The Internet has become a huge market place, and the recent explosion in online retailing and e-commerce prove it.

Merchants now have access to a world wide consumer base (no longer limited by their geographical location). People have become comfortable buying on the Internet and are looking for products from all over the world 24 hours a day -- think of the different time zones. The total number of Internet users now stands at about 500 million and it is estimated that by the year 2005, this number will triple. Imagine this number of people in the world as your prospect customers or e-customers to be precise. This is a very powerful concept!

Anyone with a computer and access to the Internet with basic skills can setup a home based business and tap into this huge market and sell virtually anything they wanted right from their home or anywhere they have Internet access.

Many have taken advantage of the Internet's power; they are working at home using the Internet's many work at home opportunities. You don't have to quit your job to start your own home business.

So what e-business can you start? how much money is needed to start?

Before being a huge market place, the Internet, since it's inception, is the place for Information. People surf the big net looking for Information even when they are looking for a product to buy online, they are looking for Information on that product before they buy it.

There are many home e-business ideas you can explore. It all depends on how much time and money you want to invest to start your own small e-business. The key is to start very small with as little money as possible. Anything come to mind? you got it; selling Information is a great idea that cost little to no money to prepare into an e-product and sell it.

Selling Information or e-products has many advantages. You won't need products to stock, no warehouse, no office space, no employees, no merchant accounts, no shipping (instant delivery), and you don't need to go open your store every day. You can go to work if you like and let your small e-business run virtually unattended. Selling e-products is the perfect fit for the Internet.

Your e-product can be in the form of e-book that is downloadable instantly or it can be in the form of membership based website where you set-up a protected directory with your HTML pages in it.

You are not limited by a certain type of Information product. You just need to think about one that will fit the reality of the Internet. For example, you might be a programmer. You can sell your knowledge in programming plus develop your own application software and sell it. Actually, you wil have an edge here since Information products come only second to Software products in terms of demand and sales.

Another way of using Information to generate income is to become an affiliate with as many companies as you choose. You can set-up a free website about needed information and put your affiliation links for people to click on. The more visitors to your site, the more money you get from commission.

You can work your way up to becoming what is called a Super Affiliate. Super Affiliates make thousands of dollars each month by choosing the right affiliate program once their web sites reach traffic count of thousands of visitors every month.

It is not as easy as "build it and they will come", but is certainly possible. If others could do so can you.

The key here is to get as much knowledge about starting your own eBiz as possible. As the saying goes, "knowledge is power" very true, but "knowledge with ACTION is much more powerful". Your action should be fast for example: more and more search engines are starting to charge for web site submission. Some are still free, but not for long so you need to act fast.

How much money is needed to start?

Not a lot, there are one time fees and recurring fees. You may choose to create your own e-book, and to do that, you will need e-book compiler software at a one time fee of as little as $29. Your domain name and hosting fees which are anywhere from $50 to $100 annually, are about your only recurring fees. If you choose to set-up a membership site, then you can choose not to buy the e-book compiler software thus reducing your start-up costs. That's about all the money you will need to pay. The Information itself will be coming from your brain unless you elect to resell other people's e-products given the proper resell rights.