I just finished reading a great eBook about doing online MLM. The eBook had lots of helpful tips, as well as success stories about people who have developed a wonderful passive income stream doing online MLM. The whole eBook was great except for one thing:
There is a world of difference between reading about online MLM and doing it.
What Reading Novels and Reading about Online MLM Have in Common
Don’t get me wrong, I love to read about online MLM. I love that other people read what I write about this business. That’s not the problem. The problem happens when people actually get online, sign up for their blog and social media accounts, and start doing their MLM business online. That’s when the problems crop up. Why?
Let me give you an example. I read this sentence in the eBook on doing MLM online:
“Bob followed this approach, and six months later, moved three levels up his MLM company’s compensation plan.”
That sounds great, right? Bob’s approach was to write a couple of blogs and work three social media platforms. No big deal. And he moved three levels up the compensation plan. That’s great. After all, who can’t do what Bob did for six months, right?
Wrong.
And that’s what reading about online MLM and reading novels share in common: it’s too easy. It is soooooo easy to read about some black-ops superhero kicking butt in a novel, with his special tools, his martial arts moves, and his network of connections. It’s easy to read, hard to do.
Ditto with online MLM. It’s soooooo easy to read about Bob, who just easily taps out six blog posts a week for his two blogs (one for product and one for business), and who handles all of his social media “networking” with ease. So not happening… unless Bob is a psycho workaholic who just LOVES to spend all of his time on the computer after he comes home from his day job. Not.
See, it took only one sentence to write about Bob’s six month’s worth of grueling effort. It takes only one second to read the words “six months later.” But the truth of the matter is, Bob spent six months slaving away. See what I mean? See the difference between one second’s worth of reading and six month’s worth of effort?
Somehow, our brains translate the effort it takes to read ABOUT online MLM into the effort we think it will actually take to do online MLM. It only took a second to read the words, so how hard could it be? That’s what we say to ourselves, all the time. Really.
Online MLM in the Real World
So let’s get down to brass tacks for a minute and talk about doing your MLM business online, in the real world, not in Bob’s superhero world. Is what Bob doing possible? Yes. Is it probable? No. Is the average Joe likely to be able to follow Bob’s path. Nuh-uh.
So what is possible, probable, and likely for the average Joe who wants to do MLM online? Well, here are the facts about online MLM as I understand them based on my real-world experience:
1. Online MLM takes as much time and effort as any other small business. The main difference is that your overhead is much lower than the average bricks and mortar startup storefront.
2. Online MLM is a skill, like any other. Just because you are online doesn’t mean you don’t have to network, build trust, make friends, influence people, etc. You have to do all of that, plus you have to learn to do it in the online world, which has its own set of rules.
3. Keep your day job, if you have one. You don’t need as much capital as you would for a regular startup small business, but you still need cashflow because unless you are a psycho workaholic, you are not going to hit the top of the compensation plan in six months.
Reading about Online MLM: My Advice
After a decade of doing MLM online, my advice is that you should definitely keep reading and learning about doing this business online. Or listening to CDs or watching DVDs. Whatever floats your boat.
The thing is, whenever you run across a sentence, or even an entire article that talks about someone’s success, don’t be tempted to think that it was EVER easy. It NEVER is. Online MLM can create an immensely steady passive income for you. It can be developed into a financial asset. It can do a lot of things. But it takes as much effort as anything else in the world.
So… do keep reading. Just don’t be fooled. Unless the article you are reading describes the blood, sweat, and tears it took a person to reach success in gory detail, learn what you can from the article, but don’t be lulled into the idea that MLM is “rags to riches” with no effort.
Just a word of warning to the wise. I love MLM and I love online MLM even more. I just don’t want MLM to have a bad name in your book because you aren’t a millionaire, or even a thousandaire, in six months.
Slow steady effort is the key.