Have you seen these claims? Make $500, $1000, $3000 per Day! All with No Cold Calling, NO Talking to Family and Friends, NO Selling, NO Answering Questions, NO Speaking To Prospects, NO Phone Calls At All!

How can a 'business' claim to be 'passive'? Don't you have to 'work' a home based business? Many new internet based programs state that they automate the income generating process, allowing you to rake in the cash while you do very little work. Some claim that you need to do no work at all. How true are these claims? Depending on the system you are looking at and exactly what it claims to do, it may hold up to its claims, or not. Often, they leave out one very crucial bit of information - that is, you will have to MARKET your website in order to make any money at all. It is marketing that drives the success of any online venture. Why would these businesses be any different?

Let's start with the 'big daddy' in the passive income claims, the Prosperity Automated System. This business proposes it has'proprietary software' that once placed on the net for you will produce $3000 sales over and over with very little effort from you. You can even advertise up to 6 other products on your PAS site and have sales of those products too. Just Pay a whopping $3995, plus at least $198 in ad packs every month and watch the sales roll in. When people opt-in and request a callback, team leaders call and close the sales for you. The professional closer eliminates the need for the business owner to be a sales person. Unfortunately, many PAS owners are finding that their PAS site just sits on the web with very little activity. The people who are making huge incomes with PAS are not treating it 'passively'. In fact, they are taking a very active roll and running huge ad campaigns. The ad packs have not been proven to produce regular sales. PAS is not passive, as it clearly claims to be. In order to make money here, you will have to MARKET.

The 1 Step System attempts to solve the problems of the internet newbie by providing them with an 'internet marketer's toolbox'. Their marketing materials say the system has 'everything you'll need' in order to promote and resell the system. The 1 Step you have to take is to market the system. How does this model fair? Sales in the beginning were very good as networkers called up other networkers to make sure they got in before the 'two up' compensation plan was put in place (far from the No Selling claim). Once the 'two up' comp plan was put in place sales plummeted. In order to make money here, you will have to MARKET to other network marketers. The teleseminar is designed to sell people who have been through the wringer with other programs, and the value of the toolbox is not immediately apparent to the internet newbie.

Emerald Passport is another supposedly "passive" business. They have an online presentation that claims that if you buy their information products you'll have access to their presentation that once on the web will drive thousands of people to send you $1000 over and over again. For the internet novice, this seems like a dream come true. Once you look under the marketing hype, you find that the new rep is responsible for driving traffic to their presentation, and then once the prospects fills in their info, they are meant to follow-up with and close the prospect. Someone who has never been in sales may well find this to be next to impossible. Passive? No, not at all. You have an online business presentation, that's all. There is nothing passive about Emerald Passport.

The Automated Sales System for Coastal Vacations automates the sales process once the prospect has opted into the website. The online movie presentation does the explaining, and then the tour describes the packages available. If someone requests a 'callback', then a personal marketing assistant (a professional closer) closes all sales. To its credit, the System's marketing material makes it clear that you will have to market the website in order to make any money. You cannot simply buy a vacation package and sit back and collect big bucks. You don't have to be a salesperson, but you will have to market. The back office has marketing tools, but if they aren't applied, your site will sit dead on the net.

In short, the words passive and business don't really belong in the same sentence! Beware of any business that claims you can simply buy in and watch your bank account grow. You will need to work in order to make any money online, period. If you have no intention of learning how to be an internet marketer, do not put your hard earned dollars into any program. Learn what is expected of you before you pull out your wallet. Find out how others are doing with the program you are looking at. If it claims to be fully passive - steer clear. At the point of writing, I know of no 'business' that offers a product that is totally passive and earning an income for anyone who bought into it and did NOTHING.