Work From Home Online Guide

If you want to work from home online, you need to accept one thing right up front: it’s hard, complicated work.

There, I said it. If I were hawking my products to try and take advantage of you, I’d follow up with, “but not if you follow my exclusive system.” So that’s my first piece of advice for people who want to work from home online: beware of any advice that’s going to cost you money. Promise yourself right up front that the number one tool in your toolbox as you learn about working from home is your brain.

There’s a ton of advice out there. Millions of people are looking to work from home online, because of the economy and gas prices, and because for most of us, a home based business represents a better life. Anytime you have this kind of interest in something, you’re going to have a rogues gallery of charlatans following close behind, offering advice for a hefty fee.

Most of that advice is going to be dead wrong. The online business world is a mirror image of the rest of the business world: it’s dog-eat-dog, and there are a lot of people who will lie to you in order to make a buck off you and feel good about it. If they’re really slick, they’ll make you feel good about it too so they can come back and rip you off some more.

Some of that advice is right or partly right but it’s way overpriced. They charge you extra money for handing you everything you need all boxed up for you so you don’t have to reach into your toolbox and use your brain. See my post on Site Build It review and also this gem of a video at Is Site Sell, Site BuildIt a Scam? if you’re not convinced that the business-in-a-box approach is the wrong one.

But some of advice is not only good advice, but it’s available for free. You’re farther ahead already if you’re reading people who aren’t trying to sell you something. After you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll know that you can trust your sources because what they tell you squares up with what you’ve learned elsewhere. Only then, if one of them points you to a product that will cost you money, should you consider taking out your Visa card. Another example of using your brain and doing your own research, instead of doing what you’re told.

The first obstacle for people who want to work from home online is learning how to use their computer. If all you know how to do with a computer is turn it on and open Internet Explorer, then you need to get busy and learn more or find some other way to work from home. You don’t need a college course to learn to use your computer–you need your brain. For instance, I’ve been teaching a friend how to build an affiliate sales site so she can work online from home. She’s learned that I’ll usually answer her questions in five minutes if she emails me, so for a while she got in the habit of shooting me an email every time she ran into a snag. After I wrote back and told her to keep trying different things for 10 or 15 minutes before emailing me, she started to make real progress.

Was I being unhelpful? Hell no! In the 10 or 15 minutes she took to learn it herself, she also learned what doesn’t work, so she won’t make those mistakes again. She also learned how all the different tasks of building a website fit together as one process. You can only understand the process by doing it yourself. Following step by step instructions in a box only teaches you to follow the instructions. Is it frustrating at times? Sure. Does it take hours and hours at first? Absolutely. But my friend is on her way to gaining knowledge that no one can take away from her. Even if computers change, even if Google changes its algorithm, even if AdSense and affiliate sales are no longer viable, she’ll be able to roll with the changes and keep working from home online.

Along with avoiding the scammers and using your computer, you need to learn about business if you want to work from home online. Tell yourself on day one that this is not a hobby for you, and promise that you’ll be absolutely ruthless in testing what works and doesn’t work, and throwing away what doesn’t work if it doesn’t pay for the time and money you’ve invested in it. The beauty of an internet home business is that the cost of entry is so low. You can get started for less than $100, so it draws a lot of people who have never run a business and don’t know what it takes to run one. The sincere desire to succeed isn’t enough. Even working around the clock isn’t enough. You need to be smart–street smart. A business that isn’t making money isn’t a business–it’s a hobby. A business that makes money is a business, even if you’re doing it in your pajamas.

If you’ve been paying attention as you read this, then your business sense has already kicked in, and you’re thinking, “How do these wonderful people giving away this information online for free get paid for what they do? That sounds too good to be true.” Good–you’re thinking like a business owner. I have the answer for you, and it’s probably not what you think. Check out my next post, and you’ll be surprised, pleasantly.