Multi-Level Marketing Online – 5 Things To Know

What is Multi-Level Marketing?

With this type of online business you’d be a salesperson for an MLM company that sells physical or digital products. 

You’d make money by selling the company’s products but the big earnings come from recruiting other salespeople and getting a percentage of their sales, then a percentage of sales from the people your recruits recruit, and so on down the line.

Multi-Level Marketing is one of 19 types of online business and considered a Level X online business, according to our framework.

6 Levels and 19 Types of Online Business
Level 1 = Novice

Okay for side income or beer money, but hard to earn a living.

GetPaidTo
Contests

Level 2 = Intermediate

Best for earning a living online when you’re starting out, but hard to scale.

Remote Job
Freelance

Level 3 = Advanced

Easier to scale and higher income potential, but you usually need significant investment of time and/or money upfront.

Agency
Referral
Resale

Level 4 = Superior

Even more scalable and even higher income potential, but also more complex / difficult / expensive.

Authority
Digital Product

Level 5 = Distinguished

Most complex / difficult / expensive, but the rewards here can be massive.

Physical Product
Cloud Service
Marketplace
Social Network

Level X = Wildcard

These are the misfits. Many aren’t even considered businesses in the traditional sense, but they are all ways to make money online. You typically need a lot of time, money, or luck to succeed with anything here.

Trading
Investing
Esports
Betting
Gambling
Multi-Level Marketing









How can you make money online with multi-level marketing?

Unfortunately, it seems that making money with multi-level marketing is almost impossible.

There have been a number of studies and investigations into the earnings of MLM participants – Wikipedia has a handy list – and frankly they’re all quite discouraging.

The most recent, large-scale MLM income report I found was a 2018 survey by Magnify Money.

They surveyed 1,049 MLM participants and these were their key takeaways:

The hourly earnings of those surveyed worked out to a paltry $0.67 per hour:

Marsha here represents a typical MLM participant…

Marsha MLMMulti-Level Marketer $0.67 average hourly earnings



Pros and Cons of MLM Businesses






Possible – though very unlikely – to earn big money. Usually only happens if you get in early and can recruit well.Decent skill-building opportunities, especially in sales and marketing.





MLM companies are highly controversial and widely considered to be a scam.Almost impossible to earn a consistent living this way.Good chance you’ll spend more money than you earn.MLMers are often encouraged to sell to friends and family, which can make Christmas dinner kinda awkward.Many MLM companies encourage you to sell offline rather than online.






See how MLM compares to other types of online business



Is MLM a good way to earn a living online?

I wouldn’t recommend it.

The odds of making good money here are ridiculously low and, if you ask me, MLMs have too shady a reputation to risk associating yourself with them.

Full list of ways to make money online



Multi-Level Marketing Resources



The Multilevel Marketing Cults: Lies, Pyramid Schemes, and the Pursuit of Financial Freedom.
The below video by James Jani is a must-watch for anyone considering MLM…








Multilevel Marketing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Another video about MLM that’s worth a watch…