What Is MLM or Multi-Level Marketing?

Multi-level-Marketing (MLM), according to Wikipedia, is a marketing structure used by some companies as part of their overall marketing strategy. They way that it works is that when someone brings someone else on and that someone else makes a sale and then brings in someone else who in turn makes a sale…etc you get paid for it. On a commission bases, you are at the top and everyone else is at the bottom. You would get paid for everything below you, plus what you bring in. the people below you in the line are your downline, the persons, that brought you in are your upline, usually the upline trains the downline how to market in order to make money, so they can make more money.

The products and the company is marketed directly, usually by word of mouth marketing, or what is mistaken as network marketing, which is sometimes used to describe MLM.
Some people call MLM or affiliate marketing a fraud or something to be frowned upon. The thing is that it all has to do with a few things, such as proper training, and or previous marketing experience, and the devotion of the person involved to succeed.

How it Works-

Independent, unsalaried salespeople of multi-level marketing; referred to as distributors, represent the company that produces the products or services they sell. They are awarded a commission based upon the volume of product sold through their own sales efforts; be it website, phone, or other means of marketing, as well as that of their downline organization. This arrangement of distributers earning a commission based on the sales of their independent efforts as well as the sales of the individuals in their downline is similar to a franchise.
Independent distributors develop their organizations by either building an active customer base, who buy direct from the company, or by recruiting a downline of independent distributors who also build a customer base, thereby expanding the overall organization. Additionally, distributors can also earn a profit by retailing products they purchased from the company at wholesale price.

How to Market an MLM?

Well here is where many people seem to fail at, they do not know where to start, they get confused and then they lose interest, therefore leading up to them quieting. The no.1 problem starts with the hype and the inadequateness of the upline. You see ads like “join today and start making money tomorrow” or something like “make a thousand dollars in a week.” While showing you a guy n a suite driving a Ferrari. Too much hype!
The best thing to do is to research the company to start with, then start looking into some training, such as free webinars, or complete training systems on how to market; don’t just rely on the upline for the complete training, do some research to see who is really doing what. Look into people like Mike Dillard for starts. Advertising also plays a roll, such as Google adwords; the definitive guide to Google adwords is a good place to start. Make sure that you have funds to be able to complete these things, and achieve your goals, there’s a great article called Building on a Budget that has some great information. Breaks down where to put your money at and where you should hold off back for a bit.

MLM Vs Network Marketing-

MLM has commonly been called Network Marketing, which in point of fact is completely incorrect. MLM builds in a residual income through commissions, while network marketing is going out and selling a single product through marketing in MySpace, forums, etc for a one-time profit/income.

Be sure to check out my lens network-marketing-lead-generation