Finding a real home based business that works for me was a real challenge. In my quest to gain my financial independence, I came across a number of home based business ideas. One site I came across had a “top 10 home based businesses”. Another one had “top 100 home based businesses” and others had some “small business ideas”. But most of these online business opportunities were either scams or customer support was of little or no help or it wasn’t legitimate.I’ve even went as far as signing up with one of them. I ended up losing several thousand dollars in the process. But that was a life experience I had to learn for my self to figure things out. I would hate to see other people loose that kind of money. This is why I came up with this list of home based business opportunities to start with. As you get a better understanding of how things work online then you can branch out to bigger and better business ideas.When choosing an online business opportunity, verify with the Better Business Bureau that they are a legitimate company. Read reviews online or join several online home business forums to see which online home business you should pick, share ideas with your fellow entrepreneurs and get feed back from other forum members as to which ideas are working well online.In conclusion finding a home business that works for you and financial independence goes hand in hand, you’ll face a lot challenges along the way, but if you have a stick to it attitude you’ll be able to make it. There is a learning curve that you need to understand first before you can be successful. For some it can takes couple of months and for others…it may take couple of years. The question you should ask your self when you start facing these obstacles is why you are doing it in the first place. Good luck in your search for your Top Home Based Businesses.

People start a home based network marketing business for many different reasons. One of the most popular reasons is to be able to control their own destiny and run their own show. They are convinced that they can do it better than the idiots they work for in their job and if given the opportunity, they will outsmart, outwit and be more successful working on their own. That is probably true for the most part, people are usually smarter than the boss they report to at work and they usually have more potential than what they are currently using or demonstrating in their work each day.The question needs to be answered then; why do so many bright, intelligent, hard-working people fail in their quest to run their own show and build that dream of being their own boss with their home based business?Here are three reasons from my own experience and observation that I believe cause people to fail in their home based business and succeed in their daytime job.#1 Hard Work, Discipline and Structure:What? hard work…you might be saying, “I work hard”, and I agree, you probably do work hard…at your job, for your job boss. Are you working hard at home? For the “You boss”? Really? Are you?I know how tough it is to work hard at a job all day, come home and be mentally, emotionally and sometimes physically tired and then say… “ok, let’s go to work on the home based business for the next two – three hours”.Or to get up extra early and work on your business before you go to your job.The fact is: Most people work 40 + hours in their job, for their boss, yet during the free time they have to work on their home based business and get themselves out of the job they don’t like, they sit home and screw off – they sleep in. It’s funny that we get up early for a job five or six days a week, yet we sleep in on our days off when its our time to go to work in our business. We get up for our job/boss and we sleep in when we are the boss! At our jobs, we arrive on time, take our allotted breaks and lunch and work until quitting time. What do most home based business entrepreneurs do? They start late, take long breaks, go to the gym, rationalize that its OK to mess around today, surf the web, cut the grass, run errands and say to themselves…” there is always tomorrow, no big deal” and little do they know, they are sowing the seeds of their own future business failure. In a job, we have structure and routines which actually feed our success on the job and keep us busy making other people rich.#2 Inability to keep a work schedule and have a positive /encouraging environment which promotes mental and emotional harmony:In most jobs and work environments, things are usually, for the most part, supportive and somewhat allow you to focus in on your work that you have to do for your job. A big thing I see which causes people to fail in their home business is they are too distracted. They think that because they are home, they can start work when they want, work and watch tv and do the laundry and watch the kids and check their Facebook and text message their friends while they work. Most jobs obviously don’t allow you to do those things at work while you are on the clock (again – why you are successful in your job) yet many people who have a home based business think they can succeed in this type of distracted, unstructured, low productivity, drama filled environment.#3 – Their “Why” is not strong enough. You see, generally, for most people, their “why” of why they go to work is stronger than their “why” for their business. I say that because for most people, they need their job to pay the bills, pay the mortgage and put food on the table. The business to them is a hobby where they really don’t see it as this very important resource that provides income. In order to work from home, before or after your job, your “WHY” – your reason for doing your business has to be so compelling, specific and clear that it causes you to be disciplined, work hard, use your time well and create a supportive structure which allows you to be productive and build a successful business.

With the tough economic times and the growing number of unemployed Americans, people are starting their own home-based businesses. Studies are showing that more than half of all U.S. businesses are based out of someone’s home.The question now is which one will work for you. Well, you first need to figure out what you are most passionate about. Doing something that you are interested in will be very important, because sometimes you need to try and get people to invest in your home-based business or spend money for products or services you will give. You will need the enthusiasm when you are trying to sell your services.Some home-based businesses need little or no start-up capital and will provide you flexibility. They could be up and running in no time.Here are some home-based business ideas:1. Affiliate marketing/eBay seller – This is one of the lowest cost home-based business. It is very simple. You just set up a blog and review products in certain niche markets. Also you can learn how to sell items on online auctions. You can sell items for your friends and neighbors. You can set up a commission.2. Freelance Writer (Ghost Writing or Article Writing) – Many make a decent living with ghost-writing articles, topic-related articles or short stories. There are many websites that allow you to offer your services. Most are free, but some you have to pay.3. Dog Walking/ Pet Sitting – This is mostly for teenagers who want to make some extra money.4. Business Mentor/Business Coaching – If you have a business background, you can start with local business and then expand from there. Most small to medium companies don’t have much money to start with. They will contract you to help their business grow.5. Personal trainer – If you’re fitness minded, you can start training other people in their homes or rent some space. Another possibility is to make some short training videos and sell them to your clients. It doesn’t take much.6. Blogging – Many people blog on a daily or weekly basis. There are a number of ways to make money, such as displaying ads like Google AdSense throughout your site, offering unbiased reviews of products and services and providing helpful articles about certain topics.7. Photography – Are you a keen photographer and have your own camera? Then you could look at making money. You can take pictures of people either at their homes, outside scenery or just products or items and you can sell them for websites who buy stock photos.8. Technical support – If you’re computer literate and you can help others with computer problems, you can make money doing that.There are so many ways for everyday people to start making money at home. People just need to take some time to come up with a plan to successfully have a home-based business!

With the current economic crisis opting the long path to recovery, quite a few folks are considering an MLM home based business to restore a lost source of income, or supplement their current pay check. And yet, if you’re smart, now is the time to explore an MLM home based business to create a fortune, not just make a few extra bucks.

Now don’t get me wrong, the network marketing industry didn’t go unscathed during this financial crisis. Nonetheless, if you stumble upon the ideal MLM home based business program, you are going to be perched on a gold mine. I mean let’s be honest, folks are eager to better their financial situation. Today, folks are going to be open to opportunities, as long as it is a good fit for them. Hence, let’s go over what is an MLM home based business and in what ways do you cash in on possible opportunities.

MLM, which is short for multi-level marketing, is also commonly known as network marketing. The appeal of an MLM home based business is really quite simple. No other business model empowers an ordinary person to create wealth and prosperity like network marketing. This is true despite age, race, technical background or business knowledge (more on that and a few caveats in a bit).

The reason an MLM home based business can be huge for anyone is because companies that employ this distribution model trade marketing dollars in exchange of your word of mouth advertising. In other words, instead of having to pay huge amounts of money every year to the advertising industry, they count on their customers to spread the word instead. And trust me. I built a great little advertising career during the last 10 years. I’ve worked with clients who invest well over $100 million per year on advertising. Hence, these network marketing companies are saving some pretty good coin.

So what do network marketing companies do with those savings? They pass them on to you, the customer-turned-business-associate. When you refer customers to your MLM home based business, you get paid commissions and bonuses for helping the company market and distribute its product. In essence, you are part of their marketing arm. The more customers and company associates you recruit, the larger your commissions, the greater your bonuses and incentives, and the bigger your paycheck.

What really makes an MLM home based business worth a strong look

Nonetheless the real appeal of an MLM home based business can be defined in two words: residual income. This is also known as passive income or leveraged income. Basically, what this means is that as you recruit individuals into your MLM home based business, you eventually begin to earn income from their efforts. In time, your revenue will be completely independent of your own personal efforts. This is the allure of the business opportunity. The ability for absolutely anyone to create a considerable walk-away residual income and retire rich in quite a short period of time.

Of course, if it sounds too good to be true, then it must be, right? Well, not really the situation here. And yet, 97% of network marketers fall short with their MLM home based business. Though not because the network marketing industry is a sham. Rather, this is because the MLM industry promotes a marketing and prospecting model that did the trick well in the 1970′s and 1990′s, but is not relevant in the internet age. Allow me to explain.

The secret to MLM home based business success

Rewards in any MLM home based business is without question a direct result of a specific thing, and one thing only: your skill to brand and market yourself as a leader. Now, a few of you are thinking “I’m no leadership material.” But you would be inaccurate in that evaluation. Becoming a leader is easier than you think and you don’t have to be an extraordinary speaker, or a business expert to accomplish that status. Not in the modern day of the internet. The thing you do need is a solid wish to become familiar with a few simple tools and skills, plus a strong resolve to take significant action.

The internet now enables anyone to learn how to market their MLM home based business the correct way. Gone are the days of needing to chase close friends and family simply to plead with them to view your sales presentation. Gone are the days of walking around the malls to hand out brochures.

Today, you can leverage any number of incredibly effective, cheap–if not free–internet marketing tools to promote your business. Generating countless prospects each week is dead simple if you have even a small budget for advertisements. And if cash is tight, you can still produce tons of free targeted leads for your MLM home based business using free tools and strategies. It will just take longer. Definitely not for that lazy or make money fast opportunity seeker.

One important thing that has not changed in the MLM home based business environment is the incredible importance of aligning yourself with a capable counselor. The internet is beginning to change lives literally overnight for people who aren’t shy and dive in. But it’s just like a sea, never still and always churning and changing. If you do not recognize how to interpret the scientifically and time-tested formula that helps average people make six-and-seven-figure incomes overnight, you will end up lost at sea. This is truly critical.

If you would like to generate extra money or just flat out get filthy rich, do what I did. Find an MLM home based business opportunity which has a one-of-a-kind and high-demand product. For me, it was gold and silver. Not a bad idea in this dreadful economic climate.

Keep away from products that could possibly be considered a luxury. Nothing against the fantastic health beverages and super-vitamin MLM home based businesses in the industry, but you are going to have trouble marketing $40 fruit juice nowadays. Stick to goods and services that folks need to have and already use, and you’ll probably experience an easier time of it.

What to do when you find the right MLM home based business opportunity

Once you have selected a really good MLM home based business opportunity, meet with folks in that company who understand how to market via the internet. Traditional marketing is still valid and effective, however, your rewards ratio drastically improves when you can find out how to market on the internet. Learn all you can regarding attraction marketing as explained by Mike Dillard in Magnetic Sponsoring. Assess if this is a path you are comfortable with and be aware that you have the innate power to obtain anything you set out to do. Then get busy. Real busy.

Make use of your mentor. Ask him for a blueprint. He or she should have one if they understand what they are doing. They will give you the insider tips and instruments of the business. They will teach you how to use them. And when you stay disciplined, you simply will not fall short. Half a year ago, I did not know the very first thing on how to rank well on the very first page of Google. I can do it with my eyes closed today thanks to the golden nuggets handed down by my mentors. I generate 85% of my personal leads completely for free. And I Also generate money from my principal MLM home based business in addition to 12 other streams of affiliate income. So in case I have not been clear, allow me to stress yet again: the time has come to get involved with the right MLM home based business–believe me. Decide today that you will make the investment in time to learn some new skills and you will succeed.

After almost a decade working as an accomplished advertising professional, Camilo Machado became fascinated with internet marketing and attraction marketing. He now works from home and enjoys coaching others how to leverage technology to build thriving home-based businesses online.

While Google AdWords advertising is not for everyone, I don’t think anyone could turn down $75 of free advertising for their site! Google offers all new clients a $75 coupon to try out their services. There’s absolutely no commitment to carry on, no automatic billing should you forget to cancel, no deposit, just good old fashioned free money! Simply do a search in Google for “Google AdWords advertising $75 coupon”

But, it Costs too Much!

Free coupon aside, the main complaint of most people who try Google AdWords advertising is the cost. People will pay several dollars per click through for some high competition keywords. That’s like paying several dollars for one visitor! I have a technique to lower that cost. I woke up this morning, logged into my Google AdWords account and saw an average of $0.14 per click, much better.

Lowering Advertising Costs

The key to lowering the cost of click throughs is with Banner advertising. While this takes a little more time to setup, you can generally hit highly competitive keywords at around 5-15% of what it would cost you for text ads. This is still the same highly targeted traffic as you would get from those text ads. I want to address two concerns you may be having right now:

· You don’t have to have a fancy expensive graphic design studio to make banners – you can download a free graphics design tool called “gimp” that you can design your banners with

· You don’t have to be a graphic design artist – I designed all my banners myself and I have zero training in any artistic discipline, it’s simply about getting your message across. My click thorough rate is around 0.37% which may seem low, but considering the average banner click through rate of 0.2 – 0.3%, it’s actually pretty good! (Source: Wiki Click through Rate).

Optimizing Banner Campaigns

Here are some general tips that I have followed to get decent click through rates at a low cost per click with Google AdWords advertising.

· Keyword Research – focus on 2-3 main keywords that are 100% related to what you want to advertise. Copy those keywords into the Google AdWords Advertising Keyword Tool to get some more keyword ideas. Try and build up 200-300 highly targeted keywords, as specific as possible to what it is you are advertising. This doesn’t have to be done all at once, but try and start with 50-100. Read my article on using the Google Keyword Tool if you are new to this.

· Banner Design – it’s even more important to focus on your banner’s message than keyword focusing. You want visitors to click on your banner that are interested in exactly what you are advertising. For example, if I am advertising whey protein isolate, I want my banner to convey exactly that. Not whey protein, not protein, not nutritional supplements, I want people to click on my banner that are specifically looking for a whey protein isolate.

· Bidding on keywords – Google AdWords advertising works on keyword bids. You specify the dollar amount you are willing to pay for someone to click on your banner. I generally keep the same bid for each keyword, but you can manipulate each keyword bid individually for more targeted keywords. Start off low, around 15c. If you don’t get any traffic after 24 hours, increase to 20, then 25 etc. until you get the level of banner impressions you are comfortable with.

· Banner Population – Google AdWords advertising allows you to upload various sizes of banners – you want to upload at least one of each size! This is important. For your specific market, people might be focusing on a 728×90 size banner, maybe a 250×250? Who knows? You want to exploit the banner size that people may not be using, or not using as much. For me it was the 300×50 size banner.

Here are the Google AdWords advertising accepted banner sizes:

· 300 x 50 Mobile Leaderboard

· 468 x 60 Banner

· 728 x 90 Leaderboard

· 250 x 250 Square

· 200 x 200 Small square

· 336 x 280 Large rectangle

· 300 x 250 Inline rectangle

· 120 x 600 Skyscraper

· 160 x 600 Wide skyscraper

The main key here is focus, focus, focus! Google AdWords advertising can be very successful if you generate the right type of traffic – targeted traffic. If you are general with your keywords and banners, you will get exactly that – general visitors, not specifically interested in what you are advertising!

Offsetting the Cost

I generally offset at least 50% of my Google AdWords advertising costs with another Google product, Google AdSense. It’s basically the flip side of Google AdWords advertising, you get paid for people clicking on ads you put on your site. Also flipped is the way I show these ads, I only show text ads because I receive a lot more revenue from text ads than banners.

One word of caution, apply Google AdSense tastefully to your website. I have one ad in my side bar and one at the bottom of each article. Do not plaster them all over your website if you wish to use Google AdWords advertising – especially not on the landing page that people click through your banners to. Your banner ad will not get approved until Google deems your site suitable.

I also want to stress something else about approvals. It used to be that the folks at Google AdWords advertising would approve my ad in a matter of hours. Recently it has been 3-4 days, so be patient when submitting your ad and realize it may be several days before it goes live.