Several streams of income have been around for years. It is the technique that many successful internet marketers have used for years. The problem is that many internet marketers have twisted this around to favor them ripping you off and justifying it to themselves so they can sleep at night. Let me explain.

Many multiple income stream marketers market products. Weather it be a new software program, affiliate program or training tool. Meaning, if they knew how to produce incomes selling one product, why not duplicate those efforts and sell many products.

Now a days, we have so many fools running wild out there who are taking this concept of multiple income streams to multiple ways to rip you off. I call them program jumpers. On the surface, they seem like experts. They will tell you everything you want to hear. You might even want to work with these people as they are so smooth in their approach to rip you off. Heck, you might even end up liking them. They might even back up their story by holding training calls, giving away free marketing tools such as lead capture pages and auto responder messages. They may call themselves trainers or master affiliates or master distributors. Be Careful out there and use common sense.

Do you know who Jeff Foxworthly is? He is comedian famous for the joke…"You know you’re a redneck, if….." He also hosts the very popular TV show called "Are you smarter than a 5^th grader". Ok, I call this test the Jeff Foxworthy test and it goes like this. You know you’re a program jumper and rip off artist if…..

If they have joined and promoted 3, 4 or more internet programs in one year.

If they tell you things like, Get in early, It’s brand new or "My Favorite Rip off Line" It’s in pre launch and is going to be the biggest thing since sliced bread.

They tell you, I am so big on the internet, that companies look for me to help them launch their company.

If they have a portfolio of more than 3-4 programs for you to choose from.

If some of those programs are very similar.

If they tell you things like I am only passing on the information, because if it is hot and new, I am going to be the first to hear about and help get the word out.

These are classic lines these rip off artists use, so be careful out there and use common sense. There is a company out there that has multiple streams of income built into one company. They have a stable track record of solid growth and is run by two of the most respected internet marketers on the net, who mastered multiple streams of income. I am not here to try to sell you on something, but I do wish to let you know about EDC Gold and I invite you to use your common sense and check them out knowing what you know now.

Why not, I ask? They seem like great companies and their comp plan looks good too. They have big corporate offices and have been around for years. Isn’t that good? Any company out there that sells products like lotions, potions, pills, miracle juices or miracle gas saving products usually doesn’t work for the average person for many reasons.

Those companies usually make most of their money from you, the distributor, not from selling the products. They have you on auto ship, so you are their income.

They only pay about 2% to 15% so many levels deep. They will tell you that when you fill the matrix, you won’t have to do anything and you’ll be making 20 to 40k a month. The truth is, there are so many loop holes to their comp plans that no body ever reaches those levels. You either will have too many people on your left, but not enough on your right side to make the higher level payouts. They tell you that you need more personal volume and more group volume is fine or vice versa, or my favorite, you had fallout this month, so you no longer qualify for that car bonus we promised you about.

They make you hold home parties to push your crap on your friends. Listen to me…..If I wanted weight loss, I’d go to GNC. If I wanted Lotions, I’d go to CVS, Save on, Nordstrom or Bullocks. If I wanted to put additives in my gas tank, I’d go to Kragen, Chief or Pep Boys and buy a product from STP or Penzoil. You get what I mean….?

They are a copy cat company of the original company. How many companies out there are selling a juice that is based from the Acai Berry, Goji berry or the Mangosteen fruit? How many of those promise to cure cancer? What a joke? Is our society that ignorant that if something actually cured cancer, wouldn’t we want to check it out? How many travel companies are there now? How many fuel additives are there now? How many of those have been shut down? How many make up, skin lotions and vitamin companies are there out there?

It just seems like there is so many junk companies on the internet, how do you what is good and what is not? Some of these companies above actually have a good product, but I would never go in business with them. These types of companies just won’t give you a chance to make real money. They will tell you differently, so use your brain and some common sense and you’ll evaluate them better.

When I evaluate a company, I look for these key points. Keep in mind, when I join a company, my #1 goal is to make money and to do it legitimately. I do not want to hurt anyone or rip anyone off. This is what I’ve learned and these guidelines will help you determine what company is right for you.

If you are not making at least 75% of the upfront commission when you make a sale, forget it. This means that you are doing all the work and the company and/or the person above you is making all the money.

If you have to have 1000, 10,000 or 20,000 people in your organization before you make any real money. DO NOT Join. Most people will NEVER get there.

If they teach you to hold home parties and invite all your friends. Run away fast.

If they have a sales pitch 2-3 times a day and only 2-3 training classes per week. This means that the company is more interested in selling you than training you how to make money long term

If you can’t break even or get into profit with 3 sales, forget it.

If you can’t speak with the owners or the corporate office via phone or webinar, Forget it. I like to know who I am doing business with before I will do business with them.

If it is a start up or in pre launch, forget. The chances of these companies becoming the next Amway is about as good as winning the lottery. At least with the lottery, you have a chance to win once or twice a week. You might as well go to Vegas and blow your money on a good time. At least you’ll have some great memories, see a great show and have a great meal.

These are not all the rules for success on the internet, but this is a great guideline to follow when evaluating an internet company. Use these guidelines to help you narrow down your choices for choosing a company that best fits yours goals.

Pre launch or it’s brand new is one of the oldest tricks in the book. I know because I have fallen for it so many times. My very first program was a program that promoted multiple income streams. After trying about 4 different programs my first year on the internet and having some success, but never the huge numbers I read about. I started looking for the big score, so I joined every program that was in pre launch or that just started. I thought to myself, if I could just get in early, then maybe I would be one of the people that you read about. All I learned is that most people jump into a program with no intent of staying for any length of time. They ride the wave for 2-3 months and move on to the next pre launch program.

If you are a loyal person and your sponsor gives you a good reason or excuse, "I call it a sales pitch" on why they are leaving and going to this new and improved company, you probably will feel bad if you do not follow your sponsor and you will feel like you let your sponsor down. They make you feel obligated to jump ship with your sponsor AND THEY MIGHT EVEN MAKE YOU FEEL STUPID IF YOU DON’T. So you follow them. I have done this too, but after doing this 2-3 times, you realize that your sponsor will continue to do this to you every 2-3 months, leaving broke and broken hearted.

The best sponsors are loyal sponsors. They stay in a program and work the program. This is the only way to make real money long term. If you are trying to make a name for yourself on the internet, you must have long term success. The only way to have long term success is to commit to a company and work that company long term. Just ask internet trainer "Dani Johnson" She’ll warn you of these people too. This is not a plug for her, but in my opinion, Dani Johnson is the best internet marketing trainer on the planet.

Think about it….If you are an employer, would you ever hire a person that has had 3-4 jobs in a 12 month period. Unless it was seasonal work, their resume’ would be thrown away and laughed at. So, if your sponsors resume’ looks like a high school seasonal employee, run as fast as you can.

This is a huge topic and is one that you must completely understand. Otherwise, you will get ripped off and lose a lot of money. Let me explain what multiple streams of income are and what they are not. Multiple streams of Income are a concept that many millionaires use to have many revenue avenues. Michael Corcoran, who was the founder of the first multiple income stream marketing system on the internet in 2001, would agree with this concept.

When Mike Corcoran created the first Multiple income stream marketing system, he never imagined how so many people would take advantage of this concept and use it against you to rip you off. Before I get into detail about the ways that these so called "internet Guru’s" are taking advantage of you, I’ll get into the way it was intended to be used.

Multiple income streams was intended for a person to start a business with one company, affiliate program, MLM or direct sales company. It was intended for a person to master one program, have success with it for a minimum of one to two years and then add another business to the portfolio when, and only when, the first business was running on autopilot. While still running the first business, putting little time into it because it was running so well, focus a little more time and money into the second business to get that one up to speed where it was duplicating the results of the first business. This is how you can double your results. Like, I said, it usually would take a year or two to get a business and multiple incomes up to the level where they were running on autopilot.

If you have spent many years developing the above strategy, it is alright to add a third or a fourth business to the portfolio as long as you maintained the original businesses. Adding more than one business to your portfolio in less than a year just proves that person is not focused and says a lot about their character. Having a total of more than 3-4 businesses in a portfolio just means that a person is simply a program jumper and is out to take your money.

Program jumping is becoming more and more popular these days from these so called "internet guru’s". This is a typical case in which someone is a program jumper. Watch out for these people. If someone has joined three programs in 6 months time, they are a program jumper. Program jumping makes sense for the leader of jump. They usually say things like "Bran New" or "Get in Early" or "This one is so much better". The truth is, they take all the followers from program to program to program. They make excuses of why they left to old program to find another one. The truth is, they have suckered all the people they can sucker into the first program and their income is suffering, so they say they’ve found a better mouse trap over here, so come and join me over here and you’ll make a ton of money with me over here….I know people who have joined 5 programs in 7 months. Anytime a new program came on the market, they were in it, suckered all the people they could into it until the next new program came about.

I know several people, who on the outside look great, but jump ship every two months. They put together training packages, marketing tools such as capture pages and auto responders, professionally written letters, etc. They look like a leader until you pay them $1000 for program A, then another $1000 for program B, the $1500 for program C and so on. Pretty soon, they are rich, you broke and left to fend for yourself.

Use your common sense out there. Do your homework before you join anything with anybody. The first question should be, What else do you promote? What have you tried. How many have you tried this year? Last year? If they do NOT have a stable track record, run for the hills. Think about it. If you were an employer and wanted to hire an employee and you get an applicant that has had four jobs this year alone, would you hire them? NO Way! You know that by the time you trained them, they would leave looking for more money! Isn’t that right?

My suggestion, use your common sense and beware of the so called "Internet Guru". They disguise themselves as an expert, but they are really just program jumpers.

For some people, this is the way to go. I have met a few people over the years that swear by it. I know a few people who make over $100k a year working their multi level marketing program. The unfortunate part about it is that they were the only one making money. No one on their team was duplicating the efforts they were doing. Weather they were selling vitamins, travel, a gas saver product, lotions, potions, pills, candles or juice beverage products, I have tried it all and it was a difficult task for me. Once I ran out of my friends and family to bug about my new business, once I had two or three home parties, I ran out of leads, so I started buying leads in hopes to try to convert some people into my business. That is so much harder than it sounds. Sure I made sales, but by the time I was getting to the next profit level, the people who I brought in 2-3 months ago were dropping like flies. This is why I could never make it to the next big payout level of the commission plan. For some reason, I would always fall short of the next bonus payout or car bonus. Usually, I would fall short of personal volume or group volume or I would have enough on my left side, but not enough on my right side, so I would miss out on the big payouts, month after month.

This got to be the same old stuff you hear about why MLM doesn’t work for most people and the only people making money were the people at the top of the pyramid. People with huge dowlines and people that have been in the business a long time and lists of hundreds of thousands of people to market to. For any newbie joining, good luck. I once watched a stay at home mom put $13,000 into a business to quit within a year. Most of us are smarter than that and would have quit after a few months and maybe only lost $1000 down the drain, but this person was persistent and did not want to fail. So she kept plugging away until they had no money left and when gas prices went to $3.50, the father of the family couldn’t afford to put gas in the car. So much for helping out.

The only thing we have found on the internet to work for most people is a direct sales company that pays you 100% of the sale. Companies that have a price point of less than $1000 to start. This is the only way you have a chance to succeed. Beware of the $1500 to $5000 programs, the start up company and program jumpers. The truth about start ups is that they have no track record. You have no idea if they will be in business two years later. Watch out for people who jump ship every time a new program comes out on the internet. Most importantly, be careful of the program that costs more than $1000.00. They are hard to sell, no matter how good it sounds.

I hope this helps your research in determining a company that you can be proud to represent.

What is a scam artist? I thought long and hard before writing this article as not to offend anyone. Nobody would ever be complimented by being called a scam artist. A scam artist is one who takes your money for product or service and never delivers anything to you. They run off with your money to never be heard of or found again. I have found very few people in the world who are scam artists like that.

It has been my experience that there are similar traits in a lot people on the internet and I’ll let you be the judge weather or not you call these people scam artists. I usually find that program jumpers have similar traits and characteristics to the scam artists or maybe more resembling a swarm of Locusts. These people are usually people who jump ship to every new program out there on the internet. If a new program comes out, they jump in it, take all you suckers out there with them until they have sucked you dry and then move on to the next program.

Here is an article I found at http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574486/Locust_(insect).html Let’s see if this resembles any of the so called "Internet Guru’s". Locust (insect), common name applied to a number of jumping insects and especially to the true locusts, which are migratory grasshoppers (see Grasshopper). The true locusts cause great damage to crops wherever they swarm. Control measures include the spreading of poison bait and the plowing under of locust eggs. Infestations threatening large regions of the United States are combated with insecticides sprayed by planes and truck-mounted mist blowers provided by joint federal-state programs.

Aside from the true locusts, the periodical cicada (see Cicada) is another important insect to which the name locust is applied. Grouse, or pygmy, locusts are small, jumping insects that are of little economic importance. Most species are dark brown and are less than 2.5 cm (less than 1 in) in length.

Now, does this sound familiar out there on the internet? I would love to warn you about these people by name, but would never do that. I will however, give you things to watch out for and let you be the judge.

If a person has joined 3 or more programs in one year, they are probably program jumpers, which as we see above, have similar traits to the locusts and do more harm than good. These people are simply out to take your money. No wonder they are making so much money. They have perfected the locust style of business.

Beware of the Fluff. They seem like great companies, they have a good sales pitch and their comp plan looks good too. They have big corporate offices and have been around for years. Isn’t that good? Any company out there that sells products like lotions, potions, pills, miracle juices or miracle gas saving products usually doesn’t work for the average person for many reasons.

Those companies usually make most of their money from you, the distributor, not from selling the products. They have you on auto ship, so you are their income.

They only pay about 2% to 15% so many levels deep. They will tell you that when you fill the matrix, you won’t have to do anything and you’ll be making 20 to 40k a month. The truth is, there are so many loop holes to their comp plans that no body ever reaches those levels. You either will have too many people on your left, but not enough on your right side to make the higher level payouts. They tell you that you need more personal volume and your group volume is fine or vice versa, or my favorite, you had fallout this month, so you no longer qualify for that car bonus we promised you about.

They make you hold home parties to push your crap on your friends. Listen to me…..If I wanted weight loss, I’d go to GNC. If I wanted Lotions, I’d go to CVS, Save on, Nordstrom or Bullocks. If I wanted to put additives in my gas tank, I’d go to Kragen, Chief or Pep Boys and buy a product from STP or Penzoil. You get what I mean….?

They are a copy cat company of the original company. How many companies out there are selling a juice that is based from the Acai Berry, Goji berry or the Mangosteen fruit? How many of those promise to cure cancer? What a joke? Is our society that ignorant that if something actually cured cancer, wouldn’t we want to check it out? How many travel companies are there now? How many fuel additives are there now? How many of those have been shut down? How many make up, skin lotions and vitamin companies are there out there?

It just seems like there is so many junk companies on the internet, how do you what is good and what is not? Some of these companies above actually have a good product, but I would never go in business with them.

So, how do I choose a  business that I can profit from and that I can be proud to represent?

When I evaluate a company, I look for these key points. Keep in mind, when I join a company, my #1 goal is to make money and to do it legitimately. I do not want to hurt anyone or rip anyone off. This is what I’ve learned and these guidelines will help you determine what company is right for you.

If you are not making at least 75% of the upfront commission when you make a sale, forget it. This means that you are doing all the work and the company and/or the person above you is making all the money.

If you have to have 1000, 10,000 or 20,000 people in your organization before you make any real money. DO NOT Join. Most people will NEVER get there.

If they teach you to hold home parties and invite all your friends. Run away fast.

If they have a sales pitch 2-3 times a day and only 2-3 training classes per week. This means that the company is more interested in selling you than training you how to make money long term

If you can’t break even or get into profit with 3 sales, forget it.

If you can’t speak with the owners or the corporate office via phone or webinar, Forget it. I like to know who I am doing business with before I will do business with them.

If it is a start up or in pre launch, forget. The chances of these companies becoming the next Amway is about as good as winning the lottery. At least with the lottery, you have a chance to win once or twice a week. You might as well go to Vegas and blow your money on a good time. At least you’ll have some great memories, see a great show and have a great meal.

These are not all the rules for success on the internet, but this is a great guideline to follow when evaluating an internet company.