Starting a Home Internet Business

Contrary to belief, starting a home internet business isn't all that difficult when you have a strong idea -- and there sits the key to starting a successful business! It's all about the idea and how well you position yourself to make money.

Be sure your business idea is fruitful, as close to fail-proof as possible, and well developed -- there's nothing worse that realizing your business idea isn't all that great a few months into the process of starting a home internet business.

To get started in the creation of your home internet business, consider drawing out what your're going to need to get up and running. A few things you'll need for traditional business startup will include business licenses, tax ID number, DBA (doing business as) name, and other business formalities. In addition, because you're interested in starting a home internet business, you're going to need a few other things, such as your domain name (the actual address of your website), hosting plans, formats, and web publishing programs. For more on this, check out the A to Z for Business Owners Online.

If you're pretty savvy online, you won't have much problem starting a home internet business, reaching out with social media, and starting the flow of revenue for your business. However, if you're not sure what social media is or why it's important and useful to business owners online, you should probably do a little research before launching into your new endeavor. To get you started, and as an overview for those that already know, let's take a look at the basics below:

Social networking

Sometime early millennium, the web started a major shift from being a static, web-master controlled environment to a vibrant, consumer controlled environment. With the emergence of Facebook, Myspace, and other networking sites, the net turned into a whole new animal, where people could customize their own pages, create links, write about what they were experiencing, and most important, connect with each other. Once the friend request was born, web 2.0 soared in popularity and enabled people to connect without having to meet in chat rooms, IM sessions, or via email.

Oh, and did we mention, everyone stopped being afraid of the internet. In the early days the web was often used for stalking, hacking, and virus spreading. While those things still live on to this day, the web is a much friendly place -- you no longer have to be on edge when talking to someone you don't personally know because you can see what they look like, what their name is , who their friends are, and what type of movies they like. It's a much more social web, hence, the name social networking.

These sites are used to connect with prospects from the business owners stand point, and history has proved that it works. Building a following of your business in the social web can be a powerful tool when interested in spreading the word, reaching out beyond your local, and finding new customers in your local.

Social networking is a balance act though -- too business like and not personable, and you're bound to fall in the spammy, I'm just here to make money category, which no one wants. Too friendly and you risk seeming unprofessional.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is how people share content with each other online. You can either set up your own library of content, complete with category indexes, keywords, etc., on Delicious.com, or you can part take in the collective library with such sites as Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. To bookmark something is to save a page or website along with your recommendation, rating, notes, etc., for those interested in what you're looking at.

Digg and Reddit are two of many sites that specialize in the collective bookmarking experience, and because of it, web publishers are desperate to reach the top of their recommendations. One day at the top of their list, and a website could experience thousands upon thousands of fresh, new visitors.

While bookmarking is effective, it also takes time and content creation, which is a whole process to itself that can take hours or even days. For the business owner interested in starting a home internet business, bookmarking might not be as important as social networking simply because of the odds -- you're playing against the house on this one.

Overall, staring a home internet business requires just a bit of extra education regarding the online experience and tools available.