Monthly Archives: December 2009

I just read an article from Npros.com on using a blog to make money for you and your business. Check it out by clicking here. If you’re new to blogging, and looking to start soon then definitely read on.

I strongly believe information marketing is important in order to excel in network marketing. Out of all the ways to give your audience content, blogging is most effective. Think of blogs as a storefront where people enter to find products that can help enhance their lives. All your links, company news, product info, articles and videos are in your blog for visitors to check out.

As described on Npros.com, there’s several different blog websites. While their article gives you instructions on setting up a blog on Blogger.com, I recommend setting one up at Word Press. What I also recommend is having your blog hosted through GoDaddy. That way it’ll be your own branded blog instead of Word Press’s.

How you monetize your blog is first from providing wealthy content created by you. If readers like what you are posting, they’ll keep coming back to read your information, which will lead to them trusting what you have to say. When they trust you, they’re more inclined to join your primary business or buy products from you. You can’t expect a prospect to want to buy anything from you if you have nothing valuable for them to read on your blog.

The second way you can make money, also suggested from Npros, is through Google Adsense. With this plugged into your blog, you can make money from people who click on the ads that are shown on your website. Advertisers pay Google to advertise on their site, and with those ads shown on your website, you will have a chance to make money as well. You will need a Google Adsense account. Click here to set one up if interested. If you have a Word Press blog, you can add Google Adsense through a plug in called Adsense Now! Type that in when clicking on Add New under Plug Ins.

With your blog up and running, and with some valuable content you’ve written, you will need to now promote it. If you’re using social networking sites like Facebook you can promote it that way. Just post a update on the wall telling everyone you have a new blog posted, what the subject is, and what they can expect to learn from it to apply towards their business. Then offer a link for them to click on to direct them to your blog.

One way I promote my blog is through articles. Since you are blogging, you can form them into articles to submit to article directories. Here’s five article directories sites I recommend that you use:

•    http://www.ezinearticles.com/
•    http://www.goarticles.com/
•    http://www.articlecity.com/
•    http://www.articles3000.com/
•    http://www.articlestreet.com/

There you go. If you are ready to start blogging and generating leads, get started now using these simple tips that are highly effective. If you don’t know what to blog about, be sure to first blog about what you know that will help your target audience. After that, start conducting research. Npros.com is a great place to start to research on great topics your prospects will love.

This is another topic that is simple but very crucial to success as a leader. If you’re in MLM, and you’re looking to use brand marketing to position yourself as a leader and be of value to others, you must read this. With it you’ll know what to look out for and achieve success.

In one of my last blog posts on having vision, I pointed out that average leaders are able to get tasks done, lead others effectively, but can sometimes let distractions hinder their progress. While effective leaders don’t let distractions effect them. They remain focused on the prize. They’re racing to the top, jumping over pits and sharp obstacles, until they reach the top of success.

Now you’re maybe wondering about my headline on how I said fear killers. What are fear killers exactly? First off I’ll explain what they do. Fear killers are people who try and talk you out of your goals, dreams, and tasks. They are people who may also manipulate and do things to hinder your progress.

For example, it’s the third week since you launched a attraction marketing project to generate at least fifty clients a week, and generate $1,000,000 in profits every month you and your MLM team. One day you’re just extremely tired and feel overworked, but the thought of reaching your goals keep you energized. You come home to your family, and they see how tired you are. Your wife/husband is telling you “I don’t understand why you’re doing this project. It’s wearing you out, you don’t have as much time for me anymore, and you need to get back to reality.” You get on the phone with one of your friends, and he/she is saying “You’re too busy to hang out with me now. Stop working all the time. You have no life.” Even worse, two of your downline members email you telling you they quit the business, saying the project and the business “Are a waste of time.”

Things like this happens, especially when you have extreme huge goals that you’re trying to achieve. And as the example tells you, fear killers are people closest to you. They can be friends, family, your girlfriend/boyfriend, network marketers in your team, etc. As a leader you have to watch out, for sometimes those closest to you will say they support what you do, but then softly suggest to your that you need to take a break or quit trying to achieve your goals completely. Then you should say something like, “I understand what you’re saying, but to reach my goals I have to keep pursuing. I have to keep working at this to make it work. “

Some of those people, mainly friends, you will have to remove out of your life. It’s not worth hearing the negative energy or suggestions they have. I removed some people out of my life that were fear killers, and because of that I can accomplish more. As an effective leader, you’re not part of the crowd, you stand out. You’re destined to accomplish what the average person can’t do. Some people can’t handle that, are struggling themselves financially, and will try and bring you down in order to make them happy. This is a simple but overlooked tip. You may have people in your life hindering you now.  Either remove them out of your life, or ignore their suggestions. They can easily make you miss out on a million dollar opportunity.

Marketing is one area people tend to put on the back burner when times are rough. But if you run a business, and you want to set yourself apart from the rest, be sure to never take marketing out of your plans. Despite how things are going on in the economy, even if people aren’t showing interest in your product or service, you should not cut down on your marketing.

What you should do is find the right marketing methods to use for your business. Use methods that target your audience, which means research what media outlets your audience watches or reads or what social networking websites they use. And you should put in from 7% to 10% of your funds into marketing.

Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. In attraction marketing, it’s all about how you convey your message to your target audience. It isn’t about how pretty your website looks or how great your products are. Your message has to be a grabber. You should be having your prospects saying “Wow, he/she really knows what they’re talking about, and I feel they are perfect for helping me with my struggles.”

Trust me, you’ll most likely miss the mark from time to time. Some of your headlines, article/ blog descriptions, or ads may not catch anyone’s attention at all. That’s why you have to experiment. Most of your marketing won’t work. A lot of your marketing will be ineffective from the very beginning. Your prospects know nothing about you, and won’t want to find out more about you until they see your marketing messages thirty times or more.

I just checked out another great MLM marketing article from www.mlmhelpdesk.com in regards to using social networking to build your business. The name of the article is: Can You Build An MLM Business Through Social Marketing?. Check that article out it gives you some good info on why social networking is important.

Network marketing is about building relationships, doing business with people you like and can trust, and about being an effective leader that can lead your entire team to success. Where before you could build your business locally by connecting with people at networking clubs, conferences, and home parties, you’re now able to do that online. When I read this article, it talked about how relationships are the core of how you can achieve success in network marketing, and how Internet MLM is now where it’s at as well.

Think about it. If you’re having a hard time getting people to sign up for your business, could it be because you’re not trying to build a relationship with them? Instead of attracting prospects, you’re scaring them away by being on them about your opportunity. You’re going to get tired of me saying this, and I say this in a lot of my blog posts, but people do business with people they like and trust.

MLM Help Desk also mentions, that you should encourage your team to also build relationships using social networking. I cannot agree more. Although marketing locally and word of mouth are still effective, you can reach a much larger number of people in very little time through the Internet. If you post valuable content that prospects like to read, it can go viral in a short matter of time. What you leave on the Internet is permanent.

If you ask questions to other network marketers to find out more about them beyond just business, and help solve their problems, you will have them raving about you to their friends and contacts. As you build your team, you must use effective leadership to teach them how to build relationships as well over the Internet. By doing so, your team will grow very quickly, and you’ll earn not only massive profits, but you’ll earn new trustworthy and loyal friends as well that will support and help you out in everyway possible. Now that is priceless.

To be specific and to the point, email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to market yourself and your business to qualified prospects. I just read an article from the website www.mlmhelpdesk.com, a site dedicated to providing news, and information to help network marketers succeed. The article you can check is called: MLM Email Should Include These Three Basic Elements. Definitely check that out for the three tips you need for email marketing success.

One of the main reasons people say that email marketing is dead is that there is so much clutter. Marketers that are using traditional marketing buy email lists to blast emails to thousands of prospects. So many marketers are pitching to the wrong people, and prospect’s email accounts are either flooded with marketing messages, or empty because they’re using spam filters to block those messages from being sent to them. Though this is happening, that doesn’t mean that email marketing should be overlooked.

Email marketing is an Internet MLM strategy that everyone in network marketing should be using. You need a way to continuously market to prospects. You got to keep them engaged in reading your content so they know your name. It’s like working out; continuous repetitions help you to get in shape. What the prospects see in their face from reading your emails continuously is how they gain more interest in you.

So to excel in Internet network marketing, make email campaigns one of your marketing weapons. Just like what the article I mentioned on top says, you should personalize your messages to include the name of the prospect, and to make them feel like you’re talking to them and them only. You need to brand your message with a headline so that is doesn’t sound like everyone else’s, allowing your email open rates to increase. Lastly, you need to get your prospects to take action right now.  So if, for example you have a formula they can use to increase MLM sign up conversions by 100%, you need to tell prospects to click on the link to get them started, and to follow the instructions you give them in order to complete the formula with no troubles.

The last thing I like to say, is what not to include in your email headlines. DO NOT use these headlines, otherwise your email is going in the spam folder for deletion:

•    Hello
•    Online Business
•    Addition Income
•    Financial Freedom
•    Be Your Own Boss
•    Home Based Business Opportunity
•    Make Money at Home

These headlines are too broad and sound like everyone else’s emails. You’re not using email marketing to be part of the crowd. You’re here to break through the clutter. Make a name for yourself.

I want to share with you what I experienced when doing sales. When I worked at Apple Computer as a Sales Rep there, I used to hate objections. Still now they bother me, but they are what you need in order to sell effectively. Often I would build rapport, ask open-ended probing questions, and offered the right computer for a particular prospect, with the right software and accessories to suit their needs.

I would then ask if that’s what they are looking for, and they would say yes. I would ask them if they could see themselves using the computer and items I recommended, and they would say yes. But when I said, “Great let’s check out now so we can get this order placed,” the prospect would then say, “No.”

So why is it after I asked them if they are confident in my solution and that they can see themselves using the computer they still stay no? The reason is there’s still a grudge the prospect is holding that is keeping them from completing the order process. People hate making decisions, especially big decisions. And if you purchased an Apple computer, you made a huge investment.

So you have to asked something like, “Ok I asked you the kind of work you’d be doing, and you approved of the solution I’ve given you related to what you’ll be doing. What’s holding you back from completing this order?” I’ve used to ask these types of questions to see what was keeping them from saying yes. And at that point, they’ll be open to explain why. Sometimes however, you have to back track and ask them questions pertaining to their current lifestyle. A question like, “Now you said you have a current project for school, when is that project due?” is a good way to find out how you can convince them that purchasing now is better than waiting.

One important thing though. If your prospect maps out several reasons why they can’t buy now, you either didn’t do a good job at probing, didn’t provide the right solution to their problems, didn’t listen to their answers, or didn’t map out the benefits that’ll suit their particular needs. So now you will have to back track and start all over again, which can be a factor in terms of time to the prospect. Most of the time, if you have to start all over again, you’ve already lost the sale, for the prospect knows that you weren’t listening to them and their needs.

I just read in interesting article from Hub Spot’s blog. This company provides marketing services that allow people to pull prospects, or attract them to you and your business. You can view the article by clicking here: Outbound Vs Inbound Marketing.

If you haven’t viewed my blog last week, then you didn’t read the attraction marketing interview I had with Kay Hebbourn, an attraction marketing expert. You can view it by click here: Exclusive Attraction Marketing Interview.

What both of these are going to tell you if you read them, is that if you’re using traditional marketing, or outbound marketing that it’s also called, then you’re going to fall flat on your face. We live in a time where prospects are resenting traditional marketing and are fighting back with spam filters, no calling lists, social media groups (to boycott companies), etc. Outbound marketing is all about advertising your products and services to a mass audience in hopes that someone will gain interest and want to buy. A few forms of outbound marketing are buying lists of leads to cold call, online banner ads, TV commercials, & email blasts.

If you want to reel in qualified prospects to buy your products & services, or join your network marketing team, then you have to use inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is using messages that offer value to the prospects and pulls them in to make them want to learn more about you. You are basically asking for their permission to market to them. If they say yes, then you can continue marketing to them through the use of, for example, an email newsletter so they can continue hearing about what you’re doing. Like I’ve said in many of my blog posts, in order to get prospects to find you and learn more about you, you have to offer value.

This method of marketing is a way to build relationships. Building relationships take time. Prospects may wait months or even years before they think about purchasing your products or services. But when you start using inbound marketing now, down the road when you start seeing results, you’ll be glad you did.

If you’re using several marketing methods to help grow your business, here’s something you should ask yourself: “How do I know what marketing methods are working, and which ones aren’t?”

Now if you’re advertising on magazines, using Googles Adwords, or sending out online press releases through a online press release distributor, then you definitely need to know the answer to this question. The reason why you want to know, is so you can save money in the long run.

You have the marketing methods in place that you want to use, and your phone is ringing off the hook all day. You’re flooded with emails from prospects interested on what you have to offer. The problem is, you don’t know where they’re coming from. So how do you know where they’re coming from.

You don’t necessarily have to have the most advanced database management program to find out. All you have to do is when on you’re on the phone with a prospect or when emailing them back, is ask them this simple question: “How did you hear about me?”

Seems simple? It definitely can be. Prospects are more than happy to tell you how they heard about you. If their response is “I don’t know,” then you need to ask more specific questions like: “Did you find my ad from Business Opportunity Magazine?” or “What radio stations do you listen to?” By asking specific questions, prospects will tend to remember where they heard you from.

If you have Notepad, Word, or Excel on your computer, list all the methods that you use on one of those programs, and jot down the answers from your prospects. So if more people are hearing from you on magazines, and very few people are hearing from you on Google Adwords, then you should stop advertising on Adwords and focus your marketing dollars and time on magazines.

When you follow this simple method, expect huge profits in the long run, and a whole lot of time and money saved.

You might have several marketing methods (ads, commercials, etc.) in place you plan to use for marketing yourself or your business. However, how long do you plan to implement those strategies? What if you aren’t seeing the results within a month after implementing those methods? Do you plan to drop the plan and pursue other methods?

If you’re one of those people I’m talking about, please read on. Whatever you do, keep your marketing plan consistent. You can’t expect quick results after only three months of advertising or providing value to your target market. Remember prospects are exposed to thousands of marketing messages daily. And guess what, a lot of those messages are downright terrible. Instead of offering value to prospects, traditional marketing is about pitching their products and services to them in hopes of gaining access to their pocketbook.

What does that mean for you? First off it’s your chance to separate yourself from the pack. One method is writing effective headlines in your ad copies that explain benefits to your target market. The most important and effective way to market, however, is making yourself valuable to your audience. You must provide value.

In the times where people are cutting back on marketing, you should be focusing on executing an all out marketing attack on your prospects. And lastly, make sure you set your marketing methods and marketing budget to last a good year before revising. That means if you plan to use Facebook and Pay-Per-Click as your methods, be sure to put in the time and money needed to last a year and track your results.

Again, prospects are exposed to several marketing messages daily. There’s so much clutter that they aren’t going to remember who you are right away. They need to see you several times before they finally take the initiative to find out more about you. That said, definitely get started now if you haven’t already. If you need help on setting up your marketing strategy to attract prospects to you, email me at sheldon.marketing@yahoo.com.