You probably get hundreds of emails a week promising greatriches. “Financial Freedom”, “Earn Money While You Sleep”, “BeYour Own Boss”, “Create Your Own Destiny”, “Escape Your Dead EndJob”, “Be Able to Watch Your Kids Grow Up While Making Money”,“Work at Home”, are all common headlines. Are these statementstrue?

First, let’s have a reality check. Today over 90 percent ofstart-up businesses on the Internet fail within the first year.The majority of these fail in a few short months. Why?

The answer to this is simplistic. Many people are conned into aprogram that cannot succeed without selling the same program toother people. This is a typical example of a pyramid, and whenyou run out of suckers to sell the program to, you are out ofbusiness.

Others jump into a program without finding out the particularsfirst. Envelope stuffing is a perfect example. You are promisedone dollar for every envelope you stuff. With visions of “sugarplums dancing in your head”, you figure you could do hundreds aday. Let’s face it - machines can stuff thousands an hour. Whywould someone pay you a dollar apiece? They won’t - it’s a con -pure and simple.

Some might stumble on a legitimate venture - yes there are someout there. But they followed the “Earn Money While You Sleep”routine. They believe if they follow some simple directions,they will be “rolling in dough” without having to do any work.When the postman isn’t filling their mailbox with $20 bills, theylose heart and quit.

Others might buy some “obsolete government reports” on a CD andbelieve the “rap” that they can sell each one for $15 a pop.They get a free email account, a free web site, and are inbusiness with just the cost of the CD. That business might lasta week.

The ones I get a kick out of are where they “front load” you withmerchandise. You could have thousands invested before yourealize you have been taken. Most of the people trying to sellthis deal, are only trying to recover the money someone elseconned them out of, and hope you will be gullible enough to letthem fleece your pockets. Anybody want to buy a “water filter”?I know someone with a garage full.

With the exception of a naïve minority, people are “savvy” enoughto avoid the majority of these scams. So, if you want to getinto business on the Net, use some common sense and do some “duediligence” investigation before jumping in with both feet .

Do some people make money on the Net? Sure - but guess what?They work for it. Some may tell you that JOB is a dirty word andstands for “Just Over Broke”. Working for yourself is hard workif you want to succeed. You must run your “Home Business” withthe same discipline you would use in any other.

You must advertise, advertise, advertise - if people don’t knowyou’re there, how do you expect them to find you to do business?Be prepared to work 60 to 70 hours a week or more if it is a fulltime venture.

But how about those who need the financial security of their job,while trying to develop their online business - can they hope tosucceed? Yes! But they have to put in their effort in theevenings and on weekends. They have to approach it with the sameattitude as someone doing it full time.

There are a lot of good opportunities “just ripe for the picking”out there. If you avoid the obvious scams, and do some “duediligence” investigation, you will find one. If the first fewdon’t work for you, don’t lose heart. Be sure you give itenough time and effort before giving up. If you are sure itwon’t, “cut your losses” and move on to something else. It maytake some time to find a “fit”, but when you do, it will be worthyour time and effort.

Bob publishes the free weekly “Your Business” NewsletterVisit his Web Site at http://adv-marketing.com/business tosubscribe.