MLM: Scam or Opportunity?

When it comes to work at home job opportunities, MLM's are some of the most prominent offers out there. Name a product, any product, and type it into your favorite search engine with the word "affiliate" next to it, and you'll get results. (I tried that exercise myself and was surprised at how many affiliate marketing opportunities there are). While not all of these are multi-level-marketing, many of the more publicized versions are, including Mary Kay, SFI, and others. If you get paid to refer others and then get paid again based on their own earnings, it's MLM. So... is that a bad thing?

There are definitely things to be worried about when dealing with multi-level-marketing schemes. Almost no one who gets involved actually makes money, and in fact many people lose money from buying the very products they need. So there is a big difference between MLM and "easy money." Another thing that marketers need to be aware of before joining is the emphasis of the program itself. Are you joining Avon because you love their products or because you're desperate? If it's the latter, don't bother--you'll only lose money in the long run and there are many other ways to make money online or at home that won't hurt you like that. However, if makeup is your forte and you really love telling your friends about an amazing new product you like, then sure--this is an opportunity just for people like you.

Some MLM's have what I call "squint" products: if you squint hard enough, you can see the product, but it's not really there. One popular such program is the Feeder Matrix, a forced matrix pyramid scheme that technically sells marketing and publicity e-books... but most affiliates probably don't even know about them. The Feeder Matrix is about building down your pyramid as quickly as possible, and I will admit that it does a good job at it.

So all things considered, are MLM's a bad thing? One of my frustrations joining SFI was its dependency on an active downline. While you can earn quite a bit by selling things on TripleClicks, your earnings will never really take off unless you have at least one or two active affiliates in your own downline so that you can earn from them. It's something I really don't like about SFI, but still a lot of people do make money from it and it has a good reputation among Internet marketers. It wasn't until I found some products on TripleClicks that I actually wanted and liked that I decided to work at it--and that's what makes the difference.

Products might not be as big as active downlines in MLM's, but you won't get that downline or the necessary enthusiasm unless you're genuinely excited about what it has to offer. I bought a set of Russian flutes from Triple Clicks last month. I love them. They're beautiful and fun to play, and I have no trouble talking to others about where I ordered them. It just works.

My conclusion about MLM is this: if you like the product, go for it. If not, then don't. It's great to get paid for telling people about stuff you genuinely like and use, but it's a chore to advertise something that you're not even sure about yourself. If you've tried MLM and haven't had any success, you might want to rethink. Find something you're passionate about and go with that instead. You'll love the difference!

Day 24: Risk Taking

I took a risk today. I bought something that was six dollars on the pretense that it would pay itself off.

Well, I couldn't resist. I was very curious about the whole e-mail processing thing, and even though I can see right through the scams (most of them, at least) there were a couple opportunities that seemed like they might be legitimate, so I figured, why not? The condition that I set for myself was that I would spend no more than $10 for it--almost everything out there costs at least $15 to get started, suspiciously identical to the cost you get per e-mail. The site that I decided to try out was only $6 and appeared to be different--not an MLM scheme or a pyramid format at all. I bought the system and then downloaded and read through the manual, hoping the money would be rolling in by the end of the day.

I can safely say that what I bought was not what I was expecting. It was well worth the $6 I spent on it, I think, but it's not the guaranteed moneymaker it claimed to be. It provided some fabulous e-mail marketing ideas and a long list of ad sites to explore, along with pre-written messages. The catch? You have to sell something... and it's up to you to figure out what. While at first it sounds great--"you can choose which companies to write for and then it's easy!"--the only options they list are for online affiliate programs. There's no product, no guaranteed business at all, no assignments... just a nice marketing scheme.

So now what? I'm obviously frustrated at how incomplete the system is, but at least it isn't a pyramid scheme where I just get people to "purchase" info on how to do exactly what I'm doing. I'm trying to decide what to sell. Affiliate links are the best I can find. I have several PTCs to promote, and I joined one of the recommended sites. I'm trying it out, and we'll see if it works.

More positive news today is about one of the huge PTCs that pays a hundred dollars or so a click, Richgo PTR. Minimum payout for basic members is $10,000, and I'm already past $6,000! This is for sure one of the fastest moving PTCs I've found. If the payout is fast as well, then I'll have it made!

It really is amazing to see things picking up speed now, and I can't wait to see how it all goes over! Please follow me on Twitter for more tips and updates, and check out Clixsense--and Richgo!--to start making money on your own!

Day 8.1: Knowing Your Market

First the good news: the brilliant plan I've been working on is just about ready to go, and for sure I'll tell you guys in the next post or two how you can actually make serious money on the internet. Again, it's not "easy money," and if you go for it you can expect to be pretty busy, at least for a while until things pick up. But it is simple--foolproof, even, if I can just get the last few kinks ironed out (and there aren't many).

And now onto my topic for this post: knowing your market. One thing that pretty much any book on writing tells you is to know the readers, to have the audience in mind as you write. What age group is the story for? What do they care about, and what draws them in? It's good advice in the writing world and at least as good in the business world.

Yesterday, as I was researching ways to put my plan into action, I came across a very interesting e-book, The Fastest Way to Build A Large MLM Downline by Tracy Biller
. It wasn't on exactly what I was looking for, but it was related to MLM (multi-level-marketing) and sales. What it said was that personal referrals are nothing. I know from experience that you can talk until you're blue to friends and family, and even if they do sign up for something there's no way they'll be active. They just want you to shut up. It's a waste of their time--and it's a waste of yours. Another tip that the book said was not to waste your time recruiting rookies. That was new to me. What's wrong with recruiting rookies? I consider myself a rookie. Why shouldn't a wise marketer recruit me?

The truth is that if you don't know what you're getting into, and you don't walk into something with a plan in mind, blindly expecting money to flow into your bank account, you're going to fail. You're going to fail big. And when most people set out to make money online, they immediately see that it isn't as glamorous as all the ads paint it to be, and they give up. That's the problem with rookies.

So now you have a problem. If you try to market your service to friends and family, they'll do the minimum just to get you to shut up. If you market the same service to the general public, they might sign up, but they'll soon get discouraged and give up before their presence makes any difference. So what can you do? You need to be able to find a target audience. Look through forums and chat-rooms to find people who are seriously looking for a solution and willing to work it out. Look for people who want your business as badly as you want theirs. Those are the people who will make a difference. Those are the people you want on your side. Know your market. You want veterans, not rookies!

For more detailed information, here's the link to the e-book that told me all this: http://www.documentspratiques.com/downloads/FastMLM.pdf. It's a pretty short read, and I think definitely worth the read, whatever your online business is.

Please check back later to hear about my brilliant idea: a shockingly simple way to make actual money online. And right now I'm ironing it out to make sure it's also as easy as possible without any guesswork or frustration involved.

In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter for the latest updates and tips on how to work and save online. You can also join me on Clixsense, Protypers (code 611M) and Swagbucks for easy ways to earn pennies! And for your information, I've already earned over a dollar on Protypers for only a couple days' work, and they pay you after you reach three dollars. Not bad for an online gig!