Lets not kid ourselves: if you want to find a great life-changing income opportunity—I'm making the assumption that is why you're reading this article—you will need to do a LOT of work to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are quite a few legitimate home based businesses available that will allow you to achieve the same excellent results I have, but there are many more that are just smoke and mirrors, pyramid schemes or money games.

The bad news is that anything good will attract the bottom-feeders of the world who are looking to cash in by taking advantage of people who are fool enough to fall for their hype. “A fool and his money are soon parted,” and sadly, a LOT of people these days part with their hard-earned money by falling prey to unscrupulous Internet predators.

The good news is I'm here to help you avoid that fate. What I'm going to share with you are three of the 10 things to look for in a home based business opportunity if you want to find a good one, a legitimate one, one you will be proud of, one that will change your life for the better, forever. These are 10 “secrets” the bottom-feeders don't want you to know.

1. LOOK FOR legitimate, stand-alone products

Make sure that the products you will market are legitimate standalone products, products people would purchase without a business opportunity attached to it. Most MLM, network marketing and direct sales companies out there are built around the compensation plan and NOT standalone products. If what you are marketing is NOT a standalone product, then you will have a hard time building a stable business. Ask your potential sponsor the question “Does anyone buy these products just for the products and not to be part of the business?” That's not to say you can't have a viable business that way, but it takes more effort and has a lot lower success rate.

And please, do yourself and your sponsor a big favor and buy the product yourself. There are several reasons for this. If you aren't willing to purchase the product for yourself then this is a big clue that you also won't be able to make money marketing that product. So stay away from that business. If you don't own the product you can't really believe in it and you won't be successful marketing it. It's usually not required to purchase the product but the compensation plan always accounts for this. Review the compensation plan carefully and you will see it is always a bad financial decision not to purchase the product.

The bottom line is if the product has no value by itself, then the income opportunity is a money game. This will not result in a successful home business, at least not for very long. There are enough legitimate companies marketing legitimate products. Do your homework and your due diligence and you'll find them.

2. LOOK FOR a high income potential

Don't get involved in any opportunity that doesn't have at least a six figure income potential within the first 12 months. Business opportunities that offer lower income levels will take more time and effort than a part time job that would pay more. The odds are you will become discouraged and quit. The reward has to be worth the effort to give you the continued motivation necessary to build a successful home business.

Also, if you are not making between 30% (at the very least) to 50% (that is rare) of the cost of the product as a commission when you make a sale, forget it. This means that you are doing all the work but the company and/or the person above you is making all the money.

Lastly, if the compensation plan is such that you can't break even or get into profit with your first three sales, search elsewhere.

3. LOOK FOR a good compensation plan

Three things to look for:

a. Look for a compensation plan that is so easy to understand that it won't require that you fill five sheets of paper with circles and arrows when you try to explain to your prospect how he will get paid. It should be a KISS compensation plan: if the founders of the company are astute businesspeople, they've Kept It Simple & Short!

b. Look for a compensation plan that does not include words like matrix, binary, legs and / or left side-right side. Look too for a plan that does not require “X” number of points, or credits, or “X BVPs” to qualify for your paycheck. As the ex-president of an MLM company told me recently, those plans are designed so that most distributors won't qualify and the money will either roll up to the leaders (which explains why THEY make so much money) or it will not be paid to anyone, helping the company make astronomical profits.

Finally look for a comp plan where it doesn't take 1,000 people under you to make a decent monthly income. That makes it very hard, if not impossible, to build a successful home business.

(You can find out about the other seven things to look for—including a great sponsor, good training & support and a superb marketing system—by going to the website in the resource box below. You will find there many informative articles on how to choose a good income opportunity and how to build one into a successful work at home business.)

In conclusion, think of the Internet as the Wild West of the nineteenth century. Yes, there are a lot of snake oil merchants out there in cyberspace. That's an unfortunate fact of life. BUT there are also many good, solid, real business opportunities available. Do your due diligence and you will find a legitimate home based business that over time will allow you to earn a solid residual income from the comfort of your home, so you can finally live the lifestyle that you and your loved ones desire and deserve. It CAN be done; we (my wife and I) are a living proof of that.