Evaluating business opportunities can be a bear. How do you know what is legit and what is not? Here are some thoughts regarding web opportunities.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Of Business Opportunities

Working for yourself is great, regardless of whether you are doing it for a bit of extra money or completely ditching your boss. Ironically, entire industries have evolved offering you, me and everyone opportunities to get away from The Man. From stuffing envelopes to MLM, there are a zillion different opportunities to sell people...business opportunities. All and all, it can get pretty confusing.

On the web, there are two business approaches that work over and over. One is a Google program called Adsense. The other is the affiliate program opportunity. Let's take a closer look.

Google Adsense is a very unique program. Businesses pay Google to advertise in its search results. If you do a search on Google, the blue ads at the top of the results and down the right column of the page are such ads. In addition to search results, Google also will place these ads on independent sites. This is where you can make a bundle in the Adsense program.

Google needs sites to place its ads on. To entice webmasters to place the ads, Google will give you a share of the revenue the advertisers are paying it. When someone clicks one of them, Google pays the site owner part of the bid price per click the advertiser has agreed to pay. This is an opportunity you can take advantage of by building a site and putting Google ads on it. Google is a huge, legitimate company, so you can count on the check coming each month.

Affiliate programs have been the dominant on the web for years. Essentially, a company will build a site and want to promote it. Instead of carrying the marketing load on their own, they will let you promote their products on your site. In exchange, they give you a cut of the amount paid at the sale. The cut can be a one-time payment or a reoccurring payment each month.

There are a zillion affiliate programs. How do you know which one to promote? The best approach is to make a list of the sites you visit and buy from. You know the businesses are credible and have attractive prices, etc. Now go see if they offer an affiliate program. Many will and you can use them to make money.

Figuring out which of the million or so advertised business opportunities are legit can be difficult. Google Adsense and affiliate programs are the best options on the web.