So you've heard about all these at home entrepreneurs making a living by tapping into the online market. You know it's possible, you know you could be on your way too , you just don't know where to start. This article will give you basic information to get you started on your way and will explore three target markets: drop-shipping, information portals and affiliate marketing.

First thing's first, what do you want to offer? Do you have a niche? A specialty? Expertise in a particular subject area?

If so, hit the search engines and see what is being offered to your market. Do you see a hole you could plug? Offer services, information or products that are not readily available? This would be a good place to start.

If you are absolutely at zero on this point, don't fret, believe it or not, there are many options you could explore even with no experience, online or off. All it takes is determination, research, some free time and did I mention determination?

Explore your options:

A good place to start is to decide what type of product you want to offer. This will ultimately determine your profit sources. For example, will you offer a retail site with products, an information portal hosting ads, affiliate marketing, etc.

Retail: If you don't already have a retail business, this type of venture would be the toughest to attempt, not to mention the most expensive. Web site and shopping carts aside, you will have to buy and stock products, offer customer support, handle shipping, etc. etc.

Another option you may have heard about is drop shipping.

In a nutshell, you set up a site, or post ads in auction sites and when your product sells, you purchase them from a supplier that ships the product directly to your customer without blowing the whistle on where the product came from.

This allows you to have greater saturation with no inventory to stock. Sounds great right? Buy wholesale, sell retail, no stock and no paying for products to sit in a warehouse. However, there are a many things to watch out for in this business model. First, you must find reputable, reliable sources to purchase from. You don't want to promise a customer a product, collect money and find out that the item was received damaged, not as advertised, or better yet -

never got there at all. If this is the way you want to go, there are many directories and lists of drop shipping suppliers available online.

Some points to watch:

1. research the product for popularity and saturation - will you be one of thousands or even hundreds of other offering the same product? - find a different product to sell!!

2. make contact with the supplier to make sure they are available for any questions or issues that might arise, 3. research the supplier online in search engines, forums and the better business bureau,

4. purchase a low cost item and have it shipped to you to see the quality of the product you will be offering, the turnaround time and to test the reliability of the supplier.

5. Ask about inventory levels - are your products guaranteed to be available for shipment when you need them

6. Pricing - research pricing for each product to see whether you sale will cover your cost (including any fees and shipping).

Now that you've got your list of suppliers and products and you've crunched all the numbers, where do you sell your stuff? Consider the following options:

1. Online auctions - offering your product in an online auction is the easiest way to get your feet wet and the costs associated with it are minimal. You generally pay a listing fee, and pay a percentage if your product sells. How do you collect the money? You can offer your buyers to pay with a check (not the most reliable method), or sign up with a payment service such as - you guessed it - PayPal. Payment services will also deduct a percentage of your sale as a transaction fee, so make sure you include that in your number crunching formula. The largest auction sites offer step by step tutorials on using their sites so you would have a wealth of information available to you.

2. Online marketplaces - another option for e-tailers that don't offer a dedicated e-commerce site is an online marketplace. You can post your listings in these shopping directories - many of which are free (check out Google's)

3. Your own online shop - I recommend that you get your feet wet with options one and two above before you attempt to set up your own shop. Even though many online service providers an hosting companies offer out of the box shopping site solutions (even free), there are quite a few hurdles to overcome if you take this route. First, you would have to generate a lot of traffic to your site, something auction sites and marketplaces do for you (and the reason they take a cut from your profits). Second, your site would have to offer many products in different categories. When was the last time you purchased something online from a shop that seemed bare? You would have to offer customer support and be available for any questions your visitors may have and generally provide the impression of a well established company offering quality products at low prices - otherwise your sales will stay at zero. However, a good way of generating traffic and subsequent sales to your listings, is creating a basic web site with links to your products on auction sites and marketplaces. Generate traffic to your site, redirect your audience to your listings and vice versa. This is also a relatively low cost option. Purchasing a url and setting up a basic site could take just a few hours if you choose a hosting provider with out of the box solutions. Again, research your options and find the one that suits your needs the best.

Building a sales page:

Here you need to get a little creative and spend some time with marketing your product. You've got a captive audience with whoever landed on your product page, so don't bore them, tire them or overwhelm them or off they go to the next seller in line.

1. provide as many high quality photos of your product as possible

2 . write some good marketing copy - play up all the great features of your product and all the benefits the buyer will derive from it. Be ware not to overplay or make false claims! You are building a reputation and a business so honesty is the best policy here.

3. If other vendors are offering the same or similar product - browse their product pages and try to find what ever you can and make it better - in other words, create a product that YOU would want to buy!

Marketing your product:

If you want to see your sales skyrocket, you cannot be a passive observer. In the online world "if you build it they will come" usually does not apply. Make sure you submit your listings and your site to multiple search engines and directories. Participate in forums,and include a link to your site in the signature line if the forum allows. Write blogs, post your links on your personal pages in whatever communities you participate in - and if you don't participate in any - now's a good time to start. The bottom line is - the more exposure you have - the more traffic you will generate = the more money you will make.

If you see that your product did not get much response in way of traffic or hits, you may want to consider active marketing. Sign up for pay per click advertising services. These services will post your ads on search engines an other web sites that participate in their network (affiliate networking information will be explained in subsequent parts of this article). These services allow you to choose which key words are relevant to your products, rotate different ads for optimal performance and set maximum costs to you on a per click (per lead) and monthly total basis.

Closing the sale:

Make sure you stay on top of any e-mails or requests potential customers may have. If you are not available to answer a question - you WILL lose the sale. Fast turn around and professional language and conduct are key here!

Congratulations - your product has sold!

So all your hard work has finally paid off. Now what? Make sure you make contact with your buyer as soon as possible, letting them know that you got their order processing. If you didn't get paid yet, remind them of the payment options you offer and the time frame in which they must send you payment. If you received the payment, follow up with your supplier, order the product and make sure it is sent to your buyer at their address and with your information as seller.

Finally, track the status of the order with your supplier and make sure it is sent out in a timely fashion and be available to smooth over any issues that may arise. After your buyer has receive the product, follow up with a thank you and remind them that you have many other great products available. A one time mail is perfectly acceptable - but do not send several unsolicited e-mails, no body likes spam. As an added incentive for a repeat sale, you might want to offer some type of incentive off the next purchase - be creative - a discount, an included gift, free shipping - whatever, just try to get them to visit your product pages and site again.