If you are searching for ways to earn an income using the 
internet, you must have already come across many programs with 
unbelievable claims of overnight income. This article outlines 
7 criteria that I use to evaluate any opportunity that presents 
itself before me.


* 1>  Is there a Product in Demand

      If you are thinking about a business o­n the internet,  
  there has to be a product that has a huge demand and that can  
  be sold o­n the internet. Many fly by night programs focus o­n  
  building a downline and recruiting other people without having  
  a solid product, there has to be a product that people can  
  use. If the company has a product that you cannot understand,  
  then stay away from such a company. Even if you have a product  
  in demand, it has to be sellable o­nline, For Example, if you  
  try to sell Pepsi or Coke o­n the internet no o­ne will buy it  
  o­nline, as they would prefer to buy such products in the  
  super market. What type of products are sold o­nly o­nline ?  
  Domain registration, Website hosting, email etc – these are  
  few examples of products that have a huge demand and that  
  can be sold o­nline.

* 2>  Is it a Stable Company

      A stable company means that the company promoting the  
  product has to be a debt free company in existence for a  
  period of many years. Avoid Here today gone tomorrow companies  
  that try to sell the concept “get in at the top to make huge  
  income”. Look for companies that have been growing for a long  
  time. Even better if you can find a stable company that has  
  been selling its products for many years without the help of  
  any affiliates, and has recently launched an affiliate  
  marketing program.

* 3>  Can it produce a good income for me

      How many sales will you need to make to produce a sizeable  
  income ? Is the effort that you put in to make a sale justified 
  by the compensation that you receive ? You should study the  
  compensation plan of the company and determine if it is worth  
  promoting their products.

* 4>  Is the product affordable

      The end customer who purchases the product should find  
  value for the price they are paying. It does not matter to the  
  customer how many levels of up line are being paid commissions. 
  The business opportunity should come second to the product  
  value. If the same product is available elsewhere for a  
  greatly reduced price, then it would be difficult selling  
  such a product.

* 5>  Can the product produce repeat sales

      A o­ne time sale will produce o­nly a o­ne time income.  
  Products that keep producing repeated income are preferred  
  to products that produce a o­ne time income. For example, if  
  you sell an ebook information product you will have a o­ne  
  time profit from each client, where as if you were to sell  
  monthly membership access to several ebooks that are updated  
  every month, then you have an income that will continue every  
  month as long as the member remains subscribed. Products like  
  domain registration, website hosting, email etc are excellent  
  sticky products that will produce residual income because the  
  value to the customer increases with time for the same cost.  
  For example, when a person has built their website they are  
  more likely to renew rather than loose their work, similarly  
  when a person has branded their domain name and given their  
  email address to their friends and associates, they will want  
  to pay the recurring fee to continue using their domain and  
  email.

* 6>  Do they have a strong backend marketing system

      The backend systems for the product you promote should be  
  able to present the product to your client, automatically  
  follow up o­n leads, provide live statistics so you can track  
  your prospects and customers and generate your sales report  
  any time you want. The latest trend in email marketing allows  
  you to enter the email ids of your friends into the prospecting 
  system and they automatically follow up with intelligently  
  personalized emails sent from your email id so the replies  
  can come to you. Intelligently personalized means that in  
  addition to including the names of the prospects in each  
  email, they have a system to track if the email is opened,  
  if a link is clicked etc and the next email uses this  
  information to send a different message for each follow-up.

* 7>  Will you feel comfortable promoting this product

      Given a product and a company that satisfies all the above 
  criteria, this is the most important criteria that you should  
  apply to determine if this company is right for you. For  
  Example, No matter how good the income, I would never feel  
  comfortable promoting a product like Viagra ! o­n the other  
  hand I would gladly promote a domain registration and hosting  
  business as it ads to my reputation as a tech savvy o­nline  
  entrepreneur.


Conclusion:

To summarize, you should look for an affordable, in-demand 
product that can produce repeat sales for a stable company with 
a good income potential and excellent backend systems. Just 
recently I came across o­ne such company that sells .ws domain 
names with email and website builder, it has o­nly just started 
its affiliate wing. They have spent over a quarter million 
dollars in making this 7 minute entertaining flash presentation 
at http://website.ws/wsbiz/show - I was impressed by their 
cutting edge technology.