So what exactly do you have to do in order to become an affiliate marketer? Simple – just follow our advice and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a super-wealthy affiliate!

Sign Up With An Affiliate Directory. Half the battle of becoming a successful affiliate marketer is finding the right company to align yourself with. That’s why affiliate directories are absolutely indispensable to new marketers, since they offer a convenient marketplace where you can browse affiliate opportunities and take your pick. These marketplaces also offer information on how much you’ll earn as an affiliate, which can help you separate genuine programs from those that aren’t worth your time and effort.

Get Your Own Website. If you’re not keen on shelling out big bucks for your own website, then you can simply hop on over to a Web 2.0 site like Squidoo.com to design your own affiliate site. However, many internet entrepreneurs recommend getting your own website, as this makes you appear more professional than the other affiliates who might be selling the same product. Remember, in order to become an affiliate marketer, you’ll need to be as professional as possible – and your website is the best reflection of how seriously you take yourself as an online entrepreneur!

Start A Blog. Once you’ve got the website, the best way to promote your affiliate’s product is to start a blog devoted to that specific industry. For example, if you’re promoting nutritional supplements, then start a blog devoted exclusively to health and wellness. Make sure your blog posts offer valuable information, but don’t forget to lightly promote your product as well. It’s a surefire recipe for instant internet success!

Get Noticed. Of course, it can take time until pre-qualified traffic finally starts pouring into your website; until then, design and upload banners that promote your affiliate’s product. If you’re not exactly sure how to do this, never fear: there are tons of programs that will upload banners linking back to your site for a fixed price. To propel your affiliate profits through the roof, you’ll need these vital banners in order to capture as many interested clients as possible – which means you’ll be rolling in the dough in no time once you’ve become an affiliate marketer!

The key is to get your product online, where there are hundreds of clients hungry to shell out money for your crafts!

Whether you make jewelry or vintage ornaments, starting your own online craft business doesn’t require a master’s degree in computer programming; in fact, it’s a lot easier than you think! Just follow these tips and techniques, and you’ll be the proud owner of a wealth-generating craft business:

Use Popular Marketing Sites. These days, online marketplaces are the best places to start when establishing your craft business. The majority of these sites are free to use, while some may take a small percentage of your sale to pay for membership fees. Sites like Craigslist.com and Ebay.com are two of the most trafficked websites in the world, which means that you’ll have the opportunity to advertise your crafts to millions of users. Don’t ignore sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, as these social networking sites offer great marketing advantages for online businesses, since you can actively seek potential clients who will be interested in your products.

Start Your Own Site. If you’re keen on starting your own online craft business, you won’t need to shell out hundreds of dollars to a website designer just for the privilege of owning a piece of the internet. Free sites like Squidoo.com offer users the chance to design a web page and then use it for their own purposes. Head over to this website, register your domain name and pat yourself on the back – your business is finally online!

Attract Clients With Fresh Content. Of course, your website won’t be put to any use unless you can attract potential clients to your site. To do so, you need to fill your site with fresh and compelling content that search engines will absolutely love. Start a blog about craft making, update your site with SEO-friendly web content or hire an experienced writer to keep your site continuously updated. Learn the secrets of SEO marketing and copywriting, and you’ll have the potential to attract thousands of visitors to your website every day!

Offer A Compelling Craft. You’re more likely to strike success in the online world of craft making if you offer a product that’s different from everything else that’s out there. If you make jewelry, make it as unique and appealing as possible; if you offer hand-sewn sweaters for dogs, be sure that it looks different from anything else that’s out there. This way, starting your own online craft business will quickly turn into a lucrative venture!

If you don’t have the slightest clue as to how you can start your own interior decorating business, relax: we’ve got the best start-up tips that will have you classified as a successful small business owner in no time at all.

Take A Few Courses. Even the most gifted and discerning eyes need to learn the basics of interior designing in order to helm a business. Enroll in a couple of classes at your local college, where you’ll learn about space planning, decorating styles, window treatments, etc. These classes will help you offer more value to your clients.

Start Off Small. Don’t expect to get a major client right away; instead, offer your services to your friends and family to build a strong foundation to a healthy clientele base. Find family members that are in the middle of a big change (for example, a marriage or a new baby) and offer to decorate the home for the occasion. Once you’ve completed the job, ask if you can use their testimonials to attract more clients.

Make A Portfolio. One effective way to turn a potential client into a lifelong customer is to offer a portfolio that’s stuffed full of beautiful rooms that you’ve designed. Take pictures of your own home, or ask permission of friends and family members that you’ve designed for to use a photo of their home. This will help convince clients of your professionalism, especially if you’re not a well-known interior designer as of yet.

Establish Connections. Another great way to get clients is to network with professionals in your area who can connect you with viable business opportunities. Real estate agents, furniture designers and other professionals all are exposed to individuals who might have the need for an interior designer; get in good with these people, and you’re bound to have a steady flow of clients at your door!

Register Your Business. Be sure that you take the proper legal avenues to register your business for taxing purposes. Check out Legalzoom.com for low-cost options that will have you on the path towards becoming a small business owner in no time.

Never Stop Learning. Once you’ve established yourself as an interior designer, it can be easy to coast along. However, if you want to keep providing your clients with value, never stop learning new designing techniques. Attend trade shows, join professional organizations and take classes on up-and-coming designing trends.

Entertainment Recession Proof Businesses

1. Video Games Sales

Americans purchased $21.33 billion worth of video game systems, software, and accessories in 2008 with hardware sales climbing in December to $1.88 billion. Despite a recession, Americans still enjoy their entertainment options - or perhaps we should say, because of the recession, Americans look toward more entertainment options. As a recession worsens, Americans like to "escape" from reality and find time to play. One recession proof business you can start is a video games sales store - either virtual (on the Internet) or physical (brick and mortar storefront). We recommend focusing on the used game sales market as buyers are still looking for a good deal in a recession-focused economic environment.

2. Movie Support Services

Hollywood has often lay claim to being one of the few recession-proof industries and they have often been proven right. In an economic downturn, people still seek entertainment and movies post excellent revenues despite a souring economy. Are you going to produce the next big movie blockbuster? If so, why are you reading this blog? There is an opportunity to support the movie industry and earn a healthy income. There are movie "centers" throughout the US and providing support services for the studios is an excellent way to earn money in a recession. You should focus on Hollywood, New York City, and Orlando as the primary movie production centers, though movies are produced throughout the US. Movies require dozens of external firms performing services such as equipment rental, extras casting, catering, security, post production work, government relations, and PR. Starting a firm in one of these support areas is a great way to start a recession proof business.

3. Dating Site or Service

People are always looking for love - especially in a recession! In 2008, users spent $1.18 billion on online dating services. According to eMarketer, this is expected to grow to $1.65 billion by 2012. Starting a dating site isn't too complicated these days - you can purchase off-the-shelf software to create your own. A lot of the expected growth will happen in niche topics (affinity topics such as Christian, Jewish, doctors) and we recommend focusing on a niche for your dating site.

Beginning, Middle, and End

4. Consignment Baby Shop

Despite a recession, life begins and moves on. Now is the perfect time to start a consignment baby shop - sell slightly used baby gear, toys, and clothing. People are always looking for a good deal and a baby consignment shop provides an opportunity for people to sell their often slightly used baby gear, and for you to minimize risk by taking it on consignment. You take a portion of the sale and pay when the product moves.

5. Wedding Services

The wedding market is flush with opportunity! You could look at opening a bridal shop, provide catering, and provide wedding services. People spend money on weddings - the average wedding cost over $30,000 in 2008! There are a variety of services you can provide - custom invitations, wedding planning, photography, honeymoon planning, or providing music. There are few things people are willing to spend "whatever it takes" and a wedding is one of them.

6. A Morbid Business

The death business isn't for everyone. Those that can deal with the morbidity stand to earn a healthy return this year. There are several businesses you can perform in this market: operating a funeral home, preparing bodies for burial, or pre-selling burial lots in cemetaries. Some requiring state licensing, but if its in your area of interest, we highly recommend pursuing one of these morbid businesses.

Local Vacation Spots

7. Bed'n'Breakfast

During market contractions like our current recession, people look to vacationing in the local area or a short drive. You can open a bed'n'breakfast in your area to take advantage of these local market vacationers. You can pursue a small bed'n'breakfast or a larger inn if you have the right property. This opportunity is high in capital costs, but can be very lucrative if you have nearby attractions to draw people in.

Retail Opportunities

8. Cosmetics

One of the industries considered recession proof is cosmetics. Women continue to want to look beautiful despite any financial considerations and will continue to spend money on cosmetics. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Avon's net income rose 80%! This strength through a recession makes cosmetics an ideal business to pursue.

9. Home Products

Home products continue to be a strong market through good and bad economies. We recommend starting a distribution company for this market - help move home products from manufacturer to retail. This provides an opportunity to enter a market full of large companies without taking on the expense of launching a home product brand. Another niche in this market is to start a "green" home products business - selling cleaners, paper products, and homegoods which are environmentally friendly.

Despite an economic recession, there many great opportunities for you to start a recession proof business!

Starting a Mobile Automobile Detailing Service Business

Many people do not have the time to find a car wash service and spend 20 minutes to go through it. By providing a mobile service, you can wash, wax, clean, and detail you customer's car at their workplace. Since you will provide a much more thorough car washing service, your client is willing to pay more for the personalized service.

Much of your business will come from repeat and referral customers at workplaces you visit. You can use business cards, flyers, and magnetic signs to market your auto car wash business.

You can also market your services to auto dealers without their own car wash. You can visit the lot on a regular basis and clean all of the cars for sale. This provides a lucrative opportunity for your auto detailing business.

Become a Home Stager

A home staging expert is a combination interior designer, color expert, sales professional, and counselor. You will wear many hats in a home staging business - your end goal is to get the maximum sales value for your client's home.

How do you know if you would be good as a home stager? Answer these questions:

1. Do you enjoy decorating your house?
2. When you are visiting friends and family, are you constantly thinking of how you would design their house?
3. Do you see a fabric and immediately think of the paint colors and furniture that would work well with it?
4. If you walk into a room which isn't purposed correctly (e.g. someone using their dining room as an office), do you imagine how you would use the room properly?
5. Do you enjoy reading home decorating magazines and books?

The goal of the home staging is to stage the home in a way which appeals to the buyers. Once you place your home on the market, it is no longer your home, it now belongs to the home seekers and should be decorated and setup in the most appealing manner.

My wife and I recently sold our home and our dining room was purposed for everything but eating. We had kid's toys, a computer amoire, a playpen, and an old parquet floor. To prepare for our house to be sold, we ripped up the parquet and put in hardwood floors, cleaned out all of the kids' things and purchased an inexpensive table and chairs set. We hung up artwork we already owned and setup the table to look like a formal, modern dinner was about to be served. These changes contributed significantly to our house selling in 2 and 1/2 weeks. In Ohio. In February. In an awful real estate market. Right after the biggest blizzard in years. We went through and staged each room in the house and found success very quickly.

You can help other sellers find the same success through home staging.

What's great about the home staging business is that it is low (to no) investment and you can start as soon as you want! You don't need any formal training, but an eye for interior design is required. You can start the business and market your services to real estate agents and directly to home sellers.

Typically, a home stager is paid an hourly fee to help design and setup the house for sale. Most of the time, you can repurpose existing furniture, artwork, and decorations for the staging process and the home seller does not have to outlay a significant investment. For higher end homes, most realtors will pay your fee as a part of the home selling process.

Help sellers create a picture perfect look for their house and help buyers see themselves living there.

As I browse the hundreds of free business ideas available on ExploreStartups, it strikes me that though we have a lot of great, free information, we do not have the depth necessary to truly understand what it takes to open a business.

Today, we are launching a new store with guides to starting your own business. When we were making a decision whether or not to go this route, we reviewed the options available to entrepreneurs and found most books and ebooks available do not truly paint a complete enough picture for business startup and operation. Most of them were so general that most entrepreneurs would find the information lacking.

In contrast, we want to create guides which truly lead you down the path to business ownership. It isn't enough to simply throw together a document about starting a business - we want you to have the expert advice of people who have gone down the road before you. This expert business advice, combined with templates, forms, and checklists, will help you launch the business of your dreams.

We are pleased to introduce our first product: How to Start and Run a Coffee Shop. This ebook is the culmination of months of research, writing, and editing to produce a book we are proud of. This book is packed with 130 pages (letter size, not some cut down 6" x 9" like the other guys) of expert advice, support, and real world examples to help you start your coffee shop.

Producing this guide first was no surprise for anyone who knows my family: we have had a long time love affair with coffee shops. My wife has managed them, we have produced countless business plans to build our own. Jay Andrews does an excellent job writing a guide which not only shows you how to start your coffee shop, but also how to manage it on a day to day basis - and how to make it a success. This guide shows you how to create a business plan, open your coffee shop, hire and manage employees, write a marketing plan, execute the marketing plan, and more. Included in the download are samples and templates you can use in your business including an employment application, frequent customer punch cards, gift certificates, and more.

I am proud of this product and glad to make it the first one we sell in the ExploreStartups.com Store.

We priced this book at only $29.97 so as many people can enjoy it as want to. This isn't like a book you find at the store - the samples and templates alone are worth more than the purchase price. We use Google Checkout for credit card processing to ensure your data is secure - and for added measure, we use the highest security SSL certificates right here on our own server. The entire process is safe and secure.

Thanks for making ExploreStartups.com one of the biggest free business idea and business plan sites on the Internet. Over time, we plan on releasing more titles like this one, so check back and enjoy!

Campaign season for the general election is in full swing and creative entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the campaign slogans and gaffes to earn some extra money from the endless politicking.

If you have a creative mind and follow the political chatter, you can take advantage of the Presidential campaign and promote your business. Find some of the most creative political entrepreneurship here:

57 States Lapel Pin

After Obama says that he has visited 57 states now with his campaign for President, creative entreprenuers developed the 57 state lapel pin. Finally, a pin Obama could be proud to wear.

Creative T-Shirts

There are countless possibilities for the next gaffe, misstatement, or just to take advantage of the emotions and desires of a political campaign.

I'm here to tell you that... the time is NOW to start your next venture!

I know, all of the economic geniuses on CNBC are predicting a recession and things are tight. Believe it or not, the true business visionaries and geniuses are taking the time now to invest - because the bottom is the right time to build, not to retract. If you build now, you will catch the economy on the upswing and your investment will return far greater than you would ever expect!

Warren Buffet is taking an opportunity now, in this economy, to purchase companies, move further into bond insurance, and invest while the market is cooled. The epitomy of value investors, Buffet is a good sign that as the economy retracts, entrepreneurial visionaries will be setting in place their growth plans for their businesses and new ventures.

I am not offering this advice lightly or without skin in the game - along with the economic retraction which is occurring, my own business's revenues are falling - quite a bit off from last year. I am reliant on ad revenues and they are soft right now, but instead of pulling back, I am pushing forward with new site launches, an expansion of ExploreStartups, and a new venture to be launched shortly. The softness in many areas of the economy right now provides the perfect backdrop to launch new businesses and stake out new business territory.

Been thinking about putting off that next investment? Considering holding back for a couple of months, quarters, maybe until 2009?

Invest at the Bottom, not at the Top of the Cycle

It is likely many of your competitors are going to do just that - hold off on investments, hold back the new product line, or just exit some markets completely. If you want to be an average company, you should follow them down that path. If instead, you want to be at the top of the pack when the economy is on the upswing - invest now in the new business, machine, or expansion of your sales and marketing efforts.

Start a Foreclosure Cleanup Business

Business for cleanup companies is booming as thousands of people default on their loans and the home becomes owned by a bank - a very motivated seller. For every home cleaned out, there are a dozen others the bank hasn't gotten to, or just doesn't want to deal with.

The Real Cost to the Bank - and the Cost to Homeowners

The bank desires to unload the property and not lose any money on the transaction. Unfortunately, leaving the houses in the condition they are in will not result in a sale near going market price and the bank often cuts the price of the house to unload. The house in our neighborhood is priced at 25% less than the market value of the property. If the bank hired a cleanup company to recondition the property, it would probably make significantly more on the sale and not further depress home prices in the area.

What is the Business Concept?

You will be leading a crew to cleanup and prepare a house for sale. Your services would typically include cleaning all of the belongings and junk out of a house, but could also include services such as small repairs (e.g. holes in the walls), wall painting, new carpets, or landscaping.

Most companies who perform this service dispose of any junk from the house, but keep things of value (such as furniture, lawnmowers, or appliances) for 30 days before disposing of them. There is an added opportunity to benefit from the sale of these items through local second hand shops or through eBay.

How Much Could I Earn?

In the example I cited earlier, the home two blocks away is marketing for $40,000 less than going market value for a home of that size. Your company could fix up the home and the bank might be able to raise the price by $20,000 and still sell it. This provides an additional value to the bank which results in a higher willingness to pay for your services. Your company could charge from $1,000 to $5,000 to cleanup a home for resale.

How Do I Get Started?

You will need some industrial strength cleaning equipment and supplies to begin cleaning these houses. Additionally, you will need to either own a truck for garbage removal or lease a dumpster from your local waste removal company. You will probably also want to hire staff to perform much of the cleaning at the houses you are working with.

Start by selling your services to local realtors and community banks. Once you have sold to them, you will have some experience to work with larger lenders and financial services firms.