I'll explore each of these ways in the course of this series. So if they sound like gobledy gook to you now, fear not. Its estimated that every day over 250,000 people make the decision to start earning money at home on the Internet. That's a lot of people who don't have a clue what these terms mean either. Everyone's got to start somewhere.

For most people, a reasonable course of action when choosing an online business, is to bring up their favourite search engine (if they've even got one yet) and type the words ?work from home?. The number of sites that come up when you enter such a term on Google alone is 1.9 Billion. Compare this with ?find a job? (425 million) or ?new career? (458 million) and you get an idea of where Internet Marketers are directing their efforts.

OK. So the good news is, if there's plenty of supply you've got plenty of choice. But how do you go about choosing the one thats best for you? How do you know which one of those 1.9 billion work from home ideas gives you the best chance of success? Lets face it, you could live until you're five hundred and you still wouldn't have read them all.

And perhaps you've got your own idea, perhaps you've used The Internet enough to have identified a niche area, a business idea you want to exploit. Either way, you're entering new waters and its best to be prepared. Even if you're convinced by your own idea, it is still adviseable to watch, and even join, one or two of the work-from-home offerings so you can learn about the ways in which business can and can't be done online.

There is a methodology I teach which helps people decide on which way to turn, if indeed they should turn to any of them. It uses a simple set of questions, no more than 5 in each set, and as long as you are honest to your core, your answers will steer you in the right direction.

The first set is 4 quick questions that you should answer without giving too much thought to. Just read them each and give the first answer that comes into your head - give your instinctive answer.

It is important to be instinctive because once you've embarked on your online career, it will be your instinct that will direct you. Don't take time theorising about what you think the right or wrong answer should be, just give the true answer. That's the only way you'll get a useful result.

These four questions should be answered in order with a score between 1 (minimum) and 5 (maximum). No zeros. Write your answers down and keep them safe.

Here they are:

1. How computer literate am I? (Not at all - 1. Exceedingly ? 5)

2. How is my self-discipline? (Terrible - 1. Excellent ? 5)

3. How positive is my outlook on life? (Miserable - 1. Excellent ? 5)

4. How much can I afford to fail? (I can't - 1. It really doesn't matter ? 5)

In part II we'll analyse your results and move on to the next stage in the process. In the meantime, enjoy researching and see if you can get a good feel of what's out there.