Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Case Study in Network Marketing

The best way to understand the power of network marketing is to see it in action. One of the best examples of a network marketing campaign being executed successfully is with MySQL.

MySQL.com: A Free, Quality Database

MySQL is a freely distributed database; organizations of all kinds can download their own copy of MySQL to store and retrieve information. For example, if you have an online book store and need to store information regarding your inventory, you will need a database of some kind.

Because it is (1) freely distributed and (2) a quality product, MySQL is well on its way to becoming the most common database used today. Note the product's favorable time ratio; it is easy to download and install, and can be used by the database administrator for a virtually endless amount of time. Because of its existence as a free, high quality product that was simple to acquire and could give back almost endlessly, MySQL has become immensely popular -- and its developers have earned a valuable degree of credibility.

Earning Revenue From a Free Database

The developers of MySQL earn revenue primarily by selling consulting services to organizations that use a MySQL database to store their information. Because they chose to freely distribute a quality product, they earned the trust needed to sell consulting services. And for that same reason as well, they were able to attract an immense number of users to their site -- thus reducing marketing costs substantially, and virtually nullifying the need for advertising.

In addition to their consultation fees, MySQL offers a number of other services:
Clearly, the opportunity for MySQL is immense. As the Internet continues to develop and as usage rates increase across the world, creating effective network marketing campaigns can become increasingly important in firm's overall marketing strategy.