You will make a little money in a good MLM company by selling product. But usually, only a little.

The real cash only starts to flow when you reach a critical mass of recruits - all feeding small amounts of commission back into your account.

So, you have to ask yourself some honest questions:

* Do I have time to devote at least 12 hours a day to building my business. (Believe me, any less and you will never get big checks.)

* Have I got limitless energy to keep on doing this day in, day out?

* Am I imaginitive enough to keep finding new ways of reaching people?

* Am I a highly persuasive sales person?

* Will I have a problem recruiting others?

* If and when I do recruit others, will I have time and patience to train them in best ways to run business?

* Am I prepared to travel long distances to host recruitment meetings?

* Can I afford to advertise to get leads?

* Can I afford to do all of above for very little return for at least first 3 months?

I know from repeated personal experience, and that of many, many others that unless you can answer yes to all of above questions, MLM isn't ever going to make you a fortune.

And, as an observation, it seems to me that if you do have boundless energy, limitless time, and superb sales talent needed to prosper in MLM, you would be far better off applying it to building your own business. That way you would keep all profits.

That was ultimately what I did - and I haven't regretted it for a second.

MLM can be good. But go into it with rose-tinted glasses firmly locked in their case.

All this time, joining one "opportunity" after another, you're shelling out money.

But you're also learning. Slowly but surely some of what you read begins to sink in. You realize that some of "opportunities" you joined were only opportunities for whoever started them.

The more I learned, and more products I purchased, I began to see that first, I needed a product of my own; and second, that until I had one, I needed to be an affiliate of products I believed in.

There have been many things written about affiliate marketing (and I won't go into all of them here - maybe another article someday!), but it's been perfect for me.

Not only can I help others by recommending products, but I can earn money while doing it!

So while MLM might work out great for some, it's just not for me.