Is Affiliate Marketing a Pyramid Scheme

For whatever reason people are looking for alternative ways of earning money whether it is because they are tired of the daily commute to and from work, or they are stuck in a job that they hate

But they stay because the income is needed, and people, need to supplement their income. I believe this reason is the most common.

But it does not matter what the reason is,  people are turning to the internet for the answer to this problem.

There are some excellent suggestions for ways to make money online. There are 2 ways that most people seem to gravitate towards most and one is what is called the pyramid or Multi-Level Marketing and affiliate marketing.

There seems to be a misconception that these two types of marketing are the same, so in this post, I will be taking a look at these two marketing methods, and find the differences if any.

Pyramid method/ MLM

The pyramid method is a single business transaction between two people. An offer is then made and if the offer is accepted, then the person that made the offer can make money selling this product.

For all sales made by the person who made the offer, and they will earn a commission for each sale and along with making sales, they will have to recruit others to sell the products.

For each additional person that is recruited by the person you recruited to sell the product or service, you will also get a  percentage of all the revenues they make as well.

And they will also get a commission if their recruits recruit others, and they make sales and this continues.

This creates a pyramid where there are different levels of supposed income potential.

The problem with this type of marketing.

The problem with pyramid marketing is they are generally misleading or fraudulent.

You are led to believe you can make a lot of money, but the truth is only the person on top of the overall pyramid will make a substantial amount of money, you may make a little money.

Are the time, effort, and money invested worth the money you make?

With pyramid marketing, you usually have to spend some money yourself in purchasing the product or service, which is usually compulsory in being a member of the pyramid company.

Also, the commission on the products is usually small, so the bulk of your income comes from your ability to recruit others, the more recruits you have to sell products, and recruiting others the more money you will make.

Consider the fact that most of the time you are asked to sell an unknown product to your friends and family first.

If this product was so great, why wouldn’t your marketing pitch work with the neighbors, and why don’t they already have whatever it is that is being sold if it is so great.

Affiliate Marketing

According to Wikipedia  Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts

In other words, affiliate marketing is where you agree to sell or endorse a product in exchange for a commission of any sales that you generate.

A company will typically give an individual a referral link, or some sort of unique identifier to keep track of how many sales were generated due to you referring a customer to the product.

This link is placed in your blog or to any content you may be using to promote the goods

The Difference Between Affiliate Marketing and MLM.

Affiliate marketing is different because the payment model is different, you get an agreed percent on any product sold through your promotions,

There is no purchase by you necessary, there are no fees to join and no recruiting.

Affiliate Marketing Is Legitimate (And is The Future Of Marketing)

There is a legitimate product that you are promoting on behalf of the company that makes the product. You are using nothing but your own experience or researching and endorsement of the product.

Think of it as promoting a product that will fill a need by those looking for something to fill a that will make their own lives easier, but you just happen to get paid as an incentive to do so more publicly.

Affiliate marketing is definitely the way of the future, as we see in society today the brick and mortar stores are closing, but most stores are keeping their online presence.

With the busy life of people, they are opting for having the convenience of shopping in the finest stores from the comfort of their homes.

And more stores are making it easier for shoppers, by offering early delivery in some cases the next day delivery, easy returns, in some cases tax-exempt, and free shipping.

So with all the explosion of online stores, there is a need for online marketers.  There are now over 4 BILLION people online as of 2019  and these people are going to search engines, social media, or visiting websites for help all the time.

Online marketing is one of the better ways of making money online, and while your success will happen overnight none the less it will happen, with work determination, consistency, and above all patience.

If you are looking for a change in career or a way of making some extra money to supplement your income I would recommend online marketing

Wealthy Affiliate

If you would like to give affiliate marketing a try I would recommend Wealthy Affiliate it is one of the leading training platforms and you can join for FREE that’s right free.

The Free membership has no expiration date and consists of 10 lessons which are phase one of our Online Entrepreneur course.

In phase 1 you will be taught how to choose your niche, build your website( which takes only 30 seconds) how to write content publish your post, and importantly setting up your site for affiliate links.

Wealthy Affiliate can teach anyone affiliate marketing and this platform is not only for beginners but is for all marketers from newbies to super affiliates.

Wealthy Affiliate has been in existence for 14 years and boasts a membership of 1+ million our membership is drawn from every continent.

Wealthy Affiliate Community

The membership at Wealthy Affiliate is very active in the community and you can find people online 24/7 as different timelines are represented.

Tech Support

Also, our wonderful Tech Support is available 27/7 and can be easily reached from your desktop, no outside calls no extra payment for help ( some platforms do charge for these services)

Premium Membership

There is also our premium membership this membership consist of a lot more information and tools that will assist you in reaching your goals

I would suggest you upgrade to a premium membership if you are really interested in making affiliate marketing a real earning tool.

But you can see for yourself, you can join for free build your website publish your content, and get the feel of it. If it’s something you would like to do then you can upgrade to premium,

The lessons are given via videos and these videos are there for you to revisit whenever you wish, you go at your own pace there is no rush, you set the pace.

I have left one of our training videos for you to see.

Phase 1 Lesson 6

You have nothing to lose in joining for free, there is no commitment to Wealthy Affiliate, you will not be asked for any information but your name and email address.

And this is not a scam Wealthy Affiliate is legitimate and is registered and accredited A+ with the BBB. You can become a member by clicking on any of the links in this post and I will meet you on the platform. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Thanks for stopping by hope this content was helpful to you, please leave your questions and comment and I will reply ASAP and remember to share.

NOTE:  This post includes affiliate links, which, if clicked on and a product purchased, I get a small commission (with no increase in cost to you).