Is ACN Legitimate?

Since ACN came on the scene in 1993, it has grown into the largest direct seller of telecommunications and home services in the world. Currently, the most popular product in their portfolio is the IRIS 5000 Video Phone, which has become the fastest moving product for thousands of ACN Independent Representatives. It has proven to be a great great product with little competition, but what about ACN's MLM business model. Is ACN a Scam?

MLM vs Pyramid Scheme

The whole scam question arises with just about every MLM company out there, which is how ACN does business. Some call MLM's a pyramid scheme, so let's look into one of their goals. The ACN Video Phone itself is trying to find its way into every home and office in the world. With the lack of any substantial competition in the Video Phone market, it isn't unreasonable to work towards a global goal. When you imagine how many households and offices their are in the world, it hardly seems like this fits the definition of a pyramid scheme. There are just too many customers to sell to, not to mention all the Independent Representatives it would take to fill that order! When you think of MLM, it is actually a generous way for regular individuals to get a cut of the business without having to be a company employee.

One thing I found out about ACN is that you don't have to carry any inventory, everything is drop-shipped. So even though there is a $499 buy-in to the business, and a $30 monthly fee, try starting your own business making and selling widgets for that amount. Businesses expand, any like any growing business, they need a constant influx of new customers and new employees to handle the load. The beauty of this business, is that the so-called "employees" are other Independent Reps like yourself. And to one-up that, the Reps are also customers, how win-win is that? Who do you know that works at Costco or Walmart that doesn't shop there also?

Old School vs New School Network Marketing Methods

As you can see, I strongly believe that ACN is NOT a Scam. The problem with ACN though, as with most any MLM company, is that many Reps have trouble reaching their goals because of the lingering old school methods of teaching network marketing. We are in the instant information age now, with WiFi iPads & 4G Smartphones and video-on-demand. It is time to automate lead generation process instead of chasing down prospects, sometime literally. It is time to master the power of the internet, and I don't mean relying on some cookie-cut company website that nobody will ever find. Today's network marketer has got to harness the power of the internet with email marketing and social media, or they will be left behind wondering what happened. Even though the old-school network marketing methods still work for certain types of personalities, such as the energetic and charismatic types that eat and drink MLM, I can assure you that most ACN Reps would prosper more quickly and reach their goals if they learned how to generate their own high-quality targeted leads for their MLM business on auto-pilot through the internet. By now you have probably heard of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, and YouTube. There is also Article Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Traffic (PPC), and more. You don't have to use them all, and you don't have to hit a home run, a single will do just fine, but you have to at least get on base.