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TOP TEN HOME BASED BUSINESSES 2009

1. Affiliate marketing can be a profitable venture for you, as a merchant or affiliate. It presents you with a great opportunity to increase revenue, and build valuable business relationships.

Affiliate Benefits and Resources

As an affiliate partner, you're capitalizing on traffic you already have. Every time someone clicks through your site and makes a purchase on your merchant's site, you earn a commission. Explains Anik Singal, "Your job is to deliver as much qualified traffic to your merchants as possible." That means pre-selling their products to customers, and preparing them to make that purchase when they click through to their site. To become an affiliate, check out ClickBank.com or LifeTimeCommissions.com, or go to Amazon's homepage and click on the Join Associates link. You should keep several factors in mind when deciding which merchants to promote: Is their affiliate program free to join? If it's not, move on. What's their reputation like? Do a little research, and make sure you want to be associated

with them. Do they have a proven conversion rate? Don’t waste time driving traffic to a site that doesn’t

sell. Merchant Benefits and Resources

For a merchant, affiliate advertising is a low-risk, high ROI promotional channel. Your affiliates are your online sales force, but you only pay when they actually make a sale. You also diversify your traffic, so if your AdWords aren’t performing or your natural listing drop, you have another source to fall back on. Says Singal, “Why say ‘No’ to all this extra traffic when it’s very little risk to you? You can launch an affiliate program for pennies on the dollar.” There are different ways to find and recruit affiliates:

Join an active network, such as Commission Junction or LinkShare. Most networks alert their members when a new merchant joins their program, and encourage them to see if they’d be a good match.

Do keyword searches, based on your product line. Sort through the sites that come up, and focus on content sites, especially ones using blogs. Make sure they’re reputable, and relevant to your target market. Personally contact them, and see if they’re willing to work with you.

Why Not?

It’s estimated that in the last year, $95 billion was transacted online as a direct result of affiliate marketing. And those affiliates earned over $6.5 billion in commissions.

Whether you’re getting paid for sharing your traffic, or maximizing sales through your partners, affiliate marketing can help you grow your business and supplement your income.

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2. Baking Have you ever been told that you have a recipe that people would line up to get if they could? Ever had anyone tell you that you should be selling those cupcakes you make? There are a number of success stories about people who have launched successful businesses by cooking at home and then marketing to local people first. You may specialize in on just one well-tried and tested food product; or you may innovate on a product that you created yourself and which has never been marketed before. Having perfected the recipe you then turn to packaging and marketing. Word of mouth on a good product may start to get restaurants or bakeries interested in acquiring your culinary masterpieces. Then you progress to selling them statewide and you're on your way to a profitable home-based business. For more information: Freelance Foodcrafting : How to Become Profitably Self-Employed in Your Own Creative Cooking Business by Janet Shown 3. Bed-and-Breakfast Proprietors Have you ever stayed in a bed and breakfast and thought, "Hey, I can do this!" You probably went on vacation and simply chalked your thought up as one of those pipedreams one gets when they stay in a beautiful spot. Don't toss that thought away! While it's not easy work as the hours can be long and it's usually a seven days per week business, it's often something that you can work into a daily schedule. After all, it's merely an extension of doing the housework for family, right? More and more Americans are taking after Europeans and opening their homes to travelers. If you have an extra room or two since the kids moved out, you can start a bed and breakfast in your own place! Bed and breakfast popularity will continue as more and more vacationers and business travelers seek a different accommodation away from the predictability of the average hotel room. If they enjoy their stay, many become "repeat" customers, coming back to the same familiar surroundings time and again. If you don't need to do any major renovations in the house to accommodate this type of establishment, you can be off and running with very little money invested, other than advertising and some new "guest room supplies". If your dream is to buy a bed and breakfast somewhere in a vacation paradise, there are probably houses for sale that will work for this purpose. For more information: How to Open and Operate a Bed & Breakfast (Home-Based Business Series) by Jan Stankus Start and Run a Profitable Bed and Breakfast by Monica Taylor, Richard Taylor How to Start and Operate Your Own Bed-And-Breakfast/Down-To-Earth Advice from an Award-Winning B&B Owner by Martha Watson Murphy, Amelia Rockwell Seton (Illustrator)

Back to Top 4. Childcare Due to the financial pressures faced by many families today, parents work outside of the home to bring in enough income to pay daily living expenses. A single parent is obviously working but all too often, both members of a two-parent family are in the workforce. This creates a home-based opportunity. Children must be watched, all day if they're not in school, or, otherwise, for a brief time after school before the parents finish work for the day. Most parents want their children immersed in a more stimulating environment than is usual with the average babysitter. You can begin small at home, offering a more stimulating and educational environment setting for client children. Caring for one additional child may not be that lucrative, but taking care of several children can certainly be a full-time, financially successful business. Often, taking care of several children is made

somewhat easier as the youngsters often will play together. You can do this at home for only a small investment in basic equipment and toys for the kids in addition to the advertising of your business. For more information: So You Want to Open a Profitable Child Care Center : Everything You Need to Know to Plan, Organize and Implement a Successful Program by Patricia C. Gallagher Start and Run a Profitable Home Day Care (Self-Counsel Business Series) by Catherine M. Pruissen 5. Computer Specialist The advent of the computer age has changed the concept of self-employment. Having a computer at home has opened a number of opportunities for running your own business utilizing this equipment. Companies everywhere are "outsourcing" work that can be done by someone else on their computer, out of their own home. If you are a whiz in computers, you may end up working as a consultant, writing programs for companies. If you are a beginner, you may find yourself able to obtain work as a writer, using your computer to produce copy that is easy to edit. You can also keep accounting and payroll records for companies on your computer's database. Word processing software can be used not only for writers but for those that can offer secretarial services out of their house. Desktop publishing software can allow you to do newsletters for businesses and other organizations. If you can operate a computer, you can find work in the information age today. Of course, the advent of the Web has opened a lot of business opportunities for the enterprising individuals. If you have skills in lay-outing and graphic design, you can be a website designer. Website designers earn significant amounts of money nowadays. For more information: Making Money With Your Computer at Home : The Inside Information You Need to Know to Select and Operate a Full-Time, Part-Time, or Add-On Business tha by Paul Edwards, Sarah Edwards 121 Internet Businesses You Can Start from Home : Plus a Beginners Guide to Starting a Business Online by Ron E. Gielgun

6. Gardening If you like working in your garden each year , it's a definite possibility for home-based employment. Imagine clearing a little more space and growing more items that you can sell directly to the consumer. You can produce vegetables, bedding plants, bonzai tree, exotic plants, flower trees, herb, house plants, landscaping plants, orchids and many more. Most produce stands will buy from you if your product is one of high quality. If you enjoy gardening, this could be your ticket! If you have some more land to use, do it! Plant what you can, when you can! Contact your local produce stands to ascertain their buying habits. You can even inquire about your own produce stand if you have enough product. The more space you have on your land, the more likely you will be able to generate enough crops to run the business. People love homegrown vegetables. They just do not have the time or want to be bothered doing it themselves. That is your open door! You can also engage in selling other gardening products and supplies such as compost, earthworms, herb boxes, beneficial bugs, or drip irrigation systems. For more information: Plants for Profit : Income Opportunities in Horticulture by Francis X. Jozwik, Dr Jozwik, John Gist (Editor) How to Make Money Growing Plants, Trees, and Flowers : A Guide to Profitable Earth-Friendly

Ventures by Francis, X., Dr. Jozwik, John Gist (Editor) Growing Profits : How to Start & Operate a Backyard Nursery by Michael Harlan, Linda Harlan 7. Importer and Distributor There are a substantial number of products manufactured in other countries that can be bought inexpensively and sold in your country at a profitable level. The Government and the formation of international trade organizations have made it easier to bring in other products from other countries. This is a business easily operated out of the home, depending on the types of stock you're carrying. You may have to rent some storage space, but the capital required to start should essentially be limited to the products you're buying to sell here. If you know the type of product you want to import and the market most likely to purchase your goods, you have great potential for a successful home-based business. For more information: Import/Export: How to Get Started in International Trade by Carl A. Nelson Exporting, Importing, and Beyond : How to 'Go Global' With Your Small Business by Lawrence W. Tuller 8. Interior Decorator Interior decorating is a business that will require you to be mobile, constantly meeting with customers. It offers flexible hours, a good variety of activities, and a very lucrative return. If you have a fascination for decorating a home, this could be your line of work. Many people do not know where to start when they are remodeling or buying a house for the first time. If you have the knowledge of colors and patterns and what looks good together, plus the expertise of knowing where to get materials and furnishings, this can be a winning home-basedbusiness for you. To be able to decorate a room so that it conveys the mood that the homeowner wishes will be your goal. Strive for the skillful, personal touch in all you design. For more information: Opportunities in Interior Design and Decorating Careers (Vgm Opportunities Series (Cloth)) by Victoria Kloss Ball How to Start a Home-Based Interior Design Business (How to Start a Home-Based Interior Design Business) by Suzanne Dewalt 9. Photographer The sky is the limit here! Armed with your trusty camera and some good advertising, you can do weddings, models, family portraits, passports, student photos, local newspaper coverage; almost anything that requires a picture! You can easily start this work, part-time, and work into full-time work based on your success and inclination. Not much equipment is necessary to get going as a camera off the store shelf can often do the trick today. Picking up a tripod and having a room sufficient for developing your pictures, and you're in business -- at home! For more information: How to Start a Home-Based Photography Business, 3rd Edition (Home-based business) by Kenn Oberrecht Make Money With Your Camera by David Neil Arndt

10. Sewing and Alterations Many people love to sew. If you are one of them, consider offering this service out of your home. When someone buys a new outfit, it rarely fits perfectly, meaning some kind of alteration must be done. People look long and hard to find reliable individuals to do their alterations. If you can sew, you are well on your way to opening the doors of this type of business. For more information: The Business of Sewing : How to Start, Maintain & Achieve Success by Barbara Wright Sykes Learn how to make fast and easy money from home with simple video lessons. Go to: http://www.maverickmoneymakingtopsecrets.com/

and change your future!