All of us know that there are a lot of

part-time freelance jobs available over the web. Some people find real work and make a living for themselves, while most others fall victims to scams. Why? The simple reason is that most people cannot tell apart between a genuine freelance opportunity and a scam. Several programs are disguised as freelance part time work or work-at-home opportunities are basically scams.

How to sniff a scam? "Get money by doing part-time data entry from home", "Earn money by watching and clicking ads", "refer a few people and earn residual income" sort of things are nothing short of scams. If someone asks for an up-front payment for providing such a fabulous work-at-home opportunity, you might be their next victim. It is simple enough that you have to work to earn some money. Nobody throws money away at thousands of people who do nothing but surf the Internet. It is not to take away credit from some of those programs that worked earlier. But over a period of time they are over-crowded paying nothing to anybody. PPC ads posting jobs are often disguised as data entry jobs, where you need to put your credit card to spend on ads and promote affiliate programs. Some affiliates make money. But most others don't. Intense competition, escalating keyword prices and unworthy or overpriced products can soon put a burden on your credit card without giving any returns.

So you need a clear understanding about these job types.

1. Data entry jobs: You need to insert data into forms. The buyer provides you with data and tells you how and where to fill a form. You are paid per every single form that you fill properly without errors. These types of jobs are often available in bulk quantities and no individual can do them alone. Large companies often have a huge dump of data that require proper formatting and storage. They prefer a company specializing in automated data handling. At retail level, those opportunities are quite small in number and needless to say, there are too many looking for these small data entry tasks. If some asks for a small up-front fee to ascertain about your seriousness, try to verify with people who have already joined such a program. But if you are told to spend on ads, it's definitely not a data entry job; it's a risky online marketing job.

2. Work at home types: These are mostly about affiliate marketing opportunities. Most of these programs and markets are saturated. It's difficult to make enough money unless you are really good at internet marketing. But these are easy to get into and try. Literally anyone can become an affiliate and start promoting products or services. Sometimes PPC ad posting work is also advertised as work at home opportunity. You need to understand Internet marketing fully before you began spending on promotion. There are more failures than successes in the internet marketing. You need to be careful about a few things before start promoting a product or service. Is the product overpriced? (People are less likely to buy an overpriced product.) If any similar products are available for free? (Needless to say, people try a free trail or free service first). How long the product existed and how many sold and how many marketers are promoting it? (To know about market saturation and competition)

3. Freelance jobs: Freelance jobs require some skills. If you are skilled, you can look around for freelance jobs in your field of expertise. These are short term jobs that companies out-source to minimize their costs. Normally, you need to prove your expertise or experience before you are entrusted with a work. Some skills that are in huge demand are good English writing ( including articles, sales copies, eBooks, blog comments, customer service etc ), image editing ( if you are good with photography and retouching ), marketing ( search marketing, SEO, affiliate marketing etc ), web designing ( HTML, Photoshop, CSS ), web programming ( PHP, PERL, ASP etc).

Once you understand about these different job types, you can easily choose the best way to earn money through internet depending on your skill sets.