Guest post by Stephanie

When I look at my email inbox, it’s so filled with internet MLM garbage that sometimes I just feel like flushing the whole thing down the virtual toilet. How many times can anyone read subject lines like these without going nuts?

“No Sweat Internet MLM Recruiting”
“Secrets of Massive Online MLM Duplication”
“Recruit Up to 58 People a Day in Your Internet MLM Business”

Puleeze! Granted, I am an online MLM fruitcake so I sign up for every MLM ebook, newsletter, and e-course out there. I really want to know what people are offering out there. I live for MLM knowledge of real value. Unfortunately, 99% of it is garbage.

But a lot of people aren’t like me. They also sign up for every scrap of online MLM information out there, but they do it out of desperation, not curiosity. First they sign up for one program that teaches how to make YouTube videos and Squidoo pages. They try it for 30 days, and then PANIC. “Oh my, it’s not working. I haven’t signed up 58 people per day. I’ve only signed up one person and they bailed on me.”

So they move on to the next internet MLM training program. This one teaches you how to do article marketing and Twitter. Thirty days later, the person has 5,362 followers on Twitter and 73 live articles, but still no signups. “Oh dear, it’s still not working. Next!”

And so it goes. Desperation fuels each decision to sign up for a new training program. At the end of this exhausting process, the person has tried Youtube, Squidoo, article marketing, forum marketing, blog marketing, website duplication, Facebook, Ning, and who knows what else. Their conclusion? None of it works. Internet MLM doesn’t work. MLM doesn’t work. They hate MLM, and despise internet MLM. Another one bites the dust.

If this sounds like the internet MLM training program you’re doing, I have one word for you:

STOP

Just stop. Don’t kill yourself. Don’t kill your sponsor. Don’t hate internet MLM.

3 Steps for Sanity in Internet MLM

Take a deep breath. Now take these 3 steps:

1. Pick a couple of internet MLM marketing techniques that suit your personality, whether it’s clowning on YouTube or writing deep thoughts for a blog.

2. Find the people who are doing that kind of marketing really well. Follow and learn from them. Note that they probably are not in MLM. For instance, the best bloggers are not MLMers.

3. Devote yourself to your selected marketing methods for at least a year.

You Want Me to Do What for How Long?
“A year?” you screech? Yes, a year. Unfortunately, all those training programs that claim you can get 58 signups a day give internet MLMers the wrong impression. Some people can get that many signups everyday, but those same people can also hit the top of their MLM pay scale in 30 days. They are the MLM freaks of the world. If you don’t want to kill yourself, don’t try to be like them.

Be reasonable. Would you expect to build a regular small business in 30 days? Probably not. An internet MLM business takes time to grow, like any other business. For example, it can take a couple of years to hit the hot list of blogs on Technorati. No kidding. But once you’re there, you are in fat city. People literally listen to everything you say.

So don’t fuel your business on desperation. Do pick a method and a couple of heroes. Follow that method with religious zeal. Not religious? Then just be consistent. Do what you do for a year without freaking out, and then stand back and see where you are.