How To Choose a Good MLM or Network Marketing Company?

You've heard many horror stories about MLM /network marketing programs. But what you are really hearing about are stories relating to illegal programs or pyramid schemes. Basically, pyramid schemes have no real, viable and worthy product. Obviously, you do not want to participate in such schemes. You want to be associated with a high quality product that you will readily endorse.

Why participate in a MLM or network marketing company then? The lure of joining a MLM has great appeal: It allows you to work part-time, gives you an opportunity to build residual income and you become a small business owner. MLMs have created many millionaires. Those who are successful testify that it is a result of hard work, continuous prospecting, motivating and training others.

The concept of MLM is simple. Instead of paying huge advertising sales and marketing costs to promote their products, MLM companies convert their loyal customers into a huge sales force. They rely on word-of-mouth to do the marketing. The commission from the savings on employing sales staff, advertisement and promotions is paid to you instead. It is a win-win situation for both the company and the MLMer.

If you decide to join one, please note that many MLMs require an initial investment. Before making such an investment, here are 10 tips on how to choose a good MLM program to promote:

1. Choose a program that you like or have some interest in. The best way to know if this is a program you wish to promote is whether you are interested in purchasing the product for your own use. If so, chances will be that there will be others who will be interested in the same program.

2. Look for a program that is of high quality. For instance, choose one that is associated with a top expert or many experts in the particular industry.

3. Participate in ones that offer real, viable products.

4. A program that caters to a growing and target market will ensure that there is demand for your referral. Do your research, participate in discussion forums to get feedback.

5. A compensation plan that pays out a residual income and a payout of more than 30-50% will be great. Avoid wasting time with programs that do not reward you substantially for your efforts.

6. Be aware of minimum quotas that you must fulfill or sales target that is hard to achieve. Some MLM companies impose a pre-requisite before you get paid.

7. Choose one that gives you plenty of tools and resources to help you grow the business easily.

8. For online MLMs, check whether the company has a proven system that allows you to check your network and compensation. There must be a reliable referral tracking system.

9. A program that offers strong incentives for members to renew their membership each time. Obviously, one that provides continuous help and upgrades for its product and business will tend to retain its members and will ensure growth of your network.

10. If your upline is someone you know, you can always ask him/her to spell out if there is any downside risk involved.

With millions of people coming on the internet, an online MLM will be a great business to be in. You can recruit affiliates from all over the world, keep in touch with them easily and also, have the option to automate your business. Start your search for a great MLM or network marketing company to work with today!

Evelyn Lim is an Online Business Entrepreneur & Strategist. This article is extracted from her regular newsletter that teaches readers tips and stragies for Mapping To Success. To subscribe to her newsletter or to find out more, please visit http://www.e-BizMap.com or her blog at http://www.EvelynLim.com

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In this Oct. 2, 2008 file photo, Janna Dake inspects a 2009 F150 pickup as it goes down the line at the Kansas City Ford Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Mo. The United Auto Workers on Wednesday, Dec. 3 said it is willing to change its contracts with U.S. automakers and accept delayed payments of billions of dollars to a union-run health care trust to do its part to help the struggling companies secure $34 billion in government loans. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, file)AP - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Democrats' plan to tap the Wall Street rescue fund to save U.S. automakers doesn't have the votes to pass.



A bomb disposal squad officer, center, takes a suspicious box to the police station after diffusing a bomb at Chhatrapati Shivaji train station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008. Police on Wednesday discovered leftover explosives hidden in a bag in Mumbai's main train station, a stunning new example of botched security after the deadly rampage that left the government open to accusations it missed warnings and bungled its response. (AP Photo)AP - Police searching a mound of baggage abandoned amid the carnage of the attack on Mumbai's main train station found two bombs Wednesday — nearly a week after they were left there by gunmen — in a stunning new example of the botched security that has become a major issue in India since the three-day siege.



In this Dec. 1, 2008 file photo, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, waves to a crowd during a campaign stop for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga,  in Savannah, Ga.  Palin has added to her financial disclosure forms two free trips that she took nearly two years ago but failed to report.   (AP Photo/Stephen Morton, File)AP - Gov. Sarah Palin has added to her financial disclosure forms two free trips that she took nearly two years ago but failed to report. Palin, who was Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, made the disclosures last month, but after Election Day when she and McCain lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The trips were first revealed in a story by The Associated Press in October.



Rev. Edwin Bacon, of All Saints Episcopal Church, delivers a sermon in support of same sex marriages Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008, in Pasadena, Calif. Demonstrations on Saturday to protest passage of an anti-gay marriage ballot initiative were the largest of several marches that followed Tuesday's passage of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and overturning the state Supreme Court decision that legalized such unions in May. (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas)AP - Theological conservatives upset by liberal views of U.S. Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans formed a rival North American province Wednesday, in a long-developing rift over the Bible that erupted when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop.



Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.,  gestures as he speaks during  an election-night party Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008 in Atlanta. Chambliss defeated Democrat Jim Martin in a run off. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)AP - A double digit win in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff could make Saxby Chambliss a star in a Republican party hungry for fresh leadership.



This undated photo provided by the Tracy Police Department shows Caren Ramirez. Police were seeking Ramirez on suspicion of participating in alleged abuse against her 17 year-old nephew who showed up Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 at a northern California gym with a chain locked to his ankle. (AP Photo/Tracy Police Department)AP - The aunt and one-time guardian of an emaciated and shackled 17-year-old has been arrested, as police tried to determine how she knew the couple accused of holding the teen against his will for nearly a year. Caren Ramirez was arrested Tuesday in Berkeley, a day after the boy walked into a gym and begged managers to hide him. He was covered in soot, had a chain on his foot and was wearing only boxer briefs.



This X-ray image provided by NASA, and captured by the German ROSAT satellite in the 1990s, shows the remnant of a supernova that was observed in 1572 by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. A new study explores the nature of that star explosion. (AP Photo/NASA)AP - More than 400 years after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe challenged established wisdom about the heavens by analyzing a strange new light in the sky, scientists say they've finally nailed down just what he saw.



This undated file photo provided by the Illinois Department of Corrections shows Jennifer Hudson's estranged brother-in-law William Balfour. Balfour has been arrested Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 in Illinois in the deaths of the singer's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew. (AP Photo/Illinois Department of Corrections)AP - A prosecutor alleged Wednesday that Jennifer Hudson's brother-in-law killed three family members because he was angry his estranged wife — the singer's sister — was dating another man.



AP - The one that didn't get away held an unlikely surprise for a Texas man. The blue-stoned class ring of Joe Richardson, engraved with his name, turned up inside an 8-pound bass 21 years after he lost it while fishing on Lake Sam Rayburn.

In this Aug. 31, 2008, file photo, Boston Red Sox's Dustin Pedroia walks back to the dugout during a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park in Boston. The Red Sox have agreed to terms with the 2008 AL Most Valuable Player on a six-year contract, the team announced on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)AP - Dustin Pedroia has a Rookie of the Year award, an MVP, a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger and, of course, a World Series ring. And now he's got the big-bucks contract befitting one of the most decorated young players in baseball. The Red Sox second baseman, who earned $457,000 last season while winning the AL Most Valuable Player award, agreed Wednesday to a $40.5 million, six-year contract that could keep in Boston through at least 2014.



New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (R) listens as US President-elect Barack Obama speaks to the media after introducing Richardson as his nominee for U.S. commerce secretary during a news conference in Chicago December 3, 2008. (UNITED STATES) (Reuters)Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama said on Wednesday struggling automakers have put forward a "more serious" restructuring proposal to Congress but withheld judgment on the plans until hearings are held.



Trading specialists work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, December 3, 2008. (Chip East/Reuters)Reuters - Record declines in the vast U.S. and European service sectors and more grim U.S. employment news on Wednesday sparked fear of an economic "free fall," setting up another round of aggressive interest rate cuts.



Students of the Pakistani Islamist party Jammat-e-Islami chant anti-Indian slogans during a protest against the Indian government's claims that Pakistan-based militants were behind the Mumbai attacks, during a rally in Islamabad, December 3, 2008. (Mian Khursheed/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Pakistan to cooperate fully in the probe into the Mumbai attacks but she also warned India against any action that could stoke regional conflict.



Chrysler assembly worker Leroy Feltz works on a 2009 Jeep Wrangler at the Toledo Supplier Park Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio December 3, 2008. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)Reuters - All options were on the table on Wednesday as congressional committees scrutinized auto company restructuring proposals and an urgent appeal for $34 billion in aid ahead of make-or-break hearings.



The U.S. Senate and Congressional Democratic leadership attends a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee/Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee election watch party in Washington November 4, 2008. From L-R are: DSCC Chairman Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), DCCC Chairman Christopher Van Hollen (D-MD), and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). (Larry Downing/Reuters)Reuters - Senate Democrats will be able to do plenty over the next two years -- despite falling just short of their goal of winning a majority big enough to end Republican procedural roadblocks.



Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson speaks at a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington, November 25, 2008. (Jason Reed/Reuters)Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is weighing whether to ask Congress for the remaining $350 billion of the financial bailout fund, with White House aides approaching President-elect Barack Obama's transition team about the idea, an Obama aide said on Wednesday.



Reuters - Imprisoned former WorldCom Inc chief Bernard Ebbers has joined the list of high-profile corporate defendants petitioning for clemency in the final days of President George W. Bush's term in office.

A U.S soldier stands guard during a graduation ceremony at Al-Furat Iraqi Police Training Center in Baghdad December 2, 2008. (Saad Shalash/Reuters)Reuters - A string of departures by the U.S. military's allies in Iraq is turning into an exodus as violence subsides and the end of a U.N. mandate permitting their deployment to the country approaches.



A map locating the main terrorist attacks in Mumbai. India on Wednesday warned that all options were open in dealing with Pakistan after last week's attacks on Mumbai, as the United States pressured Islamabad to show urgent cooperation with the probe.(AFP/Graphic)AFP - India on Wednesday warned that all options were open in dealing with Pakistan after last week's attacks on Mumbai, as the United States pressured Islamabad to show urgent cooperation with the probe.



Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg speaks in Oslo City Hall during the signing of a treaty banning cluster bombs. Norway -- which played a key role in hammering out the worldwide ban on using, producing, transferring and stockpiling cluster munitions -- was the first country to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions.(AFP/Scanpix/Lise Aserud)AFP - Some 100 nations put their names Wednesday to a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs, amid calls for major arms producers such as China, Russia and the United States to join them.




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