Network Marketing has caught on the fancy of people across the globe and to-date there are thousands of people who have made their millions through being a part of Network Marketing. The success stories of such millionaires from US, UK, Australia, The Far East etc. are being published as a part of the case study in Universities and other Educational Institutions as well as Direct Selling Training Institutes.

Network Marketing is also referred to as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), ‘Referral Marketing’, ‘Network Selling etc. As the name implies, this direct form of selling involves people and building network of people as sales distributors. Typically in MLM, the individuals take up distributorship from the Company in the first instance. The distributor works as a sales person too. Selling happens through identifying and recruiting a new distributor for the network. Every distributor happens to become a buyer as well for he starts using the product for self, for family and friends. Thus the sales take place through self use as well as through the distributors who have been enrolled by the individual.

In this case the distributor focuses on increasing the network of and recruiting other distributors rather than selling the products alone. Thus with extension of distributor network and the subsequent purchases as well as recruitment done by the chain the sponsor distributors earn rebates and commissions from the Company.

The income generation happens when the distributor recruits other distributors who in turn keep recruiting further thus extending the network and each distributor turns out to become a customer and thus buys the products from the Company. With every addition of distributor to the chain and additional sales, the upstream distributors gets to earn commissions, rebates and points which amount to income.

In this set up the Company focuses on providing the Products to the Distributors as well as in providing sales training and sales kit to the distributors who are the salesmen and the processing of payments from Customers/Distributors and Commissions to Distributors. The Companies spend a lot of effort in training the sales distributors and teaching them the art of communication, of building and managing relationships as well as in providing them the product training and sales training. In this effort the Companies use audio visual media, books as well as marcom materials extensively. Team meetings, conferences, seminars and membership to various achievers’ clubs are the main stream activities that help build the spirit and participation of the individual distributors.

What attracts people to MLM is the dream of earning millions as income without having to invest large sums of money but one’s efforts and time and without having to sacrifice one’s career or other priorities of life. MLM sells the concept of an individual aspiring and achieving one’s goals through additional income generation opportunity of joining and working through the network. As there are no entry barriers, it attracts thousands to take up this activity and pursue it diligently. Success stories are widely publicized and is there for all to see, for seeing is believing and this is what drives people to join the MLM networks.

Below are some of the top  personalities and what they say about network marketing.

Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) as it is called world over, happens to be a fast growing phenomenon. The fact that anyone, anywhere can become a distributor and earn income from building the network without having to sacrifice any other occupation or huge investment into this business makes it very attractive for people from all walks of life to attempt at joining the network. It is estimated that in US alone over 70 percent of the Direct Selling Revenues come from Network Marketing. Though no figures are available to confirm the revenue figures at national level, over 50 million people are estimated to be engaged in Network Marketing all over the world.

Though there is no documented history of Origin of Network Marketing, generally it is believed that this concept owes its origin to ‘Nurtralite’ or formerly known as California Vitamin Company which produces food supplement products. In the early part of 1940s, the Company used to engage in Direct Selling.

The concept of Network or Multi-Level Marketing seems to have emerged accidently when the Distributors discovered that they were generating more sales for the Company by referring their friends and known people to the business opportunity available with Nutralite. At this point of time, there was no system in place to recognize and reward the distributors for their efforts in recruiting other Distributors for the company. With the realization dawning on the Distributors and the Company, the system of paying 2 percent bonus to the sponsor Distributor on the sales that were achieved by the Distributor and the network that he sponsored or built was introduced. This then led to the birth of modern day system of ‘Network Marketing’, ‘Multi Level Marketing’ or ‘Referral Marketing’.

Nutralite achieved unprecedented growth and profits in the following decades thanks to the fast growing network not only in the US but across other continents as well. In early 1960s, two men Richard DeVos and Jay Van Andel,c who were the Distributors of Nutralite broke away to build their own company which grew to be the biggest in MLM business world over called ‘Amway’. This company initially made a foray into Household and cleaning products and went on to buy Nutralite Company and merge the food supplement products into its portfolio.

Yet another distributor named Dr. Forrest C Shaklee too broke away from Nutralite at the same period that ‘Amway’ took birth and found the new Company named Shaklee dealing with Nature’s sunshine products.

Today there are several hundreds of Companies that are practicing Network Marketing or Multi Level Marketing and compensation methods to sell their products. Numerous Companies/Brands such as Forever Living Products, GNLD, QNET, Tiensh, World Ventures, Organo Gold, Avon, Tupperware, Electrolux, Discovery Toys, Herbal life, Kleenez, Oriflame, Reliv etc have been highly successful in growing their business globally using this concept of sales.

Definition – What does Online Marketing mean?

Online marketing is a set of powerful tools and methodologies used for promoting products and services through the internet. Online marketing includes a wider range of marketing elements than traditional business marketing due to the extra channels and marketing mechanisms available on the internet.

Online Marketing can deliver benefits such as:

• Growth in potential –Global Reach
• Reduced expenses
• Elegant communications
• Better control
• Improved customer service
• Competitive advantage

Online marketing is also known as internet marketing, web marketing, digital marketing and search engine marketing (SEM).

WAYS OF MAKING MONEY THROUGH ONLINE MARKETING

1. CONTENT MARKETING

Content Marketing is where marketers try to create valuable media and content and distribute it to potential future customers. This is the good guy version of online marketing, where you mostly try to guilt people into buying.

You can use content marketing to advertise your business or get hired by other companies.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social Media Marketing is where you use one or several social media channels to engage with customers, build relationships and then send them to your products and services.

You can promote your business using various social medial platforms to promote your business e.g Facebook,Whatsapp,Twitter, Instagram etc.

You can also be hired by individuals or companies to manage their social media platforms.

3. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Search Engine Optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) — including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

You can use SEO to increase more visitors in your website/blog.

Next to SEO, there’s search engine marketing (SEM), which is simply the paid version of SEO.

Marketers pay for displaying ads together with Google search results and hope to drive traffic, or rather interested people (=leads), to their product landing pages

4. PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING (OR PPC)

Pay Per Click Advertising is similar to search engine marketing, but not limited to Google and its competitors. Most social media networks let you create ads that integrate naturally into their feeds, allowing you to pay for clicks to your website.

5. AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate Marketing  is a kind of referral marketing, where you share profits with fellow marketers, in exchange for promoting each other’s products.

GIF is one of the companies involved in affiliate marketing.

6. EMAIL MARKETING

 Email Marketing, which is already considered old school,but is still considered one of the most effective channels. Once your customers have given you permission to contact them, you can email them at any time, providing value and asking them to buy when the time is right.

You can already guess how big online marketing really is, as you know how huge of a space each of these categories is, taken on its own..