings you.
As far as costs go, unless you have someone write your book for you, it's very cost effective. In fact the PDF software used to create e-books is very inexpensive, in fact I use OpenOffice.org to create my PDF's and it's a completely free download.
Because I know the potential for writing e-books, I'm probably a little more than passionate when talking with others about it. For example, I talk to people all the time who have tons of knowledge and education in their specific areas of expertise and I'm always baffled by how they keep that knowledge to themselves and never consider letting it earn an income for them.
I know writing isn't for everyone, but because I've experienced the earnings potential writing and selling e-books has, I like to at least get them thinking about it 
Who knows, later on I may expand my horizons and experiment with other online business ideas, but so far these have served me well.
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Twitter: me
April 12, 2010 at 10:03 am
I believe creating an ebook would be fun and exciting, but where do you find the time? Creating content for my web site is time consuming. I did download openoffice I’ll let you know about how much progress I make on my ebook.
Melva, Yes it’s all time consuming but that’s where organization and scheduling comes in. I usually buy PLR related to my niche which helps me with my weekly posts. When I’m working on my book I start out with a good outline and schedule what I’m going to work on each day. It may take a month or two but at the end of the year I can have at least 3 ebooks completed.