Do many people on WF do multi-level marketing?

I personally do not know anyone that does MLM. In my own personally experience I find it unsustainable because the products aren't very good and having an active down line is a lit more work that I can really put into words. Internet marketing is just easier in my opinion.

agreed... try to avoid MLM personally... something about it doesnt ring right with me...

But i hear its a great OPPORTUNITY! LOLOL.

not knocking it tho, whatever works for you.

If I were to be involved with MLM, or if I know of anyone on the WF involved in such actity, hypothetically speaking - to be clear, there of course would be no confirmation nor denial as to any admission of guilt or association whatsoever.

Thanks for your replies.

I thought so, too. I did see it subtly referenced often enough, though not very boldly.

I don't do MLM. I did it once about 10 yrs. ago, didn't make a cent and that company went belly up. (I think there was even a court settlement or something.)

I don't think it's all trash, because I do see some people making money with that business model. It just happens (?) that there are many scammy, fly-by-night companies using the mlm business model.

This part, me thinks, is not so different than IM.

There are advantages to it, too. The thing is, most of us go into it looking for how it fits into our own vision of how a business ought to work, and MLM doesn't work unless you approach it in a radically different way. But if you approach it that way - and you're okay with developing the skills and habits that go along with having that kind of business - it can work very well indeed.

Warriors don't tend to want that kind of business, so it's just not really that appropriate for most of us. But it's not because the model is flawed or unethical or broken; it's just because the model doesn't work the way we want it to work.

That sounds like half the IM'ers in here. :p

Wow! It took barely 20 posts to collect:

I admit to having those!

bingo - not for any devious reason other than the tens of millions who have tried - and quit. however, the opposite is true too.

there are many 6-figure and 7-figure network pros lurking here (I know plenty), but they do NOT wear that biz model on their sleeve, for reasons quite obvious from this thread.

a decades-old dilemma - since the MLM "segment" (I hate calling it an industry) is over 50% wellness niche (nutrition, weight loss, personal care, etc), it struggles to find a balance between profit margins, product innovation, customer and distributor retention, and government regulation

check, check, and triple-check. IN PARTICULAR in North America, where the tiered comp model is nearly 70 years old, the undercurrent is one of mistrust, apprehension, pop culture about "that pathetic amway distributor", etc etc

A little food for thought:

This model has gone through four waves, and is on the verge of a fifth.

Wave One: The Belly-to-belly local recruiting paradigm. This actually remains the most practiced approached today. It was practically the ONLY way to do the business for 1/2 century (hence, it's resilience, even to this day - lots of people know how)

Wave Two: The advent of a. the personal computer and b. big iron (IBM mainframes) in the companies that facilitated the arrival of company-to-customer and company-to-distributor direct shipment (instead of that wonderful Amway product garage model of the 40's through 80's)

Wave Three: The 1990's saw the demise of the giant telecoms, the breakup of Ma Bell, and cheaper long distance, precipitating the rise of the telecom MLM, and the "phone burner" crowd who used MLM geneology lists to call 200 to 300 previous MLMers DAILY and built large NATIONWIDE organizations because of the new tech.

Wave Four: Beginning in the early to mid 2000-2010 decade, a small group of authors begin to publish a new approach - now largely dubbed "attraction marketing" in which the old "swoop a butterfly net over any unsuspecting 18+ year old who is breathing" model was traded in in favor of what one of them referred to as "Teaching Sells" (Ann Sieg - the Renegade Marketer) - ONLY achievable thanks to the ever-growing wide scale penetration of broadband Internet, which enabled social media marketing (first myspace, then later facebook, twitter, linkedin, and including older technologies such as this forum) and VIDEO marketing, which was a dream come true for the aspiring attraction marketer - suddenly, they literally had the equivalent of their own FREE television station. Toss in advanced attraction tactics familiar to the IM crowd such as professional autoresponders, article marketing, blogging, webinars, and....well, you get the picture - the few early adopters had the tools they needed to literally CRUSH everyone else who hadn't built a huge organization already. Today, these types are still setting records and honing their (mostly misunderstood) Wave 4 model.

What is Wave five? Here's a hint - a hybrid approach that includes IM, MLM, direct sales, affiliate marketing, digital product dev, personal branding and more, all tightly integrated into an evergreen traffic/lead generation approach that functions on near-complete autopilot (even the ordertaking/closing function is often outsourced)

Why monetize one's classic IM skills with this "icky" Bernie Madoff compensation approach? Short answer - LEVERAGE - virtually all the tech leverage still applies (bots, scripts, etc), talent leverage of a different stripe (all independent owners - no messy employees) - not really any different than building a massive affiliate team, except if done right, it can be FAR MORE LOYAL - many friends have simply moved their entire organization from one biz to the next, barely missing an income beat if the mlm goes poof. And finally, the icing on the cake: social media leverage - arguably the least understood of all 3.

One other concept: as far back as the 1970's, I remember BIG network marketers who admitted that they earned up to 2/3 of their income from teaching (books, tapes - in those days, seminars, speaking fees) and only 1/3 from their commission checks. That has NOT really changed - the ultra-successful are performing the classic IM info-product teaching function to make most of their money - and participating in the MLM or MLMs serves the function of providing the requisite info product social proof - a means to an end... oh, and if done properly, that yummy residual cash flow that has always been so elusive for most.

I think there is, more in reality than in theory, perhaps. Products sold with a multi-tier affiliate program (with/without forced continuity) have a genuine, retail end-user who isn't "only involved for the business opportunity".

Some MLM products do ... but many don't, in reality. And eventually, that can cause legal/regulatory problems. (Please note that I'm not for a moment suggesting that MLM in itself is intrinsically illegal - I know better than that!).

This is a simple, straightforward, factual question. Either it's registered and licensed (and regulated) as an MLM company, or it isn't. The company's Compliance Department will answer that clearly and unambiguously in half a second. (And if they can't, you have a real problem there!).

No; it isn't relevant.

An "MLM" is simply a network marketing company in which at least some of the commissions earned on sales of the company's products/services are divided between multiple levels - those are the four key words that differentiate, in the language of regulators and courts, between "network marketing companies" (broader category) and "MLM companies" (narrower category).

The two terms "network marketing" and "MLM" are NOT interchangeable, as so many of its lesser-informed participants mistakenly believe.

At least, that's the approximate legal definition in most places - Northern America, almost all of Europe, most of the far East, India, South Africa and Australasia, anyway.

MLM works...

...but not the way they say it does. It's based basically on people's need for to be part of something bigger, with a large dose of laziness and ignorance.

First of all, most of the math doesn't add up.

Secondly, the whole premise might work in a perfect world - in reality it doesn't.

If you are on top of the food chain, and you really understand business, marketing, and money - it will work for you.

On the other hand, if you follow what the MLM company tells you, you will fail, big time.

You're right. But if you expect to sell them, you have to be able to explain to your customer why he is paying 20 times as much for this product. And "I get a big fat commission" is not particularly convincing to most consumers. So you have to explain that this product is special.

And if you can't do that with a particular MLM company's product, that MLM sucks and you should work with a different one.

Excuse me while I beg to differ here. Picture a newbie (to the model, not to the Internet), who somehow manages to hook up with a guide that brings them up to speed FAST in the following arenas:

• high volume lead generation
• professional sales funnel design, construction, and testing
• automated viral growth of social media presence
• evergreen traffic tactics
• relentless and professional long-term online AND offline followup
• web asset farming, including radically complex linking strategies
• cloaked feeder site arrrays
• market samurai, xrumer, scrapebox, senukex, link exchgs et al
• total revenue-independence from success or failure of downline
• 100% commissionable digital product inventory - high-converting
• advanced personal branding and viral traffic facilitation team

Think that newb just MIGHT have a fighting chance?

Indeed ... it's based on selling services for higher prices than genuine retail customers are willing to pay.

It's completely see-through: anyone who looks elsewhere at prices can see at a glance that the prices are high because of all the layers of commissions being paid out of them.

Which means that the services sell mostly to people joining the business opportunity itself rather than to retail customers. Which, in turn, means that there's no attempt at all to comply with the "70% Rule" (US common law) for flagrant breaches of which so many MLM companies have been closed down by state courts over the last decade or so. :rolleyes:

Personally, I'd urge anyone planning to invest much of their future in this one take some really good and really up-to-date advice from a specialist MLM lawyer.