Select a program that uses a 1up or 2up system.  A 1up or 2up system works similar to direct sales but also enables you to leverage yourself.  Fore example, let’s suppose you made a sale to Bob, he is your personal sale.  Bob now needs to make 2 sales to qualify.  Bob goes out and makes a sale to Chris and Karen.  Because Chris and Karen are Bob’s qualifying sales, the 2 sales are passed up to you (Bob’s sponsor).  Bob is now qualified and can start earning from his personal sales.  Chris and Karen now have to go out and get their 2 sales to qualify.  Whatever Chris and Karen sell also gets passed up to you until they are qualified.

Having a great program with all the bells and whistles is great.  The main reason most people fail in the home based business industry is because they do not know how to drive traffic to their website.  You could have the best payment plan and business model available; however you will not make a dime until you learn how to market your product.  Many 1up and 2up systems offer excellent ad-packs that allow the user to pay for premium marketing which usually results in sales.  Not to mention these systems will teach and train anyone how to become a successful online marketer.

Throughout my research I have found many systems that offer the 1up and 2up model.  Some are more expensive than others, but most of them contain the same information whether you paid $300, $1,000 or $4,000 for a home business.

It felt as though 5 minutes passed by before any one said a word.  I could tell that not one person knew their niche.  I expected this.  In fact most hopeful net entrepreneurs miss this very important first step.  Choosing your niche.

It is so easy to get caught up in technical details, marketing, cash-flow charts and such, but what good is stressing about those concerns when no niche is chosen?  It’s like putting the cart before the horse.  Step 1 in creating an online business road map to success is defining your niche.

Websters.com defines a niche as a situation or activity specially suited to a person’s interests, abilities, or nature.  It also says a niche is a special area of demand for a product or service.  A niche is a target market.  It is focused, not broad.

Here are a few examples of niches: golfing for women, hot rods of the 1970’s, Greek desserts, and organic herb gardening.  Here are examples of topics that are not niches: golf, cars, food or gardening.  Do you see how a niche is focused and a topic is broad?

Determining your niche is the first step to producing a successful online business.  Your business should be built around 1 niche.  Your products or services should provide solutions to problems or concerns within your niche.  Your site content should provide information about your niche.  Creating an online business around your niche helps you rank better at search engines, positions you as an expert, and creates buzz in your industry.

Here are a few simple questions to help define your niche:

- What are your hobbies?

- What experiences/skills have you collected through school and jobs?

- What is your biggest passion in life?

- What hobby/experience/skill/passion would you enjoy building a business around?

- Have you often been told by people that you should go into business doing a particular thing?  For example, sell your famous muffin mix or sell your web design services.

My best advice is to choose a niche that you are passionate about.  Building a business takes effort and patience.  You will have a much harder time motivating yourself through the difficult periods of business if you dislike your niche.  So choose wisely.

Follow your gut and pick the best niche for you.  Income will follow where passion and hard work lead.  Begin researching your niche industry and then move forward with your plans.

A successful online business road map will look something like this:

- Choose niche.

- Research industry.  Find problems people have in that niche.

- Brainstorm a service or product to solve people’s problems, or become an affiliate for an existing product/service.

- Choose a hosting company that provides everything you need in one low cost price.  A good hosting company will provide support, easy page building, traffic analysis, search engine optimization, ability to create a newsletter and RSS feed and much more.  Check out my site to see who I use for my online business.

- Begin building your site around your niche.