by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links on this website. There is no expense to you.

What is MLM?

MLM (multi-level marketing) is a business model for selling products directly to consumers using independent sales representatives.

The origin of multi-level marketing is often disputed, but multi-level marketing style businesses existed in the 1920s and the 1930s, such as the California Vitamin Company (later named Nutrilite) and the California Perfume Company (renamed ” Avon Products”). – Wikipedia


What’s the difference between MLM and a pyramid scheme?

A MLM business always has an actual product or service to sell, along with the option of building your own sales force or global network.

In an illegal pyramid scheme, no one is selling or buying any products, and the emphasis is on recruiting new members.

MLM is a legitimate business model if done correctly.

On the other hand, pyramid schemes are totally illegal.

Since both involve recruiting, MLM critics have often referred to network marketing as ‘legal pyramid schemes,’ which explains why this myth continues to be kept alive.


Although most MLMs are not illegal pyramid schemes, the one thing that separates them from regular non-MLM companies, recruiting.

In case you didn’t know, you have to recruit new members to be super-successful in network marketing.

It doesn’t matter how good your MLM product lines are or what country you’re in.

You know already that success means consistently recruiting new distributors.

Generally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with MLMs or building a team of like-minded entrepreneurs.

But if there’s too much emphasis placed on recruiting and not enough on product sales, an MLM can get into serious trouble FTC.

The FTC states that a pyramid scheme is clearly defined as a company that specifically offers payouts for recruiting purposes only.

Just know that there are two sides to the network marketing coin.

If you hear somebody say that all MLMs are pyramid schemes, don’t fritter away your time arguing with them.

Do your own research and check out companies for yourself if you’re seriously interested in an MLM business.

It might be a good fit for you or maybe not. But you’ll at least now be informed.



What does it take to be successful in MLM?

You must have many qualities and skills to succeed in MLM. You need a lot of patience, determination, a strong work ethic, and excellent communication skills, among other factors.

You need to be a relentless, iron-willed sales and recruiting machine.
If that idea is distasteful to you, even the best network marketing companies are definitely not for you, because it’s ALL about selling.

Selling is an essential part of any MLMer’s overall marketing strategy.

Don’t be fooled by anyone who might try to ease your discomfort by telling you there’s “no selling involved”. There are no exceptions.

The success of any home-based business ultimately depends on how well you sell your products/services.

Nevertheless, recruiting is a skill set that can be learned by anyone from a stay-at-home mom to a broke college student with maxed-out credit cards.

But, there’s always going to be a learning curve to go through to become successful, no matter what type of business you decide to go into. So, be willing to get uncomfortable at the start.

As far as recruiting goes, if you’d rather fight a bear than try to recruit and sell the dream to your friends and family, stay away from network marketing.

‘Sometimes you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure.’

If you’re going to pursue network marketing, be careful who you approach to join your team. Is it worth potentially damaging your relationship with that person? If your answer is no, you might want to cross them off your warm market list.

I hope this overview cleared up some of the MLM Controversy.

So, MLM, as with any business, isn’t for the faint of heart. There are over 1,000 MLM companies in the United States. Do your due diligence before selecting one as your home business endeavor.


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by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links on this website. There is no expense to you.

At times, social media marketing barely seems worth the risk.

You meet a lot of challenges whether you have a strong social presence or just enough to exist.

Nevertheless few consider quitting social media completely. So, how do you proceed to take full advantage of its benefits and minimize its stumbling blocks?

Going forward, you should adjust your social media strategy beginning now.

1. Since any given platform could disappear, change its algorithm, or be banned at any moment, you should put more energy into your message and cultivate an audience that will subscribe to your emails or newsletter so that no matter what happens to any platform, you’ll still have your audience.

You must be ready for a social media platform to become unavailable or worthless at a moment’s notice.

2. Think about how you can best own your own community. Having control over an area that’s explicitly dedicated to your community can give you more insights into your customers and also help you wrestle control of your audience from the big social media giants, whose algorithms we are all obligated to.

3. You can’t afford a set-it-and-forget-it attitude toward social.

Strategies must be agile, principled, and people-first. They must be capable of navigating not just the algorithm but the social and political effects of being present online.

You should double down on social listening and responsiveness. Use social listening tools to detect sentiment shifts early and be able to engage empathetically and promptly with your audience, especially during crises.

4. When your audience stops trusting platforms, they’ll die away, and you can’t build your entire audience in rented spaces anymore. We’ve already seen instability across platforms, and it’s getting worse. There’s more fragmentation, more distrust, and more noise.

In the future, you should invest in:

Owned audience growth (email, community, exclusive content hubs)

Selective omnipresence (trusted third-party spaces matter more than ever)

Direct value exchanges (content-for-access models)

With the last ten-year slide in search traffic (made worse by AI-powered answers and zero-click search features) and the “for you” trend in social media feeds, now you should distribute your content in as many places as your target audience spends time and basically change the overall strategy of your owned media (your blog, website, email newsletters, etc.).

Although big follower counts sound impressive, they are unimportant if your social media content doesn’t deliver value. So, rethink what you publish in the future.

5. Social media is just media now, no longer social. They’re broadcast networks with opaque algorithms and no loyalty.

So, you need to stop chasing followers and start extending your brand footprint through zero-click content. Every post is an ad for your thinking, not a teaser for your blog posts. The win isn’t the click — it’s when someone chooses to seek you out because you didn’t include one.

That means every touchpoint must deliver standalone value. No fluff, no read more. And it raises the bar on your owned media: If someone lands there, it better be worth the trip. In the future, success on social won’t be about conversation. It’ll be about creating curiosity, the kind that compels people to leave the scroll and find you.

6. Going forward, the winners will not just chase followers but will focus on trading value for attention, using data for data for personalization, and time for transformation. These very small interactions build trust outside any platform. Although the social landscape will remain ever-changing, meaningful audience relationships are yours forever.

7. You should lean into user-generated content and word-of-mouth marketing. Audiences don’t trust organizations, but they trust their peers. Avoid talking about yourself and magnify content from others. Social should be a place to add merit to your customers and not sell to them.

8. Be more natural with your social media engagement. More and more people are using platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit to start their search journey. They want first-hand perspectives and genuine conversations.

Prioritize genuine engagement, user-generated content, and creator collaborations. It’s essential to diversify your platform presence to meet users where they start their information gathering. In this evolving landscape, monitoring platform governance and adapting to policy changes will be essential.

9. As with any channel, the best content strategy includes a combination of post types, including those for brand awareness and emotional awareness,  authority-building posts (focused on education), conversational posts based on an offer, and sometimes a promotional post for products/services. The fundamentals of a good content strategy haven’t changed, just the how.

Social media has always been an active marketing method. Change is expected and will continue.

If you adjust your social media strategy now, with these 9 Social Media Marketing Trends You should Know About, in mind, you’ll be ready to survive the changes.

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