In this article, we will discuss various type of online business and tools available for your start-up.

Auction Bidding Easy to start with: *** Low cost: *****

You can start selling items through online auctions such as eBay or Yahoo! Auctions. Through this mean, you set a minimum price for your product and allow your interested customers to bid for that product. All you need to do is to provide a item name, description, price and image taken with a digital camera. A sales copy provided in the description column may increase the conversion rate of visitors to buyers. You can even set a price for customers to click and buy immediately.

Best of all, registration is free for eBay and Yahoo! Auctions, and you get started with provided guidance. However, some of the tools provided by eBay may seem complicated. Borrowing a book on information and how eBay works from your library will help you, else getting around with the system through trial and error will make you understand the tools well. Remember, mistakes are made to make you learn.

Selling through a Blog Easy to start with: *****

Low Cost: ****

Starting a blog may be the latest trend for most people and people have started with selling stuff like fashion accessories to even clothes through their blogs. Blogs have become a new communication mean through the Internet, as bloggers can blog relevant artcles about their products they are selling.

Free tools such as Blogger, WordPress are available free to anyone out there for use. WordPress and Live Journal do provide tools for interested parties to setup their blog on a web hosting server and get a domain name for their blog site to look more professional. You can add a Paypal button on your blog to accept payment or make it cash on delivery, and well, it's all up to your business model.

E-commerce Shopping Portal Easy to start with: *** Low Cost: **

You can consider setting up an e-commerce website if you decide to create a brand name of your own and have a larger capital on your hand. Getting a design house to develop your online shopping portal will be easy, all you need to do is provide information on how your dream portal may look like and give a down payment to kick start with the construction of your portal. If you are not an expert of building an E-commerce website, seek your design house for comments and advices. Well, it's their job and duty for that. You do not want to have a website that you are comfortable with but your customers feel irritated with.

Compared to using auctions and blog tools I have mentioned earlier, having an online shopping website with e-commerce will cost more money and time frame. It takes time for the design house to construct your website.

Start Easy with Affiliate Programs Easy to start with: ***** Low Cost: *****

Selling affiliate products will not require you to brainstorm of any specific items that you are going to sell. You can proceed with the research on the demand of the product, identification of your targeted audience and marketing strategies.

Often being an affiliate usually does not require you to carry any inventory. You get a cut of the sales for each item you sold. All you need to do is to have a website that promotes the affiliate product you are selling, providing news and information related to your product to make your website interesting and updated. Sending newsletters about your updated website to your customers will make your them re-visit your website again.

For more information proceed to my article written on affiliate program.

Produce your own Digital Products Easy to start with: ***** Low Cost: ****

Selling of digital products may be the cheapest and easiest to start an online business. You may be an expert in a certain field and consider selling your expertise. Start thinking of a subject that you want to teach others or share experiences with, compile what you have on hand to publish an e-book digitally. You can write about subjects ranging from teaching people how to earn money online to how to improve their sexual life, which ever you feel comfortable with and wish to share what you have know to the rest of the people.

Your product is subjected to be reviewed before the affiliate program is approved and launched. Some may require you to pay a setup fee to start your affiliate program. For Clickbank, you will be charged a one-time $49.95 payment for activation charge to start listing products with ClickBank.

Once it's started, you can begin to recruit affiliates to help you promote your e-book. You will need to set an amount to be given to those who have refer a customer that made purchase for your e-book. You may provide tools and marketing materials such as sales copy and newsletter formats to your affiliates, so as to get them started with.

Ethan Wong
www.iBizVault.com