There is a lot of misinformation out there from all the network marketing “gurus” these days about attraction marketing, branding yourself online, credibility and leadership. Now before I go any further, don’t get me wrong, these things are extremely important if you are going to achieve success with your online network marketing business. However, there are other critical elements that cannot be dismissed if you are really going to get off the ground and thrive in this industry.

I will admit that the most important thing you can do to grow your network marketing business is to brand yourself and your personal real estate (your website) on the Internet. There’s no doubt that you need to establish yourself as a credible leader in order to attract prospects and customers to you. There are many different ways to go about this, and this blog usually discusses these methods several times a week. Without going into too much detail, you need to use search engine optimization techniques like article marketing and social bookmarking, along with blogging and other forms of online marketing, if you are truly going to position yourself as a network marketing top earner.

But there are two other crucial aspects to achieving network marketing business success that have been overlooked as of late by many network marketers because of what I feel is an over-emphasis on attraction marketing and self-branding online. These two factors are the team or upline you choose to be mentored by, and the company you choose to partner with.

Seems pretty obvious right? Of course your upline and your network marketing company are going to be vital components on your path to financial freedom. Yet, many home based business owners these days seem to think they are somewhat unimportant, or at least not as important as they once were.

I understand the logic to some extent. Yes, it is possible to build any legitimate network marketing company online. And yes, you can succeed in this industry no matter how much or how little training and guidance you receive from your upline. But to take these two things out of the equation completely is improper. Let’s start with your upline, or the team/system that you choose to join.

The right upline and a powerful system can be invaluable to your network marketing success, especially in the first 6 months of your business. A helpful upline can be a great source of product and compensation plan knowledge. They may hold meetings, either in person or virtual, that can fast forward your network marketing business success. They might keep you informed of corporate happenings and have access to other company information that you might otherwise not pick up. And perhaps most importantly, they may provide you with the training and/or system that is going to be a key to your income earning capabilities, especially in the early-going.

The importance of joining the right team of people and a powerful, sometimes automated system cannot be understated. You should really do your due diligence and study the background of a potential network marketing sponsor. Get to know them on a personal level as much as possible before you even join to see if you can trust this person and communicate with them freely after you’ve registered with the company. Find out if the system they use or that the company endorses is something you can see yourself having success with. Is it simple? Is it effective? Is it working for others? Is it duplicatable? These are questions that need to be answered before you partner with any network marketing upline, no matter which company you are considering.

Speaking of network marketing companies, that is the other critical factor you must consider along with finding the right upline/system and branding yourself. This one seems so obvious, yet many people rush through this decision because they are enamored with the idea of branding themselves to build any old company and working with a team or a system that will get them success. You can’t have one or two of these things in place and expect to succeed over the long haul. All three are important. So here’s what to look for in a network marketing company.

The very first thing to look for is if the company has been around longer than a couple years, the financial state it’s in, and the likelihood that it will be around 5,10, even 20 years from now. If there are any red flags in this area, it’s not even worth going any further with your research. Who wants to work to build a network marketing business with a company that could go out of business in the next few years, or worse yet, in the next few months?

Once you’ve found a legitimate, product-based network marketing company that is established and will be around long-term, then you need to study the compensation plan, the policies and procedures and any other corporate information you can get your hands on. If you aren’t confident with the compensation plan, or you feel uneasy about something you read in the policies and procedures, you may want to address these issues with your potential sponsor or the company itself. If you don’t get sufficient answers to these questions, then it’s probably time to move on to the next company to research.

Finally, we come to quite possibly the single most important aspect of this entire process: The products.

Let me first say that just about every network marketing company has above-average, high-quality products. That is not an exaggeration. Just about every network marketing company I’ve ever studied and discussed with other networkers has superior products to what you’d find in retail stores. That’s just a fact. This is especially true in the health and wellness industry, as several network marketing companies built around vitamins and supplements are noted for their products being of much higher quality than their counterparts in the non-MLM world.

So with that being said, how do pick one company’s products over another, if they are all generally pretty good? Well, two things come into play here. The price, and your personal likes and dislikes. First off, if the products are way overpriced, overvalued and cannot be retailed to outside consumers, then it’s probably not a company worth joining. If you can’t see yourself or the average person buying this product with no financial incentive to do so because of the opportunity or “program” they’re in, then it’s not a company worth partnering with. The product or products need to be able to stand alone as being valuable and worth buying to the average consumer even if you took the MLM business model out of the equation.

And you need to actually like the product. Makes sense, doesn’t it? If you are going to be consuming the product, giving it out to family and friends and selling it to outside consumers, you are going to have to really enjoy at least one of the products your company offers, or else you won’t be able to sell or recommend your product line with any conviction whatsoever. Even if your company functions as somewhat of a wholesale buying club, and you only plan on sponsoring distributors to make money, the opportunity to make money and your personal branding alone will not be able to sell the prospect on your company if the products aren’t good. The bottom line is that your company’s products do have to clearly be superior, they have to be somewhat fairly priced and you have to actually like them.

If you have all three of these major components in place: the right company, the right upline/system, and the ability to brand yourself online, then you are finally ready to make a move and start your network marketing business. Do not take shortcuts in this initial process, or it will come back to bite you later on, or even possibly not allow you to get off the ground at all.

And please don’t listen to the gurus who tell you it’s all about branding yourself and attraction marketing. Yes, it is important, maybe even the single most important thing you can do to build your network marketing business. But it’s not the only thing. Your company and your upline matter too. Imagine having a product or opportunity that was so enticing and so in demand that your own personal leadership qualifications didn’t even matter that much to a prospect. Is this type of scenario common? Of course not, but it is possible, and the reverse of this happens much more often. Imagine drawing a prospect in with your impressive attraction marketing techniques, only to turn them away when it comes time to talk about your system, company and products.

So in conclusion, make sure you’ve done your homework with all of these things and you will be ready to experience incredible online network marketing business success!