When I interact with most online marketers, it's obvious that they view Internet marketing and network marketing as two separate and very distinct worlds. Proponents of either often act as if the other is something to be avoided like the plague.

I personally am involved in marketing for, and consulting with, companies in both “worlds.” I've discovered that there is a lot of overlap, and that there are techniques which work equally well in both worlds.

Let's briefly examine how they differ, and which is better.

Network marketing, or MLM, is very familiar to most people because we've all been approached by someone in the offline world who is doing it. We've been invited to meetings, or sat through presentations where they demonstrated what they did, and how it could mean financial independence for you.

I generally think of network marketing as:

- Being multiple-tiered - where you earn on the efforts of others that you recruit.

- Offering residual income, where you sell the product once, and then earn commissions each month as the customer reorders a consumable product.

- Utilizing auto-shipment, where the customer agrees to purchase a certain amount of the product or service each month... generally at a lower price that if it were a one-time purchase.

- Requiring lots of phone calls, meetings, and direct interaction with the customers.

- Allowing representatives to grow their businesses through duplicable systems where they just plug new representatives into a proven system.

I generally think of Internet marketing as:

- Utilizing a two-tiered (at most) payment plan. When you go beyond two-tiers the rules change dramatically for the program operator.

- Emphasizing earning commissions primarily on your own efforts although many super-affiliates also earn hefty second-tier commissions.

- Marketing primarily using email and websites, although RSS, broadcast calls, teleseminars, and even direct mail can fit into the picture. There is a movement towards using offline methods to drive business online.

- Often only offering one-time commissions on individual sales.

- Requiring very little direct customer interaction, although the most successful affiliate marketers focus more on interacting with customers and building relationships.

Which is better? Obviously, that's a loaded question with room for lots of differences in opinion.

Generally, whichever best serves YOUR customers’ needs is better for you.

Whichever offers your customers something that they can't buy cheaper at the local superstore obviously should sell better for you.

Long-term, lasting success in both isn't based upon throwing around big numbers, when you know that the average person probably won't achieve the level of success offered in the examples. That's because both depend upon how well your new "recruits" can utilize the system that you equip them with and the level of commitment that they have.

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