Lots of people are interested in home businesses to make a little extra cash, to help pay the monthly bills, or to create financial freedom and security. Either way, an internet business can help you.

There are a few good ones, but unfortunately, there are a lot of “scams” - so be sure to do your homework. Be sure to find a good one; don’t waste your time on the losers.

I used the following checklist to choose my internet marketing business - a comparable process should work for you as well.

1.  Legal?

Don’t get caught up in any scam; make sure the product and company are legal.  If you’re not sure, check with the Better Business Bureau.

2.  Popular Product?

Would you buy this product? Would your friends or family members?  You’ll need a large potential market.  Can you make money from the market? Is it big enough? Can it afford your product?

What we want is a large, hungry, market that will buy from us now; and buy additional products later as well.

3.  High Profits?

Is there enough profit to cover your selling costs?  Expenses will eat away at your profit margin - be sure to consider them.  After all, there will be a number of start-up and ongoing expenses to consider.

4.  Manageable Competition?

Is your price competitive?

Similarly, it is very difficult to make a sale if you can’t even get your potential customer’s attention.

5.  Generous Commissions?

Will your commission be so small that you’ll need an army in your downline before you can make a profit?  How realistic is that?

Is the proposed commission reasonable? Will you do most of the work, but receive little of the commission?

6.  Time Consuming?

I want to work less and enjoy the benefits more.  I want to remove myself from the success equation.

The best home businesses I’ve seen have systems and processes that will work for you 7×24x365 – whether you’re spending the day at the beach with your kids, laid up in the hospital, or sailing around the world.

7.  Qualified Prospects?

Targeted traffic will be the key to your success.  For “brick-and-mortar” stores, the key has always been “Location-Location-Location,” but for online businesses, the key is targeted traffic.

Will your up line help send you quality traffic?

8.  Sponsor Training?

Don’t try to re-invent the wheel, take lessons from the experts and seek out training.  Don’t try to muddle along on your own.

So, another key is to make sure that your sponsor provides adequate training.

9.  Free Technical Support?

All businesses today require computers somewhere along the way.  For online businesses, that computer will likely be yours.

For internet marketing businesses, a lot of the technical support will be needed up-front, getting your system set up before you can even start doing the business.  Technical support, or the lack thereof, can make a huge difference in your ability to get your business off the ground, keep it running, and become profitable.

10.  Follow-On Customer / Sales Support?

Regardless of the product you sell, there may be problems, returns, changes, upgrades, etc. involved.  Be sure that you have adequate back office support from your up line so that you can deal effectively with any problem that might come up with your customer’s use of the product(s) you’ve sold them.

Prefer businesses that also include customer and sales support.  I hate to make cold calls, so sales support from my upline is important to me.

Winners act; losers don’t.

Join the winners, use this checklist. The most critical step of all - Take action.

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