There are literally hundreds of Internet businesses that you can start at home. The big question is whether they legitimate? The answer more often is a complicated one because of the marketing methods used in presenting the opportunity. The following is a breakdown of the more popular Internet businesses and a brief how-to of each.

 

Domain Name Brokering

 

You’ve heard the stories; some random person who owned a great domain sold it for millions. These examples are the extreme cases and hard to come by nowadays, what people don’t know however is that there is a thriving community and opportunity in buying and selling domain names. A website I frequent DNForum.com is such a community and I have bought and sold many domains there for a profit. I won’t go into the details of getting into the game but I will tell you that it is one of the legitimate Internet businesses out there.

 

Blogging

 

The Internet is still primarily about information and through a blog you can build a successful Internet business. What I suggest to others is to write down a list of hobbies, expertise and topics you are generally interested in. From there choose one and setup a blog on a free service such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com. You can then write about the topic you chose, build links to the site and start attracting a stead stream of visitors. You can then monetize from those visitors by putting advertising on the page, creating an eBook and selling it, or sell other products / services and earn a commission. Once you get the hang of it you can then multiply your efforts and build an entire network of blogs.

 

Affiliate Marketing

 

Another legitimate and popular Internet business is affiliate marketing. It’s the process of selling other company’s product / service and earning a commission every time you refer a paying customer. Again communities such as SitePoint or Digital Point Forums exist where you can learn the tricks of the trade and get support in your efforts. I will tell you outright that it is one of the more difficult Internet businesses to master but also one of the more profitable.

 

These are just three legitimate options out there for you to start an Internet home business. In future posts we’ll breakdown each of these in more detail providing real life examples. For now I just wanted to dispel the image of Internet businesses by showing you a few that are legit and thriving.