by Lucy May

Created on: April 27, 2009

Before the launch of online marketing, if you applied for a position with a company you attended an interview at their offices. On arrival you were probably impressed by the grandeur of the building and judged the companies success by their general appearance.

The internet and in particular online businesses have adopted the same principal, that the more impressed you are by their website the more likely you are to spend money with them. Many of the "get rich quick" operators spend thousands of dollars employing top copy writers and web designers to entice you to part with your money.

So how do you go about discovering which companies are trustworthy and genuine and who will take your money and run? There are several steps you should undertake when you start to look for online working opportunities.

Nearly everybody today will warn you of the "if it looks too good...." statement, yet if people really understood the words and did in fact leave these websites alone, why are they still there and doing business? We return here to the copy writers, they are good at their job and the other problem is that little box at the bottom of the site. The guarantee. Never believe the guarantee, most are just fancy lettering to complete the deal, you will not see a nickel in return. Unfortunately it is also true that a lot of people who have lost their money are too embarrassed to admit they were conned and fail to post to forums warning others.

If you are seriously looking for an online business and have researched thoroughly across the internet, you probably now have one or two that you are thinking about signing up with. It is at this stage that you must start to investigate the companies further.

If they are asking you for credit card payment upfront it's a scam, forget them. Remember the old days of interviews, did any employers ever ask for you to pay them before offering you the position?

Next step is to read every piece of small print at the bottom of the website. With a legitimate company you should be able to see: the company details, address, email, even phone numbers. Take any information you gained and using the search engines you will be able to find them listed. By adding simple words like good, bad, scam to the company name you will discover forums. Here you will find comments and advice, another warning though, ignore some of the testimonials. Common sense may apply if you begin to read that this company you are looking at can suddenly become too good. Scam operators have been known to post on forums with misleading glowing reports!

Internet marketing is a gamble, many people will advise you to jump in at the start of a new opportunity and others will say only sign up with the older established companies. Here is your biggest decision, will the new business take off or is the older one at the end of its life?

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