You’ve heard of all the buzz about the “lies of Network Marketing“, why offline marketing is the “old school” and why you should “forget everything you’ve been told” by your upline and learn this “new school“. I’ve asked myself the question and I am sure you’ve asked yourself the same question: “Is that just a bunch of hype promoted by online Marketers for them to sell you their ebook or is it a real evolution and revolution of Network Marketing?”

This can be a very long discussion and I have talked to many people with many different opinions. I will try to keep it short here for the sake of everybody. However, if you have a comment please post if below or send me a message through the [intlink id="9" type="page"]contact page[/intlink] and I’d love to read what you have to say.

To make it extremely easy, here are the pros of each method and I will only focus on the pros. Why? Because I believe that pointing out the negative points will not give you the Slight Edge to success. Take whatever is positive in each method, learn from it, and you will quickly become a leader in your MLM and in the Network Marketing industry.

Offline Marketing Pros

• It is real. What I mean by that is that when you meet people face to face, talk to them, look at them in the eyes, you will know if they are what you are looking for.
• Training is very efficient. I have spent hours going to meetings and trainings and I do not regret any of them. Seeing people doing training will teach you how to it. Remember, successful Network Marketers are great trainers and teachers. I enjoy teaching people what I know much more than trying to sell anything.
• People already trust you (at least your warm market). Trust is the base of everything in Network Marketing. If people trust you, they will listen to you when you will suggest something. It can be a product or it can be an opportunity.
• You will learn how to talk to people. Don’t forget that to have a successfull MLM business you will have to talk to people (for real). Only sending emails is not going to cut it. You have to learn how to talk to people so they are attracted by what you say. Metting people offline is a great way of training.

Online Marketing Pros

• You have a global reach. Your list of prospects is endless. This is the biggest advantage at marketing online. You may have heard this many times, but it is true. The list is everything. You will not succeed without a list. Create a list, gain their trust and as I said previously, when people trust you, they will listen to what you have to say.
• You don’t have to deal with rejection. When you do online marketing, your goal is to have people coming to you asking you for advice and ultimately asking you to join your Network Marketing business. When they come to you, they are already presold on what you have and your only task is to qualify them.
• If you are not already successful, it’s easy to act like it. The catch phrase “Fake it till you make it” says it all. Well it’s somewhat easy online and people trust successful people. However, remember you still have to talk to people at some point so be careful in what you pretend to be.
• It is very low cost. Most of the MLM companies have corporate webiste provided to you that you can use (if your company doesn’t, change company ASAP). If you decide to have your own, it will be at very low cost.
• 24/7/365 exposure. No rest in the online world.

Here you have it and I most likely forgot many points in each category (Please add your own in the comment section below).

In my opinion, both are very important for different (and good) reasons. What I recommend is, take the best of each and merge them together to create a marketing powerhouse!

Are you missing a step in your online prospecting? Are you struggling to get results from you online marketing? Promoting your business or opportunity online can be a challenge but if you follow some simple steps you can unleash a wave of prospects coming to you and ask you to be part of your business.

1. Create your presence online

The most important of all, you have to create your presence online. You can keep learning about all the latest tips and tricks until you think you are ready. The problem is that you will never be ready. The key to success is to get started. How do you think people will find you if you don’t create a presence online. There are multiple ways to do that.

1. Create Articles: Use article directories that Google like. Squidoo, eZineArticles and HubPages are a good start. Write articles about your niche, about what you like, about yourself. Be creative.
2. Use your company website: This is a limited option but if you chose a good company they most likely provided you a good looking website for your product or opportunity. This creates a presence online for your. You can redirect people to this website directly without having to do a website by yourself.
3. Your own blog: Nothing better than your own blog to create your presence online. You can use blogging platforms such as Blogger or WordPress.org. You don’t have to install a blog on your personal hosting plan but you are also very limited in the customization of it. I recommend changing to you own hosting blog. There are multiple choices but I recommend WordPress.
4. Social Sites: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter… Be there. You have to! Nothing more to say.

2. Provide valuable content to people

This is the critical step in any successful online marketing campaign. Why would people come and trust you if you don’t give them anything valuable? They wouldn’t! This is what will set you apart from the rest of online marketers. How many times have you seen people online promoting their product of business by saying “My company just launched! This is the best thing out there. Come and join NOW!“. Sorry, that doesn’t work. Why would we trust this person that we don’t? There is no compelling reason for us to join this opportunity. It would have been better for this person to provide some convincing content, maybe some information about what the product does, maybe some some insight of why it is better than anything else already out there. Anyway there are many way you can provide content to people.

1. Articles: As we saw earlier, article is  a good way to bring content to people. It can be on article website or on your blog. Keep publishing good information and people will thank you.
2. Videos: People love videos. This is to bring your marketing to the next level. Post you video on Youtube, Google Videos and many more. We will dedicate a complete post for this. We’ll make a listing for you to tap in. Stay in touch.
3. Podcast/Webinar: The ultimate step in bringing content is to create interaction with people. A podcast (sound only) or a webinar (video presentation) are both great ways to create your online presence and position yourself as a leader in your field.

3. Generate traffic

This last step will support the other two steps (and the other two steps will support this last step). It is simple. I am not saying it is easy, but simple. As long as you take little steps and promote, promote, promote, you will see momentum being build and if you have the content right, you will have good results. So, how do you promote?

1. Article/Video sharing: When you create a piece of content online, always redirect your reader to your website (your company or your own blog) for more information or for more content.
2. Social Networking: Give little baits on your facebook or myspace and create traffic.
3. Share with your peers: Contact fellow networkers and exchange ideas. You could even create joint ventures and do cross linking between different websites.
4. Bookmarking/Directories: Digg is a good start. I’ll create a post on Digg specially as it would be too long to fit in here. Subscribe to the RSS feed to stay in touch.
5. Forums: Find forums in your business topic and be active. DO NOT post your link right in your forum posts, this is spaming. Participate in the forum life, bring content (remember!) and put your link your forum signature. If you provide good informations, people will see you as an expert and will follow you.
6. PPC: The last resort in my opinion. You pay search engines to post adds redirecting to your page. Efficient and targeted but very expensive.

As you can see, there are three simple steps to become successful in this online attraction marketing model. As I always say, it is simple. Not easy, but simple. If you follow small and simple steps everyday, it will give you the Slight Edge.

How do I know all this? Simple, I followed the industry legend Mike Dillard recommendations and build my own Lead Generation funnel. Check it out yourself with this free 7-Day Video Boot Camp on how to attract new leads and customers to you.