A new study from Nielsen and The Atlantic reveals that even the most successful online network marketers can’t make their products free.
According to Nielsen, the average website generates more than $40,000 in revenue for every dollar of revenue earned by the average online brand.
The study shows that the average cost of content on the most popular websites is more than triple that of their competitors.
And this doesn’t include the cost of hosting and hosting hosting costs to your audience.
While many online marketers claim they can make money from network marketing, it’s not easy.
A study from The Atlantic found that the median net income for online marketers in the U.S. is just $11,500 per year.
That’s just a drop in the bucket for many.
And it shows just how much more difficult it is to make money as an online network marketing professional.
“The majority of people have no clue how to actually make money on the web,” says Sarah Riedl, an associate professor of marketing at Northeastern University.
“There’s a lot of people out there who don’t even know what the difference is between network marketing and affiliate marketing, let alone affiliate marketing for brand name websites,” RiedL says.
In order to get more traffic to your website, you need to build relationships with people.
And relationships are difficult to come by online.
But, as Riedel explains, relationships are also a great way to make some extra money.
“If you have a relationship with a customer or a person, you’re in a position to make a lot more money,” she says.
Riedl and her team of professors conducted an analysis of the top 100 online networks in the United States.
The researchers found that, on average, each of the network sites generated about $8,000 per month in affiliate revenue.
That means that each one of those sites generated $4,500 in affiliate income.
So, network sites make up just under a third of the total amount of online traffic generated by the most valuable brands on the Internet.
Riesl says that the biggest difference between network and affiliate marketers is that network marketing can be done through a variety of platforms.
“You can create a network of people and they can create connections,” she explains.
“It can be through social media, it can be using a service like Buffer or Instagram, it just has to be done on your own website.”
RiedL and her colleagues found that network marketers spend an average of 25 minutes a day on social media.
And, on the other hand, affiliate marketers spend about 13 minutes a week on social networking sites.
So the difference in how long people spend online is even bigger.
“I’m surprised how many people think affiliate marketing is easy, and it is,” says Riedle.
“But the reality is that it’s incredibly difficult.”
Rieslis and her fellow researchers also discovered that, at the top of the list, network marketers have a large lead generation opportunity.
That is, if you want to build a lead generation business, you can’t go wrong with using social media and affiliate sites.
But, when it comes to affiliate marketing itself, Riedls group of professors says it’s still an uphill battle.
“In order for you to have a viable business online, you have to build trust and confidence in your audience,” she points out.
“That’s very difficult to do.
You have to really know what you’re talking about.
You’ve got to be able to get people to sign up and pay for something that they can actually use.”
Riefs research also found that affiliate marketing leads generate $30 billion a year in revenue, but only 10% of affiliate marketers actually get paid.
And the top 10 networks generate just $15.8 million per year in affiliate earnings.
Rieds researchers said this is not a sustainable business model for many online network sites.
“We’ve found that in the past few years, the number of affiliate-focused businesses has exploded and it’s become more of a business model, not a service,” she notes.
“If you’re doing this as a brand, you’ve got a lot to lose.”
The study also found a significant correlation between affiliate-driven leads and traffic from the top network sites on the site.
But when it came to getting your business noticed, it was even worse.
“When you have your own network, you get more leads from your own site, and that’s what drives the traffic to the network site,” Riefs says.
“You’re not getting your traffic from other networks that are doing the same thing.”
So how do you get your business heard?
It may seem like network marketing is just a game, but it’s a tough and expensive game to play.
And Riedll says it will take more than just good PR and marketing.
“It’s not a one-time thing, and you have other things that you need in order to build your business,” she adds
