If you are a newbie to internet marketing it is very likely that you have been totally overwhelmed by the many opportunities available to you online.
Of course it is important to remember that some of them will be genuine home based business opportunities but many others will either be out and out scams, or will be almost impossible or the newbie to understandin the early stages.
A popular home based business is Affiliate Marketing.
This is probably one of the most appropriate starting points for the new internet marketer as it is possible not only to learn the tricks of the trade for very little outlay, but it is possible to make money in a very short space of time.
It isn't necessary to have your own product as there are many places on the internet where you can find products to sell that will pay you a good commission for the sale.

• Sites like Commission Junction and Clickbank are two very popular sites.
  Amazon is also a popular site for affiliates.
  

• It is also possible to sell other peoples products as part of your home based business by taking out an agreement with the company itself.
  You would need to sign up with the particular company as an affiliate and sign an agreement accepting their terms and conditions.
  You can then sell products from their site by recommending their site to people and if they buy after following your link you will receive affiliate commission.
  

NB This type of commission is often lower than that of the Clickbank products but can be a valuable addition to your portfolio nevertheless.
So how do you go about starting an affiliate marketing business?

• One of the first things you must do to ensure that you are to have some success in this type of home based business is to do some market research.
  Is there is a market for the products you want to sell? Is it a warm market? Is it a seasonal market?

• You to do some in depth research into the niche you are interested in.
  As well as knowing that there is a market for the products, you also need to make sure that you have not chosen a saturated market where there is a high level of competition.
  Of course it may be that there is lots of competition but the market can handle that competition and you just need to make sure that your marketing techniques are better than other peoples.
  

• Finding a niche for your home based business is often the most difficult and the most time consuming part of the process.
  You will then need to find a suitable product find out how best to promote that product and ultimately get sales.
  

• One way to promote your product might be to start a blog about your chosen niche.
  If you offer good quality information on your blog then it will start to attract an audience who have an interest in the niche you are promoting, you can then consider trying to sell other niche related products through that blog.
  In order to do this successfully you will need to learn how to do keyword research.
  

• You won't be surprised to hear that promoting an online home based business is far more complex than just writing a blog, but that is a good place to start.
  You will need to learn about the web 2.
  0 sites that can offer you other ways of promoting your affiliate products.
  Web sites such as Squidoo, Hub Pages and Digg also offer a way of reaching that wider audience so that your home based business becomes a more viable option.
  

• Amazingly there are many opportunities to accessfree sessions, even free courses are available if you frequent the right places.
  Some of these courses just touch the tip of the iceberg hoping that you will be tempted to carry on with the upsell.
  However there are also free courses that are actually far better than some of the paid ones so you need to beware and do your research.
  

At the end of the day starting a home based business is a huge learning curve, but one thing is certain you will learn far more if you use the social networking sites to make good reliable contacts who are happy to help you on your journey