Many networkers out there are hearing about network marketing software. But, what is it?

My goal here is to clear up some of the confusion about network marketing software and the difference from network marketing systems. Network marketing systems, in regards to the online world, are systems which give the user access to recorded and live online training, capture pages (also known as squeeze pages), pre-written email auto-responder campaigns, and some sort of funded proposal opportunity. A funded proposal system is basically a system which funnels prospects (people interested in MLM or a home based business and people who are already are in MLM) into a lead capture and follow up funnel and allows you to profit from those prospects who join your business and from those who do not join your business. You accomplish this by becoming an affiliate (it is usually free to become an affiliate) of various generic MLM or home business information or software products. The system then markets all of these products to your prospects for you and when the prospects purchase these, you make commissions. The commissions from these affiliate products allow you to cover the costs of advertising and other business costs so that the commissions you generate from sign ups into your primary network marketing business opportunity will be pure profit. These systems are simple, generic, and inexpensive but powerful. The biggest downside to these systems are the fact that they are pretty generic. However, most systems of this sort do allow the creation of custom email campaigns and customized lead capture page so that you could tailor the message of a capture page to your particular opportunity.

MLM systems differ from network marketing software. The software I'm talking about would be a complete lead capture page, sales page, lead follow up, and prospect management system that is created from scratch for your specific opportunity by a company like MLM Team Sites or Home Office Pro. This software system produces self-replicated websites for your down line to plug into as soon as they join. There is usually no funded proposal aspect to such software but it could be incorporated. The system created is definitely not generic but the biggest downside is that it can be very expensive. Generic network marketing systems are usually around $50 a month but hiring a network marketing software company to design a complete system can cost $8,000 to $10,000. You probably would not want to hire such a software company unless you had at least 100 people in your down line that would commit to plugging into (and sharing the cost of) such a solution.