Anyone here does MLM or Network Marketing?

[CGE333]

I personally would never join an MLM company. One of my friends dad's joined a company one time and I think the best he did was get up to making around $500/ month. Everyone else I know has lost every dime they put into it. One thing that I find total BS about that industry is that every year I see articles of so called research and it will state something like "Over the next 10 years the majority of the millionares created in the US will be through MLM"- which I think anyone with a high school education could prove is either a lie or a vast distortion of the truth.


Here is a link to a story about people that have made some $$$:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbalife13oct13,1,3038873.story


The people in the article have made millions in MLM. Again, I would never join, but if you were going to I would say try and find someone that is very successful who will mentor you, preferrably free of charge.

 

[Frink']

What most people don't *get* is that you have to actually work the buissnes like a regular buissness and no give up after two months. And it's not for everyone. Most people just want to go to work 9-5 and thats it. The hardest thing for most people is to be their own employer and do some work.

 

[hope7]

Network marketing was only meant for a few levels, not an infinite number of levels. That sort of business model is impossible to make good money unless you are at the very top.

The whole premise is that you get money for a product sold by a person several levels below you, right? Say that someone sells a product. That guy gets some profit. The guy above gets some profit. The guy above that guy gets some profit and so on. In that sort of structure, the company would have to give out more money for every product sold than the money it receives back from selling that product.

But why do these companies remain profitable? Because the majority of the money is made by the guys at the lower level who are brainwashed into buying their products and nag their friends and family into buying their products. Eventually they go broke and quit, and are replaced by someone else. If the pyramiding did work, in a few years, every person on the planet would be a part of a MLM.

If MLM products were so good, why do they never do they never get their products sold in stores? If the product is just starting out, I can see why they might have to resort franchise type business models. But if a product has been in the market for 5, 10, or even 20 years, you know there is a problem with the product if stores refuse to accept that product.

Take Agel. (http://www.agel.com/products/suspension_gel). Anyone who has taken a course in nutrition knows that vitamins are either fat soluble or water soluble. The gel doesn't increase the bioavailability of anything.

 

[hope7]

More info on MLM's

http://skepdic.com/mlm.html
http://beancounterblog.com/2006/06/12/my-experiences-with-mutli-level-marketing-brainwashing/
http://www.mlmwatch.org/01General/10lies.html

"it is puzzling why a sales person would think it is to his or her advantage to increase the number of competing sales persons."

"At the turn of the century, the average Amway distributor earned about $700 a year in sales, but spent about $1,000 a year on Amway products"

 

[Bible_Belt]

Sorry, but no. You're wrong. MLM is a scam. Only really dumb people get involved in MLM. If the oppurtunity was so great, why would they pursue low-self esteem having retards? Why not pursue the best and brightest minds? Oh yeah, because they understand basic statistics and microeconomics.

Wutang, your complete lack of diplomacy cracks me up.

Frink, I actually admire your dedication and commitment, especially when everyone here is disagreeing with you. Such things are rare. It's good to be dedicated and hardworking. And it is not impossible to at least make a little money at a lot of bad businesses if you work extra hard. Do you remember me joking about the $1,000 audio CD set? Yeah, I was one of those, as wutang put it, 'low self-esteem retards' who bought stuff like that. Only usually I would work harder than 99% of the other retards, and about make my money back. Then I would learn from it and go on to a slightly less crappy business.

There are a lot better deals out there for a hard-working motivated person with no education than mlm. The people who do ok at mlm have some sales skills, but they would make much better money selling about anything else. I've sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door and that job was ten times better than mlm - at that job I worked with guys who made a consistent grand a week and partied a lot doing it. Everything else I've sold, from stocks to signs, was a better deal than mlm. Don't shortchange yourself by buying into mlm's greed-based sales pitch.

 

[Frink']

Well bible belt, it's a good thing that we can discuss at a mature level. And stay away from personal attaks.

There are different nwm buissnesses. I would never join Amway for example. Those guys make money by selling training tapes that should be free. An amway customer might buy products for 10 bucks. While a herbalife customer buys products for products for 100 bucks. And get free training. Not all mlm buissnesses are created equal.

They say nine out of ten regular buissnesses fail within the first five years or so. People fail. It's the same with mlm buissneses. The ones who give up or do stupid **** are the ones who drop out.

I'm too stubborn to say it wont work for me. I have to spend time with and make it work for me. If it does, than greate. If not, oh well. I know one thing though. I wont quit and say the buissness doesnt work because I gave up on it. I have contacts in africa for importing fruit and vegitables. Theres allways a buissness idea.

You have direct marketing and multilivel marketing. Direct marketing is one person selling alot of products. Multilevel marketing, you have alot of people doing a little bit each. Instead of one person having 100 customers, you have five people with 20 customers each. Doing follow up or selling products to 20 people is alot less timeconsuming that one person with 100 customers.

 

[hope7]

You work for herbalife?

 

[e-lie]

Bump