Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Quest for Health and Wealth: Chapter I, So Many Scams to Choose From...

...And So Few legitimate business opportunities that I think I could actually make money with.

This epic saga that I am now beginning is going to chronicle my foray into the world of network marketing. This is a no-holds-barred narrative of the good, the bad and the ugly of running a home-based business, complete with helpful advice and the occasional freebie.

Network marketing appears to be a truly unique industry. All of my education and experience as an executive in the corporate world gets completely pushed to the side as I explore this daunting, yet exciting, world of ezines, lead generation, webstores, Pay-per-clicks, and yes, blogs.

The business opportunity that I am pursuing is a micro-franchise with Herbalife International, a health and nutrition company that has been around for about twenty-five years. I did a significant amount of research into various home-business, affiliate marketing, MLM, etc. I almost DIDN'T go with Herbalife, mainly because on the recruiting page that I ended up on, it wouldn't even tell me what the business WAS unless I first paid money for some 'information' package.

I soon learned that the online marketing company that recruited me is a separate entity from Herbalife, kind of like a subset. All distributors who were members of this marketing company are with Herbalife, but not all Herbalife distributors are with this online marketing company. Anyway, the information package I bought turned out to be little more than hype and ra-ra, almost entirely testimonials of people making lots of money with the business. It looked suspiciously like a scam.

So why, you might ask, did I go ahead and start the business anyway?

Well, I did a lot of research online, and learned a lot of positive things about Herbalife. For one thing, the products are highly-popular, if a little pricey. I saw this as good in two ways: 1) There would be high demand and 2) The products are priced high enough that the commission on each sale will be substantial.

One great resource that I found was a free ebook by Ann Sieg, which cuts through all the BS of network marketing and gives you a good idea of what to look for. I've included the link here if you want to get a free copy too.



The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing


So, after reading a lot of online reviews and ebooks, I pieced together five KEY success factors for choosing a network marketing business to invest in.

FIVE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
1) A reputable company that has been in business for a long time

2) A great product that will be in high demand despite the recession
3) A high-paying compensation plan with the ability to have a residual income
4) Dedicated support from your sponsor/upline who helped you start the business
5) MOST IMPORTANT, an automated marketing system that will be working for you and bringing interested customers to you, instead of you having to go out and hunt for them

More to come next time…I'll write about why I chose Herbalife based on those factors above. Thanks for reading!

Rob Hunter

http://seekfinancialfreedom.net/ --a unique website that I built myself! I'll tell you all how I did it in a future chapter