Is It Really Possible to Make Significant Income?

More FAQs
How much does it cost to get started?
What can I do?
What skills do I need?
Do I need a lot of technical knowledge?
There are so many Home Based Web Businesses advertised. Are they just scams?
There are so many businesses already on the internet. How will mine make money?
What do I need to look for?


The Answer is YES! Many people do it.
It is possible to make a significant income.
And if you are someone who needs to be at home or just prefers to be at home, this may be for you. It is perfect for stay at home mothers, individuals with disabilities, baby boomers who want to rocket charge their retirement fund, seniors who are already retired and want to earn top online profits while only working part time and even individuals who classify themselves as computer/technical illiterates.

But, there is no such thing as "plug-in" and you're rich. Anything that promises overnight riches is a gimmick.

A real home based internet business does address the top 10 reasons listed (above), but it will take the following:

5 Requirements

1. Identify what needs to be done.
2. Put together a plan.
3. Identify the resources to develop the new skills.
4. Identify the resources to use in lieu of learning some new skills.
5. Obtain feedback and revise when necessary.


Overview - addressing the FAQs

What is the Cost?

The cost to start an online business is very small - one might even say, miniscule compared to starting a traditional business or even a franchise business.

Franchise and Traditional Businesses

A franchise, with even a relatively unknown company can cost up to $20,000 just to buy into the franchise. After that, comes royalty fees and national branding fees that you will pay to the parent company - most of the time even when you have yet to make a profit. A well known franchise will cost hundreds of thousands. You are paying for the right to copy their "ready" made and "successful" business model. This is very appealing for anyone who has little or no business experience.

After that, you have a lot of the same expenses as a traditional business which includes rent/lease, office supplies and furniture, any specialty equipment, telephones, computers, printers, internet, advertising, professional and trade membership fees, and any specialty equipment and inventory. If you have employees, you have the additional expenses of wages, state and federal unemployment taxes, liability insurance, bonding, and worker's compensation. Worker's compensation is particularly expensive for a new business because it does not have a safety track record. A new company can get "group rates" by using an employee leasing company. Technically, this means that the employees that you hire and fire, belong to the employee leasing company. It also means that you must pay the leasing company for their payroll services and they usually require a minimum payroll amount to keep you on their books -WHEW! Oops, - forgot to mentions OSHA regulations, EOE, state and local licenses and permits..... well, you get the picture.

Online Business

In contrast to this, you can start an online business for less than $100 by registering a domain name and setting up a hosted website using a template ( A template is a "plug-in and play" system for anyone - with or without technical knowledge - who doesn't know or want to know or want to use HTML (hyper text markup language - programming language for the web)). The Zero Gimmicks site is on a basic template hosted by GoDaddy (see banner on links page).

Other expenses are determined by the type of online business you start. Network marketing companies have start up fees from $30 - a few hundred dollars. Some web based stores might have inventory (or not depending if you offer your own products to ship or are an affiliate, reseller or dropshipper). Whatever you decide, the start up costs of an online business are tiny, when compared to costs of traditional or franchise businesses.

Consider this the following show stoppers:

Top 5 Reasons People Don't Start Their Own Business

1. They don't have the skills.
2. They don't have the self confidence.
3. They don't know the process.
4. They don't have the money.
5. They don't don't know where or how to start.


Welcome to Zero Gimmicks- wading through the hype to find out what it takes to be a profitable online business and helping you identify what needs to be done.

Get the skills you need to get started.

Researching the topic of starting a home based web business, is enough to make your head spin. There are so many "urgent" buy now!, sales letter out there to wade through - and many, if not scams, are not worth much.

Zero Gimmicks is doing the wading and head spinning for you and with you.

Get thebig picture - first read about the different internet business models.

Next use the links on the Getting Started page to get resources that will be enormously useful for you to grow your online business.

Some of the information and products are free, while others may be purchased.

Get the self confidence you need by getting started

Every learning step you take will build you up. A really interesting product to assist you in bolstering your confidence and self motivation can be found on the Getting Started page. It is a CD that enables you to record self affirmations against a musical background of your choosing. You can listen to it in the car or while your are busying about. You don't even have to concentrate on it for it to be effective.

Learn the Process

The Getting Started Page will outline the steps.

Get the Money

And as you can see, from the initial discussion above, the money issue is not a significant obstacle to starting a home web-based business but it is what a home based web business is all about. Plan it well. Use the tools. Create great content and substantial earnings can become a reality.


Now consider these to Create your plan:

The 3 Things You Need

1. Openess to grow.
2. Ability to be self motivated
3. Willingness to get organized.

4 Things to Ask Yourself:

1. What interest do I have that I spend endless hours doing or thinking about?
2. What kinds of things do I naturally gravitate towards?
3. What particular skill or expertise do I have that I can share with others?
4. Is there something that I know relatively little about now but that I would love to know more about?

Profitable web businesses are made about anything: from artwork, to specialty coffees, to computers, to how to juggle, to learning languages, to travel to Zero Gimmicks. People want to know about so many different things.
Your unique interest is the seed. Place it in the soil of one of these internet business models, and it will grow along with your expertise and profit.

What kind of online business can you start?

Choose any of the 5 models (above) individually or in combination. Any of these can be highly profitable.

Build a business about something you ENJOY! This is a great opportunity to do what you and you alone enjoy. Be your own boss. Create your own future.

Resources for Learning New Skills and Outsourcing Some Tasks

Zero Gimmicks has done a lot of investigation on the tools and resources you need to gain knowledge and get started on one or more of the business models. You do not need to be technically advanced, but you need to be willing to learn and work at it. It won't be easy at first. Each new task may first present itself as a stumbling block. Resources are highlighted on the Getting Started page.
(also check out www.zero-gimmicks.com blog). There is no get rich quick here, just as there is none in the traditional business start up.


Here Are Some Initial Considerations : separating the truth from the gimmicks.

When choosing a company or companies to work with (not for)after you pick your business model here are some things to keep in mind:

What is the background of the network marketing/affiliate/reselling/manufacturing company that you are interested in?
Is it financially sound?
Have they been around for a long time?
What kind of reputation does it have? (Are the online complaints legitimate or mostly from the disgruntled, who didn't put in the effort or know what effort was required to be successful in that particular industry?)
What kind of market does it address?
Is it a large and growing market?
Is it offering a product that is unique or special in anyway that will be around for a long time to come?
Are the start up fees in line with comparable companies in that sector?

The bottom line is can you trust them?

The Zero Gimmicks guarantee: There is no hype or trickery here. Everything being offered is being tested, tried out or reviewed here. What works and what does not work will be regularly updated on the blog and in the newsletter.

Your active participation in the blog is encouraged.

This is a real time adventure. Please Join In.


Now that you have gotten an overview, check out the rest of Zero Gimmicks for specifics on each of the business types.

About Us

Zero Gimmicks was created from the ongoing learning experiences of a newbie web entrepreneur after wading through myriads of "urgent and too good to be true" sales letters. It is an ongoing experiment to see what actually works and what does not work when starting a home based web business. The question is simple: Can a low tech, stay at home mother effectively separate the cons from the essentials and put them into income producing action? The goal then is to earn online income by developing and implementing a plan that is organized and can be followed by anyone. That's it. Completely real. Zero Gimmicks.
See the www.zero-gimmicks.comblog for more detail.