The internet has allowed a great many people to dream about working from home, and a great many people have succeeded in doing just that. It has created a flexible lifestyle choice that didn’t exist before its prominent intrusion into our lives. However, there are lots of people that are still dreaming about their income opportunity home based business idea. Some are seeking actively to find it and some are just dreaming about it. If you are one of those actively seeking to find the idea that looks right for you, here are some thoughts.

There are several ways to approach this subject. One way is to create a business that trades your expertise or talent in a given area for cash. The internet is an open market that offers a wide variety of companies that seek to outsource their needs. Matching your skills to their needs can be profitable. If your particular skill is in high demand, your rate of pay may be quite high. Examples might be a writing service needing another talented writer, or perhaps a tutoring service in need of a virtual math expert. Whatever your skill, there is probably a match for it somewhere on the internet.

This approach is somewhat limiting, however, because your income is directly tied to the amount of time you can physically devote to the business. After all, there is only so much time in any given day. The best income opportunity home based business idea is one that is not directly tied to a dollar for time trade but leverages your time of so that you can receive income over and over again for any piece of work done once. Leveraging your time is basically the concept that is used to pay royalties to a writer whenever one of his books is sold, or pays a musician whenever her album is sold.

This isn’t saying that the best opportunities involve becoming authors or musicians, but that the best opportunities involve taking advantage of the principles that continue to pay authors and musicians well after the completion of a particular piece of work. Imagine generating income six months from now based on work you did yesterday.

Leveraging is a concept that has many applications. Investors use this concept all the time in different ways. The most easily understood and most widely used is the concept of compound interest, where you can earn interest today on interest earned last month. Internet marketing uses this concept of leverage also. Internet marketing can take a variety of forms depending on the strategy being utilized, and it can be applied to virtually any business you can name. When done effectively it can generate income for many tomorrows for work performed today. It is a business form that is tailor made for a home based business because it is internet based, as the name suggests. Many, including this author, believe it to be the best income opportunity home based business idea for leveraging your time.

With the rate of unemployment as high as it is and the economy in the dumps, now, more than ever would be the time to get started in a home based business. While many may choose a bricks and mortar business to start, they have high capital requirements that are beyond most peoples reach. The flexibility of a home based business is just one of the reasons they are so popular. Below are some of the 10 best rated home based business ideas for online income that require little or no start-up capital.

1. Call Center – Large and small companies are saving significant money by outsourcing their help-desk center jobs. This provides you an opportunity to work from home performing call center duties such as receptionist, troubleshooting client issues and answering general questions. Chat, Skype, remote desktop and webinar software allow you to support those using the call center.

2. Niche Products – With your own website (or eBay auction site) you can resell products obtained at wholesale prices. The manufacturer can drop ship directly to customers, saving you handling fees and warehousing hassles. Children’s items, collectible gifts and sporting accessories are all ideas for a home based business in niche products..

3. Affiliate Marketing – Often found in top 10 best home based business listings because it can be inexpensive to set up. You can have a blog for reviewing products with affiliate links that pay you when people make purchases through your site.

4. Technical Support – Leverage the internet and put your technical skills to use by providing technical support to individuals or companies from home. There are low-cost and free remote management and desktop control software available for troubleshooting issues.

5. Life/Business Coaching – There has been a boom recently in specialized coaching areas such as life, corporate, spiritual, business and relationships. If you have good communication and people skills and are knowledgeable in one of these areas, this can be a great career.

6. Blogging – Blogs have become a great way for individuals to make income online as they rank high in the search engines. However, they need new content on a regular basis to stay current, so companies and marketers pay to have individuals post blog content for their sites.

7. Freelance Writing – Similar to blogging but with a broader scope. If you can write articles, ad copy, reviews or reports, you can get hired for short-term or repeated projects by marketers and companies needing content. You may need to have good typing and writing skills to complete the amount of work some of the jobs require.

8. Internet Marketing – Another of the often listed 10 best home based business opportunities. Why? Because even with the learning curve, it is simple and can be lucrative as many companies want to know how to get their websites higher in the search engine rankings.

9. Online Auctions – Many people make items to sell online or fix up things found at garage sales and sell them online. Crafts, art, jewelry are all good ideas for a home based business with online auction or sale sites.

10.Website Flipping – Similar to property flipping, you can buy established websites, fix them up or add value in some way, then sell it for a higher price. The choice of which website to buy from those up for sale is key to being successful in this area. Often you’ll be looking for those that have decent traffic, or will, once you make the improvements. This is one of the newer ideas for a home based business.