Get-MLM-Success

Marketing Plan Maintenance

2008-11-27T14:45:00.003+10:00

One of the biggest problems for any business owner is knowing what to do in their business on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Most people don't have a clue and stumble from one thing to another.

This ad hoc approach is a recipe for disaster. Would you get in a car and just start driving without knowing where you are going. Of course not!

So how do you expect your business to grow without an effective marketing maintenance plan.

Here's a simple plan to keep you on track.

DAILY TASKS

Answer email

This should be a priority. People expect a response at least within 24 hours. Gen Y mailers expect an answer in under 4 hours! Your quick response shows you are prompt and efficient and it helps build trust with the sender.

Post in Forums

Get involved in discussion groups or forums for your particular business. You can Google your industry + forum and get an extensive list to start joining and posting to. One of the best directories for forums is http://www.big-boards.com

Make sure you post intelligent, value feedback or posts and do not blatantly promote your business. A lot of administrators will boot you out for mass advertising in their forums. Give before you want should be your motto.

Social Networking

Make sure you update, add to your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts daily. Fresh content helps you rank better. if you want to drive massive traiffic to these sites contact me for more information.

WEEKLY TASKS

Write An Article

Write an article and submit it article publishers weekly. Make the content of value and close with a signature file that promotes you and your business. Ezine Articles is the best article publisher but Go Articles is also a great source. If you want to mass blast your articles to many directories I use www.isnare.com

PPC Campaign

Run a good PPC campaign on Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing. You can get cheaper pay per clicks on Miva but the big boys have the market cornered.

Craigslist

Place your free ads on Craigslist. Stick to the US where this company works best

MONTHLY TASKS

Submit Your Site

Do this at least to five new search engines on a monthly basis. There's plenty of free url submission services for you to use.

Promote Your Company Events

Keep promoting your company events to your members so as to keep the fire burning.

QUARTERLY TASKS

Joint Venture

Seek out a joint venture partner to help build your business while helping him/her promote theirs. This cross marketing approach is very cost effective and can explode your business if you have the right partners.

Have A Rest

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Be sure to give yourself some well deserved breaks. The 4 day weekend is a great bonus.

I hope these tips will move your business to new heights. It has for me. It'll work for you.

Discover How Greg Reed Adds 20 New People To His Business Daily. Visit http://www.freeinfo4all.com

8 Reasons Why The Direct Selling Business Is Booming

2008-10-01T16:17:00.004+10:00

With the fallout occuring from the US credit crisis many people are seriously looking at ways to add extra income into their households. Many people mainly our baby boomers approaching retirement are now being forced to work longer or supplement their income with extra jobs or new business ventures.

The direct selling industry in a major winner in this crisis with some people carving out a totally new career for themselves. When superannuation fund returns are declining, people question wheter such funds are really a safe haven for all their years of toil. Residual income in years of retirement is now being persude as a legitimate alternative in times of uncertainty.

Direct selling or network marketing or mlm (call it what you will) offers some great benefits like:

Flexibility and Freedom

Choose when, how and where you work. Traditional business isn't as flexible.

No Discrimination

There's no variation on a company's pay plan based on gender, age, race or religion.

Low Risk, High Return

Generally there's a very small investment to get started with the potential for a high return.

No Boundaries

Unlike buying a franchise where you are restrict to a certain territory or area, generally mlm companies allow you to market their goods in all countries in which they are opened. As new countries open, your market potential increases without having to pay extra licence fees.

The Tax Man Giveth

Runing a business allows you to claim business expenses. See your accountant for what you can claim.

Build Relationships

Network marketing is built on relationships. Share products or services with colleagues, family or friends.

Recognition

One of the key ingredients people need for survival. This industry praises people well.

Financial Prosperity

It's difficult to become financially secure by being an employee. Starting a business is almost essential. With low start up costs, direct selling is the beginning of establishing a financial dynasty for a lot of people.

It's easy to see why this industry continues to attract people. With such benefits lives are changed in a lot of cases for the good.

Holidays And Cash - Is It A Scam

2008-08-02T10:25:00.003+10:00

Online business opportunity seekers searching for the perfect business have been inundated with advertisements, flyers and articles about the latest travel website, HolidaysandCash offering bargain holidays and a cash rewards system for members.

I'm always a bit skeptical about these types of claims so I wanted to check things out a little further before I part with my hard earned cash. Here's what I discovered when I got below the shiny veneer.

Is It A Pyramid Scheme?
A new pyramid scheme pops up on the internet every 90 seconds. Staggering isn't it. The most famous ones center around the Nigerian scams offering unsuspecting recipients millions of dollars once they've paid an establishment fee. Unfortunately there is no money and many millions of people have lost billions of dollars worldwide.

Well HolidaysAndCash is NOT in this league but does it pass the litmus test of a traditional pyramid scheme. Does it offer a product or service unlike pyramid schemes? Well yes it does. Members have access to their own online travel portal which scouts hundreds of thousands hotels, resorts, cruises, flights etc to come up with the best bargains on the net. This would take people hours to research, but with HolidaysAndCash the bargains pop up in minutes.

Who's Behind The Company - Will It Survive?
Good management is needed in any company if it's to survive long term. Management needs to be experienced not only in business but more particularly in the areas of internet marketing, distributor relations, international expansion and network marketing.

Michael Faust is the CEO of HolidaysAndCash. I can't say I've heard a lot about him but digging deeper I came up with an impressive resume on the guy. Besides having experience in all of the above prerequisites, Michael's resume showed he was instrumental in expanding Club Freedoms domination of the travel market into Europe, Asia and Africa. One source tells me that CF grew to over 270,000 members in just 3 years. That's staggering!If Michael is bringing that experience and knowledge to the HolidaysAndCash table, it's future seems rosy.

HolidaysAndCash Offers A Cash Reward To Members
HAC outlines in it's online free tour that it pays back 60% of it's income to members. Is that all I thought but after speaking to a couple of heavy hitters in Herbalife, Amway, Agel, NuSkin and Isagenix, 60% payout is high. Most companies only pay 50%. (I think a couple of the "big boys" from these other companies might be creating a stampede to HolidaysAndCash!)

"Yeah Once They Get Your Money, You're Forgotten About"
Now that's not exclusive to online companies. I know plenty of people who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for franchises and never get consistant training or support.So would I get any training from these "faceless men"? Well surprise surprise! The company puts out a 24 page Getting Started Action Plan. A step by step plan on what to do right from day one. There's also live internet based training held weekly around the world plus the helpline is available 24/7

And the "faceless men" even put their phone numbers on their websites. Gosh you can atually talk to a real person. Amazing!So after speaking with a lot of industry veterans, doing heaps of online research, checking out government registers for scammers, I've come up empty handed on negative comments.

It would seem that if you like luxury holidays and only want to pay a fraction of the retail price plus want to share in some very lucrative cash rewards (to fund more holidays), then you need to take a serious look at HolidaysAndCash and take advantage of it's pre launch phase.

While everybody's circumstances are different and you need to do your own due diligence, once the word gets out into the online business opportunity market, I can see other experienced industry networkers jumping onto the HolidaysAndCash ship. Hold onto your seats!

Are You A Glorified Salesperson?

2007-08-13T20:32:00.000+10:00

I really want you to think outside the box with me on this one.

We know that having sales skills is essentialto success in network marketing and that everykind of business, really, is in the salesbusiness.BUT... if the ONLY thing that you and I sell people is our mlm opportunity and the companyproducts, then ALL we are is glorified salesreps.Nothing more.And if all we are is sales reps... then no onewants to talk with us.

Why?

Because no one gets excited about having to brainstorm some lame-yet-realistic-soundingexcuses as to why they can't buy what we'repushing... when really they just don'thave the heart to tell us they couldn't care less about us or our stupid "business plan."

No one likes being backed into a corner wherethey're forced to be rude because you can'ttake a hint.The problem with being "just" a sales rep is that it's outdated.People don't have time to listen to yet anothersales pitch.That doesn't add any VALUE to their busy lives.

You have to give them more than that if you wanttheir attention. Your prospect can go out and join any one of ahundred different work-from-home deals. Yours does not stand out as anything special in theirminds."But I thought you said we have to learn how to sell?"

Yes, but understand that the type of selling I'mtalking about and the type of selling most peoplethink of - the kind their companies teach - aretwo completely different things.Let me ask you a question.What is it that makes sales hard? I mean really,why is it so difficult?It's having to convince the other person that they want what you have when really they don't. Am I right?

So... if that's the case... what if the otherperson already wants what you have? What ifthey're already looking for it?Then the "type" of selling you have to do is completely different. You're not pitching them,you're educating them.

Here's a little secret for you: The heavy hitters don't sell business opportunities.Why?

Because they know that that's not what people are looking for.In fact, a business opportunity is the lastthing they want to sell!No joke. That's not just a tricky play on words.The way multi level marketing is REALLY done -the way the gurus who make as much money in a month as most people make in year do it - is byputting their opportunity on the back burner andforgetting about it.

And I'm not talking about retailing your company's products either.There's something else they sell in order tobuild their business that you won't hear aboutfrom them, your company, or your upline.During my struggling years of mlm, back when Iwas attending every local, regional and national conference I could, there was something thatalways confused me. And I never got the answerto it until I began studying sales and marketingfrom sources other than my company.

There was this one guy, a top dog in our company who was a complete mystery to all of us "commonfolk."We all knew who he was. We all knew that hedrove the most expensive cars of anyone, that hehad the biggest houses and the fanciest suits. What we didn't know was how he did it.And boy did we want to.Because at the huge national pep rallies, he was never jumping around on stage sweating up a stormas if he'd been snorting cocaine for the past two hours (like all the others were).And none of us really wanted to do that. None of us wanted to act like a pack of 1st graders havinga birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. We just gritted our teeth and told ourselves, "If this is what it takes to get there, then this is whatI'm gonna do."But watching this guy, one would get the impression that he couldn't have been more indifferent to all the hype going on around him, despite the fact that he was making 5 times asmuch money as the other leaders.

No matter who we asked though, even our own 6-figure-earning-upline, we could never figure outhow he did it year after year after year - 'cuz he sure as heck wasn't doing it the way the restof us were.Usually the response was just, "I don't know."But the best answer I ever got was, "He sells some kind of system. Don't worry about it though, he doesn't do it the company way."Well I did worry about it. Because I got sickof being an evangelist doing it the company way.So what DO the gurus sell?How could they sell something other than a business opportunity and still build a MASSIVEorganization (and make it look easy)?

Later, after I finally reached a level ofsuccess I had never even thought possible before(sponsoring 20 or more people every month without breaking a sweat) it all made perfectsense. I finally understood how that guy in myprevious company did it.

Here are some of the things I realized:-

First and foremost, the heavy hitters only bothered with the people who were alreadylooking for what they had.

-Secondly, they understood what people werereally looking for in the first place. And sothey offered more than an opportunity, which was just one puzzle piece in the overall picture.They offered their customers something of muchgreater value, something their companies couldnever provide: Themselves and their expertise.

-They learned about sales and marketing techniques from sources other than their company.Because what they were doing was not taught byany company in the industry.

-They invested in their customers first beforethey asked for money or any kind of commitment. This might sound corny, but it is the formulathat every great marketer has used to buildenormously profitable businesses

.-They gave people a true marketing system withwhich to build their business. They gave them the "how" rather than the "what."By doing all this they become more than justanother zealous sales rep peddling their wares.They set themselves apart from everyone else outthere and by doing so, they attracted people to them in droves.

The lesson?Don't be afraid to go against the grain anddifferentiate yourself. Often times this is thebest marketing decision you can make.

Check out the SOLUTION

How Do You Keep Track?

2007-07-08T19:21:00.000+10:00

How on earth do you keep track?

I mean, its recommended that you don't spend more than you make...of course.But how do YOU keep track of your income and expenses? I sure hope you do, because as a home based entrepreneur,you are entitled to a world of tax breaks!

I tell you what, I have no idea how I got by before I began to use the MLM Tax Helper. Its been the easiest, least time consuming way to keep track of daily ins and outs- and keep a good eye on the bottom line- to always make sure there is alot more mula coming in than is going out!

At the end of the year I can just hand the data over to my accountant- and I'll be SURE to get all of the deductions I'm due!Will you???
See the MLM Tax Helper ...you'll save a lot more than the tiny price of the software!

To your Success

Greg Reed

Start 2007 With A Bang!

2006-12-28T14:44:00.000+10:00

If you've always imagined yourself running a successful business -- making an extra $75,000.00... $100,000.00... even $500,000.00 or MORE each year...
... Then this may be the most important post you'll ever read.

Because on this blog page( see the sidebar), I'm going to show you how ANYONE can have a wildly profitable Internet business (that takes just a few hours each day to run) -- even if you're an absolute computer dummy! Even better, if you ALREADY have an Internet business...

We'll demonstrate how you can increase your sales by 400%... 700%... even as much as 1,000% -- by following our simple but proven system that we've used to make over $60 MILLION in online sales.

I'm going to show you...

Step-by-step advice you can use to start your very own Internet business in as little as 48 hours!*

How to build a top-selling web site... for less than $100! I don't care how small your budget is, we'll show you the cheapest ways to build a web site that sells!*

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100s of FREE and cheap online tools, resources, and software that you can use to automate your web site (and can save you 35 hours or more every week)!*

How to get #1 rankings in the search engines and get tons of FREE traffic from the "Big Guys" like Google!*

Secrets to writing salescopy that can increase sales by up to 400% (or MORE)!*
How to get 1,000s of qualified NEW visitors to your web site... for FREE!*
... plus tons more!

If you really want to make 2007 BIGGER AND BETTER than before you need to check out the Internet Marketing Course in our Making Money Online section in the side bar.

These guys have sold more than $60,000,000 online. they know what they are talking about. Check it out today and make 2007 your best year yet!

Merry Christmas

2006-12-22T08:12:00.000+10:00

I hope you all have a very safe and Merry Xmas and that your 2007 will be your best year yet!

The 7 Deadly Sins of Network Marketing

2006-12-13T09:43:00.000+10:00

Here's a red hot article by the Master Randy Gage

It’s ironic that many of the things people try to make their group grow faster, actually serve to slow them down. That’s because they have lost track of a simple truism of the business.
Namely that whether something works, or not isn’t the issue. The real issue is -- does it duplicate?

Every decision you make about the business needs to be evaluated through this filter, or you will have serious issues with duplication. You’ll share the experience of many in the business who recruit a lot of people personally, but find that those people don’t carry forward the process.

After working with thousands of networkers around the world, I have noticed some patterns that repeat themselves. These are behaviors that slow down or even stop your network from growing.

I’ve categorized them into the "7 Deadly Sins of Network Marketing." Any one of these will kill your duplication and turn you into a grinder. Having several or all of them, will doom you to a career of frustration, low bonus checks, and burnout. Take a look, and see how you stack up:

Deadly Sin Number 1: Superhero Syndrome

The main symptom of this disease is that everything is on you.
You do all the major presentations, you’re still doing home meetings or 2-on-1’s for people who are five levels down from you, or those that have been in for six months. (Or six years.) You’re known by all as the spiritual leader of the group and people pay homage at your feet.

The symptoms of this are feeling all warm and fuzzy because you are so needed, and pride that you’re the best sponsor in the world because you take such good care of all your people. This usually lasts a year or two until you begin to attend Dr. Wayne Dyer workshops and wonder why you have so many co-dependant people around you.

Deadly Sin Number 2: The "Play Store" Precedent

This one is easy to spot. The afflicted people have lots of shelves set up in their home office, stocked with protein powders, or vitamins, or skin care. They proudly give tours of their "store" and the more inventory they stock, the more serious they think they are.
Back in the day, this was necessary. But there was a time when they thought beehive hairdos were stylish too. With the Internet, overnight delivery, priority mail service, toll free order lines, customer direct programs, and other technology, this simply isn’t necessary,
What these people don’t realize is that what they are doing is not duplicable by most of the population. And because of this, they end up being the area warehouse for most of their team, thereby increasing the amount of inventory they need, becoming even less duplicable. This ultimately leads to Deadly Sin Number 1.

Deadly Sin Number 3: The Product Peddler Prototype

This is one you see from the "play store" victims a lot. Their lead strategy with prospects is to sell the product first, then try and sneak the business in the back door.
The symptoms of this are people who drive white vans, put magnetic signs on their cars, or sport big buttons on their lapels with corny slogans like, "Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How."

They are also afflicted with the desire to drive around town and spike yard signs all along the roadway. You may also find them at the mall attempting to hand out fiber cookies, or offering sips from their bottle of jungle juice to everyone that walks by.

If their company offers skin care products, they prospect beauticians, nail technicians, and estheticians. If their company provides nutritional products, they’re prospecting chiropractors, athletes, & health clubs, and setting up booths retailing product at health fairs.

Of course they usually have good product volume, but they can’t figure out why their people don’t duplicate better. They have very wide first and seconds levels, and then things drop off a cliff after that.

Deadly Sin Number 4: The "Steady as She Goes" Scenario

This malady is usually fatal. It all begins when someone shows you their scientifically and mathematically proven duplication plan. It goes something like this:
"You sponsor just one person each month, and you teach your people to do the exact same thing. So January, you sponsor one and you’re done. Then in February, you sponsor one more. But your person from January also sponsors one more. So now you have four in your group. Then in March, you sponsor just one more.

But your four people also sponsor one each. So now you have ten in your group. In April, you and everyone else does their one and you have 21. May your group grows to 40 something, June is 80 something, and by the end of the year, you have 57,982 people in your group!"
It sounds good, looks good, and looks good on paper. It just doesn’t work in the real world. It’s an urban myth.

This has been promoted by dozens of MLM trainers and repeated by thousands of other people to train their groups over the years.
The problem is, none of them have actually done it themselves.
In fact, it’s never been done by anyone on earth in the entire history of Network Marketing.

Deadly Sin Number 5: The Happy Hostess Hallucination

This is one of the side effects of Superhero Syndrome. The infected woman is so proud of her home, she decides to hold all of the home meetings for the entire group there. They fancy themselves as social mavens, and are most proud of their gracious hosting skills. They validate this by saying they have adequate parking, or their distributors all live in trailers, or everyone just likes coming to their house.

They bake cakes, set out the fine china, and use napkin rings.
In advanced stages of the disease, every guest gets a complete meal. Everyone gets a tour of the home and a monologue on who all the strange people in the photos are. They are "the hostess with the mostess." Meaning the hostess with the mostess number of distributors who have never made a presentation of their own.

In male subjects this is the Happy Host Hallucination. Instead of baking cakes and showing off the kitchen, they demonstrate the surround sound home theatre and show off their new grill out back. In advanced stages of the disease, every guest gets a tour of their workbench and tools in the garage. (This is cross-referenced in the medical textbooks as Straight Man’s
Disease.)

Deadly Sin Number 6: The Research Scientist Syndrome

The symptoms for this one are easy to spot. The infected person spends so much time and effort researching everything that they never get around to actually doing the business.
They start by learning everything they can about the products.
They want to know every ingredient, where it came from, and if any tofu burgers were harmed in the manufacturing process.

Then they start studying the industry. They read every single book, listen to every CD album, and watch every video ever done by Tom "Big Al" Schreiter, Tim Sales, John Fogg, a few others, and me.
By the time they finish, they are one of the world’s preeminent experts on their product line and the network marketing industry. The only problem is they are broke.

Deadly Sin Number 7: Master Closer Malady

The people with Master Closer Malady are easy to spot. They do lots of 1-on-1 presentations and they sign up almost everyone they talk to. They know all the closing techniques, and they have a pre-programmed data dump for every possible objection.
("You want to talk it over with your wife: Who wears the pants in your family?")
They study the four personality types and change their presentation for each one. They take lessons in NLP and "mirror and model" their prospect’s speech pattern, body position and breathing pattern.

They analyze each prospects language for clues in how they receive information. If the prospect says, "I see what you’re saying…" they assume they are visual and use charts and graphs.
If they say, "I hear that," they assume they are auditory and give them CDs to listen to. If the prospect says, "I feel…" they decide they are kinesthetic and start to fondle them.

All this comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what the business is. Most people think it is a sales business. But that isn’t true. It’s really a teaching and training business.
The people who do the business instinctively well are schoolteachers, professors, professional trainers, yoga instructors, kung fu sifu’s, coaches, and others who are involved with teaching or training in their work.

The people who approach the business with sales techniques are losing sight of the simple formula for creating wealth in Network Marketing:
Create a few simple actions – which can be duplicated by a large group of people – over a consistent period of time.
That simple, but very profound formula is how you create an exponentially growing network. And that means involving a large cross section of society in your group.
Only about 10 percent of the population are sales types. The other 90 percent hate sales, are afraid to sell, and have a deathly fear of rejection. So if we want our actions to be duplicated by a large group of people, it stands to reason we should do something that works for the 90 percent doesn’t it?

This holds true for the previous six items as well. Everything you do in the business must conform to the formula: a few simple actions, which can be duplicated by a large group of people, over a consistent period of time.

You’ll notice that each of the 7 Deadly Sins is something that can only be duplicated by small group of people. Stay away from them, and you have a great shot at creating something special.
And isn’t that why we do what we do?
-RG

What Do I Do - Your Action Plan To Success

2006-12-10T12:29:00.000+10:00

Marketing is an important eliment in your business. Without a plan your efforts will yield inconsistant results at best. You need a plan! Here are some suggestions in a non exhaustive list:

Daily Tasks

Respond to Emails. People expect prompt replies to their questions. This helps strengthen your creditability. Try to answer them within 24 - 48 hours. Build trust with your prospects and customers.

Speak to Customers. Promote your opportunity to customers who will buy from you whether it be your products or business opportunity. Action is necessary to survival.

Weekly Tasks

Join a Discussion Group/Forum. Be involved in your area of expertise. Give content rich comments to build yourself as the expert and develop relationships. Don't push your opportunity. Search for lists of forums in your favorite search engine. eg mlm forums

Check your PPC. See how effective your campaigns are runing. Do some split campaigns to see which ad is pulling best. Add a few extra keywords each week.

Grow your Website Add another page of content rich information. Search engines love fresh information and you'll improve your chances of being ranked higher.

Speak to your Upline/Downline. Keep regular contact with all parties involved in your business. This will keep you abreast of any changes either good or bad and you can act fast to improve things.

Monthly Tasks

Submit Your Website to new search engines. Do this manually or purchase some software to do this for you. Try for at least 5mth. Be sure to be on the major players early..Yahoo, Google, MSN

Advertise in an Ezine. Check out those that relate to your business and advertise in them. Some ezines have free adverts to get you in. Grab a list at Directory of Ezines.

Submit an Article. Content rich information is always in demand. Write the article yourself to allow the reader to get to know you a little better. If you're not confident, then try a 'ghost' writer. Find them at elance.com or email me for my favourite writer. Articles cost just $5/300 words or $10/600 words.

Send out a Newsletter. This should be done at least monthly if not weekly or fortnightly. Keeps you in contact with your customers and prospects. Again make it content rich and don't just plug your business opportunity. See my 'Building a list' in the sidebar.

Quarterly Tasks

Keep Educated. Check the net for the latest in courses to improve your skills. Invest in your education! there are some 'must do' courses in the sidebar.

Have a Rest. Spend time with family & friends doing what you love. If you can get away from the computer for a few days even better. Go to the beach, unwind and relax. You'll return to your work refreshed and more productive!

Remember people don't plan to fail they just fail to plan! Get organised today for better results.

Action Vs Self-Delusion

2006-12-09T11:24:00.000+10:00

I read a great article by Jim Rohn that I had to share with you.

Knowledge fueled by emotion equals action. Action is the ingredient that ensures results. Only action can cause reaction. Further, only positive action can cause positive reaction.

Action. The whole world loves to watch those who make things happen, and it rewards them for causing waves of productive enterprise.

I stress this because today I see many people who are really sold on affirmations. And yet there is a famous saying that "Faith without action serves no useful purpose." How true!

I have nothing against affirmations as a tool to create action. Repeated to reinforce a disciplined plan, affirmations can help create wonderful results.

But there is also a very thin line between faith and folly. You see - affirmations without action can be the beginnings of self-delusion.

And for your well-being there is little worse than self-delusion.The man who dreams of wealth and yet walks daily toward certain financial disaster and the woman who wishes for happiness and yet thinks thoughts and commits acts that lead her toward certain despair are both victims of the false hope which affirmations without action can manufacture. Why? Because words soothe and, like a narcotic, they lull us into a state of complacency.

Remember this: TO MAKE PROGRESS YOU MUST ACTUALLY GET STARTED!

The key is to take a step today. Whatever the project, start TODAY. Start clearing out a drawer of your newly organized desk... today. Start setting your first goal... today. Start listening to motivational CDs... today. Start a sensible weight-reduction plan... today. Start calling on one tough customer a day... today. Start putting money in your new "investment for fortune" account... today. Write a long-overdue letter... today. ANYONE CAN! Even an uninspired person can start reading inspiring books.

Get some momentum going on your new commitment for the good life. See how many activities you can pile on your new commitment to the better life. Go all out! Break away from the downward pull of gravity. Start your thrusters going. Prove to yourself that the waiting is over and the hoping is past -- that faith and action have now taken charge.

It's a new day, a new beginning for your new life. With discipline you will be amazed at how much progress you'll be able to make. What have you got to lose except the guilt and fear of the past?

Now, I offer you this challenge: See how many things you can start and continue in this -- the first day of your new beginning.

See you on top!

Stand Guard At The Door Of Your Mind

2006-12-07T17:36:00.000+10:00

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘be careful of what you wish for; you just might get it?’ Have you ever had the opportunity to realize just how true that statement is? Well, pay heed to the fact that your thoughts have a strong impact on everything around you, including your failure or your success.

A positive mindset is required if you are to succeed in network marketing – or in any other business venture. If you think you can succeed, and you work at it, you will succeed. However, if you think you can’t, or you are filled with doubts, the chances are very great that you will not succeed.

Developing a positive mindset isn’t all that difficult, but in some cases it does take work. There are many courses available that will teach you how to develop a positive frame of mind, but in most cases, you will be able to do this without taking a course.

From this second forward, whenever a negative thought enters your head, stop and rethink the thought – put it in a positive form in your mind. For instance, if the thought ‘I’m not making any money’ enters your head. Stop and think ‘I haven’t made any money yet, but I will find the right path for doing so.’ This will require a conscious effort on your part, but it will be well worth it in the end.

Before you know it, if you do this enough, most of your thoughts will automatically be in positive form, as opposed to a negative form. Another good exercise to develop a positive mindset is to write a list of positive statements, and read those statements out loud every single day.

Statements may include ‘I will have a great day.’ ‘I will make x number of sales this month.’ ‘I will sponsor x number of downline members this month.’ Think the positive thoughts, and then take the required steps to make those thoughts become a reality. If you can think it, you can certainly do it!

2006-12-07T11:56:00.000+10:00

It’s been a long time since I talked about a couple of my favorite Internet marketing strategies: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search engines and Affiliate Programs. These are two of the best tools you can use to bring hordes of people who are interested in buying your product or service to your web site -- with little or no risk to your pocketbook.

PPC search engines are great because once you’ve done your homework and chosen the keywords people will use to find you in the search engines (I’m going to show you how to do this), it’s easy to attract visitors who are interested in what you have to offer, often for just a few pennies.

And Affiliate Programs are one of the best ways to get tons of interested visitors to your site by having other people do the legwork, promoting your web site for you. And the best part is that there’s absolutely no risk to you because you don’t pay a dime unless visitors referred by your affiliates buy your product or service -- so you don’t pay out commissions unless you already have cash in hand!
And last but not least, after we take a closer look at these strategies, I want to show you a really cool way to combine these two techniques that I’d bet my left shoe you’ve never thought of...

1. Using PPC Search Engines to Get Cheap Targeted Traffic
As many of you may know, I’ve been a strong advocate of PPC search engines for years. They remain one of the most effective tools you can use to bring quick, cheap, targeted traffic to your site.
True to their name, with pay-per-click search engines you pay a premium every time a visitor clicks on your link -- anything from a few cents to a few dollars.
For example, let’s say you have a web site that sells woolen mittens. And you want to rank #1 in the search engines for the term "woolen mittens."
To get a top-ten position in the free search engines, you’d probably be looking at a few months (at least) of arduous effort.
But in the pay-per-clicks, you can grab the #1 spot in just minutes! That’s because all you have to do is see how much the person who has the #1 position is paying per click, and simply outbid them by paying one penny more!
Then, when your potential customer searches for the term "woolen mittens," your link will show up as the first listing on the search results page. And each time searchers click on your link, you’ll pay however much you have bid for that #1 position.
Determine your keyword bidding strategy

There are three advantages to bidding on keywords in the pay-per-clicks:
1. You get effective advertising, because you only pay when someone actually clicks through to your web site.
2. Your listing will get posted within a couple of hours to a couple of days at the most, meaning you can start profiting from increased traffic and sales almost immediately.
3. In order to rank in the #1 position, all you have to do is outbid your competitors, which is usually only a matter of a few pennies per click.
Done right, pay-per-click advertising can be very profitable; however, you can lose a lot of money with your PPC advertising if you're not careful. Here are some tips to help you ensure your campaigns are profitable:
Avoid keywords that are too general. More general keywords will attract a lot of traffic, driving up the cost of your PPC campaign and converting few visitors to sales because general search terms are not specific enough to attract the right audience.
Ensure that the sales process on your web site is converting visitors to buyers before you launch a full-scale PPC campaign. You don't want to be spending money on getting the traffic if your web site can't produce sales.
And finally, make sure you calculate how much you can afford to bid on keywords to guarantee that you still turn a profit.
To determine how much you can afford to bid on your keywords, you will need to understand the value of each visitor to your site. You can do this by determining the number of sales you will get, the profit you will earn per sale, and the number of unique visitors your site will receive during a set period of time. It’s generally easiest to calculate these numbers on a monthly basis.
Here are three easy steps that will help you determine the value of each individual visitor to your site:
1. To determine your visitor conversion rate (i.e., the percentage of visitors who buy from you), calculate:number of unique visitors ÷ number of sales = visitor conversion rate
2. To calculate your net profit per sale, calculate: (gross revenue – total expenses) ÷ number of sales = net profit per sale
3. To determine the value of each of visitor to your site, calculate: net profit per sale ÷ visitor conversion rate = individual visitor value
Once you understand the value of your visitors, you will be able to set your maximum bid for keywords. For example, you may determine that each individual visitor to your site is worth 50 cents in pure profit. This means you can afford to bid a maximum of 49 cents per click to guarantee that you will generate profits.
The value of your visitors may also help you determine which PPC search engines you will use, as the minimum bid on keywords in some search engines may be higher than in others.
Choose a pay-per-click search engine to use
Overture.com is the largest and most far-reaching PPC search engine, but its popularity has driven up the cost of advertising with the company. The beauty of bidding on keywords in Overture is that your web site will be listed not only on Overture, but also at Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, CNN.com, and InfoSpace, provided your bid is in the top three for a particular keyword.
Other good, cheap PPC search engines worth exploring include Findwhat, 7Search, and Kanoodle.
Get listed on the first page of Google
Google Adwords is also an excellent option, though technically it's not really a pay-per-click search engine. Instead, it's a "pay-per-position" advertising model that is the only way to get listed on the first page of Google without fighting your way through the free listings.
Google Adwords listings show up in colored boxes on the right-hand side of Google's free search results, giving you tons of great exposure.
With Google Adwords, you bid on keywords for placement; however, Google Adwords also lists ads by popularity (how many clicks they get). You may be paying for placement, but unless your link receives more click-throughs than your competition's links, your listing may not appear in the top spots of the search results.
Find the keywords that your market is searching for
Start by checking your web logs to see what keywords your visitors searched for to arrive at your site (check with your web host if you don’t have access to these statistics). These will provide a good indication of what kinds of terms your potential customers think of when they’re looking for a product or service like yours.
You may also want to consider using a service such as WordTracker, which allows you to easily see which keywords are frequently searched by your target market in the major search engines -- but are not being used by your competition.
All you have to do is enter your keyword, and WordTracker will check its massive database to see how often people are looking for that term, how many competing sites are using that particular keyword, and how much they are bidding in the PPC search engines.
A tool like this will help you choose excellent keywords to bid on. It will also allow you to view the bid price of each keyword in separate PPC search engines, which will help you decide whether the cost of bidding on the keyword is in your ballpark or not.
For example, WordTracker might display the following results for the keywords "Atkins Diet" in Overture.com:
Keyword:
Atkins Diet

Bid Rank

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Bid Price

$0.48
$0.38
$0.37
$0.35
$0.31
$0.30
$0.29
$0.28
As you can see, if you wanted to be ranked #1 in the search engine results for the keyword "Atkins Diet" in Overture, you’d need to bid 49 cents. You would also need a great sales process -- because at over 24,000 clicks in the last 30 days alone, this term would cost you almost $12,000 a month to keep a top listing at 49 cents a click!
A free trial version of WordTracker is available at: www.marketingtips.com/wordtracker. There is also a much more robust paid version as well.
Now let’s shift our focus to an even more powerful tool that I’ve used to grow my own business, and that I strongly recommend as one of the key strategies you can use to direct massive amounts of qualified traffic to your site... without spending a dime up front!
2. Using Affiliate Programs to Get Loads of Qualified Traffic
An Affiliate Program (also referred to as a "Reseller" or "Associate" Program) is a way to get other people to promote your product or service. For every customer (not visitor) that your "affiliates" send to your web site, you pay them a commission.
Your affiliates send visitors to your web site using banner ads, text links, letters of referral, etc... and you track these visitors using special software. For every visitor who decides to buy, you pay your affiliate a commission -- a percentage of the profits you make.
It’s an extremely powerful, profitable way to grow your business because:
a. It’s a win-win partnership, so enlisting an army of affiliates to promote your product is extremely easy. Your affiliates get paid when they refer a paying customer to your web site.
b. There are no up-front advertising costs, because you only pay your affiliates for advertising that gets you sales. Whether they send 10 visitors a day to your site or 10,000, you only pay them for the sale of your product or service.
c. It’s extremely low-risk. Setting up your own affiliate program doesn’t cost much at all if you’re prepared to do some work yourself.
d. You can literally explode your online sales by enlisting an army of affiliates to promote your product or service for you.
Since you know your product or service better than anyone else, you’ll probably have an idea of how you want to promote it. Providing your affiliates with banners, product images, text links, etc. will allow them to get started promoting your product or service faster and more effectively.
One of the best strategies for motivating your affiliates to promote your product or service is to pay them well for their efforts. If the commissions you offer aren’t attractive enough, your affiliates just won’t be motivated.
Additional incentives, such as bonuses for a certain number of sales, will motivate your best affiliates to actively promote your site, putting in as much effort as possible to refer sales on your behalf.
Set up and manage your affiliate program
In order to run a successful affiliate program, you need to be able to:
1. Create a separate account for each new affiliate
2. Track each of their referred sales on each of your products that they are promoting
3. Calculate commissions based on referred sales
A few years ago, there was no special software to do all this. It was a complicated and time-consuming process to track affiliate sales.
But today, you can use software to automatically keep track of which affiliate made which sale and exactly how much you owe each affiliate. Tracking 10,000 affiliates is just as easy as tracking one!
A number of software programs are available to manage your affiliate program, but you’ll want to check out a few to see how easy they are to set up and use.
All-in-one affiliate tracking software like AssocTRAC (www.assoctrac.com) will cost a few hundred dollars and will give you an easy and functional way to automate your affiliate program. Remember that cheaper programs may be appealing at first, but may lack the functionality of tried and tested software.
3. How You Can Combine These Two Strategies for Even BIGGER Profits!
Now that you’ve had a "refresher course" on the power of PPC search engines and affiliate programs, I want to show you an extremely effective way to combine the two strategies and boost the flow of targeted visitors to your site!
Here’s all you do: Encourage your affiliates to try bidding on your keywords to market your product or service in the PPC search engines.
You might think that this would drive up bidding costs, and that you’ll wind up actually competing for pay-per-click placement against people who are supposed to be working for you. But the fact is, encouraging your affiliates to bid on your keywords can help to get you a LOT more exposure in the search results!
Think about this: Typically, when searchers enter their search term and your site appears in the results, your link will be listed alongside links to other web sites... your competitors' web sites.
Now imagine you have a handful of affiliates using the same keywords as you. People enter their search term and your site appears in the results. But instead of being surrounded by links to your competitors’ sites, you are surrounded by more links to your OWN web site!
By using this strategy, you are taking up valuable search engine "real estate." Picture the search engines as a strip mall, and the web site links as the storefronts in the mall (also known as real estate). The more of these storefronts you occupy with your product, the less space there will be left for your competitors’ product -- and the more likely it is that a shopper is going to see your product and buy it.
You may feel that some keywords should be yours and yours alone -- like your company name -- and wish to include a clause in the contract between you and your affiliate, restricting them from using those keywords. It’s up to you if you want to do this, but note that your affiliate does not need your permission to bid on your company name unless you’ve specifically asked them not to.
That said, it really doesn't hurt to let your affiliates bid on your company name in the pay-per-click search engines. Whatever your affiliates are doing to get qualified traffic to your site can only benefit you.
So there’s no need to worry that your affiliates could outbid you, or drive up the costs of your PPC advertising...
Because the most important thing to remember about your affiliates is that they are your teammates or business partners, working with you to market your product or service. Competing with them for the top spot is counterproductive, especially since the goal is to occupy as much of the search engine results page as you can with links to your site.
If your affiliates are taking the initiative to advertise on your behalf in the pay-per-clicks, don’t waste your money outbidding them. Instead, check to see how much your competitors are bidding on keywords and spend your time and money keeping ahead of them. Your campaign should be aimed at outbidding your competition, not your affiliates, for top placement in the PPC search engine results.
You may want to consider actively encouraging your affiliates to try PPC advertising! If you decide to do this, you might want to provide them with a few tips and strategies on how they can use the PPCs to their advantage -- because, in the end, this will be to your advantage, too.
4. Final Thoughts
By themselves, both PPC search engines and affiliate programs are hugely effective ways to draw a paying crowd to your site. They are two of the most powerful traffic-generation techniques on the Internet today, and the real beauty of them both is that they will cost you next to nothing.
Once your affiliate program is up and running -- and automated with software like AssocTRAC -- you won’t have to spend any time or money at all. As your affiliates promote your products for you, your software tracks their sales for you, and it makes sure they are only scheduled to be paid after a sale is made.
It’s one of the smartest marketing strategies you can use.
And I feel just as strongly about using pay-per-click search engines -- particularly if you are a small business owner going after a niche market on the ‘Net. Pay-per-clicks are the fastest way to get your product in front of your exact target audience so you can see immediate results. And, by keeping a close eye on your return on investment for each keyword you bid on, you can ensure that your pay-per-click campaigns are always enormously profitable.
By combining these two powerful strategies to maximize your coverage in the pay-per-click listings, you can dominate your market space swiftly and effectively. Having your affiliates join you in the pay-per-clicks is really only a natural extension of both affiliate programs and PPC advertising, but it’s a technique that doesn’t get taken advantage of often enough. There are lots of online resources to help you get started with your affiliate program or PPC campaign. One of the best is the "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet -- Version 2004" course, where you’ll find detailed descriptions of how you can profit with these proven strategies. http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/811876

How To Avoid Building A Business In Quicksand

2006-12-07T11:47:00.000+10:00

Too often, network marketers make the mistake of placing too much importance on business building, and not nearly enough on product retailing. In the past, this was the acceptable and expected way to do things. However, in today’s world of network marketing, one must place at the very least equal importance on the two practices, and possibly even more importance on product retailing.

The act of building one’s business in networking marketing refers to building the downline. This may be called recruiting or sponsoring, and the downline may be called the sales team. It all means the same thing. You build your business by building a downline. Those downline members will build downlines as well.

However, all members of all up lines and downlines should be selling the product as well – otherwise, the business cannot sustain itself, and may even get to the point where it is considered a pyramid scheme.

In fact, many network marketing companies today require all members to sell a certain number of products, or have a certain amount in sales for a given period, before they will be allowed to collect commissions for sales of downline members. This protects and benefits everyone involved.

So, while building your downline is an important part of building your business, selling the product is important when it comes to sustaining your business, as well as the entire company. Do not place more importance on building a downline, thinking that they will do all the selling for you – this simply won’t work.

Develop a marketing plan to sell the product, and develop a campaign plan for recruiting downline members as well – but if push comes to shove, and you find that you simply do not have the time for both activities, sell the product. You will be surprised to find that many of your customers will join your downline!