Online Business Tips

There are several articles on the Internet where the writers claim to have made several thousands of dollars online. BEWARE! If it sounds too good to be true, it most certainly is. Do not get cut up in the web of deceit by unscrupulous Nigerians who would stop at nothing to make money! The best way to make money is to look within yourself, your surrounding and come up with a good/legitimate idea. If you have a skill, use it as the basis of an online business. Here are a few ideas that you can develop into a money making business:

• Search Engine such as Search Nigeria or Search Ghana
  There is still a huge market for SEARCH in Africa as most of our intellectual properties are still on paper. Google or Yahoo cannot search the nooks and crannies of our villages. A search engine may take a long time to make money, but it is a worthwhile business idea.

• Advertising Portal such as ClickAds, Nigeria.
  Most African businesses especially the small ones do not have their businesses online and that is robbing them of valuable online patronage.

• Buying and Selling of Cars and related products
  Most major items such as Houses, Cars Building contents, etc have good online presence. For instance, Europe has Auto Trader, Nigeria has MotorTrader, Nigeria, etc. there are lots of property portals in Nigeria, but who says you cannot have yours with a unique selling point?

• Buying and Selling of smaller items
  This is probably the easiest business to do online. Buy stuff and sell online. You do not need a warehouse, just be sure your suppliers can deliver orders to your customers. See COMDOCS for example.

• Business Directory
  There are many business directories around such as BusinessDirectory, Nigeria, but you can have yours and be part of the competition. This can be a good source of advertising income.

• Photo Galleries
  There are a handful of photo galleries, editing websites out there, but this is probably the simplest and cheapest website idea you can embark upon. See an example here at Adesiyan.Com.

• Online Auctions
  The potential for this is huge in Africa and you must seriously consider this project. EBay currently has a huge market, but it is difficult for Africans to buy anything on it except they go through a friend in Europe. Create your very own online auction site.

• Local Newspaper/Magazine
  The online news industry is a very vibrant one indeed and it is currently enjoying the top search ranking positions in virtually all African countries. Start your own local online news website by differentiating yourself from the crowd. You can decide to concentrate on local news, village news and you’ll be surprised ho w much interest there is.
  
  
• Jobs Website
  It is not surprising to see that jobs websites in Africa are doing very well. it is obvious that Africans are generally deprived and as such very little jobs to go round. A job website that concentrates on any or all African countries will pull the crowd.

• Forums
  A good example is nairaland.com or megaxforum.com that is currently enjoying the number one position in Nigeria with over 600,000 subscriptions. Decide on the issues you want to address and create a forum for it.

These are just a few ideas that you can work on from the comfort of your own home and I believe these list of ideas will help you to come up with other ideas. There is airline ticketing, portal for Plumbers, mechanics, doctors, etc. Sit down and think long and hard before embarking on any of them. I believe in the power of prayer and if you are like me, you will pray about it. When you have decided to embark on a website project, be sure to discuss with a website developer such as Adesiyan.Com. However, be sure to ask any web developer to see any related works they have done in the past.
There are other things you can do to reduce the involvement of a web developer, designer or programmer – buy the script yourself. Your site may not look professional at the beginning if you opt to do-it-yourself, but you would have cut down on the costs of acquiring a professional. I am not encouraging this, but it has to be the way to go if you cannot afford to pay people like me. Most scripts are usable out of the box anyway, but a professional will be able to add functionalities that do not come with the original script.
How do I get paid?It may take a bit of time to start making money from your fully developed idea, but one of the major issues with these online businesses is how to collect your money online as virtually all money making ideas include some element of ecommerce. OnlineNaira is currently operating in Nigeria along with a few others. Payment gateways are starting up in Ghana as well and who says you cannot start your own payment gateway online?
What about Funding?The other issue is how to pay for all these. Well, that is up to you! You will need to look within yourself and your pocket money and your family and etc. You have to bear in mind that costs of offering a service is key and you must look for ways to reduce your costs as much as possible. If your Father or Great Uncle did not leave you with some millions of money stored up for your sole use, then you are like me and may need to replace the need for money with sleepless nights in front of the computer. You will also need to come up with ways to get what you need for business growth by offering to exchange your services for what others offer.
My Website Name.The choice of website name (domain name) is key and will come in handy when people start to look for your business online. For now, it should suffice to say that you should go for a domain name that shows where your business is. If you are based in Ghana, let people know your business originates from Ghana by choosing a .gh domain name; if you are in Nigeria, choose one with a .ng; avoid choosing a .com without thinking twice about it.
. You can also make money through blog and you c an register your blog via blogger.com or wordpress.com without paying any cash.or you can hire a professional blogger to do the job for you. and then you can start making your real legitimate money online with Google ad sense. for you to know more about blog and Google ad sense you must read my upcoming post titled "google adsense tips" i am still working on it