There’s so much hype these days about starting an Internet home business and making truckloads of money online, that’s it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s just more B.S.

Hopefully, this article will give you a sense of the home business ideas and opportunities available today, that are free, legitimate work from home opportunities, or opportunities that are reasonably priced. We’ll also endeavor to spotlight the kind of, at home Internet based business opportunity, that holds the greatest potential for generating significant and consistent income.

Affiliate Marketing

While affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to earn money online, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s an easy or quick way to earn money. I’m sure most of you already know that affiliate marketing is an arrangement where merchants allow website owners to promote the merchant’s products and services via affiliate links. When online shoppers purchase products through these links, the merchant pays a commission to the affiliate marketer (that would be you).

That all sounds just peachy, but the truth is, it’s going to take a whole lot of “know how” and Internet marketing savvy to effectively drive large numbers of potential buyers to your affiliate links. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re likely to expend a great deal of time, effort and money and still not see a single sales commission.

Most affiliate programs offer fairly good marketing materials and traffic analytics, but this alone is not going to make your online affiliate business a success. The fastest way to succeed in this business is to market only products & services that are in very high demand. And market these high-demand products only for merchants who’s products are priced extremely competitively.

It’s going to take considerable effort to get potential buyers to your affiliate links. When they get there, if the products you’re marketing are not what people are buying… or the prices your merchants are charging are significantly higher than other online suppliers… you’re going to be highly disappointed at the anemic sales numbers you’re likely to see.

Your Best Bet: An Internet Health Business

When considering Internet home business ideas and opportunities, an Internet health business is a good bet. According to Forrester Research– one of the most accurate online research databases available– “health-related” products and information are, “hands down”, the most sought after items online. As an online entrepreneur with a number of health-related blogs and websites, I eventually discovered through trial and error that health and wellness affiliate marketing is the surest way to make money with an Internet home business. Some of the best-selling products online are health products, supplements and health-related ebooks, books, DVDs, etc.

While, being a former health educator and writer gives me a slight advantage in the Internet health business. The real key to success is learning how to effectively promote your websites & affiliate links using Web 2.0 technology, social marketing, self-hosted blogs, article marketing, power-linking, rss feeds and other FREE strategies to drive traffic to your sites.

Watch Out For The Hype

I’ve seen a number of articles about affiliate marketing and other Internet home business ideas and opportunities. Most, make it seem like it’s a cinch to easily find scores of prospects on the Internet and simply herd them to your website by the thousands like stampeding cattle. Well, either those writers have been very lucky, or they’ve never really made any money online at all. Most likely, they’ve written their article for the sole purpose of pointing you to an online business opportunity for which “they” will earn an commission if you buy.

Actually, I was reading just such an article a few days ago, it read “Affiliate marketing is truly a win-win situation. Just pick a product and start promoting it. If it doesn’t sell, then simply switch to another one. Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest and most effective business opportunities on the web today.” In the most simplistic terms, these statements are true. But I think we’ve got the blind leading the blind here.

If you actually want to make money with an Internet home business, I can almost guarantee, that kind of superficial advice and simplistic thinking will set you up for failure. In my opinion, that writer’s advice was just about the worse advice imaginable. I say that because at the end of the day, an Internet home business is still, “a business”.

Set Realistic Expectations

In order to be successful, you’ll need to do your homework, select your products carefully, set up your blog correctly, put together an effective capture page, come up with compelling free offers and subscriber incentives to build your opt-in list, & set up your autoresponders & follow-up letters so you can keep in touch with those prospects you worked so hard to get to your site.

You’ll also need to plan your marketing campaign strategically,prepare several informative and keyword-rich articles, register with the right social networking sites and blog directories, set up your rss feeds, develop your power-linking skills, track your statistics, and overcome a very steep learning curve.

And let me caution you about something, if you expect to start a successful Internet home business without investing in the tools and resources your business needs… you’re in for a huge disappointment. Whether you’re starting an Internet home business, a brick & mortar business, a franchise, or even a lemonade-stand– you’re going to have to spend some money.

But don’t get me wrong, starting a successful Internet home business shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. But be prepared to invest a few hundred dollars in order to set-up, and market your affiliate business in a way that will quickly begin generating a steady, reliable income. And as with any business, in the beginning it’s going to take time and effort to build momentum and begin seeing steady traffic and sales.

Now, if all the hard work I just described still hasn’t scared you off, then you might just have what it takes to make it out of the “Internet Marketing Sandbox” where we all begin– and into a very decent living with an Internet Home Business.