There are legitimate and extremely lucrative start up home based business opportunities out there. The key is identifying the best home based business opportunity from the ones that will attempt to steal your personal information or rob you of your investment. While there are many potential chances to find the top online business of today, there are unfortunately a great number of dishonest and illegitimate people on the internet that will not deliver the earnings they promise you. If you have your eye on a community or two to get involved in, here are some tips to know whether or not you are getting involved in the right kind of business.The first step is obviously to examine the welcome page of a site. What information are you provided with at the very beginning? If there are any videos, watch them with an open mind. If a sign up is required to see more, there is no harm in providing your email address to gain further access to a site, as long as no credit card information is demanded of you. Is there a name or a person associated with the site you have found? If so, you can check that item off your list of qualifications for the best home based business opportunity online.The simplest action of having the name and contact information of the creator of a site provided is a good sign that it is legitimate. Try out the contact information and speak with the creator of the program you have found. If they are willing to answer your questions to your satisfaction, you have another point to cross off your list of what makes the best home based business opportunity. If, however, your attempts at making contact fail to bring you any results, steer clear of that website’s claim because it is not a top online business.What kind of claims is the start up home based business making? If they suggest that you can sit back and make $5,000 a day with no work, do not buy into it! Starting a business-online or off-requires hard work, dedication and training. If you enter the profitable home based business arena with this in mind, you will have a much greater chance of success. A site that is willing to say that hard work is involved along with some upfront investment is probably safely considered the best home based business opportunity.