Maybe it’s the pyramid structure? But you can’t really take issue with the tiered compensation structure—almost every large sales organization in the world has that. Salespeople get commission, and sales managers get overrides or bonuses on top of that, and sales directors on top of that, and VPs on top of that.

Or maybe it’s the fact that you have to pay to participate in it? But that can’t be it—that’s a standard franchising model. And I assure you, the franchise fee of most traditional franchises dwarf the sign-up cost of any MLM program by comparison.

Now certainly, there are illegal pyramid, or “Ponzi”, schemes. This is where the money is all being made off of signing up other people, with little or no real product ever being delivered. But in spite of whatever perceptions people may have, the fact is that Amway, Excel, Meleleuca, PrePaid Legal, USANA, and many others have sold millions upon millions of dollars of products to happy customers, many of whom are NOT also reps. So, there may be a perception problem here, but if so, the perception is out of line with the reality.

But surely the bad reputation MLM’ers has some more basis in fact than the occasional illegal pyramid scheme?

The real problem with MLM is not MLM itself, but some of the people it attracts. Network marketing is just a business model, and it really amounts to “micro-franchising”. Its upside is that it has a very low cost of entry, with the potential for exceptional revenue, and there are those who achieve that.

But those same things that make it attractive make it attractive to many who are NOT really qualified or prepared to become business owners. The salient characteristics of MLM make it attractive to people who:

• have not done well in their business or profession and have little money saved up to invest
• have no previous experience owning or running a business
• have no previous experience in sales
• have little or no experience developing business relationships other than that of employer/employee/co-worker
• are not satisfied with their current level of income
• have unrealistic expectations of the amount of work involved compared to the revenue realized

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with any of these things, or that this describes even a majority of network marketers—only that it describes a disproportionate number of network marketers, and that many of them never do anything about it.
As a result, many network marketers end up:

• over-selling the opportunity
• inappropriately discussing business in social situations
• coming across as desperate
• over-focused on new recruits and neglecting existing customers as a result
• being either inaccurate or deceptive when talking about their business

Again, I’m certainly not saying that this describes a majority of network marketers, but it does describe enough of them to tarnish the reputation of the rest. To pre-judge someone based on the basis of a small minority of people in that group is horribly unfair, but we must realize that most prejudices have some basis in reality, even if it has been distorted.
So what’s the solution?

There’s a first time for everything. And network marketing/MLM is a great opportunity for people to have their first business, their first sales role, etc. My point is this—recognize it for what it is: it’s a business, and you are a business owner. And if you’ve never owned a business before, if you’ve never done sales before, if you’ve never networked before, you need to learn about how to do so, not just from the network marketing/MLM experts, but from established experts in those fields.

Network marketers who are serious about building a business should be reading and learning about business fundamentals, the latest sales and marketing techniques, strategies for networking and business development, etc., not just swapping tips at your team’s weekly or monthly meeting. Act like a small business owner, and people will treat you like one.

Source: Entrepreneurs.About

One of the questions I am often asked as a professional Internet Marketer is "How do I get my websites to rank high in the search engines...?" Unfortunately, there isn't any one "quick" fix. It's not the most difficult thing in the world to do but you're going to have to put in a little elbow grease if you want to see the fruitful results.

First off... If search engine positioning is something you are serious about then you won't be able to use your companies replicated site as your platform. Search engines view these sites as duplicate content and give them very little notice. They do get ranked, but they usually don't hold it for very long as it's really hard to employ any productive SEO tactics with the minimal amount of control that you have.

You're best bet is all of the following.

• A: setup your own blog/website
• B: submit content for syndication.
• C: build backlinks to your blog/website

Setting up your own unique website or blog is incredibly easy now-a-days and you can be up and running within
minutes with purchased and even free software. For the techno challenged a blog is the way to go as these are pretty much "turn-key".

I must warn you before we proceed... If you don't enjoy writing then getting search engine traffic to promote your MLM opportunity is going to be an uphill battle.

Here's Why:

Search engines (Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN) are looking to rank websites or pages that are providing valuable, unique content that their searchers will find useful. For this reason alone it discounts most replicated distributor sites because they are NOT unique, they may provide some great content, but thousands of other sites provide the exact same content word for word... The search engines primarily ignore these sites.

By establishing your own blog or website you are creating a channel where you can share your own individual thoughts and ideas with the Internet audience. Writing your own content ensures that it is unique and search engines will love it. You can post these articles on your own blog, website or submit them to content directory's like MLMArticleDirectory.Com or EzineArticles.Com and there are literally thousands of others.

The problem many network marketers struggle with is what they should be writing about. Don't sweat it... there are thousands of ways to write about your MLM opportunity or it's products. Starting with you...

"The 5 Biggest Reasons I Started My Own Home Business"

That's the title of your first article... Write out the 5 reasons you decided to start your own home based business. Don't use it as a commercial for your company use it as a commercial for you. In 500-600 words total explain the 5 different reasons. This is an article that other readers may be able to relate with. Whenever you submit content for syndication you are given the opportunity to create an authors box at the end of your article. This is your chance for a commercial.

"Jane Doe has been a home business entrepreneur for the last 6 months. After looking at many different opportunities she finally chose XYZ company because of their phenomenal products and distributor training. Find out you can start building your home business today.

Now... This is where I am going to get a little technical with you... And explain something called "Anchor Text" this is critically important to make sure that your articles get picked up for the keywords and searches you intended for.

Anchor text is the text that is displayed for a clickable link... for example www.mlmarticledirectory.com is a clickable link... MLM Article Directory is also a clickable link leading to the same place but with the anchor text "MLM Article Directory" This little bit of text is primarily the very first thing a search engine is going to see and take into account when they follow a link to spider your site. So remember when you are creating links in your authors box and/or articles themselves that you always use link anchor text that is targeted for the keywords you want to achieve ranking for.

In addition to your anchor text the "Title" of your articles and/or blog posts must be again be reflect exactly the keywords you wanted to achieve ranking for. So for the above article example I have given you...

"The 5 Biggest Reasons I Started My Own Home Business"

This was your article blog/post title notice how it has the keyword "Home Business" tucked in there..? This is what I am talking about... Now for the authors box...

"Jane Doe has been a home business entrepreneur for the last 6 months. After looking at many different opportunities she finally chose XYZ company because of their phenomenal products and distributor training. Find out you can start building your home business today.

Notice how I've made two clickable links that both include the anchor text "Home Business"...? This are links that the search engines would probably deem important for the keyword "Home Business" and would take note of them as such. The more links with the anchor text "Home Business" you have pointing back to your site from your articles and content distribution the higher up the search engines you will rank. It's a simple concept really... And one that anyone can employ for them if they spend a little time each week to write and submit a new piece of content to your blog or an article directory. This method costs you nothing but time and after a few weeks, to a few months (depending on the frequency you write articles) you will be able to start seeing the results from your efforts and your site and or articles will start appearing within search engine results.

Carl Sorensen - Author MLM Article Directory

By Chris Kosman
Chris Kosman writes about MLM in his blog MLM SPOT. A site dedicated to every Network Marketer seeking the right knowledge to build his business.

Are you in MLM or direct sales and frustrated with how slowly your business grow? Do you get angry for not having the desired success in network marketing and are you constantly searching to find what to blame for not making the money you want from your marketing efforts?

Well, you don’t need to search any further. It is yourself that got you into that position and if you want to improve your position and the results you get you have to stop whining, or try to find someone to blame for your failure. It is not the company’s management, or product, nor the whole multi level marketing industry, or your prospects that hold you back from success.

The way your MLM home business progress is a result of the time and effort you put into it in order to make it work. If you neglect your responsibilities no one else is going to recruit or make the sales for you. There is no secret for getting your favorable outcome from your network marketing program. You just need more advertising and prospecting.

Provided that you have the basic training for promoting, all you need is to scale up your efforts after you first examine the current results you are getting from marketing your business and cut the “fat”. That’s right, roughly only a 20% of your actions are responsible for the 80% of your results as the Pareto principle states. If you want to stop being an MLM failure you have to identify what is working best and do more of it.

Whether you are relying on Google advertising, blogging, affiliate prospecting systems, or web 2.0 online tactics for promoting your multilevel marketing opportunity, you have to examine and analyze the effect they have on your business. Once you know it concentrate and start working harder and more hours on doing the one single thing that gives you the best results.

But in order to move to that direction you have first to get rid of the attitude of trying to find a scape goat for not having the MLM success that you are dreaming. You need to turn to an action oriented person that accepts his mistakes, learn from them, and go out and do it right this time.

This Guest spot brought to you by Chris Kosman.

The route to your MLM Success passes from our blog. Training and knowledge that can help your multilevel marketing home business reach the next level.

Welcome to the club. If it’s any comfort, you are not alone!

According to a well-known survey, 65% of us would rather die than speak in public. Many have tried for years to overcome their fear and given it up as hopeless. But wait! There is hope.

We can now turn to one tested method to end the fear of public speaking that has been shown to yield amazing results. It is The Lefkoe Method (TLM).

Probably the least known, but possibly the fastest way of getting rid of the fear of speaking in public, is The Lefkoe Method (TLM). TLM is based on the knowledge that our behavior is governed by what we believe to be true. Therefore, it focuses on finding the 10 or so negative beliefs that make us fear public speaking. These can be such beliefs as, Mistakes and failure are bad; If I make a mistake, I’ll be rejected; or People aren’t interested in what I have to say; etc.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this approach is how consistently it works.

In a study published by the Journal of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, university researchers found that on a scale of 1-10, participants who used TLM lowered their fear of public speaking from an average of 7 down to 1.5 (1 was a lack of any fear at all). It took an average 3.5 hours for participants to reach this level. In follow-up six months later, the fear had not returned. Based on this evidence, the researchers concluded that, The Lefkoe Method is an effective, quick, and convenient procedure to eliminate the fear of speaking in public.

TLM was created over 20 years ago by Morty Lefkoe, founder of The Lefkoe Institute. He and several other certified facilitators have helped over 12,000 clients rid themselves of their fear of public speaking, along with many other emotional and behavioral problems. Their Speaking Without Fear Program is offered with a money-back guarantee: if your fear is not gone in four or less one-hour telephone sessions, you’ll get a full refund. For more information visit: Fear of Public Speaking.

The Lefkoe Institute (TLI) has a money back guarantee and a 97% success rate.

Keep in mind that most people who have benefited from TLM agree that the skill of the practitioner is of the utmost importance in determining the effectiveness of the program. If you really desire to overcome your fear of public speaking, be sure you are working with someone who is highly skilled, gives you confidence in his/her ability, and makes you want to succeed. And about that money-back guarantee? Couldn’t hurt.

Source: Speak Up Daily

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Part of the hype that you often hear from MLM companies is “Its not sales; were providing a service”. You may have been told that you dont need any background sales experience or that you are simply providing people with the information they are seeking already. You may have been told that this is “sharing” or “providing a service” and that its not really sales at all.

None of this is really true. Networking marketing and MLM is about sales. You will be required to sell your service or product to the public just like any other type of business. It is not only important, but essential that you know how to do this and how to do it correctly. To have MLM success, you need to be knowledgeable in sales.

One common untruth that spreads its way through the network marketing industry is the belief that this isnt really sales and that instead you are just “sharing” useful products or information with people. While its certainly a pleasant way to look at things, its not a realistic way. Remember that anytime you are asking someone to give you money in exchange for a product or service, this is sales.

While its nice to think you are doing some great good for the community around you and that you have a product that people will be clamoring over one another to buy from you, its going to be a disappointing reality when this doesnt happen. The only time your personal recommendation really means anything is when you have nothing to gain from the transaction. When the transaction will earn you financial gain, your well-intentioned recommendations to friends and family to purchase the product suddenly have a different meaning.

No matter how great your product is, or you think it is, there will still be sales involved in network marketing. In fact, the better your sales techniques, the more successful you will be. Its important that you learn an appropriate and effective sales technique for selling your product. Its not enough to simply suggest it to the people that you know. Once you realize that network marketing really is about sales, you will improve your business.

If you are sitting back with the attitude that this isnt really sales or that your product is so great, it will sell itself without you really needing to do anything, than you might be wondering why you are not making sales or making any money. If you ever hope to be successful, you have to recognize first that it is sales and second, that you need a proper sales strategy and marketing technique. Once you have achieved this, you will be well on your way to success.

In fact, your product doesnt even matter all that much, provided, of course, that it is a useful product which is being sold at a fair price. What many people overlook is that marketing is king, and a great marketing approach will sell most anything to anyone.

Thats why the secret to success is not primarily in the product, but in the marketing strategy. And this is where many network marketing and MLM companies fall down, because they dont have an effective marketing system in place for new distributors to simply plug into.

Thats the single biggest reason why so many network marketers fail. And thats why the first question you should always ask when considering a home business is, “How am I going to market these products or services”.

If your potential sponsor doesnt have a satisfactory answer to that question: Run a mile

About the Author
Ann McLaren is a former network marketing failure who now earns a multiple six-figure income after learning how to market. Visit her at http://www.annmclaren.biz

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Source: mlm success