Here are three lenses at Squidoo that are about ways I can vouch for to make money from home. Perhaps they’ll be of help to you as we enter the new year. Even if you don’t choose one of these paths for yourself, it may get you thinking about options which ARE appropriate for you.

Home Medical Transcription - One Woman’s Journey is about my wife’s path to working at home as… you guessed it … a medical transcriptionist! It summarizes what we learned and some of the travails we had to getting there. Most importantly it gives you a few simple tricks to see if Medical Transcription might be “for you” before you invest $2000 in training and $2000 in books and software. That’s what a REAL MT program costs. And of course we tell you the ONLY program we recommend. I wish they had an affiliate program but they don’t so we’ll just have to tell you for free.

Here’s one we get lots of inquiries about: How to Make Money with a Digital Camera. This lens discusses a variety of ways to make money from home using your digital camera skills! Not everybody makes money taking pictures of children per se. Some do field inspection, some do antique photos… you name it. There are dozens of ways to begin and make money in the process. If making money with a digital camera is your idea of the ideal home based business, you WILL find ideas here!

And if you’re into blogging with Wordpress, then you really want to visit Cool Wordpress Plugins. This lens is about the Wordpress plugins I personally use and recommend to others. In fact, I start by showing you the VERY first plugin you should add to any Worpress blog to make adding every OTHER plugin “child’s play”. Then, of course a laundry list of other Wordpress plugins to make the webmaster’s life easier.

Make a million before the end of the year!  Ugh, not another lame marketer!  Not another one! I don’t know about you, but all you need to remember is you need to do your “Due Diligence” first!

Be prepared to investigate a home based business that you think you could do well at. Your choice of a company will depend on whether you are business oriented or product oriented or people oriented.  Just make sure and ask a lot of questions before jumping in to the next latest and greatest company such as:

1. How long has the company been in business?  
2. Any business under 5 years is risky.
3. What kind of science is behind the product and has the company conducted independent research and studies as well?
4. Google the company to find out more information on them.
5. How does the compensation plan work?
6. What is the Buy-in to get involved and is it necessary to get to the higher levels?  My advice…I’d stay away from any program that requires a large buy-in if you pay more money.  Large buy-in to me is, “What am I willing to lose?”
7. Is there inventory that needs to be purchased?  Usually get them from large buy-ins.
8. Importantly, who you join with will determine how successful you will be in the business.  A helpful and available support structure is critical to succeeding.
9. What kind of training? |What kind of support? |What are the resources and tools does the company have to help you be successful?}

The networking business over the past 10 years or so is gaining much more popularity and is gaining respect from people such as Robert T. Kiyosaki and Donald Trump in their book, “Why We Want You to Be Rich”.  Since there is a low risk in capital and a good proving ground to see if you do have what it takes to build your own business from the ground floor if you have done your homework.

Scam sites are really negative, I don’t like visiting them because I feel like there is nothing good to even start doing.  They are very negative people and have nothing to say good about anything except their site. 

Here is another way to make good income on the Internet.

Earn money by learning how to build profitable websites using affiliate programs such as Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliate program, LinkShare, and PayDot just to name a few.  Build your site, and promote it in a personal review.

You can see some examples like these Alkaline Water or Market Samurai or in Garmin GPS Handhelds.

The answer to this question is a definite YES! I have lots of business associates in the USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand who are working in home based businesses and making good money each week. In fact the woman who introduced me to my home based business is only 25 years of age and she made over $500,000 in her first 12 months of home business.

I am now replicating her results, but please read on and you will learn about what I have achieved and experienced in 3 very different situations and how in the end I succeeded in taking control of my life.

My Traditional Business Experience

I used to own and manage a very profitable and high-profile restaurant and bar in Brisbane, Queensland for a period of over 12 years. I started it from scratch and like most traditional businesses it was really expensive to set up and the running costs were enormous.

Although I earned a lot of money with this business, I finally decided to sell it when I came to realise that the long hours and constant stress of managing over 30 staff, dealing with various government officials, endless paper work and hundreds of customers per week was ruining destroying my life.

You can become very wealthy with a traditional business but you will need to be extremely committed as you won’t be able to walk out and close the door anytime you want.

There will be lots of work to do and deadlines to meet, customers to service and more than likely, staff to hire and mentor unless you want to do all the work yourself. The hours are generally very long and in most cases the business can end up being your life. Another point to consider is that you’ll be on your own to work things out and solve any problems as they arise.

My Job Experience

After selling the business, I decided that a job would be a better alternative to owning a business so I set about finding one and little did I know what I was in for!

I spent 8 hours a day scouring the employment classifieds, networking, perfecting my resume and attending interviews for jobs I didn’t even want. I felt undervalued and demoralised and almost gave up hope before I finally landed a job with a firm as an Events Manager.

All good you might well think, but unfortunately this was not the case as now I was into something that would cost me 12 hours of my time, 5 days a week as I got dressed up for work, traveled to and from work and actually did the work. I was working under considerable pressure and was totally stressed out by having to answer to a boss and co-ordinate every single element of each event from travel and accommodation arrangements, key note speakers, entertainment and right down to sorting out what type of lettuce should go on the dinner plates of the attendees. What a nightmare! But the thing that annoyed me the most was that I was doing all of this to make my boss richer while I had to settle for a small pay packet at the end of each week. JOB = Just over broke.

My Home Business Experience

As you might have guessed, I didn’t stay in my job as an Event Manager for long. I had spent seven months of my life trying to find the right career and after only 1 month I resigned.

I had no idea what to try next but I was determined to find something that would tick ALL the boxes for me and knew that I first needed to get very clear about what I really wanted.

I did not want to:

Own and manage a stressful, traditional type of business

Outlay a lot of money to get started in a new business

Answer to a boss and have to beg for time off work

I did want to

Earn a lot of money

Work from home

Take control of my future

With the above in mind, I spent the next couple of months researching my options until I was eventually attracted to an advertisement (placed by a 25 year old lady) about a home based business opportunity. I must admit that I was pretty hesitant to begin with but I decided I had nothing to lose by finding out more so I answered the ad and within 1 week I was up and running with my very own home based business.

On my best day so far, I earned five thousand dollars but what I really love about my home business most is that I actually took back control of my own life. I now work the hours I choose, from the comfort of home or anywhere I like really with my laptop and phone. I don’t have to juggle and manage staff anymore and gone is all the stress. I fit my work around my life, generally about 25 hours per week and I absolutely love what I do.

It’s not for everyone however and if you are considering getting started in a home business you should ask yourself the following important questions:

1. Is the business aligned with your income and lifestyle goals?

2. Do you have some money and time to invest into the business?

3. Can you work diligently as your own boss and without supervision?

4. Will there be anyone to help or guide you if you get stuck along the way?

Yes! You can make money with home based businesses. Lots of money!

Christine Hamilton is currently making money in with home based businesses. For more information about what she is actually doing, click work at home BSCH110509 Supported by sales training Australia.