There are countless websites about how to make money at home. While some have great advice, the vast majority give the readers a vastly inflated estimate of what they can earn from the various programs advertised on the sites. This is unfortunate, because it feeds the generally negative perception of the "make money from home" industry.

Basically, people see all these ads saying that you can make millions overnight "on autopilot" and are seduced by the prospect of immediate wealth. So they sign up to various programs, often at a substantial cost. They go for a while, often spending more money, yet end up with nothing to show for it. Disillusioned and bitter, they think that it's all a ripoff and give up entirely.

But the truth is that while there are a lot of scams out there, there are many good programs too. The trick is to choose a niche that you enjoy, and start building sites and blogs related to that. Then look around for programs and products that are in keeping with those subjects and try promoting them. You might be lucky and start making sales immediately. But even if you don't you're still having fun, so you're much more likely to keep at it until you succeed.

That said, you may wish to be more methodical and focused about making money -- and much more of it than, say, a few hundred bucks a month. If that's the case you may be interested in methods such as property investment and day trading. 21st Century Education offers information on how to do this. You can get your free DVD here. (And if you are keen on making money online to the exclusion of other methods then this is a great resource.)

Of course, there are many other ways to make money from home. In a way, there's no limit to them. If you apply your imagination you can come up with your own unique methods to try out. Ebooks containing money making ideas can be very useful, since they can help get the creative juices flowing.

Many people are on the lookout for ways to make money fast. Well, if you are focusing on the internet then there are few methods that I know are reliable (which is not to say that they don't exist, of course). I'd say offline methods are best, since they are much more tangible. If you hold a garage sale that you prepare and start advertising thoroughly well in advance (at least a fortnight) then you should have some cold hard cash in your hand pretty quickly. And if you start your own flyer distribution service then you can end up with your first client, job and subsequent payment within a couple of weeks also. But I don't know of any home based methods that can guarantee financial rewards any quicker than that.

Because building an income from home takes time you shouldn't "count your chickens before they hatch". That other saying "don't give up your day job" is certainly worth remembering, too. The process of finding what works for a particular person involves a fair bit of trial and error. Unless you are extremely lucky, you just have to try things for a while, then give them up if they're not working. So it's very much a process of "two steps forward, one step back".

Because of this people should keep the cash coming in from work they know is regular and enduring, even if they don't enjoy it much. Bit by bit they can get to a point where they can cut down on this if they wish.

With this in mind I'll stay away from the hype. I'll list products, ideas, tips and techniques that I know work from my own experience, or have a good reputation. While many of these can be used anywhere in the world, this site's content is most relevant to people living in Australia.

Best regards, Matt Hayden.