Beginner's Guide to Network Marketing (MLM)

Network Marketing, also called MLM (multi-level marketing) can be very profitable, but don't be fooled by claims that it is easy to earn money with little effort. Read this short guide to network marketing / MLM and decide if this is the business for you.

Network Marketing, also called MLM (multi-level marketing) can be very profitable. Many companies operate in this way, for example Amway, Kleeneze and the Body Shop.

The main requirement for this business is to be good at selling. Don't despair if you're a shy wallflower as selling is a skill that can be learned, and in most network marketing companies you should be provided with plenty of training materials and help.

When you join a network marketing company there are two ways of earning money. Firstly, by selling the company's products to the customer, you would then receive a percentage of the products you sell. Secondly you can also recruit other sales agents, while continuing to sell the products yourself. You would then receive commission for every sale your agents make also.

Although this is a profitable way to earn money, don't be fooled by claims that it is easy to earn money with little effort.

It can be possible to get into a position whereby you build a large network of sellers, who provide you with an income with their efforts, but you have to put in the work and it doesn't happen overnight.

If you are good at selling and are prepared to put in the work then this could be a very good way of making money.

There are a wide range of products available to make money. Choose a company whose products you like and perhaps would buy yourself, as this will make it much easier to sell.

Also make sure there are not too many agents for the company in the area you would like to work. This would make it difficult to sell a reasonable amount.

Try to find a proactive, experienced and helpful agent when deciding on which company to join. They will be the ones providing you with the most training and advice. Some agents provide regular training sessions and online forums to help and encourage each other.

Request information from several people or companies before making a decision.

You don't need any qualifications to join. You will be trained by the company you join to sell the product you choose.

Once you have chosen the company you wish to sell for, you will need to purchase their basic kit - this can be as little as a short training guide and some catalogues, to a package of products, stationery, catalogues and training materials. You should not be required to buy the products yourself to sell on. It is common however, to be expected to pay for some samples of the products at up to £100 ($200).

It is then up to you to make contacts to sell the products. You can sell through friends and their friends, work colleagues, special events, schools (check first), holding a party, or anywhere you can leave a catalogue in their business or office.

To work in network marketing you will need energy and resilience and a tough skin to cope with the many rejections!

At the start you may only be making a small amount, but successful people with a big network can make £100,000 ($200,000).

However this is not common and the average earnings are around £5,000 ($10,000) a year.

Pros

If you are comfortable with selling and have or can make contacts you could persuade to sell to, you can make good money.

Good way of meeting people.

Flexible working hours.

Help, training and encouragement from your upline (the person that you joined the networking company through)

Ready-made business

Cons

Lot of time and effort required.

Could lose friends if you try too hard to sell products to them or try to make them become agents too.

Start up costs (although usually relatively low - less that £100 or $200)

Must be good at selling, or be willing to learn how to sell.

Are You An MLM Casualty?

Do you know anyone that you can think of that decided to build an mlm business, was excited, motivated and tried to convince you to join? Do you know anyone that was once in ONE mlm, and then another or changed 3 or 4 times?

Think of family and friends. Do you know of anyone that was once in the father of all MLM's Amway? Did they succeed? Are they still doing that today?
MLM horror stories and casualties are all over. Many start but few finish. Why is that?
Well I heard someone say something just yesterday that made sense.

"If you want to quit, ANY excuse is good enough".

In our industry, there will always be challenges and mountains to climb. How many people do you think make mega bucks running top companies in America that just got their with no effort?
You read about people in our industry making millions. Do you think they just fell there with no challenges or trials and errors? NOPE they struggled, they worked their tails off and they were the survivors.

Building an empire takes time, effort and much challenge. No one just happens to fall there. Everyone has challenges, some more than others but there are millions of mlm horror stories. There are also plenty of success stores about there as well. The difference between the successes and the failures is the successful people never quit, they get knocked down and they get back up. Many times over and over.

The successful person NEVER considers quitting or giving up. IF you want to quit, ANY excuse is good enough. Sometimes things happen and you may get upset or mad. That happens to all, the difference is the successful person faces challenges head on and sees them on blips in the radar.

It takes determination to succeed. It takes tenacity and perseverance. It is NOT easy but it is worth it. EVERYONE HAS A CHOICE to succeed or fail. Sometimes there is ONE challenge difference between a winner or a loser but a winner NEVER quits. When I started in this industry 10 years ago, I VOWED to be a success, and quitting was NEVER an option I allowed myself. I've had my share of ups and downs, and sometimes it seemed more downs than ups.

I was knocked down, stomped on used and abused but I was also too tough to stay down. I got up swinging more times than you can count. I never gave up on my dream of financial independence and making a difference. When I was hit with roadblocks, I just went around, over or thru. I started over many times, but I never gave up. Today I have several solid incomes and I'm glad I didn't become an mlm casualty.

It makes me sad to see people that let the small things blow them out of the water. It makes me sad to see so many people with so much more talent than me, become so focused on all the negatives that they can't see the forest for the trees. It's sad, but that's life.

Everyone had a choice to be an mlm casualty or a success, just by sticking it out, learning from the road blocks, and the tough times and being around to see things thru.
Hope to see all of you at the top one day.

10 Social Power Linking Tactics To Increase MLM Blog Traffic

The popularity and ranking of your blog is directly correlated to the number of sites linking to it. In-bound links to your blog tell the search engines what they will find when visiting your site. This article discusses ten Web 2.0 social power linking tactics that will help you significantly increase traffic to your MLM blog.

Web 2 marketing tactics can easily create serious MLM blog traffic. This could be anything from a few hundred visitors to several thousand visitors. You must update your blog content consistently to generate repeat visitors.

Use social bookmarking sites by setting up bookmarks and submitting stories and articles. Do not spam.

The real impact of social power linking comes when you build a bigger asset base by having our content show up in far more places than just our sites alone.

Here are ten cutting edge tactics to profit with social power linking to increase MLM blog traffic.

1. Submit articles and posts to StumbleUpon.com

Install a toolbar button when you sign up and you can "Like" or "Dislike" any site or page you want. You can mark up your pages, and also vote for other sites in your niche for research purposes.

2. Submit articles and posts to Digg.

Digg is easy to use, and if your blog is on Wordpress, you can add a plug in so your readers can actually submit your articles to Digg.

3. PlugIM.com

This Digg-style site will also help you get traffic. It takes less than a minute to submit your articles here.

4. IM News

If you have marketing related content, make sure to submit to IM news often.

5. Develop lenses and other remote "satellite" pages with good, original keyword optimized content One key to social power linking lies in Squidoo lenses.

6. Make it easy for outside parties and social media sites to link to your content. Link baiting, track backs and always consistently posting useful and original content will draw readers. If you have a Wordpress Blog, use the Tagalize It plug in to create Technorati and IceRocket links.

7. Make bookmarking or social tagging easy. Put a "delicious this" text link at the bottom of a post, and a Digg button at the top of the article.

8. Start participating in social power linking right away. Start blogging on your own. Visit leading forums and join the discussion.

9. Users to your site that contribute noticeably to the site's content and audience should be recognized and rewarded. You will keep these valuable community members on your site, and you gain visible advocates of your site to outside members.

10. Reward inbound site links. The more inbound links your blog and site generate, the better. Create a permalink to use and cite them on your blog This simple act of acknowledgment will generate much good will and links.

Social power linking is a relatively new and yet powerful way to quickly generate inbound links and traffic to your MLM blog. Follow these essential tactics and you will see a gig increase in traffic leading to more enrollments in your business.