In days gone by, you could start an online business by simply setting up a website and adding content. You still can, but the question now is: Will anyone come and spend or click? The online world is becoming more competitive every day; success is no longer guaranteed by simply adding content.

Ok, so knowledge is required. What kind?

YOU NEED TO KNOW A LEGITIMATE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY to select. Oh, Oh. There's that word again – “legitimate”. What exactly is that?

I use Microsoft Word. So I right-clicked on “legitimate” and then clicked on “Look Up” to see how it is defined. The dictionary defined it as “complying with the law, or under the law.” Well, you certainly do not want to start an “unlawful” business.

In cases like this I always like to look at the Thesaurus words to gain additional insight. The English version lists words such as: lawful, rightful, legal, genuine, justifiable, valid, reasonable and acceptable.

These words help to expand the idea of legitimate. In particular I see legal, genuine and justifiable as reasonable expectations for starting an online business working from home.

Problem is, you need to be a rocket scientist now to be able to decipher whether an opportunity is real or not.

I recently was presented an opportunity for a new Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) company. For those unfamiliar with the terminology this kind of business succeeds when you recruit others who are below you to sell a.k.a. pyramid. The financial rewards for this business model can be extremely rewarding.

Now in reality, all businesses are pyramids. Generally, one person is at the top, while many workers are at the bottom.

The difference is that most businesses do not derive their income simply from recruiting or employing others – this is what makes the pyramid illegal. They need products to sell which allow income to be earned. Without products the business can not sustain itself. The first people who join make all the money, other people who join later make little or no money – this is illegal.

Well this opportunity presented itself with various learning products. However, the “opportunity” portion of the website was being opened in beta, pre-release before the “products” were available on the website.

Further, the opportunity was presented in such a way that one would think that they were getting paid their commission on everyone joining the program after them – whether or not they personally recruited them. This was named their corporate power line payout method.

In reality however, this method of payout was a “bonus”. In order to get to that stage you needed people placed under you in your matrix. That's where it gets to be more work – not as simple as it was made to appear.

Despite this people were signing up – apparently thinking they were getting in at the top because of the “pre-release opportunity” (i.e. no products). In reality, it would appear the business is not sustainable. Hard to tell when you can't see any products. Someone at the top is definitely making a good deal of money, as I've already seen several emails from sources promoting it.

All this to illustrate one carefully (and skillfully) crafted opportunity which on the surface appears legitimate and an easy money maker. However, to evaluate you need to understand exactly what a “pyramid scheme” is, different payout options, and how having products affects your ability to earn money.

A lot of knowledge is required for understanding just this one opportunity. There is a vast variety of online opportunities available. Many are legitimate, but as mentioned earlier you almost need to be a rocket scientist today to know for sure.

YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR MARKET and the potential to succeed in it. If you choose to promote home business opportunities, you have to know that this market is competitive and you're going to need creativity and persistence to succeed.

Often people are told that a particular market is competitive, yet because everything is new to them, they don't accept this. This kind of knowledge is learned the hard way and is common. It's also easy for people to give up rather than accepting it as a lesson learned.

Niche marketing has become very popular. It involves finding some part of the internet where the marketing potential has yet to be explored.

This can indeed be very profitable if you are one of the first to find a particular niche. It takes knowledge however, to determine a profitable one.

It seems that at some point even the “niches” will all be saturated with online businesses. This could happen, but like offline businesses there will always be someone with the right product mix and creativity who will find new profitable niches.

YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW TO PROMOTE your new business. There is no longer one simple method of succeeding today. In the past, simply getting your website in the search engines (SE) top 10 results would guarantee success. Today, even if you could get that high in the SE results, there are certainly no guarantees that you'll stay there.

There are numerous ways to promote your online business and knowing what these are and how to measure their results takes a good deal of knowledge and experience.

It's at this stage where “Content is King.” Along with this also requires a good deal of creativity to keep your business a head of the “pack”.

IN SUMMARY IT MAY SEEM TO BE TOO LATE to enter the world of online marketing. Quite the opposite is true. Businesses are becoming more creative in their marketing and more and more products are being sold online, opening the doors for additional partners.

Yes, there is indeed a good amount of knowledge needed to fully understand how to successfully run an online business. But the good news is that there are many companies and people willing to help you learn the knowledge and to succeed.

As mentioned earlier, MLM businesses are structured in such a way where the people above succeed only if those under them succeed. It's built into the fabric of the program.

The problem with MLM businesses is that turnover is high and commitment is low. As a result it takes time to begin seeing a profit, although once it starts it tends to grow faster and higher.

There are many other legitimate ways to make extra income online. The long term success of good companies depends on helping you to succeed.

Just be prepared to learn. The knowledge learning however, can be fun and rewarding.

Follow a few simple steps to get started:

* Don't fall for “Get Rich Quick” opportunities. Like many other people have said, if it were that easy they would not be promoting it – they will be “milking it” for all it's worth.

* Don't be pressured into “join this opportunity or you'll miss out”.

* Join a program for free so you can take time to check it out.

* Make sure the program you join has product(s) to sell, from which you can earn commissions along with the business opportunity.

* Look for the program to offer training resources and people to support you in your new business.

* Pick an opportunity that looks interesting to you and something you like to learn more about.

* Give yourself time and commitment – the knowledge will come!