Start any business, you need to decide what products or services you will provide. Starting a free online business is no different. Start by thinking about your interests, passions, and skills. Do you have a hobby you can turn into a business? Do you have knowledge or skills others may want or need?
Brainstorm Your Free Internet Business Idea
It's important to choose an idea that you can stick with as opposed to searching for the cheapest or most profitable option. Building a business, you're passionate about increases the chances that it will succeed and that you'll enjoy it. The most affordable online business ideas will incorporate the skills or assets you already have. If you already know how to book keep and have bookkeeping software, that's less you need to invest time and money in learning and buying. As you make your list, don't filter out any ideas initially. You never know what obscure or odd idea could become a successful business. Later you'll research to identify the most viable and affordable ideas. But at the brainstorming point, write them all down.
Determine the Demand for Your Idea
While interest and passion are important, you also need to choose an idea that has a market. If no one is interested in what you have to offer, it doesn't matter how good you are at it; you won't have a business. Keyword Research Since your business is online, one place to start your research is by looking into keywords related to your idea. While you won't want to rely solely on search engines to bring you business, you do want to check to make sure enough people are searching for your idea. Start by making a list of words and phrases people would use to find your business topic. If you're selling virtual support services, what keywords would people use to find that? Once you have your list, you want to use a keyword tool to tell you how often those terms are searched. There are many tools, some free and some paid you can use. SEO Book offers a free keyword tool. Enter your term, and the tool will tell you how many times its searched on the major search engines each month. It will also provide related keywords.
Once you have a list of good keywords, enter them into a search engine to see what results are returned. Are the top sites listed online stores, blogs, or service providers? It doesn't hurt to visit the sites, so you can see what they're offering and whether or not you can offer something different or better. Your goal in keyword search as part of choosing your online business idea is to find the keywords that best combine the highest volume (popularity) with the fewest results returned in a search (competitiveness). Market Research Just because a term has a lot of searches, doesn't mean it's a viable business idea. Along with popularity, it has to have a market that is willing to pay. A keyword term like "free bookkeeping help," suggests people don't want to pay for services, and therefore wouldn't be a good indicator of whether or not you should start a bookkeeping service. So along with keyword research, you want to do a feasibility study to determine if there are enough people who are ready, willing, and able to pay for what you're offering. This research not only will tell you if you have a potentially profitable idea, but it will also help you identify your target market; the people most likely to buy.
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