It's common knowledge that the hottest seller on the Internet today is information. Many people are aimlessly searching the 'net' looking for affiliate programs which provide "ready made" products. Who actually makes the biggest profit from affiliate programs? Right! The merchants themselves. You probably will get an average of 10-15% if you're lucky.

Many affiliate programs offer what's called a 'referral fee', which is a very small amount of money in most cases. Some affiliate programs offer a whole 5 cents per click through while they themselves are making $30-200 dollars off that customer you sent. Doesn't sound fair does it? It's not!

In order to have a successful business, you must have your own product. That product must fill a need for many people. Start out by making a list of what you like to do. Include everything! Your work and volunteer experience can be considered an asset to your business and may even hold the key to the product that you decide to sell. Perhaps you have a hobby and create corn silk dolls for instance....or you've invented a cool gadget to help you do something.

Look over your list and get some ideas from it. List a few possible businesses you can start from this list of ideas. Eliminate anything that isn't appealing or won't fill a need that people have. When you start a business from something that you enjoy doing, you won't be quickly bored with it and give up before it's had a chance to get off the ground.

Try to list potential areas of personal background, special training, educational and job experience, and special interests that could be developed into a business.

There are literally thousands of things you can do in a home based business. All it takes is a little imagination and creativity to come up with an idea. The more unique your idea, the better off you and your business are going to be. You also might try checking the public library near you. Something as simple as leafing through the card catalog (they do still have those) for something to spark an idea.

You will also need to get a good idea of how successful your product or service will be. Write down a list of the characteristics and selling points of your product based on price, durability, performance, ease of use, size or weight and appearance, packaging or any other features you can think of.

Rate the product on a scale of 0 to 10 for each of the characteristics you wrote down. Be honest or this exercise will be a waste of time. A -0- score indicates your competitors product puts yours to shame, a 10 indicates your product or service is much better than what your competitor offers.

Once you've finished rating your product, go over the list and see if there are any ways you can improve your product to make it better than other similar products on the market. Make note of the features that are rated 8 or better as these are the best selling points for writing future ad copy.

If you're ready to become rich, then think seriously about selling a product or service (preferably something exclusively yours) - something that you "pull out of your brain"; something that you write, manufacture or produce for the benefit of other people.

Kim Haas

You may already know me from my biggest online venture, Womans-Net.com. I started Womans-Net in June of 2000. The site quickly blossomed into a leading resource for women in business and work at home moms.

My latest and fastest growing venture is Article-Host.com, where I have continued my work as an online publisher and writer. Article-Host allows me the opportunity to offer syndicated article services worldwide.

I earned an Associates Degree in Word Processing while raising a family. I am a self-taught webmaster. I began my online experience when the Internet was still a series of BBS's (Bulletin Board Systems) where users logged into each other's desktop computers - and monitors were still green letters on a black screen.

Although I had only limited formal education in business management and computer skills, I obtained my business education from the 'real-world school' where lessons weren't graded with A's and B's, but rather with success or failure. After failing at several MLM and 'work at home opportunities', I began seeing a pattern to the failures. Those failures were a direct result of not putting God first in my life and not having confidence in myself.

I currently live in south-central Illinois with my soulmate and our two children. We also share 4 adult children and 5 wonderful grandchildren.

Over the past ten years I've learned a lot about building businesses from the ground up, both online and offline, and I've learned how to deal with different types of customers. I have discovered that a little self-confidence can go a long way and I've found the mysterious "secrets to success".