A couple years ago I would have never thought about the top 10 home based business ideas; but like everything and everyone, things change. In today’s economy so many people are scared of starting a home business, but it really isn’t that bad. While you hear and see on TV that people are tightening their pocketbooks, there is one thing for sure; there is no recession on the internet.There are millions of families that have been affected by the current global financial crisis. Some have lost their homes, their jobs and everything they have owned. Others are looking to build the backup plan or additional income to get them through the tough times. Many are turning to different home business ideas because they offer the flexibility, low cost and lower risks models compared to the traditional brick and mortar business.Here is my list of what I consider the Top 10 Business Ideas and what they potentially involve:Blogging – A very low cost of generating income from home; is on the internet and is individual that do this are known as “bloggers”. Blogging is very easy to set up, maintain and gives you the ability to write about topics that you like. There are millions and millions of people online reading a wide range of content on a daily basis. With blogs you could become very successful by attracting certain readers and offer them products and or services that help them. You could also “rent” out space on your blog to different marketers, which in turn provides you with additional income.Home Based Franchise – The possibilities are near endless of starting a home based internet franchise; and many are recession proof. I have known people to start the own internet franchise but this is much more risky than joining a proven, time tested internet franchise. While an internet franchise can be a huge learning curve for many, I have found this as the most rewarding in more time for what I like to do but also the compensation is normally higher.Home Based Tutor – Although you may not have thought about this as an option, it has become a very viable one. No matter how bad the economy gets, people are always looking for additional education to enhance the situation that they are in. Many parents are doing everything in their power to obtain the finest education for their children, sometimes even taking out a second mortgage on their home. With the standard education; many people are obtaining tutors to give themselves and their children an educated edge over others. As unemployment rises, many are going back to school and they require some additional tutoring to help with the learning curve.A Food Home Business – No matter how grim it gets, people still have to eat and many are starting to cut down the amount of times that they go out to restaurants. With a food home business, you want to focus on a niche that is still needed year after year. Many people start a bakery offering wedding cakes, birthday cakes and other different treats involving chocolate. The chocolate industry is booming due to the satisfaction it gives to people and the lower cost compared to other treats.A Staging Home Business – With the real estate industry plummeting at an uncontrollable rate, home owners need help staging their property to sale. Home owners trying to sell their homes are turning to home staging experts to prep the home to its highest potential. Not only do home owners request home stagers but also banks and real estate agents; to prep and sell the property quickly.Virtual Assistant- Many companies are trying to reduce their operating costs while improving their profits. Companies have been and will continue to outsource, which gives you the ability to become a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant provides assistance and support to businesses, entrepreneurs, executives and really anyone that needs help but does not want to hire a full time employee. This is a very low cost in high demand home based business idea.Caregiver – no matter what happens, we are all getting older and caring for the elderly is now and always going to be in high demand. Many of the individuals now that need adult day care are also tightening their wallets but there will come a time that they need additional care and support that you could provide.Trading Assistants – During a recession more and more people start selling their personal belongings to get by for another month or two. Many people have heard of eBay and Craigslist, the problem lies with many not feeling competent enough to use them. Many people believe it or not, still do not have an email address or never used a computer. For this reason trading assistants exist, they help sell other peoples products in which they obtain a percentage of the sale price.Cosmetics Consultant – the demand for cosmetics will always be there, mo matter what. Many times during the toughest times is when products like cosmetics are at their peak. There are two primary reasons for this:People want to continue to enhance their visual appeal to maintain their employment or to gain new employment.It makes people feel good about themselves, improving self confidence in turn improving productivity.Affiliate Marketing – This is the home based business idea that many people use online and offline the same. This has become very popular and has exploded as unemployment rises and the recession continues. Becoming an affiliate marketer allows you to make a great deal of money while working from home; selling products like cosmetics, vitamins, soap, educational products and many more.While I cannot say that I have tried all of the Top 10 Home Based Business Ideas, I can say that I have been involved with a few of them. All of these ideas have pro’s and con’s, each has its own level of risks and rewards. I have had my home based business for quite awhile now and love the freedom and the financial benefits that come along with it.

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.

If you tried to think of people involved in product creation, who would come to mind? You may think of Edison, Franklin, or maybe Henry Ford. Would you ever think of yourself as someone who can create a quality product? Product creation is actually relatively easy and product launching is not that tough either! If you follow a few easy to understand steps, you could be starting the product creation and product launching process sooner than you think.

The first step in creating your information product is to know and understand your market. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you are unsure of what to do or where to look to know your market. Studying your niche market and understanding the buzz words and buying patterns can ease the process dramatically. Personally, I would recommend networking with someone who has had success in the niche market you are considering and learn from their results. If they are into product creation and not very business savvy expect some hesitation. If they only sell products and have nothing to do with product launching or product creation you may your first affiliate (sales person)! Something else you can use to find hot trends is with the Google Trends tool.

The second step is the product creation process. Take your niche market and brainstorm ideas and topics relating to it. There are a lot of product launching contests going on recently relating to a newly created internet marketing tool. There are so many aspects to the mentioned niche that literally, and unfortunately, anything can be considered an Internet Marketing tool. The reason that anyone can basically create an Internet Marketing tool is because of something called Private Label Rights products.

What I use private label rights products for, and highly recommend them in this specific manner, is to cure writer’s block especially when it is lingering. Many people base their entire product creation and product launching on a private label rights product. This is where you can start to shine and build a strong brand for yourself. If you set goals for yourself, short-term goals to be exact, you can see your product creation come into being much faster and there is a good chance with less revision needed. If you keep hitting time restraint road blocks; however there is nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach, you can consider outsourcing portions of your project. Outsourcing can be an extremely huge benefit or just as great of a disaster.

You can find someone to outsource work to at a freelance site such as Guru.com or eLance.com. When reviewing proposals it is almost mandatory you perform a background check on them as you are in essence hiring them. Doing a background check on freelancers is as easy as asking for samples of their work and reviewing feedback on the freelance site from previous customers. Depending on the size and requirements of your project this can add up to a decent sized investment, so caution is very important. One tip I always recommend to people looking to hire an individual is to ask them what they can provide you that no one else can. This simple question gives them a chance to “toot their own horn” and acknowledge where they feel most competent as far as their skill set.

The final portion of the product creation and product launching formula is the launch. This can literally make or break the effort, time, and maybe (if you invested) money you put in to your project. There are numerous aspects to product launching and although their relevance is debated in terms to their effect, experts agree all must be followed. The person in your field who you asked for product advice from can help you substantially if you have kept in touch. If not, the first thing you need to do is to create a visually appealing website with flawless design work.

I also mentioned outsourcing before, this is one aspect of product launching I have little strength in and I always outsource this portion. The website does not have to be large however the content (ad copy in Internet Marketing) must be stellar and as perfect as possible. This is where advertising knowledge or experience is beneficial. When the site is set up you now put a lead capture form on your website.

I put two lead capture pages on all products I create on the internet and is one of the best methods of getting a solid start when you are in the product launching stage. When you gain information from a prospect or someone looking to get paid for referring sales you are able to provide them updates or specials. Many people abuse their prospect or affiliate lists by in turn emailing them with a new product daily and I find the recommendations to be totally unrelated to their original need, problem, or interest.

Another stage in the product launching stage is creating a free report or demo version of your product to entice the product to sign up to your email list. Using proper follow up with this can help generate numerous sales for you. One thing you need to ensure is that your free product completely relates to your main product that you are looking to sell.

You are now ready to advertise your product launching to customers as well as the opportunity to sell for affiliates. This is the single aspect that many product creations and launches fail on. It is actually not entirely difficult. One thing you can do is write articles (and a good amount of them) on topics relating to your product. I am a huge advocate of giving a solution in forums. When you join a forum you are normally offered the opportunity to create a signature. In your signature, you should enter the link to your opt-in or lead capture page. When you respond to posts, you are advertising your opportunity.

It is not impossible to create a product and it does not have to take a long time. You need to setup a plan and stick to it. If you get stuck, look at similar and successful products to your own and try and see how they did it. When you sit down and brainstorm you will be surprised with what you can imagine.