I have run a website about online home based business for (the past|a couple of years. It is an informational site which I try keep as hype free as possible. On the site, I try to give the surfer an insight into home based businesses. I go into a little detail about why many people fail, about how to start such a business, and what will be needed to make such a business a success.

Occasionally, I will get an email from someone that wants to know how to make money on the web. Normally, it will have only a single sentence that will go something like this:

“Sir, teach me how to make money.”

For the first year or so, I painstakingly crafted a few paragraphs as my reply, essentially repeating what I said on my website. I would also ask about the background of the sender, so that I may be in a position to better understand what he wants and what he can do.

Most of the time, I didn’t get a reply. In fact, I don’t think I can remember a time in which I did get a reply. Obviously the sender was looking for a simple answer, and I didn’t provide that.

I did remember a nice email from somebody who said he liked my site very much. He said that he liked it so much that he wanted to join my site. I told him that my site only provides and that I do not promote any business opportunities that he could register in.

I designed electronic circuitry and wrote software programs for a living. I studied electronics engineering for 3 years at the polytechnic to get my diploma, and it was only after about 5 to 10 years of working experience that I consider myself good enough to ask for a salary of a few thousand dollars a month.

There are many websites in the Internet that will tell you that you can potentially make a few thousand dollars a month if you work their program. Every single time, they will also tell you that anybody can do it and no experience is needed. In fact, they will tell you that an unemployed odd job laborer made $1200 after his first month on their program, or something similar.

The only thing I can say is, “Use your common sense.”

If a man were to offer you $100 to deliver a parcel to a nearby address, what would you do?

You will run away like you were planning to break a few Olympic records right?

You know that nobody is going to offer you $100 for a half an hour job with no strings attached. There is definitely a catch. He is hoping that greed will take over and you will accept the job.

The Internet has been called the great equalizer, or the most revolutionary development in the history of human communication, or the information superhighway. Whichever superlatives you use, the same rules regarding money still apply to the Internet. Money still has to be earned and competition for it is extremely keen. So, the sooner you get off “the roads are paved with gold” mentality, the sooner you will start putting in the time and work needed for a successful home business.

Tags: Home Business