MLM stands for Multi Level Marketing – Does it stack Up?
MLM stands for Multi Level Marketing often touted as the perfect work home MLM business opportunity!If you are approaching retirement, the chances are that you’re old enough to remember the 60s! It may have some fond memories of rock ‘n’ roll and first love, but it was a decade of massive financial scams. You may be wondering if the modern day MLM opportunities are any different from the pyramid schemes of that decade and beyond!
What Does Wikipedia have to Say?
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they generate, but also for the sales of the other salespeople that they recruit. This recruited sales force is referred to as the participant’s “downline”, and can provide multiple levels of compensation. Other terms used for MLM include pyramid selling, network marketing, and referral marketing. According to the US FTC, some companies that use multi-level marketing exploit members of their networks and constitute illegal pyramid schemes.
Samuel Beckett said
“the more things change, the more they remain the same!”
So you are approaching retirement and very probably need more money in the pot for your retirement. In the last 40 years recession after recession, inflation and government policies have seen everyone’s pension pot dwindle.
As a result of this many people are lured into MLM business schemes. Yet once again very little has changed since the 60s, the people at the top make the money and extravagant promises are offered to their downline. Sadly all too often downline give up because they have no network and they can’t possibly make a success of it. The only thing they have managed to do is make the person above them richer!
So you may be wondering does multilevel marketing work at the top of the downline?
The answer to that is it does and it doesn’t! I’m not meaning to sound like the Sphinx and speak in riddles, it often does provide an income. The barrier against real success though is the fact that multilevel marketing isn’t really scalable.
If you want to have a real business opportunity it needs to be something that you can work at until you make a profit and then rinse and repeat in other spheres. You can either invest the profits from your earlier successes into future successes or you can spend those profits and work on future projects.
The thing about a legitimate online business, is that it is scalable and your business plan is your own. You and only you are in control! I am now in my 60s and I don’t know about you, but I do know I am now too old to take orders from anybody else. I like being my own boss! I like being in control of my financial destiny.
It gives me freedom, freedom to travel wherever I want. One of the benefits of an online business is all I need is a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection! I certainly don’t need pressure from the boss and having unreal expectations.
Another failing of multilevel marketing is the fact that you are often asked to offer products to family and friends. This can make you appear pushy. It can alienate you from your friends and family.
One of the reasons that I like wealthy affiliate’s is the fact it trained me in the correct way to make money online. I can make as much or as little as I want. It took me awhile to get my head round the fact that actually making money online is no harder when you sell high ticket products with high levels of commission that it is making two dollars by selling a product on Amazon.
As a member of wealthy affiliate’s, you don’t have to recruit your friends and family! Some may volunteers are coming when they see the success that you are having, that often happens. But, think about it there are approximately 6 billion adults in the world and how many of them do you know, more money?
There are too many real targeted opportunities to waste time harassing friends and family unnecessarily. One of the ideas behind the multi-level marketing business is the fact that everybody helps each other by working as a team and you know you can trust your team because if they help you succeed they earn more money.
Well has I said if you are approaching retirement you are too old to believe in fairies! Wealthy affiliate’s is a online marketing school. It offers training in every aspect of online marketing. However, it is so much more than a school, I had been there for eight years and I have seen some of the brightest stars in Internet marketing passed through those doors.
The community help each other. What do they get out of it? Absolutely nothing except we all remember how we struggled at first and how difficult the simplest things appeared. Because of that we help others in the community.
This community helps in many ways there are well over 30 classrooms to ask your questions in. Many of those Internet marketing stars are still there there are many members who have been there five, six, seven, eight or nine years! They have learnt all about affiliate marketing together they have a boatload of experience! They willingly share that knowledge every day.
For instance, Jay aka Magistudios, does a free webinar for over an hour every Friday night. The whole of the community can attend this, in fairness the majority of attendees are Newbie’s but he has what is called an after wabby, and this is a Google hangout. During this time you can ask any questions you want. It doesn’t mean that experienced marketers like myself don’t benefit from Jay’s training, I do. However, it is at 1 o’clock in my morning as I am in Europe so I tend to watch the replay.
MLM stands for Multi Level Marketing – Does it stack Up?
In my opinion it doesn’t, I have often looked at it and still continue to look at it, simply because my mind is always open to new business opportunities. At my age I may not have the energy to physically carry out those possibilities but it doesn’t mean I’m too tired to think about them. For me nothing has changed since the 60s, they are still pyramid schemes, you may not agree but you have been warned.
On the other hand if you want to have a legitimate online business surrounded by a community that really care whether you succeed or not the wealthy affiliate is the place for you. Wealthy affiliate offer a free account set up, because they are so certain of the efficacy of their business plan they allow you to join for free and have free access to the training, the live chat for a week. Incredibly you also have access to the two owners Kyle and Carson and they will help you with whatever you need.
Actually that act access to those two never goes, they are always available for advice both pop regularly into live chat several times a day so they can monitor what is going on. Anyone whatever their level can ask them a question and get an immediate answer.
What are you Waiting for don’t waste another second, if your pension pot needs topping up, start today here at wealthy affilaite’s
Great post on MLM 🙂 I first started out with MLM online, but soon quit because I just didn't know how to recruit people online or make sales. I then tried my hand at face-to-face Network Marketing which I also found difficult, even with the training because it was just a pain chasing people down, dealing with problems, building a team and facing all the rejections. However, I did make many good friends from it and I thoroughly enjoyed the personal development side of it because I loved mixing with others and attending events. It was good while it lasted, but I soon moved across to Wealthy Affiliate and learn how to build an affiliate marketing business because since it's so much fun amd more rewarding than MLM too. Thanks, Neil
Neil,Â
that’s a good point and an element you tend not to consider with multilevel marketing. Networking is always vital. I don’t know the answer to everything in Internet marketing but I definitely know where to go and get those answers from people who are experts in those fields. One of the reasons I know this is that I network and also take a note of everybody I meet you never know when they will be important in the future. Thank you for bringing that point to my attention and I am so glad you took the opportunity to join wealthy affiliate’s. I would say good luck but I know that wealthy affiliate training is not a question of luck but tried and trusted and cutting-edge methods that work today
I tried to sell many things with multilevel marketing. On the surface of it multi level marketing has great training but after many years trying and getting nowhere I realised that it was not a sustainable business model. It looks great for the stay-at-home dad like me. However since going to wealthy affiliate’s I learned more in the first 3 lessons that I ever learned about multilevel marketing.
Thanks Charles it’s so good to hear you! On the surface of it I agree multilevel marketing looks great but there is a huge difference what appears to be on the surface of what happens in reality in my day school pyramid selling and it still should be
I have tried MLM and you say it’s not workable. The people at the top make money