How about if you could obtain something from one of your customers free of charge and then sell it back to them in return ? would that grab your interest?

I sense that many people believe an online business is the easy way to generate massive income and there are plenty of people determined to convince the unwary that such opportunities exist.

Selling information products and how to guides is usually the tool behind all such schemes with claims of single products or guides being worth up to ?100 each when in reality you see the self-same products selling on ebay for just a few pounds. The marketplace is saturated with such products and their worth in monetary terms is very little.

However, information is in demand and saleable, if you have the right information to offer and sufficient customers who desire it.

There is no need to look to the world wide web for your customers as they are right there in the town where you live now and the information you obtain to sell comes from those who will buy from you in return.

Nothing will generate as much interest among your prospective customers as ?Nostalgia?. Invite anyone to talk about the ?good old days? and they will chat forever and ever. If you can obtain a ready supply of personal memories of your hometown along with facts about its local history and combine them into a monthly magazine, which is then sold around town, you are on to a certain winner.

I began almost six years ago compiling a local community web site, but with the knowledge that many people from our older generations did not have internet access, I began to produce a small monthly newsletter to distribute around the town.

My first newsletter was published in 2003 and almost three years later I am now the proud owner of two commercially printed local community magazines with a circulation of 3,000 monthly copies.

The satisfaction from being able to publish a persons memories and to see the joy it gives them and those who read about them is greater than you will ever receive from an online business selling the self same products as countless other people.

Information is valuable and saleable ? you just need to have the right information to offer.