There seems to be an ever increasing number of "Downline Builders" popping up on the Internet. Likewise there has been also a steady rise in the number of online "Multi-level" marketing programs. And why not! The Internet is an ideal marketing medium. It is cheaper than the way we used to market five or six years ago when I was involved in them by mailing to prospects through regular postal mail. Plus back then you also had printing and envelope costs too!
In the last couple of years the downline builders have become popular as a way to recruit people for one or more programs. What is a downline builder program?
I want to say right up front that I am not against downline builders or MLM programs, they are great ways to build income. But you have to go into them with a certain amount of knowledge of how they work.
Basically the downline builder is a marketing plan in which prospects are placed after signing up. The organizational structure of the plan varies from program to program. It can be a straight line organization i.e., one person right under each other or it can be two on the first level, four on the second, eight on the third, etc. There are so many different ways to set it up it would be difficult to describe them all here. Many of them will be set up in the structure that the primary program is, the one you will end up going into at some point.
The primary concept of the downline builder is to build a downline before going into a primary income producing program, thus minimizing your initial marketing costs. It is also hoped that this downline, as it is built, will at some point follow you into the income producing program.
No matter the structure, the downline builders are normally FREE. That is what draws so many people into them initially. The promotional material for most of them indicates that you can make X income a month or year by joining up. What many people fail to realize is that they are not going to make any money by just being a member of the downline builder itself.
The downline builder is free so there is no income generated with it. The promoters aren't going to pay you out of the goodness of their heart, especially when there are thousands of people involved. At some point in the downline builder process you are going to be asked to join some income producing program. This is where you are going to have to make a commitment in most cases to a monthly payment for some type of product. This is a critical point in the process and is where "the rubber meets the road" as they say.
It is at this point where there can be a very large dropout rate of people in your downline who are not going to pay $25 or $50 a month to join the main program. Up to this point the program was free. You could have 300 members under you and less than two or three percent might stay in with you. When these people drop out, in most cases the holes will be filled by those further down but the process will keep repeating itself. Again, I am not against the process, I just want to point out that it can be frustrating to you if you don't have a realization that it could occur and if you went into it thinking you would make a quick buck you may be twice as frustrated. It will take patience!
Here are some tips that you should consider...
-- Before you join a free downline builder, check it out. Identify the primary program or programs that you will have to join down the line in order to start building an income.
-- What is the product or products? Are they the type products you want to be involved with, want to use or sell?
-- How much is it going to cost you per month before you get into profit? I saw one popular online program the other day and the ultimate income program was a nutritional program in which you had to purchase over $75 in product each month. Find that out up front so there are no surprises later on.
And whatever you do don't join a downline building program where you don't know what the final primary program will be. You don't want to spend a lot of resources building your downline over several months only to find out that you can't afford the product or don't like the product!
Remember, the downline builder is just a stepping stone, normally into a network marketing or multi-level marketing program (both the same). You are not going to make your income in the free downline builder, that comes with the income producing program later on which you will have to pay for. Look them over carefully and make an informed decision when you do join one.
Joe Reinbold, webmaster of The Entrepreneur's Home Business Link publishes a free weekly email newsletter "Home Income Quarterly E-dition" which is dedicated to assisting online marketers. For a free subscription just mailto:subscribe@homebizlink.com or visit his site at http://www.homebizlink.com