“I will never be the victim of a scam, not me I know better.” Sound familiar, I know I have said it…and I also know that I have been scammed. No one wants to believe that they are going to be scammed that only happens to fools who don’t know any better. It is easier then you think to be scammed on the internet when you are looking for ways to make extra money online. You read their information, see the testimonials, they are only asking for a small monetary investment and an equally small investment of your time. They want to teach you the business, tell you they are offering something no one else is offering and if you are not completely satisfied and haven’t made any money they will give you your money back. Can’t beat that right? You should, with a stick and see if it still moves.

First, there is a difference between working for yourself and working for someone else on the internet. It should never cost you money to work for someone else. Did your current employer charge you a membership fee or processing fee to work for them? No, they didn’t and that is no different then an online employer. There will be an investment to have your own business though.

Please, please, please realize that upfront cash is not your only monetary investment. When it comes to making extra money online, your time is even more valuable. Oh, it’s only a couple hours a week, a day, maybe 20 hours a month it’s not big deal. What is the payoff at the end of that week, or after two weeks, the first month? Some amount of money should be flowing in to compensate your time. Some will offer a money back guarantee, that is the money you paid to them, not for any advertising you had to do, not for any other service you had to sign up for, not for your time invested, and that is only a money back guarantee if you can find them to get it back.

Let’s talk about the other services and advertising that is the gimmick with a lot of internet marketing scams out there. You buy their product, as you are going through their program you find out that you need to sign up for four other programs to make this program work. That is not included in your money back guarantee and something you should not do. There are free sites on the net to help you build any business or find work from home jobs to help you make extra money online.

I wish that there were tell tale signs to warn you of so that you don’t get scammed while you are trying to work from home, but there isn’t really. I can only offer you this advice. If it sounds to good to be true, then it is. Money back guarantees don’t mean anything if you can’t get them to give it back. You should never have to pay someone to work for them. All businesses require some start up investment. Check them out with the Better Business Bureau online. Go with your gut instinct. It is possible to make extra money online. There are just a lot of things to consider before jumping into it and leaving your day job.

There are a number of legal ways to make money online. Some are short term with limited gains and other are long term with big payoffs.

If you are good at writing, you can make money writing a blog. A number of sites provide free blogs and will pay you, depending on the number of people viewing your blog. The best bit is you do not need a dime to start and you don’t need any web design skills. The beauty of blogging is that there is no set topic and you can write about whatever is closest to your heart or what ever you have a good grasp of. Some people find blogging very therapeutic and some sites allow you to add Google Adwords, so you would be able to earn more money from people clicking on them.

Submitting articles for money is another legal way of making money online. There are a number of sites where you can submit your articles and they will happily pay you for them.

A number of auction sites are available. Take eBay, for example, you can make money by selling your unwanted stuff and using the money to buy some more stuff that you can sell off at a profit.

Answering surveys online is a great way of making money online. You can answer questionnaires for market research companies and they pay you for it. Although answering surveys is an easy and interesting way to make money online, one should make sure that the company is reputable since there are a number of rogue companies that will have you answer surveys and not pay you.

Working for others online is a great legal way of earning money. The number of people telecommuting has increased and companies find it more acceptable to employ telecommuting employees. A number of forum owners need people to post and make conversation to keep the forums busy to make them attractive to more visitors, so you could get paid to chat and facilitate conversation. You could be employed as a moderator, making sure all posts are under the right topics as well as removing any obscene posts.

Being a virtual assistant is another legal way of making money. A number of companies get a lot of emails so you could be involved in selecting which mail goes to who as well as answering some simple questions. You will be the first line of support for a company. You could be answering live help and dealing with simple problems and referring more complex ones to someone else for closer scrutiny.
Researching could be a legal way of making money online. A number of companies employ people to compile certain chunks of information for them. Certain busy people could employ you to find certain things for them. A busy executive might want to know where to get a certain dress for her daughters play, you would look for which site has them and pass on such information. This saves them time and they, in turn, pay you for the service.

This is a guest post:

Yoshi Kundagawa is a freelance journalist.  He writes about entrepreneurs and working from home.  You can read his articles about  online surveys make money work at home visit his blog.
There are plenty of different ways to make money from the comfort of your own home. One good way is by taking online surveys. Many companies are willing to pay a wide cross-section of people to give their thoughts and opinions on particular products and services. Most people who do online surveys do it for extra money since it is very hard to earn enough to live on just by doing surveys. You often see advertisements on the internet saying something like ‘online surveys make money work at home’ and many people wonder if it really is so easy to make a few dollars. Personally I quite like filling in surveys and used to do them for free, so it makes sense to complete them for money!

There are plenty of scams online so you need to be careful. A company asking you to pay any kind of fee should make you wary, especially if there is no company address or phone number on their website. You can check with the Better Business Bureau if you are suspicious. Most of the largest survey companies let you join for free so there is little point paying to join something which might be a con. Some online survey companies charge $50 for membership and promise ‘up to $125 per survey’ – as if any company is going to be paying hundreds of people that much each to fill in surveys. They would go out of business!

I work for a couple of different companies who offer surveys. They tend to be about mainly about computing and electrical products for some reason and you have to fill in the first few questions to see if you are a suitable candidate for that particular survey. If they say no, maybe they already have enough people of your age or from your area. Sometimes it depends which area you live in, your marital status or your job. You can expect to make anything from 50 cents to $5 for taking a survey. It might not sound a lot but if you do one a day, that is an extra $150 to look forward to at the end of the month. Some survey companies pay by PayPal, others by check or directly into your bank account. Nearly all of them pay at the end of the week or month or when you have a minimum and you request it, rather than after every completed survey.

You have to register on the survey sites and answer questions about your job, marital status, children, pets, eating habits, leisure activities you enjoy and more. This is so they can match surveys to the right applicants. Sometimes you might get sent 3 surveys in a day, other times a week might go by without receiving anything. Sometimes you are emailed a link to a survey but by the time you get there they do not need you, so if you are taking surveys check your email frequently to make sure you don’t miss out!

It is worth joining a couple of survey companies online to make a bit of extra money and for something to do. So, the next time you see the ‘online surveys, make money, work at home’ advert, it might be worth clicking on it!

There are many different ways to make money online these days, depending on your experience, skills and how much time you have available. If you are sick of working for other people, the unending rat race and being stuck in rush hour traffic, working from home could be ideal for you. It is a bad idea to abandon your job and immediately try to set up a company because anything poorly planned is almost bound to fail. Take your time in thinking about exactly what you want to do.

Ways to make money online include having an online store, using affiliate programs, having a website which requires membership and anything else you can think of. You know what your own skills are. Let me give you an example. If you know a lot about tennis, you might think about setting up an online store (or even a store on Ebay) to sell tennis equipment. If you are passionate about the sport, that will show through in your website, store layout, any articles you put on your website and in the way you answer inquiries from customers. If you decide to sell tennis equipment and racquets without knowing much about the subject, your lack of knowledge will show through and potential customers will mistrust you! Another thing to bear in mind, especially when running an online store, is that you should stick to one thing! If you want to buy a printer, are you more likely to visit a store that specializes in computer-related goods or one that sells a strange mixture of printers, ethnic jewelry, foodstuffs and comic books? It goes without saying that, as a consumer, you will have more faith in the one specializing in one type of product.

There are plenty of opportunities out there right now because of the way in which technology is improving and because so many people use the internet now, to find information, entertain themselves and buy products. Ebay is the world’s largest online store and it is easy and cheap to advertise products on there. You can even set up your own store. An advantage of having an Ebay store (as well as being able to advertise your wares cheaply) is that once someone views one of your items, they will see everything else in your store and might end up buying more from you than they had intended.

You should also be quite careful when thinking about ways to make money online. There are plenty of scams out there. Any genuine company recruiting online will not ask you to pay to get their information. If you want to sell affiliate products (meaning you advertise other companies’ goods on your website to get commission on sales), you should not have to pay for the privilege.

Other ways to make a living from the comfort of your own home include doing online surveys, selling services (some companies pay for articles or blogs) or setting up a site providing a service for which you charge a membership fee.

The best way to begin is to think about exactly what skills you have (remember, you can learn new ones online for free!) and think about what interests you the most. Then check out other websites to see what other people are doing or selling. A home business usually takes a while to get off the ground so don’t give up your other job until it really gets going!

There are many people who work from home these days and hundreds of ways to make serious money online. As with anything, it is always a good idea not to rush into anything and you must check a company out before giving them any money.

You have probably already come across websites which promise that you will make millions overnight. These are obviously scams but some people get caught up in the hype, part with their joining fee and never hear from these companies again. There is a risk of getting scammed but there are some things you should check out before joining any online company or parting with any money.

You can consult the Better Business Bureau or do a search at www.ripoffreport.com to see if the company is listed and someone else has complained about it. If it is not listed, that does not mean it is not a scam so you should still take care. Also check forums and message boards for complaints about certain companies. Remember, a company can change its name or website address and start under a new name. The thing to remember is that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is!

Think about it – if someone has discovered a scheme that allows you to literally ‘make millions overnight’ are they really going to bother setting up a website and trying to sell details of the scheme to you? Of course not! They are going to retire and live in their enormous mansion. Unfortunately, there are many gullible people in this world!

Another giveaway is when you see an advert that says something like ‘recommended price $497 – today only $97’ – this is obviously just to make you think, ‘wow, I have to buy this, I am saving myself $400!’ No, you are lining someone’s pocket and unlikely to get $97 worth of material in return.

I personally have not been ripped off because I tend to be very careful and not pay for anything! There is so much you can get online for free, such as information websites giving you ideas how to earn from home, free courses and lessons etc, that there is little point in paying large sums of money for something that smells like a scam.

Trading in stocks has become a popular pastime recently and the fact that you can do it from the comfort of your own home only makes it more attractive. There are scam websites offering this too and they offer ‘free lessons and tutorials’ to draw you in and make you think they are professional and authentic. If you have a stockbroker and trade the traditional way, you pay commission (he isn’t doing to do it for free) so online be careful of any company asking you to pay a hefty fee or charge before even investing anything. These companies can take your money and disappear overnight, especially if you give them $1000 to invest on your behalf. They will most likely be ‘investing’ it in a vacation somewhere hot for themselves! If you want to deal in stocks or shares, some of the largest and best-known banks in the world offer this service and you know you can trust them more than some company nobody has ever heard of.

I am not trying to scare you because there really are some fantastic ways to make serious money online, but I do urge you to be careful and check out companies carefully before giving away your hard earned cash. A serious, honest company will not mind you asking them questions to check their authenticity.