Network Marketing rightly managed, and treated as a mentoring business and not as a sales business, would make success the most possible outcome. Network marketing is not about instant or short term success. It is rather about hard work for a couple of years and residual income for many continous years after that point.

The following 5 pillars will make sure you are on the right track for starters. And do not try to scramble them. Research the pillars one by one, in the right order, or you might just be better of playing the lottery.

Pillar no. 1. Company management experience with integrity:

You got to make sure that the company management have a long experience with integrity. If they do not have this experience they probably don't know how to create a compensation-plan based on reality.

The policies and terms of use. Do never overlook this part. It is your contract. The longer list of terms the more overhead, the longer wish of protecting their rights to take money from you. It is their attorneys that have written your contract to protect their company. And if you can not find the terms. Look no further!

Look for on going demands of effort like: You have to sponsor 1 new lead each month or you will not get your commission. Many programs have built in a lot of this kind of rules to keep the money in the company.

Be attentive if it is a public traded company. They will always have the investors demands of higher profits, and will probably change the terms if the investors are not satisfied.

Do a Google search on the company and the owners of the company you are researching. Add the word 'scam' to your search. Check reliable websites like www.mlmwatchdog.com for warnings.

Pillar no. 2. Timing in the company and timing in the industry:

Never join a startup company. 99% of them won't make it 2 years. Do not be a guinea pig. They will have too many growing pains and they probably do not even for-fill the pillar no. 1 in many cases. Wait at least 2 years. The top income earners joins after a company is 2 years old.

You also got to pick a company/branch with the right timing and potentials of lasting for many years to come. You have to ask yourself, if the demand of their products remain? Will they be able to retain a consistency of their product pricing, and not ending up in a over saturated market.

Pillar no. 3. A product that is remarkable:

The company must be focusing on retailing the product and not on the recruiting.

Ask yourself if you would buy this product (retail-price) if it was not a money opportunity connected to it? If your answer is no. Just drop further action with this company.

Simple reason no 1:

If the company is about recruiting it is illegal.

Simple reason no 2:

A Company with focus on retailing their products, will make your residual income last.

The company must be focusing on retailing the product and not on the recruiting. You should aim at the proportions of 1 distributor to 9 users/customers. That will build your future income!

Do your research. Is the retail prices competitive in comparison to similar products in the market. If it is not, your future users won't have an insentive to buy your product. Remember that they are only using the product and are not in for the opportunity (which they not are supposed to be). Your residual income is totaly hung up on this reality.

Pillar no. 4. A compensation-plan that pays part time people:

95% of your team will consist of part time workers. There will of course be a problem if a part time working person doesn't get compensated/payed fairly. He or she would then obviously feel forced to quit. You will have to do your math. Learn to understand how their compensation-plan works. How many people do you have to have in your group to achiev $10.000/month? Is it 5500, 300, 2000 representatives? Why would you want to work that much harder for the same income?

You will have to figure out if they compensate the distributers fairly and encourage retail. What do you think happens if you stop recruiting? Your income will drop tremendously. If you have had the proportion of 1 distributor to 9 users/customers, it is the users that will be your residual income. Therefore the compensation plan have to create a behavior of selling the product, not recruiting.

Pillar no. 5. System to success:

People are not duplicatable. Systems are!

A list of all your friends and family members are not a system. Thats your upline wanting to turn you into that pushy sales guy almost everyone disapprove of.

If you have failed in network marketing before it is probably not your fault. You do not have to change to be successful in this business. You just had not got these 5 pillars. And you probably didn't have this last one either. A real system. A duplicatable network system with a live mentoring environment. It is essential to have this kind of system that will help people through their learning curve. Without it, you will probably not stand a chance to reach duplication and success in your network marketing business.

Now you have the 5 essential corner stones of knowledge to make this business work. Good luck with your future success in network marketing.