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I am an avid internet user; I love the fact that there is information on almost any topic that you could think of at the tips of your fingers. Through my journeys on the information highway, I have several times come across 'Make money on the internet!' 'Free and easy program, make over $2100 a day'. They trickled in slowly, but lately I have noticed them more and more. Ads, banners, and junk e-mail as far as the eye can see filled with promises of making huge amounts of money, working part time hours from home.

So what is the truth? What is a scam and what is legitimate work that you can make real money with? Through some countless hours I have found some answers and insight into making money on line. First of all, if you are looking for something totally free, no money at all; then keep looking with even the most legit opportunities cost something to start up. Secondly, going into any business venture looking to 'get-rich-quick' is unrealistic, everything takes time. Do not think that you are going to be able to retire in a few weeks, it rarely if ever happens that way.

So, you decide you want to give working on the internet a shot. There are a few things to remember. Most of what people are selling is information. There are thousands of the same sites out there that have self-created themselves as middlemen. For example, there are a lot of ads to earn money taking surveys. They advertise on average of $25 per survey that you complete. They charge anywhere from $10-$60 for a one time membership fee. But, what they do not tell you often times or bury in the fine print is that all they do is give you some tips to making money with surveys and a listing of survey sites. They do not pay you, they do not give you the surveys, and they more or less just point you in the right direction. If you keep digging a bit through the search engines you can find several free sites that offer critiques and listing of the best survey sites that pay out money. Most of the survey site, if not all offers free membership to take surveys.

Most of the data entry jobs that I looked into were all about the same things'..placing ads. You pay a company anywhere from $30-$200 for them to tell you how to place pay-per-click ads. The deal with these companies is that that they are so vague, like many of the companies out there, that there is no way for you to know that all they do is give you directions and by the way most of the pay per click site have their own directions that are exactly those that the company's sell you. They also advertise that they give you access to a catalog of employers seeking data entry. What they do not tell you is that they give you a link to a FREE catalog that anyone can get by joining a site for FREE.

Say you get frustrated trying to wade through all the information, you decide to break down and pay for one of the sites that is suppose to have all the secrets. Here are a few recommendations:

1) Shop around. Often times there are 50 sites that are all selling the same thing. I ran across countless sites that were identical in appearance and text, they all where selling the same information. The highest price was $199 and the lowest was $49, chances are there is a lower price out there if you keep looking.

2) Exhaust all the free information that is out there. There are free sites or every very low priced membership. I found several site that were under $10 for membership. If you decide to pay for a membership make sure you know what you are getting with your membership and then compare to other similar sites.

3) If you have questions as to what you will get with your membership or for the price that you are paying'ASK. Most sites have a 'contact us' link, use it. If they can not answer your questions directly or continue to be too vague, chances they are not selling anything new that someone couldn't find themselves.

4) Educate yourself. Do a search engine search on 'data entry scams', it will usually pull up articles, customer/member feedback and other free information, so you can find the right choice for you.

There are some legitimate ways to make money out there, take some time and research your options. Look for sites that offer free or reduced membership trials so you can decide if it is worth what they are asking. Also, look for programs or member sites that offer a money back guarantee and find out what the refund policy is.

If you are in pursuit of making money on the internet, you can be successful by remembering that the old adage 'if it's too good to be true, then it usually is' still rings true; even in this high tech virtual world that everyone is plugged into.