When you first sign up to the game, Mafia Wars can seem a bit daunting. With so much to think about and so many players to compete against, it can seem like a long road to the top.

Where's the best place to start?

Well this article is designed to look at three very specific things which will help new players get their life of crime off on the right foot. If you follow these suggestions, you'll find yourself with a strong foundation on which to build your mafia career.

Build up your family
Your family is like your own private army and it determines how succesful you are more than anything else in the game. Therefore, make sure that your number target is always to ensure that your family is growing.

When you start up, it's incredibly important to make sure that you recruit people into your army as soon as possible. Otherwise, you'll find yourself constantly fighting an uphill battle.

Sign up to sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace and convince your friends to register with your family. Once you've been in touch with those people that you know directly, seek out Mafia Wars forums and blogs and exchange Mafia members with the people you meet on there.

One thing though - never spend your Godfather Points on recruiting more members to your family. It's not needed and it's not worth it. Your points are much better spent elsewhere.

Godfather points
It's hard to stress just how important Godfather points are in this game. They're the symbol of how succesful your business is and no other single item in the game is as powerful as a Godfather point.

For example, by using your points wisely, you will be able to take on families who are 50 or perhaps 100 levels higher than you, with a real chance of success. So use your Godfather points wisely.

The key thing to remember about Godfather points is that you should never spend hard cash to acquire them. So many players use Godfather points unwisely that they find themselves having to hand over personal data or their credit card details in order to acquire more.

That's just not necessary.

Instead, set up a free email address at somewhere like Hotmail or Gmail and assign it to your Mafia Wars account. Then fill out the surveys and take advantage of the special offers that you'll find within in the game and you should find that you're rewarded with more than enough Godfather points to grow your empire.

Play every day
Now I'm not suggesting that you need to sit in front of your computer all day, every day in order to be succesful at Mafia Wars because you don't.

You can still go out, see friends, go to the cinema ... do whatever you normally do.

All, I'm saying is that if you want to be really succesful at Mafia Wars, you really should try to commit to log in once a day for 10 or 15 minutes. That's all it takes.

Logging in on a daily basis means that you can use your resources much more efficiently. It also means that you can take advantage of many more special offers and survey which will result in you earning a much larger number of Godfather points, which is really going to benefit your business in the long term.

All three of the tips above are simple to employ and won't cost you anything. However, by committing to all three of them, you'll ensure that your Mafia Wars business is built on a solid foundation and as a result, you'll soon be blasting your way to the top of the leaderboards without having to pay any hard cash at all.

Think clearly, plan logically and play hard.

That's the way to make Godfather. Theshortstack