Vernita Sherman's Blog

Many people think that there is deference between network marketing and affiliate marketing, but they are really the same thing.  Network marketing is basically affiliate marketing with a multi- level commission structure.  With both marketing styles, you are selling other people’s products for a commission.

The main reason why people look at them as complete opposites is because network marketers tend to focus on recruiting, while affiliate marketers focus on selling a product.  The fact of the matter is, if network marketers would stop focusing so much on recruiting and use affiliate marketing techniques to sell products, they might see a little more success in their business.

On the other hand, if affiliate marketers were willing to teach a team of people what they know instead of keeping all the “secrets” to themselves, they might experience receiving 3x the income that they are getting now because of the commissions that they receive off of their downline’s efforts.

That said, not everyone cares for training people, especially when most new network marketers complain about not having enough money to get the tools they need to effectively  promote their business online.  This can be very frustrating and is one of the reasons why I left network marketing back in 2004 to experience affiliate marketing.  I said to myself that I don’t have time to waste with a bunch of cheap people who have a job mentality.  A job provides you with everything you need to get the job done, but with a business, you have to purchase the tools you need to make your business successful.  Many network marketers are not willing to purchase those tools, yet they actually expect to make some money.  My thing is, if you don’t have the money to invest in your business, then why start a business in the first place?

Another reason why I left network marketing is because you make more money per sale than with network marketing.  With affiliate marketing, your commission percentage is much higher (some are as high as 75%) compared to the under 20% network marketing commissions on products with a lower profit margin.  However, I later realized that affiliate marketing was not the best long term solution for me.

The problem with affiliate marketing is that you are all by yourself trying to make things happen.  You can make thousands of dollars, but no matter what you do, you have to continuously promote, promote, promote in order to keep the money rolling in.  The only way to really experience residual income with affiliate marketing is to create your own products and build an army of affiliates promoting your products for you.

With network marketing, you don’t have to create your own products for the highest residual income potential.  With network marketing all you have to do is recruit hard working coaching people, teach them your affiliate marketing and prospection strategies, and you will eventually have an army of people under you that are helping to increase your income.  Those little commissions over time become big commissions and can rival the checks of a super affiliate.  Of course there’s more to it than that, but the power of leverage from others is one of the reasons why I got back into the network marketing industry and why I only work with those who are serious about having their own profitable business.