A BRIEF LOOK AT 4 MLM COMPENSATION PLANS

by: Judy Thompson
Copyright 2005 Judy Thompson

If you are thinking about joining a network marketing company, also referred to as multi-level marketing, or MLM, one important item you will want to understand is its compensation plan. Otherwise, “How will I get paid?”

There are four basic kinds of MLM compensation plans that will be described in this article.. Each of these may have several variations. Some plans are better suited for the people who really enjoy sales and may desire to retail a lot of products. Some plans are designed to attract especially the “heavy hitter.” Some plans pay well for the beginner and may or may not be attractive to the big recruiter. Some plans make a serious effort to reward even the little guy or gal who can only sponsor or recruit a few people, but also pay very well to the top distributors.

These plans are called Unilevel, Stairstep Breakaway, Binary, and Matrix.

1. UNILEVEL. This is a simple, straightforward compensation plan. It allows for a distributor to have a first level of unlimited width. The levels the company pays commission on generally range from 3 to 9 levels deep. The more volume generated by you and your organization, the more you can earn. A disadvantage to this plan is that building wide means the distributor may give less help to his personal enrollees.

2. STAIRSTEP BREAKAWAY. This is the most common of all the compensation plans. It is where most of the really big money is made in MLM. This big money, however, is made by a very small percentage of people. Breakaway plans are geared for full-time effort. Attrition is the highest with breakaway plans and it generally will cost more to build your business. This is a work program. It takes persistence, salesmanship, and requires the ability for you to train your recruits. Companies which use breakaway plans tend to pay higher commissions. However, the plan may be extremely difficult for most people to duplicate.

3. BINARY. This is a very complicated and hard-to-understand plan. It does, however, offer a simple system that is easy to duplicate. Otherwise, you recruit just two and help them do the same.

4. MATRIX. This plan allows you to build a limited width organization. For example, a 2 X 12 group means two people on your first level, and paying 12 levels deep. Other examples would be a 4 X 5, 3 X 9, etc. This is generally pretty simple and easy to understand and explain. The low volume requirements usually common to matrix plans helps make it a good plan for part-time distributors.

The above briefing only scratches the surface of these compensation plans. For a more detailed description, you may wish to go to: www.mlminsider.com

Even though some of the internet hype may claim that you can make big bucks with only a little work, don’t believe it! With network marketing, as in any other business, you’re going to have to work at it and make some investments if you expect to be successful. To make money in MLM, you will have to work, no matter what company or compensation plan you select!

7 COMMON SENSE MLM BUSINESS TIPS

by: Judy Thompson
Copyright 2005 Judy Thompson

So you have decided to join a network marketing company with the goal of building a successful home business! How do you know if you have what it takes to succeed? Do you even know what it takes to succeed?

As a long-term owner of a store-front business, and as an experienced network marketer, I would like to make some comparisons of a conventional store-front type of business, to a home-based network marketing business.

If you were planning to purchase a conventional business of some kind, perhaps, an appliance business or a shoe store, you would be asking some specific questions before investing your hard-earned money. You would want to consider the following:
v Does it have stability, or is it a risky new start-up venture?
v How hard will it be to acquire customers for my product or service?
v How long will it take to break even and then make a profit?
v How much time do I have to devote to this business?
v Is there a mentor nearby who will teach me the business?
v Am I willing to stick with this even though there may be a number of obstacles to overcome & not everything goes right all the time?

Your list of questions could go on and on.

Now let’s turn to another scenario. Instead of purchasing a conventional business, you find many “opportunities” on the internet. Network marketing, of course, has the great benefit of enabling you to build a residual income from the comfort of your own home at a much lower start-up cost. However, there is much “hype” on the internet, countless websites really look great, and they make success sound so easy, that it can be deceiving to the average person..

So when the person joins a good company and doesn’t make big bucks in a few weeks, it is easy for him to think that the fault is with the company. Meanwhile, he’s received 14 other great offers that make it sound easier than what he just joined. He quits before even getting started and joins another company. Usually the second opportunity doesn’t work either, and he goes to number three, number four, etc. Generally the new start-up opportunities will not last long, will fail, and may even just disappear. Unfortunately, at this point a person may have spent a lot of time and money just chasing rabbits.

How can this merry-go-round of failures be avoided? Here are 7 common sense MLM business tips that I believe will help you avoid this cycle of failures:
1. Find out how stable the company is. Is it a new start-up venture? If so chances are it will not be around for the long haul. Remember, you only have a future if your company has a future!
2. How much time will you be able to personally devote to this business? With network marketing, not only does it take some time to recruit people into your business, but you also have a responsibility to communicate with and try to help the people who have joined you.
3. Can you believe in the products? If you truly believe in your company’s product line, people will see your enthusiasm and be more likely to join you.
4. Are you willing to make a commitment to just the one company for at least 6 months? Most successful network marketers say you should stick with it and work it hard for at least a year. Very few marketers can do justice to promoting more than one or two network marketing companies at the same time. If you spread yourself too thin, you are less likely to succeed with any of them.
5. Is it the kind of business that you could be happy telling your friends about? For example, even though my primary way of marketing is on the internet, my company has some products that have helped me so much, I just naturally want to share their benefits with my friends.
6. Is there a system in place to help you build your business? Most good companies these days do provide their distributors with workable business tools to help them market their business both locally, and on the internet.
7. If your company provides you with a good website, how will you get people to take a look at your website? Having a support system that actually will bring people to your website for you can be the difference in success or failure for many of us.

If you are a person who wants to build either a part-time or full-time residual income from the comfort of your own home, I hope you will realize that it is better to find a good company and stick with it, than to jump from opportunity to opportunity looking for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Don’t be an “MLM Junkie!” Work it like a business and you will certainly increase your odds for success!

3 very simple steps to making money online

by: Mike Law
Network Marketing or MLM (Multi Level Marketing) is one of the biggest earning potentials on the internet today. The internet is a multi billion dollar industry where the advantages of trading are virtually endless. Here are some of the key reasons why I highly recommend Network Marketing.

The ability to not only work from home but from almost any location in the world as long as you have access to the internet was the biggest attraction for me personally. It opens a whole new world of possibilities in regards to the way you can live your life.

You work the hours you want, and you are also your own boss. It is much easier to motivate yourself when you know your efforts are going to increase your own earning potential and not the person you are working for. Also your earning potential is endless and your business grows by itself once you have the right tools in place.

Another huge benefit of Network Marketing is the amount needed to invest is far smaller than virtually any other business so you really have very little to lose. However one of the reasons a lot of people fail at Network Marketing is because they want something for nothing. Expecting to make huge profits with no time and money invested will get you no where.

This leads me to my next point of working smarter rather than harder. How you market your business is crucial to its success. You are competing in a global market with millions of potential customers; however reaching these customers is your biggest challenge. There are so many marketing tools on the market today of which a large majority of them will generate very little if any residual profits for your company. The most effective tools for you to use are the ones which will target motivated individuals who are already interested in the products and or services which you offer.

You could for example invest substantial amounts of money on tools which promise millions of hits to your site and gain absolutely no business whatsoever. On the other hand you could invest smarter and utilise the tools which target those potential associates as mentioned above for a much smaller investment. And this is where the beauty of the plug in profit system is so evident. All the most effective tools and methods are supplied for you to save you years of trial and error.

So by now you are probably thinking that this Network Marketing venture of yours is going to require a lot more time than you thought? The answer is no. Right now is the perfect time to get involved for one main reason, Turnkey solutions. Network Marketing guru’s have developed these solutions to grow their businesses, however at the same time making it extremely simple for you to grow yours. Five of my income streams come from one turnkey site which was setup in a few hours with three easy steps. To get started or to learn more go to www.wealthontap.com/pips.html

All the best.

3 Easy, Money Making Internet Business Models

by: Gobala Krishnan
Copyright 2005 Gobala Krishnan

Amid all the noise and hype on the Internet today, not many people realize that all the ideas and techniques you can find are petty much useless if you don't first understand your business model. In other words, even the most amazing Internet marketing technique will not work if you don't understand how to apply it to YOUR business.

The 3 most popular business models are:

1) Affiliate Marketing

This is perhaps the most popular one out there, since there are absolutely no barriers to entry. Almost anyone can sign-up for an affiliate program for free and start promoting the product or service on the Internet with hopes that someone will buy, giving them instant commissions. Affiliate marketers don't carry any risk, since they do not pay for the creation of the product, they do not handle customer service and they do not need any up-front investments.

When you consider that those are the top three things people want to avoid, it's no surprise that almost everyone and their neighbor promotes an affiliate program or another. In fact, if there is a single reason why the Internet today is so proliferated with ads and banners, it's because of affiliate programs.

Even though there are so many affiliate marketers out there, only 5% ever make any money and only 1% makes big money. The "Super Affiliates" do it very differently from all the other millions; therefore they earn the big checks.

You can get a good idea of how to be a good affiliate marketer here: http://affiliatemarketing.sitesell.com/globalmillionaire.html

2) E-book and Information Publishing

Sitting at the other end of the spectrum, e-book authors need to be more disciplined in their approach to Internet marketing. Of course, they also need to invest more than affiliates do. While affiliates can get away trying to "get something for nothing" the same is not true for the e-book type of business.

If you're thinking about publishing and selling your own e-book online, and you think it's going to be easy, think again. You'll need to learn a lot more than affiliates are required to. You'll need to spend some amount of money getting your business up and running. However, when you do it right, the payoff in this online business model is much more rewarding.

The reason why e-book marketers and "Infopreneurs" make more money is simple; they have very, very low production and maintenance costs. Anything digital doesn't cost a single cent to be produced in millions if necessary. Whatever initial start-up costs spent can be covered by selling just a few copies of high-margin e-books, and you can even recruit an army of affiliates who are more than willing to do all the selling for you.

Of course, it's not as easy as it sounds, but the point is, when done properly, the "E-book Publishing" model is a truly profitable business.

You can learn more about e-book publishing at http://egoods.sitesell.com/globalmillionaire.html

3) Internet Based Network Marketing

I've heard many people say that the Internet and network marketing are a match made in heaven. In my opinion, though, almost 90% of people get it wrong when it comes to Internet based network marketing. People in this business usually think they're talking about network marketing, but in reality they are talking about affiliate marketing.

They try to make the Internet do all the work. They hide behind their computers and pretend everything's going great. They focus on selling more and more every month. They have systems that are so complicated only they can understand it. Well, that doesn't sound like network marketing to me!

Internet based network marketing is simple if you understand it, and are willing to put in the effort. The role of the Internet here is only to get you the names and contact details of people you can talk to, after which YOU, not a computer, has to build a relationship with these people and help them to start their own business.

For this simple purpose, it is not necessary for you to have a high-tech system and pretend that your auto responder is building relationships for you. It's not going to work. The key is to have simple systems that are duplicable, something you can teach to all those people you have built a relationship with. For this purpose I use NetMarkPro at http://www.netmarkpro.net/globalmillionaire and teach my own affiliates to use it too.

E-book authors, no matter what they say, have no obligation to teach you their "Secret Strategies to Become a Millionaire” of any variations to that. The reason is simple; why tell you the absolute truth when you'll end up as their competitor? No one wants more competitors, right?

Internet based network marketing is very much the opposite of that. You HAVE to tell people EVERYTHING you know or your business will never take off. For this reason alone, I always recommend that if you're new to the online world, you need to first join an Internet based network marketing business at least to learn. Rest assured, no one will be selling you half-baked truths when their success ultimately depends on yours.

These are the Top 3 most popular online business models today. There are more, of course, and you can read about it at http://case-studies.sitesell.com/globalmillionaire.html

No matter which model you choose, make sure you understand the basics, and stop listening to and buying things that are not applicable to your business. Information overload can stop you before you even get started.

3 Business Models For Creating Wealth On The Internet

by: Sean Gum
Copyright 2005 Sean Gum

The Internet has the potential to make you rich! I am sure you have heard it over and over again. Everybody knows you CAN get rich using the Internet, but HOW?

Over the last 8 years, I have researched hundreds of Internet business opportunities... I have purchased dozens of Get-Rich Information packs... I have listened to over 100 audiobooks on how to prosper using the Internet... I've been to countless seminars, some costing as much as $3,400 to attend! And I've tested all the tips, tricks and techniques to find out what works and what doesn't.

What I discovered was that there are three distinct business models that you can use to create wealth with the Internet. I've used all three to create an income stream of over $1 million dollars per year.

And I do it all from the comfort of my home... with no employees...

Would you like to learn how?

In this article I will give a brief overview of each of the three business models. Then, in upcoming articles I will discuss each model in greater detail along with direct links to resources I have used that are working for me RIGHT NOW!

*** ONE SECRET That All 3 Models Have In Common ***

As you learn about all of the models, you will notice one thing that they all have in common. That one thing is called "leverage."

What is leverage?

J. Paul Ghetty once said, "I would rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 men than 100% of my own efforts."

J. Paul understood leverage. Some of the models that I will present will leverage the efforts of hundreds and even thousands of other people to produce an income for you...

In other business models we'll use computers and technology to create leverage.

In either case, leverage allows you to earn money while you sleep... while you vacation... while you spend time with your family....

Leverage is the secret to financial freedom!

*** Business Model #1 - Network Marketing ***

Network Marketing, or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) has bloomed into a multi-billion dollar business. Even with all of this success, we still run into people today that call it a pyramid-scheme....

Network Marketing allows you to start a business at home that is similiar to a franchise. However, there is no franchise fee of millions of dollars. Instead, you pay a small entry fee, some as low as $35 to become a distributor. However, you get the backing of a major corporation to support you and to help you build your own home business.

You also get the opportunity to go International with your home business with some network marketing companies reaching into 60 or more countries!

MLM has come a long way, baby!

The unique thing about Network Marketing is that your upline is actually motivated to help you succeed. (Unlike a BOSS who doesn't want you to know what he knows - or you'd take his job!)

I have been (and still am) involved with 3 different network marketing companies... I will tell you about the good, the bad and the ugly in an upcoming article on Network Marketing.

*** Business Model #2 - Affiliate Programs ***

Affiliate programs have become very successful over the years. In fact, we started our own affiliate program several years ago, and saw it grow to over 3,000 affiliates in less than a year.

Basically, affiliate programs are ways that you can promote somebody else's product or service and get paid for it.

This is usually done by a banner ad, or announcement to a customer or other specialized list.

If you currently have a high traffic website, you should be participating in at least several different affiliate programs. Nowadays, there are networks of affiliate programs that take the threat of not being paid out of the picture. (It used to be a problem when everyone was running thier own...)

If you have a lot of time on your hands, and no money at all to get started in Network Marketing, than this is a great option to start out with.

I will tell you where to find these networks and how to get started in an upcoming article on Affiliate Programs.


*** Business Model #3 - Information Marketing ***

This is the model I am currently using to build my next million dollars, while my business partner spends his time building our Network Marketing businesses...

What is Information Marketing?

Basically it is taking something that you love doing and writing articles, ebooks and even creating teleseminars and live seminars.

It might sound like a lot of work, but you start small and work your way up.

I will be showing you how EVERYBODY has at least one special skill or ability that can be turned into an ebook and sold online... Really!

I recently attended a seminar that cost $3,400 to attend. This 3-day seminar was packed full of hundreds of tips and techniques to build an Information Marketing business.

I will be passing what I learned onto you through several upcoming articles....

All of the business models that I have presented have the power to create six and even seven digit incomes in as little as 9 months!

I will go into *much* greater detail on each of these three business models in upcoming articles on each one. I will also be providing updates of current progress to those of you on my mailing list, so be sure to join!

God bless...