Affiliate Marketing vs. Multi-Level Marketing

Those involved in multi-level marketing (MLM) programs often boast that it’s a big money maker. Perhaps they may be right. However, if what they have to say is the truth or not could be another story altogether. Many of those to claim this can either be because they are at higher levels of marketing, or just pure talents at selling ideas.

It’s true, however it’s not the 90 % of internet marketers that think it is this. The sad reality is that most people who are into multi-level marketing or MLM programs are doomed from the start. In fact, many go into these programs knowing they won’t be able to make much and will likely fail. MLM is a separate business that is different from Internet Marketing and often times the people who get into this business have fallen victim to false advertising and the use of high pressure, highly aggressive marketing tactics havent’ spent the necessary time and effort to learn what’s needed to succeed.

While MLM has a large number of disadvantages, affiliate marketing is a more responsible method of making money online. Affiliate marketing does not task you to keep vigil with your computer at all times, but you can instead set your own schedule. You will earn a little commission by placing a link to certain product pages and being paid per any sales of products. You will find your commissions are mostly generated by one or two products from a specific company.

MLM – What It Is & Its Many Disadvantages

MLM is widely regarded as the world’s largest and most successful business operating on the simple principle of the pyramid.

The MLM Marketing Pyramid works the same way as any other pyramid scheme. At the bottom you have the people who are still hoping to earn some money with the program, and at the top are the few lucky individuals who have achieved their goal and are profiting handsomely. In between is a broad layer of people who hope to succeed, and to do so they must constantly recruit more people to help them in their attempts to ascend the MLM pyramid.

The problem with this type of plan is that it’s unsustainable. At some point the supply of new recruits will cease, and the pyramid will fall apart as the vast majority of those at the bottom lose their investment.

This can be prevented to some degree by incentivizing recruits to continue to work, but this can lead to unethical practices as the rules of pyramid schemes are broken and participants are encouraged to entice their own friends and family into signing up.

No Skills, No Experience

One of the biggest dangers of multi-level marketing is that it creates a culture of recruiting more members, without any concern for their actual skills, experience or the quality of their products.

No Definitive Answers but Only Questions

One another major problem that most people who enter into this plan face is a flood of information, which creates more questions than answers. Many new people find themselves running in circles trying to figure out how to be successful. People soon find out that what the people who initiated them were telling them were not true.

No Sense of Ethics – Only Money!

While the tactics used by MLM companies are often considered unethical, the people involved are often truly interested in the product or service they are selling. While the MLM company, like all companies, has its sights set on profit, the most common reason why someone gets into MLM is to sell a product they like. While this can often be the case, you can also have companies that are not the most trustworthy who are out to make money off you even if they have no product of their own.

Affiliate Marketing – Its Advantages Over MLM

Affiliate marketing is a well-known way of making money with the online world and it is user-friendly for beginner entrepreneurs, as well. With affiliate marketing, a company’s product or service is promoted taking advantage of many marketing techniques. To get rewarded an affiliate needs to drive a target customer to an affiliate site, campaign or offer using their provided banner or text links, which when clicked a revenue is recorded for both the affiliate and the company.

Constant & Predictable

A big advantage of affiliate marketing is that the profit is consistent and predictable. In MLM or some other business ventures you may have high profits in the beginning but the profit gets lower over time as you move down the pyramid. With affiliate marketing it’s possible to get that consistent income if you follow up on everything. Further, you also have options to choose from the different types of marketing like email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing to promote your affiliate marketing business.

Work Your Own Time

Unlike with MLM you can work your own time and shift. Unlike with MLM, you can work for a few minutes to a few hours to promote your affiliate marketing business. Your prospects or customers may read your blogs or the e-mails you send or can even visit your social media accounts or the content you have created.

Easy to Start and Easy to Scale Up

Launching an affiliate marketing business looks a lot easier than starting with Multi-Level Marketing [MLM] career since the type of work involved would be much shorter on the affiliate side. For this type of business venture you are able to select marketing strategies you feel driven to apply and many of those which might prove effective for you and your audience. In an MLM network business you tend to be firmly behind people enlisted at a lower level and tasked with implementing many techniques to keep those people attached and working.

A Level Playing Field

Multi-Level Marketing [MLM] requires new people to come in at the bottom of the pyramid. As mentioned before, it can be difficult for you to actually earn money by just relying on the people who will be under you. By starting as an affiliate marketer you will have the same playing field as everyone else.

Avoid Wasted Time

With Multi-Level Marketing [MLM] you have to spend many hours a week recruiting people into your downline. In affiliate marketing, you can spend a little time promoting your affiliate marketing business and if people are interested they will do the rest.

Flexible Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are flexible. You have many different programs that you can choose. There is a range of affiliate programs for different businesses and products that you can take advantage of. Affiliate programs allow you to make money from many different programs instead of just one.

The idea of earning through your hard work is exciting. Earning through affiliate marketing is a quick way to see results. The steps are easy and not that complicated. No matter where you live, you can be a success in affiliate marketing. The first step to be on the way of affiliate marketing is to find a good affiliate program for you to be a part of. Once you find the right program, you can promote it, and if people like your promotion, they will buy the product or service you are promoting. If people do that, you will get your commission, and it will pay for all your time and efforts.

Conclusion

The number of Multi-Level Marketing [MLM] companies that promise easy ways to make money can be overwhelming. You may think that the goal is achievable, especially if you are an entrepreneur, but all too often you can find yourself losing your hard-earned money instead. Make sure you look into all of the pitfalls before you sign up to any company. If they are not fully transparent, you need to be careful. And, last but not least, never invest more money than you can afford to lose.