So you want to start earning online and have invested some of your hard earned cash in a couple of online programs but have you really thought about what you are investing in.

You wouldn't simply roll off the street into a real estate agency and purchase a house to rent out without looking at the area first and seeing if there was a good rental market and similarly you wouldn't invest all your money into shares in just one company before looking into it first.

As any financial advisor and in fact anyone with a little common sense will tell you - you should spread the risk. You do not invest all your money into high risk new venture companies or put it all into property. Similarly, if you want to make a good return you don't just leave it sitting in the bank.

Earning a living online or a little extra cash is no different. You must consider all the options carefully first and then only invest what you can afford to lose and SPREAD THE RISK.

You should look to put your money in a number of different online companies and investments. No I don't mean join every opportunity going and spread yourself across so many different opportunities that you don't know whether you are coming or going, but you should have a balanced portfolio of opportunities.

First you consider how much time you have to put into a new online venture. If you don't have much spare time look to invest in passive programs that require no recruitment or downline building. And yes there are some of these that work and are stable and will be around for the long haul but you must be careful. Even if you are planning to promote another network marketing MLM or affiliate program you should have some form of passive program in your portfolio to build up funds.

Again when investing in passive programs spread the risk. For example I have invested money into 4 passive programs, 2 fairly low risk ones, one I would class as low to medium and a higher risk opportunity for quicker returns. Number one rule - NEVER INVEST more than you can afford to lose, number two - SET YOUR GOALS. If you want to earn an additional $500 a month, then invest enough to do this but ensure you withdraw the rest and do not be tempted to invest more for a bigger return. All these programs carry some risk and you should always aim to at least make your capital investment back and then just invest the profits.

As an example in my portfolio I have a weekly subscription to J3V (http://www.j3v.biz/index2.php?rgawith) and YMMSS (email me at support@computerincome.net for details) in order to build up a good residual income in a couple of years time. These are both stable companies that have proven themselves and have a good track record. I therefore consider these low risk (and this is only my opinion) and I am using these to build up a residual income without the need to recruit. I have then invested in FundBiZGrowth (http://www.fundbizgrowth.com/SOSRGawith.html) which doubles your money every 6 weeks - I consider this a slightly higher risk program but one in which their could be good returns. Finally I have invested in DollarMonster (http://easychairclub.com/dm/moreinfo.cgi?u=rgawith) - this purely a double your money quickly program and I consider it a fairly high risk as it requires a constant flow of new people to pay out. I am using this program simply to make some quick cash to plough back into the other programs.

So whilst these passive programs are building you residual income you need your main affiliate or network marketing program which you will concentrate on promoting and which will give you a an immediate source of income. Now I actually own and run my own program at http://www.earnmoneyhere.com but I am also an affiliate of RecipeSwap (http://www.recipe-swap.com/members/rgawith/) which I think is a goof stable and fun program to promote and make a good second income. However, it does not matter what your main affiliate or MLM program is so long as you concentrate on promoting it and building your affiliate team or downline.

Then as with any business you need to ensure you have the right tools and resources for the job. If you worked in an office, you require office equipment, if you have a shop you need display racks etc.. working online is no different...you need the right tools and resources. I use Isoregister as it gives me all the tools I need in one place such as autoresponders, ebooks, articles, advertising etc etc...but so long as you have a good resource suite you are all set to market online and start building your portfolio.

But remember the number one rule, is all online opportunities incur a certain amount of risk, but you can minimise your losses and maximise your profits by spreading the risk sensibly across a number of stable and profitable online ventures.