MLM's

With your internet marketing experience, you should be able to kill it with MLM.

I have to tell you, I have tried three different MLM and all of them have failed miserably for me. I worked one really hard. I spent a lot of money for SEO such as for Yahoo, and PRWeb and many services and directories. It just didn't help. I think that MLM is a really difficult arena.

All that I can say is to really do your homework with MLM's. Make a backup plan and don't get discouraged if it doesn't work out. And it might just work out great for you. So put your heart into it and good luck.

Mike

Here's the best advice I can give you... based on more
than 30 years experience in network marketing...

Use the internet as a tool for gathering qualified leads
but take those leads off line as soon as possible.

Building a long term stable income in network marketing
requires ongoing personal contact and support.

I've seen many fall into the trap of thinking they can build
and maintain an organization totally online. I've never seen
one succeed long term.

Tsnyder

MLM will always only work for the top recruiters. Why because you have to pay $50 a month and then recruit in about 5 new people just to break even. This is not the case with every MLM but you can clearly start to see why so many fail and only a few are successful. Honestly Work for yourself and earn 100% commissions instead of working for someone else and making 5% getting them rich.

Sean and Bryan...

I'm wondering how your posts are responsive to Dena's question?

Tsnyder

Simple... Get out of it and invest your money somewhere else. MLM's are set up for people to fail just pointing it out. However if you do have IM background then they simple things you can put into place is building that list around the MLM you are working with. Make a weekly newsletter, contest, updates etc to keep your downline active and sticking with the program.

I have been involved in MLM off and on for the past 10 years. I truly love the concept of network marketing, and truly believe it will be a god-send in the next 20 years during our economic crash. (sorry to be so pessimistic). I am currently developing an online downline support system. One thing that I would keep in mind is that you should build WIDE instead of deep. You will see lots of advice saying "Get 6 and teach them to do the same". Or something similar. My advice is... DO NOT do this. Build wide. There are so many people online who want things to be dropped into their lap. The upline will build for them, ect... By building wide, simply through attrition, you will keep the people will succeed with or without you, and will not need to be managed out the WAZOO. Do you really want to spend your life babysitting wanna-bee homebiz people?

Be available to your downline, absolutely. But do not manage them. So I would say in terms of IM for mlm, draw people of similar personalities and desires to you, resist offering them "i'll make things easy for you" offers, and don't be afraid to cut loose the people who seem to NEED the most help. Help those who DESERVE it, not need it.

I was in Isagenix for about 6 months a few years back. I had a great up line mentor who really worked hard and she made a ton of money. In fact, she was able to retire from being a school teacher just before I quit.

Her best tool was the way she looked. She was about 50 years old and looked like she was 25. She used that to promote her down lines. She also spent a lot of time out of the house, talking to people. She would sign up for all kinds of groups, and she would promote the product will a lot of enthusiasm.

Honestly, I allowed life to get in my way, and I quit after the 6 months. (Side note: that was the old me - I wonder what would happen if I joined an MLM now - hmmm).

I'm not so sure it will help. The point of an MLM is to gather people together, and teach them to train others. In my opinion, you will need face time with your down lines or they will quit.

You will need to train them how to train the people underneath them. You will need to work with them to keep them excited about what they are doing. Trying to get down line people for the sake of having a down line won't work.

Just my 2 cents.

Scott

The main thing is to realize most people are gonna quit
on you until you get the hang of cutting 'em loose before
they even get started - ie. tell them "I don't think you are
the kind of person I'm looking for."

You might check out Dani Johnson's training - a lot of free
stuff last time I looked. I've been to her seminars and they
are not bad at all. She stresses continuous professional
skill development in prospecting and closing sales.

If you find yourself recruiting a group of people who won't invest
in their own ongoing training your organization will be unstable
and fall apart. In other words - don't even let the thumb-suckers
on board.

I spent 9 years in MLM from 1995 to 2004. I was successful in the first few months and that success gave me false hope. I spent the next 9 years trying to duplicate my first few month's success.

I can tell you, I tried every marketing technique known to man and it did not work in the MLM arena. You can say I was with the wrong company, but the biggest problem I had was trying to get (i.e. help) people to duplicate what I had done in the first month. Everyone I sponsored had some kind of baggage and just could not get them to do anything.

Even though I think the MLM concept is valid in theory, in reality it just does not pan out for the average person. The problem is always that you are embolden to your downline, and if they are a bunch of idiots, your income is a result of that.

I earn more today from adsense every month then I did working my butt of in MLM for years on end. I was one of those people that would "never quit" and that haunts me to this day. I should have been working on internet marketing during all those years and my bank account would be much better off today.

I'm not discouraging those that want to do MLM, but just relating my personal experience. Be ready to give up years of your life and helping alot of people trying to make then money - and you still may have nothing to show for it in the end.

Hey Dena

I'm a full-time network marketer just learning about IM, after focusing mainly on offline marketing.

I think that your IM knowledge will give you a good advantage in a couple of ways:

1. Prospecting - getting your opportunity & or products out to as many people as possible, then letting them qualify themselves as being interested by taking an action (signing up for your autoresponder, leaving their details on your company site, etc). That way you're not wasting time on lots of people who have no interest in what you're doing.

2. Training - you could put together a series of autoresponders, videos or podcasts that take your new team members through the basics of getting started (if your company doesn't already provide this stuff), which stops you having to handle everyone's training with them

Just by using IM for those two things, you'll save yourself time talking to uninterested people and going over the same basic training issues again and again.

But IM can't ever replace the relationship factor in MLM, in my opinion. You'll still need to be accessible to your team.

As for giving face to face support to people internationally, we use Skype to connect with our team who are spread around the world. When a new team member joins, we get them to install Skype so we can call them using the webcam - they don't have to have a webcam themselves, but at least they can see us and see that we're 'real' people.

Just don't be tempted to use IM to completely replace the human element, because as great as technology is, I don't see that anything is as meaningful to a new team member as a personal phone call from someone who knows what's going on in their life.

Good luck

Katie

Hey Dena

You're welcome - like I say, the whole IM part of it is pretty new to us so we're just learning, trying, testing, improving. It's a fun journey we're on though.

Good luck

Katie

Dena,

You started a great thread ... and got a wide range of interesting replies!

My opinion is going to be more on the "pro" side of network marketing, but also going to be a bit realistic about it too.

I am someone that actually got into internet marketing in the past to help build my original network marketing business (waaaay back when :-)). Back then it was nothing more than message boards and emails (there were not even websites back then YIKES!)

But ... I can say that the internet is a GREAT tool to help build a network marketing company - but it is a TOOL to help you build it, NOT the end all and be all of the industry.

Internet is a way to use methods of "attraction marketing" to get people to find you, contact you, know you, like you, and get a feel for you. This is important since people join you in your business because of YOU. Yes the opportunity and the product may be great ... but they are really buying you.

So use the internet to help brand yourself and use the "power of attraction" in your marketing.

THAT ALL BEING SAID:

Is MLM / NWM easy ... even with the internet? Nope. It CAN be a tough row to hoe sometimes. And yes, many people DO fail in MLM. BUT THEN AGAIN MANY PEOPLE FAIL IN INTERNET MARKETING TOO!

MLM is a BUSINESS ... just like IM ... and you have to treat it like one. The more professionally you run your business, the more people you will "attract" that will do the same. Does it happen overnight? NOPE. But if you keep working at it, it can work.

ALSO ... as one of the "anti mlm" commenters on this message stated. "Why not just set up your own IM products and keep all the money". HE's right, you should always keep your Internet Marketing going ... even for NON MLM pursuits. Do them both ... I DO and it works. I have created multiple streams of income this way.

AND to that person that did say "just sell your own stuff". DO NOT FORGET the aspect of the prospects of downline growth in MLM where once you do build it and it takes on a momentum of its own ... YOU are not doing the selling any longer - the NETWORK is doing it. Kind of like selling a product with "multi levels of affiliates" :-)

Having a "residual" stream that is NOT an "internet marketing" product is a great idea for diversification. I have been down the road where some of my internet marketing systems got smacked due to google ... or amazon policies ... or ebay policies. And my business suffered. But having an "offline" marketing system with MLM (using internet to help communicate and build it) kept making me money while I rebuilt some of my internet income streams.

My story (short)

It took me 4 SOLID years of work to get a downline of several THOUSAND worldwide using the internet for my company - the downline generated income that allowed me to replace my "job" income to work at home full time.

It was a LOT of work ...
It was NOT always fun ...
It was sometimes a real pain in the butt ...
I suffered TREMENDOUS failure and rejection ...

But when I kept working my MLM as part of my "complete marketing program", it began working for me.

Hope this helps.

Stay strong - keep working and "break a leg" and keep us informed of how you are doing!

Your buddy in the business!