Beating The Beast Goldmine!

Everyday hundreds, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people decide
to investigate the idea of working from home or starting their very own homebased
business. They have heard of others that have done so who have been
very successful...maybe even wildly successful at it.
Some of these people are very computer savvy individuals. They may even have
the ability to build their own webpages. They certainly know the ins and outs of
operating a computer. Others aren’t all that computer savvy but they think they
have a great idea for an Internet business and are sure that they can find a way
to follow their dream.
The Internet really is the great equalizer. The level of formal education that a
budding Internet entrepreneur has doesn’t seem to have much bearing on the
degree of success that they can achieve on the Internet or how much of a failure
they can become. There are those who have reached dizzying heights of
success who never finished high school and those who have hit rock bottom who
have multiple college degrees.
The commonalities of those who succeed in either working from home or running
a home-based business are:
 They are all self-starters.
 They have a positive attitude.
 They are willing to learn.
 They develop the necessary survival skills....it really is a jungle out there.
If you are considering starting, or have already started working from home or a
home-based business, you are obviously a self-starter.
You wouldn’t have even considered such a venture if you didn’t have a positive
attitude.
You are apparently willing to learn, you are reading this book.
The world of Internet business is the electronic equivalent of a jungle. In words
made famous in “The Wizard of Oz”, “There are lions and tigers and bears, oh
my!” Survival and success aren’t based on education. They are both based upon
the mastering of survival skills.
2
Chapter I
There are Lions
Funny! When you log onto the Internet, there is nothing that indicates that you
have just entered an untamed jungle. You don’t hear any roaring lions or other
ominous sounds and you don’t see any wild animals that are planning to have
you as the main course for dinner but they are out there. They are just in
disguise.
There is no particular order that you will meet these dangerous characters but
some of the first ones that you are likely to meet are those that I like to think of as
the ‘welcoming committee’.
Selling What’s Free
The object of this welcoming committee is to sell you what can be had for free all
over the Internet if you know where to look.
Anti-Virus Protection
The first thing that you will be told that you must buy is anti-virus software. Now,
there are some very good anti-virus programs out there that are being sold. But if
your financial ability is somewhat limited, you really do not have to buy expensive
anti-virus programs.
Yes, you must have an anti-virus program on your computer. There isn’t any
doubt about that one. The Internet is full of creeps that get their jollies by
infecting computers with viruses, worms and trojans. You don’t want that to
happen to you or your computer.
There are those that spend their every waking hour just dreaming up new and
insidious ways of making problems for the rest of us. Luckily, there are just as
many good folks out there that spend their time figuring out how to keep them
from doing it to us.
Two of the best known anti-virus programs out there are Norton and McAfee and
both of them are very good programs. Both of them are also rather expensive.
McAfee is more expensive than Norton but neither one of them are really cheap
and they are certainly not free.
However, there is also a very good one that is absolutely free. AVG has many
anti-virus and other security programs available but they also have a free
version. This free version works very well and provides ample protection. You
3
can find this free program at AVG (http://www.grisoft.com/doc/products-avg-antivirus-
free-edition/lng/us/tpl/tpl01).
Firewalls
Most computers today come with built-in firewalls. Windows added that feature to
XP. It is already on your computer when you bring it home.
Just because you already have a firewall that is sufficient to protect your
computer, doesn’t mean that there won’t be members of the welcome-to-thejungle
committee who won’t be trying to sell you one.
You will be told that the one that is on your computer has failed to protect you.
You will see these little pop-ups telling you that you need to have your computer
scanned.
The scan is,