Jim Yaghi

The Battle Begins: Marketing System vs Entrepreneur

Marketing Systems have long been pitched as an easy starting point for web entrepreneurship. I say it has never had anything to do with entrepreneurship and such systems only make sense to employees. Marketing Systems vs Entrepreneurs, who wins?

Lately a lot of people have been asking me:

“jim why are you sooooo anti-systems all of a sudden?”

Besides the technical reasons i’ve already given about Traffic Engines slaughtering the affiliate marketing system business model – there are some far more important reasons.

Business reasons.

In this article, i plan to show you why Marketing Systems strike at the HEART of entrepreneurship and destroy it.

By the end, if you find yourself still resisting, fighting to hang onto promoting a Marketing System, please do us a favour and don’t call yourself an entrepreneur again!

 

To me, “money systems” have always looked like a rotten deal. 

All real entrepreneurs feel that way too.

Marketing Systems offer nothing more than a terrible job, with horrible pay – but they’re also expertly marketed as the best job in the world.

 

“huge” earning potential? it’s actually a big rip off.

 

Take a look at what i mean:

- In a job, you work for a single employer, The Company.

  • The products or services sold are pre-determined by The Company.
  • The sector of the market you’re in is pre-determined by The Company.
  • And when you’re hired, you’re given a JOB DESCRIPTION and you go to work.

Sound familiar?

As an affiliate you work for a Marketing System instead of The Company.

  • The products and services sold by The Marketing System are already pre-determined by the Marketing System.
  • The sector of the market you cater to is pre-determined by The Marketing System.
  • When you’re recruited, you’re given a “Quick Start” guide that shows you how to place your banners – and you go to work, promoting. (much like a Job Description).

But that’s not what a REAL entrepreneur does in business.

A real entrepreneur  gets to decide what products, services, and sector of the market their business is in. Affiliates don’t get to do that.

 

 What About Getting Paid?

- In a job, you are assigned your pay-grade, salary, or commission by The Company.

- In a marketing system, your affiliate commission is set by the System Owners and allocated to you without negotiation.

A real service business does not allow its client to dictate the value of services rendered without some kind of negotiation!

The only difference between affiliate and employee is that an employee can actually try to negotiate a better salary or more benefits. An affiliate can rarely negotiate anything.

Or How About Your Client”s” (ha ha)…

-In a job, you have one client: The Company.

- As an affiliate, you have one client: The Marketing System.

A real business tries to recruit as many clients as possible. Sure, it may begin by having only one client – But it certainly does not create its identity, reputation, content, website, sales material, and products around that single client.

Websites of System Affiliates do not recruit new promotion clients at all!

Oh wait…did you think your clients are “your” leads and customers? The ones you SHARE with The Marketing System?

No – those are THEIR clients.

Your client is The Marketing System.

You offer the service of promotion and they pay you a “fee” for that service. The leads and customers don’t pay you – the system does.

 

Should We Get Into “Work Expenses”?

- In a job, you pay for the expense of getting to and from work. However, also;

  • The Company compensates for out-of-pocket expenses that benefit the company.
  • The Company pays for you to be trained,
  • The Company pays for you to attend events
  • the Company pays for you to attend conferences
  • Then, the company PAYS YOU in full for your work.

-As an affiliate, you PAY for everything:

  • You PAY to join the system.
  • You PAY to promote the system.
  • And you PAY to be trained by The Marketing System.
  • In the end, you are PAID ONLY IF you make a sale.

A real business, may pay for operating expenses out of pocket too – but then they SET THEIR PRICES in a way that recovers their costs.

They recruit only clients who are willing to pay a fair price that enables them to stay in business.

As an affiliate of a marketing system, you do not have this luxury – if it costs you 2 times the commission to generate a sale on Google, it’s your problem not theirs.

The Marketing System, your boss/client, determines your pay without negotiation, remember?

 

See what i mean?

True entrepreneurs pick up on all this pretty quick and that’s why we don’t use systems.

 

We Want to OWN the Business Damn it!

Hang on, what about the EARNING potential? Can’t get that at a job.  You want to be like the guys in the system testimonials, don’t you?

Sure. If you want to be a star employee.

Which takes hard work and still benefits the Marketing System more than it does you.

Besides, most testimonial guys are lost when the system abandons them. Just ask the 100k/month earners of … sorry i can’t mention the system’s name here.. but they’ve all split and they’re bankrupt today. You know who i’m talking about.

 

 The employee-minded, will find familiarity and comfort in the affiliate System Model.

They’ll stay in that zone, moving from “job” to “job” – looking for the perfect system that will pay them to be a lazy, useless employee.

If you’re find yourself resisting everything i’ve said here, fighting to hang on to your SYSTEM marketing – please,

Stop Insulting Entrepreneurship!

Go somewhere far away from us. If you quit your job, go beg for it back. You are not fit to call yourself Entrepreneur. I say this respectfully, of course: you make me sick.

Real Entrepreneurs see through all the fancy marketing, testimonials and exaggerations.

They realise quickly that the cost in money, time, and effort is better spent developing their own Company.

It’s easier and more profitable to own a real business. For the entrepreneur in you, do yourself a favour and enrol in the Internet Business Academy today.

We create entrepreneurs, not employees.

 

Here is the link to sign up:

   http://jimyaghi.com/ylacademy

 

Or Here is the link to go away :-P

 

~jim

 

  1. Here's one reader's opinion - Do you agree?

    Tanya
    3 Nods

    That is precisely the way it is. No exceptions.
    Great post Jim.

 

 

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    11 Responses to The Battle Begins: Marketing System vs Entrepreneur

  1. Ewan
    2 Nods

    woah, possibly one of your best articles to date jim :) i reckon their will be some people a little ‘uneasy’ after reading this

    i remember waaay back in my herbalife days, tryin to tell people they arent entrepreneurs, just glorified sales reps, maybe not so much glorified…

    most are not even an employee as atleast at a job they get paid, unlike in their *ahem* ‘business’ – they are more like a supporter of a football team

    anyway, i knew summin was up a little over a year ago but couldnt put my finger on it and i couldnt possibly question all the gooroo’s :) thanks for puting me in the right direction jim

    its a real business for the owner but for everyone else, scrambling about tryin to get traffic isnt a real business and how they can sleep at night taking multiple thousands of someones hard earned cash to get them involved in that merry go around is beyond me

    ok, this is an article in itself, not a comment :)

    over and out

  2. Tanya
    3 Nods

    That is precisely the way it is. No exceptions.
    Great post Jim.

  3. Michael Said
    Nod

    Sadly good marketing waylays many people into falling for systems that do not actually deliver money.

  4. Zakary Frank
    Nod

    Haha! The line has been drawn… anyone dare to cross it? ;)

    • Zakary Frank
      Nod

      from what I’ve seen… those who promote marketing systems don’t ever really even end up with an employee type status…

      most of them end up being free cheerleaders for the system

    • Nod

      Zak that’s true, they do end up being free cheerleaders. but there’s a weird culture in this industry where everyone just cheers for everyone right or wrong. it’s like no one has a brain to think. i honestly expected to piss off a few people with this article. anyone who got pissed off didn’t even say anything – mostly out of fear of being an outcast. it’s the employee in people that keeps them from standing up and fighting for what they believe in. so either their belief in marketing systems isn’t all that – or they don’t have the guts to oppose this viewpoint.

  5. Eric Walker
    1 Nod

    Klingler was making this same argument late last year. I agree with every word YET I still recently (very recently) joined a popular industry system for these reasons:

    1. I joined an MLM. This system caters to MLMers. My goal within the next year (that is if this system isnt total shit) is to reach the leader board. Reaching the leader board will boost my cred.

    2. I will be hosting my own webinars about all varieties of stuff re: funnel set up. I’ll monetize w/ affiliate products after these webinars and build my list with these webinars. The system is an additional way to monetize. Once they’re in my email, I’ll send them to the system.

    3. If they join the system, it makes them a good candidate to join my MLM.

    I understand if you don’t have to call me an entrepreneur as a result of me explaining my plan, but given what I’ve explained what is a better way?

    • 1 Nod

      Eric,

      that gives you 2 clients: The MLM, and the affiliate products (if they come from more than one company, then more).

      the problem isn’t in the system being one of your clients. the problem is when your entire plan revolves around your chosen clients. amongst the worst kind of clients at that.

      their pay is shitty, they have too many rules about what you can and can’t do, and they are in a market where it’s a sure thing to get banned from most engines for promoting them. For instance, on Facebook just adding the word “BizOp” or “Business Opportunity” or “MLM” to your landing page gets the ad disapproved. doesn’t matter if you’re saying it’s a tool, training, help, or even if you’re saying that MLMs are terrible scams and people should stay away…the ad will be disapproved because it uses the WORD.

      the trouble is Eric, you and many of our students are stuck in a loop of comfort. it’s the only area you’re familiar, the only place you believe you have track record, the best place to start out because you have history, experience, knowledge, and skills. you know how i know this? i was the same for years. i’ve been trying to break out of THIS mold of attracting mlmers and system folks for so long it’s turning my hair gray.

      so the best approach if you are stuck, is to create a paradigm shift for yourself. take a week or two where you think of an identity and marketing plan that stands INDEPENDENT of systems and mlms.

      just pretend they don’t exist.

      what kind of people would you speak to? how would you help them solve their problems? what solutions would you provide?

      create that plan and when it’s ready, then you can add on the system and MLM stuff as a product on the shelf if you still think it necessary.

      in the YaghiLabs plan, i deleted the pages from the site’s navigation that promoted my MLMs and Systems. and ended up with something completely independent – an educational resource for web entrepreneurs of all kinds.

      Who are YOU without MLM, Eric?

      Who are you as a business?

      What would you be doing with your skills and experience and knowledge if you didn’t have MLM?

  6. Eric Walker
    1 Nod

    Damn Jim! you’re right.

  7. Pingback: Jim Yaghi Conversation | Eric Walker

  8. Richard
    Nod

    Now this is absolutely the conclusion I came to almost 6 years ago when I was introduced to network marketing. Yet the industry to me still interesting. More or less the mindset and the people I met.

    What I always thought was strange is how people “BASH” corporate world, yet the corporate world is filled with true entrepreneurship, that would be the people at the top of the pyramid who built the company in the first place.

    Some of these “systems” started off pretty good or at least they did before I knew anything about “marketing”. After getting a more solid education in the field the hole’s quickly show.

    Systems for a business work because all businesses need a way to run, but in the context of getting rich off that “these”systems (in the context of this post) alone ,well lets just say it isn’t going to happen.

About Jim Yaghi

Jim Yaghi is an advertising consultant and traffic expert, with a background in Artificial Intelligence.
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