MLM marketing is short for Multi-Level Marketing. It works by signing up with a company and signing up others. You get commissions either from the direct sign up or from purchases made by individuals that sign up under you and under those who are under you. Over the years it has evolved from a few individuals going from meeting to meeting to World Wide signups through the internet along with calling potential customers and informing them as to how you can help them earn an income through your program. There are some downfalls to this type of marketing which are primarily due to lack of training by individuals looking to just make a quick buck and then leaving their sign-ups to fend for themselves. When you sign an individual up under you they are you’re your down-line and it is generally your responsibility to train them. The individual that signed you up is called up-line and is responsible for training you.

Training can be anything from one on one conversation over the phone, emails, and newsletters to phone seminars. It all depends on the program you have signed up for. Another source that is becoming popular is to use forums that can answer questions MLM marketers have and archive the answers for quick reference. To fully understand how to run your business you must do research on your own because you must remember that your up line is trying to recruit just like you and spending a lot of time with one individual can be counterproductive to their goals.

The main focus of multi level marketing is to build large teams that can bring in hefty incomes for those on the top of the chain. While this has made a bad name for some in the industry not all MLM participants feel that large numbers are the way to go. Training key personnel to help build and train other high quality marketers is probably a better way to create a sustainable system. If you sign someone up it’s a good idea to get to know them personally and help them in any way possible so they can succeed. If they succeed, you succeed.

MLM marketing structures and commissions vary from company to company but for the most part they are structured like an inverted tree. The roots are the up line and the branches are the down line. As commissions are made each person along the path from the tip of the branch to the roots gets a small piece of the earnings. So in essence the more people you have the more you make. The biggest problem with this is that some individuals are looking for quick cash and they sign up person after person without ever helping them succeed or even finding out what their goals are.

While this type of business can be very fun and profitable you must remember to do your part. While signing up thousands of people in a day would make you a lot of money down the road you will lose a great deal of them to lack of training. If they cannot reproduce your results they will not stay with your business and there for you will not earn any money from them in the future. You will also have a great deal of them who will express their feelings of dissatisfaction publically online, the place that you will be doing most of your recruiting. It’s far easier to recruit people when they praise your efforts and not talk about how you left them high and dry and took all their money.
©2009 David Gasser

About The Author:
David Gasser is the owner of www.workhomeprofits.com. His main focus is to research ways to earn an income online and help people find opportunities that are a good match for their goals. To learn more about this and other subjects visit http://www.workhomeprofits.com

Prospecting is an integral aspect of growing your list of leads. These leads can be used for both offline and online marketing purposes.

Basically when we talk of prospecting, be it for an online business like network marketing or affiliate marketing or for traditional offline business, there are two main techniques, the online as well as offline methods.

It is only in recent years that more people have started to use the online method of lead generation through the use of internet marketing. So which technique works best and which is more effective?

Let us take into account the network marketing industry. Traditionally, ninety-nine percent of network marketing business owners have learnt how to prospect from their uplines and pass on the same information to their downlines.

Generally they teach you to build your master name list by literally requiring you to write down every name in your phone book. This list would include your family, friends, relatives and acquaintances. Some companies will go a step further to provide you with a list of memory joggers… “who do you know”. This is a very extensive list and covers almost everyone and anyone with whom you may have had contact. Emphasis is placed on creating a long list as the belief is ‘the longer the list, the greater the success’. The list is supposed to be your best asset.

For those who are not able to generate a long list, they are taught how to approach total strangers which can be scary for some individuals. When the master list is ready, you will be taught how to invite these people to attend opportunity meetings which are normally held in hotels or homes. These network marketing business opportunity meetings normally last between one to two hours and the prospect is then sold on the dream of succeeding in a home business like network marketing and thus finding the elusive financial freedom.

Some people who attend such meetings are not even aware that they are at a network marketing opportunity meeting. They are not informed until the very end because of the fear that they will close off their mind towards the opportunity if they know that they are actually attending a meeting related to the network marketing industry.

Not many people succeed in the network marketing industry if they follow exactly the above. The problem with the traditional way of prospecting is that:-

The prospects are from a vast market and are not targeted

Some prospects feel tricked upon realizing in the end that they are actually in a network marketing business opportunity meeting especially if they have not been informed earlier

With advanced technology, there is now an easier, rejection free method of prospecting. No cold callings required as well. A great & simple tool that everyone can benefit from.

Using the internet, prospecting for leads using the internet marketing method will gain you a prospect in your target market. You are able to gain targeted traffic through the use of various tools on the internet, namely:-

Article marketing

Search engine optimization

Pay per click

Email marketing

Banner ad

Podcasting

You tube

A great advantage you will find when using internet marketing as a form of prospecting is that these leads or prospects are willing and eager to find out more about what you are offering. As you engage in online marketing you will come to realize that you need not be a ‘pest’ and approach people who are not interested in what you have to offer. This therefore allows you to avoid having to face loads of rejection.

Not only that, you do not need to resort to unscrupulous tactics to be the first to snare the prospect (which can happen in traditional prospecting when you and your sidelines may share the same group of friends) and you can be very upfront with your network marketing business opportunity with each and every single prospect.

Veronica Tan BK is a successful home based business owner. Visit her site at http://www.EasyOnlineIncomeGenerator.com. Her passion is to help others achieve a full-time income working from the comfort of their home. Get Your “FREE Website Marketing Tips & Home Business Secrets” valued at $147 delivered to your inbox now!