Home Business Ideas: Help Businesses Promote Local Growth and Profits On The Internet

In my opinion, one of the best of home business ideas is to set up a consulting practice to help companies use the Internet to promote local business.¹ According to Sharon Fling’s new e-book, How To Promote Your Local Business On The Internet the future of the Internet is local.²

Her idea for success is to use the business website to collect email addresses and supplement other means of promoting the business. One technique outlined is to go on local TV/radio and promote both your product/services. I did this at a local radio show and got a big jump in visitors to my websites. Several listeners called me directly and they are on their way to using the advice and services that I offer.

The reason I rate this the best of home business ideas is because the time is right to become a consultant to local businesses on how to use the Internet to improve business results.

Sharon’s book was prompted by a rapid growth in local business websites and the growth of the inclusion of website addresses in local advertising. Today most businessmen have email addresses and they are willing to read and respond to email from a known and trusted source. So the Internet is becoming a very important way for local businesses to get new and retain existing customers.

The major search engines now are providing local search capabilities. Businesses are offered free local listing which complements the local search advertising. For example, local businesses, perhaps developed from some of the home business ideas presented here, can promote their products and services using internet advertising which is released locally or regionally.

And there are ways in which a business can actually get such advertising "free" by running promotional campaigns that also generate separate income streams. I cover this in greater detail at Get Google Ads FREE. 

The central element in using the Internet to promote local business is the website and related e-functions. Although Sharon, and others, (click here for a FREE 10-day course on developing your website to sell your products/services) provide services which make it (relatively) easy to deploy and develop a website and supporting functions (email, newsletters, e-zines, forums, e-commerce, etc.), in reality most local businessman will need help to need to get started – and that is the role of the consultant.  

Your home-based consulting service will just about sell itself. You will use all the recommended techniques in promoting your own home-based Internet consulting service – literally "eating your own lunch" to be successful in your own Internet-based business. When you make a contact you simply will ask: “How did we end up talking to each other?" Their response answers to the question: “What value is your service to me?” The quick answer: "More customers!"

Sharon’s book provides a comprehensive list of ways that a local business can use the Internet to expand business. These include putting your daily/weekly specials (coupons) on your website and offering services to non-profits and other needy organizations/causes (and of course reporting about your activities in your newsletters).

A Home Business Ideas final note on the latest in approaches to internet marketing. You should click on the "New Selling Rules" tab to find out what Bob Serling has to say about "The New Rules of Internet Marketing." If you really want to sell products or services by leveraging the Internet -- this is a must read (and if you do not wish to enroll in the full course, do take a look at the sample).

Another candidate service you may provide will be customizing the initial web design. The new easy-to-use web building tools still require customization (features incorporated in Ken Evoy's latest upgrades to his web business development package) to reflect the preferences of each business. We can show you how you can provide very high quality, cost effective services of this type – and you do not have to know a thing about web design in order to offer the service.

It goes without saying that if you should decide to pursue this further, that you exercise all the due diligence recommended for starting any business. I’ve covered much of this in some of the other articles posted to this site.

If this sounds interesting to you, my advice to take this best of home business ideas and get started – and don’t stop. If you wait, someone else in your area will open this type of home-based business. Stake out your home business ideas claim in your own community now.

Home Business Ideas Case Study: This is what I am doing in my local area. I launched this element of my own business in early August, 2002 with a guest expert appearance on a local radio program. The host gave me an opportunity to talk about my service and how it could help local companies grow by using the Internet. I fielded several phone calls from listeners. The host also mentioned my local web site a number of times. (The next day I received several phone calls and noticed that my traffic count at the site rose by 15 visits.)

I now have business cards which include the mission statement: "Helping companies grow local business using the Internet." I made this same statement into a banner and displayed it, along with my website address and pictures of my various clients, at a recent business EXPO. At my booth I featured what I was doing to help local businessman Larry Nachman (www.21st-century-fitness.com³) launch his services nationwide (recommending that folks download a Ken Evoy's FREE e-Book on how to use the Internet to sell services). NOTE: click here to see how my support of Larry's site is featured as an example to webmasters.

I followed Sharon Fling's recommendation to collect email addresses. I offered a free eBook (see the "Your Four Steps" navigation tab) to those who provided my their email address. After the EXPO I followed up with a personalized thank you email (using Mailloop Business Automation Software⁴) to each of the 55 visitors giving them instructions on how to receive their gift e-Book and that I had added them to my next newsletter distribution list (and would be giving them an opportunity to say no to receiving it). 

Several visitors to my booth indicated serious interest in either partnering with me or using my services to improve their business results.⁵ The Home Business Ideas bottom line: helping others use the Internet to grow local business is a viable and useful business-to-business service to offer.⁶ Click here to request additional information. End Case Study.

I look forward to seeing you on another of our many home business ideas pages.

Best of success,

Richard Dowell

President, Best Managers on the Net
www.BestManagers.Net

We are a business consulting, training and development company dedicated to helping good managers and their companies prosper by reaching for the top.

¹Home Business Ideas recommendation: start by setting up your own web business following the steps provided by Ken Evoy in his FREE Service Sellers Masters Course. Take a look at the Success Stories tab to get a feel for some of the things others have done with great results -- even part time. Once you are in the "one new page a day" mode, you then can start to marketing your consulting advice to others. Of course, if you find yourself as successful as has Rupert (see the Success Stories tab), you may wish to keep on opening new sites of your own rather than helping others in your local area.

²You can link to my review and a get FREE sample of Sharon's book here.

³ Home Business Ideas comment: before Larry switched to his present sales landing page site the site I developed was 58 unique visitors a day and he was signing up 2-3 new persons a week to his weekly newsletter. Note: I am the student who agreed to help him use the Internet to promote his business. That help launched me on my present career path.

⁴ Home Business Ideas comment: Mailloop is a very powerful business automation product. You can also use it to support your consulting business by providing email list and newsletter distribution services. It also supports online order fulfillment and e-products distribution. It comes with an excellent set of instructional videos. I keep it running in the background on my XP computer with DSL internet service. NOTE: I recently used Mailloop to develop a solution to a request from a client. I had included a membership application form on my local Navy League Council website (www:/NavyLeagueCharleston.org). The membership chair requested that I set up an autoresponder to welcome a new member and to instruct how to pay local dues. I set it up for the completed membership form to be sent both to the membership chairman and to a separate mailbox. I then set up a Mailloop email account that would search incoming messages, select the first email address in the body, then send out the autoresponder message. Easy to do and it provides a great service making the Council website much effective.

⁵ Home Business Ideas comment: I set up the page and am hosting it on my web site using a redirected URL. I charged a small fee and hope to help him be successful so that we can do more business together. NOTE: Larry set up another landing page and I no longer host his site. I wonder how he will get any traffic.

⁶ Home Business Ideas comment: By just saying "my business is helping others use the Internet to achieve better results" will uniquely define you in the business services industry.  I am in the process of deploying two new services (with substantial income potential) by applying this vision to modify services I have offered in the past. For more information/support complete the form below and join my TEAM (at the bottom of the page).

Go to Best Business Online overview page from home business ideas.