For those who are want to be self-employed and start their own business, it could be a good idea to consider the many solar energy business opportunities that are out there.  Many people are becoming more conscious of the environment and there are an abundance of ‘green’ business ideas available, as people try to lead more environmentally friendly lives.

One such home business opportunity is renting or leasing solar panels.  This business is just in its beginning stages but has potential for growth.  However, before you get involved in such a business, you would do well to study up on solar energy and its benefits and uses.  It is hard to convince potential clients on the virtues of a product that you do not know enough about.  You do not have to take university courses or be a college graduate, just give yourself a couple weeks and study up a bit on solar energy.

If you wish to start a business installing solar panels, then there are a few legalities you would need to attend to.  First of all, you would need to become certified in solar panel installation.  There are a number of green events that offer training sessions in this; one simple way to go about this is to find a solar panel manufacturer that you would like to work with and then sign up for their training and certification program.

If your business is based out of your home, then make sure that it complies with all zoning laws and business laws.  It can be helpful to hire a small business lawyer to make sure you get things right.  Next, choose a name for your business and register it; there are a number of solar companies out there so make sure that your choice of name is not identical to another company’s.  The Federal Trademark Database website, uspto.gov, is a good place to check whether your intended business name is taken or not.  After picking a business name, you will need to secure it via this site.

Another alternative is to start a solar power business.  Some states actually give tax credits to those who have alternative energy systems installed in their homes; if you live in such a state, you have the potential for a successful business.  One of the simplest ways to set up such as business is to buy a franchise from a solar panel manufacturer and set up a dealership.  You would also need to buy the needed equipment from the same manufacturer, as the equipment needed to set up a solar power system in a home differs from brand name to brand name.

If you get involved in such a business, it is a wise idea to set up such a system in your own home.  Not only does it save you money on the electricity bill, but then you will really know what you are talking about when you approach potential clients.  You could also have an open house to demonstrate to visitors how such a system works.

As we run out of oil and natural gas there will be more and more solar energy business opportunities available which can be scaled into large enterprises.

This is going to be one of the biggest growth industries in the next decade so if you are looking for some sort of business opportunity to get into you should definitely think about solar applications of any kind.  I think the biggest possibilities lie in areas where existing technology is utilized to improve our energy usage.

For example, gardeners have been using the rays of the sun to heat their greenhouses for years so why don’t we use that idea in other places.  One big user of energy is water heating and in particular swimming pools and spas.  By utilizing a solar swimming pool cover you can use the sun to heat the water and it also traps the heat already in the pool so you aren’t just radiating it away.  Think of the money to be made outfitting every swimming pool in the US with a solar cover.

By thinking up new applications like this we can go a long way toward building sustainable business opportunities.

Most people who start on the web start with one idea and decide that is going to be what they build their business around. They then focus on all the aspects of business building to go along with that and never question whether there original idea was any good or not. That is, until they realize their internet home business is a flop and it probably will never make much money. At this point they quit internet marketing and go back to watching reality TV every night. The sad thing is, if they would have checked out the online home based business opportunities further before they made their decision they would have probably found a business model that would be successful.

There really is no such thing as the best online business. There are a lot of good online businesses and there are many, many that are flops. If you want to find success you need to stat with an idea for a business that has a potential for success and then do the work to build it. I can guarantee you that your first try is not going to result in a home run over the fence. There is a lot to know about making an online business work and you don’t learn it over night. Internet marketing is not a get rich quick scheme although a lot of people will try to sell you products claiming you can get rich over night. In reality they don’t work. The only thing that creates a successful online business is knowledge and work.

If you are looking for a step by step plan to internet success then check out The Keyword Academy. The guy who runs this site, Courtney Tuttle, is one of the big names in learning how to make money online. He lays out exactly step by step what to do and how to do it. And he states right up front that you won’t be rich over night. You are going to have to do the work to grow your business but when you do the results can be fantastic. This internet business opportunity is based around building informational sites and making money off of the people who come to your site to find that information. The system does work and can make you online money. The system also requires that you actually work on your business most everyday. If you can’t or won’t do that then you are going to be successful and you might as well go buy a lottery ticket.

Court actually recommends that you start with ten online business ideas and work on all of them until you start to see which ones are taking off. Then you can focus on the winners and you have a much better chance of developing a successful internet home business. By spreading your efforts out over ten ideas you aren’t putting all your eggs in one basket and hoping the basket doesn’t have a hole in it. Instead, you are prudently spreading the risk around and you have ten times more chance for success than if you only try to develop one of the online business ideas you have.

The fact is nobody in internet marketing has a crystal ball that will tell them exactly what will make money with a home based business. There are a lot of marketers who will try to sell you a package they claim will make you rich but in reality it doesn’t happen. When you are thinking of starting a legitimate online business you need to realize that you will have to spend time learning before you ever make a dime. There is a lot to know in internet marketing but none of it is really difficult. There are just some mind shifts you have to make that aren’t really intuitive. Like I said above, you don’t just start out building one website and then sit back expecting to get rich online. You must try several things and find out which ones start to generate cash. At that point you can make a decision on which ones to really work hard on. The idea that you can pick just one of the many online business ideas and run with it is false.

I hope this post has helped to get you pointed in the right direction when it comes to starting you online business opportunity. Do not spend money in a “business in a box” hoping to get rich. It just isn’t going to happen. The person getting rich will be the person who sold you the box. Instead, commit to looking every day for internet business ideas. Check out offers for business ideas, read all you can about IM, and commit the time needed. You can find success if you choose several ideas, work on them, and then run with the one that is most promising.

]]> http://www.onlinechristianbusinessopps.com/several-online-business-opportunity-ideas-to-diversify/feed/ 1 http://www.onlinechristianbusinessopps.com/christian-business-opportunities/ http://www.onlinechristianbusinessopps.com/christian-business-opportunities/#comments Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:08:39 +0000 Andy http://www.onlinechristianbusinessopps.com/?p=60 Do you have a Christian Business Opportunities idea for an online business and are you wondering if it will be profitable? After all, there is no point in going to all the trouble of building an online Christian business if you won’t make any money at it. Now this does not mean that you may not start an online presence for other reasons than making money. These are legitimate things to do also.

Maybe you have spent considerable time in contemplation about a particular Biblical passage and you want to share your thought on that passage. This is a noble endeavor. You could go to Blogger.com which is run by Google and set up a free blog in about 5 minutes. Once you have the blog you can write to your hearts content about your insights into the particular passage. I think it is very important to read other people’s opinion on the meaning of passages and how they can be applied to living in today’s fast paced world. With some promotion you could probably get some other people to visit and read your words but you probably wouldn’t make any money. The key to Christian business opportunities is to find something you are passionate about that other people will be willing to spend money on.

If you are looking for ways Christians earn money online you have to find what the market wants and what it is willing to spend money on. Some people may be interested in your opinions about Biblical passages but they more than likely are not willing to pay much. Missing this point is what I think is behind the rash of Christian online scams. People want to make some extra money online, who couldn’t use some help in these times, but for some reason a Christian home based business is looked upon as not worthy of us. Somehow it seems to be dirty to be in business. So you see people promoting cash gifting for Christians plans that are nothing more than ponzi schemes. Somehow using the word “gift” makes the plan more palatable when all the plan is designed to do is transfer your money to the people at the top of the pyramid.

Christian Business Opportunity

I really don’t understand why Christian home businesses have gotten such a bad wrap. How can it possibly be a bad thing for people to do honest work, provide an honest benefit to their customers, and receive honest pay for what they give. To me this is exactly how we should be acting. All of our actions should be win-win for everyone involved and that is exactly what a well run Christian business does. We find a need that people have and fill it for them. In return the customer pays you for fulfilling their need. I really don’t understand how this can be considered a bad thing. This is like saying the baker is doing a bad thing by buying flour, operating an oven, mixing the bread, baking the bread, and then trading the customer money for the raw materials, labor, and expenses that went into baking that bread. This is a perfect win-win solution. The customer is fed and the baker receives money to feed his or her family.

Once you decide that an online Christian business opportunity is a good thing to pursue the next step is to determine what you will provide that you customers will be willing to trade money for. When Christians are looking at how to make extra money online they first business model that comes to mind is a Christian bookstore. This is a good start but now you need to see what the reality is about this type of Christian home based business.

The first step is to find out if people are actually looking for Christian bookstores online because if they are not searching for a product or service you will not have any customers. Go to Google Adwords Keywords. This is a free service that lets you find out if people are searching for you term online. It is really easy to use. You just type in a keyword phrase and Google tells you how many times people on average search for that term each month. A keyword phrase is just the group of words you type into the Google search box when you are searching for something. In our case we are wondering if people are searching for Christian Book Store online. So we type it into the box and then retype the word to prove we are human. Google comes back with a list of terms like our keyword phrase and shows us how many times people have searched for those terms on a monthly basis.

As I write this, Google is estimating that 135,000 people a month search for this phrase. On the surface this seems like a good keyword to target. With 135,000 visitors a month it should be pretty easy to sell to some of them right? Well not exactly. Just because there are this many people searching does not mean you will have all of them come to your website. If you notice when you search for a term you get a whole list of websites that Google says contains that keyword in their web site somewhere. The next step is to find out how many other websites are trying to sell people when they search for Christian book store. Go to the Google search page and type in Christian book store in the search box. In the upper right hand corner of the result page you will see a listing of how many websites are also using the phrase Christian book store. At this time there are 36,900,000 websites that you would have to compete against to get people to notice your website. It is not very likely that you will be able to find many visitors when you are trying to go against that many competitors. So a Christian book store would probably not be a great business to start.

This is the first step in building a Christian business opportunity online. You have to find out what people are searching for and find our how much competition there is. Ideally you find a keyword phrase that many people are searching for and also that does not have very many competitors. This is the most important step in building a Christian make money business and it is the one that most people don’t do. They spend months building a site only to find out that the chances of getting visitors to the site are about zero. Then one of two things happen. Either they give up and quit trying to make money online for Christians or they decide to really learn what it takes for an online business.

This Christian business blog is dedicated to helping you find success online. I would like to see a lot more Christians doing business on line because it is a great way to do business and the honesty and integrity we bring to the job is needed on the web. Keep coming back to learn more about successful Christian business opportunities online.

The first thing you want to do when getting ready to set up a blog is you must find out what your potential customers are interested in. When people are looking for something on the Web they use keywords to type into the search engines like Google. Keywords are phrases that represent what people are thinking about when they search. For example, if I am interested in fishing rods I might type in “fishing rod,” “fishing pole,” “fishing equipment,” “rod and reel,” or just “fishing.” Each one of these phrases is a key word. Some will work better than others when finding fishing rods on the web. If you type in just fishing you will also get sites about “how to fish,” “where to fish,” “fishing guides,” and many other pages that do not have anything to do with fishing. You will get a few web sites about fishing rods but not many. It would be the same with a Christian based business. You need to target the keywords that people are searching for with your products.

Spend some time thinking about what you mean by an online Christian business. Do you want to sell information about Christianity? Do you want to sell Christian based products? Do you want to sell books? Do you want to sell courses? Do you want to give information away and once you have visitors try to sell them other people’s products and services? These are all questions to think about as you build your Christian home business to make online income.

Once you have an idea about what you “think” you want to sell you need to find out if people are really searching for that item or service. A good place to start is Google because it is free. Go to their Keyword Tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in your original keyword. Google will give you back a list of other words that similar. Pick a few and then go to https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox and find out how many people search for these each day. It is time consuming but it is free and it will start to give you an idea of what people are typing into Google.

There are a lot of other programs that make this part easier but they cost. We will be talking about them in future posts. For now just start looking at your potential keywords and get a feel for the market. You will need this information as you build a successful Christian home business.

Until next time, our prayers are with you.

Let’s say I have an idea for an online Christian business opportunity. Say I want to start a business selling books with a Christian theme. So I go to Amazon and set up an affiliate account and then start to build a website advertising Christian themed books. I am going to be a lot more successful if I offer the types of books that people are actually looking for.

If I choose a group of books I am interested in, they may not be the books my customers would be interested in. For example, I may be interested in the history of the early church. The first 300 years say. But there are not really a lot of people who find that an interesting topic. If that is the only kind of books I have on my site then I probably won’t make too many sales.

But what if I could sell books that people are already looking for? They would buy them up as fast as I could put them on a web.

The way to find out what books people are interested in is by doing Keyword research. I find out what books people are searching for and then offer those on my Christian book store web site. The keywords (the search phrases) people use to search for books tell me what they are interested in.

There are several free and paid programs available to help you with keyword research. One of my favorites is MARKET SAMAURAI. I will be reviewing the program at a later date. If I type “Christian Books” into MARKET SAMURAI I find that about 486 people are searching for “Christian Family Books” each day. In comparison, only 9 people are searching for “Christian Values Books” each day. So which type of books are you going to offer? Duh.

With the right kind of keyword research you can know how much traffic you will get before you even start building your website. A good place to learn the basics of keyword research is Make Money at the Keyword Academy. Court is always giving out great advice.

Until next time our prayers are with you.

When I started searching for Christian opportunities online I had a hard time finding any good information. There are a lot of web sites that claim to help Christians but they don’t really teach anyone how to make money online.

I was looking for a legitimate Christian business blog and I had no luck. That is why I started this Christian based blog. I want to help you be successful on the internet. There is a lot to know and you will not get rich overnight but you can learn to make a good living and do better than that if you want.

For a quick overview go to 6 Proven Ways to Make Money Online. That post gets you started thinking about opportunities. There are all kinds of business models that work online and one of the first things to do is start deciding what method you like.

Regardless of the business model every successful site must do two things:

1. Develop ways to get customers

2. Offer those customers something they want to buy

That is it. Every business is built on those two pillars. That is also true if you are looking for a Christian way to make money online. You still have to find customers and you have to give those customers something they want in a way they want it.

The biggest mistake new people on the internet make is they forget the customers. This is deadly to a web site. In reality the only reason you have a business web site is to satisfy the needs of your customers.

NOTE: There are a lot of web sites that are not trying to generate any income and that is fine. If you want a web site just because you are interested in the topic that’s great. If you just want to be a member of a community of like minded individuals as a social network there is nothing wrong with that. But don’t get a social site confused with a site to make money. Our focus in this blog is to teach you the information you need to develop Christian opportunities online to help you make more money in these difficult economic times.

Ok. We have decided we are going to develop a Christian business to make money on line. What is the first thing we need?

If you said a product then you are one of the 95% of people online who fail. The web is filled with sites advertising products people spent weeks, months, or years creating. The web site owner just knew people would want their newest, greatest product. So they work and sweat and put all their energy into creating the perfect new gadget.

Finally the big day arrives. The product is done and they put it up on a web site for sale. Our budding business person just knows this product will sell better than ice cream on a hot summer day. But, the first day goes by and no sales. The second day, no sales. After a week, no sales. Months go by and nobody buys the product.

What happened?

Our business owner loved the product.

He put everything he had into that product.

It was exactly the product he wanted.

And that’s the problem. He developed a product he wanted and not a product the market wanted. Remember, if you want a successful Christian business online you must give your customers what they want, not what you THINK they want. It is not what you want to sell that is important. It is what they want to buy that is the key. You start with an idea and then find out how the idea needs to be filled out to offer value to your customers.

Let me give an example of an offline store in my home town. A woman wanted to start a candle business. Now she could have said, “I want to make long, slender candles in pastel colors because I like that type of candle.” She could have made hundreds of different colored candles and then stocked her store and waited for the customers. But she would have failed. Why? Because her customers could go to Walmart and get candles that looked the same as hers for less than half the cost. The candle store owner would have went bankrupt.

But our heroine knew a little about marketing. She decided she would find out what type of candles people wanted to buy before she made any product. She asked her family, she asked her friends, she asked her co-workers, she went to stores selling candles and asked their customers what kind of candles they wanted.

She did what is known as Market Research.

She found out what kind of candles people wanted and made those candles. Most people told her they buy candles for the aroma not because of the shape or color. She thought about this and BINGO she had her product.

Now our candle business owner offers candles fragrances from Sea Breeze to Desert Sage. Her customers love them. Is her store successful? You bet. In fact she now owns four stores in the surrounding area and also has a great online web store.

Why is her business successful? Because she produced what the market wanted. Not what she wanted. Give the people what they want and you will be successful.

Recap: Find out what your customers want and sell it to them. This is the key to any business including a Christian opportunities online business.

Our prayers are with you.