Look at a program and ask yourself some of these questions:

Is product something that I would be proud to sell or promote? If answer is no, then stay away.

Make sure that there is an actual service or product that you will be selling. If you are just going to get paid for every new member you recruit, then it may very well be an illegal pyramid or ponzi scheme.

Is there contact information easily available at site? Do they show their email addresses, street address, names of principals, company name, telephone number? Send them a question and see if you get an answer or an automatic reply.

If you have a address or telephone number go to www.yellowpages.com or www.whitepages.com and check them out. You can use telephone number and do a "reverse directory check" which checks telephone number and gives you an name and address if one is on file.

Check out web site's domain name at http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois Just enter domain name i.e., whatevername.com and you can determine who administrative contact, normally owner, where they are located and how long site has been registered.

Do they offer you a free promotional site for your use with your own personal referral code? If you have to pay your entry or membership fee and then find out you have to pay another $100 or so to get a promotional site and email advertising package, and that is only way they allow you to promote it, be leery. They are making their money up front. I don't believe that you should have to pay a company for basic promotional tools to promote their company. They can take expense off as a business expense if they are for real.

Of course you will still have to make an informed decision on your own after doing your research. But you may find enough information from any one of these resources or all of them to sway you one way or other. Just make an informed decision before you spend your hard earned money and resources.

Joe Reinbold, Publisher of Home Income Quarterly E-dition, a free weekly on line marketing newsletter. To subscribe just mailto:subscribe@homebizlink.com Or visit The Entrepreneur's Home Business Link where you will find the solutions to your home business needs at: http://www.homebizlink.com

By focusing on a single supplier, you will have more time to attend to enquiry, process orders, and arrange for delivery of goods to consumers. Your supplier will also recognize your commitment to his company and products by giving you a better deal and more co-operations than he would give to someone who represents many suppliers.

Get your supplier to ship products directly to consumers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operate your business without holding on to any inventory. You can get your supplier to ship directly to your customers after you have secured and received payments (ideally) for orders. There are many suppliers out there who are willing to drop-ship your orders anywhere around world. You can find them at following sites:

Wholesale Central - http://www.wholesalecentral.com Closeout Central - http://www.closeoutcentral.com Surplus-Closeout Finder - http://www.infomart.net/surplus/

Setting up a cost-effective shopping and billing system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, in order to sell products online, you must operate a shopping cart. It is an electronic platform, which allow users to browse through products; place selected products into a shopping cart; and make payments online through a secured server.

As a small business owner, you should outsource this aspect of operations to a third-party billing company to keep operating costs to a minimum. My preferred choice for this job is Verza. Besides offering one of most competitive rates in third-party billing industry, it also provides a wide range of services that will make your job easier.

+ You can use to sell single items or multiple products. + Accept checks and major credit cards online. + Free setup. System will be operational within 24 hours after submitting your application. + Anti-fraud screening provided free of charge. + Free tools provided to help you build your own online store. + Reseller program supported. Verza will track and process payment of commissions to your affiliates directly. + Payments made twice a month directly to your bank account.

Get more information at http://aloha-city.com/bizlink/verza.html

Your small discount outlet is now ready. There is no need to incur any fixed charges in inventory, shopping cart, secured server and merchant account. Let Verza and your supplier take care of operations while you focus your efforts on marketing, promotion and affiliate recruitment.

If done properly, you can expect shoppers to flock to your site regularly in search of best bargains, provided your target audience is interested in specific products that you are offering on sales.

You can afford to price them lower than other established discount stores as your cost of operations is relatively lower. It has potential to become a major money-spinner besides fulfilling its role to open up other lucrative business opportunities. Try it! You have nothing much to lose, but plenty to gain with this business venture.