The biggest niche market in online writing seems to be the “How To Make Money Online” niche. You’ve stumbled across one of these sites, or pressed “delete” on the Spam message: there are thousands of them, from people all claiming to be experts and who’ve unlocked some mystical secret about making money online. For those of you caught starry-eyed and enamored at the prospect of making 20K per month off of residual income, you might want to pick yourself up off of the floor, dust off, and take a breath: Most of the outlandish claims are false, and sifting through pie-in-the-sky claims is just as important as learning to follow up on legitimate opportunities. So, for those of you, who are interested in finding ways to make money online, be aware: there are lots of folks out there who scam based on the populace’s current fear that they’ll never make enough money. Don’t be one of those people who fall into this predictable trap.

            Legitimate opportunities do exist, though. Most pay far less than a full-time income, though, so those of you seeking to make side money would probably be best off. The people who are making full-time money online are involved in multiple, ongoing ventures. They’re also willing to put in the time necessary to build their portfolios and make connections within the industry. Building up these relationships among websites who need their writing can take some time, so be aware that your online moneymaking ventures won’t tend to see significant success for a few months of steady work.

            You should also keep looking for more ways to expand your skill set. I know that for the last two years I’ve lost online writing jobs because I didn’t know enough HTML for certain blogs. Luckily, HTML (basic HTML) is easy to learn and master. You’d stand to learn as much as you can about the requirements that these online companies have– the ones who need lots of content, at least– so that you can both build a marketable portfolio and be more readily useful to the companies who ask you for sample work to begin with.

            Many companies are working multiple sites, as well. For these it helps the prospective content provider to know what web sites a given tech company runs so that you can market yourself to more projects within the umbrella of the tech companies’ different sites. Good luck!

We all need to make money. We need to eat, to stay in our house and to stay fed. Those who don’t have to work for a living have been lucky for a little while, but chances are good that sooner or later the people who think they can make money without putting in a certain amount of effort will end up begging on the street at some point or another in their lives. The same is true with making money online: the internet is saturated with claims by unknown businesspeople that you—yes, YOU can make tons of money online without doing so much as composing an email. Having been scouring online jobs for the last several years, let me be candid: they’re lying to you, and you’re suckers for believing that you can make any sort of money without working for it. Please don’t be one of those suckers. If you are, at least don’t tell us about it—or even worse, broadcast it to the world.

            Once you’ve gotten over the get-rich-quick phase and have moved onto something more realistic, like online writing, you’ll find that the work can be very rewarding. You have to spend at least as much time looking for work as you are working, but usually that’s part of the fun. There are some very supportive networks out there of people just like you who are either unable to work in the conventional workforce or, if you’re anything like me, incompatible with the prospect of having someone less intelligent than you telling you what to do. But do keep in mind that online moneymaking—freelancing, eBay auctioning, ad revenue creation, etc.—will take a lot of time at first and, as such, isn’t necessarily for everyone.

            Some folks just aren’t independent enough and need constant supervision. Some folks need more consistency in knowing that their money will arrive at a fixed given time every week. To those of you for whom this applies, not to worry: there are sites and services that set up agreements with home workers to do a certain amount of articles or programs per week and are paid accordingly. It just depends on the arrangements reached between the contractor and the company for a given project or period of time. There are also arrangements wherein a specific company might be looking for a virtual assistant or a long-term distance employee, during which all of the conventional payment rules would apply. You have to look a little harder for those opportunities though. Good luck!

Are there any home-based business ideas out there that aren’t scams? I know it seems like every time you turn around and look at these ideas, it is something that’s so lame that there is no way it will work. But if you get past the scams you can find some real opportunities that will work. Working at home is a dream that a lot of people want to achieve. So we will help you look into a few of those opportunities that can lead you to a successful business at home! Also, we’ll hit on a few of the scams that you should avoid, and some tips to help you realize that it is a scam. Some of these scammers have become highly effective in what they do. Making their opportunities seem real and causing many people to fall for them.

One of the best tips to stay away from a scam and how to tell it’s not real is if it’s too good to be true, it is. People’s eyes will light up when they see promises of money flowing into their pockets—so much money they won’t know what to do with it. This is a classic way that a scammer will attract their prey. It works—heck, it’s easy to want to have all the money in the world. The key is not believing everything that you read.

Now onto a real business that you can do from home. These opportunities are ideas that will not get you rich quick, but have you earning money. Once you have built up the business you may be able to switch to it full-time, but at first you should try it part-time. Think of it as extra money in your pocket to begin with.

Web Design

Web design is a big industry right now. Everyone wants a website created, that includes many businesses, large and small. Make sure that you create a portfolio of what you have accomplished, and create a website that shows your skill. There are many places online that show freelance opportunities for freelance web design. In most cases you will need to bid on these projects, but if you get one and do a great job your advertising will be done by the clients!

This is called word of mouth advertising, and it’s simply the best way to have people learn about your business. There are many people who will be doing similar work, so don’t become discouraged if you don’t receive a lot of work at first. Also keep in mind that for the first few projects you may need to bid a bit less than you normally would. Bringing in clients, and then wowing them with your skills will lead to more work and better wages!

Another tip to avoid being scammed is to not be rushed into decisions. If you are being told that you only have ten minutes to make a decision of whether you want to try a home-based business opportunity, don’t take it. This is a classic way that a scammer will catch people in their traps, because many people will just agree to it since they feel they may miss out on a great opportunity.

Writing/Virtual Assistant

Moving on to yet another home-based business that will work for you. If you have skills and can write, especially something like a resume you can also make money. Though it’s not going to get you rich quick you can make a nice residual income this way. People are willing to pay at times up to $400 for a quality resume. After all, what you have placed in that resume may well get them a dream job. Make sure that you have a few sample resumes for people to look at—it will help bring in more clients. Again, once you have completed a project and done a good job, they will refer others to you and come back for more quality work.

Going along with the office type jobs, another home-based business idea is one of being a virtual assistant. Again there are many job boards out there that will have these posted so you can check them out. This is one of the faster growing home-based businesses out there, and a great opportunity for you to start part-time and as your clientele list builds move up to a full-time home based business.

Affiliate Marketing

Yet another fast growing internet business is that of affiliate marketing. These programs offer you the chance to make money online by selling different services or products. Affiliate marketing is basically just becoming “affiliated” with a product owner and agreeing to promote their products for a share of the profits. This means if you sell a digital product, like an ebook, you can make 50% of the price (or whatever percentage is agreed upon). This is a great way to make money since some of the affiliate programs pay out a lot of money per sale. You should be careful since some of the people in affiliate marketing might promote unethical methods, or “black hat” techniques (stay away from these!) Whitehat techniques are the way to go since they are ethical and you run no risk of getting caught and losing your money you earned.When looking into a business or product to promote as an affiliate, you are best to research a bit on the company and goods that are going to be sold or promoted.

In line with the above idea, is a business in which you help others market their websites. To accomplish this you can promote on blogs, social bookmarking sites (like Digg or Reddit) or even email marketing. Placing blog comments on different sites to drive people to their website (using your affiliate link or getting paid directly) creating more business for them, and paying you a certain rate.

In closing you can see there are actually real opportunities for home-based businesses. But they are not get rich quick schemes and yes you will have to work pretty hard at times. There are no easy ways to earn a million dollars and be able to sit around a pool most of the day. Any promises to live a life of luxury off a home-based business right off the bat are just a myth—for the most part. However, you’ll be helping the scammer who thought up the idea to get more money if you fall into their trap (i.e. the “get rich quick” schemes). There are many websites out there that make note of these common scams and let people on the internet know about them.

When you start looking into a home-based business its best that you visit one of these sites to make sure that what you are looking at is a legitimate opportunity. Don’t waste your hard earned money (or your time, for that matter) supporting someone else—make sure that the home-based business you are pursuing is real.

Hopefully some of these ideas will help a few people out there be able to start their dream of working from home. Good luck to those individuals who are not afraid of a bit of hard work to pursue your dreams! You can do it!

Do you want to get started with your own home business opportunity? Just send a blank email to: myincrease@aweber.com to learn more, it’s simple to get started!