Are you looking into multi-level marketing as a way to generate extra income or as a vehicle to get you out of your regular job? Or, maybe you are already in a MLM company seeking financial freedom, wondering why you are not advancing like you were told? Many people are now looking at various home business options to replace their dead end jobs.

The question I have for you is this, how many people have been able to become financially free with these systems? The nature of MLM requires that you recruit huge numbers of people because it usually involves a lot of people buying a bunch of $20 to $100 products every month to see the kind of residual income needed to replace your job. And building a more substantial income requires recruiting large numbers of people, who stay on and continue to purchase products.

And with most companies, after you burn through your 'warm market' looking for people to recruit, you are basically done, unless you are the person who can approach virtually everyone you come in contact with. Actually, I knew someone who was good at this, but it was still not enough for him to build a large enough downline to create income freedom.

The few at the top of the system are the ones who really stand to benefit. All they really care about is bringing in distributors who buy products. If you do build a bit of a downline, that's great, they still of course benefit from the multiple level pay system. Most top leaders are not too motivated to help you individually as they benefit from those who happen to stick in the system, no matter who brings them in. In other words, you are helping them find customers to earn over-rides on, even if you quit, some of your recruits may remain as paying customers. Many of the leaders are just looking to you to bring in a fresh group of names to tap into. This is why most call it "A Numbers Business".

So, what usually happens is that this upline leader does very little to help you build your business, except tell you to write up your 'warm market list' and contact them all. Now if you have never done this before, you may be eager to tell everybody you know about the hot new thing you are involved with. But for those who have gone this route more than once as you have moved from company to company looking for the one with the magic, it becomes a tough thing to do. And yet, this is still the primary marketing method taught by most company leaders and uplines.

Lack of real marketing strategies for you to get people to look at the opportunity leaves you groveling around and maybe even wasting money on marketing efforts without any clear advice or direction. Now I'm not specifically blaming any leader for not knowing advanced marketing strategies, they probably have not been taught any either!

And product systems which require a downline of thousands all purchasing every month to generate any kind of substantial income. There are MLM companies who are proud of their top people making $25,000 in a year. Now this might be a nice supplement to your income, but hardly what I would consider financial independence. And the companies who can boast some high earners usually only have a few, then the income numbers drop off fast to a few thousand a year at best.

With most MLM companies, building a business is much like transporting water with a sieve. If you keep adding enough in the top and you carry it fast enough, some will remain for you to save. If the majority of the people, which they do, drop off shortly after their warm market is burned through you will loose far more than you keep. So rather than truly investing in helping an individual build a business, most leaders are looking for whatever sticks from the latest warm list.

My suggestion is to study the business model a company operates in. Take a careful look at the systems they have in place that are intended to assist with your success. Find out how they market and help you learn to market so that you can actually build a viable business, 'warm market' is not a viable long term strategy. What are the products, how much do they cost and how much will you make. And even more important, how many people will you need to bring in to actually see a substantial income?

Now, the networking aspect of this kind of business is sound, people sharing something they see as having value with others. This is essentially word of mouth, which is an age old powerful human characteristic. There are other business models under the umbrella of the network marketing concept which are more powerful and effective than MLM, which I will address in another article.