Network marketing vs Pyramid scheme

When I started with Global Domains International I receive the following question:

Is it a pyramid scheme? 

Now that I’m working with Rolution to I received the same question/response. I’ve looked into this and I found the following explanation. Network marketing is NOT a pyramid scheme because it has a product. GDI has the .ws domain name and the website builder and Rolution has the Vault and also the possibility to build a website. A pyramid scheme doesn’t have anything, you’re just asked to put in money and together you’ll find more people who are willing to do that. The problem is that when people decide to step out and take their share the pyramid collapses and a lot of people lose their money.

A pyramid scheme is illegal in a lot of countries. There’s no legit company behind it. With network marketing there is a legitimate company behind the product. You can contact the company by email and by phone and they are registered as a real, legitimate business. So before joining a network marketing company check if they are registered and check the company’s history.

I get this response a lot when I tell people about network marketing. For some reason one of the negative things about MLM is that people think it’s a pyramid scheme. Why? I don’t know but I hear it very often. Now that you know the difference you can explain to people right away that your Rolution or GDI business opportunity is not a pyramid scheme. Believe me, if you can’t tell them this right away, your story isn’t interesting anymore. 

The last thing I want to share about the way people think about network marketing is that for some reason it seems that there are more negative thoughts about it than positive. Of course this worries me. I’m thinking should I continue? It’s costing me a lot more to build my company now that I’m creating a professional website. On the other hand I only signed four people until now and those people aren’t really signing new members themselves. I often read that with network marketing the people on top earn a lot of money but people like you and me will have to work hard for almost nothing. I have to reasonable, will I be successful with MLM? I doubt it sometimes but on the other hand I really believe in the solution of combining MLM with internet marketing. My new website is on the way so let’s focus on SEO for now and not give up. I’m not going to lie about this, I have my doubts and this blog is for everyone who’s starting a network marketing business themselves so I want you to see this to. Your probably having the same thoughts so let’s be open about it.

My website’s price

Well, I’ve talked to my guys over at Invendy and they gave me a price for building a website in the niche I want. To develop the layout, put it in a Wordpress system, do the proper keyword research and providing the website with articles it would cost me a little under $ 1000,-. That a lot of money but to be honest I was prepared for twice as much. Now the question is will do it? When I started with network marketing I didn’t plan to invest these kinds of money. Actually GDI and Rolution offer you the opportunity to build a business and an income for just $ 10,- or $ 13,- a month. Now it’s not just that anymore.

On the other hand, how am I going to get customers and build my company without a proper website? I’m confused. I want this and I really think I’m on to something here but it’s starting to look like a serious business. If I wanted to invest this kind of money I would never go for a network marketing opportunity.

I asked them how long it would take for me to get to the first page for the keywords ‘Global Domains International’. They told me it was a very competitive niche but within six months it should be possible. Of course getting there wasn’t free as well.

To make a long story short, I asked them to make me an offer for building the website and getting it to the first page in Google for ‘Global Domains International’. They told me they we’re willing to help me with the SEO part and they didn’t necessarily want a profit out of it. Last night I received their offer. For $ 900,- they would build my website including the keyword research and articles and also a free SEO package came with it. I had a cup of coffee and thought about it and an hour ago I called them to say I agree with the price and they could start the process.

I’m excited but also I’m a bit worried/confused if I’m doing the right thing here. Now there’s a lot of money invested and I really want to see that back. Is this the way to become one of the big boys in network marketing? Am I doing the right thing here? Is this what makes the difference between success and failure in MLM? Who knows, for now I’m focusing on learning more about search engine optimization.

Rolution vs Global Domains International

If you have to make a choice what would be the best network marketing business opportunity? The answer to this question would be different per person. To help you in making the right decision I’ll describe some things that are different between Rolution and Global Domains International.

Startbonus

One thing Rolution has and that Global Domains International doesn’t have is the $ 15,- startbonus. This is a big difference. When you sign up five new members you get $ 75,- right away for just signing them. Depending on where you focus is on this can be a big difference. If you think you can find a lot of new members by yourself by signing people you know or using the internet the startbonusses can be very interesting. When you are focusing more on helping others the sartbonus is not really that important.

Support 

Global Domains International offers many ways of helping you to become successful with GDI. Through their Facebook page the interaction is great. You can ask questions and suggest subjects for the next webinars. The weekly webinars are very informative. Also there’s a forum, tutorials and a blog. For other questions you can reach them by email or phone. Rolution doesn’t offer these kinds of support.

Professional

When you go to the website of GDI it all looks very professional. Rolution on the other had looks more like a cheap sales page. I think it’s important to look professional, especially for a business like this. People have to be confident they are joining a legitimate business opportunity. I hope Rolution will upgrade their website as well in the near future. 

Overall I think GDI has more of the total package. Rolution has the startbonus which is a powerful feature. Let’s hope Rolution will become more like GDI in the future in terms of professionalism.

Join one or both opportunities?

Often I get the question if people should join Rolution or Global Domains International. In fact they ask which one is the best. My answer to this question would be to join both companies because they are the same in so many ways. Building a website for one of the opportunities is a great way to promote the offer but building a website for both is the same effort and you’re promoting two instead of one offers. The kind of information on the website would be the same. The only thing different is that you have to write two sale pages and maybe a page where you describe both opportunities combined. The rest is the same. Using social media, free advertisement, SEO, video marketing and other ways to promote the opportunities online can be described on the website. Why share this information? Why not? You want to expand your business, people that join you network want the same thing. The beautiful thing about network marketing is that when you invest in helping others becoming successful with GDI or Rolution will help them but you as well. Everybody makes money when it’s going well. 

All the effort you put in creating a perfect website and also getting it high in the search results can be done all in one time. When you decide later to join another network marketing company as well you have to start all over again. I would really recommend to combine the opportunities and invest in promoting it together. Let’s not forget that when you can sign people for both Rolution and GDI you can help them the same way. You earn double and they earn double as well when they approach this the same way. Actually it’s a new offer you create yourself this way and the key to success is all in using the internet to market you businesses.

Internet marketing

I’ve been searching the web for information on Google Adwords and how to build a proper website. The good news is that there is a lot of information but that’s also the bad news. It looks like internet marketing is a profession on itself. There are so many ways of promoting a website and also a lot of possibilities are free. I’ve made a list of things to promote my Global Domains International business and I’ll try them one by one. When I think it’s a possible way to promote my business I’ll share it. Soon I’ll make a list of things you can use to promote your own network marketing business.

Google Adwords is great. You can start right away and you see results immediately. However it’s not free. Now my campaign is running with a maximum of 5 dollars a day. When I increase that I’ll have more visitors and my company can grow faster. At this time I don’t know if my website is the way it should be and I’d like to see how many people will sign up this month. Also I want to see how those people will do, building their own businesses. I’d like to learn from them as well. For now I not going to invest more than the one hundred dollars I’ve invested in the Google Adwords campaign. When my credit is used I’ll see what I’ll do next. I’m not making money with GDI yet so I have to see how much I can invest and how much I’ll be making.

While the campaign is running I can focus on different things like the other promotional options I’ve found on the internet. This week I want to join two or three forums where I can talk and share ideas with others who are also having a network marketing business. Maybe I can work with those people and maybe they want to join my company. That would be great because those people are probably exactly the people I want to have in my downline.

I think that there are a lot of possibilities with internet marketing and I’m going to figure out what those are. In my next posts I’ll try to write about a new way to tell others about you’re business opportunity. To give you an impression of what’s coming here are some possibilities:

• Video marketing (YouTube) 
• Forums 
• Email marketing 
• Social Media (Twitter, Facebook) 
• Free advertising

Building my website

I’ve tried to build a Google Adwords Campagne for the replicate sites Global Domains International offers members but since a lot of people use these websites it’s not possible to advertise them. Google Adwords points out that the website address redirects user to another website. That’s true because it redirects to your specific user id page so that people who sign up with GDI sign to your team.

So before using Google Adwords I have to create a website. To be honest I forgot about this feature because I was focusing too much on signing my first members. It looks very easy. It’s an easy to use interface where you can add and move around pages. Also there are a lot of features and gadgets to use on the website like the income calculator, video’s and there are several templates to choose from. The only thing that takes some time is writing the content for the website.

I’ve watched some other websites to see how they are build and what kind of information is given. I’ve decided to create the following pages: 

• Home
• What is Global Domains International 
• How can you make money? 
• How to build your GDI business 
• About me 
• Contact 

Also I’ve made sure that on every page there’s a possibility to click a sign up button. You never know when someone decides to join the team. The first page will be about what people can find on the website. It will be an introduction to a network marketing business opportunity. Here it’s important to get people’s attention, they have to want to read more. On the second page I’ll write my elevator pitch. I have to describe what GDI is and how it works and I think I have to use 300 words maximum. On the third page I’ll explain further how people can make money, I’ll explain how the compensation plan works. Also I’ll add the income calculator widget so that people can find out for themselves how much they can make with GDI. Then I think it’s important to explain how to create a business. I’m experiencing now how to find new members. As you can see on this blog sometimes I have success but I’ve also done things that didn’t really help my business grow. The fifth page is about me. Here I’ll describe my motivation to work with GDI and I also write about this blog and tell people there is a lot of information on here that might be useful. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Last but not least I’ll add a contact page where people can ask me all kinds of questions. 

I don’t know if this is the right way to build a website but I have to start somewhere. In the meanwhile I’ll try to find out more about building a website so that I can make it better over time.

Who do you want in your downline?

After my research about pro’s and con’s of network marketing I kept think about why some people are successful with network marketing but also so many people quit. What’s the difference between success and failure. Will I be one of the people that will be successful or is this the beginning of me quitting as well?

While thinking about this I asked myself another question: Who do I want in my downline? The first answer that came to my mind was people who don’t quit. Then I thought about people who are successful with network marketing. I want to have people in my downline who can build their own business, they have to be creative, independent and most of all they have to achieve success and don’t quit. I can sign up one hundred people who quit after six months or five people who won’t quit until they also have found five people each that will be successful as well.

This tells me two things. First I can’t just tell everybody about my business opportunity and hope they’ll join. Telling my friends is ok but only if they are really interested. The thing about telling them and making sure they’ll sign before leaving is now officially over. The second thing is another question: Where do I find people that are willing to invest the same energy, time and maybe a little bit of money to build their business.

I thought about two things to answer this question. The first thing was Google Adwords. I thought I should advertise for domain registration and for business opportunities. That way I could reach people that were looking for business opportunities or who were looking to register a domain. I also thought about advertising for network marketing and MLM opportunities. I’ll start doing this next Monday and I’ll keep you posted about the effects.

Another thing is joining a forum about network marketing, global domains international or about business opportunities. Here I can learn a lot and maybe I can find people to join forces with. It feels good to have new things to try and to realize maybe I wasn’t on the right track yet. I’m excited and I’ll write about my experiences as soon as possible in my next post.

Pro’s and Con’s about network marketing

If been trying to find the answer to why network marketing is described fantastic and as a scam at the same time. I’ll write about the pro’s first and then I’ll write about the con’s as well. You decide what you think about network marketing after that.

Pro

Network marketing offers an opportunity for people to generate extra income or even a fulltime income. Actually there is now limit to what you can make with network marketing. Also you can work from home or even from another country. It offers the possibility to travel and see the world and still be able to earn money. That is of course if you become successful. 

You can make money by finding new members or customers to join the network marketing business. No matter if the product is about health or about having your own domain name, it’s all about expanding your business or network and earing money over the people that joined the business through you. The great thing is that you do not only earn money over the people you directly refer but also for people that join through others that you’ve already signed up. Global Domains International for example calls this the power of duplication. When you think about it and when you use the income calculator you can see that there is a lot of money to be made with MLM. The compensation plan of a lot of network marketing opportunities offer that possibility to make a lot of money.

Con

The great thing about making money with MLM is that when you manage to build a large business all those people will also try to build a large business and you will earn more and more money because of that. When those people are doing well you’re doing well to. But maybe that also one of the con’s about network marketing. If you succeed to build a big network, you can make a lot of money. But what if you don’t? What if you tried to expand your network but nobody seems to be willing to work with your business opportunity? Why do some people succeed and why do some people fail?

I’ve discovered the percentage of people that start with a network marketing opportunity and quit within six months. Are you ready to see how many people quit network marketing early? 95 % doesn’t make a single dollar and quit. It looks like building a business isn’t as easy as it seems.

Another thing I found was telling people you know about your business opportunity and when they aren’t interested you get frustrated. I totally recognize this problem. In the beginning you think people you know will sign up but then you discover they are all having a job or they just aren’t interested in the business opportunity you’re offering them. It’s terrible to discover that you’re frustrated and irritated to your own friend. When you discover that the people you thought you would sign up right away aren’t sign up you start to realize you’re running out of options to expand your business. 

I also have to say that at this moment I’m pro network marketing but what happens when I quit. I’ll maybe say network marketing is a scam because I didn’t succeed. I had a dream of being rich and I’d have all the freedom in the world but when that gets taken away from you your mad.

Looking at the pro’s and the con’s I have to say I can relate to both sides of the story. I’ve also read somewhere that “quiters don’t win and winners don’t quit”. When I quit my network marketing business already without really trying I definitely won’t make any money. I have to find a way to find people who are willing to build a MLM business just like me.