And why not? Most people are unhappy with their day jobs,

slaving away for a boss and not getting much in return, not

even their freedom. Many people live for weekends and

drag themselves through weekly 9-5 grind.

Did you know that majority of fatal attacks happen at

9 a.m. Monday morning? Don’t believe me? Well it’s true.

It seems a lot of people would rather die than get back to

the old grind after a weekend of freedom.

Whenever someone offers an opportunity or plan for you to

take your job and shove it, yet still make enough money to

live and pay all your bills, it sounds blissfully

irresistible.

Is it really possible to land a real work-at-home job or

run a business from your own home that is more than a hobby

or source of part-time income? Can you get rich working

out of your own home? Can you really trade your cubicle

and necktie for pajamas and comfort of your own den?

Well, home-based businesses are one of fastest growing

kinds of enterprises in America today. Currently some 40

million Americans are doing at least some form of work out

of their homes, (telecommuting, freelancing, working as

independent contractors, or owning a business), and

numbers are rapidly rising.

According to U.S. Department of Labor, as many as 70

million people will be working out of their homes by

end of 2005. Government studies have indicated that as

much as 75% of all work done in this country could

eventually be moved home. The numbers are staggering.

You would actually be surprised to know that many major

companies like Office Depot, Pizza Hut, Sears, Staples,

Carnival Cruise Line, etc., hire home workers. Yes,

millions of people like myself are secretly working

from home earning enough money to pay bills and

more.

However, overwhelming majority of home workers are not

exactly getting rich. Only about 5% are getting rich.

Why? Well, it takes a lot of discipline, hard work,

motivation, perseverance, and your own product or service

to really start earning at least $10,000 a month like

greedy marketers claim you can easily do.

In reality, most people are not willing to do what it takes

to make this happen. There are many people who are just

satisfied with making enough money to pay their bills and

work around their family's schedule.

Most people don't want to go through hassle of starting

a home-based business from scratch. They would prefer to

contract with a major company like Office Depot or work at

home as an employee for a major company.

Readers often ask me whether it’s necessary to take expensive web design courses or to learn HTML right away to get started in this niche. Is there a cheaper way of learning these skills?

If I were in your shoes, my best investment would be to learn how to use a popular and well-supported website creation software package.

Notice that I said “popular and well-supported.” There are plenty of What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) web page creators out there that allow you to cut-and-paste and drag-and-drop your way to create simple, effective websites.

For instance, you could check out programs such as 123 WysiWyg HTML Editor at http://www.123wysiwyg.com

Mozilla Composer is an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) editor that allows you to create and edit web pages. Check it out at http://www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/

Easy Web Editor (http://www.easywebeditor.com/ ) is another low-cost option under $100.

Several Internet “gurus” have created their own software packages. Jim Edwards, for instance, is promoting his “mini site creator” (http://www.minisitecreator.com ) program right now on web and through affiliates.

Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as www.godaddy.com offer their own easy website creation tools. These are fine if you if are a hobbyist or small business owner, and only want to create simple websites for your own use. But if you want to become a professional website designer, and eventually offer your skills and services to other small business owners, you will have to be able to create more sophisticated sites, with more flexible designs and features.

So key questions you have to ask are, “Am I using a program a professional would use? Will it be around five years from now?”

Years ago I chose Microsoft’s FrontPage WYSISYG website editor. I knew that I would not be able to learn all features program had right away, but could create simple web sites for my business using basics, then learn more, a little bit at a time.

I also figured that Microsoft was going to be around for a while, and that webpage creation was an area of business they would want to compete in. So FrontPage would be well-supported for years with new versions, technical support, user forums, etc.

That has all been true. However, FrontPage reportedly has its quirks in way it generates HTML code. Today, best software package that I keep hearing about in WYSIWYG category – and one used by professional website designers as well -- is a program called Dreamweaver, by Macromedia.