You may have heard it said, many times, that there is money to be made on the Internet. Indeed, there are millions of men and women who are making good money using the internet business route. Yet, you also know that there are a lot of frauds out there who will promise you the blue off the sky in return for some of your Taco Belle burrito supreme cash? Who makes all these dishonest human beings? I honestly wish I knew. It can be oh so hard to tell the good guys and gals from the bad and dumb ones. Similarly, do you have all the tools you need to do your work? You know, the personal and emotional stuff in addition to the money stuff.

Read on, if you are brave, and find out if you have the right stuff that it takes to work from home with an Internet electric business. Have you done your research? The investigate before you invest steps? There are so many great looking Internet business opportunities that it may seem like an easy task to pick one or another. Unfortunately no. Some are excellent but the catch is that you need big dollars and big technical programmer skills to do them. You also need powerful personal skills. Do not deceive yourself into thinking you can do one of these and then end up feeling really depressed when you face the facts and really cannot bring home the bacon and do them.

There are also a lot of scam artists out there who will want your money and will not be able to help you work from home after all. They do not care if you lack the skills and training to do these businesses. They do not even care if you die. They just want your money.

Sad but true. Do your triage or reality research on any Internet business diligently before you invest in them. For example, look to see if the website will tell you the details of the business. If it is vague, or promises you that all you need to do is get people to download a free ebook, the odds are high that this is not a lucrative business at all. If they say they will give you all the facts after you sign up for this, that and the other reason, what do you do? Very good! You say, bye, bye and never do any contact with them again because they are liars. Similarly, if the entire website is nothing but a gigantic ad for the ebook the webmaster has written, you are not actually going to start an Internet business, but simply buy a book.

Some will be good. If all the links on the web site are highly related to it, that is a good sign. It shows they are putting in long and hard work to make it work.

I do not know why but a very high percentage of the time, it turns out to be the cheapest programs or opportunities that have some little mistakes on their website that are good. Those that sometimes make you wonder if they know what they are really doing are sometimes the ones that turn out to be good opportunities. Maybe it is because they are just starting out and look that way.

If they answer all your questions though, politely, it might be worth a serious look. If they say you do not have to rush to sign up today but check us out, this is another good sign. So do your investigation research, and you will soon be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. You will feel especially good when you pass up a well researched opportunity that later folds because of dishonesty. Do you have the tools? If you do not at first, but are willing to work like crazy, you can get them in time.

Let us say that your Internet business will be web design. Designing web pages is not a very difficult feat, but it does require some specialized software and enough memory to ensure that your computer will not slow down if you are uploading large graphics or files. Ask yourself honestly, can you learn to do this? If not, sorry, you have to let it go. Is your equipment new enough that it could handle this kind of business? A five to ten year old computer will not have enough capacity to handle the electric space needed. Can you afford a new one? Do you have the software you need to get started? Can you afford a new computer and the software, if need be, to get started? Before you start advertising your new work from home Internet business, make sure that you have all your ducks in a row, so that you will not have to turn away any business! That is everything must be prepared and ready to go.

If not, then do not start until it is, okay? Do you have a reliable Internet setup? Is your usp worth a hoot? If not, it has to go. Signs of this are frequently dropping you off line, error messages, problems that take a long period of precious time to solve, and other time wasting delays you will not be able to afford. Granted, dial up is more and more going by the wayside. Like the brontosaurus or Trex. But if you still do rely on a dial up connection, you need to be honest with yourself and assess if you are truly able to rely on the connection. Does it work quickly and efficiently, or does downloading take long periods of time? Do you lose your connection frequently, or is it pretty solid? If you do not think you have a reliable Internet connection, you might need to drop it like a bad habit and get into DSL or Broadband.

Dial up is history baby. Do not start an internet business with it. Got that? So go ahead and take stock in what you have, and see if you are ready to work from home with your very own Internet business. If not then just take your time and get the personal and equipment stuff, one by one, as you can afford to. Then you are truly ready to go for it and fly.

James M. Lowe writes original articles about home business opportunities.