Let me start off with the term: Network Marketer. Think back to the original days of Amway or Shaklee. These old school network marketers did what we now call belly to belly presentations, hotel meetings, business cards exchanges and they picked up the phone and called everybody and their brother they knew and their brother's brothers! They quite literally pounded the phone. They created huge lists of resources and databases of everybody they knew. They built relationships with people & got referrals upon referrals. They literally created a network of people they knew and kept on expanding it to all the people their people knew and so and so and so on...

This worked and it still works today. The reason? Even with technology today ,people still want and need to by from people they know, from a referral or people they have done business with in the past.

But the average person looking to make some extra money on the side just didn't want or have the desire to make all those calls. They were too shy and embarrassed to contact their friends and family or even if they were all revved up at first when they joined, they got knocked down within the first couple of weeks. Face it, we all know what we felt like when someone we knew told us they were selling Amway or Rainbow Vacuum Cleaners!

Then along came the internet.....and they took their rolodex and imported (hand typed) them into a database and now they could communicate to all of their customers, prospects, distributors with a click of a button! WOW! Mail Merge was huge! MLM business started popping up on the internet and they could just send some emails and their loyal followers went running to their website and because they had a PRIOR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP with these network marketers they bought from them and they went right down the line (hence the term downline line) & were making a killing.

Then we of course went through the pyramid schemes and MLM companies that offered no real products. And gave MLM a rotten name. (We still have them and people still buy into them) No matter what industry you are in you will always have the unscrupulous that will take advantage of the naive.

Then the systems guys created the websites that DO IT ALL FOR YOU! GET PAID TODAY! Direct Sales! Just drive the traffic, no need to make Cold Calls, No Bugging your friends and family & No Sorting - You just drive the traffic and our site will do the rest! 2 Ups and 1 Ups ran ramped. And then they charge you a monthly subscription service to host your website. Guaranteed income for them. The Internet Market was Born! But the Big guys had HUGE advertising budgets. They could AFFORD to drive huge amounts of traffic to their websites. The average newbie doesn't have those kinds of funds AND are failing by huge numbers. The old networkers were use to that. The idea was and still is just get as many sign ups as you can and the true network marketers will rise to the top! And that is true. They are not lying to you.

Then the Mentoring programs and consultants and the Guru's came out of the woodwork to try to instill in al that you still have to pick up the phone to build the relationships! But we Americans( 97% of us) don't want o hear that! We want to be able to buy our way in. Make huge sums of money with no experience. They pick out the 1 success story out of thousands and we believe it will happen to us. The sales letters are really to blame, but one has to some of the responsibility...Huh? The systems guys know that. So they keep rolling out new marketing site that promise the world. And some of these sites really are well put together, but the truth of the matter is most people still need to make a connection with YOU before they buy. They buy on emotion. You have to learn how to trigger that emotion and build the relationship to get the sales. Period.

Now the internet marketer understands that they must build relationships but they don't want to do it belly-to belly or via hotel presentations. So how do you accomplish that? Article writings, press releases, blogging and oh the ever so popular social network sites that are popping up every day! But the successful ones understand something else. They separate themselves from the masses. If you are doing everything everyone else is doing, do you stand out? Nope. They create their own capture pages and websites. They ARE NOT using the companies affiliate sites. They are not even marketing their business opportunity up front. These guys ARE making money. Good Money. 6K and above. Problem? They are not duplicatable. Again, the average American doesn't have the desire or knowledge to do what these guys do. The internet marketers are telling you the old school guru's are off out of date, that you don't need to make phone calls, bug friends and family, sort thru hundreds and thousands to find the few good ones. And to a degree they are right. On the other hand, the network marketer now has seminars charging you thousands to teach you what you need to know, hence making himself duplicatable. Guess What? In both cases 2%-3% will rise up and become successful. Both as a network marketer student and as a Internet marketer student. It's the 2% Rule. 2% of the people hold 95% of the wealth.

Great, so what are the other 98% to do? We know there has to be way. And where there is a will there is a way. A blending of the 2 has to come together. And in essence it really is a blending of 3, traditional businesses with brick and mortar offices that use the web to sell their products, old school network marketers and the new Internet Marketers. It's called Attraction Marketing. You may seen or heard of it already but ignored, it as we Americans have become so desensitized to information. Fact is, so much garbage is thrown at us we tend to overlook the real stuff when it slaps us in the face. I know I did. And I would have quite a few hundred thousand dollars more in my pocket today if I would have taken action when the opportunity was first presented. But the good news is... it's never to late to start again in this industry, the right way. And one more thing, you have to throw in some good old fashion common sense.

Starting a business, Any Business requires due diligence on your part. And must be taken seriously. What is it you want to accomplish? Is there a real product/service involved that is going to be wanted and need ed by people everywhere? Software is a product; information is a product, (information is the NUMBER 1 selling product out there today), nutritional supplements, education, & travel. Don't buy in to a business or not buy a business based on some else success or failures. Their success or failure has absolutely NO BEARING on yours. NONE! Remember that. It's key. Make sure the product or service is something you would actually use yourself. You have to believe in your product. You have to invest in yourself and your business. Becoming a 6K or 7K earner doesn't happen without training of some sort. But take baby steps and really evaluate what it is you are buying. Learn from the leaders who have been there, done that. Have realist expectations and be creative. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. And if any one tells you need a huge advertising budget... tell them to pound sand and run as fast as you can.

Cynthia ~Social Cowgirl
www.SocialCowgirl.com