Do research about the company’s background. Who are the people behind the home business? How long has the company been offering business opportunities to people? Is the company licensed and legal? These are important questions that you need to find out before accepting an offer.

Find an online business that offers reliable support. Support is important especially when it comes to marketing the business. As new entrepreneur, it is best to find a company that offers full support for their members.

Study the company’s business structure. An important factor that distinguishes a legitimate online business from scams is its structure. What exactly do you need to do to earn money? What kind of products would you sell? Do you need to continuously recruit new members in order to earn?

Multi-level Marketing businesses abound in the market. However, some MLM businesses are clearly fraudulent based on its marketing structure. Taking a closer look at the system should help you avoid suspicious business opportunities.

Find an online business that provides training for its members. The best Multi-Level Marketing companies in the market provide training for its members, particularly when it comes to marketing or selling strategies.

Stay away from grand promises. A basic warning sign of a business scam is the promise that you will earn millions of dollars in just a short time without doing hard work. If a certain company offers you the chance to be a millionaire in exchange for a small investment, chances are you are dealing with scammers.

Do not invest your money in a network marketing business. Many Multi-Level Marketing scams will encourage you to invest a small amount of money. In the beginning, you may receive profits from the money you submitted. However, the initial profit you receive is often just a bait so you would invest more on the company. When the company makes enough millions, it would instantly disappear from the scene, leaving all MLM members broke, financially and emotionally.

Don’t rush. The people behind online scams are often excellent talkers. You may be urged to sign up and invest your money right away without doing research or giving it some thoughts. Fly-by-night businesses are always in the hurry so it’s best to take your time before joining any kind of business.

Many of these opportunities are MLM (network marketing) I have very limited experience with these programs and I advise them to use their best judgment when choosing a MLM. I have always felt that you need to be a really personable person to make MLM work for you. You need to be able to motive not just yourself, but a whole team of people that will be working under you. That to me seems to be the #1 reason people I know who have gotten into a MLM program either drop out or simply don’t make any money. Its hard enough to keep YOURSELF on track let alone a large group of people.

I have seen it done though. I had a friend named Renee who was in MLM all her life (she was in her late 50′s when we met). Renee had built huge downlines in her time, and had experienced the benefits of working with not just a great group of people but the financial benefits of having nearly 300 people working with her. Renee was incredibly organized, very personable, and w/ more than 30 years of being in different programs incredibly knowledgeable about understanding network marketing structures and payouts. Her main problem seemed to be that she would join programs that just didn’t last. After a year or 2 they would close abruptly.

I would ask her why not start off with companies that have a proven track record and the answer she gave me was that the income potential was 10x better getting in on a new program first, then joining an older program and being way down the list.

THAT’S why I never got involved with MLM. No matter how many times they tell you that you make money selling wonderful products, the bottom line always seems to be getting people signed up under you.

I did some research online for my neighbors and here are some tips I saw touted over and over on MLM sites.

1. Avoid plans that seem to pay mostly for bringing new people into the fold. It could be an illegal pyramid scheme.
2. Avoid programs that say you will make lots of money thru the expansion of your downline more so then having your current downline out selling product .. again this can be a sign of a pyramid scheme.
3. avoid “Miracle” products. If there claims are just outrageous, do you want to be the one to sell someone sick with high blood pressure or some terrible health condition snake oil?
4. Avoid programs that make you buy expensive inventory – while its a nice motivator that every 30 days you will have a new shipment of stuff to sell so you better not delay or your will find your garage full of product. It can get so expensive that people who haven’t quite hit their stride drop out just to get out of the auto ship.
5. Try not to sign up the first night you hear about the program. Don’t buy into the HYPE! A good rule of thumb is to not take your credit card to these meetings. After the meeting, hit the internet and do your research.

   You will find good and bad reviews. You will have other distributors flashing huge checks and encouraging you, you will find disillusioned people who tried the program (or maybe brought and tried to return after the 30 day guarantee and are bitter over losing some money) that will scream scam. Its up to you to shift through it all and make a decision.

6. Check with your local business organizations like the BBB and Chamber of Commerce. Some MLM’s are too small to show up in their records but its better to be safe and check things out thoroughly before committing your hard earned cash.
7. If you are promised outrageous amounts of money in a short time remember the old saying, “Its simply too good to be true”.

If you have done your homework, don’t be afraid to move forward. If you put down the money to join the program, make sure you have a plan of action so that you can start building your business right away.