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MLM Vs. Affiliate Marketing, what is best?
There are many different opinions about MLM companies. From those saying that MLMs are pyramid schemes and people lose money – to those saying, there is no better business opportunity than Multi-Level Marketing.
The truth is somewhere in between.
And that statement also applies to the most important question – how much it is possible to make within the MLM.
Well, there are people making a ton of money, to those who lose the money.
Unfortunately, the majority of people involved within any MLM do not make any money or they make very little (that is anything below $1,000 per year).
The sad part is, that they devote a lot of time to it, with little or no results.
MLM as a business model has been around for a long time and apart from selling products the income relies on recruiting new members into the system.
Regardless of the MLM company, people who make money are those who can sell the dream to others and have good sales skills and experience.
Affiliate marketing, comparing to MLM, is a different business model and it is part of internet marketing.
Many people just starting with affiliate marketing but there are already successful marketers who are making a lot of money without recruiting or bothering friends and families.
To be successful with Affiliate Marketing, one needs to have a website, chosen niche, and traffic to the website (ideally a lot of organic traffic).
An Affiliate Marketer should provide value to his readers. He or she must educate the visitors, inform them about the product or service, and eventually let them know where to purchase it.
But the final decision is up to the visitor (the potential customer).
In other words, the affiliate marketer (AM) does not chase people.
It works quite the opposite.
Potential buyer searches for the service or product on the internet, find the right website, and if he is happy with the item and he purchases it.
Let’s break down both models.
Multi-Level Marketing is a type of business where one product or similar types of products are being pushed through all the
levels down to the potenti
al buyers and at the same time, a new “business opportunity” is presented to the buyer.
In most cases, the products end up at the very last level of the structure, because it is difficult to sell it to the end-user.
To join the MLM, you are required to have your direct sponsor or upline. In other words, you are approached by someone who is already a member of the MLM – that applies to most MLMs.
So if you become part of the MLM you joining his or her team – your direct competition.
Think about it.
Everyone within the MLM is pushing the same product and at the same time tries to get more people within his or her team.
Sure there are MLM’s that sell different products, but they all have the “flagship” product which is the most pushed item within the MLM.
This is how the typical MLM structure or network looks like
Some MLM requires you to have 3 legs, to maintain a certain rank, which makes it even more difficult to stay in the game.
A lot of people consider MLM as a pyramid scheme. And I don’t blame them. It resembles that shape, right?
It is no coincidence that MLM is often mistaken for a pyramid scheme. Let’s take any MLM company, minus the product and you get an outright pyramid scheme.
Pyramid schemes are in most countries illegal.
There is no doubt that the only way how to make money within any MLM is through recruiting other people.
The products themselves are expensive, the competition is high and none of the MLM offer a revolutionary product, even though some of them claim so.
I am not saying that it is impossible to make money. But it is very difficult and many people don’t have the skills to push the product to the potential buyer, which is in many cases some relative or a friend.
Those who make money enjoy the process of selling and recruiting. These types of people are extroverts and usually have many years of experience working with people.
Multi-level marketing is not easy for most people.
You have to have a lot of friends or a job where you meet people daily – like a job in the fitness studio..jpg)
Even then, it will not be easy to sell a product, let alone to recruit other people to join your “team”.
Let’s say you find people who want to work as your downline.
But how sustainable is it?
Your new downline would have to find others to make sales and to build their teams. If they don’t – you don’t make money.
With that being said, you can drop to the lower level at any time (usually with the following month), and that means your income is negatively affected.
There could be another way how to maintain your level (ranking) – you have to maintain a certain personal volume.
Meaning you have to buy a minimum amount of products to keep your position. It doesn’t matter that you can’t sell that stuff.
You may end up having a lot of boxes in your basement that nobody wants to buy.
Some MLMs want to look legit, so they don’t offer any commission when you recruit a new member.
You get commission only from the products your downline sells.
And here are a few facts regarding the MLMs:
The majority of MLM companies have a very difficult compensation plan.
They offer a video tutorial where they explain how a person can earn and climb the rankings, but often the compensation plan is so difficult to comprehend that even studying the 20 pages (of the comp. plan) PDF does not help.
One particular MLM company (Paparazzi Jewelry) tries to keep it simple and the basics are explained in a little over 10 minutes video (you can check the entire review with the video here in the Compensation Plan section).
Large companies and that includes also MLMs should have their income disclosure available to the public.
In my research, I have found out that less than half of MLMs have such documents on their websites.
According to those that have the income disclosure available it is obvious that the majority of the members make less than $1,000 a year.
IM Mastery Academy is supposed to be one of the better MLMs, but according to the income disclosure, we see that 96.3% make less than $1,376 a year.
We have covered the #1 reason why to avoid the MLM in the section above.
The money you potentially earn is not worth the time and effort. The only people who generate an income are those who founded the MLM.
Let’s go through some more:
You are being pushed to sell the product from your sponsor or upline. And it does not have to be a direct order, it is often a suggestion.
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But at the end of the day, you are being asked, how much did you sell?
How many people did you speak to?
Even if you are a good seller, sometimes you don’t feel like making phone calls and throwing a party and “introduce” the stuff to your friends and relatives.
You also do have to follow instructions on how to promote the products and what to promote.
You should also ask a question – do my friends need all that stuff?
As a result of it, your days becoming more and more stressful and with little to no income, you get burned.
MLMs use different words for recruiting. It should give you the impression that recruiting is not what they do primarily.
You can build your team, or you can introduce the product to others and see how they like it.
OR
“…as you climb the ranks, you receive a bonus…” – They present it as it is something automatic.
This is how recruiting is introduced to you. And I am sure there are other ways how they sugar-coat the truth.
Regardless of the terminology, you still need to have at least 2 people who can find another 2 and so on, and so forth. Otherwise, you are not generating an income.
In some MLM’s you need to have 3 persons in your downline (3 legs).
If your weakest leg does not perform well and is not able to achieve a certain threshold, you are not qualified to remain at your current position.
So it is not only about finding 3 people but you need 3 people who are good at recruiting and selling.
Now, what are the odds that your entire team follows these requirements?
This is directly connected to the point above.
If you join any MLM, your upline or sponsor wants you to reach out to your family members and “introduce” them to this new opportunity.
This clip is a very good example and it explains a lot of how the MLM operates (it is created by a company called My Lead System Pro and it has a different approach than regular MLM).
The bottom line is you don’t want to run out of friends and family members.
We have already touched on the definition at the beginning.
It is a method of making money online by promoting someone else’s service or product using your website (including social media). You 
get paid a commission from 4% to 75% from the merchant, or affiliate program.
The commission depends on the product. Usually, when dealing with physical products, the commission is lower but it is easier to sell these products. For example, Amazon pays from 4% to 10%.
The higher commission is offered by merchants who sell digital products, like courses or e-trainings. These products can be found for example on ClickBank, or JVZoo.
A big advantage of these affiliate programs (Amazon, ClickBank, eBay, Warrior+, Walmart, and so on) is that you sign up with one or more of them, and you can promote any product within the affiliate program. Everything is taken care of.
Meaning, you get your affiliate link (in ClickBank they call it HopLink) for a product and paste it on your website.
For 1 product there is 1 affiliate link.
When someone buys it using your link, you get a commission.
What I also like about affiliate marketing is the freedom of product choice.
You can build your own website around any product or service you genuinely have an interest in or passion for. Also, it is much more relaxed compared to MLM. There is no product you have to keep pushing, there is no recruitment.
On the other hand, this business model is not easy either. You can find many gurus promising you to earn a few hundred within a week. It does not work that way, especially when you’re a beginner.
It takes time to build up an affiliate business, usually from 6 to 18 months. Again it depends on a specific niche you are involved in and the effort you are willing to put into it.
To me, the first thing that comes to my mind is is freedom of choice.
I mean you choose the product you want to promote and you choose the affiliate program you want to become a partner with.
As I mentioned, many affiliate programs accept newbies, that include Amazon, eBay, or ClickBank.
Also, you don’t have to buy any of these products. You simply create a link to that specific product (with your ID in it, so it is trackable) and you want to make sure that you have enough traffic to your website.
You don’t need to throw parties, or meeting people face to face. You don’t need to schedule an appointment.
With that being said, affiliate marketing offers you freedom of working schedule. If you prefer working later hours, you can do so.
Many people prefer creating content from 8 pm to midnight or even later. They are no bothered by anyone.
You can also work from any place on earth as soon as there is an internet connection. The internet does not sleep, so regardless of your geographical position and time, people still come to your website.
You don’t sell anything.
People search for a term (keyword) on google, let’s say a product. They are already interested in purchasing it. You only show them where to buy it.
Say, they search for “Comica CVM-V30 PRO” – they almost ready to buy the Comica Microphon for the camera. They land on your website and you don’t even know about that.
You don’t even know when the purchase took place until you check your data. That means you can wake up and you see that you made a sale in the night.
That is the beauty of affiliate marketing, compering to any MLM.
By now you know which model I prefer, right?
And yes I am a little bit biased.
But one thing is for sure.
There is no such thing as a perfect business model. You have to make your own decision. Do your research, write all the pros and cons. The right path won’t be easy, but it must have fewer cons than pros.
Affiliate marketing is also a great way to learn how to promote the products, without going through potential troubles with customers and suppliers so you can solely focus on the promotion part.
Once you master that, you can outsource the most time-consuming part of your work, which would be probably the content creation.
With that spare time, you can do whatever you want, whether it is building a new website and increase your revenues, or you want to start with your own product.
It does not have to be a tangible product (physical) you can create a digital course or a valuable training program.
Now, with your experience in affiliate marketing you should not have a problem promoting your course – and let’s say if you bump into a customer who does not like it, you can give it for free – make sure you ask for feedback from him.
That feedback (as soon as it is constructive) has a tremendous value so you can improve the 2nd version.
And here, we are talking about a real business right now, don’t you think?
So that is the power of affiliate marketing – it can be your first step towards building a huge business. This is a course or platform where I have learned a lot about affiliate marketing and I am still learning new things every day.
With MLM, I don’t see where you can improve, other than potential climbing through the many levels above you.
Now it is your time.
Let me know what do you prefer? Which model do you think is more sustainable in the long run?
I would love to hear from you, so please leave your comments and thoughts in the comment section below. This can be an open discussion.(4).png)
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Andries Van Tonder
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Serial Entrepreneur/investor since 2013.
South Africa.
