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This question remains unanserwed, in the minds of many. Today, however, i will be analyzing the various businesses you could do on the internet as a student, day-worker, stay-at-home-mom etc. No matter what your occupation is, there is a room for you in this ever expanding market place called the internet.
There are several legitimate businesses on the internet and of course you know there are fruadulent onces too(stay clear from such). A brief introduction to some of these businesses before we go into details will suffix.

1. A website which sells your own products.

2. Affiliate Marketing and Multi Level Marketing(MLM)

3. FOREX

4. Google Adsense

5. HYIP


1. Your own website that sells your own products:

Here, you have your own product that you sell to the whole world through your website. These products could be anything from art works, foods, home videos, software etc. The list is endless, so long as an item could be sold in the open market, you can also sell it online. What ever your product may be, the internet is the best place to market it to the whole world. More on this later!


2. Affiliate Marketing and MLM:
Affiliate Business programs are the best and 'easiest' business to start making money on the internet. Affiliate programs and MLM programs are similar but slightly different. An affiliate program is where you help someone sell their product for a commission by promoting the website link embedded with your unique code. It's just like you being a sales man for their product in the real world and earning commission for selling their product. Most merchants(website owners) pay between 30%-75% commission.

An MLM is similer to the offline business of GNLD or forever living products. Here, you make money by selling the companies product & you earn some percentage of the proceeds of people whom you recruited into the organisation. To get guaranteed checks every month, you would have to maintane a specific sales value point by either selling your products or buying product from your own store. An example of MLM is www.SFImg.com


3. FOREX:
This business was exclusivly reserved for the rich and big banks. But today, with the advent of the internet, a lot of individuals are now actively involved in it. It's basically about you trading currencies on the internet. The currencies most frequently traded are: Dollars, Euro, Pounds & the Japanese yen. They are always paired e.g dollar/euro dollar/yen euro/dollar etc. What happens is that when you buy the dollar/euro pair, for example, you buy the dollar at a cheap price & sell short the euro in anticipation that the dollar would rise in value.

4. Google: Adsense:
Google is presently the world's biggest and best search engine for searching for any product or informition. You can share in the profits of google and make real money if you have a website or blog by placing google advertisement on your website or blog.
To do this, all you have to do is go to www.Adsense.google.com and open a free account. From there, you will be given a unique code where you can place google adverts on your website. If you don't have a website, you can create your own blog for free by going to www.blogger.com
If anybody clicks on the add on your website or blog, google.com will pay you for the click. However, if you click on the ad on your website or blog and google.com gets to know, your account will be deleted & banned.
5. HYIPS:
HYIP stands for High Yield Investment Programs. These are companies that require you to deposit a certain amount with them, with the believe that this funds would be invested in high yeild investments such as forex, bonds & other financial instruments. While this might be true with some of them, this is totally not the case with 95% of these online investment programs. Majority of these HYIPs are actually Ponzi Schemes or Scams. Ponzi Schemes are investment programs where older members are paid from deposits made by new member, leaving these new members with nothing. In the HYIP world, there are actually some genuine HYIP programs but the problem lies in being able to actually differentiate these genuine programs from the scams, since 95% of HYIP programs out there are scams. Most people are usually attracted to this kind of investment because of the very high Return On Investment (ROI). For instance, some HYIPs have plans that promise to pay investors as high as 200% in 2days, with just a minimum deposit of $1. However, most of these programs are scams, stay away from them.

Before setting up your internet business, there are a couple of things you need to understand. Most poeple actually fail to realize that the sole reason why their internet businesses are still underperforming, is because they have failed to keep these rules. Because of the very lucrative nature of this business, more than half of those setting-up internet businesses actual think its a 'just get a blog, put a couple of things there and bang, the cash starts rolling in' thing. This is what i call the herd mentality. Do not get caught up in that way of thinking. Before you set off, you must understand the following facts:
1. You need to decide the
amount of time you are going
to spend on the business. Like any other business offline, the amount of time you spend working on your internt business is very crucial. Not only does it go a long way in determining how much profit you realize in the long run, it also influences the quality of your business. This fact is of great importance, particularly in the early days or months of setting up your business.
2. You need to decide on a particular business. You need to have a primary business model that you know you have an intrest in, one that suits your goals. Having a primary business model does not mean you cannot get involved in other businesses. If you must make significant progress(in a financial sense, that is), you need to have multiple streams of income. So combining your primary business model with other forms of internet business is the reasonable thing to do. But be careful not to get involved in too many things so you don't loose focus.
3. Ensure that you have the right equipment for the job. The basic equipment for this job is a computer and a high speed internet connection. I say a high speed internet connection so you don't have any problems with uploads as well as downloads. Also, you need your workspace situated in a conducive environment so you can think properly. As your business grows, you will begin to see the need for more equipments. This fact cannot be overemphasized.
4. Do a good search on the internet and see what others are doing. This is not so you can copy them, but for you to see what they have going for them and what mistakes you think they are making(do a constructive criticisim). Then see how you can come up with something better. This is the stage of thinking out of the box.
5. Finally, you need to constantly work on yourself. This is important because the quality of your output is a function of what you have within. Its not just enough to have the talents. You need to work on your talents so you can remain productive and stay in business.

Having listed some of the businesses you can do online, for now, we shall be focusing on AFFILIATE MARKETING AND FOREX TRADING.BUT FIRST, WHAT SHOULD YOU SET OFF TO DO?
SHOULD IT BE MAKING MONEY ON THE INTERNET? OR
BUILDING AN INTERNET BUSINESS?


Obviously, the answer is BUILDING AN INTERNET BUSINESS. The reason most people fail in their efforts to make a living off the internet is that they set off on the wrong footing. They set off with this notion of ‘I WANT TO MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET’ and that is why they easily become victims of the numerous SCAM PROGRAMS online. For any one who wants to be successful in the world of internet business, this should be your initial aim I WANT TO BUILD AN INTERNET BUSINESS, then making money should come second.

One of the things you’ll be needing as you venture into the world of internet business, is a means of receiving and sending cash. I advice you open an account with these two payment processorsALERTPAY and PAYPAL
They are the most popular and widely used payment processors on the internet.



WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?
Simply put, Affiliate Marketing is the promotion of other people's products by a third-party(you, the affiliate), in exchange for commission-based compensation. More on affiliate marketing later.

INTRODUCTION TO FOREX

The Foreign Exchange Market — better known as Forex — is a world wide market for buying and selling currencies. It handles a huge volume of transactions 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Daily exchanges are worth approximately $1.5 trillion (US dollars). In comparison, the United States Treasury Bond market averages $300 billion a day and American stock markets exchange about $100 billion a day.

The Foreign Exchange Market was established in 1971 with the abolishment of fixed currency exchanges. Currencies became valued at 'floating' rates determined by supply and demand. The Forex grew steadily throughout the 1970's, but with the technological advances of the 80's Forex grew from trading levels of $70 billion a day to the current level of $1.5 trillion.

The Forex is made up of about 5000 trading institutions such as international banks, central government banks (such as the US Federal Reserve), and commercial companies and brokers for all types of foreign currency exchange. There is no centralized location of Forex — major trading centers are located in New York, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, and Frankfurt, and all trading is by telephone or over the Internet. Businesses use the market to buy and sell products in other countries, but most of the activity on the Forex is from currency traders who use it to generate profits from small movements in the market.

Even though there are many huge players in Forex, it is accessible to the small investor thanks to recent changes in the regulations. Previously, there was a minimum transaction size and traders were required to meet strict financial requirements. With the advent of Internet trading, regulations have been changed to allow large interbank units to be broken down into smaller lots. Each lot is worth about $100,000 and is accessible to the individual investor through 'leverage' — loans extended for trading. Typically, lots can be controlled with a leverage of 100:1 meaning that US$1,000 will allow you to control a $100,000 currency exchange.

There are many advantages to trading in Forex.

— Liquidity — Because of the size of the Foreign Exchange Market, investments are extremely liquid. International banks are continuously providing bid and ask offers and the high number of transactions each day means there is always a buyer or a seller for any currency.

— Accessibility — The market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The market opens Monday morning Australian time and closes Friday afternoon New York time. Trades can be done on the Internet from your home or office.

— Open Market — Currency fluctuations are usually caused by changes in national economies. News about these changes is accessible to everyone at the same time — there can be no 'insider trading' in Forex.

— No commission — Brokers earn money by setting a 'spread' — the difference between what a currency can be bought at and what it can be sold at.

How does it work?

Currencies are always traded in pairs — the US dollar against the Japanese yen, or the English pound against the euro. Every transaction involves selling one currency and buying another, so if an investor believes the euro will gain against the dollar, he will sell dollars and buy euros.

The potential for profit exists because there is always movement between currencies. Even small changes can result in substantial profits because of the large amount of money involved in each transaction. At the same time, it can be a relatively safe market for the individual investor. There are safeguards built in to protect both the broker and the investor and a number of software tools exist to minimize loss.


Now having given a brief introduction, we shall proceed to explain some of the terms frequently used in the trade. They include:

LOTS:
Can also be referred to as volume or quantity.

ASK PRICE:
The ASK price is the price at which you’re willing to BUY

BID PRICE:
The BID price is the price at which you’re willing to SELL

ENTRY PRICE
This is the price at which you choose to take a position in the market.

CURRENCY PAIRS:
This refers to the pair(s) of currency been traded, you can’t pair two same currencies with another (e.g. USD/USD- is impossible) you can only pair two different currencies (e.g. EUR/USD). Note that: paired currencies are currencies that are paired with the USD while those not paired with the USD are referred to as CROSS CURRENCY (e.g. EUR/CHF) or CROSS PAIRS.
Note: The commonly traded currencies includes: USD, EUR, and GBP. And you can’t just trade any currency, you can only trade currencies provided by your BROKER*

Note: BUYING AND SELLING CURRENCY PAIRS; simultaneous actions are taken on every currency pairs. When you take a BUY action on one currency, you’re simultaneously taking a SELL action on the currency paired with it, and vice-versa. (e.g. when you have EUR/USD – if you Buy EUR then you are equally Selling USD and vice-versa).

CURRENCIES YOU SHOULD FOCUS on:
USD – US dollars, EUR – Euro, CHF – Swiss Franc, GBP – Great British Pounds, JPY – Japanese yen, CAD – Canadian dollars, AUD – Australian Dollar, NZD – New Zealand Dollar.
Though the most commonly traded currencies are: USD, EUR, and GBP.

BASE CURRENCY/ COUNTER CURRENCY:
The currency before the slash ( / ) is the BASE currency while that after the slash is the Counter currency (i.e. EUR/USD – where EUR is the base currency and USD is the counter currency).In a simplified sense, the currency on the left portion of the slash / is the BASE currency and the currency to the right of the slash / is the counter currency.

MARGIN:
The MARGIN refers to the actual amount (in monetary terms) you invested with your Broker*. i.e. the amount of money really invested in trading FOREX. It’s referred to as the Performance band or Good faith deposit to insure against total loss of your account in case of loss arising from trading in the market. It can also be said to be the amount required in your account before you can control a MINI account ( $200 - $500) or a MICRO account or a STANDARD or REAL account ( $1000 – above) this amount is referred to as your MARGIN.

SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE LEVEL:
The support level or point, is the point where the market trend retains its movement and continues in its initial direction while the resistance level or point is the point where the market trend changes from its initial position to take another course ( e.g. if the market trend is buy and it keeps moving to a tagged position usually the entry point and it gets to this point and continues its movement in the buy direction, the point of entry it gets to before continue in that same direction is the support level or point while the resistance level is when the market while taking a buy trend gets to a point or level where it changes course and takes a SELL trend, the point at which it changes course is the resistance point.

PIPS:
Price Interest Points – it is used to measure actual profit position (pips X volume or lots size = Actual amount)

BULL MARKET: This describes a situation where the market price is going up. At this point a trader should “go long” (i.e. BUY), refers to the currency pairs that’s rising continuously most of the time.

BEAR MARKET: This is the direct opposite of the bullish trend we have in the bull market; this is characterized with the continuous fall in price of a particular pair of currency, at this point a trader should “go short” (i.e. SELL).

LEVERAGE: We can simplify this by saying it’s the loan given by the Broker to an individual trader to enable him/her get into the market. Since an individual can not enter the market with a small amount of money the broker receives the small MARGIN* deposit and gives the individual trader leverage. This is why an individual is allowed to trade forex, with a small deposit of money with your broker, you can make reasonable profits as a result of the leverage granted by the broker, it’s more or less like a loan given to the trader to enable him/her trade forex. It is advisable, as a beginner to use a small leverage level, in order to minimize risk and manage money properly like say (100:1).

STOP LOSS:
The stop loss concept is very very important when placing orders, it’s a point where, if after taking a position, say BUY and after entering the market, the market changed trend and went short i.e decided to SELL instead, since you won’t want to exit the market immediately knowing the trend might still change a STOP LOSS, will help minimize the loss that might be incurred in case of a very volatile change of trend, this keeps your loss in check and automatically exit the market at the set price, so you won’t need to close the order and start facing other problems while your money sinks, it’s a very very important money management tool. your trade automatically closes when it gets to the stop loss exit price set by you, this keeps your loss in a moderate position.

TAKE PROFIT:
The take profit concept is another important tool; the market order automatically closes after reaching the set profit target set by the trader, this is another profit management technique, before taking a position (buy or sell) you should have a profit target you intend to take out of the market, you set the take profit to the level of this profit target and the market order is automatically closed when this profit level is attained, which prevent loss of acquired profit in case of reversal in market trend.
Note however that, you can manually exit the market even before the loss reaches the stop loss point and you can close the trade before the profit level is also reached.

GOING LONG and GOING SHORT:
When you go long, it means you’re BUYING, also when you go short, you’re SELLING.

CONSOLIDATION/RANGING and FLAT:
This is a situation where the market trend remains fixed or static, i.e. constant, there’s no movement in market trend, either because the market is closed or there’s little or no activity in the market.

SPREAD:
This is the difference between the ASK and BID price, ASK price less BID price = SPREAD, the spread is usually charged by the broker instead of charging commission. Usually the spreads are different between respective currency pairs (e.g. the EUR/USD under Alpari is 2 (two) and so many others).

EXCHANGE RATE:
An exchange rate is the rate at which one currency exchange for another, i.e. how many units of a currency is required to get a unit of another currency e.g. how many units of dollar is needed to purchase one unit of euro, how much naira you need to get one dollar e.t.c.

OPENING POSITIONS and CLOSING POSITIONS:
When you open a position, you take a decision to BUY or SELL though this is after putting into proper consideration whether o buy or sell, the you can either open a Buy or SELL position at a particular entry price, i.e. placing a new order. While closing positions as the name implies is the direct opposite of opening positions, in this case you have decided to exit or close the placed order at a price different from the initial entry price i.e. you are closing the place order and exiting the market.

BROKERS: you’d have to choose a broker because , you can only reach the FX market through a broker, there are several of them , with different minimum deposit level and different requirements for registration, and different services on their platform , in choosing a broker, you should consider the following:
No charging of commission
A very good trading platform with versatile and diverse functionality.
Low spread charges
Provides free forex training and materials
Effective news update
Guaranteed that placed orders will be effected
A single universal account combining all types of account.
Provides up to date information on happenings (NEWS)

PLATFORM:
This in the main screen that displays happenings on the market and enable you carry out transactions and run technical analysis of the market, with so many other functions you’d be learning in the course of these tutoring. This is where the main trading is carried out, brokers have different platform functions and that’s what makes them different and unique, the Forexyard platform for example is loaded with great functions but I’d advise you use ALPARI because they provide all the above listed functions and the Alpari MT4 platform is very very versatile and easy to use.

SLIPPAGE:
This refers to a situation where your placed order will be executed or entered into the market at a price different from the price you intended it to enter, there might be divergences in form of one, two or five pips differences as a result of some server or network, when this happens, it is referred to as slippage.

ACCOUNT TYPES:
Although this is diverse as regards different brokers but basically a MINI account requires a minimum deposit of at least $200 to $500 while a REGULAR/STANDARD or REAL account requires a minimum deposit of at least $1000 and above.