A guy named Tom decided to get involved with a network marketing scam - at least that’s what he called it after all was said and done. Here’s what happened to Tom. Do you think he really got cheated?

One of Tom’s friends was involved with a network marketing opportunity that sold a premier line of nutritional supplements, including some that were targeted toward bodybuilders. This was intriguing to Tom, because he enjoyed working out and taking care of himself, and had lots of friends at his gym.

Tom’s friend presented the opportunity and shared some very persuasive figures illustrating the income potential. When Tom saw the dollar signs, he didn’t hesitate. He signed up on the spot.

Tom had twenty people in mind as prospects, most of whom were workout buddies. He enthusiastically presented the business to them, and three of the twenty signed up.

Three months later, all three of Tom’s recruits had dropped out, and the other seventeen had long since decided it wasn’t for them.

Tom didn’t make a dime, and in fact had invested $350 in products and literature. Obviously, this is one of those network marketing scams, I was stupid to sign up for this….Tom thought.

In his mind, this network marketing opportunity was a total scam because:

• he talked to twenty people and only three signed up

• of the seventeen who didn’t join, five warned him that he was getting sucked in to a “pyramid deal”

• the three people who did sign didn’t make any money either, and decided to call it quits

What happened here? The truth is, Tom never understood that network marketing was a serious business that would take time and effort. He had what we can call the “lottery mentality”. He signed up believing he could get several people he knew to join, and presented the business to the twenty best contacts he had. At that point, he waited to see what the three who joined would do, and hoped some of the other seventeen would eventually come around.

Tom felt with this small effort that he should make some decent money. When he didn’t, he called a perfectly legitimate business opportunity a “network marketing scam”, and to this day believes that he did nothing wrong. In his mind, he did his part and the opportunity failed him.

Never mind that Tom never worked with his new associates…didn’t make an effort to learn the success system his upline had in place…all he did was sign up a few people and wait to see what happened.

Have you seen a similar situation in your world? Things like this give network marketing and MLM a bad name. No wonder some people think it’s a joke.

We as network marketing professionals always need to be on guard to make sure our prospects and new recruits understand that they aren’t buying lottery tickets, but investing in a business that (with proper work ethic and application of basic success principles) can make them lots of money and provide a true long-term residual income.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

There seems to be a belief or theory out there that MLM opportunities are basically dead, so far as achieving a long-term or lifetime residual income is concerned.

Some are saying that faith in achieving the desired dream of lifetime residual income with any of the traditional MLM opportunities is “old school”  thinking that will ultimately lead to frustration and failure.

Here are the basic thoughts and theories that I see being tossed about.

• the concept of residual income in MLM is dead or at the very least dying

• people are moving from opportunity to opportunity more often than ever before

• the cost of sponsoring someone who has a chance of succeeding has gone through the roof

• the pursuit of “hotter, bigger, and better” MLM opportunities is a growing trend that won’t stop

• downlines will have to be continually rebuilt, adding new distributors to replace those who go elsewhere

The reason for this change in the nature of MLM is said to be the Internet. We live in an age where the dynamics have changed. These days, when someone signs up and doesn’t experience success pretty quickly, they can easily go online and find something they think is better and jump ship.

In part, this belief is true because the Internet has made information readily available to anyone at anytime. Years ago, before the Internet, MLM opportunities were built mostly around local groups within small geographical areas. You went to meetings in your own town to learn about a business, and after you signed up you worked with a local support group that often included other people you knew personally.

In those days, there was a culture you became part of. It was harder to just up and leave, and information about other MLM opportunities was not usually readily at hand. You didn’t see fresh new possibilities in your email box each morning. You weren’t tempted to do a lot of research into other options, because research just wasn’t that easy to do.

So, how do we deal with this? I think MLM is still very viable, and these issues can be addressed. Some thoughts:

• stay in touch with your downline and build relationships - get to know them

• help them learn the basics of making money with your business quickly

• help them get into profit and start making money right away

The last point is a big one - making money right away is huge. Yes, you do have to be patient to build a large MLM business that provides thousands a month in residual income, but you need encouragement along the way. Good MLM opportunities provide the vehicle, the rest is up to you.

What happens when someone signs up and works hard for six months, and has at most a check for $50 to show for it? That’s pretty discouraging, and only the most dedicated and focused will work through that. Figure out the fastest way to make decent money with your business, and help your new people do it.

MLM opportunities that provide residual income are far from dead - but today, more than ever, the relationships and “seeing the money” quickly are huge.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

You’re probably familiar with Jack Canfield, author of a series of books titled “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.

In this video clip, Jack discusses some of the very basic things you must do, and how you must think, if you desire to make money and attract wealth. What you hear from Jack here is not news, it’s his spin on some timeless principles that everyone who achieves wealth understands. You may find his ability to condense so much wisdom into such a short clip to be amazing.

Note that Jack is talking about “rich” as not just having lots of money, but as having a “rich life”.

How does this apply to your network marketing business? You’re in business, at least in large part, to make money. There are other benefits of a network marketing business as well, such as making new friends, personal growth, and self-development. These are all important. However, making money to achieve personal and financial goals is the big thing.

In just over a minute, Jack Canfield summarizes what it takes to achieve success, wealth, and a rich life. It applies to network marketing as much as any other business.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

Is MLM (multi level marketing) the right type of home business for you? MLM, also called network marketing, has long been a popular opportunity choice for people who want to make extra money from home.

Many people have achieved six-figure incomes and raised themselves from “just getting by” to wealth with MLM. Others have worked their business hard for 3-5 years and now earn enough to  stay home, enjoy freedom, and live the kind of life they desire.

Despite all the positives that MLM can offer, though, it does have a negative reputation with some people. Perhaps you have a friend who heard a story about someone who lost hundreds of dollars pursuing a “multilevel marketing opportunity”. Unfortunately, this does happen, and many of the stories could be true. Does that mean that MLM is a bad business, or a scam? Absolutely not.

MLM has been promoted and practiced in many different ways over the years, and some of the recruiting techniques people have used are shameful and embarrassing, to say the least. The entrepreneurs who work MLM as professionals know better and treat it as a real business.

The bad side of MLM recruiting includes:

• exaggerated income claims

• hyped up claims for product effectiveness

• pressure to “get in now” or miss out

• an obnoxious, in your face recruiting approach

Does any of this sound familiar? I’m sure you’ve encountered it at some point.

Now, put these tacky recruiting tactics behind you. Realize that MLM is really a legitimate business when approached in a professional manner. Let’s examine if MLM might be right for you.

• do you enjoy working with people?

• are you open to coaching and self-improvement?

• do you really have a strong desire to make money with your own business?

• are you willing to create a plan for success (with help), and stick to it for 3-5 years?

If so, MLM might be an excellent choice for you. There are two things you need to do.

First, choose a solid opportunity with a good track record, proven products, and a successful upline team that is willing to work directly with you. This will take some effort and time. Don’t jump into just anything that sounds good - skip the hype and look at the big picture with a critical eye.

Next, get started and consult your upline for help building a plan for success, based on your ultimate goals for your business. Don’t skip this step, because without laying this foundation first you’ll lack strength to punch through challenges and obstacles. These will happen. They happen to everyone. The winners in MLM are the ones who break through and overcome all challenges and obstacles to success.

Once you get started, stay focused and work your MLM business consistently. Don’t quit or jump around to different opportunities.

Successful people in MLM pick a solid business, make a plan, stick to it, and work hard to earn their success.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

Fake social networking - you might be doing it every day. In the pursuit of leads for your network marketing and MLM business, are you using the social sites like Facebook extensively? If so, how many of your Facebook friends do you really know or know anything much about?

I watched a short clip on social networking  by Seth Godin recently. If you’re not familiar with him, Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and a guy who speaks his mind without pulling many punches. Some of his insights into business and marketing are priceless and seriously thought provoking.

If you ever wonder if you’re using these social networks to best advantage, or have doubts about how real all of it really is, you’ll enjoy Seth’s insight.

By the way, using Facebook and other social networking resources is an excellent way to make connections and attract prospects for your network marketing business. However, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it.

Take a minute to hear what Seth says about this. You’ll gain some insight that will help you.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

What are the first three things you need to do, if you want to be successful building your network marketing business online?

Below are three network marketing tips to help you prepare for your venture into the world of online prospecting and sponsoring. Building your business using the Internet is fun, challenging, and ultimately can be your ticket to earning a nice home-based income as well as gaining freedom and flexibility for your life.

We’re talking here about the opportunity to make more money with a home business than with any job you’ve likely had. Network marketing is that powerful, but you have to prepare and lay the groundwork for success first.

Here are some online network marketing tips to get you on the right path in your business right away.

Be Ready for the Challenge

Working and building your business online may seem easy, but in fact can be more challenging than the traditional local-based methods that involve making connections with your warm market.

Finding prospects is a lot more than putting up a web site and buying some advertising. While doing this might get you a few leads here and there, you must take it to another level. While the number of potential online prospects for your network marketing business is huge, bear in mind that the competition for these opportunity seekers is huge as well. You will need to stand out, and it will take some effort to learn the necessary skills and techniques.

Note that it isn’t hard, it just takes a little know-how to make it work.

Be Prepared to Never Stop Learning

If you are planning to build your network marketing business online, you will always want to be open to learning new things and mastering new skills. While the basic methods for presenting your business to prospects may not change that much over time, the way you find and reach your prospects will.

For example,  a basic method for presenting yourself and your opportunity involves connecting with opportunity seekers and building a relationship through your web site, things you write, and other actions that tell others more about you and what you offer. The ways you can find and reach them right now include the social networks like Facebook, pay per click advertising, article marketing, blogging, and promoting a personal web site, among others.

As fast as the Internet is evolving, new technologies and ways to reach people will develop. You will want to stay on top of these trends and always be prepared to venture into new territory to increase your voice and spread your message online. Ten years ago, who would have imagined that people would be using something like Twitter for reaching and building relationships with prospects?

Team Up With Successful Online Network Marketers

The last of my three network marketing tips for today is perhaps the most important one. Try to team up with successful online networkers in your group. If your upline already has a working system for online prospecting in place, great! If not, you may need to learn the necessary skills through participating in online courses designed to teach the right way to prospect and sponsor online. The bottom line is that, one way or another, you need to hook up with people who can show you the “how to” of working your business online. This will save you lots of time and cut back the time it takes you to reach whatever level of success you desire.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

Your MLM prospects have a secret language. Your friends and family all have this same secret language.

It’s the language that people use when they want to tell you “no”, but just don’t have the heart (or just don’t want to discuss it or argue about it - they just want to end the conversation).

I found this excerpt from a presentation by Tom “Big Al” Schreiter, a noted MLM trainer and author. Tom has been a leader in the industry for many years. Everything I’ve seen from him is down to earth and practical.

I think you’ll enjoy this video. I’m sure you’ll laugh as you recognize this secret language.

(You may even use it, too)

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of sponsoring one of the hardest working network marketing business builders you’ll ever find. This guy was pumped up, enthusiastic, and really focused on being successful. He fit the mold of someone you’d really love to have in your downline. For sake of illustration, let’s call him Joe.

Joe worked hard for two years, and by all accounts he was doing the right things. He prospected, followed up regularly, and demonstrated a tireless work ethic toward his business.

Then, the verdict came in. Joe failed to get anything going and made little money, despite his hard work and strong effort. There were two things about him that stood out.

For those two years he participated in co-op advertising, built web sites, drove traffic, and overall brought in as many or more prospects online than anyone else.

For those two years, despite finding a large number of prospects for his network marketing business, very few of them signed up with him.

These developments captured the attention of his upline leaders, and we constantly scratched our heads trying to figure this out. By discussing the business with him, we knew he was doing at least some of the right things. The number of prospects he brought in was a testimonial to that.

All of Joe’s prospects went through the same online information and followup system that everyone else’s prospects did. Somehow, the difference had to be in something Joe was doing.

What was going on?

After two years, Joe became discouraged and decided to move on to something else. Once he let us know of his decision, we took the opportunity to contact some of his prospects directly.

Our enthusiastic, very motivated network marketing business builder was really a nice guy, and most people seemed to like him. However, listening carefully to the prospects Joe had worked with revealed some things that told a lot of the story.

• he was promising great wealth, fast riches and exaggerating so much that he almost instantly lost credibility with prospects who were seeking a legitimate opportunity

• he was so intensely focused on “closing” and sponsoring his prospects that he actually came across as desperate - his prospects picked this up right away and were turned off

Joe, in years prior to starting his network marketing business, had been pretty successful in direct selling. He had been trained in the “one call close” techniques that traditionally define a salesperson’s approach to selling products like vacuum cleaners and cell phone service. You knew if you didn’t get the sale on the first call, you’d likely never get it. So, the pressure to get the sale each time was immense. Joe was literally approaching his prospects with this “one call close” mentality.

You cannot approach a network marketing business like this. Rather than applying pressure and trying to “sponsor them now”, you have to establish a rapport and build some degree of relationship with your prospects to be successful.

Unfortunately, Joe didn’t understand this and tried to apply his previous training in sales directly to his network marketing business. His work ethic was terrific and his drive to succeed was out of this world. However, all of that energy and effort was channeled into an approach that caused many of his prospects to slam the door rather than consider working with him.

What can we learn from Joe?

Let’s approach our prospects as individuals with unique goals and dreams. Starting a network marketing business is a serious decision. This can be the vehicle to achieve those dreams and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Never push or try to apply traditional sales closing techniques - it just doesn’t work out well for anyone involved. Be a leader, and a mentor.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the importance of having the right attitude for success. In network marketing, if you don’t maintain the right attitude, you’re facing struggles and obstacles that shouldn’t be there.

I focus on this a lot because I’ve seen bad attitude destroy network marketing businesses. I’ve seen people with great enthusiasm and promise get off to an excellent start, then later crash and burn because their attitude went sour. It’s a sad thing, and we must all be on guard against letting anything poison our attitude toward our business, company, and opportunity.

This short video by Zig Ziglar nicely illustrates some of the reasons that attitude is SO important. Zig talks about a lady who had a horrible and bitter attitude toward her job, and how he helped her turn everything around and become grateful for what she had.

The illustration here can apply to anything in life, whether it be a job, business, your family, or anything else important to you.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.

A few weeks ago, I realized that one of my downline associates had hit the wall and come to a breaking point in his quest for network marketing success.

Unfortunately, this was the third time this guy had dedicated himself to building his business, and the third time he appeared to have given up.

Each time, he seemed to start out with a great, can-do attitude. “I’m going to get it right this time“.

What happened?

Why do reasonably qualified and capable people start in this business, try over and over, and never quite make it? Is it the fault of the network marketing business model? I don’t think so.

What is it?

I think a basic question faces everyone who ventures into network marketing, or any other type of home based business.

How badly do you really want to succeed?

Your mental attitude will dictate how far you can go and how successful you will be. It’s important to examine your beliefs deeply and seek your own inner answers and truth. You must understand your real motivation.

Do you really want to quit that job and work from home? Is that job with the regular paycheck and the apparent security it offers really something you want to leave? Do you have a deep desire to step out, take risks, and make this happen?

What will happen if you just dream and think “I sure would like to make more money and quit that job, and someday I will“, all the while living with a deep fear of ever really doing it? Is there anything there, deep inside, that drives you to overcome that fear and really move forward with your business?

Think about whether success in your network marketing business is a priority. If you have some extra money and time, do you put some of that money and time into attracting new prospects instead of going shopping for stuff you don’t really need?

Network marketing success is much more than just “some positive thoughts” about things you’d “like to accomplish”.

Working through and understanding your true desires and motivation helps break down barriers that otherwise will hold you back. I believe that my downline associate who failed three times to succeed with his network marketing business had some unresolved issues.

While I am not a mind reader and may never know for sure, there are some conclusions I’ve drawn from our discussions.

• I believe he lacked serious and deep motivation, possessing simply a moderate desire to “make some money to have a better life” without having a real passion for this

• he showed a tendency to talk frequently about “what I’m going to do” without backing it up with consistent action

• rather than doing what the successful people in our organization do, he chose to strike out on his own unproven path

It’s very important to do some self-analysis and make sure that you truly want to achieve success in network marketing.

The keys to this self-analysis process include:

• discover your real reason for wanting to build your network marketing business - is it enough to drive you to sacrifice time and money where needed?

• determine if you’re willing to follow a proven plan for network marketing success - are you coachable and willing to learn from established leaders in your upline?

• are you willing to step outside the box and constantly seek ways to improve on the things you do and set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd?

How deep must you dig inside yourself to find network marketing success? Whatever it takes, get it done. Your future depends on it.

Hi, my name is Eldon Beard. I have created "Network Marketing Now" to present a balanced and professional approach to success in our industry. I hope you will find information and tips here that are helpful to you. If you're looking for a solid network marketing business, check out the Summit Group Opportunity.