How to Prevent Your MLM Opportunity from Appearing to be a Pyramid

I was just writing a new hub page regarding illegal pyramid schemes, and it struck me how easily old, school direct marketing of MLM companies can appear to be illegal pyramids.

Both the Direct Selling Association and the Federal Trade Commission caution anyone who is looking for a home based business to be very wary of any opportunity that promises huge earnings for very little effort. They also frown on high pressure tactics such as pushing for a prospect to sign up at a meeting before they have had the opportunity to discuss it with their family and other advisors.

Most of our parents taught is that there is no free lunch! If you want something, you have to work for it. So the advice the DSA and the FTC provides is very good common sense and resonates with our upbringing.

So why do we continue to chase prospects expecting them to believe any differently?

It strikes me, how the "desperation marketing" techniques that are taught by most Direct Sales companies cause many MLMer's to behave in a manner that the DSA and FTC caution people to avoid. Haven't we all heard (and probably heard it coming from our own mouths!) how our specific company offers an amazing compensation plan that allows an associate to earn a monthly commission check in five figures? Haven't we heard (said?) how our products are the best, they are so original, they are leading the pack and practically sell themselves? And, oh by the way, how about the line that a prospect needs to sign up quickly because the company is in exponential growth and they really need to get into the program before the growth levels off?

Thank goodness for the Renegade Network Marketing system. Finally, there is a system in place to help direct sales professionals who want to take advantage of legitimate marketing strategies. This system teaches tried and true marketing techniques that can position even a person who is new to MLM as a leader and a professional. It teaches us how to attract prospects to our business. Finally, we have tools that can be applied so that our business does not mirror an illegal pyramid scheme, but actually represents the legitimate business opportunity it truly is.

The Renegade system is a free to low-cost training system that is easily followed, easily taught, easily learned and easily available to anyone with internet access.

The Renegade teaches attraction marketing using Web 2.0 providing a glimpse into the future of the MLM business. It teaches how to build a marketing strategy that will lift Direct Sales professionals from the muck and anonymity of bottom-feeding pyramid scammers to the professional level of business respect they deserve.

If you are ready to give up your desparation-marketing techniques and ready to embrace the future of Direct Sales with pride and integrity, check out the Renegade today. I am certain it will open up a whole new world of business for you. And you will never look back!

My Direct Sales History and How The Renegade System has Changed it (For the Better!)

I suppose I am somewhat of a veteran network marketer. I have been in one mlm company or another for eight years, and I have learned something from each of them.

My first venture into the business occurred when I was dating a man who got involved in a supplement and water filter mlm. I followed him into the business, not knowing a single thing about mlm. I blindly spent about $5000 on this company. And I think I was fortunate, because the FTC shut them down before I spent more! The government determined this company was an illegal pyramid and seized all the company's assets after I had been in the biz about four months. That's when I learned about the Direct Selling Association.  If you haven't checked out their website and you're in an mlm, you need to learn what they are all about. I'll talk about them in another blog article, that's just not what this article is about. What an eye opener! I didn't learn anything about running my own business, let alone a mlm business; but I learned about the dsa, so all was not lost!

A few years after that, I decided I wanted to sell jewelry. So, I went to the internet, found a company I liked, checked out the product, talked to a distributor who had been in the business about a month, and I was off! As much as I love jewelry, once again, I didn't make any money! I found that people can only buy so much silver! And when the economy is down, they buy less! So, I turned out to be my best customer. I was not able to build a team, and really was not able to keep the business moving forward. This time, I learned that if you want to go into business for yourself, it's probably a good idea to go into business selling a good product that people will need to keep buying.

So, then I became involved in a cosmetic direct sales company. I love these products and still use them today. I was able to sign up distributors with this company, and they continue to purchase products. But I really didn't sponsor anyone who wanted to build a business, they signed up because they wanted the discount for their own personal use. I found that almost everyone I spoke to was already either using the products, was a distributor, or they had a sister or friend or cousin who was a distributor. Great products. Repeatable sales. But I still found I was spending more than I was making.

Finally I signed with a supplement and skin care company. Once again, great products, repeatable sales, women and men (as opposed to just women with the cosmetic company!) like the products, and the company is fairly new, so there is a lot of room for growth. I have signed several people up on my team. And they want to build a business! But, once again, I am spending more than I am making. Building the team seemed to be a slow process. Until I found the Renegade System.

I have finally found a system that is turning the trend around! I stumbled on Ann Sieg's Seven Lies on the internet one day and was intrigued. So I followed the natural course of my curiosity and jumped into the Renegade University. What an eye opener! Everything made sense to me. The training is exactly what I needed - step-by-step, click-by-click. Detailed explanation of everything I needed to understand.

I have learned attraction marketing. I am using the internet through sites such as this blog, Facebook, Squidoo, Youtube, digg and Hub to get my name out on the internet where people are finding me through Google and Yahoo. They are reading what I am doing and they are asking me for more information.  I no longer have to chase my friends and nag my relatives to come to meetings to hear about the most amazing opportunity every imagined. There are millions of people who are interested, and I no longer have to chase my friends who are not interested.

I have learned that the problem with my previous mlm experiences was not me, it was the system that the direct sales companies teach. And it is not as if my upline did not want me to be successful, they didn't know any better.

But finally, I have discovered a way to market myself and my business that makes sense. And more importantly, it is making money! It's a system that I can teach my downline, and my upline, too!

The Renegade University has made a difference in my business. I would encourage anyone who is in direct sales or mlm to check it out for themselves. It has made a huge difference in my business, and it can do the same for you.

Renegade Network Marketer Under Attack? Say it Ain't So!

It seems Ann Sieg's report, "The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing" has come under attack by established network marketers. I have to believe this should not be a surprise to anyone. After all, Ann starts right off saying that people involved in multi-level-marketing (mlm) have been lied to. That is the same as calling everyone in anyone's upline a liar. So, of course, Ann has put the mainstream, old school marketers on the defensive straight out of the gate.

Not only has Ann offended many successful direct sales professionals, but she is telling the masses that the techniques they are training their downline are ineffective. She is attempting to fix a problem that successful mlm'ers don't recognize as a problem at all! They are no doubt thinking and saying, "Ann! Don't fix what's not broken!" Unfortunately, the successful mlm'ers are in the minority. I'm sure they believe the reason their down lines have not seen the success they have experienced is based on:

• Belief - you can't be successful if you aren't "over the line."
• Not following the system - we all know it's duplicatable, right?
• Life keeps getting in the way; i.e., no consistency of effort
• You get the picture, you've heard them all before....

Obviously, I am a student of Ann Sieg. She has opened a whole new world of network marketing to me. Marketing tools I can use.

But before I continue, I would like to extend my personal apologies to every direct sales professional Ann has offended. Yes, Ann came on strong. She felt she needed to make a point and make it boldly and loudly to get people's attention. But please do not allow her style to keep you from exploring her message. Perhaps you don't need to build an internet presence to support your business because you are already very successful, but it is a very effective strategy that has the potential to explode the business in your down line. So please, open your minds to the potential she is teaching. If not for you, then for your down line.

I think it's difficult to argue the success of the Renegade University. Direct Sales professional wannabes are clamoring for the information and training that is provided through this source. People are excited to learn how to finally have the training and tools at their fingertips that allows them to execute real, bona fide marketing techniques. Techniques they can train their down lines on. Techniques that are duplicatable.

I believe the old-school marketers have their down line's best interest at heart. They want to help their recruits enjoy the same success they enjoy. Since they have proof their way works, they are hesitant to teach something new and different. And honestly, setting up an internet marketing presence takes time and a lot of thought (a good spell checker is pretty important, too!). I can only imagine old-school marketers are not strongly motivated to take the time to get a new system going.

The problem is, as duplicatable as old-school marketers believe their system to be, it isn't always so. Getting people to attend meetings and listen to cd's is an art. Good art is not duplicatable! You can tell me all day long how to meet someone at my local grocery store and get them to attend a meeting within a week, but I simply will not be able to execute that successfully. To be effective, you have to be able to read people, to connect with people, to be warm and caring and gain their trust almost immediately. I would love to learn how to do that. And I'm working on it! But darn it all! I'm not very successful at it yet. And  I can't train my down line what I can't do myself.

The Renegade Network Marketing system, however, is duplicatable. The training is step-by-step, tool-by-tool, explanation-by-explanation. It's not easy, it takes time, but it's not rocket science. I can train this system. It's duplicatable.

Don't get me wrong. I believe in the old-school marketing techniques. I believe every network marketing professional needs to pursue the training their up-line provides them. It is tried and true and people do make substantial amounts of money using it. Not only that, just following those processes teaches professional marketers so much about themselves, their products, other people and life in general. It's a growth experience I don't think should be deliberately avoided.

But I believe the Renegade System is one more tool for the professional network marketer to have in his or her tool box. When you wake up at 2:00 am and can't sleep, you can work on your blogg! But you can't call your prospects on the phone!

Attraction Marketing

In her book, "The Renegade Network Marketer," Ann Sieg talks about attraction marketing. Attraction marketing is promoting a product or service in such a way that causes potential customers or prospects to want to hear about what you have to offer. In direct sales, it typically refers to promoting yourself as an expert, offering information that a prospect wants, and builds the basis of a real relationship with that prospect. It is a way of offering something of value to a person who may or may not have known they were interested in your business. It is not chasing your friends, relatives and coworkers and telling them they are stupid to not involve themselves in your business. (Yes! I have actually heard of that technique!!!! Amazing, telling your prospect they are stupid? I wonder how that worked out...) Attraction marketing is the preferred marketing system of the future. More and more savvy buyers use the internet to evaluate products when they are in the market to purchase. They also use the internet as a source of information when they want to research any topic which they do not feel they have sufficient information about to make an informed decision. The "old" way of direct sales marketing will never go out of use. In fact, when a person begins a direct sales business, their best resource to recover their initial investment quickly will always be their close friends and relatives. Enthusiasm will always sway friends to follow friends That is simply human nature and will never change. And it is a great way to build a team of people you like and want to work with. Isn't that one of the attributes of direct sales? Working with people you want to work with and not some stinky stranger in the cubicle next to yours in the corporate world. In traditional network marketing, the next step is to build and work a "list" of warm market prospects. People you know. But the reality is, this list of everyone you know isn't necessarily a list of people who will follow you into your business immediately. Over time, they may come into your business. But marketers generally will need to build that relationship and trust over time. That being said, attraction marketing provides an additional way to build a business. Using the internet to develop a list of leads that are interested in a new business and want to work with you because you marketed yourself as an expert. Because of your marketing, people want to work with you because you have something to offer that can help a prospect become successful. The Renegade University provides step-by-step directions to help direct sale professional use the internet to help establish themselves as experts and use attraction marketing to generate leads on-line.