Before the Internet the thought of marketing a product to a foreign country, to people who spoke a foreign language was, well something that small marketers from home didn't contemplate very much.

Imagine before the Internet how difficult it would be to sell a Barbie Doll from Kmart to a buyer in Russia, Singapore or Eastern Europe. Just to reach a potential customer with your ad is almost overwhelming when you think about how you'd try to do it.

Then accept payment in that foreign currency and execute the rest of the transaction.

Fast forward now to the age of the Internet and suddenly advertising your Barbie doll to a foreign person in a foreign country who'll be paying in foreign currency can be a mere formality. And it's not just restricted to Barbie Dolls. The sky is the limit.

The main online companies that make all this possible and incredibly easy and efficient are google, ebay, paypal, and yahoo. There are other players like clickbank who can also help if you're dealing in instantly downloadable products.

Between these five are all the resources and tools you need to target and push your message further than you ever thought possible.

Internet Marketing in 2005 is all about niche marketing. Finding a not so crowded niche that you can hone your skills and interests to make money online and at home is becoming more and more popular.

What about creating a niche by targeting a foreign market?

All you need is a friend or acquaintance or someone you pay on an hourly basis who can speak the language you're targeting.

Plus, a computer with an operating system that can read and write in the targeted language. Once you have these two criteria, you're most of the way there.

Ebay, yahoo and google make it very easy to go global. For example within your google PPC account you can create ads in many languages targeting many keywords.

Set up and ad delivery can be done in minutes. Just think, your ad can be broadcast to the four quarters of the globe, in a number of foreign languages - in minutes.

If you're marketing a few select products it's easy to get things automated to the stage where you'll be able to list items without the help of the native speaker.

Emails can be directed directly or indirectly to your native speaker for translation and the whole operation can be streamlined for maximum efficiency.

Because of email the native speaker doesn't even have to be from your area.

Once you've picked your target country and product(s) you can do the usual overture keyword search term to check demand of your idea in that country.

If things work out it's also quite easy to create a homepage in the foreign language to further enhance sales. If things don't work out, then you've lost very little.

The real benefit of targeting foreign buyers is that it allows you to escape the brutal level of competition for the same products and prices in the domestic market.

If you can source a good product (good profit margin, not prone to breakage) and communicate your offer to foreign buyers then consider this niche marketing option.

The great benefit to mothers of this type of marketing is that you can try a different form of marketing that you can do quickly and at minimal cost.

Miha Thornton
Mothers of Home Based Business Resource Center
Empowering mothers to make money at home
http://www.mothersofhomebasedbusiness.com