Many people are intrigued with getting a home based online business started. The problem is they don’t know where to start. They know a website is needed and getting customers to buy whatever it is they are selling is a must. But beyond that, most people new to business are left in the dark.

So where exactly do you start? What is the very first thing you need to do in order to get the ball rolling? Well, before you even jump in and get going, you need to do some research and planning. You need to figure out exactly what kind of business you want to have. You also need to find out if the market supports what you want to do.

Are you starting a business that offers a service? Is there a demand for the kind of service you want to offer? Do you want to sell information products? Physical products? Both? To whom are you going to sell them?

If you want to sell information about dog’s or dating, you need to do your research and find a niche within the market that you can sell to. Just trying to sell a product in the “dog” market won’t get you very far.

You should drill down farther and look into possibly selling something about dog training, or dog health. You can even drill farther than that and get more specific. For instance you can check into “Bulldog training” or “Bulldog health.”

The best way to research your market is by doing keyword research. There are a few good free tools on the internet you can use. You can use the Google AdWords keyword tool for instance. This tool is good for finding keywords that people are searching for on the internet. It’s pretty self-explanatory so you shouldn’t have much trouble.

What you are looking for is a keyword where people are searching for a solution to a problem. So if you type in “dog training” and click on “exact match type” it will bring back keywords with that exact search phrase. The reason you are doing this at first is to make sure there is actually a viable market for your business. If people are searching for it, then it’s a real good possibility you’ll be able to make money within that market.

Once you have found a viable market, you then need to decide what it is you’re going to offer them. This depends on the demand. What is your markets problem? What are they hungry for? Is it some kind of physical product or are they looking for information?

It’s important you focus on what your market wants and not what you want to offer it. People don’t care what you have to offer unless it solves their problem or fulfills a need. You could create the greatest information product in the world about underwater basket weaving and if there isn’t a demand for that kind of product, you won’t make any money at all.

Once you decide on your market and what it is they are starving for, you have some choices to make. Are you going to create a product for your market? If so, is it an information product or a physical product? If it’s an information product, are you able to write the product yourself or are you going to have to hire someone to create it? How much money can you spend to have it created for you?

If it’s a physical product, the same holds true. Are you going to create it yourself or hire someone? Do you have a large enough budget to have the product manufactured by someone? How will you deliver the product to those who buy it? How much will it cost to ship the product? How will you store your products before they are sold?

These issues are just the beginning of how you get your online business started. Again there is a lot of planning and research that needs to be done before you even create a website and start selling a product.

Too many people decide they are going to start an online business and then get messed up because they didn’t take the time to plan. Obviously there is more to planning and research than what I have mentioned. This is just to get you started. But if you take action and start with what I just explained, you will be on the right path to becoming successful.