Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 20 years, the MLM industry is plagued with accusations of underhanded sales techniques shoddy tactics and dishonest representatives.

As we have said before this is due to the early MLM/Network marketing companies of the 1980's and early 1990's.

They darkened the door to MLM, in its very infant years, with underhanded sales techniques evasive answers and downright lack of integrity.
How many times have you presented your opportunity to a potential prospect, only to have them rile back with a look of contempt and uninterested body language. If you are really lucky, you will hear the never-ending statement, with a down leering smirk 'So what you are trying to flog me is Amway? Right'

Before we have said that Amway is a good network-marketing model, this is still true. Unfortunately, the damage done by their affiliates are still being felt today.
If you have cold prospects, that did not go looking for you in the first place, you cannot expect a better outcome. If the prospects have not sought you out, then they are also going to be totally uniformed about the industry as a whole. These people will simply follow the flow so to speak, and only hear the bad reputation and feeling the MLM/Network business has.
The industry has never really bounced back from the shocking blows it did receive in the formative years.

Do not despair all is by no means lost, if you are new to the MLM business. There are more than ever before a multitude of high demand products and services being offered by reputable companies all over the world. These same companies offer outstanding rewards and benefits to their distributors. Systems have had time to develop and be improved upon, the income stream programs of today are the most powerful models the industry has seen. People now more than ever are making huge incomes.

You only have to watch what the 'Global Marketers are looking at' Corporate identities are linking them selves to 'Network Marketing' people such as my mentor Sir Richard Branson 'Virgin'. Celebrities are getting involved and indorsing MLM products; Michael Schumacher for one is promoting the virtues of MLM. The problem we are faced with every day is lack of education; this is also not really the consumers fault.

Look at our market place, the Internet I am referring to hear. It is rife with pyramid frauds, broken promises, down right lies. There are people with a great deal of money perpetuating this problem, on the internet with powerful sales techniques and money to burn, still every day people are being sucker punched into the dead end. These programs are normally easily spotted, but still do a great deal of harm to the Legitimate MLM/Network market industry.

Again I bring up my point that if, pay per email was introduced it would greatly clean the industry. Pay per email brings accountability, how fast would they all disappear if an email cost 0.20c to send. This is a win win situation. The customer wins, because the swamp of spam will stop, they also will be presented with opportunity copy that has come from an accountable source, and they had to pay to send it. No one is going to send out 500,000 emails costing 0.20c each $100,000 cost. Straight away real add copy testing ill be needed on the net. We have spoken much about the need to test copy.
The affiliate wins by consumers being far more open to what you have to offer, because they are not being bombarded with junk mail. We are making huge in rows into markets that have not been subject to the same barrage of 'spam' that the current market place has.

We are presented with an interesting problem. We have always spoken about 'Image is everything' we have a broken image a perception problem. How is this still happening? Network marketing industry as a whole is a working model, billions of dollars every year in product sales, affiliates becoming rich every year and millions of satisfied consumers. So we cannot blame the industry can we? We have to start looking at the people involved in the industry.

It is a sad statement that there are a high percentage of un ethical people involved in network marketing, they tend to congregate around the lesser programs. These are the people that are the rot at the core of our upstanding industry. For they do not care if the program has good products, or a sound residual income program. Their only concern is how to market this opportunity to get the money out of you. We must lose these operators from our radar. We are being hurt from bad operator of past and still being hurt from new scammers.

We are not the first to have an image problem. Industries since the beginning of the industrial revolution industries had been faced with image problems. Right now, we have McDonalds spending millions of dollars trying to change public perception of them. You only have to look at the petroleum companies working hard to change their image, because they want to be at the forefront of their industry as the world's energy requirements and technologies change.

Let us turn the attention back on what maters us the MLM industry, Amway was plagued with lawsuits in the US brought about by unhappy consumers and affiliates. Amway were accused of many things ranging from operating with intent to deceit, to exploitation of lower affiliate ranks. They were ridiculed on their rigid system and business practises. Most people that joined Amway in the early 1980's and 1990 has left including me, with a rather unpleasant taste in ones mouth. This did untold damage to our industry. What did Amway do about this? They completely overhauled their organisation. They took to heart what their affiliates were doing, with hard sale tactics, deception, and dishonesty. These tactics are never well received in today's more educated consumer market. Amway cannot be help accountable completely for what there affiliates were doing while out of their control.

You see it is in most cases the affiliates them selves that are doing and can do the most damage to our industry. How quick is the media to expose yet another fraud fleecing the public of their hard earned? How often do you see the same media exposing how network marketing has changed the lives of countless people? Alternatively, how some of the products are unique in their health benefits. We know we have the best products, services, and residual income business model! When was the last time you saw on mass media how MLM had changed someone's life?

Perception is a hard thing to change, it can haunt us through school, university and beyond, tarnish what people think of you and you ay be in for a hard road ahead. When this is connected to an industry, it can be fatal. The public is fickle it will change its opinion at the drop of a hat if it does not like what this company, organisation, government. Companies once strong have been brought down by mere public opinion. The larger the company the more subjectable they are to this by their mere public profile.
Large corporations have been implementing more and more consumer relation channels because they know; if you do not listen to your consumer, you will not get the chance to hear from them again. There is even a register of reputation 'Reputex' they measure factors including social acceptance, corporate responsibility, business ethics and sustainability. This alone shows the importance of image and public perception.

So what do we do? We are trying to do our bit, partly by returning to promote 'Network Marketing' and to create a support home for affiliates. It is our goal to educate as many people on the virtues of 'Network Marketing'. It is our companies standing to supply a support network for network marketers, where they can learn true ethical marketing values and techniques. Where they are supplied customised advertising copy that has real world testing, free. Where they can contact real support personnel, when they are lost and de-motivated. Where they can build a support network with their fellow counterparts in other lands. Where they can learn to promote MLM business opportunities in a concise ethical manner.

Network marketing is the way forward, there is no doubt in that, every year billions of dollars of products are bought, and affiliates lives are made wealthy exciting and financially free. Our industry offers some of the biggest give a-ways know to man from houses, to cars, to home goods and more. The tools are there to promote your business in an exciting and believable ethical manner. There is no need for cheap tactics in this business; the life changing proof is everywhere. It is up to you the affiliate to stop promoting dodgy products, and using un-necessary sales techniques.

Network marketing is in my opinion easy to build, you are offering people financial freedom, and if you need the tools to help you visit us, we will train you to become a top earning network marketer. We believe in network marketing to such a degree we give every affiliate one free paid member every month until they have built there business to a point where they can teach the next person.

If we as a collective strive to teach the new correct duplication, marketing, business ethics and training. We are destined to reach dizzying heights this business has never yet witnessed. A completely new world is about to be born! Make sure you are there with the forethought to bring about change to this bright new time of Internet Marketing.

Think about this next time you are presenting your opportunity to your prospect, take comfort in the fact that if they are not interested in your plan, after showing them concrete proof of how MLM is changing peoples lives every day. Feel warm at the fact you do have the perfect income opportunity and it is only the ignorance of people, not willing to re-evaluate their pre conceived ideas that ultimately is only going to hold them back.

Market your business with ethics and give your prospects relevent honest information, offer them a solution to their problems, this will make your network grow faster than you can keep up with the welcome letters.