Around the world, tens of millions of people each year search for a home based business opportunity that will either free them from a job they hate, allow them to retire early, give them more time to spend with their family, divert their poorly performing investment portfolio into a profit generating magnet, or all of the above.  Just as there are vast differences of opinion, even amongst friends, there are vast differences in business opportunities.  Before you start on your due diligence when hunting for that one home based business opportunity that is right for you, take a moment to understand some differences in business models, their expectations, their commission structure, your current resources, and your personality.

The definite guide to choosing the right home based business opportunity simply boils down to the questions you ask yourself before you start your search.  Understanding your goals for success, and how your perceive a home based business to get you there, will have a profound impact on your decision making process.  In fact, knowing what you need ahead of time will make the process go much more smoothly, allowing you to weed out unsatisfactory business opportunities rapidly.

Note:  There are no specific businesses listed in this article so your use of this guide is not hindered by a constant sales pitch.  If you would like to discuss specific ideas, please contact the author within the profile area where you read this article.

The following lists distinctive aspects of a home based business that you should consider:

1. Primary Prospecting Source:  Internet, Phone, or Direct Mail
2. Prospect Application Process:  Free, Paid, Non-Existent
3. Commission Structure:  Up-Front vs. Residual vs. Both
4. System:  Organization, Support, Accessibility, and Content
   
5. Leveraging Time, Capital, and Experience
6. Marketing Style:  Anonymous Sales vs. Personal Branding  <-- This Article
   

Do you feel comfortable in your own shoes?  Some people feel a rush of excitement presenting their business opportunity or product to other people while others feel total shock and fear.&nbsp; The vast majority of us get a little uncomfortable at first then react positively or negatively depending on the response of the prospect.  successful entrepreneurs know that being consistently willing to get out of your comfort zone is the key to success and big profits in any business.  However, some people who are looking for a simple home based business just want to stay in their shell and let the system do most of the work.  The great thing about the internet is that you can choose your marketing style based on your personality and still be effective.

Though many nuances define a vast array of marketing groups and categories, they all boil down to two major style distinctions: "Anonymous Sales" and "Personal Branding".  Anonymous Sales basically hide your personal identity from the potential customer, the prospect, while you let the business system do all the selling.&nbsp; Personal Branding places you and your personal story as the center piece and focal point from where your business or product stems, allowing the prospect to feel attached to you, building trust.

The anonymous sales marketing style is most common in affiliate business models, where a popular figure or company creates a product, service, or business opportunity, and you basically advertise that system using their own branded marketing.  This style of marketing is ideal for the business models that rely on the quick impulse buyers and generally provide products or services under $100, though some business opportunities that are marketed anonymously can be priced in the $400 to $500 range.

If your personality is such that you do not trust your identity being exposed to the world, then anonymous sales is the style for you.  However, there are some drawbacks that you need to take into account so you can make the necessary adjustments in order to be successful using this marketing style.

• If you are selling someone else's product and the payment is being made through PayPal or some other merchant, be sure to set up a corporation (LLC, S-Corp, etc.) or at least a DBA (doing business as) entity with a name that is not your own (a fictitious name - small fee to your state's Department of Revenue).  This way, when a customer purchases the product or service and sees the "billed as" statement, your name is not on their invoice, but the name of your corporate entity or DBA.
• If you are planning on marketing on Google AdWords, you should think about getting a small custom web site created, called a "gateway" page, that leads your prospect to your business's standard lead capture page.  This is important since Google has started to be very strict on affiliate programs that market with the same lead capture page over and over again, saturating a specific set of keywords and content.  Google prefers uniqueness and will "slap" your website and stop your AdWords campaign if you are one of hundreds of other affiliates using the same general web sites with the same headlines and same content.  A gateway page simply has a headline, some small text, and a picture.  You are not selling anything here.  You are just filling your page with keywords and content that Google will like that is also relevant to your Ad Groups and simply presents a link for users to click to come to your standard affiliate page.  You can create this gateway page yourself or pay someone (or an online service) to do it for you.
• Use an email address and affiliate name that is based on your business name and not your real name.  That way, if your affiliate link is something like affiliate.com/{mylink}, the content in {mylink} is your business name (or similar) and not your real name.  Then simply match your affiliate email address to that name.  An example would be "SuperMoneyMakingThing" as an affiliate name with "SuperMoneyMakingThing@gmail.com" as the email address (that may be a real email address so don't start spamming it, please; this is just an example).

The personal branding marketing style is most common in personally developed product sales and business opportunities that have start-up cost ranges from $400 to over $2000.  The first one is obvious, since authors, publishers, inventors, and savvy marketers have been pushing their products and services for many years.  People identify the product with the person.  If you are going to market a product or service that you personally created, be sure to avoid the following pitfalls when marketing:

• Write more about you than the product.  Write how you have personally benefited from the use of the product or service.  Include testimonials of other people specifically thanking you individually (using your name) for the creation of your product or service.  It does not matter that you are trying to sell a product that you created, for personal branding to be its most effective, you need to market "you" and not "the product".  The pitfall is that people will tend to view you as the used car salesman pitching a product if your focal point is the product itself.  Be sure to mention any awards in your promotional videos and other marketing.
• No one knows your product better than you, and that is exactly your problem.  You know too much and will have a tendency to be overly technical and descriptive about your product in your sales pages.  Do not put your detailed specifications in the lead capture page.  Put the detailed product information in a separate page that the user has to choose to click on a link to get there.  Remember, you are not selling the "drill"; you are selling the "hole".  Focus on the goal of your product or service and market to that instead of the product itself.  For instance, if you are marketing a computer repair service, emphasize how much faster the prospect's computer will run when after they use your service, and how much stress will be removed from their lives.  Avoid explaining any technical details of "how" you will fix their computer and what new cool techniques and software you use to do it.

When marketing to a business opportunity that has a paid application and a high start-up fee, personal branding is the only way to realize success.  People need to connect with you on a personal basis to know, like, and trust you before agreeing to pay the entry fee and any business positioning upgrades.  Let them get to know you and your story, and be sure to follow some simple marketing guidelines to establish trust and your expertise in your particular business field:

• Take a nice picture of yourself as your centerpiece for your Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube accounts, as well as other social media accounts.
• People will most likely search your name in Google or another search engine, investigating your credentials as a leader in your field.  What will they find?  Be sure that they find lots of articles, videos, and press releases.  You should have a goal of 90 articles, videos, and press releases in 90 days.  Make the effort and it will pay off huge in the end.
• Not comfortable writing articles?  Keep them between 300 and 500 words.  Less than 300 words and Google will not index it.  More than 500 words and it better be a great darn article to keep their attention (like this one :-).  Seriously, anything more than 500 words should have bullet lists to break it up and make it more readable.
  
• Not comfortable filming yourself?  Well get comfortable.  Videos are the best way to present yourself as an expert.  In fact, film a friend interviewing you.  Also, place a picture of your family (or celebrity you are stalking) directly behind the camera so you feel more comfortable talking to the picture instead of the stressful camera.  Keep your videos between 1 and 2 minutes.  Anything over 3 minutes, and you better have some good post-production or an actual demonstration of sorts to keep their attention.
• If writing press releases, and you really should if you are not currently doing that, be sure to write in 3rd person, keep it 300 to 500 words (be strict on the 500 max - it's not an article - do not go over it, ever!), and be sure to add a quote from you describing the "why" behind your business, product, or some thing you want the press to know about.
• One more nugget about press releases:  More and more people are using Leapfish.com for their browsing instead of Google, since it uses the Google search engine and categorizes the results.  Press releases turn up in the news feed category and are separated from the content category.  News feeds are more prominently displayed so you will get more attention from a press release than even an article.

When choosing a home based business that is right for you, do not ignore your personality.  If you are in introvert, than the anonymous sales marketing style is best for you.  If you are outgoing to the point of being annoying, then the personal branding marketing style is best for you.  Somewhere in between?  Lots of money can be made either way, but the most money is made through personally branded businesses.  Do not fight your personality to fit it into a business system that is not right for you.  The initial excitement will wear off within a week and you will quit blaming the system for your failure.  Be honest with yourself and choose the business that matches your marketing characteristics the best and you will have a greater chance for success.