Can MLM ruin your reputation? Opinions, please.
 

OK, So that's a stupid question.
Of course it can, if it's a bad one.
And there are more bad ones than good.

Since I have only been learning about online business for the last six months, I would like some opinions from folks out there with several years experiance in internet marketing.

What about being involved in a "good" one?

Is there such a thing? :-)

How badly does it hurt your good name online to be with a network type business?

What about SFI?
Is it "respectable"?

Are the marketers with SFI on their site risking their credibility?

What about Host4Profit?

There are certainly a few big names involved with H4P.
Does the network structure of H4P have any negative effect on their other online products?

It has become obvious to me lately that most people really hate any & all mlm.

I hate most of them myself because of the large signup fees, monthly minumum purchases or quotas just to keep your active dealer status, expensive upgrades you "need" to make the real $, and all the other hidden baloney. The worst are the ones who won't even tell you who they are or what they sell unless they get all your contact info first.

So many wise, respected, business advisors seem to have such a strong, negative view of any type of mlm that it got me to wonder about the implications of promoting any mlm or network type of business.

Just wanted some opinions from everyone as to how damaging it is to be associated with mlm type businesses?
How badly does it effect your reputation as far as later on when you have your own product to promote?
I realize that it varies greatly depending on which mlm you are with.
I think we all agree that being with the really bad ones will do you much more harm than good.

What I'm asking about here is being involved with a reputable one or one of the "good" ones.

Can that ruin your good name for future online marketing?

Thanks, DaveH




http://www.netgoldisp.com

Don't talk to me about MLM
 

Unless I ask to hear about it.

Dave:

There is a famous MLMer who visits here and sometimes posts as well. As far as I know, he is VERY respected by ALL visitors to this board. (I know he is VERY respected by the "long timers", at least.)

So being involved in an MLM does not automatically taint any reputation you may or may not have.

However, MLM taints the reputation of most people because of how they conduct themselves.

No one likes bible thumpers.

MLMers become zealots... like bible thumpers... about their particular MLM. Friends, relatives, business owners. A constant onslaught. Won't shut up about it. THAT, is what ruins your reputation and turns people off and causes them to avoid you.

If you want to join an MLM and be respected as well... then STOP forcing the Opportunity or products on people who have not asked. And do NOT try to sell to your friends and relatives.

Treat your upline like a product supplier. Treat your business like a retail store. Sell the product and don't even mention the opportunity. Make it so your customers do not even now the product you supply is an MLM product. Become a success at selling the product. Only then should you consider offering the opportunity. And when you do, you will be able to help those who come under you with proven techniques... techniques you used to grow the product side of your business.

Expecting others to do all the selling while you sit on your butt in front of the TV swilling beer and watching game shows, it not the way to succeed at anything.

Realise this: if you get people in by telling them "all you need is five people to be selling and you'll get rich," then they will also get people in by telling them "all you need is five people to be selling and you'll get rich." And those will in turn tell the people they get in "all you need is five people to be selling and you'll get rich." And so on and so forth. No one ends up selling the product.

In short: Concentrate on selling the product. Market it like you would market a normal product. Don't bother selling to friends, relatives or other "business owners" as the MLM manual might say. And sell your product to those who have shown an interest.

Do this and you will not ruin your reputation.

Push your product/opportunity down the throats of everyone you meet and mention it at every chance you get, and you will turn people off and ruin your reputation.

Michael Ross

I wish..
 

Re: too big of risk
 

(except maybe sending a million spam messages)

I know several well respected players who fell into the MLM trap and had their reputation trashed almost overnight.

Some started receiving hate mail almost the instant they were getting involved.

I don't care if it is supposedly taught in Harvard business school and that it's just another way of distributing products, or that Robert Allen says it's o.k. etc.

All that may be true but the vary nature of MLM and the culture that goes with it makes it's very risky to be involved in it in any way (expecially if care about your reputation) and the failure rate is extremely high.

The only guarentee is that you are going to have a lot of unhappy people and your name will start appearing all over the web, but probably not in a way you want!

It's not worth the risk for me.

If I had a dollar for every email, contact or person who told me that their MLM is "different"
It's got the best products, service, founder, and the best double wipper doodle reversed force matrix, I'd be rich! :-)

Jim

The ONLY people...
 

who make money with any MLM are the PROMOTERS and 1 or 2 "heavy hitters"...the rest of the "worker bees" make the founders rich...quick!

My opinion.

Don Alm

STAY AT HOME MOM MAKES $1800 A WEEK SENDING FAXES
FROM HER HOME PC....FOR LOCAL DELI'S!
http://www.pjbux.com/delifax


STAY AT HOME MOM MAKES $1800 A WEEK SENDING FAXES!

Good advice Re: Don't talk to me about MLM
 

Michael, good advice! If more MLMers do it the way you recommend, instead of them chasing people (away), they may attract more prospects. And MLM would get a better image :-)
Thank you, Michael, for always sharing helpful ideas.
Best regards,
Alexander
JV Insider and Newsletter Publisher




MarketingTarget.com - How to Save Time and Money on Internet Marketing Tools

Re: Can MLM ruin your reputation? Opinions, please.
 

Based on what I have read in this group of post and elsewhere ... there are a lot of people who either was involved in a networking company in the past and was not properly trained to succeed, knew of someone like that and heard the horror stories or was involved or knew of someone who was that the whole business was set up for everyone to fail except those who started the company and who now live on an island somewhere in the Pacific living on money made fraudulantly. If the above describes you or someone you know, I do not blame you for being upset. I too am upset that this has taken place.

I look at it this way ... I have been served steak in the past that was not prepaired right and on occaision was even burned. However ... I did not quit eating steak. I have even seen some fraudulant franchise and otherwise businesses ... but I did not make the shortsighted mistake of thinking ALL of the businesses were run that way thus not going into business for myself. That would be called naive.

Not all companies are run by greedy crooks by the name of Dick Dastardly. There are actually a few (maybe 15-25 or so) that are legit and of those ... maybe only 5 that allows even the part-timer to earn a living ... as long as they are given proper training.

But enough about my thoughts. Here is something for those of you who have had no experience or those of you who had a bad introduction into the networking industry and instead of seeking further information ... instead chose to talk bad about something that you did not understand as most of us (myself included) have done at one time or another. Take a peek ....

This is a WONDERFUL excerpt from one of Robert Kiyosaki's books, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Enjoy the read, and ENJOY YOUR ASSETS (or where your ASSETS)!

*******
Are You Still Working For Money?
Network Marketing—-It’s an Asset, Not a Job

By Robert Kiyosaki

I am sometimes asked, “Why do so few people make it to the top of their network marketing system?”

The truth is, the top of the network marketing system is open to everyone—unlike traditional corporate systems, which allow only one person to reach the top of the company. The reason most people do not reach the top is simply because they quit too soon. So why would someone quit short of the top?

Most people join only to make money. If they don’t make money in the first few months or years, they become discouraged and quit (and then often bad-mouth the industry!). Others quit and go looking for a company with a better compensation plan. But joining to make a few quick dollars is not the reason to get into the business.

Two Essential Reasons to Join Network Marketing
--Reason number one is to help yourself.
--Reason number two is to help others.
If you join for only ONE of these two reasons, then the system will not work for you.

Reason number one, means that you come to the business primarily to change quadrants—to change from the E (Employee) or the S (Self-employed) quadrant to the B (Business owner) or I (Investor) quadrant.

This change is normally very difficult for most people—because of money. The true E or S quadrant person will not work unless it is for money. This is also what causes people to not reach the top of the network marketing system: they want money more than they want to change quadrants.

The B quadrant or I quadrant person will also work for money, but in a different way. The B quadrant person works to build or create an asset—in this case, a business system. The I quadrant person invests in the asset or the system.

The beauty of most network marketing systems is that you do not really make much money unless you help others leave the E and S quadrants and succeed in the B and I quadrants. If you focus on helping others make this shift, then you will be successful in the business.

As a B or an I, sometimes you don’t get paid for years; this, a true E quadrant or S quadrant person will not do. It’s not part of their core values. Risk and delayed gratification disturb them emotionally.

Delayed Gratification and Emotional Intelligence

One of the beauties of network marketing is that it focuses on developing your emotional intelligence as well as your business skills. Emotional intelligence is an entirely different matter from academic intelligence. In general, someone with high emotional intelligence will often do better than someone with high academic intelligence but low emotional intelligence. That explains, in part, why some people do well in school but not so well in the real world.

The ability to delay gratification is a sign of higher emotional intelligence. In a recent study of emotional intelligence, it was found that people who could delay gratification often led more successful lives than those who could not.

This is why the educational system inherent in a good network marketing opportunity is so important. It’s the emotional education or emotional intelligence aspect of their programs that I find so valuable for people.

Many people write me and tell me they loved my book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but I fear that many of them don’t get the most important point of the book: Lesson #1, “The rich don’t work for money.”

Once I have built or bought an asset, that asset works hard to make money for me. But I will not work for money—I will work only to build or buy assets. Those assets make me richer and richer, while I work less and less. That is what the rich do. The poor and middle class work hard for money, and then buy liabilities instead of investing in assets.

What Kind of Asset is a Network Marketing Business?

Remember, there are two reasons required to be successful in network marketing: to help yourself, and to help others. Reason number one means helping yourself get to the B side of the quadrant. What about reason number two?

The beauty of most network marketing systems is that you don’t really make much money unless you help others leave the E and S quadrants and succeed in the B and I quadrants. If you focus on helping others make this shift, then you will be successful in the business. If you only want to teach yourself to be a B quadrant and I quadrant person, then a true network marketing system won’t work for you. You may as well go to a traditional business school, which focuses only on your becoming a B quadrant person.

The beauty of a network marketing business is that your goal is to create assets--which are other B’s working under you—-and their job is to create other B’s working under them. In traditional business, the focus is for the B to have only E’s and S’s working for them. The type of business I was taught to build is a business with me at the top and E’s and S’s at the base. I really don’t have room at the top for many other B’s, which is why in my businesses, I strongly recommend that all my employees look into network marketing as their own part-time businesses.

The traditional corporate system really is a pyramid, because there are a few B’s and I’s near the top, and more E’s and S’s at the base. A network marketing system is a reverse pyramid: its primary focus is to bring up more and more B’s to the top.

One type of pyramid, the traditional type, has its base on the ground; the other type has its base in the air. It’s a pyramid that pulls you up instead of pushing you down. A network marketing business gives everyone access to what used to be the domain only of the rich.

**This passage is excerpted by permission from The Business School for People Who Like Helping People, by Robert T. Kiyosaki, with Sharon Lechter, CPA, authors of Rich Dad,
Poor Dad.

See you at the top!

Re: The ONLY people...
 

I can't believe someone with so many good ideas on marketing has a limited belief system when it comes to network marketing.


Webmaster Automation

Re: True Winners In MLM Exposed
 

I think Michael Ross makes a good point but rather
its the Michael Ross approach or the common way MLM is taught and sold to others that is.. find people!

YOU can make money with MLM and the secret is staring you in the face. Its the secret to success for Don Alm, Gordon, Michael Ross and others. Comes down to a four letter word..

WORK!

The people who are successful in MLM probably worked extremely hard to get there much more than others.

90% don't make money in MLM because they did not work it. 90% don't make money with a Gary Halbert product or Don Alm or Jay Abraham probably did not work long enough to succeed.

But on the other hand I think MLM is flawed in the sense for the same amount of time you put in to building your MLM business if you put in that same effort say in direct mail you would probably be an even bigger success because I think the business model is better.

Just my opinion.

Opinions, please. Thanks everyone
 

Thanks to all who answered this.

Thanks to Michael Ross for your very good points, you were right on target, as usual.
One of the reasons I like spending time here.

Thanks again,
DaveH

PS: Interesting, no comments about H4P.


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