One of the things you need to watch out for when looking for home business opportunities is the prevalence of scams. Recently I wrote about the Google work from home scam. I received a couple of questions from readers about multi-level marketing (MLM) as a result. MLM isn’t always a scam; in fact, there are plenty of legitimate MLM companies out there. Cash Money Life offers a very in-depth and helpful look at MLM today. But I do have a couple of thoughts on MLM myself.

Selling anything is hard work

Selling something, whether you are selling Classified ads for a newspaper (I did this for a while), furniture or Mary Kay, is hard work. I know. I watched (and helped) my mother sell Avon products while I was growing up. She made a little bit of money, but really did it for the discount on the products.

I decided that MLM wasn’t for me. At least when I worked for the newspaper, I got a salary plus commission. It was a very simple structure, and I always made a certain minimum that I could count on. (Of course, being a freelance writer doesn’t offer me the set minimum, but I have some clients that I can rely on.) With MLM, you never know, and it is difficult to do well.

If you decide to go with MLM, be sure that you understand what you getting into. I have friend who does MLM and is quite successful. He likes to sell, and he works hard, and has defined goals. He’s a top salesman. But it didn’t just happen. And that’s how it is with any sales business, including MLM. You have to work hard, and market your product if you want to succeed.