Evaluating a Network Marketing Business

Written by Carol Woods


I've recently been on a search for a reputable network marketing company with a product and comp plan I thought would make me money. As a mom, I have different priorities than some ofrepparttar "typical" network marketers (at least inrepparttar 122591 way I picture them) - but still want to increase my income so I have more time to spend with my kids!

Now before you say "ughhh" to network marketing, let me give you a few facts: ·There are a lot of people who have been made wealthy through network marketing ·There are some very high quality products sold through these companies ·It's much less expensive for a company to use commission-only reps (you!) to sell their products rather than mounting a major advertising campaign and buying shelf space in retail stores ·When franchising first started, many people called it a pyramid scheme, said it should be illegal, and generally thought badly of it. Franchising is now an established way of doing business, and I suspect network marketing soon will be as well. ·You don't have to hassle your family and friends to do network marketing. There are new approaches which use mass media such as classified ads andrepparttar 122592 internet to identify interested people. Your job is just to tell them aboutrepparttar 122593 opportunity and see if it's right for them. I'll give more detail on this below.

A couple terminology items before we get started: ·Upline: This refers to all people "above" you inrepparttar 122594 hierarchy ofrepparttar 122595 company. The person who signs you up for a network marketing opportunity is your primary upline. ·Downline: This refers to all people who sign up "below" you inrepparttar 122596 company - either directly signing up with you, or signing up with those who you brought on board.

Here are some quick facts aboutrepparttar 122597 way network marketing works: ·You are responsible for sellingrepparttar 122598 products and for bringing on others to help sellrepparttar 122599 products. In most programs,repparttar 122600 emphasis is on bringing on others - since sales can be increased much more quickly by a group than by an individual. ·All orders are sent in to a central location, andrepparttar 122601 company sendsrepparttar 122602 products ordered directly torepparttar 122603 purchaser. (Inrepparttar 122604 "old days" people often had to keep a stock of products on hand in their garage, but this isn't usually done anymore.) ·The company provides extensive marketing materials for you to use in selling and recruiting. ·You have a great deal of flexibility in how you run your business and inrepparttar 122605 hours you put in.

Evaluating a network marketing company:

If you think you might be interested in network marketing, your next step will be to start looking atrepparttar 122606 opportunities available and to findrepparttar 122607 right one for you. There are a lot of them, so I would suggest you first define what you want (readrepparttar 122608 info below and you'll be ready to put a list together) and then look for opportunities that match up with it. Here are things to look at:

The Product ------ It is important that you can get excited aboutrepparttar 122609 product. If it's something you aren't interested in, you will never be successful at it.

In addition, look atrepparttar 122610 use ofrepparttar 122611 product. If it's something which is used on an occasional basis, you will need a lot more customers / downline reps to sell a particular amount ofrepparttar 122612 product. If it's something which is used on an ongoing basis - vitamins, cleaning products, meal replacement shakes - you will have a higher level of repeat sales and a more stable income stream, since people will order these items on a regular basis. I would strongly suggest you find a product which is consumed on an ongoing basis.

The Company ------ As in any industry,repparttar 122613 majority of network marketing businesses fail inrepparttar 122614 first five years. Therefore, you need to be extremely careful in selecting a company that will standrepparttar 122615 test of time. The easiest way to do this is to select only a company that has a track record of increasing sales and profits for at least five years. This narrowrepparttar 122616 field drastically.

Onrepparttar 122617 plus side, ifrepparttar 122618 company you're researching is public traded, so muchrepparttar 122619 better. It will be easy to scan financial statements and quarterly earnings reports. You're looking for a company that is well managed, solvent, with little or no debt, that has reached a critical mass of distributors to sustain growth and that has been around enough to have worked out allrepparttar 122620 beginning bugs.

Compensation ------ The most important consideration when choosing a pay plan isrepparttar 122621 number of people that you must enroll to begin earning income. The lowerrepparttar 122622 numberrepparttar 122623 better.

There are five or six different and competing systems that network marketing companies use to reward their distributors/associates/affiliates. They arerepparttar 122624 breakaway,repparttar 122625 unilevel,repparttar 122626 matrix,repparttar 122627 two-up,repparttar 122628 binary, and various hybrid or combination plans. Each of these is described in more detail below.

BREAKAWAY

The stairstep/breakaway compensation plan is without questionrepparttar 122629 most common of all compensation plans. It is also responsible for most ofrepparttar 122630 really big money being made inrepparttar 122631 network marketing industry. However, this big money is being earned by a small percentage of those distributors involved in breakaway opportunities. What does setrepparttar 122632 breakaway apart from most other plans is that they are definitely geared to a full time effort. As a result, attrition is higher with breakaways as well asrepparttar 122633 expense involved in working and building a distributor base with them

The Breakaway plan generally has 3 or 4 increasing rank positions that can be achieved by meeting progressively higher sales volume requirements over a specified period of time. Allrepparttar 122634 distributors under you are considered part of your personal group and their personal sales volume combines with yours to help you to move to these progressively higher rank positions at which point you will breakaway. You will generally earn higher commissions onrepparttar 122635 lower rank distributors under you (in your personal group) and this commission will decrease as they too move uprepparttar 122636 stairsteps torepparttar 122637 breakaway side.

When you do breakaway, you become your own "organization" - in other words, you are no longer part of your upline's group. Your downline group comes with you as well as their sales volume which combined is called group volume. With most breakaways there is a set/defined personal group volume that has to be met each month in order to qualify for commissions on other breakaways. There is also a personal sales volume requirement that you as an individual have to do each month.

When someone you personally sponsored in your personal group qualifies as you did to breakaway, they officially breakaway from your personal group and take bothrepparttar 122638 distributors and volume that are underneath them from you. They are now considered one of your first generation breakaway groups and you will earn on a monthly commission on this entire group by meetingrepparttar 122639 plan's monthly defined personal group sales volume requirement. With most breakaway plans,repparttar 122640 more first generation breakaway groups you haverepparttar 122641 more generations deep of breakaways you will qualify to be paid on. Keep in mind that what makes a breakaway more of a full-time work program is that you have to constantly meet your monthly personal group sales volume in order to be paid commissions on your generational breakaways. However, ifrepparttar 122642 goal is to have as many first generation breakaways as you can, you will continuously be losing distributors (as they breakaway) in your personal group whose volume will have to be made up in order for you to meetrepparttar 122643 monthly group volume requirement. This means lots and lots of recruiting for new distributors.

The Straight Goods on Traffic-Generating Programs

Written by Angela Wu


It's no wonder that there are so many programs meant to helprepparttar online business owner drive traffic to their websites. With billions of web pages on all topics imaginable, most of our sites are just a tiny "blip" onrepparttar 122590 Internet radar.

Doing business online is to some extent a numbers game... but to just seek traffic forrepparttar 122591 sake of it? In my experience, it's usually a waste of time.

Let's use spam as an example - you knowrepparttar 122592 type: they solicit you for all sorts of things, from printer cartridges to porn, from "free" vacations to weight loss supplements. Most people simply get annoyed and deleterepparttar 122593 email. But out of allrepparttar 122594 hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people who receivedrepparttar 122595 email, there's bound to be a few people who buy.

The same concept applies to many ofrepparttar 122596 "traffic-generating" programs found far and wide onrepparttar 122597 'net. These programs typically claim to send a "flood" of visitors to your site -- and many of them do exactly that.

So what'srepparttar 122598 problem? It's simply that most traffic- generating programs aren't targeted to your audience. They're meant to do one thing: send you *traffic*. That could mean that your "makeup tips" site is receiving hits from people looking for pet supplies, automotive tips, or work-at-home jobs. These visitors are generally uninterested in what you have to offer, and are far less likely to make a purchase.

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