Working From Home – Is It Really Worth the Hype? (Part 1)

We’ve all seen or heard about them. Some website or internet ad promises that, for minimal effort from the simple comforts of your own home, you can become thousands of dollars richer at the pace of your choice.

Their targets include the following:
* Those of us who are disgruntled or dissatisfied with our usual 9-5 grind
* Full time college and university students who need the money for tuition and other expenses
* Stay-at-home/single moms (and dads, too) who could use the extra income
*Tech-savvy retirees and senior citizens who would like to survive off of more than their pension, social security, etc.

Basically, you click on a link to the main site, which is chock full of testimonies from satisfied customers and pictures of so-called “actual earnings” in the forms of pay stubs, To top everything off, these sites will swear upon the Good Book that their methods have been so successful as to have been featured on popular TV news stations (Fox and CNN are extremely represented here). Sounds legit, right?

Of course, do a little searching around and for every work-at-home ad you run across, you’ll see at least one (probably more) site, blog, or headline lambasting these working from home gigs as nothing more than internet scams. And it certainly seems that way when one considers that these sites will often as not ask for a small investment (usually between $40 and $90) which they claim is a fraction of the price you’d pay for all of the software, coaching, and any extra materials or tools that they say the corporate professionals use. On the increase is the inclusion of a 30, 60, or 90 day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied.

And one more thing, in some cases, you never really find out what it is you will be doing or how much you can truly can earn until after you pay the money and download or sign up or whichever method gives you access to this new income supply.

So is it legit? Is it a scam? Well, the answer, from my experience, is that there are legit and scandalous work-at-home programs. A lot of the scams are those that promise to make you rich overnight or those that guarantee that you will make a large amount of money. Legitimate work at home programs will state that this is a possibility but not a guarantee. Legitimate WAH programs are also more likely to outline what experience or skills are needed to succeed in their program and will emphasize that you won’t “get rich quick.” They are also the ones that are apt to offer the aforementioned money back guarantee and will only charge you once, as opposed to charging you a membership fee, followed by a monthly charge (Note here: There are some companies that do offer the option to upgrade for so-called better results. This is strictly an option and many customers (myself included) have gotten along just fine without having to upgrade at all. One big no-brainer: legit programs will be easier to reach or communicate with than scams.

So how do you decide what is a scam and what is legit without getting burned by the trial-and-error? Research, my friends. Go to the sites and read. If it seems straightforward in what it entails you to do and is realistically clear in its expectations of those who wish to get paid, then it is worth trying out. If it seems too good to be true (like making 1,000$ overnight…on the first night) then it probably is.

Before I conclude, it is worth noting that a lot of so-called “scams” are called out for the same reason that people fall for actual scams—they think they can get rich quick and are disappointed to learn that generating income entails a little bit more work (and sometimes, luck) than simply posting ads to Google. They also expect too much too fast.

That said, I hope this article clears up some of the misconceptions surrounding WAH programs. To answer the title question, whether it is worth the hype depends on how much research, investment (not just financial), and time you are willing to put in. It may not be the 9-5 grind type job, but like any other investment, it still requires work to make it a rewarding experience.