Millions of people are looking for that dream business, one where you just have to buy a package, switch it on and the money rolls in, without you doing a thing. It is a dream.

Even businesses that are sold on this turnkey model, require you to spend time and money promoting your business.

Turnkey Businesses you will find include online pharmacies, porn sites and gambling sites. You will be snowed under with the number of website template sites, hosting promotion companies and logo design opportunities. These markets are all very competitive and you will need to spend a lot on site promotion to get your site to the first few pages of the search engines.

You will also find affiliate schemes and people who claim to have made a fortune just as affiliates. Most of these people are lying.

An affiliate scheme pays you a percentage of every sale that is made from your site. The company provides the site, but your site will only be found if you spend money on promoting it.

Affiliate products can be solid ones like books, CDs or clothes. The method also lends itself to the sale of downloadable software, newsletters and affiliate marketing plans.

Internet marketing is still most often used to sell the dream of Internet Marketing to naive individuals who expect to make thousands of dollars in a few weeks. Indeed the marketing copy often promises just that, with a few legalistic disclaimers for the vendor's protection.

The idea of a book salesman earning all of his money from recruiting other book salesmen is called Multi-Level Marketing (MLM). MLM is illegal in most countries. Yet that is what most Internet Marketers are selling.

Forget it - it does not work. Too many people have gone before you. The gold is all gone.

99% of those who venture onto the Internet to make money fail. They spend money indiscriminately, buying unrelated products in their search for the Holy Grail.

They fall victim to Information Overload, switching tracks every three or four days and getting distracted from an idea that would work, given time, to another idea.

There are a few simple rules that will help reduce your chances of failure;

Lock your credit cards away
Read, read, read
Research online, research in books, research by talking to people
Analyze your own talents, likes and dislikes
Build a business around an interest that you already have
Stick with it

Many people dream of running their own business and of giving up the day job. Most of these only have the most basic of skills needed and recognize that their business would not stand a great chance of success.

A franchise is the answer for many of these would-be entrepreneurs.

A franchise works by the franchiser selling a business plan to the franchisee. The fee paid may include marketing, a site, vehicles in company livery and training. Franchise businesses have a much greater chance of success because the franchisee has training, guidance and supervision in the early stages. This support is expensive and the franchisee may have to pay a percentage of turnover or profits to the franchiser.

You may find franchises from unscrupulous business owners who have decided to offer franchises in an unproven business to make a quick buck. You need to research any potential franchise in great detail and to make sure the franchiser is part of a Franchise Member Group. If possible you should talk to others with the same franchise and try to benefit from their experience.

Franchise operations do offer a supported and easier route into running your own business than just going alone, but there can be heavy upfront costs.

Home businesses come in many varieties; from Internet based, to office cleaning, from car bodywork repairs to dental drill repair franchises. The scope is enormous.

There are many franchise operations that sell themselves as home-based businesses. The ones above will give you some idea of the range available. What most people mean when they are talking about home businesses are Internet opportunities. These really are home-based businesses that can be run by someone at home, in between looking after the children and shopping.

Many people have spent money buying Internet businesses and never got a penny back. The so-called gurus make money by telling people about their own success methods and marketing techniques. This market is overcrowded and very, very few people make any money in it at all.