I know there are a number of people here in SME that aside from the primary business they have listed are also involved in affiliate marketing of one nature or another, and that led me to wonder, really, what is MLM (Multi-Level Marketing)?

Let me give you a bit of background.

A lady called me this morning after she had Googled the company I represent..

She had seen a post we had done (she couldn’t recall which site she was on at the time), and had a couple of questions. She was inquiring about becoming one of our business partners.

She only had a couple of conceptual questions, so I asked her what is was that had peaked her interest in us.

She said, “Because I need something to supplement my Realty income, but I didn’t want to get involved with multi-level marketing or any of those type things, and this concept strikes me as a franchise, not a MLM.“

She then rattled off a list of companies that I did indeed think of as “multi-level marketing or any of those type things.”

I realized that I actually had wondered about our company’s perception when we launched it some time ago, but time has changed that in my mind.

But, that got me to thinking, having a background as an insurance agent, did that skew my perception of what is MLM, and what is not? After all, there are a number of people who benefit financially from commissions indirectly when ever an insurance agent sells a policy.

There’s the Agent, his Manager, the Manager’s Manager and his Manager, and right on up the line.

It does kind of sound like MLM, doesn’t it?

But it does make me wonder, what is it about a company that makes you think of it as a MLM, or something, uh, “more stable” (for lack of a better phrase)?

Is it the product being sold?

Is it your idea of what a company should be?

Is it simply the way the business model is presented?

I’d love to hear from any of you on this.

@warrenveach

In Internet marketing, MLM is not a term that comes up often in my mind.  I have seen these types of organizations on the web that use phrases like “get in on the ground floor” or “residual income.”

However affiliate marketing is really just a fancy word for “you’re reselling other people’s stuff without collecting any money directly.”  It is built on trust of technology that tracks sales and reports commissions.

 @mike-stelzner

Thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

Ok, if you don’t mind, let’s take this a step further.

Would you consider an insurance agent an affiliate, or something else?

After all, he makes an upfront commission when he sells the policy, and then he makes “residual income” on every monthly premium the client pays.

BTW, the reason for my asking, is that we are wanting to take advantage of internet marketing and the power of social media to further develop our distributor base which has largely been developed by word of mouth and associates with which we have done, and currently do, business.

You might call them our “warm market”.

They primarily consist of Professional Associations, Insurance Brokers and Chambers of Commerce.

For the next step in our expansion, we want to add individuals that can represent us to businesses and clients in local communities, but we want to distance our image and corporate perception from the thought that we are just another affiliate program or MLM.

So, bottom line, the very reason for my being a part of the Social media Examiner is to learn from the social media gurus here to best achieve our goals.

@themusclediva

I agree with your assessment of an affiliate program, although I’ve often wondered why it is necessary to divulge that you might be reimbursed for someone following your affiliate link when the girl that sells me toner and ink doesn’t have to tell me she gets a commission.

Also, I’ve never liked the idea that a person has to continually recruit new people into his/her group to progress.

I think if you do grow a sales team, it should be a perk, not a requirement.

A person should be able to earn whether or not the get anyone to join their sales team.

MLM’s  in my past experience are built on “HOPE”  They want you to believe that “This is the One” I can finally get out of my JOB, get out of DEBT, be FREE, unfortunately, reality sets in and you have burned all your valuable contacts including family, who may have supported you if you had built a business based on VALUE.
Ditch HOPE and go for VALUE.