This is absolutely essential information for anyone who's interested in learning to make money online and work from home. Unfortunately it's a topic that I've become quite familiar with as I've learned more about this business. So much so, that I now feel qualified to pass this information on in order to help you avoid wasting your valuable time and money. When you first set out to learn the ropes of this business and make money online you will inevitably be bombarded with all kinds of questionable offers and intense sales pitches. You really just can't avoid this stuff, it's everywhere. A lot of these people have mastered the art of effective copywriting and it's very easy to get taken in by them. Plenty of legitimate offers are made with great sales copy as well, but it can often be very difficult to tell the difference. I'm going to provide you with all the basic information you need to avoid getting ripped off. Most of this information can apply to any transaction you make online, not just online business opportunities.

First of all, always use a real credit card when buying anything online. That way you can do a chargeback if something isn't right. Debit cards or any other form of payment don't offer this insurance - so it's always best to use a real credit card. This is probably the single most important thing to remember here. There's really no reason not to accept credit cards since anyone can get a paypal account. It's become easier than ever to get a merchant's account as well. Be highly suspicious if they want you to pay by wire transfer or any other extremely insecure form of payment. Especially if they want you to send a check by FedEx, UPS or any other commercial carrier. Scammers will often try to avoid using the U. S. Postal Service since the penalties for mail fraud are severe. Another common scheme is to ask you to send them a check and offer to discount the 4% credit card fee that they have to pay. It's actually against the rules for anyone with a merchant account to offer a discount or to add that fee to a credit card transaction.

Secondly, always look for contact information. Many websites offer virtually no information about the company you're doing business with - such as company name, address and phone number. Sometimes there's just a "contact us" form to fill out that doesn't even show you their e-mail address. This should definitely be a strong warning sign. Something like this would never fly in the offline business world. Who would buy anything in a mail order catalog from a store with no name, phone number or street address? The whole idea is ludicrous but for some reason people often fail to notice this when buying things online. If you're a potential customer and it's difficult for you to get in contact with them when you have a question about their products or services, then it's probably going to be even harder once they've got your money.

Third, always look for a return policy and a money back guarantee, especially if it's a digital info product like an e-book. If you can't find a return policy there's a good chance they don't have one which means you're out of luck if there's a problem. And if they don't have a money back guarantee it's a pretty good sign that they don't have confidence in their product and they're not willing to stand behind it. It's normal for a store not to accept returns on an item once the package has been opened, as long as it's not DOA, since they can't resell it. But there's really no reason not to offer a money back guarantee on an info product if they truly believe it has value. E-books cost very little to create and distribute so the publisher's risk is minimal. And the guarantee should also be available for a reasonable amount of time. The policy's not really worth much if you've only got a few days to decide if want to keep the merchandise. This should be another sign that the seller's not very confident.

Fourth, do your homework! This is the information age after all. It's real easy to find out just about anything you want to know now that we have this wonderful tool called the internet. Google is your friend. Let me just reiterate that point - Google is your friend, smart people use Google. If something looks sketchy just type a few related keywords into Google and do a little research. It'll only take a few minutes of your time and could save you from making some costly mistakes. For example, if you're thinking about buying something from some "affiliate marketing guru" but you're not completely confident that they're legit, just type in their name and the words "scam" or "rip off". Chances are if they've ever been arrested or involved in any scandals, all the dirt will come up right in the first few search results.

This came in handy for me just the other day. I was thinking about buying one of these "turnkey" prebuilt affiliate marketing websites that's being offered by one of these gurus. They were offering the site for free - you only have to pay for the hosting - but in order to participate you have to sign up for several affiliate programs of companies whose products you'll be selling. Now, you don't have to be a genius to realize that every single person who buys one of these stores is going to be in this "gurus" downline for each and every one of these products. This means that he'll be getting paid for you signing up and for every single product that you ever sell. He's essentially charging people to join his giant sales team! Now, I don't really see a problem with this if everyone makes money but I've always been suspicious of multi-level marketing schemes. All too often the only person that makes any money is the one who started it. So I went to Google and typed in the guru's name and the word "scam". The first thing that came up were records on the Federal Trade Commission's website of this guy being busted for an illegal internet chain letter pyramid scheme in Texas three years ago. He was actually barred from ever participating in another chain letter pyramid scheme! I don't know if his current business is a scam but I'm definitely not going to risk finding out. And it literally only took me two minutes to discover this, so do your homework. If it seems too good to be true - it probably is.

Summing up, those are the big four that I want to convey to you. Pay with a credit card, look for contact information, look for a return policy or money-back guarantee, and do your homework. If you follow these four simple guidelines it will be very difficult for anyone to rip you off as you learn to work from home and make money online. And don't get discouraged! Just like in the offline world there are plenty of good people out there. Many of whom will provide you with valuable information about online business opportunities for FREE.