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Personally, I can kind of see MLM things working for you if:
a) The upfront cost is low.
b) You're selling a product you give a damn about
c) You keep business and pleasure separate!
d) Never invest more than you can afford to lose.
My ex-wife badgered me into attending some amway meetings, and I saw a lot of people expecting to make a lot of money, but not a lot of people making a lot of money. Except for the 'regional director', or whatever. But think of how many chumps attend how many meetings and badger how many of their friends to trickle all that money up the chain to the people nearer the top!
My (current) wife tried Mary Kay, which she lots some money on (you don't *have* to buy from them up front, but it was strongly suggested that doing so was the only way to do it).
Then she tried Party Lite (candles), which worked out a little better - there was a much smaller up-front investment ($100?) that was pretty much paid for by the first party she did, and she made a couple of hundred more. She held the parties with most of her friends, but never got too many 'leads' from there, and it kind of trickled out. Maybe it would've worked out better if she were more willing to call pretty much total strangers and convince them to invite their friends to a 'party'.
Women also seem to have more of a hook on this sort of thing - I'm not sure what most guys would sell this way - power tools? Porn?
Wait...just...a...second...
Hrm, I think I need to go write up a business plan! :-)
Anyway, personally I got much less of a 'MLM', sign-people-up feel from partylite than the other two...and there was an actual focus on a product, unlike amway. With amway I always felt that the product was...amway. The other stuff was pretty much incidental. MK was a bit better, but there was still the up-front investment, and the 'sign people up' pressure.
Hrm. Hope that didn't sound like a product endorsement, just my impression of the three that I've had experience with.
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