The Reason You Should Avoid Using Your Company Supplied Website to Build Your Home Business

Many direct sales and network marketing companies provide new reps with company supplied websites, called replicated websites.  A replicated website is a site that has all the company's products loaded, ready for your customers to place an order.  

Replicated websites are website templates, that may be distributed or duplicated for any number of different users and custom-made for the users.

What Is a Company Supplied Site?

These company supplied websites give reps a place to send potential customers to learn more about the company, as well as their products and services. 

They are completely maintained by the sponsoring company, and will provide the rep's customers with updated, consistent pricing, and stock availability. 

In addition to network marketers and direct salespeople, lots of people use platforms like Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, eBay and other sites to sell their products and services.

These sites also fall into the category of "company supplied" websites. The problem with all these sites is that you don't have any control over their policies, their terms of service or their rules. 

When you rely on any platform, other than the ones you own and control, the people who manage those platforms have the ability to change any of those factors.

In reality, they could decide to go out of business at any time, or they could be sold to another company. You have to ask yourself if you no longer had access to your company supplied site, where would you be?

It also helps the sponsoring company roll out new products, holiday promotions, sales, company news and announcements. 

With the colors, fonts and layout it basically helps to solidify the sponsoring company's brand through the look and feel of the site.  

No matter what rep a customer works with, they will see the same basic website when it comes time to place an order.

So it's important that a rep makes sure to give prospective customers their unique link to get credit for making the sale.

One of the most important things a company supplied website does is that it enables reps to obtain their commissions. 

That's Pretty Much Were the Benefits End

Company supplied websites, or replicated websites are great if you want to only work for one company, selling products. 

As you'll see as you read this article, there are several reasons why you don't want to take this path. The biggest reason this is not a good strategy has to do with putting all your eggs in one basket. But more about that later.  

Just know that if you're trying to build a successful online business and a substantial source of income, you will want to have your own website or blog. 

Why? You Wonder, Would a Free Website Be a Disadvantage?

Your free replicated website was designed to promote the goals of your sponsoring company.  It was not designed to help you distinguish your business from all the other reps who are selling the same products and services.

Additionally, your sponsoring company owns it, and they control it.

First, let's look at what would happen if, heaven forbid, something happens to your company.  If you have placed all your eggs in one basket... your company supplied website. How would you recover your business? You would have no other way to earn. 

What happens if for some reason your company decides to end your partnership? What would that do to your business?

Next, let's define the term leverage. It means to use (something) to its maximum advantage. 

When you're promoting your company supplied website there is no way that you can use the site to it's maximum capacity, because you don't own or control it.  

Your company is getting the benefit of leverage because of all the traffic you (and all the other reps) are sending to their website and the additional sales you're making for them.

While you're sending traffic to their website, they are collecting your customer information, tracking your data and branding themselves as the "go to" company that solves your customers problems.  They have a marketing platform but you don't.

Without effective marketing that you control, your business will never be able to branch out any further than the company you're working with now.  If heaven forbid, something happens to your company, you'll be left out in the cold. 

Watch the video below for five reasons to create your own website to grow and sustain your business.

The Benefits of Blogging

According to Indeed, the national average salary for a blogger is $33,216 in United States.

That means there are some bloggers who made significantly less, and those who made significantly more. There are some who made nothing. 

The point is that when done well, a blog is a legitimate way to earn a full or part time income.

Take a look at our list of side hustles that you can use to get ideas on how to work from home. Each of the side hustles we've outlined will be even more profitable with a monetized blog. 

Work From Home Opportunities You Can Pursue with a Blog

Here are just a few of the work from home opportunities you can pursue when you have a blog:  

And don't forget about  33 side hustle ideas, all of which would benefit from having a blog. 

This Video Explains It All!

Here are a few more reasons to have a blog:

1. Having Your Own Blog Gives Your Business a Unique Identity

Branding gives you the ability to distinguish yourself from all the other reps who may be selling the same products.

Providing great content that will help consumers who are looking for your product or service, will help you grow your business. 

It might be a good idea to read or listen to some books on marketing and branding. 

This book is available in paperback, Kindle, and audio formats, and it will help you map out a game-changing business model for your life. 

2. It's All About the Data

You can track data on sites like Google Analytics to learn more about your customers. Having information about your prospect's location, interests, what they like, where they hang out the most on your website, the most popular products, and where they come from when they enter and pages that use to exit your site.

You can also test different scenarios and monitor your results. All of this information will help you to know what works and how to tailor things to your customers that will enhance their experience.

3. You Don't Control or Own It

Your website should be a hub of information, offers, leads and sales. The goal in building a blog, is to provide value to your readers and generating leads or list of potential customers for your business. You will need an effective system that you can own and control, and one that will enable you to position yourself as someone who is knowledgeable about your industry, products and services.

With your company supplied website, you can't log in, and add code or tweak anything that needs to be updated. You are stuck relying on your company.

If you are relying on social media sites to give you the ability to communicate with potential customers, what happens when they change their policies or algorithms?

What happens if sites like You Tube, Facebook, Twitter etc. shut down your site or begin to charge ridiculous rates for services that are currently free?

In recent years, we've seen lots of changes to Facebook and Google, for example. They can change their algorithm and companies that are caught off guard, are left scrambling to adapt, losing valuable features and relationships.

Unless you have your own platform that enables you to communicate with customers, you are at the mercy of others.

With your own blog or website, you can build a following (email list) for your business using tools like Get Response, MailChimp, Aweber and other email marketing systems, to capture leads and regularly communicate with subscribers.

Once you have built a relationship, converting prospects into regular customers becomes easier.

In order to use these tools and track data you have to be able to enter code into your web pages that will enable these systems to work. 

Most WAH companies want a uniform look and feel for their websites so they don't enable you to modify the code.

4. Having Your Own Blog Gives You the Ability to Use Other Monetization Strategies

With a blog that you own and control, you can incorporate different monetization strategies to earn additional income.

To place ads on your site that may generate income from other sources you have to be able to access the admin section (or the code) on your site.  Without that access you will not be able to incorporate specific kinds of ads.

With your own site, you can incorporate ads, affiliate links, graphics and images that will possibly enable you to earn, even if customers doesn't buy your primary offering, allowing you to expand your earning potential.

5. It Unifies Your Online and Offline Presence

Once you've branded your business (your branded blog) you can create customer based solutions, marketing materials, buy promotional items and other items to spread the word about your business. Potential customers will recognize you, not your company based on your imagery and logos.

By all means, keep sending orders to your company supplied website and do what it takes to make your business work well.  At the same time, incorporate your own branded blog or website into your marketing mix to build and grow your business.

You will be able to generate even more income when you know your customers. If you haven't done so yet, get a Google Analytics account and place the code on your website.  You should create a customer avatar that describes the ideal customer, the person who is the perfect fit for your products and services. 

At a minimum, you need information that tells you what products potential customers are looking at, where they are spending time, when they meet the goals you've set on your site, the bounce rate, and where they are entering and exiting your site.

The bottom line is that if you drive traffic to your website or blog, you will be able to monitor and track data that will tell you what's going on in your business.

You will also have control over the look and feel, and the experience your users have when they visit your site.

You'll be able to use that information to learn what works, to generate leads that you can build a relationship with, and ultimately get them to buy from you.

Build a blog using the tools that make it easy no matter what your skill or experience level. The tool we used to build this blog is called Thrive Architect. Check it out and watch the video to learn more. 

There is a new tool that was just rolled out, Thrive Theme Builder allows you to build your unique WordPress website with 100% front-end visual theme building magic. No coding needed!