Multi level marketing is a form of marketing that involves both promoting products yourself and also recruiting others to promote that product for you.
You will earn commission on each product you sell, and you will also receive a percentage of the commission earned by the people you have recruited.
Those who you recruit are called your “downline,” and in some cases, you will earn not just a percentage of their commissions, but also a percentage of the amount that anyone they refer earns too.
This downline based commission system is sometimes referred to as a “pyramid” and many people are suspicious of MLM opportunities because of their similarity to the unsustainable pyramid schemes that were popular in the 1990s.
The difference between MLM and pyramid schemes is that real MLM systems involve promoting a genuine product, rather than promoting the system themselves.
The best MLM opportunities involve selling something for which there is a regular, sustained demand, such as cosmetics, cleaning products, or nutritional supplements.
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These are items that are consumed and will need to re-bought, so there is always a demand, and this means that there will always be new opportunities to sell the product in question.
Choosing An MLM Company
If you are looking for a business opportunity to get involved with, you should do lots of research to try to find a reputable company. The best MLM opportunities are ones that allow you to work with a long-standing company and will provide stable commission.
Amway, Herbalife, Beachbody, and other similar opportunities are all run by reputable brands that are trustworthy both from the point of view of the distributor and prospective customers. In fact, the Amway brand has existed since the mid 1950s. Herbalife and Beachbody are younger brands, but they have both been trading long enough that they have strong brand recognition.
If you want to maximize your chances of success then it is a good idea to choose a long-running and reputable brand.
Getting Started with the Best MLM Opportunities
Once you have decided which are the best MLM opportunities for your needs, the next thing you need to do is start building a list of prospects, or leads, as they are referred to in the world of MLM. Some MLM opportunities are focused around face-to-face promotion, but there are others that allow you to promote products and services online.
For example, the Juice Plus MLM opportunity advertises “virtual franchises,” allowing you to promote their products online if you wish.
Face-to-face marketing is an easy way to get started, but it does not scale well. Online marketing has unlimited growth potential. By using MLM lead generation tools, social media marketing, paid search, and other features, you can reach an almost unlimited audience of qualified leads.
If you write good advertising, copy and learn how to use social media, blogging and other marketing tactics, the growth potential of your business can be almost limitless.
One mistake that many MLM beginners make is failing to understand the differences between promoting a product, recruiting others for a service, and building a business. It is all too common for beginner marketers to get so caught up in chasing one sale after another that they forget the importance of building a downline, and they do not invest in building a strong foundation for their business.
Chasing individual sales is a waste of time, and will trap you in a cycle where you are always worried about where your next payment will come from. Instead of doing this, spend a little while building up a team and training the team to sell for you so that you have a small amount of regular commission coming in.
Next, start building up a loyal following on social media, or growing a mailing list of prospective customers. Use that list to promote products that have a high re-buy rate.
If you do this correctly you will have a steady stream of orders, so you should always have some money coming in, even if you fall ill and are unable to work on promoting your products to new customers for a day or two. Building that safety net early on will save you a lot of stress in the long run.
