Home Business Information: $120,000 Hindsight. Part 2 of 8

Quality home business information is widely searched for by those interested in starting a business at home. It CAN be a great help if it is relevant, unbiased, and based on knowledge or experience. However there are countless sales tricks that hide under the banner of information.

Below are some points to bear in mind when taking note of any advice:

1. Home business information is almost always biased or inaccurate

2. Nothing in this industry is for free - there is ALWAYS a hidden reason or cost

3. The world of advertising psychology is employed here just to profit from you

4. The home business industry is one of the most lucrative and motivated markets

5. There is a sliding scale of information from excellent to the blind leading the blind

6. Even if you found the best source of home business information - how much will that help you?

The single most important thing you can do with any source of home business information is to qualify it.

Who is talking?
What authority, experience or expertise do they have on the issue?
Why are they bothering to write or produce a piece of information?
What relevance does it have to your situation, resources, experiences and character?

Having spent a good deal of time going through all the various home business information sources during the course of the research, I can tell you there is an enormous range. This starts off with the excellent and genuine, slides down via over-pricing, to heated rage, naive optimism, backseat pseudo-scepticism and finally ends up with childlike fraud. Yet they ALL portray themselves as genuine authorities.

Common formats of home business information include:

* Reviews - Reviews done by whom? Why are they reviewing it? What about the subjectivity of viewpoint? Undertaking a 'review' is a standard marketing method for affiliate marketers - their primary interest is in making a sale.

* The 'Expert' - Successful practitioners (if indeed they are) are describing their success with their: resources, talents, temperament and situation at a certain point in time. This may have no relevance to you whatsoever.

* Newsletters, Ezines & Articles - All of these are designed to build a bond with an audience and set oneself up as an authority. People are then more likely to take a recommendation on products or services. Some useful information may be learnt, but it is important to bear in mind that no one gives up their time for free.

* Forums - The information that can be learnt in forums varies enormously in quality: some is outstanding, some is opinion, some are sales pitches - and some are ignorant and dangerous. Everyone likes to voice their opinion.

* Government Departments - These tend to be legislative and reactionary rather than advisory. They are there to try and protect the consumer and do implement some policies to help safeguard people. However they are civil servants not entrepreneurs.

* Bureaus, Seals, Stamps & Bank Statements - They may be genuine but are generally just used to give an impression of credibility. Bank statements and other 'proofs' can be forged easily. Many bureaus are merely businesses - and are not endorsed by any government department, they sell a seal or stamp for simply performing some basic background checks.

* Seminars - These tend to be expensive and vary in terms of quality and of course 'usability'. Some people may benefit from the information immediately, for others it is like trying to become a professional in 6 hours.

Copywriting and tricks of influence - learnt from a hundred years of persuading people to part with their money - are employed universally under the guise of home business information. Most of us are naturally sceptical of the obvious sales letters and their like. However other information formats can, and in most cases are, just a more subtle means of achieving the same end.