Internet Home Business Ideas

Are you thinking of joining the lucrative market of selling information products, but are stumped for ideas on just what WILL sell online? Or looking for a good topic to set up an information website that will attract a lot of visitors, so you can earn money online from the traffic?

Remember, people who surf the Web are looking for information and solutions. So the best home business ideas are those that provide needed information, or better still, solve problems.

Think of what people are thirsting for. Then design a product to quench that thirst.

Here's a checklist to help you brainstorm and trigger off ideas:

• Can you offer what you're already selling offline, over the internet?
• What are you currently doing that you could turn into a product? Perhaps into an information product such as an eBook or audio / video CD? Maybe you're a builder, and can show people what to look out for and ways to save cost when building their homes.
• What are you good at? What is your expertise? It is best if your product or site concept is from an area that you are expert in. It can be profitable to share your knowledge with the world.
• What activities do you enjoy most about your current occupation? Example: could you be a systems and processes person, delighting in bringing order out of chaos? Could you translate that into a product or website, perhaps one that shows people how to tidy up and simplify their routines or kitchens, and recover time or space. (There's a website that actually does this.)
• What is it you love to talk about? Read about? What sections of a bookstore or a magazine shop do you automatically gravitate to? Example: did you know that people search for the word "hairstyles" on an average of 5,000,000 times monthly in Google alone?
• What is your hobby? What do you do for fun and games? What kind of TV shows do you like most? Movies? Are you an audio geek who could teach people how to decipher their sound systems?
• What are your natural talents? It could be right under your nose.
• What do you do day after day, without even thinking about it? Examples: house-keeping, taking care of sick parents, child-rearing, car mechanic, project manager. Think about what you do in a typical day, and what you learn from it.
• What are your close family members or friends good at? You can work with them to develop a product. They provide the knowledge, you market it.
• What do you believe is popular now? What do you believe will become popular very soon? Upcoming movies, electronic gadgets, games, fashions.
• What are the popular topics people talk about these days? What topics are hot on TV? In newspapers? In magazines? What are the current trends?
• Problems are one of the best sources for ideas, because problems need solutions! What bugs you? What's tedious? What does not work? What are the 3 biggest problems in your workplace? What are your biggest pains as a parent, or teacher, or single mom, etc.

Call friends. Ask your husband or wife. Ask your kids. Phone your parents or siblings... anyone who can jog your memory, or see things you don't. It's easy to miss what's under our noses. Find a subject you really know and like.

Write down concepts as they hit you – don't limit yourself.

Next, pick the 3 topics that know and like AND that you think would appeal to others. This last is very important -- you may be excited and know a lot about the mating habits of porcupines, but if not many people think likewise, then it's going to be an uphill battle to make it one of the most profitable home business ideas ever.

So at this point, you know which topics excite you, but you have no idea which is most profitable. Here's where you move on to check out market demand.

The way to do that quickly, is to use keyword research tools such as the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, or KeywordDiscovery. These show you the relative number of times each of your shortlisted topics is searched on the internet, and is an indication of market demand for them.

For a step by step guide on how to use keyword research tools to check out market demand vs supply, see this Niche Marketing Research page.

If you still can't think of any interesting topics, there's a more complete list of internet home business ideas, in Ways to Make Money Online.