One of the strong messages that is coming out of the posts on this web site which aims to review all forms of business opportunities is that there are many possibilities available but choosing a good one can be quite difficult. This applies especially to Internet business opportunities. Because these are by their nature Internet based, finding a suitable internet business opportunity will require a great deal of surfing on the web!

In order to highlight the difficulties in choosing a feasible and profitable business opportunity an experiment was conducted using the Google search engine to analyze the top 5 results when the search terms ‘Internet business opportunities’ is targeted. Each of these results was assessed for their potential and conclusions formed as to how well a business, developed from each of the sites, would perform.  The exercise was carried out on Google.co.uk and then repeated for Google.com in order to be able to compare UK and USA targeted web sites. The results were somewhat surprising!

UK #1 Number one ranked site

This site was an e commerce site selling business packages that allowed you to quickly set up a website selling drop-ship sourced goods. For only £19.95 (limited time offer as usual) you could be up and running in half an hour selling anything from adult items and lingerie to beauty products and gadgets. The web site templates that were said to be search engine friendly were very professional looking and the site was well presented. The only criticism of this site was that though I believed the business plan would work – no mention was made of the effort, commitment and expense that would be required to raise the web sites sufficiently in the search engine rankings that they would start to attract traffic and therefore business for you.

UK #2 Number two ranked site

This was a information site monetised with Google AdSense together with a massive number of affiliate links. No doubt this was a site written by somebody who had got to grips with many of the ins and outs of Internet marketing and was putting much of the theory into practice to make him or herself some money. A good site to get ideas from but not one that was selling you an Internet business opportunity.

Many of the affiliate links were with the sorts of web site that spring up every time you research the likes of Making Money, Internet Business Opportunities or Working From Home. They are web sites configured to fit every bodies computer resolution and so appear as a column in the center of your screen. The scroll bar at the right indicates that you have a long way to read, to learn of all the one-time-only bonuses you will receive, before you will ultimately reach the inevitable ‘click here to buy’ button. On this site you are being offered e books.

UK #3 Number three ranked site

This was a drop ship broker offering wide ranging services that included ready to use business plans in a similar way to number #1 ranking site above. Drop shipping is one of the viable business opportunities on the web if you are able to put together a well managed operation. Of course there are many web sites that purport to tell you how to do it and even set up “turn key” operations – as number #1 and #3 sites above do – the trick is to research the provider, not the method. Alternatively this is one business where it is possible to carry out research (not only on the Internet but you can find hard copy books about drop shipping methods) and start your business from scratch yourself.

UK #4 & #5 Number four and five ranking

Both of these sites were business broking sites offering a wide variety of both conventional and existing established businesses for sale. If you have money to invest, this may be the route to take. You will of course need to carry out serious due diligence on any business opportunity bought as a going concern for a substantial sum of money.

Moving along to Internet Business Opportunities in the United States, the following top five sites were examined:

USA #1 Number 0ne ranking

This was a simple AdSense site (Google sponsored advertisements) together with various affiliate links. It was a typical affiliate ‘landing page’ with links for business opportunities such as ‘Make Easy Money on Autopilot’ and ‘Make Money at Home Affiliate Marketing’.

USA #2 Number two ranking

This was a general job search website and the page link was to an article discussing the scams to be found on the Internet – saying that the various money making businesses were ‘dot cons’.

USA #3 Number three ranking

This appeared to be a useful Internet business opportunity research site similar in many respects to the UK #2 site. The author clearly knew a lot about Internet search engine optimisation and provided a ideas for businesses to start. Her site was ‘monetised’ with AdSense and affiliate links that would earn her an income from her traffic.

USA #4 Fourth ranked site

This was a general article site with AdSense and affiliate links. It was discussing Internet businesses generally.

USA #5 Number five ranked site

As with the UK #4 and #5 ranked sites, the USA number five site was an Internet business broking site offering thousands of established web sites for sale. If you can do your research well and find a reputable broker that will sell you a site that already has a stream of traffic in an area that you would be interested in exploiting further, this can be a way to speed up your business start-up time.

Conclusions

Having looked critically at five sites from the UK and five from the USA using the same search terms of: internet business opportunities, it appears that the quality and credibility of the sites is surprisingly very high. Although one of the sites was clearly a landing page for quick earnings for the owners, others offered a lot of information to the researcher or bone-fide business opportunities for sale.

The drop shipping opportunity is worth further research. This is a way to sell a tangible product without the expense of keeping stock yourself. You sell goods for the stock holder, and take a commission when you make a sale through your web site. The order is processed and dispatched by the drop shipper along with taking the payments and forwarding your share to you. Although it is relatively risk free, there may be an element of dealing with customer queries and complaints to manage – and the key to success will be to ensure that your own web site ranks well with the search engines for appropriate terms – otherwise you will make no sales at all!

The main point to take away from this research is that many Internet business opportunities available from the web are feasible and capable of making profits for you – some may make a lot. However, they will only work if you are able to move your web site to the top few searches when people are looking for the products or services you are selling. many of the ‘businesses in a box’ do not labor this point and the art of web site optimization, search engine optimization and winning profitable levels of Internet traffic takes further investment in both time and money. You must factor it into any business idea you are considering.

If you are thinking of working from home, to earn extra cash or to replace your full time career, but are unable to afford much in the way of investment, there are ways that you can get started. In fact working from home in many different fields has one of the lowest start up cost requirements of all profitable business opportunities.

You can start from two points:

1. You already have a computer and therefore its cost does not need to be factored into your business start up.

2. You do not have a computer and buying one would be prohibitive.

I am going to assume that you must go down the route of starting a business without a computer – and are unable to simply go out and buy one. At $1000 typical cost, they are a significant investment.

The alternatives that involve both working at home and no investment can include some of the following ideas:

• Taking in dogs for owners who work a full or long day. You would be able to care for 2 or 3 dogs, talk them for walks and keep them happy and secure. If you have a garden you could fence off a run area. Clients would drop off the dogs each morning on their way to work along with food supplies etc.
• A similar idea would be to provide care services for children after school for example. Depending on your place of residence you may need some form of accreditation for this!
• Envelope stuffing/jewelry assemble etc. This can be hard and mundane work – but it is possible to earn for no outlay.
• Writing article copy for friends and contacts (subcontract your services to Internet marketers)

Your options increase dramatically if you are happy to work in clients’ homes, other venues etc. You can be more flexible in your approach – clean cars, collect shopping etc. However, without even modest investment, no cost work at home businesses are a little limited in their scope. Setting up a home business on a shoestring, i.e. you can invest a little, is much more likely to result in success. It is very true when they say that you do not getting something for nothing! Also guaranteed profitable businesses for no cost are likely to be scams – there will be a cost somewhere and it may be hidden at first.

Business Opportunity Market’s advice to anybody who wants a no cost business to work at home is that there always has to be a little cost – little cost, little effort = little return. Real business opportunities require some investment and a lot of commitment.

There are many people who aspire to be their own boss. They want to leave behind the nine to five and daily grind in order to be free of the sometimes oppressive framework of the typical workplace. Working from home can offer many the chance to achieve this goal.

Part time home working is a way that many start the process of leaving their normal ‘day job’ in order to demonstrate that it is possible to earn an income themselves. By starting small, a few hours a week, it is possible to develop the confidence needed for when the break is finally made and the support of an organisation and a regular income is left behind.

Many workers feel secure within their workplace, working 9 until 5 for perhaps 48 weeks of every year. Without this security working at home they would flounder, nobody to talk to and nobody to tell them what to do! Others however crave independence but making the break can be equally hard for them. Although wanting the freedom of working for themselves, perhaps after many years of institutionalized working, too sudden a change would not be easily tolerated. This is why part time home working might very well be the stepping stone that they need.

Even if the long term goal is to run a different business, starting part time home working can achieve three positive and different benefits:

1. It could be a low risk practice period for the ultimate planned self employment.

2. It could develop self discipline needed to work away from the normal workplace.

3. It could potentially provide the seed money for the eventual break away from full time employment.

Therefore working from home part time could provide an ideal first stage in moving forwards towards the self employed goal by reducing the risk and even providing some small business funding.

Even if the aim is to buy a shop for example, or set up a small factory in a rented building, part time home working could commence by testing small batches of sales over the Internet or manufacturing prototype products in a home garage. There are many other different types of business that anybody could do for a few hours a week, whether they spend the rest of their time working, studying or looking after a family. As a start up business opportunity, part time home working is ideal, and can be as little or large as the individual wants.