Hello, I'm interested in starting some sort of an online business. I've been doing research on google for a week now and I'm still lost on what would be the best business to get into. I'm on SSI and a stay at home dad. I'm wanting to get off of it and become financially independent and provide a better life for my family. A 9-5 job won't help because most of it would goto paying for transportation and daycare for my son. I've read about turnkey websites but have no clue as to who is reputable and good with service. From what I've read thus far, these can be bad from being a cookie cutter site but are there any that offer customization for around $100 or less? A friend suggested 900 numbers but they require around a $500 investment to get started and we don't have that much extra cash to put into something like this. I have some knowledge of html and css but don't really have the time to build a site from scratch with all of the time it takes to raise my son at the time being. Does anyone have any advice or know of any other oppurtunties that could help?
Any scheme or money making idea that you find on the internet I'd suggest you avoid it. More often than not it's just someone trying to sell you an ebook. Also, you mentioned in the end that you have very little time to spend online because of your son. Almost, anything you do on the internet will take a lot of your time. So, if you have little time I'd suggest you don't try any internet business. You said you know some css and html and elance.com or some similar freelance site would be a good place to find some work while your free (it's pretty competitive so again it isn't going to be easy but, I'd say that's still the best option for you). You could also use the time you have, to upgrade your skills and learn other programming languages which would allow you to get better paying and less competitive jobs. good luck.
Follow someone who has success - learn from them. That's a good shortcut to gt there faster! (Make sure you train your son well so that he has a set time where he can occupy himself and you can do some learning or research. It makes happy, satisfied children and parents.)
Great suggestions. Yeah stay away from schemes most of the time you will get a crappy e-book or get involved in a program that takes forever to perfect, and is often over-saturated.
Since you have css and html knownledge,i would suggest you learn it more in depth so that you can use this to earn more. And learn programming coz its in hot demand now.
I've pretty much given up on turnkey membership sites from seeing the setup costs and the cookie cutter structure they use. Personally I love originality and from my basic understanding of business, it's key to stick out from the rest with the right marketing and advertising and good site design. As for time on the computer, I can spend anywhere from 4-6 hours a day on here. I don't expect to get rich. I just want to get to a point where we're not living from paycheck to paycheck. In the first part of 2010, I'm going to take classes in PHP and MySQL so I can create interactive websites and applications. Thank you for your advice.
I'm a first-time dad and he's now 22 months. He's getting better at playing by himself and watching his shows while I do what I need to do around the apartment. About all of my spare time is taken up now by doing research on this which I don't mind. The more educated I can become, the better choices I can make. Thank you.
Affiliate programs could be difficult to stand up unless you have a reason different from other affiliates that would attract buyers/users to go to your site.
-InBiz I've been researching Affiliate Marketing this morning and came to the same conclusion. With so many doing it, I don't really know how I could do it any differently to attract the numbers I'd need. -CRMB I've got an idea for a niche ecommerce website that I believe would be great. I can't find anything like it on the web. The idea comes from a specific need that our children would benefit from and countless others as well. I've googled and googled but cannnot find a dropshipper that has the products I'm needing to do this. I've read about a dropshipper directory called Salehoo but I have to wait until I get the funds to gain a membership to see if I can find one there.
Drop shipping is crap. You are making someone else rich. Source your product from US manufacturers or distributors, re-invest your sales and build your inventory as you sell it. As you increase your volume, shift to sending the product manufacturing to overseas and bring it in by the container load.