You on the other hand want to honestly earn some extra money on the net so you can take care of your family and just do the extra things your salary just will not do. I want to share ten simple ways you can ensure that you do not lose your money online. After all, you want to earn money, not lose it.

Here we go then, ten (10) simple things you can do online to earn extra income. Remember them, practice them, and you should fare better than most people who plunge headlong into the dark abyss of the Internet without benefit of an experience person to help them.

1. Check out who is running your next affiliate program. That is, see who is behind the website. If you find a name or two, do a Google search on that name so you will know a little about them. Many people agree that affiliate programs can provide a quick way to make money online. This is good and usually true but ONLY if you will get paid.

If you are going to depend on the affiliate manager to send you a cheque, then you should know who that person is. What kind of reputation does he have? Has he been doing this for a while? Does he/she have a forum? At forums you can get candid advice, good and bad. We strongly suggest that you use reputable affiliate programs, not some Johnny come lately that no one knows.

Here is a quick example of an affiliate program that went bad. There was an operate named Howard Moreland at mynetcenter.com (now gone). He came online with a plethora of seemingly useful and lucrative programs. He recruited over 70,000 affiliates in a two-tier affiliate program in a very short time. People sold a lot of his programs including myself. Did he pay his affiliates? No! There are thousands of affiliates who are left without a cent in payment.

Here was another crook dressed up in sheep's clothing. Look out for them. Look out for testimonials from affiliates from any affiliate program you are interested in. If you cannot find any good references, look for something else. Better yet, sign up with click bank or commission junction. These are reputable operators who will pay you.

2. Stay away from HYIP type programs. HYIP means High Yield Investment Programs. Usually, these pay very high interest rates, like 2 to 5 percent per day. They are supposed to be passive investments, that is to say, you simply lend your money to the admin and they pay you back interest over time, but they rarely ever work.

Be realistic, if these people could earn these kinds of interest rates, then everyone would be doing it. People like PIPs, Solid Investment, and others never really panned out and left investors holding on thousands of dollars of useless electronic blurbs. Most HYIP's are just money schemes.

Some of these operates have good intentions but their business plans are lousy and once they fail you will lose your money no mater how well intentioned they operator is. Other operates are just plain crooks. They never give you real names, pictures, addresses, etc. Crooks love secrecy. Always remember that. There are exceptions to the above.

3. Stay away from Paid To Surf Programs. I have had lots of experience with these programs. Usually they fail because the operators run into trouble with the business model or with the authorities in the country where they operate. No matter what they say, they are usually taking your money to pay the people who came in before you. Their promised returns are usually too high and cannot be sustained.

Paid to surf programs sound good but you will lose money. Now don't get me wrong. Others have made huge profit from these programs, but usually at the expense of those who lost money. Do you want to be one of those who lose money? Take my advice, run from these operators.

4. Be very certain of how you will get paid. When joining network type programs, with new operators, find out how they will pay you. Here's an example of what I mean. I signed up with a popular and very aggressively run program online.

I've been paid on time every time but alas! I still cannot get my hands on my money. They ONLY pay through their own payment gateway, which in turn can either send money to your bank account (US and Canada only), your debit card, or Paypal.

Paypal closed their account which for someone like me only leaves the debit card option, but they are many weeks behind in delivering those cards. So you guessed it. My money is sitting in their payment gateway but I am not able to touch it. In the meantime I am expected to pay my monthly subscription.

My advice, check out how you will get paid from affiliate or network programs. At the very least, the program you want to join must allow you to get a cheque in the mail. Alert pay, e-bullion, and e-gold are also good options. The more ways they have to pay you the better.

Here's another final example. A few months ago I was doing quite well selling for an affiliate program online. I made almost 20 sales and was paid for each of them via PayPal. There was no problem there. Suddenly they went offline and when they came back they informed us all that they had a few problems with Paypal and from now on they would be paying via Storm pay.

I immediately stopped promoting their program. Here's why. This is the same Storm Pay that barred me from going into my account, took out my money without cause and then ignored me and the 1000's of other storm pay members who were similarly affected. I understand that some members lost up to $18,000 to storm pay.

Needless to say, I have stopped promoting that program. My Storm Pay account was abandoned long ago, once I took out my credit card information from their back office.

5. Beware of dishonest payment operators. You can save your money and a lot of hassle if you stay clear of certain payment gateways. Some are still around but they have proven themselves dishonest and I will not recommend them. From my experience, one such gateway is Storm Pay. This program is run by dishonest people. I know the potential harm that can be done to other people's reputatin by that last statement, but I was personally affected by them and can prove it. Stay away from them.

E-gold has come under a lot of scrutiny lately especially after Business Week Magazine did a piece on them that was less than flattering. E-gold does not do much due diligence on its members and there in lies the problem, at least in the eyes of government agencies. Personally, I have never had a problem with them. I personally think that in terms of working amicably with their honest members, they have a better program than PayPal.

Paypal can be quite heavy-handed. Be careful with them. Never leave lots of money tied up in their system because if they freeze your account for any reason, it will be another 6 months before you will get access to it again. I do not run any affiliate program so I have had no problems with PayPal. As long as you stay within their rules, you should be fine.

6. You can lose money through opportunities that sound too good to be true. If someone wants you to send them over $200.00 for a secret program that they will not reveal on their website, be very careful. You may lose your money to a scam. This is especially so, if they do not accept credit cards for the transaction and do not offer a money back guarantee.

When you pay with a credit card, you can always request a refund if you are not satisfied. Failing this, you can ask your card provider to get back your money. If you have to send them a cashier's cheque for these amounts, you may very well lose your money.

7. Beware of money games. If an opportunity is just a money game where you send a bunch of $5.00 payments to a list of people and you expect others to do the same, you could lose more than your money. You may lose your credibility. Integrity is a precious commodity online and once gone, you may never get it back.

Would you tell your friends and associates that this is the program you operate? Will you send out emails from your account with your full name when you promote this scheme?

If the program cannot stand the light of scrutiny, then you may be throwing away good money, no matter what the hype on their website says. There will be many people like you who will feel just as uncomfortable with this program as you do. That's why it will probably not work. If a program does not promote a good service or product, then it is a money game. Stay away or you may lose your money.

There you have it then. These are some of the ways you can prevent fraud against yourself and your loved ones. There are many more, but then this article will become a book, hmmm a book. Now there's an idea.