You've started your own home based business and you're excited about the possibilities. You have dreams of paying off your home, traveling the world, brand new cars parked in the driveway, spending quality time with your family all while your computer works like a robot around the clock generating income. That was my dream anyway and I'm sure yours may vary to some degree.



Well, if you've been at it for any length of time, you've probably discovered that it isn't quite as easy as all that. It required hard work, time and money and more importantly, a knowledge of what works, what doesn't work, what to spend money on and what not to spend money on.

Enter the mentors...

You'll find them on every discussion forum, you'll receive numerous emails from them and you'll run across them on your own as you make your way through the cyberspace. Calling out like carnival sideshow hawkers, they line the streets of cyberspace and aggressively compete for your attention, seemingly with honest intentions and your best interest at heart.

But, what who really wants to help you and who really just wants to help themselves.... to some of your hard earned cash? Knowing the difference between the two can really help to save you a lot of time, frustration and money, not to mention your dignity and feelings of betrayal once you realize what has happened.

Tips for choosing the right mentor...

1. "I've made a fortune and just want to help others now". It is a very rare event indeed that someone has just made so much money that they just feel like they should give back and just want to help others to succeed. This one is rather transparent yet people fall for it every single day. Just look at the success of the late night infomercials if you need proof of this technique. So how do you know if you are the lucky recipient of that one in a billion legitimate "wanting to give back" success story? Does their assistance involve your parting with some cash? Do all of the sites they refer you to contain links with their referral code? These are signs that they just want to make a quick buck before you lose all hope and fail as most do. This is a big market and there is definitely those that prey on those just coming into the "work from home" business.

There are people who honestly do like to help others and you will see that they often will refer you to a website without any referral code so they don't profit from their advise. They often will suggest a free tool as opposed to one that will cost you money or at least to one of the lesser expensive ones which will do the job equally as well as one they could have sent you to with a referral link and made themselves a nice commission.

2. Discussion Board Experts are there at every turn. They quickly answer your questions and seem most helpful, but how much do you really know about them. Are they as successful as they lead you to believe? How long have they actually been in business for themselves. Equally as damaging as the ones who are trying to capitalize on your ambitions are those that pose as experts and which you are likely to put your faith in and follow, sometimes following them right down the path to failure.

In the ten plus years I've worked online for myself, I have seen it over and over again. One day a person signs up and introduces themselves as being new and just starting and a few weeks later you will see them offering advice on becoming successful when they themselves haven't made a dime yet. How do you avoid these types? There is no easy answer but a few things can be done to at least help a bit.

Most discussion boards offer a search function, you can use this and search by user. Change the options to search all the way back as far as it will and look for a "board mentors" first posts. You can get an idea of when they started and actually follow them up until the present. Were they complaining just last week because then haven't been able to make any money? Were they asking the same question three days ago that they just answered for you? If so, you may be getting second hand advice.

3. Did you approach your "mentor" or did they approach you. If they've gone out of their way to seek you out and offer their assistance, you should at least keep your guard up and be wary.

Please don't take this article the wrong way. It is not meant to make you non-trusting of everybody but rather to help you open your eyes and use caution and good judgment before choosing to follow someone blindly down one of the paths above. When choosing your mentors, use due diligence. Take a good look at them and their sites. Search their names in the search engines, do a whois on the domains and see if everything is lining up to be true and accurate. Do searches on the forum to see what others have to say about them and especially their successes following the given advice of your possible mentor.

Personally when choosing to accept advice from a person, after researching their credentials, I look for open and honest intentions for their desire to help. It is perfectly acceptable for them to want to make money from my success. This is something that I consider heavily. Do they have an active interest in my success? Do they only make money when I make money or are they looking for the quick buck where I sign up for something they've referred me to and then I'll never hear from them again, unless they have something else they want me to sign up for.

Best of luck and success to you!