Old School MLM Versus Internet Marketing Benefits

Copyright © Lawren Smith

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Many people are confused about the difference between network marketing and MLM. When I made the decision to join my current company, the term “Network Marketing” and “net-web marketing” were used often. As a former member of a MLM, I initially did not understand the difference between MLM and network marketing.

But, since joining this company a year ago, what I have discovered is that these two terms are essentially the same. The difference lies in the way each does business.

Here, let me try to explain. As a member of a MLM, I spent a great deal of time putting out fliers, purchasing leads, cold calling, placing newspaper ads, and much more. I also spent a lot of money. I mean a lot of money. I sometimes spent as much as $300-$500 a month to place ads in newspapers and this was not all.

I did achieve some success with my business. I, at one point, I was making between $2500-$4000 a month. But, the problem was that much of the money went to pay off the money I spent advertising my business. Thus, my net profit was little to none. After two years, I felt that I was not making the kind of progress with my business that I should be making. Based on the amount of money being spent and the amount of effort I put into my business, the progress should have been much greater. After my third year, I became very discouraged and disappointed. Eventually, my business fell apart. During this time, I also discovered that in the four years I spent growing my business, I still had not acquired the business skills I needed to recover my business. I still had no skills in training my group and helping them to build their business. Thus, many of the members in my business left which lead to the downfall of my business and lead me to quit.

Because I had no desire of giving up on my dreams, and the thought of living the rest of my life working at a job was too depressing, I still had the drive and desire to continue my pursuit of finding a home business that would work for me. Therefore, I immediately started looking for another opportunity. I tried and failed at one or two of them and then, quite by accident, stumbled upon my current home business opportunity.

Now, at this point, I should mention that the MLM did help me in some ways. I did overcome my fear of talking to strangers on the phone. I had also acquired some offline marketing skills, which I still use today. They do work, but these marketing methods did not come into contact with the numbers of people I needed in order to build a successful business. For instance, the fliers I put out were thrown away by most people. Those that kept the fliers were not quality people; meaning they were not people who were willing to work hard on building a business.

What this means is that the MLM methods I learned were not enough. Instead of building up the self-esteem, the feelings of failure surfaced, which contributed to many people in my group, and me, to quit.

Thus, emerges a new kind of business referred to as “network marketing”, “internet marketing”, or “net-web marketing”. This type of marketing allowed for strangers to approach you online. Thus, you are not left to find prospects. Instead, they find you. All you need is a computer and a willingness to learn to follow a step-by-step program.

It does not matter what level you start at. A beginner or an expert in network marketing all stand to benefit using network marketing methods.

For me, a whole new world opened up. I was introduced to resources that helped me to earn money online. These resources included submitting articles to directories, blogging, using traffic swarm, participating in social networking sites and forums, etc.

The best part about network marketing methods is you don’t have to look for prospects. Usually, they find you. This is because of the number of articles, postings, etc that you have done on the internet. People will notice the work you have done online and seek you out. Also, after you have submitted your work, you are, for the most part, done. All that remains is an occasional tweaking here and there, your work is out there working for you 24-7.

I am already starting to see some MLM companies engage in network marketing methods. Even my former MLM company has started engaging in utilizing the internet more. What I find so unusual about this is when I was a member, they suggested to us to do more of the offline type marketing and less computers. What a turnaround. I think, in time, internet network marketing will become the future of all MLM’s.

About the Author:

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Lawren Smith is a member of $9.97MakeMoneyNow and writes on a variety of subjects. To learn more about this topic, Lawren recommends you visit:

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