We live in an increasingly technology-driven world is a phrase fast becoming as cliché and well I love you! Think of this and be honest with yourself, you were probably one of those crazy folks lined up overnight to up grade your perfectly new and slightly used iphone for the 3G Model! Yes You!

Think about this today with just the touch of a button you can your pizza online, bypassing the ringing phone that one bothers to pick up or putting you on hold for what seems likes hours on end! Gone are the day of yellow pages. I have taken to throwing mine away wishing they would quit killing trees and move into the 21st Century. Ever heard of Dex Online? Doh! We no longer call the pizza place to order a large pepperoni; we place our orders online. These days we jump online, type in a bunch of phrases called keywords and voila a plethora of websites are at our behest to serve information that we need.

And oh since the unveiling of the smart phone, blackberry and Iphones have and will continue to revolutionize the way we communicate, from email, videom latest sports scores. I got my election results online from one of the largest FREE websites known to man YAHOO!

Now I bet you are wondering what is the point Party Plan Pat?

Well in this every tech savvy environment, the question that I cannot seem to get out of my mind, has the Network Marketing industry, MLM industry, Direct Selling Industry and Home Party Plans/Party Plan kept up with today's technology?

Often when I speak to women and others in the home-based business industry, the common defense against having a personal website is “My company provides me with a company website, for which I pay roughly $30/month. I have a website. What more do I need?”

This response of course begs the question, if the companies replicated site is working wonderfully and you are pleased with your results why are having this conversation?

What is it that my good friend Bill Gates said (you know Bill Gates, formerly the richest man in the world, now just #3 with oh 60 Billion net-worth),

"In the new millennium there will only be two types of businesses: those with websites and those out of business."

Like the yellow pages that work best as paper weights and doors jams because of their obsolete nature; in an ever increasingly immediate gratification society, most Network Marketing companies offer distributors a cookie-cutter website run by the company. The address often looks something like www.yourname.yourcompany.com. Look familiar? You probably have one of these sites!

The attraction to this offer from the company is very evident. The majority of direct sales business owners haven’t the slightest idea how to build a website. Additionally these websites tend to have very fancy foot work attributed to flash presentations. The website design relative to the graphic work is fantastic (as it should be since you are paying an arm and a leg for it in company dues and monthly autoship, conference tickets and the list goes on). These websites even boast the ability for customers to shop online through your website. Sounds Great, but is it really, are company website the best websites for you?

In many ways these websites are definitely state of the art sites, but not in the way would think! THEY ARE ONLY STATE OF THE ART WHEN IT COMES TO BRANDING THE COMPANY YOU PROMOTE, but what about you? These free websites are lacking and severely hurt your bottom line! Problems With Company Replicated Websites:

1. Your Corporate-sponsored websites will not get you traffic from the search engines! Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. None. Search engines - like Google, Yahoo! and others - look for new and different content. Duplicate content is the enemy of the search engine. Like the barbarians of yesterday, you want to keep the google god happy.

2. Duplicate content, adversely affects your website ranking. WHY if you do not have fresh new content you are not getting crawled. That means you are to calling google to come check you out. This is the dating game, better play nice with google!

3. Most often your website optimization is compromised because your hands are tied! A poorly optimized website is much like a home without a foundation. It will all come tumbling down!

4. Every one loves an interesting website, that stands out from the crowd. If you are wondering why you are struggling to make sales, it is because your potential customers have seen these cookie cutter sites so often that they desensitized from the boring annoying content. People just search engines what fresh, hot new content. They rank sites with high-quality, original content much higher and the higher ranked websites get the most traffic.

5. When it comes to website marketing you only have up to 10 seconds if you are lucky to engage your visitor. The key is to compel them to stay, to buy, to tell others about it and keep coming back for me. This is what in the industry is termed as stickiness! I just got a huge list of companies that will going out of business or shutting down operation considerably. Trust me people there will be a considerable number of people online looking for work at home opportunities in the not too distant future. By having your own website, you greatly increase the chances that somebody who uses a search engine to find what he or she is looking for will click into your site. And if somebody clicks into your site and likes what you have to offer, voila - you have a new distributor or customer!

WARNING: Know the rules of your company before you run out and get a website. It is widely known that most Network Marketing companies prohibit distributors from promoting their opportunity or products on a non-corporate website due to the legal ramifications of hype and unverified results by the FDA. Rule of thumb, get a personal website, do not show case your product, service or company name unless you have written permission from the legal department of your company.

In an age where “googling” and “being googled” is part of our everyday vocabulary, it’s amazing that there are still businesses that don’t have an online presence and are still asking themselves the question “Do I really need a website?” As a Network Marketer, direct sales rep and home party consultant, you can't rely on your company to help you grow your business online.

You may not win the most popular websites award, but know this If people don't find your business on the Web, they will certainly find a Website of one of your competitors

CLICK HERE ----> For more ideas on how to make a website