You may have already heard the term internetwork marketing but you might not know what it is. Internetwork marketing is the process of building a network marketing organization using the internet. So how do you do this effectively? The internet has so many options and opportunities that it can be easy to get lost or waste a lot of time with activities that are not productive.

1. Make a plan for how you are going to use the internet with your network marketing business. For example, are you going to write articles? How many? Create a blog? What will be the major theme or topic of your blog? Join social networking communities? Which ones?

2. Create a website that offers useful content to its visitors and positions you as either a network marketing expert, or a professional in the field in which you are representing yourself.

3. Develop a plan for how you will brand yourself online. For example, you will probably want to start a newsletter and I highly recommend registering yourname.com if it is available.

4. Decide who your target market is. Make sure to include the obvious such as other network marketers, and business opportunity seekers but you may also want to include less obvious groups of people such as teachers and librarians.

5. Commit to working on your internetwork marketing plan long term. Realize that you will not make a ton of money and achieve your goals overnight.

6. Have your long-term goals for your business and for your internet activities written down. Make sure they are specific and include timelines. For large projects also write down a list of the specific steps you will need to take to make it happen.

7. Enlist the help of others who have been there and done it. Research what you can online about internetwork marketing and ask for help from anyone who offers it. There is no need to re-invent the wheel or to waste time by failing to focus on what will work the best for you.

Building a network marketing organization via the internet can be fun and very profitable. It also takes time and a lot of work. If you are a technology oriented person then this may be a great option for you. Otherwise, know that it can be done, but you will need to have patience and it may take longer than you had hoped.

AnnaLaura Brown is a professional network marketer who builds her business online. She loves helping others read their goals and dreams. To learn more about her and subscribe to her newsletter visit InterNetwork Marketing Wealth.

14 Comments

• At April 17, 2008, James wrote:

  The best way I have found is give it all away. I mean the business, and the reps! Have you seen the GBG home based business system (click name to see)? The business is free and I've devised a program the gives every rep that signs up through my site their first 2 reps. This qualifies them for ten levels of pay and also builds a perfect 2X10 forced matrix. And at the tenth level, that adds up to $2500.00 a month.

  I also have a gbg rep support forum for all my team members plus I'm in the process of developing video tutorials for seo marketing.

  Bottom line, the gbg home business has really changed some things in the industry.

• At April 17, 2008, Tom Lindstrom wrote:

  Creating a blog and updating it regularly with useful tips and marketing strategies that really work.Marketing the blog on social sites and forums. When you receive a new member in your network marketing team always help them to become successful if they are motivated to do the work required.

• At April 17, 2008, Jay wrote:

  James, that's a technique I've used, too. I run into diminishing returns eventually, though, since by my own efforts I can only fill up a matrix so fast. Picking a program that people are willing to be in even before they're making a profit is an important part of this.

  Tom, definitely! I'm heavily in favor of helping recruits learn what they need to learn to be successful on their own efforts. More sustainable in the long run.

• At April 19, 2008, MLM wrote:

  Basic internet marketing is required to do MLM these days. I see it as two fronts: online and offline. To be successful I think a person needs to be agressive in both.

• At April 21, 2008, Anders Gustavsson - MLM The Game wrote:

  The most important factor for anyhting you choose to do online is that you must track it. That is also the most beneficial thing with internet marketing, you can see everything that happens at your website or blog.

  Who is visiting?

  How long are they staying?

  What blog posts do they like?

  Where do they leave from?

  The list goes on and on...and answers to all these questions are a few clicks away, if YOU know where to click. Free accounts can be setup through google analytics, and there are may other paid options available, but I love analytics, and it does the job for us. Yes, there is a learning curve, but it is worth every hour invested if you are looking to make your living from the internet.

  Good luck!

  Enjoy Your Day!

  Anders Gustavsson

  Presdient

  Infinite Synergy, Creators of MLM The Game

• At April 27, 2008, Robin wrote:

  We must look and view life like you would a buffet counter, you are not going to eat everything even though it may all look appealing and on the other had just because something looks or “tastes” bad it does not mean it will harm you, infact how many times as a child did you have to take the medicine that tasted horid but actually did you good?

  There are so many things on the net and yes I have tried many of them.

  As a child my family wanted the best for me and I am sure they wanted me to prosper but there mentality was that if I want money I must earn it, so earn it I did.

  From the age of about 5 I would help various family members do paper rounds etc. Then at the age of about 16 moved on to posting things helping family members selling all sorts of "make your home smell clean fresh and be tidy devices"

  I worked and worked and worked through snow or rain or shine we were out there working. All the work kept me busy not playing football like the other kids or relaxing but the thing is I never had any money either and up untill lately I never had much money, not because I did not work but mainly because I did not believe I deserved better. Maybe you feel the same, and maybe you have thousands of pills, potions and products to sell simply because you think working that wayis the only way and may you think you do not deserve to work less and actuall live the life you want more? I still have not made it in life and I still will always search the net with an open mind but all I can say is that because of me speaking and meeting some real people that actually are making some real good money in life they have helped me and shown me that I can believe for better.

  Some other person said the what they thought the most important thing in life was and I would agree you must track it. Personally I think the most important thing in life and on the internet is what we are all looking for, RESULTS AND REAL RESULTS. Not some empty promise but something that will actually let you rest your head on the pillow at the end of the day and give a deep sigh of relief knowing that all the bills are paid and that you have actually done a good honest and productive days work that actually gave you REAL RESULTS.

  Thank you so much for reading my post.

• At May 20, 2008, Vic Bilson wrote:

  I believe it's important to be part of a good team willing to support me and provide the tools necessary to succeed. The folks on the FOL team go out of their way to help and their automation tools combined with a "special sauce" has been regularly adding new members to the rolls.

• At June 15, 2008, Vasi Vakil wrote:

  I learnt a Technique that has worked very well for me, it is to offer a funded proposal, make your new team member feel success in the first 2 weeks of joining, show them how to do it and leave them with measurable activity. and thats it

• At June 23, 2008, Derrick Jones wrote:

  Great work, I'll use what I've found here in my business...

• At July 21, 2008, Tom Walsh wrote:

  Great tips, I think a big reason why so many wannabe internet marketers fail is because they expect to be rich overnight. This is a massive misconception but if they follow the steps outlined above. it's definately a step in the right direction.

• At September 9, 2008, Timoseeds wrote:

  the first thing you need to know about mlm is

  be the first to know and tell the world. and you must know how to tell the world as well.

  mlm is a good money maker provided you follow the instructions given to you by your upline and with a strong mentallity you can succed

• At September 10, 2008, Mutiara Hobbs wrote:

  Great article! I have found blog to be the best internet network marketing tool based on the following reasons:

  1) SEO friendly

  2) No in-depth techie knowledge required (try blogger.com!)

  3) Can be monetized easily

  4) Great networking tool

  5) Freedom to express your opinion

  6) A lot of readily free templates available (plug and play mode)

  Have your social networking sites, like Squidoo, pointing to your blog, and you'd have the best targeted organic traffic to your blog!

  Cheers,

  M

• At September 11, 2008, Corrisa Malone wrote:

  Good Article I couldn't agree more. You need a plan if you want to be a successful Internet marketer. The 'net is so vast that you can easily get distracted and lose focus of what it is you're trying to accomplish in your marketing...whether it's Internet marketing or network marketing.

  Corrisa

• At January 14, 2009, Katie Williams wrote:

  The internet has huge potential for network marketers, but it also has a huge potential to be overwhelming.

  I'd advise that all network marketers using the internet have a daily action checklist that they get done first each day - both offline and online activities that will generate prospects, make sales and train downline leaders.

  When those essential tasks have been done each day, invest some time learning a new online skill like setting up a blog, podcasting, social networking, etc. Just don't fall into the trap of learning about all those things instead of doing your daily activity.

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The program is Freebie Force. The site itself provide access to information on savings you can get for free. None of this information is secret, but the site collects it all in one convenient location for you to search.

For example, one of the current savings is information on how to get a free cooler at CVS stores. There’s also free software, electronics, hotel stays, etc.

Of course, the main focus of the site is rewarding you for referring others to it. They charge $9.95 a month for access to the freebies database. For everyone you refer, you get paid $1 a month, down 7 levels.

Freebie Force has the same disadvantage as most multi-level pay schemes, that you need your referrals to stay active and keep paying each month for you to earn. At least the site does provide information that can save a member more than the $9.95 fee every month, so it’s better than programs where you get nothing for your fee other than the right to refer others.

Up until now, Marketing Pond has been full of free programs (and has removed programs from the list when they stopped being free. So this is a bit of a departure, adding a paid program. It’ll be interesting to see how the membership reacts.

8 Comments

• At April 9, 2008, Tanner wrote:

  Jay,

  Good article. The thing that drew me to the company was the amount of savings all in one place. It saves you hours of research to find the deals that are out there.

  I saved over $80 my first day. Obviously, to make money you need to build a downline, but with the entry point so low and benefits so high, it is almost too easy.

  People have joined me without even speaking with me. It is a business that just makes sense.

• At April 9, 2008, Jay wrote:

  Hi Tanner, good to hear from a satisfied Freebie Force member. Bargain hunting is such a big thing with a lot of people these days, I think it should be a popular program.

• At April 13, 2008, Andrew Murphy wrote:

  So many programs to choose from but unfortunately most of them don't last very long. I hope this works long term for you. Everyone wants great deals!

• At June 28, 2008, Alissa wrote:

  I signed up for Freebie Force because I thought it was worth a shot, but I was disappointed in the freebies that were available. Many of them were freebies that I have seen on other free freebies sites, others like those that involved going to a car dealership and taking a test drive don't really count as free in my book and then there were the ones that suggested you commit various forms of fraud to get the free deal. Definitely these supposedly exclusive deals are not worth the $10 monthly fee, and as an honest person there's no way I would feel comfortable recruiting other people to this program.

• At June 30, 2008, Jay wrote:

  Thanks for your views, Alissa! I haven't had time to use any of the freebies yet, so haven't really examined them. I don't really discount the "test drive" sort of freebie, since they're often promotional gimmicks, but ones that required fraud would be out of bounds.

• At October 5, 2008, valerie wrote:

  I have not viewed any 'fraud' listings. If something were deemed as fraud, no doubt they would remove it immediately. It is a large list of freebies and each day they add 3 to 10 new freebies. I can honestly say that I have been a member 6 months, been paid 13 times, and each monthly residual increases from the month before. I can also honestly say, I have not printed out any coupons, I have not taken any test drives, I have not paid any shipping, everything I have received has been 100% free and I have received OVER $2,000 worth of products..most of which has been sent right to my home mailbox. In regards to MLM, there is not Amway, not any nutri program, not any services program, not any MLM in the world that is not going to have drop outs. It happens and it can happen frequently. MLM like most everything else is a WEEDOUT PROCESS. If you are in a solid program set for longevity such as FreebieForce, which has a forced matrix, the weed out process is just fine and dandy. Because as lookiloos and program jumpers leave, members that do plan on sticking around, move up in the matrix. Eventually what you have is a solid high group, a solid team of people that place forth effort. I can say there have been many that just wanted to join and then get the refund and drop out before the 3 days is up. There has also been those that simply do not try or for whatever reason drop out. Even tho the dropouts happen, my residual income still grows every month more than the month before. FF is not a get rich quick scheme. And I can say that I dont have time and would not be scouring the net for freebies....never have, never will...but since I can log into one place and view the new freebies every day plus make growing residuals, for $9.95 a month, in my opinion...very tough biz op to beat....and with their new additions soon to be implemented, gonna make it a whole lot tougher to beat.

• At October 5, 2008, valerie wrote:

  Now I am going to tell you briefly just some of the items I have received in my home mailbox due to being a freebie force member : approximately 8 packages of gourmet coffee, three packages of organic tea, two ball caps one of which is a name brand Carhardt that probably retails for well over $20, several t-shirts, several posters, enough hair shampoo and conditioner that I won't need to buy any for an entire year, womens cosmetics, expensive facial moisturizer, body lotions, exotic soaps, regular soap such as dove soap that I use anyway, dishwasher detergent, washing detergent for clothing, sponges, candy, peanuts, snack cakes, cookies, cereal, cat food, dog food, puter software, music cd, exercise cd, exercise pedometer, various vitamins, food seasonings of various sorts, womens perfume, womens cologne, mens cologne, household cleaners, carpet cleaners, pet stain cleaner, earrings, address labels, frig magnets, womens undies, cat food dish, ...and lots lots lots more. In addition, I have received some online downloadable software, the full license version....two in particular I use often also. I will repeat, I have never taken a test drive. I am not a coupon clipper and have never printed a coupon out from freebie force altho there is coupons at times. I have never taken a survey at freebie force altho some times there may be a survey to take for an item. Six months, several thousand dollars in residual income, over two thousand dollars in freebies. For $9.95 a month. Been working online for ten years and I can tell you at least for me, it is one of the best international biz ops that makes sense that I have ever seen.

• At October 5, 2008, Jay wrote:

  Thanks for the detailed response, Valerie!

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The basic idea is to use SBI! to build a site that monetizes, at least partially, through network marketing (e.g. MLMs). But to do so in a way that’s consistent with the basic SBI! philosophy of providing valuable content, and “keeping it real”.

As an example, a site that talks about the benefits of Amway would not be in that philosophy. A site that talked about the problems products (which you could, coincidentally, get at Amway) could solve, would. The ideal site doesn’t actually contain a link to the MLM program, but rather has a way to capture your own leads. You can then follow up with those leads directly and refer them to the MLM program.

The bible for the contest is Ann Seig’s The Renegade Network Marketer, which I mentioned yesterday is available to SBI! members for 50% off. The most exciting part about this contest is that Ann is providing free coaching to the contest entrants. Regular readers will know I consider good mentoring essential for online success, and here you get 12 months of it for free (well, for the cost of an SBI! membership if you don’t already have one).

To enter the contest, you must get your SBI! site by February 6th. If you’re already an SBI! member, and haven’t decided on a niche yet, you’re eligible if you signed up after August 6th, 2007.

Then build the best site you can to drive leads to your chosen MLM program, using the techniques outlined in the The Renegade Network Marketer and following SBI!’s Action Guide.

The winner is the one who earns the most from their site in the last three months of their first year of operation. So you have nine months to build traffic and perfect your techniques.

The winner will get the top prize of $10,000. Second and third prizes, respectively, are $3,000 and $2,500. There’s also $2,500 for the most creative use of online techniques (I’m especially interested to see what people come up with for this category…for some reason an image of dancing penguins comes to mind).

Finally, and the touch that reflects the philosophy behind the way SiteSell operates, there’s $2,500 for the person who contributes the most helpful advice on the contest thread to help other contestants succeed. So while it’s a competition, there’s also the cooperative aspect of it that pervades the SBI! member forums.

If you’re interested in reading the contest thread on the SBI! forums, contact me. I have a guest login I can share with a few readers, but that isn’t for public distribution.

Click here to get your SBI! site to enter the contest. There’s a 30 day money back guarantee if you start following the action guide and decide it’s not for you after all. After 30 days they’ll refund a pro-rated amount, so taking an extra 30 days to decide isn’t that big a deal.

5 Comments

• At December 13, 2007, Kelly B wrote:

  I'm going to have to check more into this SBI thing. Thanks for the informative posts about it!

• At December 13, 2007, Jay wrote:

  Hi Kelly, SBI is definitely worth a second and third look. If you come up with any questions, let me know.

• At March 20, 2008, William wrote:

  [quote comment=""]Hi Kelly, SBI is definitely worth a second and third look. If you come up with any questions, let me know.[/quote]

  I've looked at SBI, but choose to go with XSitePro. I like their SEO features a lot!!

• At April 13, 2008, Andrew Murphy wrote:

  I am not currently using SBI but from what I hear it's a very good platform. I am an affiliate and have made some money with them.

• At April 14, 2008, Burke Jones wrote:

  I have messed around with SBI, but have never really spent the time requried for success. I tend to spend more time on my own blog, etc.

  The contest does sound interesting, I will have to check it out!

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Typically they’re looking for a program that will let them profit with as little effort as possible, which is certainly attractive. So a forced matrix is good, since you can get spillover from your upline. High commissions on your first level are good, since that puts you into profit soonest. A typical setup is that when your first level is filled, you’ll be breaking even on your membership fees.

What most people don’t consider is the importance of your sponsor in the program.

A good sponsor is more than the source of potential spillover in a forced matrix. A good sponsor will offer you advice, encouragement, and support. A great sponsor will take direct action to help you succeed, knowing that your success is their success.

If you join an MLM program and your sponsor does not contact you, that’s a good sign that your sponsor doesn’t really care if you succeed or not. If someone else in your upline contacts you, that’s a good sign that your sponsor is relying on spillover from above. The person who did contact you is effectively your sponsor for the purposes of this article.

Here are some of the concrete actions a sponsor can take to help you succeed.

Offer Expert Advice

Your sponsor is, in a sense, more experienced than you if only because you joined the program under them. They no doubt have knowledge that can help you short-circuit some of the learning curve in the program, and should be willing to share that advice with you.

Offer Marketing Help

Your sponsor has shown an ability to get at least one referral, you. They should, at the least, be willing to let you know what has worked best for them. They may also provide you with access to splash pages they’ve used. A great sponsor will offer you a spot in a URL rotator that they send traffic to, to help you gain referrals through their marketing efforts.

Not Bombard You with Advertisements

A great sponsor will not send you advertisements about other programs to join. They may, now and then, point you to an opportunity that complements what you’re already doing, but they won’t try to get you to join every opportunity they’re in just to get referrals.

I try to model these actions with my referrals in any program I work. I’ve found that keeping referrals is easier if you show an interest in them and are seen to be trying to help them succeed. There’s nothing worse than joining a program and then feeling like you’re on your own to succeed or fail.

12 Comments

• At April 8, 2008, Charlie Plyler wrote:

  The "making money" niche is getting to be a crowded niche. It seems like there is a new guru each month with the biggest launch of the year each week.

  How do a "newbie" know who to follow? My suggestion is to follow your gut before you pull out your wallet. Join the list of a few Internet Marketers and see just what kind of advice they offer. If every email from them is an affiliate offer and there is no other info, you may want to continue your search. There are a lot of good IMs out there. My favorite 4 are Todd Gross, Derrick Van Dyke, JP Schoeffel, and Eric Holmlund. Keith Baxter and Russell Brunson are also high on the my list.

• At April 9, 2008, Jay wrote:

  Getting advice is fine, but I'd recommend not "following" anyone. Any advice they give is only as good as your skill set, and it takes an experienced teacher to frame advice so that it's relevant to what you can do, but pushes you just a bit farther in the direction you want to go.

  That's why direct one-on-one mentoring is so important.

• At April 14, 2008, Herb Daly Jr. wrote:

  I would have to agree that your skill set when you begin in the networking industry is going to be a major factor in how you market.

  What people do not realize is MLM is a legitimate model you must learn and educate yourself just as if you would go to college for any other subject to try and learn. To make big money you have to be a pro!

  What are your strengths, likes, dislikes, comfort zones etc.

• At April 15, 2008, Rizky Nur Zamzamy wrote:

  By becoming a great sponsor, can you tell me how many paid downlines you already have in the current Network Marketing program you join? :)

  How long have they joined under you? :)

  Because one of the toughest problems in Network Marketing is how to keep Paid Downlines stay in any programs you join. And I think the only way to keep them stay is to help them get enough Paid Downlines so that the commission they will receive surpass the monthly fee they have to pay. :)

  And that's what a great sponsor is all about. :) :D

• At April 15, 2008, Jay wrote:

  Hi Rizky! That does seem to be the usual MLM mentality. Unfortunately, it's a false goal, because the way MLM is structured, you always have more people in your downline who don't make money than do (assuming the MLM requires a monthly fee).

  I stick to programs that are truly useful, so that people don't mind paying the monthly fee to get access, and making money on top of that is a bonus.

• At April 15, 2008, Tony Neely wrote:

  While Most MLM Programs look promising the reality is that it still comes down to your own efforts. If you are going to wait for others to give you spillover you will be waiting until the cows come home. Promise of spillover is only for lazy people that want something for nothing.My best advise find something that will give you results based upon your effort and find a mentor that will truly help you become successful in your venture.Spillover is a myth because everyone is looking for it and no one does any work or even get the product.So I ask why even get involved with something like that to only spin you wheels.

• At April 15, 2008, Rizky Nur Zamzamy wrote:

  [quote comment="35518"]Hi Rizky! That does seem to be the usual MLM mentality. Unfortunately, it's a false goal, because the way MLM is structured, you always have more people in your downline who don't make money than do (assuming the MLM requires a monthly fee).

  I stick to programs that are truly useful, so that people don't mind paying the monthly fee to get access, and making money on top of that is a bonus.[/quote]

  Most of Online Network Marketing programs do require monthly fee. That's where the revenue comes from. Unfortunately, not many programs provide their members with benefits that have greater value than their monthly fees. :(

  That's why most members in these programs joined mainly because of the money making opportunities and considered the benefits as the bonuses.

  Therefore, if we as their sponsors cannot help them get enough Direct Paid Downlines (not spillover), somewhere along the way, they will quit.

  :(

  [quote comment=""]While Most MLM Programs look promising the reality is that it still comes down to your own efforts. If you are going to wait for others to give you spillover you will be waiting until the cows come home. Promise of spillover is only for lazy people that want something for nothing.My best advise find something that will give you results based upon your effort and find a mentor that will truly help you become successful in your venture.Spillover is a myth because everyone is looking for it and no one does any work or even get the product.So I ask why even get involved with something like that to only spin you wheels.[/quote]

  By "helping our Paid Downlines get enough Paid Downlines" I don't mean it as spillover. I mean it as Direct Paid Downlines. And to achieve that, first we have to let them know the right attitude to grow their online Network Marketing business.

  That's why everytime I get a Paid Downline, I send them here:

  http://blog.arigola.com/?p=5

  to read an article I wrote titled "The Right Attitude For Online Network Marketing Success". If you have time, I invite you to check it out and leave some suggestions so I can improve it. :)

  Thanks and regards,

  Rizky

• At April 15, 2008, Jay wrote:

  [quote post="243"]Most of Online Network Marketing programs do require monthly fee. That’s where the revenue comes from. Unfortunately, not many programs provide their members with benefits that have greater value than their monthly fees.[/quote]

  Take a look at my review of Traffic Wave. They provide unlimited autoresponders and ad trackers, at a price that is comparable to their competitors. Yet they're also an MLM and pay you for recruiting a downline.

  That's what I mean by programs that people would join even without the commission. Every Internet Marketer needs ad trackers, and most get to the point where they want autoresponders pretty quickly.

• At April 16, 2008, Anders Gustavsson - MLM The Game wrote:

  I think it is all about PASSION, and that will truly determine whether somone will succeed in an mlm business.

  People are attracted to passionate people, and if you can convey to others that you are passionate about your business, you will have a greater chance of success than if you dont.

  Enjoy Life.

  Anders Gustavsson

  President

  Infinite Synergy, Creators of MLM The Game

• At April 16, 2008, Jay wrote:

  Hi Anders, you're certainly right. No matter what niche or business you're in, you can't go wrong by showing how passionate you are about it.

  By the way, very cool idea with the MLM game. I'm a big fan of using games to teach, it's great to see the idea being used with something like MLM.

• At April 17, 2008, Rizky Nur Zamzamy wrote:

  [quote comment=""]Hi Anders, you're certainly right. No matter what niche or business you're in, you can't go wrong by showing how passionate you are about it.

  [/quote]

  Bingo! PASSION and Enthusiasm are some of the keys to MLM success. If you can deliver them to your downlines, their chances to recruit paid downlines on their own will be bigger than ever. :D

  Cheers!

  Rizky

• At September 5, 2008, stewart alves wrote:

  [quote comment=""][quote comment=""]Hi Anders, you're certainly right. No matter what niche or business you're in, you can't go wrong by showing how passionate you are about it.

  [/quote]

  Bingo! PASSION and Enthusiasm are some of the keys to MLM success. If you can deliver them to your downlines, their chances to recruit paid downlines on their own will be bigger than ever. :D

  Cheers!

  Rizky[/quote]

  Surely anybody joining an opportunity hoping to make money from spillover and their upline is just lazy - not the type of person we should be interested in recruiting.

  But on the other hand I have joined 2 MLM opportunities where my sponsor basically vanished after I signed up. On my 3rd attempt, my sponsor did try to help me to the extent of buying leads, but never got as far as actually speaking to me.

  I have since joined a forum called Infinite Potential in which all members operate as a team, helping each other, posting training articles and probably most importantly supporting each others marketing efforts.

  Bottom line is I think we should look at joining a tem first, not an opportunity.

  If this sounds good to you, you can learn more at http://premier.InfinitePotential.com

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A powerline is basically a single line of people, in roughly the order that they joined the company. The marketing hype for powerlines says that you can earn from everyone under you in the powerline. Since the powerline continues to grow as new members join, this sounds like a great deal. You don’t have to hope for spillover from your sponsor, instead everyone who joins after you is automatically under you.

The trick with companies that use powerlines is to read carefully the details of the commissions you get from the powerline.

MyWorldPlus, for example, features “infinity bonuses”. These are the commissions you earn on everyone below you in the powerline, down to infinity. But not really, because it’s only down to the next person who qualifies for your level of bonus. They rate members from 0 stars to 5 stars, based on how valuable you are to the company (presumably how many people you’ve referred, or sales volume you’ve generated). So as a 1 star member you earn commissions down the powerline until you get to the next member who is 1 star or above. This is only really useful if you get up to 4 and 5 stars.

Without the infinity bonus, you earn commissions from the 5 members below you. That’s right, you only earn commissions on 5 people. And the total is a whopping 14%.

Vocalix Direct is another company that uses powerlines. Vocalix Direct just launched recently, and their web pages are vague on the exact commissions earned from the powerline. Since they push you to upgrade to a paying membership to lock in your spot in the powerline, not having details on the commissions you’ll earn is a bit suspicious. They have plenty of details on what you earn from your sales of their product, and from your personal referrals, but no numbers on the powerline commissions.

Powerlines sound great, since you have a continually growing downline, but in practice earning any significant money just from being in the powerline is not going to happen. Yet that is typically how these schemes are marketed.

If you find a company using powerlines and think their offer sounds great, be sure to check the actual numbers for commissions so you know at what point you’ll break even on your membership fees.

2 Comments

• At January 12, 2008, Rick Katz wrote:

  I agree Jay, powerlines are just a lame marketing tactic. Anyone that would be fooled by this type of promotion is an idiot in my opinion. No, I shouldn't say that, the word is very naive. Smart people can easily fall for a smart marketing tactic.

• At April 21, 2008, Troy Management wrote:

  A Blurb on Binary Spillover. Many new MLM's have binary structures that give spillover into your organization but in most cases this is results in an unbalanced business with a severely dominant leg. Most pay plan's allow you to tap into that sales volume in that leg but only when your weaker leg matches that volume. In most cases this occur's incrementally and can leave the new associate/distributor frustrated and exhausted trying to qualify for a regular commission. If you are looking for a business with a binary plan, I urge you to look for a forced binary plan with compression and no balance issues. This way you get paid sooner and don't get jaded and quit. There is not motivation like compensation. If this is all mumbo jumbo to you then visit my site for a deeper insight. Cheers from the land down under, Matty T

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If you’re not familiar with downline builders, they provide a collection of MLM opportunties that you join. You then promote the downline builder, and your referrals go under you in all the MLM opportunities in the collection. Marketing Pond is a downline builder for free money programs.

Downline builders also provide a sense of community that’s sometimes missing from MLM programs. You’re not joining alone, hoping to hear from your sponsor, you’re joining with everyone else in the downline builder. You have fellow members to ask questions of if you get stuck or need help.

Downline Partners focuses on paid programs. At first glance, I took the site for the typical downline builder. After joining I found several features of the site that are worth a second look.

The first feature is the ability to sponsor a new opportunity. When you sponsor a new opportunity, you are the top of the matrix for anyone else in the site who joins that opportunity. This can be powerful, and as such is reserved for those who promote Downline Partners (you need 50 referrals to sponsor a program).

Another innovative feature is their discussion forum. It uses something they call company codes, instead of referral links. I can link to a specific forum post, such as this one talking about the benefits of Kiosk, and you’ll see normal looking forum posts between members of Downline Partners.

Notice in the messages there are various referral links that all have my ID in them. What’s happened is that when the posts were written, instead of placing referral links, the authors placed company codes such as $$kiosk$$. When the forum is viewed through my member link, those company codes get replaced with my referral link for the program.

This is a powerful technique. You can advertise the forum in whatever way you want, using your member link, and if someone joins any of the programs, or Downline Partners, you’ll get the referral. There may be other programs using this technique, but this is the first time I’ve run across it.

Downline Partners has another unusual marketing tool.

Referral TV is a collection of videos in an embedded viewer. Here’s their collection of Great Tricks videos. Note the ads on the right. Each has my referral link for that program, at least for those programs I chose to join.

You can always choose not to join some of the programs right away, which is a nice feature. With paid programs you can’t usually afford all of them in a downline builder. Making them optional means you can build one income up to the point of being able to afford the others.

There’s also a rich collection of splash pages for you to use in your advertising, and program specific pages.

Of course, there’s also a paid upgrade option. With a paid upgrade of $5 per month, you can place your own links in your member pages. For example, in any of the pages linked above, toward the bottom will be sponsor links. When you pay for a sponsor link, your link shows up for any of your referrals, or for people you send to your member links.

As a bonus for paying the upgrade fee, you get put into the Downline Partners’ rotator until you get a free referral. This is a bit of a gamble. If the person you get is already in all the programs, you won’t get anything from them. If they’re not, and choose to join one of the MLM programs, you may get your $5 back from the referral commissions.

All in all, Downline Partners is a cut above the other downline builders I’ve seen. Clearly, some thought has gone into providing better promotional tools than the competition.

I hadn’t intended to get involved in another downline builder, but I think I’ll stick around this one.

4 Comments

• At July 6, 2007, Gaje Master wrote:

  I am a member of Marketing Pond and I hardly ever promote it. I would probably make more money if I would. I am going to try this down line partners and see how they work out for me. Thanks for the opportunity.

• At July 7, 2007, Jay wrote:

  My best tip for getting referrals into Marketing Pond, if you can only do one thing, is to post ads on Clix Sense now and then. I never fail to get some referrals from ads placed there. Downline Partners is also a great program, but it doesn't contain Marketing Pond yet. It's only a matter of time, though.

• At July 27, 2007, Willbucks wrote:

  Jay,

  What a great post. I love how you condensed and made sense of the unique features of downlinepartners. I have been a member for quite awhile and talk about it in my blog often. I am a member of marketing pond too but am trying to stay focused on my DP growth.

  Will

• At July 27, 2007, Jay wrote:

  Hi Will, thanks! I think you're smart to focus on your DP growth, when you get to the point where you can add a program to it you can always add MP.

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A pretty common tactic in a prelaunch phase is to offer heavily discounted memberships. E4L took this tactic to the extreme, offering free lifetime memberships. The reason an MLM company does this is to build a large base of members. It’d be pretty embarrassing to launch and only have a couple of people buying the product. By having a prelaunch phase and discounting (or giving away) memberships, the company gets a lot of people who are emotionally invested in the company’s success. They’ll stay in and buy when the time comes, because they hope to make money.

The basic product at E4L is discounted media and equipment: DVD movies, video games, home theater equipment, etc. When they launch, that’s the sort of thing you’ll be able to buy. And you’ll earn a commission when your referrals purchase.

E4L uses a 3×7 forced matrix, so you’ll get some spillover from your sponsors. You earn commissions on purchases from anyone under you in that matrix. They also do a 100% matching bonus for your direct referrals. If a direct referral of your earns $100 in a month, you get a bonus of $100 that month.

Like most free membership programs, E4L has an upgrade option (they call it a VIP upgrade). This gives you a discount on MLM leads and customer signups. Customer signups are people who found E4L not through a sponsor link but through the website directly, or through E4L’s own advertising, and are looking to buy products, not make money (I’m not sure how they determine this). These people count as your personally sponsored referrals. The cost is currently $150 for 25.

So, is E4L a legitimate opportunity?

It’s far too early to tell. The idea of a discount media club could take off, or could flop. The main benefit to getting in now is that it’s free, and if you don’t want to do anything more than get spillover from your sponsor you can join and forget about it. If it becomes popular, you might earn something from it.

You can see the web page here. Click on the “Make Money EZ” link across the top for the details, such as they are, of how the commissions work.

What do you think? Is this a legitimate opportunity or a scam waiting to happen?

1 Comments

• At April 22, 2008, Patrick Frazier wrote:

  While Most MLM Programs look promising the reality is that it still comes down to your own efforts. If you are going to wait for others to give you spillover you will be waiting until the cows come home. The promise of spillover is only for lazy people that want something for nothing. My best advice is to find something that will give you results based upon your efforts and a mentor that will truly help you become successful in your venture. Spillover is a myth because everyone is looking for it and no one does any work or even get the product. So I ask you, why even get involved with something like that to only spin your wheels?

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So it makes sense to create your own web hosting MLM, so that you are the founder. And here’s how.

First step is to secure the web hosting for a large number of affiliates. Go to Hostland.com and click on the “Reseller Hosting” link. You can get 5,000 websites for $50 a month. If you want to be generous and offer MySQL databases to your affiliates, that’s an extra $50 a month. We’ll assume we’re going all out and paying $100 per month.

We’ll take one of those 5,000 sites and setup our main MLM page. We’ll also install some scripts that we can offer to our affilites, such as URL rotators, autoresponders, etc. We can get those scripts for free, and modify them as needed (throughout this, I’m assuming you have a partner proficient in PHP coding).

So we have our product we’re going to charge $19.95 a month for. Before we can actually sign up affiliates, we need some software for keeping track of the downlines. We can get this for free, or pay for a more professional version. We’ll splurge and pay $69 a month for MLM Software Pro, and our partner will integrate it with Hostland’s billing software.

Our total cost per month is $169, plus our time.

Let’s assume we have a commission structure like Bigorilla. 15 levels deep, making $1 on your first level, $0.75 on your second, and so on. The first people we recruit pay $19.95 a month, but we get all of that. If we use a 2x force matrix, we’d have two people on the first level, for $39.90. If we can fill out the second level, that’s 4 more people at $18.95 (we give $1 to their sponsors). Our grand total is now $115.70. We need just 3 more people at the third level to break even.

Even when we get down 15 levels, we’re still making $10 per person. By the time we get to 5,000 members, we’re making more than $50,000 a month, and can easily afford to invest in a dedicated server or two to raise the quality of our web hosting. Granted, I doubt we’d get to 5,000 members, but anything past 9 is pure profit.

I’m not entirely serious about this, but looking at the numbers from the founder’s point of view helps to illustrate why the best MLM programs give generous commissions to their members. There’s simply a lot of money to be made by running an MLM opportunity, and it doesn’t make sense to not give your members as much of it as possible. Skimp on them and they’ll leave, and you’ll watch your nice large matrix evaporate from the bottom up.

1 Comments

• At July 12, 2008, J.R. Jackson wrote:

  Great information as always.

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Bigorilla is also an MLM opportunity, and that’s what I’ll review here.

They use a 2×15 forced matrix (each person has 2 people on their first level, you get paid commissions down to 15 levels). As a forced matrix, you will get people placed under you from the efforts of the people above you. This is attractive to many people who aren’t good at recruiting, and in Big Gorilla you don’t need to have enrolled anyone to earn commissions.

While a 2×15 matrix looks good in the earnings chart (over $30,000 a month), the difficulty of filling it completely cannot be overstated. That’s over 20,000 people on the 15th level who are not earning a commission right away. The two components needed to keep people involved in an MLM program when they aren’t earning commissions are:

1. The prospect of breaking even with relatively few referrals
2. Providing a service they’re willing to pay for anyway

From a marketing perspective, there are a lot of things Bigorilla is doing well. They offer a 21 day free trial to get you into the system. What they don’t emphasize is that as a 21 day free trial member, you cannot earn commissions on people under you. Anytime someone signs up after you they send you an email telling you that they signed up, and reminding you that you need to upgrade to lock in your position in the matrix.

This is an effective way of building tension, and they’ve combined that with a trial upgrade offer of 25 cents a day for some relatively short period of time (5 or 7 days, I think). Since you can lock in your position for only 25 cents a day, you lose little by upgrading and seeing if you get more people under you before you have to start paying the $19.95 a month.

Given a 15 level deep commission structure, there simply isn’t that much commission to go around at each level. You get $1 for people on your first level, then $0.75 for your second level, and dropping down to $0.25 on level 9. In a nice twist, they start to go back up at that point, getting back up to $1 at the bottom level. By my calculations, they’ve only used about half of a member’s monthly fees in commissions, leaving $10 for Big Gorilla.

While a 15 level deep commission structure sounds like good earning potential, more important for the success of an MLM company is how quickly a single person can break even on their membership fee. The best programs let you break even after 2 or 3 referrals. In Big Gorilla, you have to have about 70 people under you to break even.

Bigorilla does let you earn commissions without having enrolled anyone personally. What they don’t mention until you’re a member is that the commission levels I described above are only for people who do have at least one personal referral. With no personal referrals, you get a flat 10 cents per person on any level. At that rate you need about 200 people under you to break even.

Bigorilla’s marketing is terrific, and the use of emails about people signing up for you combined with the 25 cents a day lock in rate is very effective. But unless you need the Internet marketing tools they provide, and are willing to pay full price for them without any expectation of breaking even on MLM referrals, I’d give Bigorilla a pass.

Note that if you do sign up for Bigorilla, and later want to cancel, you must go to PayPal in order to cancel your monthly payment subscription. Bigorilla will not refund any monies paid to them by your failure to cancel your subscription at PayPal.

2 Comments

• At March 31, 2008, Mike Jones wrote:

  I realize this article is old, but I want to clarify that "Big Gorilla" is not an MLM scheme, "Bigorilla" is.

• At March 31, 2008, Jay wrote:

  Hi Mike, thanks for the clarification. I've modified this post (and one other) that referred to the MLM program so they're correct.

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They claim that you can “make up to $1,000 a day with no sponsoring, guaranteed”. They convey the essence of wealth with a picture of a Mercedes Benz, and say you’ll “get paid within the next 24 hours guaranteed”. This sounds great! Clicking the button to find out more takes you to a signup page. There’s also a FAQ link across the top.

The FAQ has the details of what’s going on. Basically, you pay an initial registration fee of either $250 or $100, and then pay $5 a day thereafter. If you pay the $250 registration fee, they put people under you automatically. If you pay the $100 registration fee, you have to recruit your own downline. The FAQ doesn’t say what percentage you get from your downline.

The FAQ is quick to reassure you that this is not a pyramid scheme. Daily Pay Guarantee also brings in money through a search engine, traffic exchange, and safe list (which you are agreeing to be on by joining). No mention of how much of that money goes to members.

At this point, Daily Pay Guarantee has raised all my red flags for an MLM opportunity:

1. Unrealistic promises of success with no work put into it
2. Members pay into the system to support those above them
3. No actual product or service that members are getting for their daily fee
4. No details of how downline commissions work
5. The website contradicts itself in places and is unprofessional

My normal reaction would have been to close the browser window and forget about Daily Pay Guarantee. It’s almost certainly a recipe for losing money. But it’s also the sort of thing that would appeal to someone new to making money online who is desperate to escape from a day job. That’s just the sort of person I started this blog to help.

So against my better judgment I paid the $250 registration fee and signed up. I picked the $250 amount because if I was going to review the opportunity, I’d review the option that would most appeal to newcomers to MLM and Internet marketing.

Things went downhill from there. According to emails I received, I should have two people assigned to my downline within hours. Instead, it took about a week and a half just for them to recognize that I’d upgraded from a free member to a “bronze” member. It took another day or two to get my first person assigned under me. I did no promotion of Daily Pay Guarantee (after all, I paid for them to do the work).

For a while they had a list of free and paid members on their website. By communicating with the person I had signed up under, I worked out their algorithm for assigning downlines, and knew exactly when my two people should have been assigned. When that point had passed, I started bugging them. I never actually did get an email answers, but eventually I got the one person put under me. That was a few days ago, and there’s no sign of a second. But as a result of my bugging them, they did take down the pages that showed the free and paid members, so other people wouldn’t be able to know when they’d screwed up.

I’m currently breaking even on the $5 a day. I’m not sure how that works, since I only have one person under me who is also paying $5 a day. But then they never really did say how the commissions work, so it’s hard to know if that’s right or not.

So, after giving Daily Pay Guarantee a try, my first impressions are confirmed. This is not a professionally run organization. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s just a couple of guys who know PHP coding.

Give this one a pass, along with any other MLM opportunity you find that has the same qualities. The only way you’ll make any money in this sort of program is to get in very early and get very lucky.

On the other hand, if you have $250 you can afford to spend in order to try and make money online, go over to Site 5 web hosting and give them $120 of it for two years’ web hosting under their $5 a month plan. That gets you 110 GB of storage, 5 TB bandwidth, and the ability to host 110 domains (this blog is hosted at Site 5).

Spend the other $120 on a nice logo or Wordpress theme, and start blogging. After two years of blogging, you’ll probably be making more money through advertisements on your blog than you would be if you’d put the $250 into Daily Pay Guarantee.

2 Comments

• At June 16, 2007, Julia - BundaWAH wrote:

  Very logic review, no pain no gain. Blogging and make money online is just like in all other aspect in life, there is no short cut to succeed

• At June 16, 2007, Jay wrote:

  [quote post="177"]Blogging and make money online is just like in all other aspect in life, there is no short cut to succeed[/quote]

  You're right there. Unfortunately, most of the online opportunities these days play to people's desire for shortcuts.

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