It is midway through 2006 and we have an unprecedented number of people from around the globe on the internet attempting to build an online business and a successful one at that. More and more ,many of these people are discovering that the state-of-the-art tools provided them turn out to be very rusty,ineffective and out of date. To compound the situation,many "sponsors","uplines" and "directors" who were so abundantly available before money transacted seem to fall off the face of the earth in the aftermath.

So how does one go about seeking the utopian business model to either supplement or totally replace their current method of income? Well,one needs intelligent information to make an informed decision and to gather that requires a detailed analysis or as we like to call it in the industry,doing their "due diligence". However it is certainly valuable to know what you are looking for and for that purpose,I have prepared a series of criteria that will fit that mold.

These are the essential elements I look for when evaluating any offline/online business opportunity:

A program must be a one-time fee only. No monthly or recurring costs other than operational costs associated with marketing and advertising. Just no additional acquisition costs!

Commissions must exceed 60%.Internet transactions consist of intellectual and informational property. These should easily provide sufficient profit margins of this magnitude to a distributor otherwise,move on. These payments should also be made directly to the member and not the company as I've seen far too many monies go directly into the company's coffers forever remaining there leaving the sales force high and dry.

Each program must have one or more products in high demand that have an almost universal appeal to most of the general population.

The successful candidate of a program should be non-inventory intensive and should require no physical handling or forwarding of packages. Everything should be deliverable via the internet.

The ideal program must be available worldwide justifying the efforts of the internet marketer's time,energy and resources.

The program should have no sales targets or quotas required of its people.

The program will have the proper tools,resources,and knowledge to ensure the program can be marketed with such ease that an average 13-year old could execute it.

The ultimate program must have a business model that generates both active and residual income. Ideally,you can add passive.Let me clarify. Active income is generated by those who choose to be aggressive in their marketing efforts,passive is a method whereby those that choose not to be assertive in their efforts can still see significant gains and residual is a model that allows each member to make money off of each person who comes in under them. Remuneration if you will.

Saving the best for last. I have personally scrutinized thousands and have got my hands busy in several hundred of those opportunities easily spending over $150,000 in the process and I have to conclude-based on these experiences- that the paramount of opportunities consists of one undertaking NO selling,closing,prospecting,advertising,3-way calling and therefore NO rejection !

Unparalleled customer and technical support is a major plus to be considered.

There are very few opportunities that will pass this very stringent test. Even then they would still have to stand up to further testing in the cash flow and income sectors. That being said,you would still discover that many of them fall in the low end of the internet spectrum thus requiring that thousands of "units" be sold each month just to get by. These are not businesses but more of a pastime.Pastimes will not prove to be lucrative.

There is a business that does not require a significantly large start-up by most standards and affords one the ability to recoup their stake VERY quickly. It is a business whereby I have seen results unheard of in my previous forays into the marketing abyss. In fact, it is one held in such high regard that CNN in conjunction with The Discovery Channel recently selected it amongst hundreds of entries for their "Model of Excellence".

Its automation is cutting edge and all one does is plug-in with ready to go web portals and tools. You can advertise or choose not to selecting a few pathways where it is all done for you for a very nominal , reasonable fee. Where most every opportunity -good or bad-has been maligned by those who cannot think outside of conventional "wisdom" or whom never got their enterprise off the ground; I have seen this elite model even pass that rigorous test !

Many get qualified in their first two weeks and a vast percentage are realizing $10,000-$20,000 per month by month 3 and I personally know many who are attaining $100,000 + months in the same time frame.

For more insight keep an eye out for CNN and The Discovery Channel and for those who enjoy XM and Sirius satellite radio-keep an ear out !