When created based on the best principles, often called The Five Pillars, a Network Marketing company is one that has chosen a specific marketing model instead of the most common methods used in the business world.

Network Marketing Defined Network Marketing is people sharing and promoting products and services directly to other people. A Network Marketing company chooses to use money to pay people who do this direct marketing instead of using that same money for newspaper, television, billboards, telemarketing, or other marketing methods. Most traditional marketing is not direct. It is often called “spray and pray.” You put up a billboard and you hope it brings you customers or at least establishes your brand. But word-of-mouth has always been the best form of advertising, even for businesses that are strictly online. This is because, more often than not, people buy people, not stuff. If you are new to Network Marketing, you need to read Tom “Big Al” Schreiter’s book, “Are You Walking Past A Fortune?“

What is MLM?

The acronym stands for Multi-Level-Marketing. Network Marketing companies know that it is not enough to just have someone who wants to promote your wares. Your distributors need training. So not only will a good Network Marketing company reward you for sales, they will also reward you for training others. This creates a hierarchy of people. The people you train and those they train become your “Downline.” The people above you are called your “Upline.” They should be training you and supporting you.

Why is MLM So Often Frowned Upon? Because greed and ego are both very much alive. Companies have been created by the unscrupulous with the sole purpose to rip people off. People have been trained to hard-sell their friends and family so often that all it takes nowadays is for a family member to get the slightest impression you have joined an MLM and they avoid you like deer avoiding a lion. And like the deer, they think you are going to pounce on them. Why? Because pouncing has been the norm for so long.

The Good News about Network Marketing
The good news is that there are reputable companies that use the multi-level or Network Marketing model. Again I refer you to The Five Pillars. These are five ingredients for a company or opportunity worth joining.

Combining Internet Marketing with Network Marketing allows you to represent a Network Marketing company without approaching anyone, and I mean anyone including friends, family, coworkers, etc. Unless it just so happens that you know they want to consider what you have to offer. The strategy that is working is to build your business by targeting those most likely to be interested via the Internet. As you have more and more success, your friends and family will ask you: “What are you doing that has made this change in your life? Will you help me do it?” That is Network Marketing.

How I Got Into Network Marketing
As most people in Network Marketing, I have a “Day Job.” For the last three years I have worked for a training company. With them, I have been a business trainer, internal trainer, and instructional designer. I led the team that developed their online training program.

In the Spring of 2008, I was given the assignment by my employer to create a course of instruction for teaching people how to be successful in building a network marketing company. In my research for that project, I came across Mentoring-For-Free. This is an international organization that offers free training to any professional network marketer regardless of what company they are involved in or what products they promote.

Mentoring For Free It was founded by Michael Dlouhy, the author of the book, Success in Ten Steps. In addition to the book, the free training consists of several live calls held each week, along with recorded audio training.

No company or product is mentioned or promoted. The system can be used to train your own associates in some basic skills needed for success, such as how to immediately determine the best approach to take with a specific prospect (page 46), how to understand your company’s compensation plan (page 80) for maximum earnings, how to create and maintain the mindset needed for success, how to build relationships, and how to obtain the names and phone numbers of potential prospects without spending a lot of money or approaching friends and family.

After finding Mentoring For Free, we realized that the course of instruction I was designing did not have a need. The need was already met. The project was shelved and we moved on to other things. I became a member of Mentoring For Free. Many of my clients who had hired us to teach them Internet Marketing did so because they wanted to market the products of their Network Marketing company. I have referred many of them who have benefited from the free training.

Own Your Life

Eventually I found a company that fit my interests and that survived the scrutiny of measuring it against the 5-Pillars of a sound Network Marketing company.

Blogging Goals
My goals with this blog include sharing the training of Mentoring For Free, helping people understand what it takes to be successful in Network Marketing, how to avoid scams, and how to own your life.

Join me on this journey.

Gary J. Harris