Mar 30
John Deprice asked:




1. Million Dollar Homepage

http://milliondollarhomepage.com/

1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.

2. SantaMail.Org

http://santamail.org/

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.Com

http://doggles.com/

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? Beyond me.

4. LaserMonks.Com

http://lasermonks.com/

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. Hallelujah! Their 2005 sales were $2.5 million! Praise the Lord.

5. AntennaBalls.Com

http://antennaballs.com/

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.Com

http://fitdeck.com/

Create a deck of cards featuring exercise routines, and sell it online for $18.95. Sounds like a disaster idea to me. 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

http://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

http://www.diapeesandwipees.com/

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, she sat down with her husband, Marcus, who helped her 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. TruGamerz.Com

[http://www.trugamerz.com/]

Faux-suede padded covers for game controllers and gel thumb pads for analog joysticks? No one will buy that. Forget it. The product proved to be so popular, it got picked up by Target.com and Walmart.com and annual sales now exceed half a million dollars.

10. LuckyBreakWishbone.Com

http://www.luckybreakwishbone.com/

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.

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Mar 30
Alan Vilaykoun asked:




Most people today are walking around like headless chooks looking and asking what is a good business idea. Successful business ideas are often formulated on the back of due diligence and serving many people who are looking for solutions to a similar problem.

Too many individuals are following the crowd into densely populated niches where they will only find fierce competition – where businesses have already successfully established their credibility. This can often make the situation difficult for the new start up business because they may have to adjust their prices to compete with other businesses within their niche.

If you are looking for business ideas then it would be strongly recommended that you have a look around for a problem. This means that you are looking for groups of people who share the same problem for a specific need. Your opportunity is then to find a solution to the problems and turn them into a product or service that will effectively serve these people.

Your business ideas have to aim towards giving as much value to your customers and keeping them happy. Your role is to create anticipation which will bring them in and keep them coming back for more. Once you have them in the front door, keep them inside by giving them as much value as possible.

Be sure to keep a database of contact details so that you can provide them with any updates you need to release to your customers. An email is mostly preferred because there are no costs associated with sending out emails and it is a simple way to get the message out to many of your customers from the push of a button.

Remember, the best business ideas are found upon a solution that serves a problem to peoples’ specific needs. If you are looking to start business in an already populated niche, make sure you think of ways to differentiate your business from the crowd. Give your clients more – more value for their time and dollars.

A very important tip that I would highly suggest you take into consideration is giving away as much free value as possible. Find a way to give as much free and valuable content to your customers. This will assist you in developing an authority and greater credibility/trust with your customers. The rise of the internet has given emphasis to the quote made famous by Bill Gates – Content is King. Content is now cash and any ability your business has to give away free content will benefit your business financially.

Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

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Mar 16
Lisa McGrimmon asked:




Naming your business well allows you to provide customers with a first impression that distinctively suits your company image. A great business name is compelling, unique and memorable to your customers. If only brainstorming business name ideas and naming your business wasn’t such a daunting task.

If you’re trying to name your business, you know exactly what I am talking about. You may be completely blocked and unable to come up with a single business name idea. Alternatively, you may have a few ideas in mind, but when you look at them critically, you decide they are uninspired and ordinary, they don’t suit your company’s image, or they are already taken by a competitor.

I have been down that long road myself. It actually took me three months to name my business. In the process, I found some great resources and strategies for naming your business.

Make Your Thesaurus Your Best Friend
Start with some keywords that are related to your business, and, using a thesaurus, look up similar words. Make a list of these words.

When you are thinking of keywords for brainstorming business names, think about features or descriptions of your product or service, benefits your customers get from your company, characteristics of your target customers and the image you want to portray for your business. What words come to mind? Look them up in your thesaurus and add the results to your list.

Avoid making make too many judgments about the words. At this stage, the more words you have, the better.

Get a good variety of words and different parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs). Once you have brainstormed a lot of words, you can try combining words to create your business name. You will have more possible combinations that make sense if you have words from different parts of speech.

If you need more words for your list, take the words that you liked from your thesaurus brainstorming session and look those words up in your thesaurus. Again, make note of any words that you like from this process.

Combine the words from your lists to see if anything works as a possible business name.

Try Specialized Language
Plenty of areas of interest use specialized language to describe specific terms, and a lot of them use intriguing, unique and meaningful words that could help you come up with ideas for good business names.

For example, if you enjoy music or dance or science, you might search for business name inspiration in the specialized language of those subjects. Similarly, you might find inspiration for naming your business in the specialized language used in your own industry.

Mythological Figures
Searching through lists of mythological figures could help you in the task of naming your business. That’s how Nike was named. Most mythological figures are known for something specific, so try choosing a particular characteristic that embodies the image you want to portray for your business and search for a mythological figure that represents that characteristic.

Idiomatic Phrases
Idiomatic phrases are figures of speech like ‘a babe in arms,’ or ‘take the plunge’. Try searching online for lists of idioms. You may find something that is a clever fit with your company’s products, services or your desired company image. Try to avoid idioms that are too common or clich? when naming your business. Remember, a good business name is uniquely your own and memorable to your customers.

Language Translators
After all of your brainstorming, you might come up with a few words that are potential business names, but for some reason, they are not exactly right for your business. To get variations on those words, try using a free online language translator to translate the words you like. Enter the words into the translator, and see how they are expressed in different languages.

Once you have used several sources for language inspiration, take a look at all of your lists and see if you can combine words from different sources. For example, a word from your thesaurus brainstorming sessions and the name of a mythological figure combined together could be the ideal name for your business.

At this point you should have a list of several possible business name ideas. Within that list, will be your ideal business name.

The time you spend on naming your business will be time well spent. Your ideal business name will help you to communicate to and be remembered by your customers and that can only be good for business.

Kansieo.com

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Mar 13
Kimberly Kelly asked:




Profitable small business ideas are the cornerstone for start up business success!? Are you searching for the best business to start without BIG bank loans??Perhaps you have less than perfect credit, and a bank loan is just not a financing option for you. ?To find the right business opportunity to start without incurring major debt requires that you consider small business ideas that are profitable — and can be started on a shoestring.?So, which business ideas should you consider??

Let’s take a look at the What, Where and How for finding the best small business to start.? ?

The What…
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If you have very limited resources, you should consider a service orientated business.?Service businesses can be started up quickly and easily – and usually don’t require bank loan financing.?Here are a few sources to help get you started in your research.

“The Internet Idea Book: 101 Internet Business Ideas for the Everyday Ordinary Person”, by Michelle McGarry ? “101 Small Business Ideas for Under $5,000″, by Corey Sandler and Janice Keefe

Check out these books for free at your local public library, or do an online search for free information on the best business to start.
?
The Where…
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Consider a home based business start up.?Operating a home based business immediately cuts down about 32% of your small business start up costs.?
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The How…
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Find free sources of start up money!?Save on your initial start up costs and ongoing operating expenses by searching out free sources of business start up funding.?Many budding entrepreneurs don’t realize that these valuable, free resources exist.?Don’t borrow, bootstrap!
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Let’s Recap…
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So, the first step to finding the best business to start without BIG bank loans is to research small business ideas that you can start up on a shoestring.?The second step is to consider a home based business start up. The third step is to find free sources of business start up funding.
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That’s a Wrap!
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Now you have all the information and advice you need to find profitable, shoestring small business ideas for your home based business start up.?Share your shoestring start up success story with me.?Post your best start up success story right here.
?
?2009 Kimberly Kelly – All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
?
Permission is granted to reprint this article on the condition that it may only be?reprinted in its entirety with all live links and author bio in tact.

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Mar 11
Leonard Bartholomew asked:




If you are interested in searching out an internet home business you probably have two ideas on your mind. First off, you are probably concerned with finding the idea that is going to allow you to make the most money. After all, the majority of people who search for a home internet business do so because they are ready to start out on their own. The other thing that you are probably thinking about is whether or not you are going to get scammed. Even though the internet is a great place to make money, there are many people out there who want to do nothing more than scam you. For this reason, you need to make sure that you properly research each home internet based business opportunity that you come across. This is the only way to make for 100 percent certain that you do not get scammed out of your hard earned time or money.

One thing that you will want to keep in mind is that not every internet business is a scam. The fact of the matter is that while there are some scams that are being run by dishonest people, there are many business ideas that are legit. This includes things such as designing and selling websites, selling ads on websites, and much more. The only bad part about all this is that there is no way of making a list of the ideas that are legit and the ones that are scams. You need to do your own work to figure out what is what.

The best way to research internet home business ideas is to speak with others who have been in your position before. For instance, if you find a business opportunity that seems great, why not seek out a person who is already involved with that way of doing things? This way, you can ask questions and get some honest feedback. This sure beats having to guess at whether or not you are getting into an idea that is legitimate.

Do yourself a favor and make sure that any home internet business that you buy into is legit. The biggest mistake that you can make is coming across any business idea, and deciding that you must get started right away. Scammers prey on the fact that you are going to act fast, and in turn give them your hard earned money.

All in all, choose one of the many home internet based business ideas that are available. This way you will have a very good chance of success from start to finish.

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Mar 9
Steve Miers asked:




A lot of people want to be in business for themselves. It gives you a level of freedom that you generally don’t get to enjoy if you are working for someone else. I mean, let’s face it, if you are working for someone else you are lining their pockets with gold while you are eating dirt in most cases. Perhaps you want to go into business for yourself because it allows you a greater amount of freedom to decide when and where you are going to work and that gives you more time for the more important things in life like spending time with your family. But what are you going to do for a living so that you can make ends meet? Well if you are willing to live a simple life then you can get by on really working only about 20 hours a week more or less. I’ve done it for years. Here are some of the things that I’ve done to help pay the bills.

1. Start a cleaning business – Yes it might not be all that glamorous but it does pay well. I’ve done office cleaning and floors for grocery stores for years. The work is generally done at night so that is a consideration but it pays well and it gives you time to yourself while you are cleaning.

2. Work with apartment communities – Are you handy? If you are you can get some work helping out with the maintenance department at one of the local apartment communities. This pays well, depending on what you charge of course, and is a great way to earn some money. Generally you will have more work than what you can handle if you are good at what you do.

3. Wash some Windows – Window washing is enjoyable and profitable. If you land a few businesses with monthly accounts you can end up earning a fair amount of money. Try looking at some of the local car dealerships for work because they tend to have a lot of windows

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