When people first start looking into Internet Marketing they typically don’t know the difference between Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing or why one might be better than the other. Let’s get the definitions out of the way first.

Affiliate Marketing

…is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards its affiliates for each sale they bring to the company. More and more companies are learning how integrating an affiliate program into their website can save them tens of thousands of dollars a month in advertising costs by having literally hundreds of affiliates advertise their products or services for them. The best part is the business doesn’t pay anything until after a sale occurs.

Network Marketing

…is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of the other salespeople (distributors) that they recruit. This recruited sales force is referred to as the participant’s downline and can provide multiple levels of compensation.

In comparison, Affiliate Marketing earns income on each sale that YOU, the Affiliate, are responsible for. With Network Marketing you not only earn commissions on sales that you are responsible for but you also earn commissions on sales made by your entire downline.

With Affiliate Marketing you must continue to make new sales in order to earn commissions. Network Marketing offers something much more appealing called Residual Income (also referred to as Passive Income). Residual income is income earned by doing the work one time but getting paid for that work month after month. For example, you recruit a new distributor who places an Autoship purchase. You as the Sponsor would earn commissions that first month and every month after that for as long as that person continues to pay for their autoship products. You only had to do the work one time, yet you continue to get paid from that work every month thereafter.

Affiliate Marketing does have its advantages, too. For one, you don’t have to recruit anyone. You also don’t have to commit to a company and a monthly purchase yourself which means you can start promoting affiliate products and earn commissions with very little or no startup costs.

So which is better to start off with? Affiliate Marketing or Network Marketing?

Before we can answer that question you need to first understand the importance of having a list. Having a list means you have people who subscribe to your newsletter or email updates. These are people who voluntarily subscribe because they want to receive emails from you with quality content related to your niche, which in this case is Internet Marketing.

For every internet marketer, your list is your most valuable asset. The bigger your list, the more money you make. No list means no money, or very little money.

If you are just starting out in the internet marketing industry you won’t have a list yet. Many people have been trying to earn online for years and still don’t have a list yet. Personally, I was one of those people who ignored this golden rule for 3 years when I first got started. It wasn’t until my 4th year that I finally woke up and started devoting a portion of every day to
building my list. Then and only then did my online income begin to grow.

Successful Affiliate Marketers only make money because they have a list. Putting 2 and 2 together, you should now have your answer. If you are new to internet marketing and don’t have a list then it would be virtually impossible to make enough money using Affiliate Marketing to satisfy you.

With Network Marketing you don’t have to have a list to get started or to build a significant monthly income. You can and should concentrate on learning as many effective traffic and lead generation methods as you can and as you are promoting your network marketing company, make sure you are always capturing the name and email address for any visitors to your site who are interested enough to get more information about your network marketing opportunity. Your business will grow, your income will grow, and your list will grow.

You should also plan on spending a portion of every day just working on building your list. Just 20-30 minutes a day can grow your list by 5 to 25 subscribers every day.

Then when your list reaches 1000 or more, you will have a separate income stream through Affiliate Marketing that is almost like having a money printer. With one email to your list you can quickly earn a few hundred dollars. Imagine how fast your network marketing business will grow then. If you had a $1000+ monthly advertising budget there is no stopping you. This is the strategy that every internet marketer should learn and use.

Don’t expect to earn 5 figures a month right away. It took me years to reach that level of income. You will get there though if you use this strategy and treat your IM business as a business and not a hobby. With the right network marketing opportunity you can have a nice monthl residual income in 6 months or less. It won’t take that long to build your list up enough to start making some extra money with Affiliate Marketing. Between the two you could easily make $5000 to $8000 a month within 6 months.

My Recommendations For You:

Find a good network marketing opportunity and get started right away. Commit to it, build it, and learn as much as you can every day. There are several things to look for in a good MLM opportunity. While startups can be quite lucrative, they are also somewhat risky, so it is wiser to find a company that’s been in business for a while. It’s also important to have some kind of marketing system available that includes at least one good capture page. Most MLM companies do not provide much in the way of marketing systems.

My primary network marketing company is Sisel International. But I never promote Sisel directly. I use Global Income Alliance, which is a feature packed marketing system that takes care of 90% of the marketing tasks for me, such as the business presentation, automated follow up, and it even includes a Call Center where real people call my prospects and close sales for me. Sisel has been in business for 8 years, is debt free, has over 150 in-demand products to choose from, and their compensation plan pays a whopping 67% of all revenues. The industry standard is 35-49%.

If you have a good marketing system then while you are promoting your MLM business you will be passively building your list at the same time. Not everyone who visits your website will be interested in that particular opportunity but if you are capturing their contact information then you have an almost unlimited opportunity to sell them on something else. Maybe a good affiliate product that teaches them how to build their list!

Find some products or articles on list building techniques and never underestimate the importance of building your list. I am always building my list. My list today is over 60,000 subscribers. If I need some extra advertising money or need a quick $500 or $1000 to buy something I want, it’s just a matter of finding a good affiliate product and sending an email to my list. Subscribe to my blog here as I will always offer tips and recommendations related to list building.

My hope is that I have touched some people with this article and provided the stepping stones that you need to achieve a level of success that you may have thought was not possible until now. If you get anything good out of this article please comment below and share or Like this using the social media buttons on your left.