Just the same as anything in life, the best way to achieve success as an entrepreneur is to learn from someone who’s already successful.

That sounds like common sense, and it is, but it’s amazing how often people who have no real experience of what they’re talking about, set themselves up as top entrepreneur experts and make promises about guiding new business owners down the road to success. And yet that’s a road they’ve never even travelled down themselves.

If your car breaks down and you need someone to fix it, I don’t even have to ask whether you’d prefer to hire someone who’d read a bunch of books about fixing cars or someone who actually got their hands dirty fixing cars for a living.

In an example like that it’s obvious who’s the best man or woman for the job, but in areas like business or even politics, where the results aren’t as immediately apparent, it’s much easier to be seduced by rhetoric and promises.

That’s why when looking for profitable business ideas or entrepreneur ideas it’s important to look beyond the sales hype and the glossy website and find out if the people you’ll be working with have actually achieved the kind of income they’re promising you themselves.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the person who introduces you to the business needs to be a top income earner themselves already. If that were true then what chance would you have as a new starter?

No, what you need to discover is whether the team you’ll be joining is successful, and whether you’ll have access to and training from people who are walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.

Remember, great business ideas are just that, ideas, until they have been proven to work and make money for the people behind them.

An online marketing degree, with an official certificate,  graduation ceremony and a recognized qualification as an online marketer, doesn’t actually exist.

And even if it did, it wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on and I’ll tell you why.

Of course there’s such a thing as a degree in marketing, but that concentrates on the science of marketing and the methods it covers are mainly offline methods.

The reason there isn’t a degree in online marketing is because online marketing changes so quickly that by the time the degree syllabus was compiled and then taught to the students, when they’d finished the course and were ready to graduate, most of what they’d learned would already be obsolete, like last week’s newspapers!

Unlike long-established professions such as medicine, dentistry or law, where the pace of change is much slower – online marketing is still in its infancy and, as a result, is constantly growing and changing just like a growing infant, almost on a daily basis.

That’s why if there were such a thing as an online marketing degree, it would be a waste of time acquiring the qualification.

But there’s another, equally important reason why acquiring an online marketing degree wouldn’t be worth your time or money and that’s because online marketing is one of those professions where you rise or fall on your abilities, not on your paper qualifications.

Online marketers are self-employed so you don’t have to submit a resumee or curriculum vitae to a potential employer and there’s no nerve-wracking job interview. It doesn’t matter whether you have any paper qualifications or not, you can get started right away.

The downside is that there’s no fixed income, which means your earnings are directly related to your skills as a marketer. The better you are as an online marketer, the more you’ll earn. You set your own limits.

That’s why even if there were such a thing as an online marketing degree, it wouldn’t be required, but what IS required is online marketing education.

Online marketing education never stops, because to be a successful online marketer you have to keep on the cutting edge of the latest trends and techniques.

The best way to do that is by means of an online marketing course which will give you an ongoing marketing education and the skills you need to become a top Internet marketer.

I belong to a business with its own online marketing course which provides the equivalent of an online marketing degree but without the stress of exams!

If you are planning a career in online marketing then I invite you to complete the form below for more information.

A real work at home business allows you to sit naked at your desk without being arrested, just like this guy here. It’s not something I tend to do myself (even though I hope I look a lot better naked than this guy!) but I love the fact that I COULD if I wanted to!

How do you tell a real work at home business from a scam?

The first sign of real work at home businesses is their age. Obviously that’s not to say that all brand new home business opportunities are scams but the longest lifespan of a scam is usually a year or so at most.

That’s because nowadays, in the Internet age, if something is a scam you’ll find enough people shouting it from the rooftops, writing home business reviews on forums, message boards and blogs about how they’ve been taken for a ride.

Be wary though, because lots of Internet marketers play on people’s natural desire not to be ripped off by crying scam about perfectly legitimate home business opportunities.

It’s just like the school yard all over again – a grown up version of “Don’t play with Billy Bob, he’s horrible and he’ll steal all your toys. Be my friend instead”.

Same as in the school yard, do the good guys need to run down others to make friends? Of course not.

So every time you read something negative about a company you’re researching, ask yourself if there’s an ulterior motive. Is the writer using the “riding on the backs of giants” tactic to gain your attention and scare you off the business you were originally looking at so you’ll join their supposedly top home business instead?

As a rule of thumb, if a company has lasted three years or more then the odds are extremely good that it’s a legitimate business opportunity and you have nothing to worry about.

As the old saying goes “you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”.

In fact, three to five years old is probably the ideal time to join a homebased business because statistically speaking, most companies enjoy their biggest growth spurts between years 3 and 5.

The hardest period for any company is the start-up phase which is the equivalent of getting a Jumbo jet off the ground.

This is followed by the first couple of years which you could liken to the aircraft gaining height and speed, before reaching its optimum altitude and then it’s travelling at full throttle, or in business terms, its momentum growth period.

That’s the period when there’s a buzz around the business, it’s making news and attracting attention (which can also be negative attention, the “riding on the backs of giants” I talked about earlier) and is nowhere near market saturation so it’s still very easy to generate leads and recruit new members.

Clearly, no business can sustain rapid growth indefinitely and what generally happens is that by year 7 the business has reached its plateau. Still growing but no longer at full throttle.

That’s why if you’re looking to replace your income fast and make a full-time income from home, you’ll find it easiest to do with a company at that all-important “buzz stage”.

Do you want to experience the buzz of a real work at home business in its momentum growth phase?  Then all you need to do is add your name and email address to the form below to gain insider access.

The first time in 24 years that this man has ever said he was proud of me  - and I captured it for posterity!!  Happy New Year one and all!!

If you’re looking to make a full-time income online from home in 2010 there are three important things to look out for, and that’s what I want to talk about in this article.

Without these three things it’s going to be nigh-on impossible for you to fulfil your ambition of working from home online whilst earning a full-time income.

Firstly, how much is a full-time income for you? Depending on your outgoings and xpenses that can vary greatly from one person to the next and one country to the next. You can live like a king in some countries and a pauper in others, all on exactly the same income.

As a guide I would advise setting a goal of your current gross income (or whatever you used to earn before you lost your job if you’re unemployed) plus 20%.

Working from home in an online business your income will never be exactly the same every month, like you may be used to, so it makes sense to aim for more than you’re accustomed to in order to balance out any lean months.

Obviously your next step is to begin researching various income opportunities, which is probably the stage you’re at now, because your research has led you to this article.

Whatever the business you’re looking at, you first need to calculate the earning potential.  It’s amazing how many people miss out this first, crucial step.

How many sales will it take you to achieve your monthly income goal? How many new customers? How many leads will you need to make a sale, on average?

Is it even possible to achieve your monthly income goal on your own production, or would you need a whole team of people under you? If the latter, how many people would you need in your team?

I know from experience and my own research that the answers to the above questions can vary greatly. With some business opportunities you may need to make literally hundreds of sales each month to generate a full-time income from home and with others, just a handful.

It all comes down to the compensation plan of your home business so this is something you need to study carefully. Once you do that it’s very simple to calculate exactly how many sales you’ll need each month to reach your target.

I’ve been generating more than a full-time income from home with my online business since 24 January 2008, which was the day I wound up my translating business for good. This wasn’t my first online business so I’ve had my share of failure before finding the world’s top home business.

If, like me, you’re looking to achieve a full-time income reasonably quickly (it took me 3 months), the best business opportunity for you is one where you can achieve your income goals purely on your own sales, without being dependent on a team.

Think about it. Do you want to put your livelihood in the hands of your downline? If you’re not able to earn as much as you need to live on by your own efforts, that’s exactly the situation you’ll find yourself in.

I don’t know about you but that’s far too risky for me. For me the ideal scenario in an online business is where I can earn a multiple 6-figure income on my own sales, and whatever I earn on top of that from my team is just the icing on the cake – a nice extra bonus.

What do you think? Do you agree that it’s better to be able to earn enough on your own sales? I’d love to read your comments in the box below.

And to learn more about my business just complete the form on the right of the page and I’ll see you on the inside.

Ever since I became Mrs McLaren in 1976, when I’ve told people my name they’ve often jokingly asked me if I was related to the Formula One motor racing Team McLaren.

Until about a year ago I would always reply along the lines of “I wish”. Meaning, of course, that I wished I had that kind of money.

But I recently realized that for some time now I’ve no longer been saying that.

Of course I’m nowhere near the “other” Team McLaren in terms of fame or wealth but nor do I want to be.

What I AM is wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of someone who used to be a freelance translator struggling to make a living.

I’m a proud member of the world’s top home business which not only provides a college standard online marketing course but also its own private wealth group.

I still can’t believe my luck at finding this fantastic community.

And now it’s YOUR turn. I’m looking for ordinary people, just like me, who want to earn an extraordinary income working from home.

All you have to do is enter your name and email address in the box to the right and I’ll see you on the inside.

Welcome to Team McLaren!

With so many different forms of marketing available, choosing the right one for you can be confusing when you’re just starting up in business.

One thing is certain though, the “caveman” approach to marketing is never an option. Metaphorically clubbing your prospects over the head and attempting to drag them into your business is the worst thing you can do!

The single most important thing I’ve learned about marketing a home business opportunity is that you can’t create desire.

The only people worth marketing to are those who are already interested in starting a home based business.

That’s why the old marketing tactics preached by so many MLM companies don’t work.

It’s just common sense  that if your marketing campaign consists of making a list of your friends and family or speaking to everyone you meet, chances are that none of them were thinking to themselves “I want to start a home based business” at the very moment  you approach them.

And that puts you in an impossible position with your prospects. You’re faced with the uphill battle of trying to arouse their desire to start their own business.

(Of course, most MLM companies bank on some of your friends and family joining you out of solidarity and sympathy, which is why they want you to approach them).

But it stands to reason that anyone joining you for those reasons doesn’t have any real desire to start their own business and if their heart isn’t in it, they’re not going to put in the time and effort involved in getting a business off the ground.

So chances are they’re going to fall by the wayside very quickly and, worst case scenario, they’re going to blame YOU for their failure. Because YOU were the one who encouraged them to get involved!

Consequently, the only sensible way to market a business is to put yourself in the direct line of sight of people who are ALREADY looking. People who are actively seeking information about starting their own business.

They may not yet know exactly what kind of business they’re looking for but what they do know is that they want to earn extra income, give up the job they hate, gain financial freedom or be able to retire more quickly.

There are literally millions of people out there looking for a home business and so as a marketer your task is to enable them to find you at the very moment they are looking.

Doesn’t that make a lot more sense than clubbing half-hearted prospects over the head?

The best way to market a business is with an online marketing course which will give you proper marketing training in both offline and online marketing methods.

Your online marketing course should preferably come with an automated follow-up system which allows you to present your opportunity to unlimited numbers of people all day, every day.

What you need is a system which sifts and sorts your prospects for you and eliminates the time-wasters and “tire-kickers” so you only spend time with those people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Apart from being a much better use of your time, doesn’t that sound like a much more pleasant way to do business?

If that’s the way you’d like to do business, I’d like to invite you to learn more about my online marketing course by filling out the form below, and I’ll see you on the inside.

Ageism In Reverse In Internet Businesses

That’s when it really hit home. At my age I’d struggle to get taken on as a waitress or a cleaner working for minimum wage yet I can be a 6-figure income earner and prospective millionaire in an online business opportunity.

The great thing about having an online business is that the older you get, provided you’ve still got all your faculties, the more credibility you have.

Think about it. Who is perceived as more trustworthy? A young guy in his twenties or a middle aged woman old enough to be his mother?

That’s why it’s actually an advantage to be older in an Internet business, because everyone is wary of being taken for a ride or being scammed, and we all feel that an older person is less likely to be a criminal mastermind than some young buck fresh out of college.

So if you’re past the first flush of youth, be happy! You’re automatically way ahead of the younger generation.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female, as an older person you’re not seen as a fly-by-night, you enjoy the same kind of respect as a “venerable elder” in the online world that  in today’s youth-obsessed culture you’d probably only find in the Far Eastern countries in the “real” world.

It’s interesting that the average age of the members of my online business community ranges from 45 to 65. We do have plenty of members younger than that, of course, we’re not completely ageist!

But don’t you agree it’s very heartening that this new world of e-commerce is dominated by people who grew up in a world totally devoid of computers and the Internet? I certainly do and I’d love to hear what you think in the comments field below.

Today, 30 October 2009 is a huge day for me and I’m feeling quite sentimental.

Two years ago today I joined the world’s most lucrative home business. I tell my story on the Ann McLaren page so no point in repeating it  here.

No, today I just wanted to ponder over why I’ve been so successful when others have failed.

I firmly believe that everyone has an entrepreneurial spark in them but for some it’s harder to ignite than for others.

Just as some people get behind the wheel of a car for the first time and are natural drivers while others struggle (I passed my driving test on the third attempt!), some new home business owners turn out to be born racing drivers while others are still spinning their wheels in the driveway!

Just as pretty much everyone can master the art of driving a car eventually, so can anyone become a successful home business entrepreneur. It’s not rocket science!

The big difference between driving and entrepreneurship is that many new home business owners throw in the towel too soon, crying “this is too hard, I’ll never make it”.

If failing at their home business was going to have the same negative impact on their lives as not being able to drive a car, how many people do you think would give up?

And that’s the rub. Most people who join a home business already have a job. They may hate that job, their boss, the long working hours and the lack of time freedom but the bottom line is that it’s not the end of the world if they don’t become a successful entrepreneur. Life as they know it isn’t going to change.

Compare that to the inconvenience of a lifetime spent begging rides from friends and travelling on public transport because you can’t drive a car. That’s why people are a lot more determined to master the skill of driving than they are to master the skills needed to make a go of their home business.

With the benefit of hindsight, I’m pretty sure that if I’d had the security of a regular income and the knowledge that the roof wasn’t going to fall in if I didn’t make a go of my business, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now analyzing why I’m the most successful woman there has ever been in my company.

But the fact is that 2 years ago today, when I was lucky enough to discover the world’s top home business, I DIDN’T have financial security and, metaphorically speaking, my roof WAS about to fall in if I didn’t replace my lost translating income pretty quickly.

That fear of being broke, the fear of what would become of me when my savings ran dry is the single biggest reason for my success.

Put simply, I was successful because I didn’t have a choice.

In the face of “clear and present danger” we all have hidden reserves of strength and courage.

Could you imagine jumping 15 feet to the ground from a first-storey window? No, neither could I. What about if your house was on fire and the alternative was to end up roasted to a crisp? Suddenly, the idea of two broken legs doesn’t seem quite so bad, does it?

Needless to say, building a successful online business from home is way easier than jumping out of a window, and much less scary! I simply wanted to illustrate the point that it’s much easier to act in any situation if the consequences of not acting are going to be unpleasant.

And that, in a nutshell, is the secret of my success. As I explained, I’d just lost more than half my income overnight so the consequences of not acting were going to be an old age in poverty for me.

My advice to you if you want to be successful with a work at home business is to think of your own set of unpleasant consequences.

Strange as it may seem, that’s the main thing that most successful online entrepreneurs have in common. The fear of what would happen if they didn’t succeed was much greater than the fear of the work they were going to have to put in to make it happen.

So ask yourself: How secure is your job? Your pension? Your children’s future? What about your old age, do you have enough saved to enjoy a comfortable retirement?

Whatever it takes, you need something to motivate you sufficiently to spend the two hours daily you’ll need to build your home business online.

Once you have the motivation, and provided you’ve chosen a business with proper marketing training like mine, the rest is just academic. You then become an unstoppable force.

An integral part of running a top home business is becoming a student of human nature.

And you’ll find that everyone you meet has a high regard for themselves and believes that whatever they do, they’re doing it for the best of motives.

You could say that everyone of us has two reasons for doing something. One that sounds good and the other the true reason!

To get the best out of people it’s always best to appeal to their nobler motives.

If you run your home based business opportunity by working on the principle that your prospects are sincere, honest and not out to cheat you, most of them will live up to your expectations of them.

In fact, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Take the example of a restaurant owner whose business wasn’t doing well. He came up with the brilliant, yet (on the surface) very risky marketing strategy of removing all the prices from his menu.

Instead he told diners to order whatever they wanted and then to pay whatever they felt the meal was worth.

And guess what happened?

No, he didn’t go bankrupt, his takings almost doubled! People were so keen not to be seen as taking advantage that they actually paid MORE! And because word got around about this amazing deal, more people visited the restaurant than ever before.

That’s what normally happens when you appeal to someone’s noblest instincts.

I have personal experience of this myself with an acquaintance who sometimes does odd jobs for me around the house. Whenever I ask him how much I owe him he’ll say, “Just give me whatever you think”.

Naturally, I don’t want to seem mean so I end up giving him more than I’d have paid if I’d hired a tradesman to do the same job.

Top internet marketing coach Mike Dillard, whose internet marketing training products I recommend in the Resources section, often uses the same approach.

If someone purchases one of his electronic products he provides a money back guarantee if they don’t feel that the product was worth what they paid for it or didn’t help them in any way. And they get to keep the product!

Because most people are decent and honest, only a tiny fraction of purchasers take him up on his money back guarantee.

But, just like the restaurant owner, what he loses to the odd freeloader, he more than makes up for in terms of increased sales to normal, decent people who feel more confident about making a purchase knowing that there’s no risk involved.

If you’re interested in working with honest, decent people in the world’s top home business, then I’d love to hear from you!