Hi everyone, As most of you know, I am not able to spend much time online these days, as my schedule is kind of nuts right now, but... A lot of people have asked me about binaries, so here goes... A lot of people hate binaries - which is too bad, because they're actually a good system. In a binary, you need to build two lines. That's where the term comes from. Some require one personal signup on each side to qualify your center for commissions, and some require more. The bottom line is, whether you are building a binary or a unilevel, you won't get anywhere by only sponsoring one. You WILL get a commission for that one in a unilevel, but NOT in a binary, but that one commission will be pretty tiny. If you're really serious about building any business, you need volume, whether it's MLM, binary, unilevel, MacDonalds, or a GM franchise. The trick in a binary, and what makes them a VERY GOOD system, is that you only need to qualify your business and teach everyone you bring in to do the same. For example, if you need 2 on one side and 2 on the other to qualify, then that's ALL you need to do. Then you concentrate everything on helping those members to get their 2 on each side, and teach them to do the same with their members. It's EASY when you stick to the plan. In regular MLM systems, you have to deal with all manner of what are often confusing and difficult to explain and duplicate levels, breakaways, pods, groups, etc, whereas in a binary, you only have two really simple lines to deal with. To succeed in a binary, ALWAYS concentrate on the minimum numbers and teach your downline to do exactly the same. People who do this are VERY successful with binaries and absolutely love them. If you think you have to sponsor the whole world, or that your sponsor is going to build one side while you build the entire other side, you're beaten before you start. However, if you stick to the plan of simply qualifying your binary and teaching your downline to do the same, you'll have a real winner, and any trickle-down from your sponsor will be a great bonus. Where people really fall down in a binary is when they get caught in the hype about a "RUNAWAY" leg. What that means is that your sponsor is building really deep down the leg that you happen to be in, which automatically makes that a really long leg under you. While that's a GOOD thing, in my experience, it's NOT a good thing to promote or use as an incentive for your personal downline or new recruits. Instead, concentrate on helping them get qualified and on helping their members get qualified. If you DO happen to be in a runaway leg once you've qualified, GREAT! It will add a lot of extra commissionable volume to your business. IF that happens, you simply spend a little extra time working on the leg with the weaker volume, sponsor a few more people in that leg, then teach them to qualify their binary and teach their downline to qualify their binary, and so on. When you have a plan and stick to it, many binaries are great! God bless, Dave

Dave, Very good article, except you failed to mention something about balancing the legs in order to receive the full compensation you deserve. Most binaries require you to balance both legs in order to receive compensation on both of their business volume, When you don't balance then you will only get paid commission on the weak leg. (Guess which one has the lowest commission rate?) Now they may say that your money is being held for you and will be paid when you balance both legs. This means one of two things, the money will flush upline to the first qualifying person or to the company, or the money will be placed in a bank account to draw interest for the company. Now this may not be a large amount for just 1 distributor, but what if there were 100's or even 1'000's of distributors that did not qualify! Then there is the juggling act of trying to balance the legs on a monthly basis. Yes some "Heavy Hitters" love the Binary programs, but in most cases the part-time distributor that is just begining to build their business will be signing the "Binary Blues"!

Hi James, It is a common misconception about binaries that you loose out on commissions because you get paid on the weaker leg and can only get everything you deserve if you actually balance the legs. The fact is, that the only way that a leg can become a "runaway" if you're running your binary correctly is if the people above you are sponsoring like crazy and putting all those new distributors under you on one leg. You still get paid for what you do, unless you have not qualified your binary. What you really have to do BEFORE joining a binary is decide if you have the ability to actually qualify your binary. For example, if you need to have one sponsored on one side and one sponsored on the other side, that means you only have to sponsor two people to qualify your binary. Then, if you sponsor three, you will still only be paid on those two UNLESS someone is put below you in the leg that only has one. If you have a good sponsor, that should happen, but if it doesn't, you still would just concentrate on training your personally sponsored to get their qualifying two. Unless the system is designed to flush quickly, your commission is simply in reserve until the next person comes in. Many binaries also now offer a separate commission on all sales made through your personal effort (called Unilevel commissions). Now, in a regular MLM system, you never have the opportunity to earn one red cent on the efforts of your upline. No one will ever be put in your downline unless your sponsor decides to sign them up in your name. The beauty of a good binary is that you stand a CHANCE of having the added benefit of members being automatically placed in one of your lines on a steady basis, giving you the opportunity to try to keep up and earn all the commission you can. The bottom line is, read the fine print on any pay plan very carefully, understand it fully, and make sure you are certain you are capable of making it pay off. If the requirements to earn commission are out of your league, don't join, no matter how fantastic it may look! Regardless of what anyone may ever tell you, business is about YOU making money using the skills and resources YOU have. God bless, Dave

G'day Dave, I have always turned my nose up at Binary marketing plans until very recently. I do agree with you the a binary can be very profitable as long as they do not flush your unearned commission. After all the business is yours and you need to take charge and build it. If your upline builds fast great look at it as a bonus. People seem to think they can get something for nothing...doesn't happen in the real world. Have a good one. Bryan