Start A Gift Basket Home Based Business Online!

A gift basket home based business may be your ticket to working from home. It is your chance to channel your creative talents into a profitable home business online.

Did you know that 147,546 people search the web for the term "gift baskets" each month? Hundreds of thousands of people search for specific types of gift baskets such as:

• homemade gift basket ideas
• mothers day gift basket
• christmas gift basket ideas
• wine country gift baskets
• valentine gift baskets
• fathers day gift baskets
• italian food gift baskets
• gourmet coffee gift baskets
• baby shower gift baskets
• bridal shower gift baskets

and hundreds more. Wouldn't you like to know what types of gift baskets that buyers want to buy? Well you can if you use my almost secret internet tools.

I use Brainstorm It!. This tool comes with Site Build It!. (new window) I use Site Build It! to help me create an online business. If you want to build a gift basket home based business online, use SBI!.

You could spend thousands of dollars to start a store that sells gift baskets. But why? Build an SBI website and add pages that sell your creative gift baskets.

You see, instead of spending thousands of dollars to rent a regular store, spend a mere $299 annually to build a website yourself. If you prefer, you can have a certified SBI webmaster build a website for you. (new window)

A website is a virtual store. People come to your store 24/7. It is easy for your website to take orders anytime of the day. I would use ejunkie.com's shopping cart. It is easy to cut and paste code into your web pages to create the shopping cart.

If you use PayPal, you don't even need a merchant account to accept credit cards online. That is what I do. PayPal will allow people to pay you using credit cards or cash.

Instead of paying big bucks for advertising, you can get FREE traffic to your web store if you follow SBI's recommended and proven traffic building techniques.

Did you know that many of SBI's websites rank in the top 1% of all websites in the world for traffic? My first SBI website does! This one will soon be there too!

Targeted Traffic Is The Secret

Every gift basket home based business needs traffic. You cannot succeed without it. You don't need people coming to your home. You do need people coming to your website. The best way to get free targeted traffic is to write articles about each search term.

SBI can analyze each article you write to see if it is search engine friendly. You don't want to over use the keyword/search term you write about. If you do, the search engines could drop your page from their listings. Fortunately, SBI gives you a tool to keep you out of trouble. No extra cost.

As you add more and more pages to your website, your traffic will increase in due time. You don't have to use expensive pay-per-click advertising like other gift basket businesses do. You will have natural targeted traffic.

By targeted traffic I mean that each visitor to your website finds exactly what they are looking for. For instance, if a visitor is searching for gourmet coffee gift baskets, then write an informational page about gourmet coffee gift baskets. You will have matched what your buyer is looking for.

PREsell Your Customer

Each page you write must PREsell your visitor. People do not like to be sold. So, you must warm your visitor so they are willing to first trust you, and then they are more willing to buy from you.

Ken Evoy, president of SiteSell, Inc., the creator of Site Build It!, (new window) wrote the free ebook Make Your Content PREsell! In this book he defines PREsellig as "the online version of relationship-building. PREsellig warms up and builds trust and respect." (This ebook is available to you when you have purchased Site Build It!)

Monetize Your Website

Only after you have built trust with your visitor, can you monetize your website/online store. There are several ways to monetize your gift basket home based business. Selling gift baskets is only one way to monetize your business.

You can also sell ads from your website. This is the easiest way of earning money online. Google has a program called Google Adsense. Just place some code on your pages that Google gives you, and you can earn a fee every time someone clicks your ad.

Another way is to sell other people's gift baskets. In this case, you would have to find a gift basket vendor who has an affiliate program. I did a quick search on Google and found that The Fruit Company (www.thefruitcompany.com/common/affiliate) has an affiliate program. They will pay you 14% to 16% commission every time someone buys a fruit gift basket from them through your affiliate link.

GiftBaskets.com (www.giftbaskets.com/affiliateprogramarticle.cfm) also has an affiliate program for their variety of gift baskets. They will pay you 10% commission on your referral sales.

The advantage of selling through affiliate programs is you don't have to make up the gift baskets. You don't have to ship the gift baskets. You don't have to even have a merchant account. You don't have to stock merchandise. You just refer people to your vendor's website. When they buy, you earn a commission. Simple!

Is affiliate marketing profitable? Rosalind Gardner earns over $436,797 in one year selling other people's stuff online. Read my review of her Super Affiliate Handbook. This book tells how she earns huge commissions through affiliate marketing.

If you like to create gift baskets. Why not start a gift basket home based business online? I think you will be glad you did!

The best way to start a gift basket home based business online is to use Site Build It!, (new window) I recommend them without any reservation. They worked for me, they can work for you too!

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