People lose hundeds or thousands of dollars a day to bogus online opportunities and ebooks that simply re-hash dated internet marketing strategies anyone could find online for free.

How can you avoid spending $500 on a website opportunity program that's useless?

While there's no way to know for sure if an internet program or opportunity is 100% legitimate without giving it a whirl, this article discusses 5 concrete ways to evaluate a site's credibility. Doing an online business credibility check BEFORE taking a financial plunge significantly reduces the chance you'll experience online buyer's remorse.

Internet Legitimacy Sign #1:The Site has a Terms of Use Policy

The site has posted a privacy and terms of use policy. Some people argue that website's are legally obligated to post privacy policies dictating how they collect and use data. However even if that's not the case, posting a privacy policy says much about a company's professionalism. Read the "terms of use" and "privacy policies" of a company, and decide what you think of its policies before buying its products or online opportunity.

Internet Legitimacy Sign #2: The Site has Natural Sounding Testimonials

The site's testimonials have been posted by people who do something besides sell e-books about making $1,000,000+ on the internet. Sometimes less-than-scrupulous internet marketers band together to promote template "how to make money on the net" products. View the online testimonials and decide if you think they're authentic or not. E-mail the testimonial authors if you can.

Internet Legitimacy Sign #3: The Site Has Few Online Complaints

The site has few complaints at the Better Business Bureau or a more informal consumer advocacy site such as the Rip Off Report.com. This sign is a toughie because competitors sometimes unfairly malign companies, and any good project has its critics.

Consistency and credibility are the things to note in complaints. For instance, if you see 10 complaints, are they all centered on the same theme (e.g. company refuses to give refunds, customer service is poor) or are they varied? Do the complaints seem reasonable and detailed, or does the unhappy customer sound like they complain about everything and nothing will make them happy? How does the company respond to complaints posted on sites such as the Rip Off Report? Do they insist they can do no wrong, or are they willing to make amends?

Internet Legitimacy Sign #4: The Site Has a Guarantee Policy

The site posts a 100% refund guarantee that's good for at least 30 days. If a website does not post a guarantee, that's probably because the site owners have little faith in their online product or website opportunity. Before purchasing a product, read the "Terms of Use" and "Terms of Purchase" pages to make sure there aren't any hidden catches in a "100% refund guarantee." In particular, think twice before signing any kind of "refund contract" giving anyone an excuse to decline your refund.

Internet Legitimacy Sign #5: The Customer Service Dept. Exists

The site's customer service staff responds to information requests in a courteous, professional, and intelligent manner. Have you ever submitted a question online and gotten a canned answer back about how great XYZ product is, and how 1000 people have made gazillions of dollars using it? Did you wonder if the customer service rep didn't really understand your question or was just reading from a script? If the service is poor before you've even purchased a product, imagine what it'll be like after the company in question already has your money in hand. Before buying anything from a site, e-mail the customer service folks and see how they respond to a question about the legitimacy of product XYZ.

Conclusion

There's no guarantee that any online company or product will be everything you hoped it would be. But by checking out an opportunity before purchasing it using the steps above, you greatly decrease your chances of stressing yourself out by falling victim to a scam.