How Much Will It Cost You to Make Money?
By Gabriele Cramer Knebel

So many people are looking to supplement or even replace their incomes entirely these days. With the cost of everything going up all the time, what is left over for savings and investment is minimal or non-existent. Some people work so hard they never see their families and their quality of life is terrible, so they are looking to find a way to work from home and ditch their day job. But hold on.

Network marketing can be a great way to supplement an income and it's easy to jump at the first glittering opportunity that comes along, but if you have only a little money to invest, then caution is the key.

When you are approached by someone to join their opportunity, there are a lot of questions you should ask, and more importantly, you should be able to thoroughly understand the answer. Compensation plans can be mind-bogglingly incomprehensible, so this is one of the primary areas where you should ask questions. If the individual who is offering the opportunity does not give you an answer you can easily understand or worse cannot or does not explain properly, you should probably move on. Remember that person is going to make money from your efforts and you need to know just how much.

When you ask about start up costs, is the sponsor giving you the whole picture? You are going to have to invest more of your money on a lot of other things that may not have been mentioned:

Business cards
Domain name costs
Monthly website hosting fees
Extra cell phone costs
Advertising costs
Extra gasoline and wear and tear on your vehicle
Software purchases
Autoresponder/email services, such as Aweber, or MailChimp


Some of these costs are one time, but recurring monthly fees for hosting, email services, etc., can add up to quite a lot if you are already short of money, so sit down and figure out everything before you sign on the dotted line. Remember, to start making extra money every month all these costs have to be covered; being realistic, do you think you can do it? What is the time you are personally investing worth? Do you think that after a few months you will simply get fed up with shelling out for these things and give up?

Be aware that the majority of network marketers fail, so you must decide if you have the entrepreneurial spirit that will keep you going during the beginning and through hard times.

We cannot stress enough that you must thoroughly investigate each opportunity before you pass over your money. Hopefully you understand all the other things you must do to make a success of your network marketing business. It's a big step, so understand what you are committing to.

If a sponsor tells you that you will make lots of money fast, take that with a big pinch of salt. Unless you are the next Donald Trump and you didn't know it, it is very unlikely that you will get rich at all, but if you work hard at your chosen network marketing business there are ways you can do it, but be careful.

Do you have any horror stories about network marketing? What kinds of questions should someone new to network marketing ask before they commit? Please leave a comment and help someone who is not sure to understand better.

Gabriele Cramer-Knebel is the Founder/CEO of Network Marketing Made E-Z! and is an experienced network marketer helping new entrepreneurs to build a successful online business. You can find out more at http://networkmarketingmadeez.com

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