When you are new to online marketing it is easy to let one four letter word sabotage your chances.  Page after page, site after site, email after email ..... the word is repeated again and again ..... and again .....

Start for free ..... free download ..... sign up for free ..... free trial ..... free ebook

FREE        FREE          FREE            FREE              FREE

The constant repetition of this one word leads some new marketers to believe that they deserve to get everything they need for free!

There are many excellent tools, tutorials, etc. that ARE free and are truly good aids to anyone starting a work at home business by working online.

There are sites such as The Newbie Club, BigNoseBird, dynamic drive, and hundreds more that have resources you can use as your own.

Trying to do everything for "free", though can cause you to waste the most valuable resource you have -- TIME.  What is your time worth? Is it the most productive use of your time to spend 6-8 hours every day placing and replacing free classified advertising?  

Placing free ads, you are advertising to advertisers ..... and the results are often disappointing to those new to working online. Getting results in the free classifieds medium takes a LOT of time over a considerable period of time.

Instead, you could spend one day learning all you can about placing pay per click advertising and for $25-50 you could run a ppc campaign. If done correctly, the ppc ads will bring in much more business for you than weeks, or even months of placing free classified ads.

With all the precious time you have saved, you could learn how to build your own website to promote your business.  Then find a low cost (not free -- low cost) host for your site.

Using more of your saved time, you exchange links with other webmasters so that your site will become popular with the search engines ..... and so it will get visitors! Guess what ..... adding links is FREE!!! AND a good use of your time.

When you are tempted to try to do it all for FREE ..... look at the item or opportunity you are considering....and ask "why would they do this for me?" Obviously, at some point the site offering the "freebie" or the business you joined for free expects that you WILL spend some money with them.  

Carefully evaluate tools and software that are offered "free". Are they still viable products ..... or have rapid changes in internet marketing made these tools outdated?

Always remember that one definition of "free" is ..... "without value".  As you become more experienced in working online you will start easily judging which freebies are actualy worth something to YOU ..... and which ones aren't.

The internet is a vast marketplace and there are great deals to be found. Shop for the best price for software and tools to build your business. Use free items when you can, but don't let that four letter word be the prime requirement for starting your work at home business.  

If you insist on everything for free when you start to build your online work at home business ..... you may find you have a business that goes nowhere.

Building a successfull work at home business will always require some investment of time and of money. To avoid disappointment and failure, be prepared to invest at least small amounts of money when necessary.

Choose effective ways to promote your business and use your resources of time to learn all you can about working online and then apply that time to building a successful work at home business by working smart!