Most people, when setting out to make money at home online, don't have a clue where to start. Many fall for scams that promise almost instant wealth without much effort. In fact, I'd say most so-called opportunities out there today are far less than profitable, and that most people involved in these ventures are losing money.

This is not to say that there aren't real money-making opportunities out there, however. Just the opposite is actually true. As much as we hate to admit it, though, all of these legitimate opportunities have a catch. They all require hard work.

Yes, that's right; you heard it here first. Just when you think you're safe from all that nastiness, and that you can rest in the fact that you'll be making $2000 a day in the next 72 hours while taking 12 hour naps on the beach, that four letter word we all so despise seeps back into our reality. You can't make money at home online without it.

Not many ads you see online these days tout the fact that to make money at home online, you simply must work your butt off. Don't believe me? Ask anybody who's made a decent amount of money online how they got there. If they're honest (and most of them are brutally so), they'll tell you how hard it was, and how much they had to fight to make it happen.

The truth is, however, that in order to make money at home online, working hard is only half the battle. I mean, I used to work very hard when I first got into network marketing. I made at least 15 cold calls every day, went to all the hotel meetings I could stomach, and placed flyers on car windshields until the wee hours of the morning.

My friends and family stopped taking my phone calls and dreaded my visits. My conversations consisted of mildly disguised business presentations, and nobody wanted to sit through more than one of those.

Yes, I worked hard. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough. You see, back then, I really didn't know what to work on. I expended a lot of energy on activities that brought me almost nothing.

To make money at home online you've got to know what to work on. Today, that means doing things like writing articles, making videos, and learning backlinking strategies. These take time, patience, and yes, hard work.