If you are reading this article, maybe you are seriously considering working from home, so where do you start? If you have searched for "work at home" on Google, you may have been a bit overwhelmed by all the results promising big money for little or no work. Well, you can forget about that right now. A home business is like any other business. It takes time and hard work. Offers that promise lots of easy money are almost guaranteed to be a scam, or something that only an expert could make money at, so as a beginner, you should just try to steer clear of anything that sounds too good to be true. 9 out of 10 times, it will be a scam.

Yes, there are a lot of work at scams out there, but don't let that discourage you. I like to think of the internet as a sea of opportunity. There are fortunes to be made, and people are doing it every day.

I would say that by far the best place to start would be making your own website. Publishing a website used to be something that only experts could handle. These "webmasters" really had to put in lots of hours becoming familiar with HTML, FTP, and a lot of other things you may not have even heard of before they could attempt to publish a website.

Now, things are a lot different. Building a web site has become much more accessible, and much cheaper. It's so easy that young kids and even senior citizens are now blogging. I'm sure you or some of your friends kids have MySpace pages, which are essentially blogs and forums (a forum is a type of online community where users can join, post topics, and reply to other posts. Kind of like a huge group chat). With the advent of web 2.0, better cheaper technology, and also the rise in popularity of free and open source resources, someone with very little to no web development experience can have a website up and running in a matter of hours.

Getting a Website
By far, the best and easiest way to get a website is to go with a hosting company that offers "1 click installs", or instant installations for Blogging and Forum software. Blogs and Forums make it possible for someone with no experience to get good content up fast.

Dreamhost and Godaddy are 2 hosting companies that offer "1-click installs" for Blogging and Forum software.

Dreamhost Hosting
Personally, I recommend Dreamhost, because they tend to care, where as many other huge hosting companies don't. They cost a bit more, about $119 for a year, but it is worth it. Edit: I actually used a promo code and was able to get 1 year for about $60. Go to: Dreamhost.com and enter Promo Code: WMLGS1 to save $50.

GoDaddy Hosting
GoDaddy is a really big company, so they are going to be a lot cheaper, but there is a trade-off. For lower cost, there is much worse customer service. Their hosting starts at about $45/ year. www.GoDaddy.com

Monetizing Your Website
How Do I Make Money Online With My Website?

So I bet you're wondering, "What's the secret to making money online?". The answer is selling ad space. Have you ever wondered how free newspapers and magazines stay in business? It's because they make a fortune on advertising, and you can effectively do the same thing with a website. If you are thinking that it would be really difficult to go out and find advertisers for your site, it would be, but fortunately, you don't have to. There are several services that will bring the advertisers to you. All you have to do is sign up and copy and paste a small bit of code into your web pages. 2 of these services that I can whole heartedly recommend are: Google Adsense and Text-Link-Ads.

Google Adsense
Google AdSense is the fastest and easiest way to monetize your site. The only thing you have to worry about is creating good content. Just put the small bit of javascript code (you don't need to know what javascript is) somewhere in your page, and Google Adsense then delivers relevant Google ads on your website's content pages. You get paid every time someone clicks one of the ads. The amount of money that you are paid can be anywhere from $.01 up to over $20, depending on the content, and keywords that appear most on your pages. Pages that contain high competition words like anything to do with lawsuits, hosting, or poker tend to pay the most, but most topics pay on average about $.20 to $1 per click.

Click here to check sign up for Adsense:

Text-Link-Ads
Text-link-ads is a pretty new service that I have found to be very effective. It is similar to Adsense in that they give you a small bit of code to place on your site, and they take care of the rest. Otherwise, the way it works is that when you sign up, all the details about your website are entered into a database that thousands of potential advertisers then get access to. When an advertiser wants to advertise on your page, they pay a monthly fee, depending on how popular your site is. For a brand new site, the starting rate is usually around $3/ month per link, and you can have up to 10 links on a page, but 8 pays more. If you were to sell 8 spots, you could generate $24/month in revenue for that page. Sell 8 spots on 8 pages and you could generate $192/month, and so on. The more popular your pages get, the higher the monthly payments are. So you can see the potential there.

Click here to sign up for Text-Link-Ads

The success you will have with these programs really depends on the quality of the content that you are providing. Good content will bring visitors to your site, which will in turn make you more money. Bad content will just sit there and do nothing.

These aren't the only ways to make money online, but I believe that they are the best place to start. Good luck, and to your success!

“Be part of the
Fastest Growing Industries!
Earn thousand every month - from the comfort of home - Processing Medical Billing Claims.”

Does the above ad look familiar? You can usually find these kinds of ads anywhere, from the
bulletin board at your local university to the telephone pole on your corner to your newspaper, not to mention all over the web. While these ads may
be somewhat appealing, especially if you need money, proceed with
caution. Most work-at-home opportunities fail to deliver on their promises.

Many of these work at home ads make it seem like you will be able to instantly and easily start making good money easily, but they usually omit the simple truth that to make any money at all, you will probably have to work many hours without pay. Another catch is that they usually don’t disclose all the upfront costs that you will have to pay before ever having a chance to make any money back. Many work-at-home schemes require you to pay money out of your own pocket expensive advertising and supplies you need to start the job. Consumers deceived by these ads have lost thousands of dollars, in addition to their time and energy.

Learn to Recognize the Classic Work-at-Home Schemes

Here are a couple of work-at-home schemes to watch out for.

Medical Billing Work at Home Scams.
You may have seen ads for Medical Billing work in the classifieds section of your newspaper or online. The ad will usuall say that the medical field is desperate for medical billing help because of the overwhelming task of processing paper claims. The solution is to process claims electronically. When in actuality, the medical billing market is saturated and the competition is fierce. The business usually goes to a number of large and well-established firms.

Very few people who get into the medical billing business are ever able to find clients, and usually loose all the money that they paid upfront.

Envelope Stuffing Work at Home Scams.

Envelope Stuffing ads usually promise easy money for simply stuffing envelopes, but according to Howard Beales, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, “Stuffing is fine for turkeys and stockings, but envelope-stuffing scams deserve a lump of coal.”

Assembly Work at Home Scams

“Assembly Work” scams will usually either require you to invest hundreds of dollars in equipment and supplies, and or work many hours of your time manufacturing and assembling goods with the expectation that you will be paid, and when the time comes for you to be paid, the company will then refuse to pay for your work because it doesn’t meet their “quality standards.” In reality, the victems work is never “Up to Standard”, and this is how these fraudulent companies make their money. Or you may be left to sell your crafts on your own.

Avoiding these Scams
The 2 main questions to ask when you come across ANY work-at-home offer are:

1. Do I have to pay anything up front?
2. Are the terms of the work from home offer hidden or kept secret until you call or go to a 2nd step?
If the answere to either of the above questions is yes, then proceed with caution. It very well could be a scam.

You can also check with the Better Business Bureau to see if the company is reputable and legitamate.

What to do if you’ve been Scammed
If you believe you have been scammed by a work-at-home, or believe the company to be dishonest or shady, you should first contact the company and ask for a full refund. Make sure to let them know that you plan to report them to the authorities if they give you a hard time. If they still won’t help you, report them immediately to the Federal Trade Commission or to the Better Business Bureau.