Do you find yourself at your local book store, flipping through all of the small business and home based business magazines?Page after page of ads. They almost scream out at you: Only $7,500! Join this new, hot industry!Some of the ads are half page; some are full page. And most are glossy.Of course, in the back of these magazines you see all the little classified ads calling out for your attention.Amid all of this, how do you tell the legit home based businesses from the ones just trying to separate you from your hard-earned money?Well, for starters, let’s rule out almost any franchise. It really bothers me when certain ads try to position franchise opportunities as something that can be done from home.I have yet to see any franchise opportunities that are true home-run businesses. Let’s define a home based business as one that you can run completely from home. As in 100% never have to leave the house to make money with it. Period.If you use that as the benchmark you’ll see that almost all franchise opportunities will fall off your radar from consideration.Network marketing businesses, long touted as legit home based businesses, aren’t even authentic in this sense. Sure you can have “parties” in your home designed to showcase the products you represent and hope to get people to sign up.But first, who actually wants to bug their friends and family and scare them away with the stigma of MLM?Second, although the meetings may take place in your home, you’ll have to do a lot of networking outside your home to get them there in the first place. So, I don’t consider network marketing true home businesses, either.What do I consider to be among the best of the authentic and legit home based businesses? That rare distinction would go to online marketing. Especially in the form of affiliate marketing, which I think is the absolute best place for anyone who wants to earn money from home start.Affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful business models with vast income potential, and it can all be done from the comfort of your home. 100% of it.That’s why I’ve been doing it full time for over 7 years now. After all, when you have 3 young children like I do, when you look for a home based business, it really must fit that definition in every sense.