MLM Opportunities

Multi-level marketing (MLM) is also known as Network Marketing and refers to a particular type of business distribution relationship that exists between a parent company, the companies distributors and the customers.  MLM works through direct selling methods to customers by independent salespeople who are also known as distributors.  These distributors are in turn working for the parent company and are awarded a commission based on the amount of a product that they are able to sell for their parent organisation.  An MLM could be selling goods through online marketing campaigns or traditional marketing schemes.  Multi-level marketing is big business all over the world, and there are numerous opportunities out there for someone who is wanting to get involved.

Because the salespeople or distributors in multi-level marketing are non salaried there is a lot of opportunity for big profits, but also the possibility of doing a lot of work for not much profit at all.  How much profit is made depends on how good a salesperson is and what kind of company and plan they are involved in.  There are two main ways that a distributor can make a profit, the first is no different than a traditional business and entails the buying of goods at cheap wholesale prices and selling them on to a customer for a profit.  The second method of making money is more controversial, as by recruiting other distributors to work ‘downline’ from them, a salesperson can receive a percentage of the ‘downline’ profits and gain off the leveraged sales efforts of those further down the chain than they are.

While these are the two basic ways of making money for a MLM operator, there are many different types of compensation plans that exist within the field.  A stairway breakaway plan is based on an individual building up group as well as personal sales;  moving up in steps until they are able to break away.  Uni-level plans work by paying commissions based on the number of levels a representative is from the original representative.  Matrix compensation plans are similar to uni-level but with a limited number of participants on the first level.  Binary plans work with two front line distributors and there are many hybrid plans which pick and choose between the basic plans mentioned above.  All of these compensation plans can offer a lot of opportunity for the dedicated MLM operator.

While there is lots of money to be made, there is also a lot of criticism towards some multi level marketing schemes.  Basically if an MLM organisation is seen to put more emphasis on the recruitment side of their business then on the direct selling aspect then it could be seen to be unsustainable in nature.  Some of these types of MLM organisations may act in a similar fashion to pyramid schemes and make most of their profits through the act of recruitment alone.  This is a bigger problem in the online world where companies can run search engine marketing campaigns and fly under the radar.  Legitimate multi-level marketing however is unlike pyramid schemes because commission is only earned on the sale of a company’s products or services, it is never just about the recruiting aspect.  If you make sure you are dealing with a recognised and legitimate company, there are a lot of opportunities out there in the multi-level marketing game.