When trying to find a legitimate home based business, critical to first locating the right opportunity is scam avoidance. There are many dishonest brokers who understand (and exploit) the dreams many have of one day achieving financial freedom.

One professed home opportunity that we've tested time and again over the years and has never yielded profits for our company is known as 'envelope stuffing'. These offers, usually presented as a ‘pop up’ ad (or malware virus plant) promise cash in the form of Visa gift cards, movie tickets, laptops, iPads and hundreds of other items ‘if only’ you will fill out a series of surveys and disclose personal information.

A popup ad opens on a website, typically free streaming movie platforms (but not limited to) and promises tons of free gifts, all with cash value of some sort, to take part in three to four short surveys. In order to cash in, however, visitors are required to provide an email address for the survey provider to deliver the promised reward after work is complete.

Here is a red flag to watch for; these surveys take, in the most literal sense, hours to complete and never seem to end. Should you choose to abandon the offer before completion and to keep your interest peaked, more promises are given which are more value packed than in the beginning.

Although we've completed many more than can be counted, here are five things we've learned through hard-won experience:

1. Whether surveys are completed or not, very few offers actually follow through with promised rewards.
2. No serious advertising platform (such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Chikita or other) allow these ads to be served on their paid search advertising platform.
3. There's no way to determine who exactly is conducting the survey. More simply put; you are sending your contact information into 'oblivion'.
4. Shortly after providing an email address and before ever filling out the first set of questions, your inbox will be stuffed with junk mail with no opportunity to ‘opt-out’. Serious home business opportunities always, without exception, offer a way to 'no longer receive their emails' (unsubscribe) option.
5. By clicking on the wrong link while proceeding through the work, you may invite very nasty computer viruses and Malware onto your machine.

4 simple ways to filter opportunities:

1. Avoid ‘one-page’ websites known as sales pages which are lengthy and at the end, call for ‘direct action’ by signing up for ‘freebies’ or requesting money without company information on the website.
2. Forgo signing up for offers on advertising ‘splash’ pages. These are sub-pages which with multimedia style advertising (music, videos etc.) and play without visitor permission. These are most prevalent on free streaming movie websites which operate ‘offshore’.
3. If a website has very little written, multimedia or no Contact Us or About Us pages, it is a sure bet whatever the offer, it has one goal; getting your contact information for SPAM email campaigns.
4. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

3 questions which must be asked and answered as well:

1. Is there some sort of charge to join? How many times have you applied for a job, whether on or offline and been required to pay? No legitimate online opportunity would require upfront payment. The object is to get paid to work instead of paying for the privilege.
2. Within posted opportunities, are there clear indications that others, before you, have been successful? When locating something of interest, go to Google and search the company, website or other key identifiers and put the word ‘scam’ behind it. Served results may reveal what sort of business you are truly dealing with.
3. Will you be invited to some form of local ‘get together’ after being told it is free? Be careful accepting these invitations because most often, these gatherings, especially in very large groups, will end with a sales pitch

What is most important is measuring a website’s claims against the chance to live your dream because most, like the hottest deserts, are only a mirage. There are also those who believe, somehow, current skills aren’t transferable to online learning or job environments. Nothing is further from true.

More home based business scams to be wary of:

1. Rebate Processing - Electronically anyway, this scam became popular in or around 2006. The bait used to lure in at home workers is a promise of big paychecks to do one form or another of easy data entry.
2. Business in a Box - If starting a successful work at home venture were only this easy! This approach is all about a high pressure sales and exploiting the hopes of aspiring entrepreneurs with one end in mind; processing your credit card. Avoid flashy and dazzling headlines that contain (but not limited to) - ‘wealthy affiliate’, ‘cash money secret’, ‘one secret that makes you rich’, ‘the rich jerk’, ‘make $2,000 (or more) per day’ as well at countless others.
3. Auction Listing Processing- In the final analysis and not unlike rebate processing, you'll only end up a bit poorer having paid a membership fee.

Whatever the offer, the end in mind is collecting your personal information for the benefit of a few.

Now that we’ve shared the illegitimate, let’s get to several legitimate types of work at home opportunities. Topping our list is a website we’ve personally tested; Fiverr.com. Whatever your current skills inventory, buyers are waiting to spend money with your business at Fiverr. Simple perform some small task and get paid! We have.

More legitimate opportunities for consideration by serious entrepreneurs or small businesses seeking avenues to expand profit centers:

1. Taskrabbit.com – receive easy ‘gopher’ assignments in your local area and get paid fast when tasks are completed
2. Odesk.com – start a freelance business today with this website
3. Smashingjobs.com – Pick and choose the tasks you’d like to perform, select clients and earn a great living
4. Gigwalk.com – Go mobile and check on people, places and assignments for employers
5. Udemy.com – whatever your skill, rest assured that online learning is key to the future of education.

Although many websites can be offered, I invite readers to check out the following and search for online career opportunities:

1. www.indeed.com
2. www.expertplug.com
3. www.flexjobs.com

There are dozens of legitimate, work at home websites like these so simply use Google or your favorite search engine to locate ‘like sites’. Be wise and define goals up front but most of all, never give up living the dream!