If you want to make money from home, it is best that you choose one of the following 3 home-based business models.

They are the 3 primary and most popular methods to make money online for a good reason: they work.

There are no shortage of opportunities out there these days, but you will increase your chances of success if you stick with and learn how to do one, or more, of these 3 home business models:

1. Affiliate Marketing

This is perhaps the easiest way to start making money online. Affiliate marketing simply involves being paid a commission when you send someone a customer.

The beauty of this is there is literally no start up cost. Most affiliate programs are free to join. You do not have to create a product because you are marketing the products and/or services of another company.

This also means that you do not have to worry about product inventory, shipping, customer service, and so on.

There are countless affiliate programs to choose from. For every area of interest, hobby, or information that people are searching for online, there are associated affiliate programs that you can earn commissions from.

A good way to start is to think of what interests you, what you use the internet for, and find products or services that are related to this and have an affiliate program and begin marketing. Many people have made a lot of money this way.

2. Traditional MLM and Network Marketing

MLM and network marketing is a 60 year-old business model that is still very popular today. Many of the top nutritional and service oriented products today are sold by independent distributors that earn a commission every time they sell a product.

The main difference between network marketing and affiliate marketing is that you can recruit other independent distributors (also known as a downline) and earn a percentage of their sales and the sales of people that they recruit. This is very similar to the real estate industry where brokers can earn override commissions on their agents.

Another advantage with network marketing compared to affiliate marketing is that you can be paid on multiple levels instead of just one. Many network marketing companies use a monthly auto-ship system that creates automatic sales to repeat each month, which in turn produces residual income which can continue to come in for months or years for the work you do once.

3. Direct Sales

In network marketing, the main focus is on building an organization of distributors and earning ongoing residual commissions on their monthly product purchases. The logic behind this is simple; the majority of people can afford to buy $50 - $150 per month of product.

But there are other options that exist in the home business industry that tend to focus on a big, one-time up-front commission, instead of smaller commissions that may you wait months or years to receive.

The products in the direct sales industry can range anywhere from travel to wealth education and marketing seminars, and many of them have a price range from $1,000 - $15,000. The commissions vary from 25 percent to 75 percent or more. This can allow someone to generate cash flow quickly to cover advertising expenses and other operating costs. Some of these opportunities also use a '1-Up' or '2-Up' compensation plan whereby you pass up training sales to your sponsor.

There is a little-known breakthrough business model that's starting to pick up momentum that's easily 25 times the power of MLM and network marketing.

But the best part is, this little-known business model was designed from the start for people who don't like to sell. And if you do decide to refer others, there are some really great benefits for that too, but it's completely optional.

This business model is known as cooperative marketing and you can find out more about it below.