What exactly is network marketing? At its most basic it’s direct sales pure and simple. Let’s think about selling a product first. A company manufactures a product. Rather than invest in a marketing plan that is based on mass advertising and using the typical retail channels the company goes a different route. They recruit distributors, or independent salespersons, to market their product(s) directly to the consumer. Usually, but not always, part of the process involves recruiting those consumers to become distributors themselves. This business model can also work with services.

Ultimately, it is about building relationships with others. That is where the “network” in network marketing comes in. Most people think of MLM (multi-level marketing) companies when they think of network marketing. But if you think about it realtors, stock brokers and myriad others fall under the network marketing umbrella. They might not want to admit it, but it’s true none the less.

There are several huge advantages of being involved in network marketing, particularly if you do your marketing online. Network marketing is the ultimate marketing test lab. Where else can you constantly learn new approaches to marketing and test them relatively inexpensively.

Here are a few examples that I’ve used recently.

I invested in a company called the “Perfect Wealth Formula“. I know, I think the people who come up with these names ought to be shot! I invested in this company primarily because its focus was on teaching others how to market a product or service. Since that is my business I thought that the company’s video library and books were a pretty cheap resource, even if I never sold the product myself. I was particularly interested in their video series on pay-per-click advertising.

If you are marketing online, it is extremely important to narrowly target your market. Some of the markets that I target are:

• Stay at Home Parents - stay at home moms and dads, parents that want to work at home (commonly called WAHM).

• Parents who are concerned about paying for their children’s college education.

• Men and women who are concerned about a financially secure retirement.

Why am I interested into marketing to these groups? Simple. I am a stay at home dad who has one son in college and two more just a couple of years away. After paying for three kids in college, Shelly and I would like to retire without living in a cardboard box and eating cat food. It’s far easier to build relationships with people that you have something in common with.

How do you market to a particular group? One very successful method is to drive web traffic to a lead capture page. My lead capture page for stay at home parents is located at http://www.workathomeparent.net/. The trick is to drive the traffic to the page. You can use PPC (pay-per-click advertising), email, articles, press releases; the available tools are almost endless.

That’s what I mean when I talk about the Ultimate Test Lab. You have the opportunity to try multiple methods at once. You have the ability to track which methods work and which methods don’t. If you are diligent in keeping notes on what you are doing you have the chance to succeed in not one business, but several; and these lessons can last you a lifetime.