Service Marketing

This book is a review of the often controversial concept of Network Marketing, also known as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) and how you can succeed by selling related products and services. If you are starting out with a home-based business, then you have probably already heard about this form of marketing and how it may work to help you build wealth. The author gives a good introduction concerning the origins of the Network Marketing craze, reviewing many of the big name companies who were the forerunners of this business model. From Amway to Mary Kay Cosmetics, you will learn about the inside of how Network Marketing/MLM works and how you may benefit as a home-based business owner.

Doing business is about sales and the author does a great job of explaining the origins of sales and how Network Marketing was born out of time-tested sales models. Although it died down significantly following landmark court cases of the 1990’s, with the advent of the Internet, Network Marketing has risen again and is creating many new and exciting ways of making a living. The old models of Network Marketing have evolved into many avenues that even a new inexperienced home-based business owner can take advantage of. The author does a good job of providing ideas that any start-up business owner can use to tap into this market, both online and offline with carefully managed techniques.

One of the biggest benefits of reading “The Secrets to Succeeding in Network Marketing”, by Jonathan T. Street, is the section on setting up a home office. This information is invaluable as the new business-owner may not know where to start, what equipment is needed to work from a virtual office and how to avoid the pitfalls of working from home.

On to the “secrets” section of the book, there is an excellent overview of many programs that are available to help a home-based business owner earn the capital to make their business successful. Topics such as building websites, blogging, and pay per click programs are discussed. There is even information about increasing traffic to one’s website by using search engine optimization techniques and how to earn revenue from Google’s Adword program. By following the tips offered in this book, a savvy business owner will be earning substantial revenue in no time. For anyone just trying to build a residual income, this book is worth looking at and using as reference over and over again.

Rating: 4 / 5

For those struggling in today’s economy, the promise of a career in network marketing might seem too good to be true. In his book, The Secrets to Succeeding in Network Marketing Offline and Online: How to Achieve Financial Success Selling Network Marketing Products & Services, Jonathan T. Street outlines the steps necessary for one to get into legitimate network marketing. He delineates the differences between pyramid schemes and true, legal network marketing in terms that the average person can understand.

Street notes that the dawn of the Internet has changed network marketing in staggering ways. “Network marketing and MLM (multi-level marketing) have their roots in the oldest type of sales, direct, face-to-face selling,” he says. “In fact, most business transactions throughout history have resulted from this type of selling.” That has changed due to the Internet, however. As Street describes, “The face-to-face aspect of network marketing has been replaced by screen-to-screen selling…Efficiency and targeted marketing has replaced the older methods of advertising in newspapers, flyers, by word of mouth, and through direct mailing programs.”

Street’s book includes direct quotes from the General Counsel for the United States Federal

Trade Commission, Debra A. Valentine, describing the differences between legitimate network marketing and illegal pyramid, or Ponzi, schemes. She notes that, unlike Ponzi or pyramid schemes, network marketing or MLM have a real, valid product to sell. Street lists network marketing success stories, such as Amway and Mary Kay, and points out to the reader the qualifications necessary for success in network marketing, including the 70% rule, buy back policy, and 10 retail customer policy.

However, in the next part of Street’s book, he gets into website building, domain names, and what seems like too much information for one book. It would have been better to make the first half of Street’s book, on network marketing, the entire focus of this book, and leave the rest of the chapters concerning website building, domain names, self-publishing, and blogging, for another tome. In this way, there wouldn’t be too much overwhelming information thrown at the reader.

All in all, Street’s book is a detailed explanation of the ins and outs of network marketing. It could be improved, however, by breaking down the sections about how to use the Internet in one network marketing business into a book of its own.
Rating: 4 / 5