Take a day, any day, and do a search on network marketing or multi-level marketing and you’ll find what is termed Outrageous marketing methods being employed.

Using shock and awe to get you to click on the ad, where you’ll find the statements like these:

Are you tired of Old School Marketing Methods! You know the 3 foot rule, hanging flyers, bugging your friends and family, hotel meetings etc…

Or how about “Only Suckers Buy Leads” yet, the individual is spending a fortune on pay-per-click ads to do just that…

…And when that doesn’t work the way it was sold there off to the next piece of advice…

…Endlessly tweeting the same advertisement over and over again. If I see, one more tweet about the Trump network I think I’m going to puke.

Talk about a return on your investment. I guess it just goes to prove their time isn’t worth much.

And, when it comes to network marketers, it seems they would rather buy a dream than pursue reality.

Think about it just because someone wrote and e-book that tells you to stop chasing your friends and family…

…Would it not have been better to buy the e-book that gave you the insight into how to identify which of your friends and family would make either customers or business partners?

But, alas since they couldn’t figure it out they want you believe that you cannot as well!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, which I’m sure you haven’t maybe you’ve noticed that during this great recession one company has continued to generate record profits one quarter after another.

They are the underdog out there in this field and yet they’ve taken on a much larger competitor head on…

…What is leading them to this success is “Old School Marketing Methods!” And, it’s not that their products are any better. In fact the big dog has better products!

So unless you prove to yourself, after you’ve given it everything you’ve got never discount old style marketing methods. They are built on relationships and trust.

News from this past week was not good for MLM – Network Marketing generally. We are often lumped into pyramid schemes that have noting to do with us.

Yet, it seems every that reporters cannot help but take a cheap shot at us without knowing the facts. The fact is, we make ourselves easy targets for this abuse.

Last weekend a news article from the Cape Cod Times, posted an article “Sounds To Good To Be True?”

What is really funny and just goes to prove that reporters do not have the facts and like most things no one challenges them! What is sicking about the article written by Marilee Crocker, is that she was writing about something that has nothing to do with multi-level or network marketing, it was a course titled Google Business Kit!

She did cite information from Randy Duermyer about buying into someone else’s “success system” which does hold a little truth that only the creator of the system is the only one that benefits.

Then we come towards the end of the week and Usana is back in the news again, “Man Accuses Usana of Operating as pyramid scheme!” This story gets really interesting, when you read some of the comments and a certain name comes up.

Are We setting ourselves up for failure?

All you have to do to verify this is visit Twitter, Facebook, or just about any social site and you’ll find ten’s of thousands broadcasting ads on how to generate free network marketing leads.

Having leads is one thing, knowing how to properly qualify them is another story altogether. Yet, no one even seems concerned about it! Recruiting is apart of network marketing just like it is for any company on this planet.

The rush to generate, any form of income causes people to forget their ethics just to get anyone to sign on the dotted line, no wonder we have such high failure rates.

Everyone Wants Qualified Prospects

Are we willing to learn what it takes to properly qualify a prospect? Sad fact is many are not willing to learn what is probably one of the most important skills in business!

When was the last time that you advised someone that network marketing was not for them? Have you ever done it or did the chance to just make the money make you forget any form of ethics?

To become successful, it is vital that we have a team that will go out and retail products or services as well as look for new members whom we’ve properly qualified for our business.

Network marketing is about helping others become successful so they can escape the rat race as well. Are you doing your part?

While many people do not like this company, I find it kind of refreshing that they would come out with actual television advertising. No bold claims just the facts about the company.

I’m neither a fan nor advocate of this company, yet know that each of us involved owe a great deal to the stance and perseverance this company has shown. If it was not for them we maynot be here at all!

Why is it that more companies do not practice this to assist their distributors? I only know of a few that have done this recently Amway – Quixtar and Pre-Paid Legal. I’m sure there are more, but these are the only ones that come to mind.

Television advertising is not cheap by any means. Yet, you would think that the companies could somehow work this into their marketing budgets. Reaching a larger market audience and building credibility with the distributors warm market.

On the other hand, there are some companies that want to fly so low under the radar that they actually severely restrict what the representatives can do online. At times, they’ve even gone after advertisers that advertise with their keywords.

In many cases, you really cannot blame a company for doing these restrictions. Many MLM / Network Marketing companies have been shut down over the advertising.

Still it is refreshing to see Amway – Quixtar taking this proactive approach and I’m sure their Independent Business Owners appreciate it.

Which brings up what about doing your own local television advertising. Today with all the cable systems there are channels where you could if you do your homework find affordable times to run your own television advertising. Of course you would have to use company provided or approved material.

Then there is radio advertising which you could also run ad spots on or even 30 minute shows. When it comes to marketing employing multiple methods can be very beneficial yet always remember to keep it within your marketing budget and track your results.

Now this is really kind of funny in many ways. If you’ve ever watched any of the documenteries that show what Microsoft tried to do with the internet how can you have any sympathy for them?

Yahoo to test Google ads as defense vs. Microsoft – Yahoo! News

The folks up in Redmond have really got to figure out that there will be competition, just build a better mouse trap!

Yet they would prefer to buy up technology and patents, then complain if some of that technology was used someplace else.

I know I’ve felt the brunt of the power they supposedly wield at least on their search engine. Back in 2004 when I advised them of theft of my content being indexed and displayed on their search engine their response was they where not responsible!

They then proceeded to blacklist everyone of my sites from their search engine, wow what a way to be treated when people steal from you.

I guess that is why today I’m a Mac – Linux convert.

Back on the 16th of March 2008, I wrote this entry Making Sense Out of Adsense this week I went back and really focused on trying to exclude certain advertisers that, well lets just say I wouldn’t invite them to my home.

Some if not most of the inflammatory ads out there today can really be tied back to two groups and there are others out there in network marketing practicing this as well. Sure these inflammatory ads will get you to click on them, and isn’t that what we really want if we have Adsense on our websites?

Of course it is, but when the ad does not match the content of my sites, other then they where just bidding on “network marketing” it really does not belong there, at all. The only option you have is to keep up on it daily, by going into your Adsense account and blocking the offending marketers as competitive ads.

The real issue with that is, this is not the reason for blocking these ads in the first place. So they really needed a way for the website owners to communicate with them why certain ads where being excluded from the website.

I spent far to much of my precious time this week, cleaning out the garbage and still it is not working effectively. It is almost impossible to keep up with all the newbies coming out and mimicking their mentors on how to inflame people. The sad part is most of these people do run out of money before they have any success.

There Is Good News Though!

The Adsense team have been working on a project since december called the Ad Review Center. They posted on the 17th of March 2008 that they are in the process of rolling it out.

What I’m seeing here really is a pattern, in which they are beginning to clean up the mess that is out there in marketing today. Many people see it on the net, it turns them off, yet they do not report it.

Google has always been very accommodating in there advertising department. Essentially you write what you want and it is up there running within minutes. With the new developments on the proper use of URL’s, Landing Page Load times all being factored in it will do wonders for cleaning up some of the mess.

Now with the Ad Review Center, when you block an ad you will be able to explain exactly why you did it. I think we’re beginning to see a pattern here. Why not have ten’s of thousands of website owners who also use Adsense along side their content, bring in the human part and assist them in cleaning up these unscrupulous advertisers.

My gut feeling tells me this is what’s happening. If it is could you actually get a warning message if you have enough complaints, again a quality score issue. And if you persist could it also mean a total ban from advertising with them?

Google recently announced a decrease in adsense revenue. Is it the U.S. / Global economy that caused this decline? You would think that more people would be searching and generating even more income for them?

Since I write about network marketing, it only makes sense “no pun intended” to have adsense ads running. I finally decided, to stop running them.

No matter how much I tried to optimize the sites, by following their recommendations. All I would get are the same, negative, hype-filled advertisers using redirects to the same affiliate programs.

I finally got tired of blocking advertisers based on their inflammatory, derogatory ads they are running. Advertising on the internet has turned into a literal zoo. With each advertiser trying to out hype the other.

My guess is that Google’s customers, the searchers are getting tired of this type of ad as well, so they are not clicking on them. Web-masters are tired, of seeing the ads on their content pages so their pulling the ads off until this mess is cleaned up and some semblance of normalcy returns.

Unless those web-masters are there just for the adsense revenue, with no real concern for their site visitors? Either way it will be interesting to see how the changes they will apply at the end of March 2008 clean this up.

Then maybe I can bring back relevant advertisers to my sites, after all it is all about the visitors experience!