1. Million Dollar Homepage

1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with.

2. SantaMail

Ok, how’s that for a brilliant idea. Get a postal address at North Pole, Alaska, pretend you are Santa Claus and charge parents 10 bucks for every letter you send to their kids? Well, Byron Reese sent over 200000 letters since the start of the business in 2001, which makes him a couple million dollars richer.

3. Doggles

Create goggles for dogs and sell them online? Boy, this is the dumbest idea for a business. How in the world did they manage to become millionaires and have shops all over the world with that one?

4. LaserMonks

LaserMonks.com is a for-profit subsidiary of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, an eight-monk monastery in the hills of Monroe County, 90 miles northwest of Madison. Yeah, real monks refilling your cartridges. Their 2005 sales were $2.5 million!

5. AntennaBalls

You can’t sell antenna ball online. There is no way. And surely it wouldn’t make you rich. But this is exactly what Jason Wall did, and now he is now a millionaire.

6. FitDeck

Create a deck of cards featuring exercise routines, and sell it online. Sounds like a disaster idea. But former Navy SEAL and fitness instructor Phil Black reported last year sales of $4.7 million. Surely beats what military pays.

7. PositivesDating.Com

How would you like to go on a date with an HIV positive person? Paul Graves and Brandon Koechlin thought that someone would, so they created a dating site for HIV positive folks last year. Projected 2006 sales are $110,000, and the two hope to have 50,000 members by their two-year mark.

8. Designer Diaper Bags

Christie Rein was tired of carrying diapers around in a freezer bag. The 34-year-old mother of three found herself constantly stuffing diapers for her infant son into freezer bags to keep them from getting scrunched up in her purse. Rein wanted something that was compact, sleek and stylish, so in November 2004, with her husband came up with a stylish idea and design a custom diaper bag that’s big enough to hold a travel pack of wipes and two to four diapers. With more than $180,000 in sales for 2005, Christie’s company, Diapees & Wipees, has bags in 22 different styles, available online and in 120 boutiques across the globe for $14.99.

9. Lucky Wishbone Co.

Fake wishbones. Now, this stupid idea is just destined to flop. Who in the world needs FAKE PLASTIC wishbones? A lot of people, it turns out. Now producing 30,000 wishbones daily (they retail for 3 bucks a pop) Ken Ahroni, the company founder, expects 2006 sales to reach $1 million.

Videoblogging is the next generation of posting ideas and products over the internet. Everybody knows about textblogging. Now they use videos for a better way of expression. This form of communication may entail a lot of resources, but it is all worth it. If pictures say a thousand words, videoblogging exceeds that by far.

A videoblog requires larger disk spaces on websites, a faster server, and a whole new set of programs to support it. Videoblogs can be fed through RSS. This is technology of syndicating your website to other RSS aggregators.

Videoblogging works with people on the internet expressing their selves. Now if you put this on a business prospective, you are up to a lot of benefits. Think of it as a powerful tool in making showing your prospective customers your line of products or your services. It’s just like showing a commercial all for free. And if you videoblog through RSS, then most probably you are getting your target market.

People like to see what they are going to buy. Some would like to see proof and be sure that they are getting their money’s worth before shelving their dimes on it. All of us know the influence of a thirty second commercial. The effect of videoblogging is similar to that. You show your product, people watch it. If they like it, they buy it. If you present it good enough, they’ll buy the product even if they don’t need it.

Now on the web, things are pretty much static, unlike in television in which all are moving. If you post something that is mobile, it would most likely catch attention. Now imaging your product parading in all it’s royalty through videoblog. You’ll get phone call orders in no time.

If your business is just starting up, you can create a videoblog right at your own home. All you need is your web camera, microphone, video software, and lights. For as long as you know how to use your camera, then you can create a videoblog.

Invest in a good web camera. The higher its resolution is the better the output. And you like to present your goods in the optimum way so get the best one possible. Make a short story, or just capture your goods in one go. Just make sure you are getting the best profile for each. Get those creativity juices flowing.

Lights are important in a production. Make sure you illuminate entirely the area you are going to use to create videoblog. The brighter the area, the crispier the images will be. You can also use lighting effects for added appeal to the presentation.

Should you require sounds for your videoblog, you need a microphone. Record you voice as a voice over for promoting the product and its benefit to consumers. Sounds are as important as videos on a videoblog. It is advisable to make your sound effects as enticing as the video.

Your video editing software can be any program. You need this to finalize your work. You can add sounds, delete some bad angles, or insert some still pictures in there too. Some programs are user-friendly and can be used even with zero knowledge on video editing. Even simple video editing programs should do the trick. Select your background carefully too. The light affects the presentation so make sure that the background and the light complements each other.

Videoblogging is a great tool but it also has it downside. It may slow down the computer so other may steer clear of it. Download time may also be time consuming especially if customer is still on a dial- up connection.

But don’t let those stop you. Let videoblogging be an alternative for you, though it is best to still keep the text and pictures present in your presentation to accommodate all possible viewers of your site.

Nowadays, the more creative you are in presenting your product to the market, they more you are likely to succeed. Videoblogging offers an interactive way of selling. You involve the customers. You instill in them the advantage of your goods. And at times, those are enough to make a sale.

by Kanicen Nichathavan

One factor in starting your own successful online business - it’s in our latest online marketing vidcast…online marketing infoproduct internet small business entrepreneur make money

Project e-Play will be the next big thing on the Internet, combining online gaming, MLM and social networking to form what will be the largest.

Planning an Online Business is no that easy you must take things slow but sure. Jim Edwards introduced these important steps for those who plan to put up an online business.

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran looking to expand an existing online business, a casual dabbler looking for a part-time income, or an offline professional wanting to expand your market online, the following five key steps will help you reach your goals.

Key # 1: Define Your “Target”
Clearly list and explain what you want to accomplish in your web site business. We all think about what we want to get or accomplish in life and our job. But did you ever list it specifically in terms of money, traffic to a web site, or more sales online? This principle and simple activity applies to an ebook, a new website, an ezine or any other business goal. Defining a clear target will give your conscious and sub conscious mind something definite to shoot for.

Key # 2: “Define the Cost”
You must “define the cost” in terms of the tools, resources, and people you need to reach your online business target, no matter what type of business you operate. How much will it cost in time per hour, day, week and month for all of the items? Also, how much will it cost in terms of money to operate the business, buy traffic, pay for hosting, design and more. Sit down and map out the costs before throwing open your doors (or wallet) so you don’t get hit with any nasty surprises.

Key # 3: “Make a List”
To create a real business that can be systematized, you must list off every single thing or element connected with your business, from the first idea to making daily deposits into the bank.
You may not know how they’ll get done right now, but you must recognize that eventually these items must get done. You can easily come up with a fairly comprehensive list by brainstorming just to get them down on paper. Then, when you think you thought of everything, let someone else take a look and poke holes in your list with all kinds of additions and questions.

Key # 4: “Prioritize”
Here you must list all the elements you planned in number 3 in the exact order of how you should complete them. Car makers must build in a planned order or the finished product won’t work. Once you sketch out your complete plan, let someone else take a look to see if you forgot a step. In fact, they might point out that you forgot to tighten the lug nuts and the wheels fell off in the dealership!

Key # 5: “One Step At A Time”
Most people want it all and they want it now! Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way. Whether you do all the work yourself, outsource the job, or a combination of the two, everything must get done in the correct order in the correct way.

My motto reads, “Multi Tasking = Inefficiency. Don’t try to do two different jobs at the same time, you’ll most likely screw up both and waste time and money doing them a second time.
Doing web site copy and email don’t mix, auto responder messages and voice mail don’t mix.
So pass each milestone on your road map and get things done properly and in sequence.
Launching an efficient and effective online business is not difficult.

A lot of stores are built online. To make an online business grow, one must know the key to make it successful. efront web development spent time researching for the essential elements for a successful online store:

1. Simplicity

Navigation – Allow customers to navigate it easily in just one click.

Shopping Cart – should be visible for customers with products in bundles and easy to add for purchase.

Checkout Process – make buttons clear for check out, and not require log in for customers that would make it complicated and time consuming.
Making it simple and easy to navigate would give you a positive impression. Remember, if customers are frustrated with your site - the perception will be that it’s hard to do deal with you and your business.

2. Consistency
Be consistent on every designs or logos you have in your site.

- Keep the header images the same to be easily identified, Make sure your site use CSS - this gives you greater control and consistency between the design elements of both sites.
- Use scripting like PHP to mage consistent footer elements across your site - again minimizing work for changes down the track.
- If you accept credit cards, don’t be afraid to show the logos.

3. Control

Make it easy to manage! & Control your Content

- Add / Edit / Remove Products & put images for your product description.
- Specify freight pricing & put multiple options for each product also, avoid displaying products that are not available.
- Put multiple categories for each product and avoid duplications.

4. Security
Build trust from your customers. Be sure that it would be safe for them to purchase through your site.

Things you need to know about security
- Always encrypt the customers’ credit card details through SSL and the use of a valid certificate.
- Don’t slow down the entire site by using SSL on the normal store pages - just use it for checkout.
- Don’t send the customers credit card details via email.
- Don’t store the credit card details after you have processed payment - delete them.

5. Search
Make it friendly and easy for customers to find what they are looking for.

- Put some good search.
- Make it accurate & don’t bounce the customer to another page for search results. And fast

6. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Don’t leave this as an afterthought.If you’re store is database driven (and it should be), chances are your visitors are going to be seeing the same page just loaded with different content. While this gives you some benefits, it can also impact on your Google rankings. Make Google Your Friend

- Put keywords on your titles. And have a Google sitemap installed and registered for your site to tell Google what pages you have so they can list them.

- Make sure to have a updated database of your products. And have more images that reflects on the product name. When your images are displayed they should contain appropriate name data in the html Avoid URL’s that contain variables, search engines don’t like this and won’t often follow these links when scanning your site.

7. Clarity
Put an excellent presentation! Great product images not only make your site more appealing, they also impact on the perception of quality and professionalism of your business.
Paint A Thousand Words

- No photo can sometimes be better than a bad photo.
- Take high quality images of your product, & compress for your site.
- Avoid having other things in the background of your image. & Use a white background - a large piece of white paper that wraps up a wall behind your product can be inexpensive and effective.
- Take your photo’s with plenty of light so you can avoid using the flash.

8. Management
Control With Ease for a good service.

- You should get an email when a sale comes through with the details (excluding credit card) - this allows you to action it promptly.
- Your site should have a pending list of orders that you can access online and manage & put proper label for each.
- Managing your orders helps you stay in control, gives you peace of mind that you are on top of things and lets you respond to queries quickly.

9. Feedback
Peace of mind

- A personalized email should be sent to the customers confirming his/her
order details.
- Your email should outline the process from here and what the customer needs to do or what they should be expecting.
- You should provide the customer with a method of contacting you such. ie. Your email address and/or phone number and ideally a name to keep it personal.
- Provide the customer with a link that could help them monitor or keep track of heir order.
- Once the order has been processed or sent, send the customer another email (ideally automated) thanking them again and letting them know their order has been sent.

10. Follow Up
Invest time to value your customers. To keep them coming back

- Keep previous customers up to date with specials or promotions through email. & Offer a special gift or incentive to existing customers as a thank you.
- Send a thank you email to customers a few weeks after purchase.
- Ask customers for a testimonial or their thoughts on a product - it’s personal and shows you’re genuinely interested in their satisfaction. & Show it on the site, to enhance and support your product.

This question has been ignored among online businesses. Since every Business minded person were over excited to launch their business online for a profit without any brain storming about some techniques on how to attract their prospective customers.

The Internet is fast becoming the most popular and widely-used medium for advertising/marketing. Not all business would get a person’s attention instantly. So it’s more important to conduct a thorough research first before shelling out money for the business and check if that kind of industry would be something that people would search over the web. Since a lot of establishments have significant niches in the offline market. Also think of your prospective customers if it’s really necessary for them to go online to search for that kind of business. Another is check for your competitors if you would be competitive enough for you to also try to attract customers’ interests. See if they rank, or even appear in the search engine listings when you type in keywords, search terms related to their business. Same goes with industry and brand name popularity because most people searching online would prefer to go for the popular one

Think of an extraordinary yet original marketing strategy that you think would be best to catch your customers’ heart that would lead into the popularity of your business site among others. In that way, you could gain their trust for you to discover if your business will bear its fruit online.

Creating an effective online business is not an easy task. While some only intend to use the profits from their Internet ventures to supplement a current income, others aim to produce a full-time cash flow. Although those striving for a full income through an online business do have quite a tedious road ahead, it can be accomplished. With research, time, and patience, your business can prosper and produce the returns you are aiming for.

When it comes to the online business, there is always something new, especially on the sources of information that can enhance and lift your sales. Research can be a factor for you to discover what works and what does not in the Internet business world. It needs a lot of how to market your online business. Just learn to search some ideas online although you cannot read everything related to Internet marketing, every single detail you comprehend and each fact you absorb can be used for the improvement of your business. Just one tiny change can make a huge difference.
Have you ever tried to change your business website? Be attractive! Try to create a site to attract your prospected customers. Offline Business tries some new techniques to enhance profit. Which you can also apply to your online Business. Changing your design or rewriting copy could be just the modification that is needed to boost your returns. If graphic design or copywriting is not in your field of expertise, then hire a professional to do it for you. Although it may cost money, the advantages will be well worth it. In the online business community; the customer plays an important role in success. Keeping your associates and customers satisfied is essential if your goal is to produce a workable long-term business. Keep in contact with existing associates to assure them that your business is still open, and you are available for services. If you are a seller, alert customers about new products and occasionally offer discounts and incentives for their next purchase. A happy customer is a returning customer; for the business owner this equals more money.

Producing a profitable online business may seem be a bit hard, but is not impossible. With time, effort, and patience, you can achieve the success you have always aimed for.

No doubt, if you surf the Internet you have undoubtedly come across many credit card companies that offer cards at what they claim are the best in terms, rates and fees. Credit card companies operate both online and offline and you can apply on their website for faster processing.

There are many credit card companies that process applications instantly or within just a few minutes. However, keep in mind that doesn’t mean you can shop instantly because you still have to wait for the actual card to arrive at your house.

Although your application may only take a few minutes, you still have to wait for your new card to arrive. It will be sent via snail mail and it might take up to a few weeks to arrive. Online credit cards are a good choice as most if not all will tell you whether or not you have been approved. You still have to wait on the cards arrival but at least this way you will know beforehand if you were approved.

When comparing the old method of getting a credit card with the online method you can see some major differences. The first difference is time – it can take a long while to return the card offer to the company and to then get a response. Snail mail can take forever when you are waiting on a reply, especially if there are any problems with your application.

The old way of getting a credit card doesn’t allow you to compare other companies and their offers. If you choose to apply online you have the option to check out many different offers from many different companies and banks. This way, you find the best deal for your money and know without a doubt that you are getting the best deal for your needs. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of offers and all you have to do is find the right one.

While applying online is a great way to get credit cards, there can be limitations on receiving an instant approval. As you might already know, online credit cards with instant approval are meant for people with good credit. Although you may not have good or perfect credit, there are ways that you can still get an approval online. With the steep competition within the credit card industry there are some card companies that will approve your application regardless of your credit just to get your business.

If you are looking for a credit card all you have to do is look online. You will find several if not hundreds to choose from. Credit card companies are easy to find online with there being more online than offline. Getting approval online is easier now than ever. With a little bit of luck you might end with an approval. Once your application is approved all you have to do is waiting for the card to arrive!