Multi Level Marketing - The Dilemma

 by Alan Jeffers

On one hand...

The wrong way to advertise a multi-level marketing program is to advertise solely on the premise of recruiting members of a downline. Where is the stability? There must be a real product involved if there is any hope of a stable income. The only reason that a multi level marketing program is legal is because there is a real service or product involved; otherwise we are talking about a pyramid scheme.

Pyramid schemes are illegal, unstable and even if they are temporarily successful, only those at the top of the pyramid will see any financial rewards.

Multi-level marketing programs should be advertised and promoted for the service or product they offer, and the process of recruiting a team or "downline" should be seen as an additional benefit to that product or service. This perspective will allow any advertiser to identify whether or not the product or service they are promoting is of any real use. If they think the product or service is real value for money and of a high-demand, high-quality nature, then they will naturally promote it enthusiastically and effectively. This too will help prevent people from joining a multi-level marketing program with the sole aim of recruiting a downline.

Too often we see MLM programs turned into schemes whereby advertisers concentrate solely on recruiting a downline in the goal of making vast sums of money. This is entirely the wrong way to go about things and will most likely result in failure. If you wish to promote a product or service in such a program, seek one that offers a product that you approve of and would use yourself.

In advertising this service or product, don't waste time and money competing with the already saturated market of "making money online" and "get rich quick schemes". This is not the true purpose of a multi-level marketing program. Advertise the product or service and identify the potential for making money as an additional benefit. Identify a niche market, then advertising will be cheap and the product or service will be in high-demand.

All of this may seem obvious, and it is, but too often I am seeing "Make $5000+ per week!" on ad titles (For example, in the sponsored links section of Google), and in some cases, two similar ad's, side-by-side, promoting the exact same MLM program. In most cases, the product on offer is not explained and the sales pitch is optimised around recruitment of a downline and financial freedom, offering unrealistic guarantees, such as extreme wealth in a matter of months, coupled with images of cash or super-cars. They only come across as one-page scams, when they should come across as genuine, which many of them actually are.

In summary, advertising on the premise of building a downline and generating wealth may work short term, but any members of your downline that aren't successful will simply leave your downline.

If your downline join primarily for the product or service and build a downline as an extra, as long as they benefit from that primary service or product they will remain a paying downline member.

The product or service affords the whole process stability and it should be emphasised more in multi level marketing campaigns.

On the other hand...

However, saying this, what product or service is more desirable than one, which provides a real opportunity to generate wealth? Next to none, hence it would be unrealistic to expect this approach of multi-level-marketing to disappear. This short argument is a good match for all of the reasoning above. Everyone wants to be rich and have the money to do as they feel. With multi-level-marketing it is genuinely possible for relatively little effort.

Conclusion

Either way you approach it, both may work and the beauty of the whole process is that you don't have to sell anything. You are not making anything directly and in having someone join, you are helping them to build a better future for themselves doing what you do. It is your job to make people realise this.

Once again, the other side of the story is, although it is morally more acceptable, the process and difficulties are the same. Selling something is in effect the same as making someone realise the benefits they stand to gain. Persuasive language and advertising are unavoidable either way you look at it. The only answer I could give is to do what works best. Test both advertising the product and advertising the money making side, and go with the one that generates the most referrals to your MLM business.

Have a plan, test it, work with it, analyse it, refine it or change it, start again etc. Nothing is more valuable than tried and tested experience; because there is no specific way to make MLM programs work. Success is dependent upon environment, target audience, your personal enthusiasm and efforts and the program itself. Although there are "general" ways that work in building your downline, none are guarantees.

About the Author: Alan Jeffers Internet Marketing Student & Webmaster http://www.consumerscompanion.com/. Source of this article: www.goarticles.com