There seems to be an ever increasing number of "Downline
Builders" popping up on the Internet. Likewise there has
been also a steady rise in the number of online "Multi-level"
marketing programs. And why not! The Internet is an ideal
marketing medium. It is cheaper than the way we used to
market five or six years ago when I was involved in them
by mailing to prospects through regular postal mail.
Plus back then you also had printing and envelope costs
too!

In the last couple of years the downline builders have
become popular as a way to recruit people for one or
more programs. What is a downline builder program?

I want to say right up front that I am not against
downline builders or MLM programs, they are great ways
to build income. But you have to go into them with a
certain amount of knowledge of how they work.

Basically the downline builder is a marketing plan in
which prospects are placed after signing up. The
organizational structure of the plan varies from program
to program. It can be a straight line organization i.e.,
one person right under each other or it can be two on the
first level, four on the second, eight on the third, etc.
There are so many different ways to set it up it would be
difficult to describe them all here. Many of them will
be set up in the structure that the primary program is,
the one you will end up going into at some point.

The primary concept of the downline builder is to build
a downline before going into a primary income producing
program, thus minimizing your initial marketing costs.
It is also hoped that this downline, as it is built, will
at some point follow you into the income producing program.

No matter the structure, the downline builders are
normally FREE. That is what draws so many people into
them initially. The promotional material for most of
them indicates that you can make X income a month or
year by joining up. What many people fail to realize
is that they are not going to make any money by just
being a member of the downline builder itself.

The downline builder is free so there is no income
generated with it. The promoters aren't going to pay you
out of the goodness of their heart, especially when there
are thousands of people involved. At some point in the
downline builder process you are going to be asked to join
some income producing program. This is where you are
going to have to make a commitment in most cases to a
monthly payment for some type of product. This is a
critical point in the process and is where "the rubber
meets the road" as they say.

It is at this point where there can be a very large
dropout rate of people in your downline who are not
going to pay $25 or $50 a month to join the main program.
Up to this point the program was free. You could have
300 members under you and less than two or three percent
might stay in with you. When these people drop out, in
most cases the holes will be filled by those further
down but the process will keep repeating itself. Again,
I am not against the process, I just want to point out
that it can be frustrating to you if you don't have a
realization that it could occur and if you went into it
thinking you would make a quick buck you may be twice
as frustrated. It will take patience!

Here are some tips that you should consider...

-- Before you join a free downline builder, check it out.
Identify the primary program or programs that you will
have to join down the line in order to start building an
income.

-- What is the product or products? Are they the type
products you want to be involved with, want to use or sell?

-- How much is it going to cost you per month before you
get into profit? I saw one popular online program the other
day and the ultimate income program was a nutritional
program in which you had to purchase over $75 in product
each month. Find that out up front so there are no
surprises later on.

And whatever you do don't join a downline building program
where you don't know what the final primary program will be.
You don't want to spend a lot of resources building your
downline over several months only to find out that you
can't afford the product or don't like the product!

Remember, the downline builder is just a stepping stone,
normally into a network marketing or multi-level marketing
program (both the same). You are not going to make your
income in the free downline builder, that comes with the
income producing program later on which you will have to
pay for. Look them over carefully and make an informed
decision when you do join one.

Joe Reinbold, webmaster of The Entrepreneur's Home Business
Link publishes a free weekly email newsletter "Home Income
Quarterly E-dition" which is dedicated to assisting online
marketers. For a free subscription just
mailto:subscribe@homebizlink.com or visit his site at
http://www.homebizlink.com