Copyright 2006 Mal Keenan

How's your email inbox been lately? No doubt jammed packed with the latest, greatest offer promising to make you $1000s in a matter of days. Your only commitment comprises of simply signing on the dotted web page.

Sounds to good to be true, right? Well, one way to make good money online is by leveraging the efforts of others but one must be careful before jumping in with both feet.

It is important when comtemplating joining a network marketing program that two important things are in place.

Firstly, you MUST have a product that people will buy and that you could use yourself. After all if YOU can find a use for the product then chances are your prospects will be able to do so too.

Too often I have joined network marketing companies and found that the product was sub-standard or worse still, the product came a far off second to the compensation plan, setting the company up with the possibility of being labled a "pyramid scheme".

Pyramid schemes focus on the exchange of money and recruitment - Sure enough it is important to signup others in order to grow out your team and increase your earnings but the product should not be so dubious that the company comes under the scrutiny of the law.

You can find out more about pyramid schemes at the site below: http://www.sec.gov/answers/pyramid.htm

One program, that I became involved with recently, attracted me before I even knew I could make money from promoting it. Success University offers Self Improvement courses, which is a genre that I have always been interested in. So, making a monthly payment to improve my knowledge and earning power seemed a no brainer to me. The investment seemed small compared to what I could gain, that's without taking into consideration the money earned through promoting the product to others.

The above formula is just one way to check out whether the product is something that you can sell to others in good conscience.

Secondly, if you want to make money from your network marketing company with the least possible effort then you must look out for a GREAT compensation plan.

This folks is a no brainer - I have been a member of one particular network marketing program and in spite of the presence of a great product AND personally recruiting hundreds or thousands of members, the monthly payout was comparatively very low. The compensation plan did not significantly reward me for my efforts and subsequently I have lost interest in continuing apace. I would much rather expend the same amount of effort for greater gains.

When perusing the compensation plan ask yourself - Can I start earning with the least amount of effort and more importantly will my income grow exponentially through the time and efforts of both myself and those on my team?

You may also want to find out how others are earning by searching the online forums. People love to boast and if the money is being earned then you'll hear about it.

Keep in mind the couple of points above when choosing a company to put your weight behind and you won't go too far wrong.