Network Marketing fascinates me. If it didn’t I probably would have quit long, long ago. There is something about it that is simply addictive.. don’t you think?

What is it exactly? It’s hard to put your finger on.

It’s one of the toughest business models out there but still we cling to this concept of greatness through building a huge network.

Last week as you may recall from my ezine, Amateurs versus Professionals I attended a company convention and also had a special European leadership session with Randy Gage prior to the event which was by special invitation only. It got me thinking…

Randy is convinced that Attraction Marketing is devil’s spawn! This came as no surprise to me, as those of you who follow him know full well that he doesn’t mince words. With Randy it is his way or the highway.

That is actually what is so attractive about him. There is no room for doubt. He has complete conviction, the cheques and the success record to back up his philosophy. That is strong leadership that brings you back to the centre line.

During the leadership session he threw out a few acidic comments about Attraction Marketing and aimed them square at me. I shifted uncomfortably but looked him straight in the eyes. We laughed about it later as I know he wants only the best for me.

I am well aware that I manifested all of this because I dreamed of working with Randy Gage and his systems years before he even got back into a Network Marketing company.

Still..anyone would think I created Attraction Marketing. I mean come on Randy.. I am not Michelle Dillard!

Randy thinks that Attraction Marketing is ‘bullshit’ and that lots of the online gurus are just mining the minors. (When you think that apparently there was more money made in the Gold Rush from the selling of shovels and levi jeans, than from the gold itself this is obviously a good business to be in!

Anyway it got me to thinking again as I so often do about this online and offline MLM puzzle or conundrum.

I have never said that online MLM is the only way to go because right from the get go I have been very aware of the advantages of building MLM with a traditional (but smart step-by-step) business plan.

Not ever doing fliers again though guys!

I’ve never begged my prospects to join or cried when they said no. (At least not in a long, long time) In previous posts I have written about much of the online nonsense that is going on as newbie network marketers try to figure out what to do, and spam our profiles.

Randy Gage and Eric Worre teach professional network marketing at its very best. Duplication and creating massive organizations that are built to last is their speciality.

Hence they have no time for the latest internet gimmicks and create an army of distributors who know exactly what to do.

Attraction Marketing and Internet Network Marketing on the other hand can get very complicated. By its very nature your people are all doing different things. This makes duplication very, very challenging. (If you didn’t read my story and why I created my own Attraction Marketing system yet, you can download my free Attraction Marketing e-book here)

I do love working online and bring in some great people this way. But you have to have a real business plan for them to get started fast with your company or team.

They then add in online marketing to the mix if they want to.

Going online straight away is awesome if you are experienced and already have a network circle to contact online. For some, especially younger people it is easy to get their heads around driving traffic to their web page. For others who barely know how to get their own domain name, it can be a very slow process.

Personally I advocate doing what you love and what makes sense for your personal circumstances. I for instance live in a very remote location and because of the internet have been able to enrol people from all over the world. Pretty exciting hey?

That being said I have some advanced internet skills and have created an excellent online marketing funnel that does a lot of the work for me.

If I lived in London I probably would do more local networking, so you see how it’s best to create your plan around your skill-set and your life as it is now. (That being said I have done so much local networking in my MLM career and I know the power of it)

I could go on. There’s so much here to elaborate on in another post but enough is enough. You guys are busy and short is better than long these days.

In closing I’m finding myself wondering how many of the Attraction Marketing gurus are really building an MLM downline?

I’ve always done the business with a mix of on and offline because the tools I have access to with my team are way too good to ignore for warm market.

There are many though who claim that they can do it all online. Network Marketing is about people and relationships so whilst I agree that A LOT can be done online with technology, I also know that meetings make money, cement relationships and build belief.

I see the transformation that happens to our team members when they attend events, especially major ones.

I do however LOVE online lead generation and for me it has always been about being able to teach people what to do to attract more prospects once they have been through their warm list.

In my experience most people are open to working their warm list if you give them realistic expectations and quality business tools to do it with.

Where it all falls down (I find) is when you have nothing else to teach them after that. It can be very challenging to meet enough NEW people to do another ‘major blast’ or create enough continued momentum and first line recruiting.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. It seems to me that the roles have been reversed.

The die-hard online network marketers (the Renegades and the Magnetics) who refuse to do any offline marketing have long accused MLM uplines such as Randy Gage and Dani Johnson, of doing one thing but teaching another.

Funded proposals and affiliate marketing are amazing and I have generated a lot of income with them but they do distract people from building their MLM cheque unless they have a systemized approach to it and really understand it.

In a strange irony it seems to me as though the shoe is now on the other foot. The MLM leaders who have built huge downlines with person to person and warm market lists are now calling out the online gurus as doing one thing and teaching another!

Are Attraction Marketers for the most part just selling online affiliate courses and losing sight of the MLM dream?

When you figure that the big players in Attraction Marketing such as Mike Dillard and Mike Klingler are no longer building the MLM model…

Ann Sieg is in MLM but has a huge business with affiliate marketing…

Jonathan Budd is a big player but again I don’t know how much of his earnings published on MLM authority sites are actually from his MLM.

Perhaps Randy Gage has a good point.

What do you think? Leave your comments on the blog. I know this is a heated subject for many so please show respect!

p.s Every name I have mentioned in this blog has been of tremendous value to me in building my business and I in no way which to discredit any of them. They all bring incredible leadership and training to Network Marketing with their own unique style.