#36 Entrepreneurship: Navigating the Marketing Maze: Decoding Affiliate vs. Network Marketing

In this episode, we unravel the distinctions between affiliate and network marketing. Learn how affiliate marketing operates on a one-to-one basis, while network marketing fosters a ripple effect of income growth through recruitment. Discover the importance of research in choosing the right path and the benefits of collaboration in network marketing.

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Navigating the Marketing Maze: Decoding Affiliate vs. Network Marketing

Hey there, folks! Today, let's unravel the mysteries behind affiliate marketing and network marketing. Are they truly alike, or is there more than meets the eye? Let's dive in and decipher the nuances together!

Affiliate Marketing: The Power of Addition

Picture this: You promote products or services from a company, and when someone makes a purchase through your referral link, you earn a commission. It's straightforward—just you and your efforts driving sales and leads.

Network Marketing: Embracing Multiplication

Now, onto network marketing—the epitome of multiplication in action. You not only sell products but also recruit others to sell under you. Yes, it involves levels, but hold on, it's not a pyramid scheme if there's a tangible product involved. Network marketing thrives on building a team, creating a ripple effect that expands your reach and income potential.

Choosing Wisely: The Key to Success

Before diving into network marketing, a word of caution: Not all companies are created equal. Do your due diligence. Find a company with a solid compensation plan and, a solid product. Remember, the power of word-of-mouth marketing can only flourish with a product people genuinely need.

The Beauty of Collaboration

One of the greatest perks of network marketing is the sense of community and collaboration it fosters. You have a team to support you, share ideas, and lighten the load. It's about leveraging personal networks (without pestering friends & family) and creating new connections.

Addition vs. Multiplication: The Choice is Yours

Whether you choose affiliate marketing or network marketing—or both—depends on your goals and preferences. Affiliate marketing offers simplicity and independence, while network marketing holds potential for exponential growth and community support.

Join the Conversation

Have you delved into the realms of affiliate or network marketing? Share your thoughts, feedback, or any insights you have. Let's continue this dialogue and empower each other on our entrepreneurial journeys. Until next time!

Remember, it's not just about addition or multiplication—it's about leveraging the power of both to achieve extraordinary results. Stay tuned for more insightful discussions!

Transcription:

00:01

So is it affiliate marketing or is it network marketing? Let's talk about the difference between the two because they are not the same and you might have been led to believe that they are the same thing. And so here's the scoop. Let's dig in. It's been a hot minute since I've talked about some network marketing entrepreneur kind of things and so I wanna dig into this. So affiliate marketing.

00:29

is essentially if there was one word that could or that I loved this example I heard the other day. Affiliate marketing is addition. Network marketing is multiplication.

00:43

Okay, let's dig into what that means. So affiliate marketing is where you are selling, promoting products or services for a company and you earn commission. You have a referral link and you get paid when somebody buys from your referral link. Sometimes reoccurring if it's like they're signing up for a subscription, sometimes it's a one-time purchase, right?

01:13

So when we think about this type of thing, so this would be, for example, people who have like Amazon shops, I'm not saying they're an Amazon reseller or an Amazon seller, that's different. I'm saying they have an Amazon shop and like, oh, I linked the thing in my Amazon shop, right? We've all seen that probably on social media. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't.

01:42

And so that's affiliate marketing. Influencer marketing, basically the influencers we see on social media, you know, they use my link and you'll get 10% off or 15% off or $15 or whatever it is, right? That's affiliate marketing. So they're promoting a product or service for another company and they get paid on that sale. And so it's a single level of commission, right?

02:12

You earn commission for each sale, sometimes on leads that they generate, but that's not near as common. So the primary focus is on driving sales and leads. You're not building a network, you're not trying to find other people to sell as well. So affiliates work independently. And so they're doing it.

02:40

basically all on their own, right? You're not working as a team. You're not working with other people doing the same thing. You're on your own. Like I said, this is primarily like online, you know, like the influencers, ads, whatever those things are. So that's affiliate marketing. You can see how that's addition because you're simply, you know, one sale plus one sale is two sales. Cool.

03:08

We're doing addition, right? Now, network marketing is multiplication. Why?

03:19

because you have the different levels. Now, I know as soon as I'm gonna say this, you're gonna be like, if you're not part of this, you're gonna be like, oh, it is a pyramids key. Here's, hold please. We're gonna come back to that. So there are multiple levels. You recruit people to sell under you. That is network marketing. That's why it's multiplication as well.

03:48

Now first of all, it's not a pyramid scheme when there's a product involved. Period, full stop. Pyramid schemes are illegal, so if there's a product involved, an actual tangible item that you receive, it's not a pyramid scheme. Now, the second piece to this, because as soon as you're like, oh, there's levels, and like, ooh, it's a pyramid. Now, there's two things I'm gonna say to this. First thing is if you look at any corporate org chart,

04:16

organizational chart. In other words, meaning like, you know, what's the order of who reports to who? So you have your CEO, you have your like CFO, your CMO, your COO, then you have your managers, then you have like, then you have, it keeps going down your sales stat, like all those people, right? In a pyramid, I've made them when I worked in corporate.

04:46

It's some form of somebody's at the top and somebody's at the bottom. Now, with network marketing, there are companies, lots of companies quite frankly, which is why whenever I am a huge fan of network marketing, huge, but not all companies are created equal at all whatsoever, period, full stop, just because you're like, oh.

05:12

I listened to the podcast and I learned that network marketing actually is really cool and I like the idea of multiplying my income. Cool. That doesn't mean you just go pick the first network marketing company that you find. Do your research. I did mine. There's a reason why I'm with the company I'm with. Eight and a half years later. So choose wisely. Because some companies have their...

05:39

compensation plan, in other words, meaning how you make money, set up to be very much like a pyramid scheme and to lock, kind of, in some ways, lock you in a position where you get stuck kind of making a certain amount of money and being at a certain level in that and not being able to necessarily, not be able to get above the people that are above you.

06:07

They'll always make more money than you. Here's the cool thing about the company that I'm with, specifically, is you can surpass the person who signed you up, the person above you. You can surpass them. You can surpass all of them. There's no cap. There's no limit. They don't just get to ride on your shirt tails and go all the way to the top with you. They have to do some of their own work, too.

06:35

Now, if there's we have safeguards in place for that because we want it to be a reflection of the work that you're doing and that you're how you're helping people. Now, it is network marketing. If you help other people and they help other people. Yes, your income is going to grow. That's multiplication. Right. It's continuing that down. But there's not that typical, oh, you can only have like.

07:03

two people directly under you or three or whatever. It's more of a starburst effect and a ripple. If you think of if you throw a rock in a lake, right? And that ripple happens, that circle, it's just multiplication in that circle. Because yes, there are levels, but anybody, like, yeah, does that make, hopefully that makes sense what I'm saying. So there's that multiplication piece. And that's the beauty.

07:33

of network marketing and why it's so powerful. And while affiliate marketing is good, network marketing is like incredible because of that piece. So the focus is that distributors earn commissions not only from their sales, but also from the people that they have recruited. And there's that emphasis on recruitment because you want that duplication happening.

08:02

And just as kind of to look at this from a marketing perspective, right, as somebody who used to work in corporate marketing, this works super well because the more people that are talking about a product and telling other people and the more people like that, that ripple continues because when you have a good product, people want to talk about it. And that's the other thing I'll say is don't just pick any network marketing company. You have to pick one that not only has a good compensation plan, but also has a good product. That then

08:32

from like just from that corporate perspective, well, when you have more and more and more people talking about it, that's a natural market. Like that marketing plan happens. You don't have to push out more ads and try to get into more stores or try to do more marketing activities or more trade shows for people to find out about your brand because that's happening. That's why companies choose the network marketing model.

09:01

as opposed to a traditional marketing model of trying to get on store shelves. All right. So we talked about the compensation plan and how you make money with network marketing and then independence. So you can work, you're working for yourself, but you're not working by yourself. And the beauty of having a team, we are wired for connection.

09:30

And so while you can work day to day by yourself if you're not a super social person necessarily, but you also have a team of people to work alongside and to help lighten the load on work things and to work together and collaborate. And it really adds so much power into your business. And so network marketing relies on personal network.

09:59

personal networking. And so this isn't just like bugging your friends and family. I know so many people that haven't even talked to their friends and family, they went and made new connections and found new people to talk to and went to the top. It has nothing to do with bugging your friends and family. But it's that word of mouth marketing, right? And so finding people who have a need for the product that the company that you've chosen. And again, this is where choosing wisely comes in handy.

10:29

And you're offering that, and that's really what it is, right? And that's how you're selling. So.

10:38

Understanding that difference between addition and multiplication, I'm not saying one is bad or one is good. I'm saying make smart decisions. And I know lots of people and myself included that have both. Um, you know, I have affiliate links for certain programs or things that I love, mostly tech stuff these days, but things that I love and I make a small commission off of those things.

11:07

And that's huge, right? And that's such a beautiful thing to be able to have both, right? I'm not out there like wildly promoting my affiliate link because I know the power of multiplication, right? So if one sale plus one sale is two sales, well, you know, let's turn that into some multiplication.

11:37

And so if that, let's say three sales, and each of those people were to tell one friend about it, or to tell three friends about it, let's say three friends, so three times three, that's nine. Well, I talked to three people, but then that ripple continued.

12:08

Right? So addition, multiplication, there's different things we could talk about, more of that stuff, but I'm gonna leave it at that for today. So I hope this has been helpful and enlightening. I'd love to hear your thoughts, your feedback, what you, if you knew all of this already, or if some of it was new for you. And I will see you soon.