Schmucks, shylocks, and scammers.
Those are the words that often pop up when I “listen” to internet discussions about online MLM marketing. That’s what people call us folks who market their MLMs online. To be honest, they say that about people who market MLM offline, too, so fair’s fair.
But it is not good. Here’s what happens: a newbie joins an MLM (online or offline) and decides to market his business online. He gets on a couple of webinars, joins a few free training programs, and reads a few books. He starts marketing online. He gets a Twitter account, makes a Squidoo lens, writes and submits some articles. Nothing happens for 3 months.
“Freebies” Don’t Work, Start Spending!
At this point he figures the “freebie” route isn’t going to cut it so he buys into a couple of expensive training programs that promise instant success. Maybe he even dives into pay-per-click with a vengeance. Now he sees some action, but not nearly enough to cover his now significant advertising and training overhead. Bummer. He looks for a new way to market online.
Rerun this film a few more times, and you end up a burned-out bankrupt newbie. Now that newbie goes out and starts posting negative conversations about online MLM marketing on every forum and social media platform he can find. Now we’re all schmucks, shylocks, and scammers.
So what happened?
What happened is that the online MLM marketing bar wasn’t set high enough. Too many training programs, ebooks, and MLM sponsors promised the newbie a huge income practically overnight for almost no work: “Just tell 2 friends about the business, sign them up, and you’re done.” That’s a pretty low standard, don’t you think? No one, I don’t care how successful they look in their MLM business, achieved success by being lazy.
How Much Work Does it Take to Earn $10K a Month?
Check out what Art Jonak, on the faculty at Networking University, says about the MLMers who earn more than $10K a month:
“Most people who earn more than $10,000 a month provide more than $10,000 a month worth of value to their networking companies.”
Think about that for a second. How hard would you have to work to earn $10,000 a month working at a regular job? If you earned $50/hour, you’d have to work 10 hours a day for the month, assuming there are 20 working days a month. While a lot of people in the corporate world work that hard, most don’t earn that kind of hourly rate.
So if the corporate world promised the same thing as many online MLM training programs, they would be hiring employees to work a few hours a week, chat on the phone a bit, show up for work when they felt like it, and earn $10K a month. It’s never going to happen in the corporate world. But those kinds of offers get made all the time in the online MLM world. It’s no wonder we have the schmucky reputation we do.
How You Can Help Online MLM Marketing Become Authentic
It really has to stop. If you believe in MLM as a truly workable business model, as I do, then you can do your part to change its reputation from scammy scheme to authentic business. How?
If you are an old-hand at online MLM, raise the bar on the people you bring into your business. Don’t promise what can’t be delivered. The MLM is a business like any other. It just pays differently over time. The initial dollar investment may be smaller than for other businesses, but the level of effort, especially in the startup phase, is still significant. Don’t downplay that part of it. Be real about it with your prospects.
If you are a newbie just getting into online MLM, don’t fall for the scam. Don’t become another statistic. Think about how $10,000 is earned in the corporate world. The same level of effort applies in MLM. The major difference is that in MLM you don’t need a business degree and you don’t need to climb a corporate ladder!
Are you prepared to work a real online MLM business?
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Photo credit: Hook, Line, Sinker (How I fell for a phishing scam)
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