The Number 1 Work From Home Business

“Hey Mark, so what is the number 1 work from home business?”

What seems like a really straightforward question will undoubtedly lead to a heated debate with strong opinions, many of which will be based on personal experience.

You’ll get the supporters of the “you must have your own product” line of thought. In opposition you’ll have the “affiliate marketers”; the “e-bay marketers”; the you must use “Private Label Rights” advocates.

You have the “online surveys” or “Adsense” or “text link Ads” supporters. And that’s just those who prefer to work online. You ‘ll also hear from people who hate the online world and will sell you the benefits of “envelope stuffing” or “multi level marketing” or virtually anything else you can think of that doesn’t require an actual shop, factory or office.

I’ve worked from home for around 15 years – most of that running a consultancy which was really an office at home with visits to clients premises. It was a million miles away from the number 1 work from home business. I didn’t know it at the time and as it was what I was used too I just continued without ever giving more than a passing thought to work out what I really wanted.

I know now what a home based business shouldn’t be (at least in my opinion based of years of the ups and downs of working from home). I’ll cover this more later but first let’s take a look at what happens to most people when they decide they want to start up a business based on the internet.

The Inexperienced Online Marketer

Take the typical (relatively new) online marketer.

They got interested in the idea of making money online. They’ve seen a few websites and then came across their very first “persuasive” sales letter that promised untold riches with little to no work.

What did they do?

First off, they speed read the sales page, jumping around from the glowing testimonials to find the details of what they had to do and how much it was going to cost. Of course, there was little information about exactly what the “work” was but the images of fast cars, yachts, mansions and laying on sun drenched beaches proved that it works.

The sales page gets reasd and re-read. The enthusiasm grows and the dream of all those riches for so little outlay and so little work gets too much to bear.

Maxing out a credit card will be fine – the money will be back in a few weeks – maybe before the bill even arrives!

Let’s do it!

… A few weeks later the bill arrives and yet zero progress has been made with the business.

The book was started, maybe a few videos were watched. It all seems easy enough but for some reason no progress has been made. Maybe you couldn’t figure out what niche to work in; or didn’t quite follow how to register a domian name and get the nameservers to link in with the Hosting account. Or maybe the technical issues about setting up a site or a blog or an autoresponder series were too much to face. Or maybe the time needed was much more than you thought. How about the “unstoppable traffic” that was about to miraculously find its way to your site – what you only had 2 visits and one of those was your mother!

Never mind – it was the program’s fault. On to the next big glossy launch with more promises of sun-drenched beaches and the life of luxury.

Let’s do it!

Get the card out, download the program, read a bit; watch a bit, maybe do a bit. But never enough to make the breakthrough.

It’s hardly surprising that most people give up about now and have a jaded view of “online business”.

So if you asked them what is the number 1 work from home business they’re not likely to mention anything online based on their experience!

Reality or Perception?

But is that reality or is that simply their perception based on their personal experience?

The same can be said of anything you ever try. If it works you think it’s brilliant but if for some reason your results weren’t great your perception is that it’s not such a good idea!

And of course the different types of activity you can be involved n will suit some people and not others. So, to give you a definitive answer that everyone will agree with is impossible. However…

…it will be very difficult to argue with my conclusions if, like me, your real motivation for working from home is to improve your lifestyle. Stick with me and you’ll see exactly what I mean…

Why Do You Want A Work From Home Business Anyway?

So we’ve seen some of the problems in identifying a business “opportunity” that really works and isn’t just a meal ticket for someone else. So let’s take a good look at the positives and what we should be looking at if we are ready to start a home based business.

I really can’t emphasise this enough…

You MUST work out why you want to run a business before you start

Let me explain.

Far, far too many people think they want to run a business from home whereas what they really want is a magic pill. A magic pill that doesn’t exist – at least it doesn’t unless you happen to be a lottery winner.

There is no solution or program that is totally without work. I absolutely 100% guarantee it.

So if you really want to start a work from home business you have to adopt the mindset of a business person and not some part-time suck-it-and-see dream chaser.

The easiest way to highlight the points I’m making is to tell you why I work from home and the type of business that fits in with my needs…

• I have no travelling. No boring, strees filled commute to an office

• I have my own dress code – normally shorts and tee-shirt

• I do what I want when I want (I should stress that within those parameters I have a strict range of activities that I always follow – working from home doesn’t give you a licence to be lazy or avoid your responsibilities!)

• I am not answerable to anyone apart from the most important people in the world – my family and my customers

• I can take time off whenever I need or want to as long as I’ve done the work I need to. I’ve never missed any of my kinds school plays, sports days etc

• I have the flexibility to change direction if I need to. I have no boss or committee to discuss my decisions with or convince of my plans

• I have no financial overhead of an office, warehouse or factory

• I have no obligations to staff or stock to maintain

Now you may see from these points that there is a theme developing. It has nothing to do with the business itself. I’ve made no mention of money.

To me working from home provides the one thing that no other business can…

Freedom to live my life just as I please. Not by somebody else’s rules or to somebody elses clock.

You just cannot underestimate the value of that when you get used to it.

But…

To have that freedom you have to understand exactly what home based business you are getting into.

It’s all too easy to get taken in by the hype and end running an online business that takes over your life.

You can spend all of your time writing articles, creating websites, designing products, trying to get traffic, dealing with customer support issues, replying to emails – and still not generating the money you need or freeing up the time to lead the life you want.

So before you start you need to think very carefully about your motives and what you are prepared to do.

The “gurus” will talk about millionaire lifestyles but what they don’t tell you is that most of them have offices with employees and big wage bills to cover. That’s a lot of headaches!

Most people I talk to don’t want that. Yes, they want to get rid of their boss. They want to get in control of their lives but they don’t want to trade their job for a business that causes nothing but headaches!

When your business is up and running and going in the right direction you may want to look at more complicated business models but if you are just starting (especially if you can only work part-time alongside your day job perhaps)  I strongly recommend you go for the simplest and quickest way to get up and running.

Is Affiliate Marketing The Number 1 Work From Home Business?

Now you won’t be expecting a straight answer will you?

The answer is probably yes but it depends on how you set it up.

If you just send some traffic to an affiliate link I’m afraid the answer is NO.

But if you design your system to collect your visitors email address. To build a relationship with them by providing genuine advice and help. To promote only products you know will be of benefit (because you’ve tried them yourself). To use tactics that most other online marketers can’t be bothered with (in other words doing something that makes you stand out from the crows). Then yes, affiliate marketing is the number 1 work from home business.

But if you are a total newcomer to internet marketing there is an even easier way to see if this is what you really want to do.

You don’t need a website

You don’t need any products

You don’t need a payment processor

You don’t need to know much at all!

What you do need is this:

1) A Paypal Account to receive payments

2) $27 to buy a bundle of Private Label Rights products. For now you can forget them though because with the PLR you get a bonus ebook that contains your affiliate links.

3) Then just giveaway the book.

Maybe you have a Facebook account with say 100 friends. Maybe you’re active in a few forums or have a blog with some traffic. Or maybe you have a band of Twitter followers. Just give the book away and you are very likely to generate a little income.

That will build your confidence and belief that it is possible to make money online. While you are generating that income you can come back here and learn more detailed strategies and systems and build on your knowledge to create the level of income you need to quit your job and run your own work from home business.

Head over to Fast Home Business Success and download the free ebook to read more about this great way to get started online.

Working From Home