My friend Eric decided that he wanted to quit his 8 to 5 job. So, he started to find business opportunity in the Internet to work with. But even after nearly nine months, he seems to be circling around with very little progress. It doesn't seem right because he seems to give lots of effort. Looking deeper on the business opportunities he tried to promote, I'm worried that he had fallen into Internet scams.
There are many true and profitable business opportunity in the Internet. But there are also lots of scams. How to differentiate good business opportunity from scam. Allow me to share with you the tips.
1. Where to search?
The first step in finding home based business opportunity, is searching for a bunch of them. Here are some great places where you can find them. Just look around and bookmark some of the interesting ones. We will then select the "good" ones from the "bad" ones.
- Traffic Swarm: Traffic swarm is a platform where Internet Marketers advertise their business. You can find tons of them here.
- Clickbank: You can find great opportunities here, especially affiliate type of opportunities.
- Pay Dot Com: Although lesser in numbers, you can also find some business opportunities here.
- eBay: Thinking that eBay is only selling physical products? Try typing in "business opportunity" in the search box. I was quite amazed with the numbers of home based business opportunities you can find on eBay.
- Search engine: Just type in "business opportunity" or "home based business opportunity" and you should get a very very long list. Try searching on several search engines. Different search engines give slightly different result.
2. Does it has a strong product base?
Now go through the list you have bookmarked. Look at their products or services. Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer, not a seller. Which product would you buy? Read through their sales page. Do they emphasis more on the benefits of their product, or do they emphasis on how can you make lots of money by recruiting others? Most pyramid scheme scams do not have a good product base. They simply just have "some products," and stress on how you can make lots of money by recruiting others. Don't waste your time with this kind of opportunities. Pioneer people in these schemes do have tremendous returns. But do you think you can live happily on the expense of other people loses? Furthermore, how are you going to know that you are the pioneers?
3. Is it too good to be true?
Some Internet scams are very smart. They know you will be looking for a strong product base, so they disguise themselves with reputable products. However, you can still detect whether it is a scam or not. Even with good products, take caution if it is promising:
- an unbelievable income returns,
- and with unbelievable little efforts from your side.
Don't get me wrong? There are lots of legitimate businesses that can give you tremendous returns in a very short time, but the key differences here is on the effort you need to put. Great returns can only come with a combination of creativity and hard work.
4. See what others say?
Second opinions are important too. Do consider what other people are saying. You can do this by simply searching the Internet. Nonetheless, this should not be your only guide. As we know our economy is dominated by 20% of the population, who are fast in identifying and grabbing opportunities. While the other 80% who are skeptical share the leftover. We want to be cautious, but we don't want to lose a great business opportunity just because of what others are saying right?
5. Why just find a business opportunity?
Finally, why just merely find a business opportunity. Why don't you find a business opportunity that generates passive income? When I search for business opportunity, I'll search for business opportunity which:
- offers recurring income.
- provide work procedures which can be followed or duplicated.
- is viral in nature.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, good business opportunities have a strong product base and is never "too good to be true." On top of finding a business opportunity, why don't you put a little bit more effort in finding one that can help you build a passive income over time. Smart marketers always build a "system" instead of merely something to sell.