Multi Level Marketing (MLM) has been around for several decades now and while people do make money at it, it is worth noting that the vast majority of the people that get involved with MLM are not making any money with it. The statistics would show that those who make up the majority of the people in MLM programs work harder and lose more money than they could ever hope to make.

The idea behind MLM is that you get recruited, recruit people and then your downline recruits even more people. The big problem with that approach is that it becomes harder to recruit due to geography and market density issues with each layer down in the MLM pyramid. You can only have so many MLM reps in a geographic area or market before they outnumber the people needed to buy the products for them to make money, not to mention recruiting.

A much better way to get started with a home-based business are so-called affiliate programs and, while they are not new, they allow you to make a significant amount of money without the hassles of MLM's. You are not out selling anything or wasting your time recruiting people to build your downline. In MLM programs, you'll have a capital investment in subscription fees and products. Then there is all the time you'll have to spend making cold calls, hosting parties and all the other work that goes into building and maintaining your downline.

With the concept of affiliate programs, you look to see who has affiliate programs that support what your niche market is. You signup for their affiliate program, which is free and start promoting your product. There's no cold-calling, no face-to-face selling or huge investments you have to make. From that point on, you collect a check based on the terms of the contract. MLM programs never have been that easy to promote and they never will. They work very hard telling you how you can be one of the top people and if you get in early enough you can become one of the really rich ones. However, the odds are stacked against you ever being able to make any money.

This is not the case with affiliate programs as they do not have any downlines to maintain and there is no recruiting whatsoever. The amount of money you are able to make is dependent on the amount of traffic your site generates. Your job is to generate traffic to your website in order to pre-sell the products or services you're affiliated with.