Today, the entire outlook of people towards work is changing. Gone are the days when people had to step out of home and work for 7 to 8 hours to make a decent living. Today there are more people working from home and making lots and lots of money. In the United States alone, there are close to 36 million people who work from their homes.

This number has grown at an alarming rate in the last few years. There are no secrets involved in this business. You too can work from home and make money if you wish to. But you need to know which business to start and how to work at it. Here we will take a look at the top 5 lucrative work from home opportunities that are gaining popularity across the world.

Affiliate Marketing

It is a total misconception that you need to have wares to sell in order to make money online. You can make money by selling other people’s wares and programs as well. Affiliate marketing is one of the most sought after Home business ideas. With certain affiliate programs awarding as much as 75% of the total retail price, you can earn profits as much as 100% with targeted advertising. The principle behind affiliate marketing is very simple. There are vendors who want to sell their wares and are willing to pay decent money to anyone who can get them customers. You can be that person. The first step in becoming an affiliate is joining an affiliate network. As most vendors prefer an affiliate who is part of a network. Membership is free.

Data Entry

After Affiliate marketing, this has become one of the most sought after avenues for working from home. Today there are many companies who need to have their data entry jobs done and the lack of skilled data entry workers is forcing them to sub-contract the work. Today most skilled workers into data entry work from home. Besides typing and data entry, there are other tasks like proof reading, editing and writing. The best part about this work from home business is that you really do not need any infrastructure other than a computer and an internet connection. Along with these, a willingness to work can reap excellent benefits.

Be a freelance contractor

You can become a freelance contractor and offer your services to other companies. These services might depend on the skill sets that you possess and your ability to market these skill sets. It may be as simple as offering billing services to something as complex as designing a complete flash based website. Once again, with the right amount of planning and dedication you can easily make lots of money.

Blogging

Though blogging is relatively new as compared to the other tried and tested work from home opportunities, it is fast catching on and replacing other more conventional forms of work from home. Blogs can help you pump in money in the thousands. All that you need is a blog that can drive in traffic and money will flow.

Surveys

Surveys cannot be called as a full time home business opportunity, but they work really well if you