So You Want To Start A Home Based Business

By: Sandi Moses

People decide to - or need to - work from home for lots of different reasons. Losing a job, a disability incompatible with the “9-5 grind,” or caring for family members are just a few of the reasons. But what to do?

Some people are best suited for being a “home-based employee.” In recent years some U.S. business have given up on “off-shoring” their customer service call centers to the opposite side of the planet, and begun “home-shoring” or hiring people right here in the USA to handle customer service calls from their own homes and computers with very simple and inexpensive software and phone hook-ups. It is a win-win-win situation for the business, the employee and the customer. You can find access to some of that type of home based work through a program called Ignotius.


Other people would rather start their own business and run it from their home. Before that happens, some very serious self-evaluation is mandatory. If this is you, first you need to make a list of your likes and strengths, and a list of your dislikes and weaknesses.

Let’s start with dislikes and weaknesses, because it’s every bit as important to know what sort of home business to avoid as it is to know what to consider starting. If you are not good with numbers and did poorly in math in school, don’t start a bookkeeping business. If your spelling and grammar are atrocious even with spell check, you should not become a proof-reader, a greeting card writer, or send “letters from Santa.” Are you uncomfortable around kids? Don’t open a day-care center. You get the idea. Make your own list and be brutally honest.

Now for your strong points. Make a list of your skills and things you enjoy doing. Don’t overlook skills that you have always taken for granted but not everyone has. List also any interests you may have that you have acquired a lot of knowledge about over the years.

Are you organized? There are people would will pay you big bucks to help them get organized. Do you have office skills? Be a virtual assistant. Good at finding flea market bargains? Sell them on eBay. There are many types of items sold at home parties, such as candles, personal care products, home cleaning products, cosmetics, etc. Be sure to do your home work before investing money - some of these are not as easy as they would like you to believe. Spend some time on the internet or in the library doing research on any established company before joining forces with them. It will be time well spent. Do not just gloss over this; really dig deep. (Read the post before this one to see why you need to do this.)

You could also provide services to people that need them. Run errands, house-sit or dog-sit, shop, interior decorate, etc. The list is nearly endless because everyone is gifted with a unique set of skills, abilities, ambitions, and needs. The time may be now to put yours to use by starting your own unique home based business.

Home-Biz-Help BizOpp Review: Rebate Processor Jobs Offer

There is a new Work From Home opportunity seen recently on the internet called Rebate Processor Jobs and accessible through Cold Cash Partners.

==> EDIT: In addition to the ethical problems discussed below, some people are reporting having difficulties receiving payment from the person claiming to own Cold Cash Partners. I no longer recommend that you sign up for Cold Cash Partners even as a way to access Virtual Training Solutions as they are apparently owned b y the same person/people. <==

Here is their offer, straight from their web site:

Learn how to process simple customer rebates from home and earn $15 each GUARANTEED!

They are not being straight forward with the offer. It is more than "processing simple rebates. " It is more like "typing at home with a twist."

What they tell you, quoted directly from the landing page: "I will show you how I make money simply by filling out online forms. For each form I attach a special ID link that is assigned just for me and submit it online. I then check my account for orders processed, I verify the information, fill out another form and submit, I get $15! Believe me those small payments add up real quick!"

What they DON'T tell you: First of all you will be placing ads, both free and paid, for affiliate programs you select from Clickbank. There is nothing wrong with doing that. Many people who have bought any of the programs that teach how to do that such as this one, this one, this one, this one, or any of the others, have discovered they really can make a lot of money online as an affiliate marketer.

Second, what Cold Cash Partners also does not tell you is the rebates you process are the rebates you yourself offer when you place your ads!

Say What? I have read and re-read the ad copy and there is NO WAY you could have figured that out before buying the product.

And guess what. NO REFUNDS!

To be fair, the idea is that you will get so many more sales from offering a rebate than you would have had you not offered the rebate, that your bottom line will grow. After all which ad would you buy from, the one offering a rebate or the one that did not offer a rebate?

Furthermore, when I bought the program to check it out, I felt like I had been "duped" and I was angry. No one likes to be deceived, and this program definitely has deceptive ad copy. To tell someone they will be "processing" rebates does not even hint that they will be "giving" rebates, or "making" rebates.

Not only that, but offering rebates on Clickbank products is a clear and flagrant violation of Clickbank's Terms of Service #6e which states:

“You agree to make no such promotions promising customers rebates, coupons, tickets, or vouchers in connection with their ClickBank purchase”.

Clickbank may suspend your account and hold your funds once they find you in violation. YIKES!

HOWEVER

When you buy the program you are given total and unlimited access to a site called Virtual Training Solutions.

Check out what you have access to:

• Freelance America


• Rebate processing from home <== The one we've been discussing


• Secret Shoppers MSAA Certification


• Medical & Data Transcription Training/Resources


• eBay Wholesale and Surplus Sales Program


• Market Research and Focus Groups For Extra Cash


• Local 'Hand out FREE samples' jobs - work weekends / flex hours


• Get paid up to $2000 a month to Place Advertising on your late model car


• Prescreened Virtual Assistants program - over 100 companies need help now


• Paid to Read emails and view web based commercials over 200 companies listed


• Consumer Surveys and opinion polls that pay cash. Research/training/links to over 300 companies

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of very legitimate opportunities here. I have spent quite a bit of time the past few days checking these out. The variety and volume of legitimate (not deceptive but real honest-to-goodness) home job offers and ways to make money from home is almost overwhelming. Some are online. Some are offline.

All are available to you just because you signed up for Cold Cash Partners. Therefore, even though you won't get what you thought you were signing up for, you are definitely getting your money's worth and then some.

My advice is to sign up for Cold Cash Partners only as an access to Virtual Training Solutions. Do NOT make any attempt to work the Rebate Processor program.

Instead, help yourself to the bountiful offers awaiting you at Virtual Training Solutions. It will be well worth the investment.

Beware of Outlandish Promises

Have you seen flash web pages that promise you that you can make something like $12,000 your first week?

Or make $30,000 a month every month?

Or even . . . Unlimited Monthly Income!

Pick whatever dollar value and time frame you want here. It may be theoretically possible, it may be mathematically possible, (that’s how the ads avoid getting into trouble with truth-in-advertising laws) but not at all realistic.

It is also theoretically possible for every child born in the United States to grow up to be President, but the likely-hood of that happening for any given kid is minuscule.

The same line of logic applies to these wild promises of vast income. They attempt to sucker in those most vulnerable of desperate people who need to work from home for health or family reasons - or have just lost their job and have no idea where to turn next.

Lotteries use that t00 - "What if . . . . . . "

Gotcha.

Don't be a victim. Find something solid, that you are interested in and capable of doing. Find something that fits your personality type, temperament, abilities and desires.

If you are not in the habit of praying, now would be a good time to start. Ask the one living God to help you choose, and then listen for that still quiet voice as he answers your prayer.

Working from home is a great idea. Find a legitimate way to make it work for you.

God Gave You A Brain And He Expects You To Use It

Today we will look at the idea that "somewhere out there over the rainbow on the internet there is a pot of gold with your name on it and I know just how you can claim it!"

Most ads read something like:

No Sales! No calls! No inventory! No work!

Spend nothing, do nothing, sit back, and

watch the massive residual profits roll in!

Earn Money Just Sitting At Your Computer!!

GET REAL! If nobody does anything or spends anything or sells anything, where the heck is the money supposed to come from?

Remember, everybody joined for free, just like you did! And no matter what they tell you and want you to think, there are no crazed drooling people running around “out there” with fists full of cash begging you to let them spend that wad of money on your latest “business venture.”

It just ain’t gonna happen. Do you know anybody like that? Neither does anyone else.

Don't Try This At Home

In the world of home-based businesses and work from home opportunities, there are a few things to watch out for before you get involved as an owner, affiliate, or investor. These are important everywhere, but nowhere more important than for the so-called “internet newbie” who is looking for additional income and/or a better lifestyle. The internet is just infested with hype and unrealistic promises that sound oh, so good. The next few posts are going to pick a few of them apart. Learning to step back and think logically can be a financial lifesaver. It might even help to look at each offer and ask if you would want your kid or your grandparent or your best friend to get involved. If the answer is “NO!” then you shouldn’t, either!

Today we will look at the Envelope Stuffing Scheme. Most ads read something like, "Make $5 stuffing envelopes." The problem is, businesses have machinery that folds the paper and stuffs it into the envelope faster than your eyes can follow.

Why the heck would they pay people $5 to stuff each envelope when they are mailing out hundreds or thousands of them every day?

They are in business to make a profit, not keep you off of welfare, and all of this mindless, mechanical stuff is done by machinery.

This is an out-right scam and here is how it works. You pay somebody $5 (which you stuffed into an envelope and mailed to them.) They send you information and you find out that in order to get your money back you have to con some other sucker into paying you $5 (stuffed into an envelope and mailed to you) so you can tell them to con yet another sucker out of $5, and so it goes.

I see these on Google AdWords and AdSense often. Google should have enough integrity to refuse such ads.

For wiser and more legitimate options, visit

123 I work From Home 4 Me
123 Home Based Business Works 4 Me

Don’t Put All Of Your Eggs Into One Basket

I vaguely remember a particular story from my childhood. It had something to do with transporting eggs to market. The main character, a little girl who thought she knew more than she really did, put all of the day’s eggs into one basket, and when she tripped and fell on the way into town to sell the eggs, all of the eggs broke. It seems that her grandmother (the voice of experience and wisdom) tried to tell her not to do that, but she wouldn’t listen. If she had divided them up into several means of transportation some would have been lost, but not all of them. It was a difficult lesson to learn.

Everyone is familiar with this concept by the time we reach adulthood. It is most often brought up in the field of financial investing. You know, don’t invest all of your nest egg in Acme Widgets, because who knows how long there will be a market for widgets. And then where will you be? Or maybe you are told not to invest all of your nest egg in the stock market, but diversify into mutual funds or bonds or real estate or . . . Everybody from the little girl in to above story to your mother to your neighbor to who knows who else eventually comes to see the wisdom in that concept.

So how come it is that we see over and over that people put all of their internet eggs into one basket? They have one product or one program on one website that they optimize for one search engine (probably Google) and if any link in that chain breaks, they are dead in the water. What could possibly go wrong? Glad you asked!

Demand for the product could wane. Maybe somebody comes up with a better one. I used to see a whole aisle - both sides - of garbage cans in my local Target Store. EVERYBODY needs garbage cans, right? I mean you gotta put the stuff out to be collected in SOMETHING! And then suddenly the company that collects the garbage began providing, at no charge to you, specialized containers designed to be picked up with a special mechanical arm on the truck and dumped right into the collection truck. The driver never gets out. There are three colors of cans; one for trash, one for recyclables and one for yard waste. One driver in each of three trucks instead of one driver and one collector per truck. The company paid for the specialized containers and truck modifications with the money they saved on injury compensation claims no longer being filed by the second person who had been lifting all those heavy garbage cans. Suddenly there is no market for regular old garbage cans and in my local Target Store there are very few to be found. I suspect those few are bought to hold sodas and ice at beach parties! Now if you had invested in the company that made and sold all those old garbage cans, you are out in the cold, and you never even saw it coming. Who would have ever thought there would be no more market for something that everybody needs? Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

I live in a part of the USA where there is a large military presence. Near one base in particular were located numerous fast food restaurants. I mean, talk about a gold mine! Young soldiers, mostly guys with huge appetites, plus families with small kids and it just seemed like an ideal combination. But the soldiers got sent to war and many of the families went “home” where there was moral support during a stressful time and the customer base was gone just like that. Many of the formerly prosperous fast food places went out of business. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

Remember the dot com era? People invested in dot com companies, got amazingly high paying jobs at dot com companies, and bought great big beautiful houses and cars with the money they made from those dot com companies. When everything collapsed, those people found themselves making and selling coffee at Starbucks, living back at home with mom and dad, and trying to finish making the payments on those cars that now are a chore to keep running. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

As I wander around the internet, I have run into more and more people who had been making decent money with one affiliate or marketing program or another, both online and offline. Then for whatever reason the program changed it’s compensation schedule and these people are left hanging out to dry. If this was all they had going for them, they were hurt big time. Only those who had other sources of income were able to make adjustments and keep going. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

Many people spend an inordinate amount of time, effort, energy and money optimizing their website(s) for Google. They listen to this or that guru, buy this or that software, and do whatever it takes to get their site to number one on the first page for whatever search terms they are trying to target. As long as their methods are ethical, there is nothing wrong with doing this because they are earning an honest living with their marketing efforts. It only becomes a problem when Google changes the rules. And sooner or later, Google WILL change the rules. The internet is a very dynamic place and nothing stays the same for very long. See http://www.123iwork4me.com/article196.html and http://www.123iwork4me.com/article29.html. If the people to whom this happens have all of their eggs in that one Google-basket, they will have just had the rug pulled out from under their feet and will have gone from top dog to junk-yard dog in no time at all. If they have multiple sites using different marketing techniques promoting different programs and opportunities, they will be able to re-group and re-coup, recover and survive. You know what’s coming next. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

Is That Type At Home Offer Just Another Home Business Scam?

By: Sandi Moses

Maybe. Maybe not.

You have seen offers to “make money by typing at home” or doing “data entry” literally all over the internet. They are on home business sites, on search engine results, and on hate sites. You’ve read testimonials about money that has been made, and you’ve read rants about being ripped off. So who is right? How do you know?

Virtually all of the “make money by typing at home” or “data entry” offers feature essentially the same type of work. If you carefully examine their sales landing page, you will see that the forms you will be filling out look very much like the forms you fill out when you place ads on the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. You will also notice the screenshots of earnings look like Clickbank. There is a good reason for this. If you sign up for these programs you will be submitting ads to the search engines for companies who use Clickbank as a payment processor, and you will be receiving your checks from Clickbank.

The companies who sell this information range from very ethical to rather questionable. Some give you a great deal of training, both written and video, to show you what to do, how to do it, and helpful tips to get you off to a good start. Some offer extras and bonuses so you can diversify. Some offer support.

Some just give you a page to read and that’s about it. You’re kind of on your own to make heads or tails out of it.

Your potential for income is sky high, but I do need to advise you that if you decide to try your hand at this, sign up for an e-mail address through Google’s gmail. The reason I say this is many e-mail providers block messages both to and from these companies, which means your won’t be able to get help or a refund or anything else. With gmail, if you put an address into your contacts, gmail will deliver the messages from that address. Many of the cries of “scam” and “fraud” have been because of blocked messages causing people to incorrectly believe their requests were being ignored.

Now some of you may be thinking that you don’t want to get creative and write ads using your own words, talents and abilities. That was not at all what you had in mind when you read the words “make money by typing at home” or “data entry.” You just want somebody to provide you with info that you input. In almost 4 years of working on the internet, I have encountered only two (2) such companies. Both of them pay piece work, which means you might make more than minimum wage but not much. They both have a waiting list ranging from several months to a year or more. One of them requires you to qualify by passing a test. Both of them offer work 24/7, but it can be seasonal, which means at times there will not be any work for you to do and during those times you will not make any money. Also, when the work is posted, it is first come, first served, which means others may log in and scoop up all the work. It is possible but not likely that you will be able to just work away all day as long as you want.

So is that “make money by typing at home” or “data entry” offer a scam? Probably not. Is it what you had in mind? Perhaps not, but that does not make it a scam. The sales pages I have seen explain quite clearly what you will be doing. People I have talked to, whether they actually use the program or not, felt they got a good value for the money they spent, just because they learned so much about affiliate marketing from the information they bought. In the end, the final decision is up to you. I hope I have helped you to make an informed decision.