3 Free Places to Start an Online Business

According the the United States Small Business Administration, more than 600,000 new businesses are formed each year. Of all of those start-ups, only a small percentage ever takes off and succeeds. Staying at home while making at least a decent living is the ultimate American dream, or really a goal for anyone who has other priorities they feel they would like to pursue. The old saying that "You'll never get ahead working for someone else." is very true. It is difficult at best, to know how to start any online venture these days. The niche you carve out really depends on your own talents as far as what your product will be. There is always a need for something, no matter what it is. You may be wondering what sells the most, but this is really a matter of opinion and depends upon the individual. If you have access to wholesale sources for merchandise, that is always a good thing to incorporate for the supplies you need. Drop shippers and wholesalers are good to have access to for those that don't make the items they will be selling. All you need is a computer, web camera, internet access and some free time each day for your business. When starting a business from home, you don't want to or have much money to spend on advertising as larger ones do. The great news is that you don't have to. There are several sources online that you can use to sell your goods for free, so let's take a look at these.

Craigslist.org is a centralized network of online groups, where users can search or post free classifieds in various different categories. The company was founded in 1995 and has established itself in over 50 countries. So this is one good place to start with posting your items for sale. You'll want to begin by creating an account, and posting your information to the community board in your area. This is always a good idea, because you're posting your new business up for people to see who are close to where you live. This can get you faster sales, and save your time and money with shipping. The groups and community posts seem to stay up longer than the items for sale in the classifieds sections as well. There's no overhead cost to use this website, you can reach tons of potential customers, and you can do it all from the comfort of your own home for free.

Myspace.com is a huge social network founded in 2003, and odds are that you already have a profile here even if you don't use it much. According to the company, more than 230,000 new user accounts are created each day. With that large of a market, think of all of the potential customers you can find there with the click of a button. The great thing about any social networking interface as elaborate as Myspace.com's is that friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos are all integrated into one simple to use application and presented in your own clean profile. You can post your items for sale, edit content such as pictures and information, and post bulletins about current stock, sale items, or promotions with very little effort. Another great component of Myspace is that you can also post your business and sales items to their classifieds section, allowing you to reach even more customers.

Facebook.com is yet another giant social web that was launched in 2004. This website boasts more than 120 million people joined internationally. On Facebook.com, users can join networks which are organized in categories such as city, workplace, school, and region. The biggest difference between Myspace.com and Facebook.com, is that Myspace is highly customizable compared to Facebook's overall plain text characteristics. Networking and reaching customers, however, is what you're going for here. Therefor, Facebook.com is another wonderful addition to your main website to redirect buyers onto your sales pages. You still have the photos, instant messaging, and comments sections as you do on Myspace.com. Facebook also has something called Marketplace, which is a free classifieds section for posting your items for sale.

With all of these free resources available to begin your new online business, you should be off to a good start. As testament to how well using them works, I created my own business website on Myspace.com. It took under twenty minutes of spare time to create an entire profile, and I already have two potential sales. You can take a look at my resale store called Dawlbaby's Resale at http://www.myspace.com/dawlbabysresale. This will give you a good idea of how simple it is to create your website. My advice as a former Ebay, classifieds, and website seller is that you start at your own pace. Myspace.com is probably the best place to set up your business to start off, due to the ease of use, simple networking, and pleasing look you can give your profile. Next, I would set up a Facebook.com page on which I would place the link to my main page, being Myspace. Then, you will want to post to Craigslist.org and the classifieds sections on the other two respective websites. Remember to take advantage of the Groups sections on websites, where you can join different affiliations targeted toward your desired customers. For example, I have joined CafeMoms on Myspace.com. I am in the business of selling used baby items for low prices, my target customers will be parents, and I can post up a message telling them that my business is there for anyone interested. Using these free platforms available will give you a chance to test the waters of the sales world without the overhead costs and payment limits of Ebay.