My Passion for MLM is GONE

How much of that is from sales of product, and how much is from sales of "support materials" and "system" or "training" related things? A rough percentage is fine.

All the best,
Michael

Let me guess....you guys crank out a ton of retail sales?

You and me both :-)

LoL. I too have been part of My Lead System PRO. Was one of the first back-end training systems that I actually found helpful. They taught you article marketing, how to dominate ezines, building lists, conversions, split testing and so forth... I learnt most of what I know from that place. And funny enough, I made my first cheque from that place accumulating 100 leads and 2 who took the plunge and signed up. One from belgium, the other from the US. Made 300 dollars in total, and that was all through trying PPC for the first time with no knowledge (tell a lie I bought into Perry Marshals PPC course but only read it a bit before spending my money).

300 Dollars, and around 70 dollars spent in PPC. Not a bad return. But for some reason I just didn't like it in the end. I felt as if it was just lying to myself.

The bulk of the money was made through recruiting people, training them up through the back-end system you used to train yourself and then having them sign up to the same MLM company you are a part of and buying an autoship.

So basically you only made commissions because people who wanted to be part of the company had to buy an Autoship (a certain quantity of that product) each month to earn commissions. You then recruited more people to do this, and you basically made money from having tons of trainees ordering the Autoship each month.

Really you were supposed to be making the bulk of the money from selling their products to the general public, recruiting others is supposed to be a perk to MLM in order to earn residual income. Unfortunately all the companies I joined and people I followed used the recruitment of others as a way to make the money. And taught others to do so as well.

To me this felt like a fake pyramid method of doing MLM. MLM works, even if you go the 'selling the dream' route but it is highly unethical.

I was part of MonaVie for anyone who wants to know. I wonder if they are still going ... lol.

I'm perfectly well aware of what this thread is about thankyou. But business is business, and no matter WHAT your business is, you've got to 'hustle' for it.

( Hustle: Verb - to proceed or work rapidly or energetically: to hustle about putting a house in order. )


Yes, that does include advertising, posting on forums, article writing, CPC, Facebook and everything else that comes with the territory. If you think you're in business and not hustling, then I'm afraid you're not in business, your posing :p

Cheers .... Pete.

I agree. But in most of the world, these days, it's illegal for people to be paid for sponsoring/recruiting - a fact of which (it seems to me) even most active, business-building distributors are unaware.

It's permissible to earn commissions on the commissionable element of product purchases made by new distributors, of course, but this is a different matter altogether.

The conversations one sees about some of the "high-ticket network marketing opportunities" in which people say that (for example) the joining-fee is $1,500 are quite ridiculous. In no US state is it permissible for a network marketing company to charge more than $500 (and in almost all of Europe it's even less than that), and most charge far less. But people readily get confused between "joining-fees" (non-commissionable, by law) and voluntary product purchases.

More to the point, Chris, it's not a legal one (in most of the world).

It may be "sustainable", but it simply isn't legal for commissions to be paid "for sponsoring". This point is almost universally misunderstood.

See... this is the frustrating part of threads on this subject.

The post quoted above was written by someone I presume
to be of good will and intention. The problem is that while it
appears to say something important it really doesn't say anything
at all.

I don't know of a single company that pays a single dime for the
act of recruiting. Such payments are illegal in the U.S. and have
been for a very long time. The same is true in most countries.

Given that what I stated above is fact I can only conclude that
the poster quoted is simply talking without any knowledge of the
subject. They sound smart to those who share their ignorance.

Tsnyder

I live to serve...

Tsnyder

I can't argue with you about that: the depth and breadth of ignorance, factual misunderstanding, misinformation and prejudice are breathtaking. :p

Hi,

Wow!! Seldom would I see WF becoming a topic of MLM vs IM. Well, this had been debated for many years in regards to MLM. With that being said, both industry had enjoy success stories and not-so-success stories.

Scammers are found in both IM and MLM where we hear and know some IM-er selling rehash stuff to earn some money, while MLM-er being scam into without proper knowledge.

I've been in both fields in the past and now. You can google my name up, but that's not important because I'm going to share my view objectively on both subject.

You see, both IM and MLM have different business model.

IM

In IM, we either search for affiliate product, selling WSO or creating our own product, courses and coaching lesson to sell. The learning curve for a complete newbie is difficult. They need to learn keyword research, how to write articles, creating sites then they need to learn how to drive traffic. But that is mandatory.

Then, they need to purchase courses/ebook or come to WF to look for information and how-to to do proper research and which product convert and other innovative ways to drive traffic.

How much would they spend on these education? Is it worth it? Yes of course. How about promotion? If they are in profit, they can use the profit to go to the next level, do more promotions and exploring new niches/markets.

What if they are not in profit? Do they drop out, persist or looking for another new shiny stuff? Well, only that person will know.

With all the education and other business investment in IM, it can easily come 1K and above.

MLM

What about MLM?

MLM or network marketing is about leverage and I presume most of the warriors here know about it. That why many created their own product and leverage on an army of affilate to help promote and in turn generate a passive income.

Why many failed in MLM?

It really depends a lot on several factors like system, the people, the training and individual. Many who jump into MLM maybe bought into "Turn Dreams Into Reality" and "Passive Income" and "Working only 2 hours a day".

These however make an attractive ad line but in reality hard work is required, just like IM. They need to learn marketing (if one is not expose to marketing before, it maybe hard for them), communication skills and organization skills.

This happens exactly in IM too.

If you want to expand your online empire, you need to outsource and that where you communication skill come into play. You need to communicate with your outsource. You will also need to use your organization skill to properly manage project efficiently.

How about the education investment part?

If the team is willing to train their team using real IM methods, then their education investment is in the form of autoship.

Is it expensive? Sure for some, because they will drop out and they will hop around other MLM opportunities like in IM where we will find other shiny object.

How about using the profit they earn in MLM? Well, by then they are already in profit and have met quite a lot of people offline or online. They can then use these profit to roll into other venture like making a MLMBlueprint course or venture into other businesses or go for investment.

This is usually the case for in IM. You can use these profit to churn out your own coaching lesson, invest in gold or to other businesses.

The problem in MLM is that, those people who initially join are not far sighted as I discuss above. True, they want freedom, but they did not see things beyond that as what most IM people I came across.

With that being said, both side of camps had one thing in common, Marketing. If one learn how to marketing online or offline (yes IM can market offline too), their business will grow.

If you are in IM or MLM or both, ask yourself, what will you do if this is your business?

All right, it's such a long post and I guess I'll stop here.

- Jeffrey

Both of those statements are good and could apply to IM, MLM or any other product or service business.

All the best,
Michael

COMPLETELY off topic, but I really hate that I got Rick-rolled by your siggy. lol I have strategically avoided it for a year because I live on Youtube most days. Congrats. You broke my streak. Cool. ^5 to you!

On topic: I am not in an MLM, but I did start there. To be fair, I loved the potential, and I believed that my hard work would make me and my family financially independent. The truth is that I left that company and joined another where the relationships were great but the product cost too much to justify trying to recruit family or strangers. I would have felt badly for pushing something so far outside the budget of most people.

I left the second company after getting into an email marketing program that allowed me to get something like 10,000 email business builder leads for $25 a month. In exchange for purchasing some healthy products (health, weight loss, beauty, green cleaning products, etc.), I was given the leads. The products were from a direct sales company, and the price was affordable. It seemed acceptable at the time.

It took about a month for me to completely get sick of the leads and stop paying for the service; however, the products were surprisingly effective. They did what they claimed...and I was not spending an arm and a leg to get the products each month. What was even more intriguing was that it didn't matter if I build an organization or not.

So...I didn't build an organization. I didn't promote the business. At all. I was afraid to do so because I know how easy it is to turn people off from a home business. Instead, I used the products the way I would have used them if they had come from Wal Mart. My mother asked for some lotion, and I let her use mine. She enrolled the next day.

My sister, who lives in Texas (I am in NC) happened to mention her child's eczema and I recommended that she take a look at a product. Two days later, she enrolled. My next door neighbor. My friend from church. One of my best friends who lives in Philadelphia....etc...they all enrolled and I never pitched them once. For me, I looked at my business after 4 months and could see where I was headed, and it was not to the poor house.

I know this is long, but please bear with me. Late last year, I got devastating news from an immediate family member and was literally unable to work. I could not function with the emotional damage done to me and my family. I ordered my products each month because I love the products, but I did NO work. For 4 months. Commission checks kept coming, even with my lack of work. Three days ago, I enrolled someone again after all that time, and took a moment to go in my backoffice to see if I had lost everyone in my organization.

To my great joy, out of 12 people, I still had 8 on the books who are happy to be customers for a long, long time. They have NO interest in building a business, but they have no interest in being without the products either. As I stated earlier, I left MLM and went into Direct Sales, and IM helps me grow my business effortlessly. I also lead co-op with people in my organization, so I am there if people eventually do decide that they want to build and grow.

My business (amazingly) was there for me when I could not be there for myself...and I appreciate that more than I can express. Residual income is nice...not a pipe dream. It's real if you know what to do and truly want to help others.

I don't know. I have been burned about 13 times in the past year by scammy IM products and only once in the past year by my business/company. If you are ethical and know what you are doing and why, it is possible to succeed...but you have to turn your focus from you to others.

After all, "others" are the reason why we (IMers, MLMers, and Direct Sellers) have any kind of a business to build in the first place.

I think all work is honorable, and there is work suited for everyone.

O.P.....Sorry your MLM passion is gone and that you had a bad experience. Best to you in your current and future ventures! Thanks for starting this dialogue.

Christi

I couldn't agree more, it's really not all that different from a affiliate program that has been extended out a couple more levels - there are 1 and 2-tier affiliate programs out there in the IM niche and other niches as well, and MLM just extends this concept further.

It's funny how people can attach so much prejudice and negativity to a three letter acronym.