New to MLM, Is there any hope for success?

chrisblanks: Get you an accountability person. Someone that you can send an email to or call daily and let them know what you did for your business on a daily basis. You will find that it will keep you motivated and help you to keep focused on what you need to do daily to build your business.
Good advice from chrisblanks here. If I can drill down a bit further on his advice, find a person willing to coach you. It doesn't have to be a person in your specific business either. Sometimes your immediate MLM sponsor is the worst person to coach with, for a variety of obviously biased reasons. Someone that can coach you with no agenda of their own is the holy grail of that subject.

network marketing is a great industry if you have Patience, persistence, and perservarance you will get the prize...the big thing here is your leadership..and you being coachable and following their lead. I have been a police officer 15yrs and i felt i could not get people into my business, but now i teach my team what i am learning and we have over 45 reps on our team...you can do it, it takes getting use to no and going to the next future partner...if I can help you let me know...

This is an awesome post

you have not failed untill you admit defeat. i hardly made a penny in 3 years in MLM. become a student of marketing and personal development. How you think will determine how successful you are. If i can recommend you do 1 thing its buy Magnetic Sponsoring ($40) from Mike Dillard. Its responsible for making more millionaires in our industry than anything. im probably not allowed to do this but here is the link for his site http://OnlineMLMDomination.com it completely changed my business. The term attraction marketing is what you need to master. People dont care about you business or your product, they care about you and what you can do for them. People buy a drill because they want a hole not because they want a drill. Dont rely on your sponsor, he/she probably has the same problems as you, blind leading the blind

I don't know if what I joined is MLM, but it was cheap, so that's why I joined. ^^; I have yet to see it go anywhere, but good things come to those who wait!

Please please y'all - the smartest thing you could do right now is to quit your mlm, take your monthly mlm dues and put them in a savings account, or a mutual fund. This is how you build wealth in mlm. The fail rate on mlms is incredible, and even if you do make it for a while, your company will statistically dry up in a few years, leaving all the people you have recruited out to dry. I know this isn't a popular view, but it is an honest answer to your question.

3 out of 100 succeed in mlm, and they do so at the expense of a lot of people who will lose money and quit.

Mlm can DESTROY your relationships with friends and family.

And, if I don't have the bad morals to dupe my friends and family into joining when I know they will statistically fail and be bitter at the company and me, then I have no business duping strangers either.

BHP: And, if I don't have the bad morals to dupe my friends and family into joining when I know they will statistically fail and be bitter at the company and me, then I have no business duping strangers either.
Work At Home is a legit business model. If you had a bad experience with the HBB industry then you need to find out why. Like any traditional business, you should be careful when you choose one to be involved in. Due diligence is vital.

BHP: Please please y'all - the smartest thing you could do right now is to quit your mlm, take your monthly mlm dues and put them in a savings account, or a mutual fund. This is how you build wealth in mlm. The fail rate on mlms is incredible, and even if you do make it for a while, your company will statistically dry up in a few years, leaving all the people you have recruited out to dry. I know this isn't a popular view, but it is an honest answer to your question.
The business I am in offers the chance for anyone to have their own website, as we offer free webhosting with a $10.00 a month membership. We also offer loads of other services like domain names and even a re-seller program where you can set up your own online computer store. Now, by getting other people to join, you make money. So, what I am trying to say is... why pay GoDaddy and get nothing in return when you could be making good money instead? There are so many people who can use our products and services weather they take advantage of the mlm side of it or not.

Not all businesses or mlm's are out to take you, nor will all of them fail. There are loads of mlm's out there that won't last a year and with those types you are correct... BUT please do NOT put all mlm's in the same category. There are some really good ones out there that are changing peoples lives with the money they are able to generate and they aren't ticking anyone off to do it. Most are trying to target the people who could really use their products or in our case our services.

I will go a step further and say that most legit MLM's don't want people to join if they are prepared to blow money and quit within a few months. This entire site is filled with awesome training and advice telling people to thoroughly check out and research any business before they join and then NOT to give up if they truly want to go for it and have a great business on the net, and most of those are MLM's! I will also say that the attitudes with MLM's have changed a lot! Most of us now DON'T want our friends and family joining us. We want them to see our success and then beg us for our secret!

So again, please don't judge all MLM's

Thank You!

Show people your heart of gold, stand on your feet and believe in yourself which will encourage you to stay consistent regardless if you have a pile of bills.

By staying consistent you will keep the portal of attraction open and allow others to see your marketing messages.

Build a dream board of thingyou want to achieve in life to remind and keep you focused in what your working towards. Be sure to keep this dream board near your desk.

Build a roadmap and keep it near your desk with a stick figure of yourself walking closer to your destination on your dream board. You will be amazed that when you see progress it will motivate you.

Start praying and reading the bible king james version and listen to a mp3 player as it will be food for your soul to keep you refreshed. You can private message me for such a player.

Focus on getting to know others and find out their needs and wants. Are you they happy about their life? Do we connect with each other? I can't tell you how amazing it is to connect with people who are exactly like you.

One of my strategies has been to make videos and to release the energy out in the world and to attract people who respond to such energy. You will lure in exactly what you release, I have found when you promote your name and image the lead quality is exceptional. Keep giving value to those leads and even if they don't want to work with you now the big mistake many make is they forget about them and move on.

I have a guy who loves talking about the bible, he has got over 300k hits on his site and my focus was not to get him to join me. I really listened to him with my heart and we had such amazing conversations. During times he often heard me speak about the orders and money coming in my business that drawed him closer.

Just forget about the money and really put a effort in loving others. The same saying holds true in that forget about your problems and leave the burdon with God. The same holds true during a date, if you keep your focus on their needs and not what your mind/body tells you. Everything will come as a result to following along with this advice. What we sow is what we reep, if we sow well we will reap tenfold and this applies to many things in life including business.

It is amazing how things turn out, just as the rainy days come and go will bring sunny days.

Thanks for reading.

Ronnie Branch

You are quite right - some mlm companies do not fail. 5%. 5% of mlm companies retain enough distributers not to go bust. The other 95% are started by people with $$ signs in their eyes. A lot of people make $ on mlm, what with so many new companies starting.

Say a new mlm starts. If you are one of the first to join, you can recruit MUCH more effectively with the 'get in early' pitch. If you are very motivated and recruit 10 or so people, you can keep the sign-up recruitment bonus. And you can use your success to recruit much more effectively "I've made x amount of $$ on [insert mlm]."

Here's something to think about. You ask someone if they want to talk about mlm, they run away. It's reputation has to be a result of some phenomonem - like 97% of its members losing money and quitting after the 1st year.

I realize people have made $ - and there are people who have done it primarily by selling the products. This is the right way to do it - believe in the product, and only try to sign up people who are informed about the business, and who are willing to do the work to sell the product they believe in - not to dupe people into joining.

Mlms that enable members like Julsy to use their product and make money without necessarily taking advantage of the mlm 'recruit recruit recruit' side are out there - but very rare. If they have a good product, they will make up the 5%.

I find the risk of doing my homework, and still having that 95% fail rate of the mlm companies come back to bite me too high.

Small business' have a high fail rate as well - i realize that - there's risk to any investment. I'm just saying that the risk of joining an mlm is too high if you are counting on it to generate revenue for you. If you have enough money to spend on the monthly fees and you can have fun with it, and eventually grow your business, that's awesome. I, however, am too risk-assessment oriented to be able to recommend to someone that they should stay with it, when there are more trustworthy places to put one's money.

I appreciate Ronnie's sincerity - and I too believe that honesty and integrity in the workplace are the highest calling in respect to how we work our jobs.

I haven't yet found that spiritual well-being is dependant on financial abundance. I deal thoughtfully and analytically with money.

I mix God and work only in that I attempt (though failing often) to be Christlike in my occupation. I would not use it as a recruiting tool.

MLM's are a great place to make money. There are a few things you have to be aware of though.

1- You must be marketing a product that people will want.
2- You need to learn how to effectively market to people that want your product.
3- Patience is a necessity as there is a learning curve.
4- The internet has made it simpler to advertise with little or no money.

The most difficult thing for people to grasp in any business is to learn how to thing like a business owner. This is something that is not second nature for most. In addition we arent taught how to be business owners in school. We are taught to get an education to then get a good job. Unfortunately with the downward swing in the economy many have done all that was asked of them and still cant find a good job.

Here is a piece of advise that has served me well. When I look at a business I first look at the product and see if it is something that will sell. You can do this by doing some research. Ask people about the product. You dont have too ( and I never do ) tell them you are starting a business with this product just see if it is something people will buy.

Next get educated. Whether its how to advertise , how to sell , how to present or even how to manage a group. Find a model that works in all those categories and emulate it.

If you can get your mind in the right place and understand that their will be trials and tribulations you will be better able to succeed. MLM is here to stay and will only grow in the future.

Lots of great info.

One suggestion - Look at the contrast of your 2 signature lines.

The first is marketing a business opportunity - the second is addressing a solution. Which one is going to get more attention? The first just tells me that you are trying to sell me another MLM.
The second says - hey! You don't like to edit, or write - I can help.

Mike Dillard has some terrific information in Magnetic Sponsoring. Just go to his website magneticsponsoring.com and you can get a free trial I believe. Great information.

You've received some very good responses so far. Some encouraging some discouraging. I know it can seem overwhelming and you are a little frustrated right now but MLM is definitely an excellent business. Those that bad mouth it either don't understand it or simply got involved with the wrong company! I'm shocked at your comment about not making any money at all your first month. Now, don't misunderstand me....MLM is not a get rich quick business and if someone has sold you that line....well, it simply isn't true. It takes focus, it takes daily actions. Don't allow anyone to tell you to make a list of friends and family and try to build an MLM business that way. It does not work now and it never has. But, there are many ways to build your MLM business. All of them take dedication, focus, and action. The work is easy and anyone can do it but you need to be using the strategy that will work for you and your lifestyle. You need a good company with a good pay plan, you need a consumable product that people want and will continue to want. The company I'm involved with pays out weekly and monthly. It is set up to assure both the new distributor and the seasoned distributors make money. I haven't heard of anyone that puts effort out that hasn't received a check. I think you might need to do a little homework and see if you are with the right company and then make a plan and follow it. Many people simply get a distributor kit, do a couple of things right off the bat and then sit back and wait for that to work. You need a better plan! Make a list of actions for the next day..1-10 and make sure you do this everyday that you plan on working. Number them in order of importance (which one is most important to your business)....work that list each of your working days. If something happens and you can't complete the entire list.......you'll have at least done the most important because you don't allow yourself to skip #1 ever!
Good luck to you! If you are confident in your product & company...don't give up.......simply learn what you need to do and do it!

If your marketing online, you are going to need some form of lead capture page.

Most MLM companies don't give you a website which really works on the internet to capture leads, and is in direct response form.

So that is my suggestion first, get a lead capture page and auto-responder and go from there.

MLM marketing needs personal approach or in other sense building relationship. Whether you marketing through online or offline, do it by building relationship. Make the impression that you are there to help them to lift their lifestyle. It takes time but in the long run will fetch more dividends.

One of the most important things you need to learn is to diversify your income streams.

If all you have is a company replicated website you will get zero free traffic from search engines.

What you need to do is build your own site related in some way to your MLM opportunity.

Just some of the benefits are you will be attracting free targeted visitors to your site you can then presell them on your related MLM biz op.

The people coming to your site will be interested in some way to your related biz op, or at least a large number of them will.

Next you can earn income in a variety of ways from this free traffic with adwords, affiliate links, selling advertising etc etc.

This will help off set your MLM membership fees until you get into profit.

You have to understand that a very large percentage of your visitors will not join your opportunity so you might as well make some money off of them while you have them on your site.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of course but if you educate yourself on making a good quality content website you will be way ahead of the majority of Network Marketers who simply rely on their company replicated website.

Cheers,
Zac

Blogging and free press releases work too..Just make sure you have good content and relevant information. But it works and yes it takes some time..Keep all you content fresh. Dont post it and leave it. refresh it all every couple of days.

It sounds to me that you are doing productive activities, but are you doing them correctly? Are you getting leads that are not converting to sales? Or are you not getting any leads at all? If you are getting leads, do you have an autoresponder that is keeping in touch with your leads on a consistent basis? When you do your business building activities, are you selling your business, or selling yourself? Very important, people don't join MLM companies, they join leaders.

clawrence: What am I doing wrong? Or am I doing everything right and just not giving it enough time to permeate? Can anyone help? I'm getting real frustrated. I know it works, I know I can make money, I just don't know if I'm doing it right. Thanks.
It is really difficult to pinpoint where the fault of your effort might be. But if you really think your exerting the best effort but you're not getting the desired results, then the fault might be on your targeted market. You might be exerting effort towards the wrong audience.

It is a given in sales and marketing that if people are in need of a product or service, they themselves would be looking for it. How sure are you that you are positioning yourself properly so that instead of you looking for your market, you're market is in fact looking for you - and ultimately find you?