Network VS Affiliate Marketing: Which Will You Adopt This Year To Increase Your Income?

One of the easiest ways to make money online is through network or affiliate marketing.This is because network or affiliate marketers don’t create any products or services. You promote the products or services of companies through any means available to you. And if you make a sale from your promotion efforts your reward is a percentage of the profits.

How much percentage of the profit, you ask?

Well, ExpelMLM software estimates that in 20Omar Salazarmade an annual income of $19,200,000for network marketing organizationXIFRA.

And according to PayScale, theaverage annualaffiliate marketing passive income is $51,217. The bottom 10% of affiliate marketers earn $37,000.00and the top 10% earn $71,000.

In this post, I’ll provide you with the key differences between network and affiliate marketing. So that you can decide which model to adopt to increase your income this year.

A busy-cash-and-time-strapped undergraduate will enjoy these promotion models. Fresh graduates can start earning income from these business opportunities. And of course, any 9 to 5 worker that wants to one day escape the rat race of paid employment will enjoy this blog post.

In this post we will cover:

What network marketing and affiliate marketing is?
The history of network and affiliate marketing.
Terms related to network and affiliate marketing.
How to join network and affiliate marketing organizations.
The pros and cons of network and affiliate marketing.
Examples of network and affiliate marketing organizations.
Useful resources for network and affiliate marketing.

Let's begin……

What are Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is an advertising model where third-party publishers create traffic or leads to the company’s products and services in exchange for compensation.

But network marketing is a marketing method thatleverages on an individual’s personal networkto grow a business or sell a product.

By implication, you don't need to create products/services from scratch . You promote and sell products that are already created

So How Did Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing Come About?

I’m glad you asked that question. It's always good to have a little appetizer before the main meal.

So in 1990 an online flower shop owner, William J Tobin, set up the first affiliate program for the web.

After his shop, PC Flowers and Gifts went live in 1989, it soon floated its novel marketing approach. Two years later it was generating millions of sales per year. By 1995 it had 2,500 affiliates from all over the web.

The history of network marketing is a little less straightforward. Avon (then California Perfume Company) claims to launch the first network marketing model.

Another company Wachters,(a sea vegetable supplements firm) also lays claim to launching this marketing model first.

But it was the supplement company, Nutrilite (then called California Vitamin Company) that achieved international fame in network marketing when it won a landmark court case in 1979.

Important Industry Terms to Know

Every industry has its own jargon - specific terms for that industry. Knowing these terms will increase your knowledge of the industry.

Affiliate marketing is also called referral marketing. In referral marketing, third-party contractors are affiliates or publishers. The company that pays the affiliates are advertisers. And the network where both advertiser and affiliate coexist is an affiliate network.

The unique link that affiliates use to promote the advertisers products is theaffiliate link or tracking link. And the share of the sale that an affiliate gets when someone buys through their unique link is the affiliate commission.

Network marketing is often referred to as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) or direct selling. The person who markets and sells the product and services of an MLM company is a distributor.

A new member recruited under a distributor is a downline. While the recruiting distributor is the upline.

All the downline members together with a distributor form a tree-like structure known as genealogy.

The commission paid to a distributor based on him and his team's activities is a compensation plan.

Anyone saying "affiliate marketing is dead" just doesn't understand anything about business. If trade exists in the world, then affiliate marketing will always exist right with it. And trade can't die unless you want to kill the entire world economy. - Toyin Omotosho

So How Does One Get His/Her Foot Through The Door?

Top affiliate marketer Sean Ogle list the five steps to register for an affiliate marketing programme

You find a product you want to promote
Do a search for the “product name” affiliate program. If it’s on Amazon, you can also promote it
Sign up for their affiliate program
You get a special link that allows the merchant to track the people who clicked your link
If they buy the product, you get a commission.

Registering for a network marketing company is much easier. The steps are

Do a search for network marketing (or Multi level marketing) companies
Pick an MLM company that matches your interest. Interest in this case could be product types, compensation plans or network structure.
Get, fill and return the company's registration form. Registration levels differ. So choose the level that you are most comfortable with.
Pay for the products for that level.
Get products and other company marketing material.

“More and more companies will choose to use Network Marketing because it fits the New Economy. They can provide all the corporate support and pay distributors on a purely performance basis to promote their products. It’s extremely efficient because in the New Economy, word-of-mouth advertising continues to work better than any other form of promotion. The company can just take the money they would have spent on advertising and promotion and pay it to their distributors to spread the word.” Eric Worre, Go Pro - 7 Steps to Becoming A Network Marketing Professional

The Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing

Now to the meat of this post.

The meat is...

..... ‘a breakdown of what makes both concepts attractive to undergrads, graduates, or 9 -5 workers looking for a profitable side hustle’

For balance, the downsides of the two concepts are also highlighted

Network marketing and affiliate marketing share a lot of the similarities listed below:

Both are easy low-cost, low investment ways of starting a business. As you don't have to create a new product or service

Both are marketing methods deployed by companies to sell products or render services.

Both allow you to leverage the company's reputation and resources to sell products or render services.

Both allow you to set your working hours. You don't have to clock in and clock out from a physical or virtual location.

Both encourage (and/or) teach third-party staff to develop high-income skills like digital marketing, and sales.

Both rely on third parties (or contractors) to help them generate sales.

Both compensate their third-party staff with a share of sales made as a commission.

No formal training or qualification is needed to operate either marketing model.

The basic tools for carrying out marketing activities are a laptop or phone and stable internet.

They are but some core differences between the two:

In network marketing, you enjoy continuous mentorship opportunities from your upline. But Affiliate marketers work alone.

Affiliate marketers receive commission only for products that they sell. Whereas network marketers receive commissions from products sold by their downlines.

Network marketers also enjoy other bonuses based on their (or teams') performance. Affiliate marketers don't.

Entry into an affiliate program is free. But a network marketer registration ties to buying a certain number of products.

Affiliates don't have to recruit or train other affiliates to receive bonuses. Network marketers must recruit and train new distributors to get some bonuses and grow.

The job of an affiliate is to promote and sell products. A network marketer has to promote and sell products, as well as recruit and train new members.

There are no entry or exit levels in affiliate marketing. There are entry and exit levels in network marketing.

Affiliate marketers can not own shares in the company they work for. Network marketers can.

As regards the downsides of network and affiliate marketing

Both take time to build. You need time to grow your presence online, or to grow your network.

For network marketing there is a lot of rejection involved. People that can't deal with rejection can give up.

Also for network marketing, some sponsors suck at mentoring. They will sign you up and ghost you. Leaving you alone and to fend for yourself.

Sales by affiliate marketers are usually one-off (unless for subscription packages). In network marketing, you can sell many times to the same person.

Examples of network marketing companies and companies that offer affiliate programmes

A lot of companies adopt either of these business models for promotion and sales.

Companies like Amway,

Jeunesse,

Natura cosmetics,

LG household & health,

Longrich Bioscience etc

are among the top 40 network marketing companies in the world.

Top affiliate marketing programmes are offered by these companies

GiddyUp

DFO global

Amazon

Clickbank

Expertnaire

These lists are by no means exhaustive. A google search will reveal hundreds of affiliate programmes and network marketing companies

But before you jump headlong into any of the marketing models it will be a good idea to learn more.

Recommended books on network marketing:

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

Go Pro by Eric Worre

Your First Year in Network Marketing by Mark Yarnall.

Books on affiliate marketing:

Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day by Evgenii Prussakov

Affiliate Marketing: Learn How to Make Your First $1000 Passive Income Online by Ray Hamilton

Affiliate Marketing: Proven Step By Step Guide To Make Passive Income With Affiliate Marketing by Mark Smith

Affiliate Marketing: The Beginner’s Step By Step Guide To Making Money Online With Affiliate Marketing (Passive Income, Affiliate Marketing, Blogger, Small Business Ideas, Financial Freedom Book) by Kevin Ulaner