Multilevel Marketing: Down and Dirty

Welcome back!

When people hear of “multilevel marketing”, they start to get the feeling of getting scammed or become a part of a scam, in the least. This isn’t an uncommon reaction as there have been a handful of infamous pyramiding scams which have victimized a lot of innocent people. But in the business model sense, mlm marketing is really a legitimate business.

One thing is certain: the main difference between the two is that mlm marketing is a legitimate business model, while pyramiding scheme IS a scam and IS definitely illegal - not to mention immoral and downright dirty. In layman’s terms, multilevel marketing is a highly social business model that seeks to cut out the middle man and lower the overhead cost, so that the end consumer isn’t paying for the storefront’s operation expenses, including labor, utilities, and even the traditional advertising media. Pyramiding schemes, on the other hand, will want you to invest your money on the possibility of big rewards for small amounts, but is actually just a transfer of money from the “downline” to the “upline” (to be explained later).

You know what they say, if it’s too good to be true…

It’s likely to be a pyramid scheme if it’s too good to be true. Multilevel marketing and pyramid schemes are often mixed up because the latter utilizes the same techniques as the former. The business model is designed in such a way that people end up thinking that it’s the same as mlm marketing. In other words, they use deceit in putting up a network.

The common denominator that these two systems have is that both will sell a product and come up with a marketing plan for it. There are two sides for this: it’s either you will be sponsored by the “upline”, or you will sponsor a “downline.” You would know that you are in a legal mlm marketing business when your “downline” commissions are just the icing on the cake, since most of your profits would really come from your own sales efforts.

To Enter the Market

Multilevel marketing is a relatively easy business to get into, sometimes for investments as low as $29, which is in no way saying that it’s an easy business to thrive in. On the plus side of the equation, it is a very flexible business environment. You can stay at home all day in your jammies and still make a decent enough living. Formal education isn’t even necessary, but a bit of techno savvy does help.