I’ll admit that this is kind of a sore subject for me becauseI really dislike MLM and network marketing.
It’s easy to compare internet marketing and MLM, because they are actually very different things, though sometimes language is used in such a way that makes them seem like they are actually the same.
This is mostly because MLM scammers do not know the difference.
MLM stands for Multi-Level-Marketing
Basically, it is a pyramid scheme that has found a loophole. Hopefully you have heard the term ‘pyramid scheme’, though you may be a bit unclear about what it actually is.
Pyramid schemes are illegal in many countries. They basic idea is that when you sign up, you pay a fee to be ‘in the group’ or ‘part of the business’. You are then responsible for getting people into your ‘down line’, i.e. the people that pay you to enter the group.
Of the fee they pay you, a percentage goes to your ‘up line’, the people who signed you up, and a percentage goes to you. Then when people in your down line sign OTHER people up, you make a percentage of whatever fees they get paid.
The more people in your downline, the more you get paid. The more people your down line signs up, the more you get paid.
The problem is that this is just exchanging money. There is no product, and no value. The last person in the ‘scheme’ is unable to make money because there is no one to pay them, and the first people that are on top of the ‘pyramid’ (probably the owners of the business) are multi-millionaires.
Multi-level marketing is THE SAME THING, except they found a loophole. By providing products along with the exchange of money, they can say that they are actually selling something.
Still, the concept works the same. I sell you some crap and an opportunity to get people into your ‘group’. Whoever pays you for the crappy products, both I and you make a percentage, all the meanwhile, the big-heads on top are becoming millionaires!
Plus, no one really wants the crap that MLM people are selling, which may be Tupperware, magazine subscriptions, or access to MLM training videos.
I’ll talk more about multi-level marketing in this video below, but lets move onto internet marketing, which is something completely different.
I’ll talk more about multi-level marketing in this video below, but lets move onto internet marketing, which is something completely different.
The Facts About Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is a broad concept that simply refers to marketing things on the internet. Many real businesses use internet marketing through Google Adwords, search engine marketing, or YouTube. There are tons of ways to leverage the internet to market real businesses, real services, and real products.
I mentioned earlier that MLM scammers like to now call what they do “internet marketing”. In some ways, they are right; they have figured out how to use the internet to extend the reach of their scams. In some sense of the work , it is in fact, ‘internet marketing’.
The trouble is that many people, including myself, refer to the work we do online as internet marketing. In fact, I call myself an internet marketer. This is because I have several websites and do marketing for several different businesses. I do not work for just one company or promote just one product.
So “internet marketer” describes what I do.
What Will Be Your Business Reputation Online?
Furthermore, internet marketing is also closely related to ‘affiliate marketing’, which is a more specific term that refers to affiliating yourself (or website) with certain products and companies. This is what I teach in my 5 Day Getting Started Course and what I learned in the business community called Wealthy Affiliate.
In pains me to think that some people may mistake what I do as the scummy work that MLMers do. And I feel even worse when I realize that many people who are new to making money online may be tricked, or led astray by false promises of riches.
I will no doubt write more on this subject in the future because I hope to clarify the difference between building a legitimate, sustainable business on the internet and just getting a group of your friends to sell a bunch of useless rubbish to try and make a few dirty dollars.
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