The first key in starting an internet business is to find a niche that you are interested in – finding something you are interested in that other people also find interesting and are searching for and where there is relatively little competition. To do this you should use keyword tools such as Wordtracker or Overture.



Once you have decided on your niche you need to have a product to offer in this niche. Here you have a couple of options and what you choose could also depend on how much time you have available. You could choose to sell affiliate's products, purchase an e-book with resell rights or create your own e-book if you have enough time.

Although you may start an internet business without a website this is not recommended as having your own website allows you a lot more flexibility. Whatever product you are selling a good idea is to set up a lead capture page where you offer people something for free in exchange for their email address. This helps you to follow up with them to encourage them to buy your product as few people will buy the first time they visit your website.

In order to simplify your follow up process so you don't need to spend too much time on it, it would be a good idea to have an autoresponder. Autoresponders are email software that allows emails to be sent to your list of contacts automatically at predetermined intervals. All you need to do is decide on how many follow up emails you would like to send to each prospect, how far apart you want to space these, write them and upload them to your autoresponder and then your follow up process is automated giving you more time to do other things. Follow up advertising like this is extremely important to any internet business.

If you are selling your own e-book or one with re-sell rights and have to do your own order fulfillment then you should try as far as possible to automate this process as well. You may choose to do this with shopping cart software or have your payment processor send people who have paid for the product to a special download link. Automating as many aspects of your internet business as possible allows you more free time.

Once you have chosen your niche, set up your website, autoresponder and order fulfillment system the next step in starting your own internet business is to market the business. You need to take your marketing seriously as if no one knows you are there then your website is just likely to get lost in cyberspace and not bring in any money.

The first method you could use to advertise your business is article marketing. Create articles about your product or your affiliate's product that you can distribute to article directories. As people read your article and are interested in your product they will click through to your website and you will be able to turn them into sales. The other benefit is that other people may choose to print these articles on their website with your link and resource box and so you will increase your number of back links which in turn increases your standing with the search engines.

Another method of advertising you may use is viral marketing. Create a product similar to the one you are selling that you can give away and allow others to do the same. In this product you should place an advert for your paid product so that when people see your viral product they will visit your website and buy from you. By giving people an incentive to give away your product you are also increasing your sales force without having to spend a lot of money on paying people to advertise for you.

There are other methods of marketing you can use to advertise your internet business but the two I have mentioned above I find to be the least time consuming and the most appropriate if you are running an internet business in your spare time.

If you are looking at running an internet business in your spare time you will need to find a niche that people are interested in, find products or create your own for them to purchase from you and then go about automating as much of your business as possible using autoresponders, automated order fulfillment systems and marketing methods that do not take up too much time. Starting an internet business in your spare time can be exciting and if you are looking at doing it full time one day this is a great way to start.