The dream of running your own home business has never been more possible. This is due to the many opportunities and advantages the Internet provides today. Let’s briefly go over a few of the advantages home based businesses online provide.1. You can stay at home and run your business. In reality anywhere that you have a computer with Internet access you can run your business. It just happens to be that most people will set up a home office and start their Internet business that way.2. Direct sales opportunities have become real home-based businesses. In the past a direct sales opportunities such as Tupperware were run on a party plan where you went into other people’s homes.The same thing was true for other direct sales businesses such as Avon and Amway. You can still run your business that way if you choose to. But many direct sales companies now provide excellent websites that allow you to set up an ecommerce business and stay at home and do it.3. Training is readily available for internet marketing. This is one of the great things about running a home based business online. You will need to drive traffic to your website, but learning how to do that can be done online as well.You do not need to go to training meetings or read books or tapes. Your home business has a great opportunity to be successful because everything you really need to learn how to do can be accessed right on the Internet.4. Join affiliate programs and sell physical products. Amazon.com is one of the largest online companies in the world.They also have a free affiliate program you can join giving you access to thousands of products to start selling right away. You do not have to stock the inventory or even ship the product.And all of the collections are done by Amazon as well. You can concentrate on advertising and marketing since you get paid for the sales you make.5. Sell digital information. Another great way to use the Internet to make money from home is by marketing information products which are always in demand.ClickBank.com offers an excellent digital information affiliate program you can join for free. This gives you access to ebooks you can sell and make commissions of as high as 75% on.Home based businesses online have several advantages. You never run out of products to sell, yet you can do it from the comfort of your own home with your computer and Internet access.

Every now and then persons trying to make up their minds where to put their money ask me if real estate ventures are more or less profitable, compared to other businesses opportunities around.

My response is always that apart from its potential for yielding significant profits, investing in real estate often confers long terms benefits.

I discuss five such advantages below:

1. You Can Refurbish (to Enhance the Value of) Real Estate
After you buy a stock, you hold it for a period of time and hopefully sell it for a profit. The success of the stock depends on company management and their corporate success, which is out of your control.

Unlike other conventional investment instruments, like stocks, for instance, whose rate of returns, depend on third parties (e.g. company management), real estate investments are directly under your control.

Even though you will not be able to control changes that may occur in demographic and economic aspects, or impact of nature induced changes, there are many other aspects that you can control, to boost the returns on your investment in it.

Examples include aspects relating to adding repairs, or improvements/enhancements to the physical property and tenants you allow to live in it.

If you do it right, the value of your investment will grow, resulting in increased wealth for you.

2. Real Estate Investing, When Done Right, is Proven to be Profitable Even During a Recession (like the one we’re in right now)
It has on several occasions, been used to effect a bail out, from financial setbacks, such as those that many have experienced during the economic downturn happening in Nigeria today.

A considerable number of clients have confided in me that due to the present economic situation, they are not sure of profitable channels to invest their money. Some of them are done with bonds and treasury bills, but are in dire need of a new investment.

We had extensive discussions, and based on my expertise as a real estate consultant, I recommended landed property investment, as the most suitable and secure alternative channel of investment.

This is because, even if all businesses crumble, land will always appreciate greatly. Then to drive my point home, I ended by sharing the following apt quote, by a former American president:

“Real estate can’t be lost, nor carried away, managed with reasonable care, it’s about the safest investment in the world” – Franklin Roosevelt.
Not surprisingly, the client chose to take my advice – and signed up: it was the obvious, common sense thing to do!

3. Real Estate Investments Are Immune to Inflation
In other words, investing your money in ownership of viable real estate can protect you from the harsh effects that inflation usually has on other conventional investments.

This is because the value of real estate generally tends to rise in positive correlation with inflationary pressures. This is why property values and rental rates go up with rising inflation.

The nature of real estate, therefore affords owners the unique advantage of being able to adjust the rates they offer, to match inflation.

Monthly rents for example can be raised to compensate for inflation – thus providing a cushion effect against inflation induced losses that other monetary investments suffer.

4. Real Estate is Uniquely for Being Universally Acceptable as Collateral, Towards Securing Funding from Banks
Today, real estate in form of either building or lands, with proper titles (i.e. Certificate of Occupancy – aka “C of O”) is the most recognized and accepted form of collateral in Nigeria – and some other parts of the world.

It has the unique feature of being able to protect the interests of both the borrower and the bank (that’s doing the lending), so that funds can be released i.e. after due verification, and terms and conditions are agreed.

This is one of the key advantages a private C of O has over the global C of O, because the former (i.e. private C of O) is what will be needed by the intending borrower, in the event of any future financial dealings with bank in Nigeria.

5. Real Estate Investing Allows Use of Other People’s Money
In other words, you can do it even if you do not have enough money. You just need to know how.

This is possible because real estate is physical property or what is called a hard asset. That is an attribute that makes it attractive to financiers i.e. people with money to invest.

This is why many times real estate products are bought with debt – unlike conventional investment products like stocks which are NOT tangible, and therefore perceived as being more risky to invest in.

So real estate investment can be done using cash or mortgage financing. In the latter case, payments can be so arranged to allow payment of low initial sums, provided by you or a willing third party.

Those payments will be happening on landed property which will continue increasing in value throughout the duration of such payments – and indeed beyond. That further inspires confidence in the minds of those financing the acquisition, that their investment is safe.

Little wonder that real estate investing has continued to prosper for so long!

[A WORD OF CAUTION] The listed benefits notwithstanding, I still tell prospective investors that due diligence is a crucial requirement for succeeding.

Whether you do everything yourself or use industry professionals like me, it is imperative that you exercise caution and arm yourself with relevant information and education.

This is something I advice my clients to do all the time, so they can make good decisions in investing.

The importance of the above cannot be overstated, especially in Lagos where quite a number of individuals, have had their fingers badly burnt, because they failed to take the needed precautions.

My purpose is to help clients avoid having such horrible experiences, by bringing my years of experience in this field to bear in serving them.

Product creation in Internet marketing is getting stiffer and stiffer nowadays owing to tough competition between Internet-based businesses. Putting up a new product requires plenty of brainpower and finances along with an ability to take risk. With that, even if you have the product well-set already, you have to position it strategically in the Internet landscape for others to notice. You should get the interest of Web users and turn them to actual customers. Aside from the usual physical products, many different products that thrive well on Internet marketing include E-books, membership sites, and video lectures.

The long and difficult process of product creation begins with ideas. They are easy to get – compared to the effort that comes with analyzing the market for that idea. Before the idea turns to a product, businesses often spend money, even amounting to millions of dollars, to ensure the success of the new product that emerges from an idea. Businesses undertake many types of market research and surveys before releasing their products to the public. Now, you may think that because your business is small, you can’t afford research or you don’t have to do research; you can and you should. The Internet allows you to disseminate materials needed for your market study to many people at once without your having to spend a cent.

It is a common maxim in business: Look at your destination first before mapping out your journey. So what are the goals you intend to accomplish with your product creation ventures? The everyday travails of your business may make you forget the end in sight. On the other hand, prepare to entertain new developments that come to your mind in your product creation. Your conception of a product may have started this way, but a few tweaks here and there along with some market research results and it ends up another way. Take it as the result of a creative process, not as a failure to reach your goal. After all, your product creation activities are intertwined with a long-term goal that you should strive to sustain at your utmost: profit generation. So if your less profitable initial idea evolves to a more profitable product, be thankful!

With your product made up already, start doing some aggressive Internet marketing. A product purchase typically comes after more than five times a customer is exposed to an informative call-to-buy message. Thus it is important to get the contact details, like the e-mail address, of potential customers who are on the brink of a sale. Use the results of your market research to determine the demographics to which you should concentrate your marketing efforts.

With consistent product creation, you can make an inventory of your products that you can market in due time. Just keep making products – the moment you succeed in making and marketing a product, customers are surely wanting more from you, so give it to them. Keep them on your side through constant product creation.