Network Marketing or Multi - Level Marketing (MLM)

7 Tips for Network Marketing Success

A direct-selling expert shares what it takes to start out and make it in this industry.

By Devlin Smith   |   May 5, 2005

You probably have an image firmly planted in your mind of what network marketing (also known as direct sales or multilevel marketing) is all about--housewives buying and selling Tupperware while gossiping and eating finger sandwiches, or a high-pressure salesperson trying to convince you how easily you can become a millionaire if only you and your friends and their friends and so on would buy and sell vitamins with him.

Both of these images couldn't be further from the reality of network marketing. It's neither a hobby nor a get-rich-scheme but an opportunity for you to earn money running your own part-time or full-time business.

But what does it take to succeed in this industry? Vincent J. Kellsey, director of member services for the Direct Selling Women's Alliance, an organization that provides a variety of resources to women and men in the direct-selling industry, offers these tips for making it:

Choose wisely. There are six key elements you should be looking for [when selecting an opportunity]. Number one: stability. How old is the company? Number two is excellent products or services that consumers will use and need more of.

Number three is the pay plan--how even and fair and generous overall is the distribution? This is really crucial as the pay plan represents exactly how you'll get paid--or not get paid. There are really only two questions to ask [regarding this]: How many pennies out of each sales dollar get paid back to the distributors each month, and how fair is the distribution