It’s so rare to hear about anyone successfully building an MLM business offline. 30 years ago MLM was wild and growing and people were building downlines in the thousands. Building an offline MLM business was like taking an afternoon stroll. Doing it now is like running a marathon without training for it. It’s still possible, but you many are dying while trying.

So what is the real cause of this problem?

The internet.

Here’s why. Before the internet an excited MLM distributor would contact their friends and family and referrals that they got. They would show the business plan to them and they were the final authority on the information. Prospects could talk it over with their spouse, ask their friends about it, but there wasn’t any real place to get information about the MLM opportunity other than the person that gave them the information in the first place.

This was power for the MLM distributor, they were holding all the cards because where else was a prospect going to get info about the business plan? There was an information buffer zone and the prospects knew only what the distributor was telling them.

This allowed time for a relationship to build and the prospect to sign up in the business before they learned any of the negative aspects that there might be. Distributors were selling a dream and appealing to the wants and desires of their prospects. Anything about hard work or difficulties could be discussed later.

The distributor controlled what prospects learned before hand about the business opportunity. I’m not saying they were all a bunch of liars and deceivers. But anything they said about the business couldn’t be second guessed, verified or found to be untrue because there was no other source of information.

The decision to join a company or not was based solely on the information that the distributor gave to a prospect, therefore giving the distributor more control over the situation.

The internet changed all that. Google any MLM company and you will find thousands of results. The information is overwhelming and some of it is contradicting.

Now after a business presentation for an MLM company is given, and a prospect says they need to think it over, the distributor giving the presentation can say goodbye to their prospect. They won’t be back. They are going to google the opportunity, find all the overwhelming and contradicting information and they are gone.

If after seeing all of the info they still end up joining an MLM, it won’t be with the person that gave them the presentation, it will be with someone they found on the internet that stood out above all the rest. The person that gave powerful truthful information. They might not even be in the same MLM company.

That is why traditional methods of MLM are dying. The information age brought on by the internet is killing it. It’s also killing internet marketing.

That’s because the little guys on the internet are putting out just enough info to spark an interest about MLM in people. Once their interest is peaked they begin to Google the MLM opportunity. They run into the same information an offline prospect would find. They also find a leader in the industry and end up joining with them.

So how do we overcome this? One common solution that marketers offer is to present yourself as an expert. Problem is that everyone thinks they are the expert. It’s no big deal anymore to present yourself as an expert because everyone else is doing it.

A better solution is not just being an expert, but to give full up front disclosure about MLM and how the industry works. Tell prospects the truths that everyone else holds back. Give the good the bad and the ugly info all at once.

It is commonly thought that people are stupid and that they can’t handle full disclosure about anything. Here’s a news flash, people are smart, they need the right information to make a legitimate decision. I’d rather have someone say no to my MLM opportunity because they made an educated decision than to have someone say yes and not know what they are saying yes to.

1 Year Later In MLM And she can’t Afford Her Domain Renewal???

I keep thinking back to something that happened with the first MLM company I joined. The one thing that turned me off and sealed my decision to leave.

It was during a Sunday night online team meeting in a webinar. We were discussing using domain names in order to personally brand ourselves. Something I knew the importance of and had been encouraging others to do.

I made a recommendation to use GoDaddy.com and was going to further mention their affiliate program when the team founder cut me right off.

She said that using GoDaddy for domain registration was a terrible idea, because after a year the subscription renewal rate went up and was too high. She gave an example of a girl she knew that couldn’t afford the $50 to renew her domain after her first year expired. (Note: GoDaddy’s renewal rates vary depending on which type of domain you get and which upgrades you choose, but renewing your domain is the same price, if not cheaper than when you buy it because they want you to keep your domain hosted with them. They will often run a sale on domain renewals as well)

This absolutely floored me. My jaw dropped and I was left with nothing to say. Which is also surprising because I love to talk.

How is it that after a year with the company she could not afford to renew her domain? Even if there was an increase in the renewal rate,,, I didn’t see the problem being with the increase in the rate. The problem I saw was that after a year of working everyday, all day, for a year to build up a sizeable downline, she still couldn’t afford to renew her domain name.

I thought ahead to the next year I would be having with this company and realized the compensation plan was not all it was cracked up to be. I started doing my homework on companies and found that it takes just as much work to make a big sale as it does to make a little sale. Why shouldn’t I be able to be paid a higher commission up front?

If I took all the effort that I had already put into my few weeks with this company and applied it to a company with greater payout. Then I could make in one sale what took me more than 10 with the company I was already with.

That was a no brainer. The saying “work smarter, not harder” was ringing in my ears.

So, from my notebook full of priceless info (I was a professional college student for years, I take good notes) was the excerpt about what to look for in a company’s compensation plan.

1. Upfront Payout. Again, it takes the same amount of effort to create a small sale as it does a big sale. Marketing a higher priced item is just as easy as a smaller priced one. Our own doubts about our capabilities to market them is what holds us back, there is no lack of purchasers. A larger payout on the front end builds momentum for your business. Multiple small sales = small commissions = burn out.

2. Residual income. This is your retirement fund. This is continuing income flowing from work you already did. This isn’t new money from a new sale. This is money that keeps coming to you, even if you don’t make new sales.

3. Matching Bonus. Whenever someone you bring into your company generates a bonus for themselves, you also get a 100% matching bonus.  You helped and coached your team to get them started in their business right? Then you should be rewarded for your efforts,,, on all levels within your team.

These are the three key points to choosing a compensation plan. Join a company that meets these requirements, and there’s no worries about renewing your domain. (There’s also no worries about when you can quit your stupid job)  See what I’m talking about by clicking here.