We’ll take a look at some of the different outright scams and ineffective work from home programs wandering around out there, but the rule of thumb here is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Follow that mantra and you should keep yourself out of trouble.

The Stuffing Envelopes Scheme

There has been a big crackdown on envelope stuffing schemes in the past few years so they’re not quite as prevalent as they once were but there are plenty that still exists.

You can actually go to jail for participating in an envelope stuffing scheme as they work by having your promote the same scheme they’re promoting.  It’s all a big, ugly pyramide scheme style program and needs to be avoided no matter how easy the work sounds and how much they say they’ll pay you.

Make Money Posting Links On Google

A more recent scheme that’s only been around for a short while is the make money posting links on Google scheme.  They’ll tell you how you can make $1500 or more just by posting links on Google and that you’ll get weekly checks.

That’s how they get you to sign up for a $2.95 work from home kit – they’ll tell you it has all the information you need to get started.  The problem is that you’re actually signing up for a monthly program that will charge your $80 a month or more.

Please keep in mind there really are legitimate offers that will give you trial offers out there so just because you’re being offered a trial doesn’t mean it’s a scam.  However, all of the legitimate ones will tell you when you’ll be charged and how much.  If you want the kit but don’t trust them not to charge you the full amount even if you try to cancel, get yourself a prepaid credit card and only load it up with $10 or however much you need to get started.  Then you’ll still be able to get the information but even if you’re not able to talk to anyone to cancel, you’ll be out, at most, $10 instead of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Jobs Don’t Cost Money – They Pay Money

For those who are looking for real opportunities to work from home, keep in mind that you shouldn’t ever have to pay a company to hire you.  That just doesn’t make sense.  If you need specialized skills that require training, you might have to take a class which is fine and you’ll probably have to pay for that.

However, you shouldn’t have to pay for on the job training.  You get paid for that.  There’s some gray area here as there are job listing services that will charge money though not many legitimate ones as most of the time their money is made by charging businesses for posting job listings, not the other way around.

Fake News Sites

Boy are there a lot of these things out there these days and new ones pop up every day.  Here’s the gist of how they work.  They pose as news site and pretend to report on someone who has been quite successful running their own home based business – often times a stay at home mom.

They’ll talk about how the person is making anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 per month and how it’s so easy anyone could do it.  Then they’ll have a product recommendation.

The problem is that everything is made up.  They just want you to sign up for the program and while you’ll probably get something for your money, it’s rarely worth what you’ll end up spending on it.

A sure sign that you’re looking at a fake news site is that you’ll see several comments at the end of the article from people saying they’ve made a ton of money with the program but at the very end you’ll see that comments are closed.

If you see that, it’s almost guaranteed that everything you just read is merely a well crafted story and not a shred of truth is in it.

The Not Actually Scams, Scams

Just because it’s not an outright scam doesn’t mean it’ll help you reach your goals.  For example, many years ago when I was just a young pup trying to start my own home based business (the year 2000) I bought a internet business kit off an infomercial and they sent the information exactly as I requested.  However, a few weeks later, I got a phone call from someone who wanted to help me really get my business going.  After purchasing overpriced services from them and for the assistance of a personal coach,  I found myself spending thousands of dollars and spending a lot of time working on a business that never paid off.

I later found out the my “personal coach” had never even built a successful business himself.  Sure, he had a website setup but it didn’t actually make any money.

I eventually ended up spending $8,000 with that company and lost thousands more by following their advise paying for advertising that didn’t work.

So if you’re going to start working from home and plan to run a real home based business, make sure you do you homework before you sign up for any seemingly legitimate program.  If you can, find reviews that are posted and check to see if you can find any verifiable results from people who have used the program.

Surveys

The last item on my list here is surveys.  Are surveys actually scams, no?  There really are companies out there willing to pay you for your opinion.  The problem is that making much money with this is virtually impossible.  Sure you can make $20-$50 a month with it but anything beyond that should be viewed as just gravy.

So if you just need pizza money, go ahead and give it a try but for those looking for real home based business opportunities, look elsewhere.

We added her to our “bad” list.

And this got me thinking about the importance of making a good first impression.  While we’ll certainly drink there again, we’ll go out of our way to avoid sitting in her area even though it very well could have been her first night working there simply because she made a bad first impression.

Think about how your first impression affects how you feel about a person.  If someone comes of as a jerk, they’re going to have to fight an uphill battle to change your mind.

So what does this have to do with running a business you ask?

Everything!

Think about how people first come to learn about your business.  Are you putting your best foot forward?

If you go to a restaurant and you have a great meal and the service is great, you’re likely to go back and tell your friends.  And even if the second time you go back the food isn’t as good and the service could have been better, you’ll probably give them another chance.  Heck, you’re likely to give them multiple opportunities to redeem themselves.

But if go to a restaurant and the service and food are bad, then you’re almost certainly not going back again.

You need to really think about the people who are going to be the first contacts for a new client or customer.  For example, it’s absolutely critical that you have a friendly and knowledgeable person taking calls instead of someone who could really care less.

And while you may not own a restaurant or bar, you had absolutely better be doing everything you can to *wow* the customer the first time they do business with you.

If you get clients through the use of “loss leaders,” then those products need to be the best you offer.

I could go on and on about this topic.  Heck, books have been written on this topic of making a good first impression, but you’ve got the basic idea now.  If you make a great first impression, the customer will cut you a little slack if you slip up in the future, but if you make a bad first impression, you’re sunk.

Have you watched my DVD, How To Start A Home Based Business For Less Than $25 yet?  I’ve worked hard to make a good first impression with that program

The beauty of the online world is that it never sleeps.

So today let’s look at how to make that idea a reality for you.

5 Ways To Make Money While You Sleep

1)    eBay
I remember days when I’d wake up and have several hundred dollars sitting in my Paypal account that wasn’t in there when I went to bed.  That sure made getting up in the morning more fun – instead of having to drag my rear end out of bed, I’d happily get up just to check to see how much money I made while I was sleeping.

While eBay isn’t a primary source of income for me anymore, it’s still a great opportunity to earn money, especially for someone just getting started.    In fact, here’s the course I recommend for people looking to make money with eBay – Rapid Auction Profits (available at RapidAuctionProfits.com).

And technology now makes it possible to automate large portions of your eBay business.  You can have auctions launch automatically, and with dropshipping services you never need to package and ship anything.

2)    Adsense / Performance Based Advertising
Here’s another fun, easy to start with method for earning money while you sleep.

Performance Based Advertising.

Instead of negotiating a specific price for advertising space on your website, you get paid based on how well your website performs.
With Google Adsense and other contextual link services, they pay you for every person who clicks on the sponsored links on your website.

There are also CPA networks which will pay you for every person who clicks on a link on your website and fills out a form (also called lead generation).

3)    Affiliate Marketing
While this one could be classified as a type of performance based advertising, I’ve decided to give this one its own category.

I’ve talked about affiliate marketing many different times on this website as my favorite method for getting started online and it’s still one of the primary ways I make money to this very day.

There are a lot of ways to go about making money as an affiliate, but the basic premise is always the same – you get a commission when somebody makes a purchase by using a specially coded link on your website or blog.

4)    eCommerce Websites
An ecommerce website is pretty much the online equivalent of having a store.  You stock merchandise and people buy it.  Okay, that’s and oversimplification of how it works if I ever saw one, but I digress…

Sites like Amazon.com and Overtstock.com are some of the biggest examples of ecommerce websites.

The trick to being successful is not to try to sell everything under the sun, but to pick a specialty and focus on that.

5)    Selling your own products
There is perhaps no more powerful method for making money while you sleep than by developing and selling your own products.

Once you have your own products, you can not only market and sell them yourself on your own websites, but you can form strategic partnerships with others who will also help you sell your products.

Ready to get started making money while you sleep?  Watch my FREE DVD, How To Start A Home Based Business For Less Than $25

The answer is that it really depends.  I’ll give you a three of my favorite business models that are conducive to working from home (or anywhere that strikes your fancy for that matter) and can not only help you replace your full time earnings from a job but can actually lead to financial freedom.

Affiliate Marketing Home Based Business Model

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’re probably well aware of my fondness for affiliate marketing, and for good reason – it’s not only an easy way to earn money online, it’s highly profitable.

While you can sell anything from swords to suits, one of the best ways to start earning an income is from selling information products and an affiliate.  The reason is quite simply that the commissions tend to be higher.  For my physical products, if you’re getting a 10% commission, you’re doing great.  More often you’re getting from 4-6%.

However, in the information product marketplace, it’s common to get a 50%+ commission just for making a sale.

To learn this model, watch my FREE DVD – How To Start A Home Based Business For Less Than $25.

Blogging / Website Publishing Business Model

This model is quite similar to that of affiliate marketing.  However, the focus on this model is producing free content to attract traffic which you will then turn into money.

My first six figure year online was actually based on this type of model.  Here is the simple equation…

More content = More traffic = More money

Now I’ll tell you that entire seminars have been held to understand how to optimize that equation, but that really covers the basics.

If you learn how to generate a lot of traffic to a website, the money will follow.

Information Marketing Business Model

It took me a while to create my first information product.  Most people start by writing an ebook, but my first information product was actually a video series.  At the time, I wasn’t terribly fond of writing, but I enjoyed making videos so that’s what I did.

Each day I would plan and record video and I kept going until I finished.  I didn’t try to create the entire product at once – I broke it into chunks and kept going until there were no more chunks left to create.

That’s really the key to creating an information product.

Pick Your Path

The biggest thing to remember here is that it’s not about getting everything perfect, but it’s really about picking one and getting started.
When you come to a fork in the road, it doesn’t matter if you take the well beaten path or the one less traveled by – the only thing that matters is that you pick one and don’t spend the rest of your days pondering which path is best.

You’ll be happy to know that there are plenty of ways you can have a prosperous home based business.

Let’s look at three the most popular ways for you to get started.  As always, we’ll be focused on real home based business, not jobs masquerading as “business opportunities” or the more notorious scams.

Affiliate Marketer
The illustrious life of the noble affiliate marketer.  One who simply sells products for other people and collects a commission for their efforts.

These days an affiliate marketer can specialize in just about any area and earn a good income.  The skills you need to learn if you decide to get into this business are traffic generation and pre-selling.

A lot of top search engine optimization and pay per click specialists make very nice incomes in the affiliate marketing arena since it allows them to focus on the getting traffic and allows other people to worry about writing salesletters that convert, customer service, product development, and product fulfillment.

This is where I recommend anyone just getting started with a home based business to begin.

Network Marketer
One of the most popular ways people start working from home.  However, it also has, by far, the lowest success rate and highest drop-out rate.   It’s not that the business model is flawed, but that the recruiting methods used are out of date and quite honestly… stupid.
I remember a conversation I had with a friend who was pretty serious about making a success out of his network marketing opportunity.   He was willing to work the phone and talk to all his friends and then some.   Since I was a fellow business owner and had even dabbled a little in network marketing, we were discussing recruitment ideas, and he started telling me of shirts he was going to wear when he was out shopping that would get people to talk to him.  He would then turn the conversation to getting them to join his business opportunity.

It’s a good example of the dumb things people who are in network marketing businesses are taught.  So let me set the record straight for those who’d like to be prosperous in their business.  If you’re going to join a network marketing company, you need to remember that your business opportunity is only a good fit for a small number of people.  In other words, if you’re being told that it’s a business for everybody, you’re being lied to.  It takes a special kind of person to be successful in network marketing.

Focus on finding those people for whom the business is a good fit, and you’ll experience less rejection and more success.

Info Marketer
This is where all affiliate marketers go when they “grow up.”  However, many people actually start out here as well, and for good reason.  An information marketing business can be extremely profitable… six figure a year incomes in this niche are common and there are many making seven and even eight figure a year incomes from this business model.

Heck, publishing company Agora Inc is essentially an information marketing company and they make $100 million a year!

So what does one do in an information marketing business?  You sell information of course.

Most people are familiar with eBooks, but this business model also includes newsletters, instructional DVDs, interviews, podcasts, home study courses, training manuals, online multimedia programs, and so on.

There are a lot of different ways to package information, and there are a lot of ways to make money with it.  This model also works well offline.  These days most people start online, but the information marketing business really got its start and prospered with direct mail.

So there you have it, three business you can start from the comfort of your own home and with a little elbow grease, you can turn them into successful and prosperous home based businesses.

Now get out there and get started… and I recommend watching my free DVD, How To Start A Home Based Business For Less Than $25.

Unless you are exclusively doing affiliate marketing as your business model as a home based business owner, you’re going to need to be able to accept credit cards.

If you’re selling anything online, you need a way to accept credit cards.

I recently had a client who decided he was going to start selling on online auction sites.  He wanted me to give him some pointers on how to get his items to sell – he had been having some trouble.

So I took a look at one of his auction listings and found that he wasn’t accepting credit cards.  He was only willing to accept a personal check or money order.  If I were looking at a listing like that, to me it would scream fraud.  In this case it wasn’t, but you need to understand what people are thinking of they see you don’t accept credit cards.

I eventually got him straightened out and he starting making sales.

And if you have a standalone website, accepting credit cards is even more important.   I ran an ecommerce website for a few years in the early 2000s and while I offered the ability for people to mail in a check or money order, it was used approximately 1% of the time.  99% of the time, people used a credit card to pay for their order.

So let’s talk about your options for accepting credit cards online.

PayPal
PayPal is where many people first turn to start accepting credit cards online.  The fees charged by PayPal are actually quite reasonable and getting an account is extremely easy – you can start getting paid by people in minutes when you get setup with PayPal.

While there are more flexible and robust systems for accepting credit cards, there are many people who use it as their sole method of accepting online payments.

During my eBay seller years, I was a heavy user of PayPal, and it was my exclusive method for accepting credit cards for much of that time.

Caution: While you can use PayPal to process hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions each month, you need to be careful.  If your account suddenly starts to get a lot of activity, PayPal may hold your money for up to six months as a security precaution.  Once you start running significant amounts of money through your PayPal account, I recommend you get a real merchant account (see below) for processing credit cards transactions.

Google Checkout
Google Checkout is Google’s competitor to PayPal.  You’ll find that if you’re an eBay seller, you can’t use it, however.   (eBay owns PayPal and doesn’t want Google encroaching on their “cash cow.”)

However, this is another very easy way to accept credit cards online, and the fees are quite reasonable just like they are with PayPal.

Clickbank
If you’re only going to be selling digitally delivered products, you can use Clickbank to process your credit card transactions.   The advantage to using Clickbank is the large network of affiliates they bring to the table that can help you sell your product.

Their processing fees are quite a bit higher than that of other accounts and their system is only for processing digital products, but if you’re in that specific are and need credit card processing, this could be the right fit for you.

Merchant Account
Eventually, just about every business owner gets their own merchant account.  A merchant account will allow you to get the customer’s credit card information and process the card.  It will also allow you to take orders over the phone or in person.

However, getting a merchant account isn’t always a cheap or easy process.

I remember the first merchant account I got cost me nearly $500.  Not only that, but they also had a big pile of paperwork for me to fill out, and they even mailed me a one time use disposable camera that I had to use to take pictures of my place of  business and the types of items I was selling.  I then had to overnight the camera back to them so they could develop the pictures.

Fortunately, these days it’s a little bit easier to get approved for a merchant account.

I recently got a new merchant account and it was a far easier process.  I filled out all of the forms online, got a verification phone call and I was all setup.   There was no mountain of paperwork or camera to take pictures of my office.

If you’re looking how to truly make money online, then you’ve come to the right place.

There are a lot of snake oil salesman out there trying to sell you some pie in the sky song and dance about how easy it is to make millions of dollars sitting by the pool sipping on a mojito.

I wish I could tell you it really was that easy, but if it was, there’d probably be nobody left to serve us mojitos.

So I put together this page to give you an idea of what it really takes to make money online, and what some of the fundamentals are.

Nobody is Eagerly Awaiting Your Website (Except your mother)

There are millions of websites online containing billions of pages.  So if you think that just because you launched a new website that people are just naturally going to visit it, I’ve got some oceanfront property I’d like to sell you in Arizona.

If you put up a website, you need to think about how you’re going to promote it.  While I have methods that I teach here at NoPantsMarketing.com that are extremely effective (especially if you’re on a limited budget), there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

The thing I want you to keep in mind is that you are going to need to promote your online business if you truly want to make money online.

Still Need To Provide Value

Even if you’re product is the content on your website and your plan is to sell advertising space like a magazine, television station, or newspaper, you need to remember that your content needs to provide value to people.

Don’t get caught up in “automated website building software” that can help you build 200 websites per day.  Trust me, three years from now you’ll be far better served building just one quality website than if you try to use software to automate the process.  Last I checked, computers weren’t all that good at writing so it makes sense to leave the writing of your website to humans, not machines.

Capiche?

Good… let’s continue.

Getting Started
One of the great things about starting an online business is the low barrier to entry.  If you wanted to start a traditional business, you’d need loans or investors, or possibly both.  You’re generally looking at five figures of startup capital at a minimum and possibly seven figures to get going.

With an online business, you can literally raise enough money to start your business by going to sell plasma and using the cash you just earned.
While having more money to invest in your online business is certainly helpful because it can help you get better tools and more information, the reality is that it takes very little monetary investment to start making money online.

Essential Gear

If you’re reading this page, you probably already have all the tools you need to get started.  A computer with an internet connection (or access to one like at your public library) are all you need.

8 Ways To Make Money Online

Online Auctions
While the first place that comes to mind for a lot of people is eBay, there are plenty of places where you can sell your items online in an auction format.  While it tends to be competitive, the nice part is that auction sites provide attract the visitors looking for what you have to offer – you don’t have to worry about getting the traffic, just making the sale.  Here’s a good training program if eBay sounds like the way you’d like to start.

Ecommerce Websites
This is the next step up for someone who has been selling on auction sites.  You can launch your own website to start selling items.  Focus on a specific area of specialization and stay out of the computer/electronics niche.  You’ll need a marketing plan in place to get traffic to your website, but you have more control than if you were selling on an online auction marketplace.

Information Marketing
Many people feel that selling information is the ultimate product.  Think ebooks, instructional DVDs and manuals.
Multi-Million dollar businesses have been built selling nothing but ebooks.

Email Marketing
This type of business goes hand in hand with information marketing.  And there is a big difference here between legitimate email marketing and spam.  Never, ever spam people.  But building a list of targeted people can be an extremely lucrative way to make a living online.

Consulting
If you’re very knowledgeable in a certain area and would prefer to work with other business owners and help them grow their businesses, then the life of a consultant may be right up your alley.  A good consultant will get paid based on the results they get for a client, and not on an hourly rate.

Blogging
This is an extremely easy way to get started.  Launching a blog is inexpensive, and if you can turn on a computer and type, you’ve already got the technical skills required to be a blogger.

Making money from a blog can be done by selling advertising space, selling products as an affiliate, or by offering your own products (which is what I do on this blog).

Affiliate Marketing
This is my personal favorite and one I recommend to folks new to those whole “make money online” thing.  Learning how to becoming successful with affiliate marketing teaches you indispensable skills for making a living online.  You’ll learn how to drive targeted people to offers and you get the advantage of being able to focus just on the selling aspect of online marketing instead of the somewhat intimidating (especially, for the novice) product creation part of an online business.

Business Coaching
This is an area that has really been exploding in recent years.  Business owners are turning more and more to coaches to help them expand their businesses.   Even Tiger Woods has a coach.  If a guy making $111 million per year still has a coach, the rest of us could probably use one.   And coaching doesn’t require you to necessarily be better than the person you’re coaching.  You just need to be good at teaching and seeing opportunities that other people don’t see.

I hope this article gave you some insight as well as some useful ideas on how to make money online.  If you’ve decided that you’d like to give it a try, I recommend getting my training program, How To Start A Home Based Business For Less Than $25 – I’ll even send you the training DVD for FREE!

I can’t recall the last time I heard anyone (well, an adult anyway) say, “I’m bored.  I just wish I had more to do.  I have so much time on my hands that I just don’t know what to do with myself.”

It’s usually quite the opposite.  “There’s just no time.   If there was just more time, I’d be able to get everything done.”

It reminds me of a sign my dad had hanging up when I was growing up.   “All I want is less to do, more time to do it, and more pay for getting it done.”

Well, believe it or not, I’m here to give you the keys to a system that will allow you to build a profitable and successful home based business working on average, just an hour a day.

That means you don’t have to quit your current job – you can fit it in with the rest of your life.  And while it probably won’t make life changing money the first month or two you do it, if you keep at it, it will.

The rule of thumb for taking a website and turning it into a full time income is 500 hours worth of work.  There are ways to accelerate that for sure, but let’s assume it takes you the full 500 hours.  While that would mean over 1.5 years of work if you only put in an hour a day, would that be so bad?

You spend just one hour of each day working on your business.  Just do a little bit each and every day.

It’s still less time than people spend in college to get a degree – even an associate’s degree.  And I seem to remember having to spend a lot more than an hour a day on homework when I was in college.

They key, of course is to make sure you get that hour in every day.  Yes, you can take a day off (and you should take a day off every week), but then you either have to work ahead or catch up to take that day off.

So if you want to succeed, just commit to finding an hour and you’ll be on your way.

I designed my home based business system, How To Start A Home Based Business For Less Than $25 to be just this kind of system – it will help you build a successful website and home based business working just 1-2 hours per day.    Be sure to pick up my FREE DVD on how to put my system to work for you by clicking here.

While today’s article is going to focus on this from a business aspect, you really can apply this to just about every area of your life.

Today’s topic: starting

For most people (myself included), just getting started on something new is the hardest part.   Have you ever noticed that?  Once you’re started you get in the zone and you’re good to go on the project.
For example, just think about how many people have to practically drag themselves out of bed in the morning.  Just starting the day is tough.
And it applies to your business as well.

For several months, I had been planning on writing a manual on how to start a home based business.  At the beginning of every week I’d plan to start on it yet at the end of the week, nothing would be done.

Then one Saturday, I decided I was going to get started for 30 minutes.  After those 30 minutes were up, I could stop if I wanted to.
Well, I ended up writing for about 2 hrs and deciding I’d had enough for the day.   And you want to know what starting resulted in?  I had the entire rough draft of the entire manual written by Tuesday.
Once I got started, it took me all of four days to write it, yet it was months before I ever got going on it.

Why?

Because getting started is truly the most difficult part of any project for most people.

Just think about if you need to write something.  What’s the toughtest part?  Looking at that blank page.   However, once you get going, it’s generally pretty easy to keep going.

It’s physics really.

According to Sir Isaac Newton and the first law of motion, “An object in motion tends to stay in motion.”

Remember that also means something at risk also tends to stay at rest unless you do something about it.  Once you get momentum started, though, it’s easy to keep going.

So if you’ve ever having a day where you just don’t want to do anything, commit to just starting.  Don’t worry about finishing anything, and you just might find yourself having a productive day.

Ready to take the first step?  Get my FREE DVD -How To Start A Home Based Business For Less Than $25.

So let’s talk about what kind of computer you want to have for running a home based business.

For the purposes of this page, I’m going to assume that you have a website and are running an online business from home.

General Specifications
I have great news when it comes to picking out a computer for running a business from home.  If you own a computer, you have enough to get started.

Probably the most important part doesn’t deal with your computer at all, but your internet connection.  While it’s theoretically possible to run a home business on a dialup connection, trust me, you don’t want to.

I consider a high speed internet connection to be absolutely essential to running an online business (cable, dsl, fios, etc).  You’re going to be looking at a $40-$60 monthly investment in most cases for high speed Internet.  It’s worth every penny – get it.

Let’s get back to your computer.  Up until about a year ago I still used a computer purchased in 2001 and it was obsolete when I bought it.  It slowly became unable to do much besides run my accounting software and email, but it still worked.  I remember using it to do everything for two weeks when my desktop computer died and the new computer I had purchased hadn’t arrived yet.

Even more recently, I used an obsolete and slow laptop for working while my newer laptop was being repaired.

While having a new, fast, computer is certainly nice and will enhance your productivity, it isn’t essential.

If I were going to purchase a new computer right now, the only thing I’d really be concerned about is that it has at least 2GB of RAM and a at least a dual core processor (newer multi-core processors will also do nicely).

But again, let me point out you don’t need to get a new computer as long as your current computer can open up a word processing program (Like Microsoft Word) and a web browsing program (like Internet Explorer or Firefox).

Desktop or Laptop?
The next question that comes up a lot is if you should get a desktop or laptop.   Personally, I like having both, but if it’s a matter of having one or the other, you’re probably going to be better served by getting a laptop.

Here’s why.

The beauty of having a home based business is the ability to work just about anywhere.  The laptop gives you that freedom.   For example, I can take my laptop to the park and work on writing for a project.  A desktop computer would be able to accommodate me for that task.

I also tend to spend a lot of time in a coffee shop working instead of in my actual office so I find that having a laptop is absolutely essential.

The desktop computer in my office is what I use if I’m working on a complex project that needs a lot of screen space.  The computer in my office has 3 monitors and it lets me have a lot of windows open simultaneously which allows me to work faster.

Getting a laptop or desktop really comes down to preference and budget.  Desktop computers give you a lot more bang for the buck, but a laptop allows you portability.

PC or Mac?
This one again is really going to come down to personal preference.  Many internet marketers swear by Macs these days, but I personally prefer my PC.

If you’re on a tight budget, I’d recommend going with a PC.

If you going to be doing a lot of work with graphics or video, a Mac is likely going to be a better choice.

To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what you pick – either will work for your needs just fine.

Resource Intensive Applications
There are really only a handful of programs that really require massive computing power that aren’t computer games.

Some graphics programs can require a good bit of computing power, but the type of programs that really require significant resources are video editing programs.

For those planning on doing significant amounts of video editing, a powerful computer is going to be absolutely essential.

Most computers can do basic editing without much trouble.  But if you’re working with HD camera feeds from multiple cameras, and you’re trying to put a show together, a basic computer isn’t going to cut it.

So let me give you the basics on what to look for if you’re assembling a video editing station.

While a high end laptop (like a Mac Pro) will do in a pinch, ideally you’re going to want to get a Desktop computer.

RAM
I’d recommend getting a minimum of 4GB of Ram if not 8GB and if you’re going to be doing a lot of professional level editing, 16GB.

Hard Drives
Yes, I said drives, plural.  One of my recent projects for a training DVD ate up over 100gb of space while I was busy editing and putting the whole thing together, and it wasn’t even in HD.

Video editing requires massive amounts of hard drive space.

Get a computer that can take multiple hard drives and get big drives (you want a minimum of 1TB of space if not more).

Processors
More processing power means faster rendering of your projects.  Considering that complex projects can take several hours of not days to render, you’re going to want to load up on as much processing power as possible.  Get a computer with multiple, quad-core processors.

Video Cards
Your video card actually has very little to do with how fast your computer runs video editing programs.  That will likely change in the future, but as it stands, you don’t need a super powerful graphics card for a video editing station.  The biggest thing is to make sure it can support dual monitors.  A 512MB video card will suit your needs nicely – beyond that is overkill unless you want your computer to moonlight as a gaming machine.

Keyboard
This isn’t often talked about, but any professional video editor will tell you the importance of having a jog wheel.  These keyboards typically run from $100-$300, but you’ll find they’re very much worth it.

If you have a computer, you already have everything you need to start a home based business.  If you’re ready to get started, I recommend checking our my FREE DVD – How To Start A Home Based Business For Less Than $25.