Find a job - Now let’s look over the real numbers.

Each kit sells for $1000 but has a net profit of only $100 (possibly less when you consider fulfillment house charges but let’s stick with $100). That means 20 kits sold generated 20 x $100 = $2000 net profit. But remember, that the marketing campaign (which apparently was a very lousy and poorly executed one) cost me $5000. So I actually lost $3000 even though I created $20,000 in sales volume.

That’s not even an extreme example to be honest with you.

Marketers of money making opportunities use this even more frequently. (That’s where some of the widespread skepticism comes into play). Some (certainly not all, in fact not even most but some) marketers will be quick to tell you that they generated $20,000 their 2nd month in their “money making” opportunity. What they forget to mention, is that they paid $5000 for the marketing system and invested another $2000 per week into advertising… bringing the total to $13,000 spent for $20,000 earned. Now, that’s certainly not a bad deal as that’s $7000 profit which is respectable… and if it was created nearly on auto pilot with a high-integrity and high-value product or service, it’s more than respectable… it’s in fact very impressive. But it’s important to find that “truth in advertising”. In this case, there was a $13,000 risk to create $7000 net profit yield.

The final example of this same “sales vs. net profits” hype tactic came at a recent internet marketing seminar. The company who hosted these free seminars sells a service for $2700. The service promises to increase the online profits of the customer many times over. Testimonials fill the marketing pamphlets of families who used these tactics and the service they paid $2700 for and now have sales of $250,000 per year. Anyone with a bit of curiosity can then look into the approximate profit margins for the products that such individuals sold. In some cases, the margins were very low. In fact, the $250,000 in sales actually equated to about $38,000 in annual profits. Again, that can be a terrific new income stream for a household, but when risking $2700 and investing the time needed to launch the online business, it’s a fairly important difference to know what the true net income potential is.

As a consumer, it’s important for you to get a bit more familiar with how the marketing rules sometimes get bent. But also know your numbers. It doesn’t much matter if you sell $1,000,000 per year, if the profit margin is so poor that it barely allows for a full-time income.

Also, understand these 2 other popular phrases:

Ranked #1 – we were (or this product was) ranked #1 by such and such organization.

What characteristics were they looking for to rate this #1? How were the tests conducted? Which other products did they look at? What really is the credibility of the organization? Is it really a third party or is that organization affiliated with the company/product (possibly even created by them)?

Point is, don’t just take “ranked #1” to heart. It may have been, but that statement alone is empty information to you.

Another one is similar but used by some questionable integrity business owners who will tell you that they are in the “top 1% of all income earners in the world”. That might sound like a lot of ooh-and ahh but the statistics indicate that an income of over $47,000US per year places you in the top 1% of all income earners in the world. So while it’s a great little title a person could use, the fact is it’s misleading. Heck, if you earn over $32,000 per year, you are in the top 5% of all income earners in the world.

With that little statistic, I just made you rich. You’re welcome.

With all this said, even without bending the rules, marketing can indeed be very lucrative and, possibly more importantly, models such as Network Marketing and Internet Marketing (affiliate marketing) allow for a very low cost, nearly zero risk, yet high profit potential way to build a new income stream (or new income streams, plural) that can help supplement your job income (and give you home business tax advantages you are missing out on) or even replace your job income entirely... I know you’d miss your workspace, but you can always take a Polaroid and reference it from time to time as you sip on a Mojito on your recently redone patio.

And, if you know what to look for, you can get setup with the marketing system(s) that can provide this nearly on autopilot (using technologies and concepts such as leverage which we talked about earlier).

Automated money (from automated marketing) can be a wonderful thing. It should be experienced by everyone. So should residual income. Residual income is what would allow you to be backpacking through Europe for 3 months and every week (or day) have a check automatically deposited onto a Credit Debit Card or into your bank account. You’re off playing but the work you did earlier is still paying you. That’s not something the employment model can offer. That’s why I say, frankly, your job sucks.

An interoffice softball game was held every year between the Marketing Department and support staff of one company.

The day for the game came, and hard as the Marketers tried, the support staff whipped the Marketing Department soundly.

In their best tradition, the Marketing Department decided to find the best 'spin' they could on the dismal result. They showed how they earn their keep by posting this memo on the bulletin board after the game:

"The Marketing Department is pleased to announce that for the recently-completed Softball Season, we came in 2nd place, having lost but one game all year. The Support Department, however, had a rather dismal season, as they won only one game all year."