Does Network Marketing Really Work?

I'm a big believer in the industry of Network Marketing. Big Believer. However, I've never been very successful at it. I've been moderately successful, but I've never experienced the kind of growth and vitality that I believe are possible. Not even close. But I continue to believe in the industry, because I know it works. I know it works because there are a lot of people making a lot of money in MLM. I know it works because there are hundreds of companies that use network marketing as their means of moving products. I know it works because it just makes sense to me. So why doesn't it work for me?

MLM is a unique industry. Anyone can have their own network marketing company, with very little initial outlay, no formal education, and minimal monthly overhead. Therefore, many different types of people join. However, as an industry, we are taught that how we build our business is by duplicating the people that sign us up. We're supposed to do exactly like they do, and because they are successful, we will be successful. In theory this makes sense, however in the real world it doesn't.

Everyone is different, so everyone is going to build their business in a different way.

Now, the basics are the same. It's very simple, really. It only involves four steps:

1. Find people who are interested in our business.
2. Show them about our company.
3. Sign them up in the business.
4. Train them to do the same thing.

The last 3 steps are pretty easy to duplicate. It's the first one where I believe we fail as an industry. You see, there are many different places and ways to find people to join us in the business. But when our sponsor or upline trains us on how to do this, he or she trains us to do it the way they do it. That's fine if we have the same skills and experience they do, however this is rarely the case. Some of the top Network Marketers in the industry totally built their business by only talking to their warm market. Some have done it by buying leads and calling hundreds of people to sign up 5. Others have done it by being dynamic speakers and leading large opportunity meetings. Many have used a combination of all of these, or other methods entirely. And they have been very successful.

As for me, none of those methods have really worked very well. I've had some success with my warm market, and some success cold calling. But I've never been able to get it to "take off".

However, I think that is about to change dramatically. I've been in this industry on and off for 10 years, and I've always thought the internet was the key to reaching people for my business, just based on the shear number of people that are accessing the web every minute of every day. About 8 years ago I made a sustained effort to find those people, by building a business opportunity website, and using different methods to draw people to it. And I had some success. However, it was a lot of work, and almost impossible for my recruits to duplicate. So eventually I let that method go by the wayside.

But now, there is a new phenomenon called "Social Marketing" or "Web 2.0" that is taking the internet by storm. Social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, and many more have changed the internet landscape more than anything in its history up to this point. It's much easier to create a presence on the web than it's been in the past, and to have interactive exchanges with people that have similar interests with you. I've just started to do this kind of marketing, and I firmly believe that this is the future of network marketing.

I first found out about this paradigm shift from a free report called "The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing" by Ann Sieg. You can download it for free, it's very informative.

There is a huge difference between this and all the other types of marketing: in all the other ways of finding prospects, you are calling them. In this method, they are calling you. This is such a profound difference, that I know it will transform my Network Marketing business, and I'm sure it will transform yours too.

Network Marketers need high-quality leads. It's the life-blood of their business. But the lead generation methods of the past just don't work very well.

You can hound your friends and family until they hide whenever they see you coming, they don't answer the phone when you call, they just plain don't want to see you. Not very cool for the people closest to you to avoid you at all costs!

You can use the "3 foot rule", where everyone you come in contact with is a prospect, and you walk around kind of like a vulture, always trying to think of a way to bring up your "opportunity" in the course of an everyday conversation. This can be (and almost always is) extremely awkward.

Once you've alienated everyone you see in person, you can start buying leads from lead sources that generate them from "Do you want to work from home?" pages on the internet. The problem with this is that these leads can be very expensive, and quite often these people are just curious: tire-kickers who have no intention of starting their own business. Many of them are desperate for money right away, and don't have the time or resources to get started in your network marketing business.

Enter "Social Networking" or "Web 2.0". This is simply the ability to interact with other people through different websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Youtube. Instead of just getting information, people are now able to have social interaction with others easily through the websites. This opens up a whole new area of opportunity in lead generation.

If you can give people value through these various sites, you will be able to build relationship with them, leading to trust, which in turns leads to them being more open to hearing about your MLM company. This is the key to getting prospects to contact you, so you no longer have to be "hounding" or "vulturing" every one you meet!

Learn how to get started in this brand new way by attending Renegade University. You can sign up for a free "test-drive" and learn how it will get you going on your way to success in your MLM business.