Reinventing The Wheel
Revolutionary ideas have always been the mark of mankind. It's what made us superior to animals and prove that we are the dominant species of this planet. Invention and innovation made life easier yet more complicated. Ironic as it may seem technology is making each generation culturally different.
There is an old adage not to reinvent the wheel. Fairly implying some inventions are perfect as it is. MLM and MLS are two attempts to "Reinvent the wheel" does technology allow drastic changes within the marketing and real estate industry finally possible?
It is interesting to see how many internet millionaires get their money from MLM programs. I haven't met anyone who didn't personally use some sort of viral, reseller or MLM type of solution to earn their first 1 million over cyberspace.
Scalability is not normally an issue for an internet business, especially for a service oriented company. Brick and mortar shops take awhile to build a larger facility, limitations in table space for restaurants, rack space for boutiques; even garage space for a chop shop is needed to expand operations. Cyberspace however web pages can be added to a site at will take very little space. Hosting companies may have hard drive space limitations but it's very cheap to add more. Changing hosting companies doesn't change the market either. The adage location, location, location doesn't apply to an internet business.
Search engine position and exposure is the game that was once location. The higher you are on the search engines the more traffic your business "location" gets. Traditional MLM however have changed this approach. Having people market your product, and getting more and more of these distributors based on a nested commission approach also took a very drastic turn into turning location into an "I am everywhere business." Starbucks may be successful in this approach using brick and mortar. But who hasn't been approached by a friend or relative with an MLM business one time or another? Avon built a successful brand name using nothing but a network of independent distributors. Though MLM is not an approach for everyone, No matter what your friendly Amway dealer says, but there's no denying it made millions of dollars for people worldwide.
The Real Estate MLS is another way of reinventing the wheel by creating a centralized database for buyers and sellers to meet which is the complete opposite of the MLM approach. It created a thriving place for business to occur. When I was a child I always wondered why shops selling the same merchandise flocked together effectively competing with each other for each sale. Then one day I realized the answer as a consumer. If I wanted a computer peripheral, I go to a place to where there are lots of computer shops. If I wanted to buy clothes I go to a mall where there are lots of choices. Malls, Sotheby's, Wal-Mart, amazon.com and e-bay created a one stop shop where people go to and buy. A centralized database is cheaper and gives the consumer more choices. The Flat-Fee MLS in the real estate industry saved probably millions of sellers in the USA millions of dollars in advertisement and commissions providing qualified buyers using the power of a realtor yet paying much less.
Is it possible to put these two theorems together, extremely different approach to reaching the consumer, two attempts in reinventing the wheel of any business?
www.4thishouse.com certainly is going to try. It's going to try to achieve a centralized fully automated nationwide real estate service sold using MLM. It is now possible for anyone with a website to earn through the real estate industry without being a licensed realtor. Someone said this is a drastic attempt to re-invent the wheel. 4thishouse.com reply is simple. We just added a revolutionary new rims, rubber, and grooves that are already proven to work and placed it together.
Time will tell if this will work. The links from the affiliates certainly is putting the
www.4thishouse.com site to the top. I guess its back to location, location, location once again. This time the new wheel has the power of a cool shiny 18 inch chrome rims and laboratory tested proven grooves and rubbers.
Carlo Caparras is currently the assistant vice president on marketing for Accentra Inc. several ISP's, webhosting, web development, web-services, outsourcing and telecommunication companies including Asterlink, Cylynx and Artemis telecom
