One of the biggest decisions any budding affiliate marketer must make in their attempt to discover how to make money online via affiliate programs like Empower Network and Global Domains International is a decision which the majority of them are unprepared for.

Surrounding yourself with other like-minded individuals is a key factor in determining somebody's chances of success with an online business opportunity. Learning how to pick out a useful sponsor from a self appointed guru is a tough thing.

This is particularly important because the biggest challenge any affiliate business owner faces on the road to success comes from learning how to stand out from others in the same crowd. It involves learning how to be the first person potential clients see and making yourself the main source for information in your chosen niche. []

There are potentially thousands of other members in your chosen opportunity who all joined for the same reason as you. They joined to make money. If you are going to be the person these potential members go to for information then you need to learn how to stand out within your niche. Finding a proven sponsor plays a key role in doing this.

But what are the personal qualities within a great home business sponsor?

Well, if you search for your preferred home business opportunity right now you will likely encounter a few different kinds of sponsors within the first pages of results which pop up. A common tendency in the MLM world is to encounter many people who claim to have a secret formula to instant riches, or a system which will allow you to run your business on complete autopilot. Would these make good choices?

The truth is none of these would be a good choice.

Walking the walk and talking the talk are two entirely different things. Just like the offline world, you will meet countless people who claim to have the secret formula or the product which will explode your income. It's up to you, as the business owner, to be able to resist things which appear to be too good to be true.

The ideal sponsor in any home business is simply somebody who you are able to strike up a connection and build a relationship with. There are countless so-called Gurus who will try to sell you on hype, but the majority of entrepreneurs do not achieve success until they align themselves with a person who they feel they can trust. Your sponsor is not there to build your business for you, after all, so promises of automated systems should seem too good to be true, because that's exactly what they are!

In order to become your own boss you must accept responsibility for your own actions. If you are trying to find a sponsor who is going to do all of the work for you or provide you with some kind of 'hidden secret formula' then you are going to meet an endless line of people who are waiting to take advantage of you. Succeeding with a business such as Empower Network or Avon isn't rocket science, the majority of people simply make the wrong choices early on and then need to go back and start over at a later date. If you are keen to learn how to make money online for a living, then it certainly pays dividends to buy into the old theory that if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.