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Each and every day thousands of people join network marketing companies, aka multi level marketing groups. For the most part they are individuals with daytime jobs that are looking to supplement their incomes, college students, stay at home moms and retired persons looking to add to their savings and social security. What do they all have in common? They have very little or no experience running or owning a business. Their mindset is that of an employee.

Don't get me wrong. I dabbled in Network Marketing some years ago and loved it. I was proud of the product, I received some great training, met a lot of really great people, and recouped my initial investment plus a great deal more. But what I also learned in the process was that I was working way too hard building someone else's business and in particular, someone else's list! In addition, I quickly realized that network marketing is really not about selling the product - however great that product may be. It's really about building a downline - meaning getting people on board after you have joined. You get a commission from them and their sales and also their respective downline as they recruit others. Sounds great, doesn't it? And it is - for those that joined the company at the start. They are earning big bucks from an ever growing downline. The newbies, however, continue to come and go, being replaced by new associates who in turn often leave and are replaced- and the beat goes on. What is left goes to the existing upline - all the way to the top. All the while, anyone purchasing the companies products are being added to the corporate data base. When the associates leave - they leave their client list behind too! All that work, all those contacts, now gone forever. While the associates believed that the company had actually provided them with their own website, it was really just a page on the corporate website. No client looking for that associate will ever find them on a google search of their name.

It doesn't have to be that way. Here's the solution.

1.Every network marketing associate has to start thinking like an entrepreneur, not a corporate employee.
2. Get your own website with your name on it. e.g. www.johnsmith.com.
3. Brand yourself first and then the products you sell
4. Have an opt in page (landing page) in front of your first web page and offer a "free report on how to...When they give you their name and email adddress. Your auto responder send them the report - which you have written. Now YOU have them on YOUR list.
5. Your auto responder will then send them a link to your affiliate site so you can receive the commision. That way, everybody wins.

The reasoning behind this is twofold.
1. first product is you!
2. You are creating a list so you can contact them when you have a special offer
3. Because you have your own website, the list is yours and you can market and create other products and services too.
4. If and when, you decide to leave the NM business and create your own business (like I did) you already have an established client data base!
5. Because you branded yourself first, they already know you and trust you!

Network marketing aka multi level marketing is a great business and you will learn a lot of sales, marketing and advertising from the experience. Just make sure that you are thinking like an entrepreneur and not a corporate employee. Have fun, make money and work smart, not hard. Here's to your success!

By: Marilyn Ellis

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Marilyn Ellis,"America's Organizer Coach", Author, Speaker, Professional Organizer, Business Development Coach. Her focus is on Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs. If you are stuck on the rocks, lost in the fog or surrounded by sharks, she will shine her harbor light on you. visit www.lighthouseorganizers.com to receive a free report and/or to purchase her books.