Internet Based Network Marketing

Three major ways - Which one's best?

Internet based network marketing is a good - if not the best way - to sell products and find new people for your downline. People who dislike direct selling or contact can profit, too. Find out the means to succeed.

Network marketers use the Web in three different and major ways. Either they use replicated and heavily advertised lead capture pages, their own content based web sites, or they use online communities. All three of which need one thing: targeted quality traffic.

This page informs you about the following important aspects:

• What Internet based network marketing is and the trouble it entails.
• Which one of the major three ways is best suited for Internet based network marketing.
• A conclusion from the perspective of bypassing misconceptions by keeping the causes before their effects.

so...

What is Internet based Network Marketing?

... pretty much the same as off-line based network marketing. Did you expect something different? It's still about approaching relationship building with win-win motives. True, misconceptions can catch you here, too.

Internet based network marketing differs to offline run businesses in that the Internet is being used to:

• Share the benefits of using the product (in private websites, communities, ...)
• Recommend and sell MLM products or services via the Net
• Find new leads to grow your business.

And that is ...

The beginning of the trouble in Internet based network marketing.

The three points above somewhat resemble the 3 stage process of how network marketing works (online or off). The only difference is that the actual first step is to use the products by yourself to feel the promised benefits.

Selfishness or greed makes people focusing mainly on recruiting new folks. Most don't sell products. They jump the other two important steps and then wonder why their luck does not last.

So, your goal in Internet based network marketing is to generate sales outside your downline and to generate and qualify leads to add quality to your downline.

Let's see if and how well each of the three major ways of Internet based network marketing can help you getting this done. Here is a summary of what follows below.

Lead Capture Pages

Designed to take before they give any valuable information, they are an outright smack into the visitor's face. Taking the visitors Email address in turn for another sales pitch with low value information.

These pages provide no valuable information whatsoever and the search engines are happy to ignore those pages completely. You will need to do a lot of advertising, linking and using traffic exchange programs.

Lead capture pages are a straight walk into the maze of two misconceptions

1. Why the Web's exists and how it ticks: Lead capture pages make the most improper use of the Web - where is the valuable information? They turn out very costly and time consuming with low returns as you can't really sell any product using such pages.
   
   Learn more about the mlm Internet business misconception and the downsides of lead capture pages.


2. Why network marketing works versus how it works: Using lead capture pages is the wrong thing to do when you want to start building relationships. Prospects will fear what could potentially be done to them and won't trust the invisible unknown person at the other end.
See more about network marketing businesses confusing why with how and network marketing companies' self-induced misconception. And as such, the company unconsciously puts its new entrants onto the wrong path right from the start.

I spent ca $1500 in a year and stopped using this way of generating leads and relationships. The few leads you will get without paying for traffic will still need to be qualified by you and often are not worth the while either.

Fortunately, there is a much better option for spending your time and money wisely to build your Internet and network marketing business...

Content based web sites

Such web sites give before they take information. They are the entire opposite of lead capture pages and if done properly, they

1. Are in line with why the Web exists and how it ticks: They do provide valuable information - if the content comes from a human and is well structured. A few more things need to be considered - such as a search engine friendly design.
   
   If you can build a content based web site, you have the most important ingredient for successfully building any type of online business, not just an Internet based network marketing business. Content based web sites - if done right (here is how ) - attract free targeted traffic. That is what's meant by being in line with how the Web ticks.


2. Engender trust and relationship building right from the start - why? Because they do give information to people who arrive at your site generically - for free that is. The disadvantage is that you'd have to build your content based web site first and that traffic will start to arrive in small parcels but steadily increasing.
   
   You wouldn't really call this a disadvantage. Imagine, once you have build your content site and once traffic starts to roll in, you have your
   
   
   • visitors for free and
   • visitors who are not just somewhat interested in what you have to offer (information and products).

Relationship building starts the minute a visitor arrives at your site. They see what it is about, that it's genuine (if you don't put money before people) and are much more likely to trust you. List building at its most natural form - the way it should be.

Your content based web site becomes your network marketing web site (although visitors will not perceive it as such). It's like a benefit laden turnkey web site.

For more information on the why and what of content based network marketing Web sites see: A network marketing web site that attracts free traffic. To find out how to approach building a content site see: Proper website content development.

Last not least...

Online communities

They help you to give before you take. Online communities are an interesting approach. Look at MySpace, DirectMatches or smaller ones such as AdLand-Pro. They all allow you to network with a growing list of subscribers.

You'd certainly find differences among them. While MySpace initially attracted younger Web users, it has become a viable way of networking. It has a pretty large and fast growing community. DirectMatches is directly targeted at people who wish to present their business. So is AdlandPro.

Are they a means for you to bypass the misconception about both the Internet and Network Marketing? Can you really say the following about online communities?

• Online communities are much in line with how the Web ticks. Yes, you can say that. They provide action and response driven sharing of various types of information to participating people. Search engines seek, analyze and index their information and rank the communities' home pages fairly ok.
  
  This comes in handy when you want to say something about a given topic. Search engines may just decide to display your article which may contain a link to your own web site. So, your web site's page rank may profit, too.


• They help you to enable trust and relationship building. Well, you can say that, too. You won't fail to see that they are very much activity driven. That enables people to build credibility and with it, trust. There are still downsides to online communities, too. Why?
  
  We want to get things done quickly, and that's only normal for all of us. Yet, this will cause our benefit driven thinking to take over the steering wheel. This lets us do the wrong things for the right or wrong reasons. That's because we seek beneficial effects without knowing whether they are the right things for the right reasons (law of success, the right perspective, selfishness )

We may not see the same thing in online communities. While that's totally OK, in terms of Internet based network marketing and bypassing the two dangerous misconceptions, let me ask you this one question:

True, you can build credibility and trust via the forum communities. Yet, even if you and I agree "to become friends", you are probably looking at my business with as much distance as I will look at yours. This may not be true for the products we are offering one another.

Credibility and trust are truly important - not only in Internet based network marketing. Yet, why should you buy someone else's product when you want to get your business up and running? Only few people offer products or services that could really add value to your business.

One more important thing about online communities: you do not own the community or forum site. What you don't own is what you are dependent on and what you can't control. Yet, it's your most important business tool.

As such, communities are a good means to help you in your Internet based networking marketing efforts. You could see them as a means to make network marketing work, too.

Here Is A Concluding Summary For You

Not all obvious means are suitable for Internet based network marketing. If you seek a solution which is in line with how the Web ticks and which engenders trust and the building of relationships, you have these viable options:

• the use of online communities and
• the creation of your own content based web sites.
• the combination of the above two option.

Online communities allow realtionship building but make it harder to find really interested folks for your Internet based network marketing business. They do help generating product sales and to drive traffic to your web site.

Online business communities have at least two to three disadvantages. They are always very time consuming. That lessens their effectiveness. And...

They may counteract with your efforts to build trust in order for your "friends" to buy from you. You as a business owner are not 100% of one of your major business tool.

Content based web sites allow all the things you'd need for Internet based network marketing:

• they engender trust
• they allow for relationship building the minute the visitors arrive at your site
• they make it easier to generate sales to retail customers
• they make it easier to generate leads for your downline

You will need a free low-cost source of traffic. When you combine your community activities with your content sites - you have the best possible way of engaging successfully in Internet based network marketing. It will help you to build valuable balanced relationships with your visitors. These relationships allow for sales to happen and will last beyond the purchase of any recommended product.

Here is a general model of an Internet based network marketing system and how it can work for you.

You may want to check out some more important and helpful insights listed in the top right of this page.