Selling on the Internet definitely is a growth trend. The key is simply finding something you like to do – preferably something you have a passion for – that is suitable for an online business, and then transfer all your skills and industry contacts to the net.

Many women and men as well have found their passion selling what they love on the Net.

In 1999, Sarah Davis started selling women’s consignment designer clothing and purses on the Internet while attending law school.  Today, she works out of her house in San Antonio selling more than $25,000 worth of Louis Vuitton handbags each month as a platinum seller on auction site eBay.

In August of 2000, In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Lynne Bingham, who owned a children’s clothing story called Lullaby Landing decided she wanted to reach more customers.  So, Lynne sold her brick and mortar store, and built a web site with the assistance of Yahoo! Small Business. In January 2001, she launched The Stork Delivers — an online boutique specializing in chic baby gift baskets and other baby accessories.

Her web site’s sales tripled in just over two years, and she received several prestigious awards, including Yahoo! Top Merchant Award, Forbes Magazine Award, and the Golden Web Award. She quickly built up an impressive corporate client list, comprised of numerous Fortune 500 companies. Lynne is now able to work entirely from home. “Being able to have a career/profession from home gives me even more of a chance to successfully tackle the juggling act,” says Lynne, who has a son and daughter.

Joan Shelley, founder of the Oconomowoc, Wisconsin-based KnobGallery — an online retailer of kitchen cabinet hardware, door hardware, and bathroom accessories is the mother of 8 children, ages 9 to 23, all of whom play an integral role in the business which features over 150,000 unique knobs, drawer pulls and other decorative hardware items. KnobGallery’s sales grew by over 600 percent in the three years to about $1.5 million and have continued to soar.

You don’t even have to have a business or an area of expertise if you have a passion for something or someplace and want to share it with others.

Nori Evoy, at the age of 15 tapped into her love of Aruba to create Anguilla Beaches, a site she uses to generate substantial referral and finder’s fees by steering visitors to favorite spots or books to tell them more about  this island.  Now almost 19, Nori has generated more than her college tuition in income from the site. And Nori, incidentally, is not a techie.  She relied on a pre- designed program to create her site and monetize it.

Patience and attention to detail are definitely part of this game. The good news is that if there are chores you don’t like and just don’t want to do – like managing your mailing list – you can hire a college student or even a high school student to do it for you once a month.  At some point you may be able to get an intern to do it for nothing, just to learn the business.

Be prepared to take some time to develop a following of people who are attracted to what you are offering. To do this and to develop an income stream from your own business you may have to test many tools and products for your site and gradually build on your base. This could take six months to a year or more, depending on your energy and focus, the state of the economy and your specific industry and some other variables. In the end, however, if you stick with it, you can create your own successful personal business which can support you and your family.  It will be an asset you own and someday can sell if you choose, although, as a steady source of income, it certainly might beat a rent house, in that it won’t need plumbing or repairs and you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to take care of a tenant whose water line has broken or heat has gone off in the middle of a January snow storm.

Perks – You get to work from the comfort of your home, be your own boss and decide when you need to take off to put family first. The asset you are building  will work for you, even when you’re sleeping, taking your kids to school, running errands or on vacation. In fact, you can work from anywhere.  You can decide to winter in the sun and summer in the mountains if you want.  More important, you are building your nest egg for a secure future

Potential – Like the global growth of the Internet the potential for growing your online business is huge.

How about you?  Ever sold on the Net?  Would you like to?  Tell us about it. We’d like to hear from you.