Hello everyone, I finally get back to post again and I have a real question to ask. It's called Network Marketing - what does it mean? Simple question - complex answer. Take a crack and see if you have the answer. As they say in advertising "No tire kickers, please". (what does THAT mean?) ;-) Kenneth R Sword Jr

Hi Kenneth, My definition, a little tongue in cheek is "Network Marketing is working 16 hours a day so you don't have to work 8 hours a day". Although it can take time, I think its very rewarding as a big part of our lives are the people around us, and now those people are from all over the globe. I used to run a networking function called speed networking and quickly gained a perspective by observing literally hundreds of people network. A few things became quickly apparent: 1. Most people were trying to sell straight away. They did not ask open questions or firstly even trying to establish some rapport. 2. Business who quickly developed alliances were like minded 'people' not businesses. That does not mean the same age or even personal interests. They had similiar energy and philosophy to make the business grow and in a lot of cases, got along very well. 3. 'Interested introverts' out networked and out sold 'interesting extroverts' (not my line but nicely sums it up). People who made themselves listen first, knowing full well they may not say 'I want to buy your product' completely outshone the people who just talked about themselves and their business. Thats my view, what do others think?

hello kenneth, thanks for the invitation.I was Just asking my selfthat very Question.Now my answer with a remark like that is this, Yesterday I joined a very great well business connections website namely soflow,now they deleted my account and all of my saved contacts all my links hard day's work and the reason Under rule F9 of their act anyone that is a Network Marketing Multi Level Marketing person has to be deleted so they did. I fought all night with them and have kindly signed on and had to do another all over again.If for any reason as you are one of my contacts be blocked out of their website link to me it's because of them seeing that I am back but as usual with reasons. Have a great day Network Marketing Kenneth and everyone. regards Jeffrey OBrien http://my.soflow.com/jeffrey-OBrien

Hello Jeffrey, Always great to hear from you my friend. You mention above two terms that are different and many people do confuse them ... Network Marketing and ... MultiLevel Marketing. Let me help with the terms mentioned. A 'network' is just like a city; connected at various 'cross sections' with different stores, neighborhoods, homes, hospitals, firehouses, schools and central government. Everything is located for diversity in an area to make it convenient for shoppers and to be prosperous for shop owners. I will call this the side-by-side sharing of revenue. Now for the 'multi level' marketing where someone wants to sell and recruit-to-sell the same thing. There is no diversity in the 'neighborhood' because the product is the same and all involved are dependent on the bottom persons' effort to find other people to do the same. Plus each is competing with each other to market the same wares. This I call 'passing the buck up'. I am not going to debate the two topics but did give a brief summary to the two. Both have one thing in common - being near the distribution point gives advantage to being successful; not alot of middlemen taking a cut of the profits. More points to ponder. Kenneth R Sword Jr

Ah, Ken, no fair! First you ask what it means, then you throw out a summary but won't debate? OK, since this is a moderated forum, I'm going to put my two cents' worth in, and you can decline to post it if you want. Network marketing is marketing through and to people you know. It is more successfully done when you have formed a positive, deeper-than-superficial relationship with the people before you try to sell them something. Most successful of all is the person who has simply offered information that the people he knows finds valuable enough to remember, act upon and/or pass on to people they know. Multi-level marketing is nothing more than a compensation model. Those who get compensated the most have made great use of networking to advertise their wares and recruit others to do the same. The same thing happens to marketers who are compensated on a more traditional, or corporate model, except that they are not usually compensated for benefiting the company by finding other people to help sell. As with any goods or services, there are those of inferior and those of superior quality in both MLM and traditional marketing. The consumer gets to be the judge of the cost vs value. MLM has developed the reputation for the problems you bring up due to three things: 1) The tendency of the uninformed to hype their company's business model over the benefits of their products. 2) The tendency of some people to try to selfishly exploit their friends and acquaintances, whether or not the product is beneficial to those particular people. 3) A few bad-apple companies that have misapplied the business model for their own gain. (OK, a lot--but not all!) I have myself been guilty of mixing the terms indiscriminately. As a result of this discussion, I won't do that anymore. I am proud to represent my companies because I believe in the quality of their products (information-based, in both cases). I like the business model, which is MLM--it gives me the power of leverage. I have chosen to learn the proper application of the networking aspect of it because a) it's fun and I like people b) I'm stimulated by ideas/discussion and c) it's the best way to do it, though definitely not the fastest. If I recruit among friends who have come to respect my opinions and leadership, they are more likely to follow my success model and thereby create success for themselves. That leads to greater personal satisfaction for me, as well as greater compensation. Thanks for a stimulating topic. Cheri