Sheldon's Kingdom

I just came upon this site recently when researching some good MLM articles. This site is called the Distributor Rights Association, an organization that’s devoted to help distributors and independent contractors succeed in MLM and when doing business with other companies.

In October of last year the organization held a Distributor Rights Convention in Las Vegas that offered training on various topics, including the domination of social media and how to best exploit that method of marketing to optimize financial results. By checking out their webpage, you’ll find out the positive testimonials from the people who attended that convention. DRA knows the powerful methods of marketing that network marketers should use today, and is willing to teach those that are a part of their organization to best implement them for maximum results.

In general, the DRA wants to teach network marketers and contractors their rights and how to stay protected in business. Although there is a lot of income potential in network marketing, it doesn’t come without its downsides. Depending on what network marketing company you’re a part of, you can fall victim to a lot of different things, including the company’s option to terminate you at anytime or the company’s option to take your pay at anytime. To find out more on any network marketing company beyond just its line of products and compensation plan, ask for the company’s policies and procedures from any MLM recruiter or your upline and read it thoroughly.

From looking at the DRA benefits, you will know the laws in MLM, which they update regularly.  Learning the legal aspect of business is very important and often overlooked. You’ll also get updates on training and the chance to form true relationships with other distributors. What you will also get, most importantly, is a chance for you to be hear. DRA encourages people to be the voice of the future of MLM, and to be a leader of the MLM industry.

For more information on the Distributor Rights Association, visit www.mlm-dra.org.

A couple of weeks ago I was a part of this telephone seminar, and the speaker of the call was Perry Marshall. Perry is an expert when it comes to using Google Adwords to market your business. He knows the ins and outs of how Google punishes those who aren’t familiar with Adwords, and rewards those who are smart. He’s also an author of a few books regarding Google Adwords. You can find out more about him by clicking on this link.

The seminar I was a part of was about Google and how they go on a Adword ban rampage for anyone that doesn’t follow Google’s rules. It’s a good idea to use Google’s services to market and communicate with others, especially with the new Google Wave around the corner. However, Google is hard on people who don’t follow the rules. What you may also don’t know, however, is that Google resents affiliate marketing in general.

This was the main thing I learned from that telephone seminar with Perry. Google has banned several Adwords accounts, one reason being from being an affiliate marketer. No questions asked. If Adwords is the sole of where your income is coming from, and they close your account, you’re out of luck. Anyone that they have suspected of doing anything shady, they straight out ban their accounts.

So why does Google ban people’s accounts that are search affiliates? Google doesn’t see search affiliates of any value at all since they are who promote others company’s products. Google treats some promotions of affiliate products as duplicate products or spam. Google would rather have you promote your own products and services that are of value to consumers than referring prospects to other products to buy and get paid for every paid customer. Google wants to get rid of search affiliates, and if you’re one that’s also using Adwords, expect to be a victim of the Adword ban rampage.

So now you know Google doesn’t see affiliate marketing as valuable. You also know that Google is looking to eliminate affiliate marketing in general. So if you’re looking to use Google Adwords, but have been promoting affiliate programs, should you stop promoting those products? If you want to be safe you can.

One option you can do is have two Google Adwords accounts. One account will be your main account for pushing your product line.  The second account would be for testing affiliate programs. So that way, if Google shuts down your second account, you can still have your main Adwords account intact. When testing affiliate programs, be sure to do that on a blog, where you can write your own experiences with some of those affiliate products. This way you’re helping others, instead of merely just selling products you don’t own.

In a time where money is tight and people are looking to earn revenue through effective marketing, you have to play it smart at all times. Marketing is always the heart of what makes a business successful, for that’s what gets people finding out about you and what you have to offer. Without marketing, no business can stay long. With marketing, you have a chance to earn revenue from consumers having interest in you. Through tracking your marketing, you can boost your revenue dramatically.

What happens when you track your results? You find out what is working for you and what isn’t working for you. You find out what methods are making you the money, and what methods aren’t missing the mark. You find out how prospects are finding out about you. You also find out what marketing is misleading your prospects and giving them the wrong idea about you. It all depends on how you market.

So you know marketing works to build your business. But what makes marketing so great is because it’s like art. You paint a compelling picture using color, blending, saturation, and patterns to draw people in. Just like art, you can make compelling ads and messages that are truly unique and can have the prospect sold within minutes. So although you know that marketing is mandatory for your business to succeed, you need to know how to implement marketing.

When you track your results, you can save time and money in the long run. You’re never going to use only one method of marketing. You have to use several methods of marketing, and have them integrate with one another. For example, suppose you’re doing classified advertising and using brochures as your marketing methods. You can have a classified ad telling prospects how you helped someone make $50,000 through self-branding, and at the end of the ad you offer them a free brochure for more information on how they can get started as well. If the brochure tells the prospect what their pains are, what you do and how you can help relief their pain, offers a testimonial or two, and at the end asks for the sale, then you’re on your way to making a profit.

Now since I recommend that you track everything, you might be wondering what main things you need to track. Here’s a few things you need to track primarily in order to boost your marketing efforts and revenue:

• Your first ad exposure
• The total amount of prospects you’re targeting
• The source of your ad
• How many exposures before a click or call
• How many clicks or calls for a lead
• How many clicks or calls for a sale
• How many leads for a sale

With this type of data, you can then find out the costs, including cost per lead, cost per phone call, cost per sale, etc. You can use that data to calculate the value per customer with the costs. You want the value per customer to be more than the cost to acquire them. If you’re spending $200 for each customer that will pay you $150 for your products, then you’re paying $50 more just to acquire them. When you find out what methods are working and which ones aren’t, you know where to spend most of your marketing at, and you’ll know where you’ll profit at in the long run.

This is Part 3 of a training video on how you can monetize your blog by posting Google Adsense ads on your blog.

This is Part 2 of a training video on how you can monetize your blog by posting Google Adsense ads on your blog.

This is Part 1 of a training video on how you can monetize your blog by posting Google Adsense ads on your blog.

In this post I have the audio recording with me interviewing Debbra Sweet. This is part one to the interview, with the possibility of a part two of the interview the day we can conduct an interview. She goes into detail on what leadership is, how it can be implemented in business, and why network marketers and small business owners alike need to apply it to their business for success.

To listen to this interview, click on this link. If you have problems accessing the interview, be sure to email me at sheldon.marketing@yahoo.com.

In this post I’m sharing with everyone a audio recording of a conversation I had with a buddy of mine named Tone. We had a previous conversation regarding attraction marketing and leadership. The previous conversation covered facts on how network marketers are failing in network marketing because they don’t brand themselves.

This audio recording explains, based on our experiences and knowledge, why self confidence plays a big role whenever you’re networking with others, and how it’ll help you get more distributors a part of your team while also helping you to get more sales of your products. You can also download the audio for later listening. Check it out and hope you all find the information empowering.

When you’re in business for yourself, you have to make the right moves at all times to make sure you convert prospects into paying customers. First you should gain their consent through communicating to them, and then when you have their attention, get them to buy your product or service. Most people in sales know that through effective communication and from asking for the sale often, you can get sales. How about when you’re not working and resting for eight hours a night?

That’s the beauty of having ads. Whether they’re magazine ads, banner ads, or Google Adwords Ads, they do the work for you 24-7. However, traditional marketing tells you to make the best-looking ad that talks about how great a product or service is. This used to work in the past when ads were first used, but not anymore. One of the main reasons why this method is ineffective is because everyone is doing the same thing, shoving their products and services down prospect’s throats.

The traditional method of marketing can be very expensive for an individual marketer, and will surely put them out of business. However, when ads are used right, they will get you the right prospects calling or emailing you asking how you can help solve their problems. In fact, your ads can go as far as to getting you sales without ever talking to the prospect. How great is that? Very great.

If you already know your target market and what their biggest problem is that they need help solving, then writing the ad copy will be much easier, for what you need to do then, is convey the problem in the ad, then talk to them about what you can do for them and the benefits of working with you or buying your product. If you don’t know much about your target market, then the best place to start is through interacting in discussion forums or through reading product reviews from your target market.

By hiring a copywriter, you can make sure you have someone who will be able to write a set of effective ads for you. One site you can check out for hiring a copywriter is www.directresponsejobs.com. When looking to for the right copywriter, make sure he or she has some experience in writing ads. That way you don’t have to spend as much time training him or her on how you want your ads written and how to make them appeal to your target audience.

In order to best make sure your ads are giving you big results, be sure to have more than one version of your ad. This way you can find out what works and what doesn’t. For Internet advertising, you can have two banner ads running on one site, with both of them popping up at random times for prospects to click on. If prospects are clicking on one ad more then the other, but the other ad is converting prospects into customers, which ad are you going to keep? You’re going to keep the one that’s getting you sales, and get rid of the one that isn’t. That way, the ad that was getting you more sales can get you twice as many profits since it’ll be displayed more often.

I decided to touch back to this topic of removing prospect’s fears, for it’s an important topic to cover since a lot of network marketers are dealing with prospects that may have fear that’s keeping them from making a decision. Without customers, a business won’t stay around long, and so learning how to get new customers and keeping those customers around should be a top priority for anyone in network marketing or in business in general.

Do you want to know one of the most effectively ways that a prospect can become more confident in what you have to offer? The answer is, testimonials.  Yes that’s right. Testimonials are highly effective for getting prospects to do what you want them to do most, which is buy your product or join your business.

Why are testimonials so important? Because they tell prospects that other people have tried the product, was satisfied that the product helped solved their problems, and shows how confident other people are in the product you’re offering. People do not want to be the only one using a product. They need proof that other people are using what you’re selling and are happy with the results they’re receiving. Prospects want others to relate to their struggles and problems. To hear from other customers how satisfied they were using your products or services reduces or eliminates the fear, and makes the prospect more comfortable and willing to buy from you.

Remember this, a customer’s testimonial is a thousand times more powerful than what you have to say. A prospect may not always listen to you, but they will always listen to a happy customer. So when you have a customer, make sure to continuously keep your relationship with them well established. When you have happy customers, they’ll market your offerings for you. That’s also when you can call them and ask them for a testimonial, which they’ll be more than happy to give you.

Once you have a good set of testimonials, include them in your marketing materials, including emails and post cards. If you have a blog, have a testimonials section that has all the testimonials you’ve obtained. You can have a short testimonial on your business cards, only if you can fit one in.  You can even have a testimonials document that you can give to prospects of some of the best testimonials you have. With testimonials the possibilities are very well open.

Remember, prospects are much more likely to listen to happy customers than you. They’ll be more confident to buy by hearing from other people that has been satisfied with your products or services that’s not a part of your business. Think back of that time when you said you weren’t ever going to buy something, but then ended up doing so because a friend tried it and told you how great it was. Then when you bought it you was just as satisfied, if not more.