A few months ago, Jeff, who is in my upline told me that he had received 29 autoresponders without a single sign-up. Now, our team average is 1 sign-up for every 7 autoresponders, so he was due.
He said he wasn't doing anything differently. Still working the same safelists, traffic exchanges, and list builders, but without the usual results.
Had it been me, I would have tried something different. Different ads, different lists, do more stuff. I would have been buying marketing tools left and right, trying to fix whatever it was that was wrong.
Not Jeff. He kept on doing the same old things. Then it happened.
A couple weeks ago, Jeff recruited 5 premium members in one day! How is it possible? Nobody does that. I wanted to know his secret. So, he told me.
No, he used no new technique. He didn't find a new ezine that had super-responsive solo ads. He didn't buy any new marketing tools or ebooks. He didn't even increase his efforts. He told me his secret with just one word: Consistency.
Jeff did the same thing the day he signed 5 people that he did during the weeks he signed nobody. He knew eventually the law of averages had to kick in, and boy did it ever.
The lesson I learned was this: You cannot control how many members you enroll today. It's impossible. It's out of your reach. It's kind of like fishing.
The fisherman doesn't go out on the lake knowing he's going to bring home 13 fish. He sets his bait and hook, does the best he can, and realizes there's only so much he can control.
But also, kind of like fishing, you can control how many hooks you have in the water. And, like fishing, you can control how many hours a week you go out on the lake.
If you keep 5 hooks in the water for 40 hours a week, eventually you'll be able to calculate an average number of fish that will bring in. Barring some unforeseen event (the lake being poisoned), you can count on the law of averages every time.
The exact same thing holds true with your marketing. If you consistently place quality ads, write quality articles, and follow up with your downline, those actions will produce predictable results over time.
If you can identify the actions that make money for you, and do them on a consistent basis, there's absolutely no way you can fail.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Should You Start a Home Based Business?
Job insecurity is a fact in today's economy. Still, people are reluctant to own a home-based business. Why is this? Many are addicted to the paycheck mentality. They'd rather look for a job that pays them steadily, if somewhat dismally, than take a chance on a much bigger, brighter future.
Any self-made millionaire will tell you that the key to wealth is leverage. Leverage is simply making more money by doing less work. This is impossible as an employee, regardless of your salary. With a home-based business, you even earn while you sleep, especially with the enormous power of the Internet at your disposal.
Never before in history have we been able to connect to billions of people worldwide. Not only that, but we stay connected 24/7! Take a moment and imagine the implications of this.
In just 5 minutes, you could be set up to offer your products to customers anywhere on this planet. You have a store whose open sign is always on.
Compare that to working a job. If you're on salary, you probably work more than 40 hours a week, and still bring home the same pay. If you are hourly, you only get paid while you're on the clock. No surprises. You already know what your next week's check is going to be. There's not much you can do to change it.
Why do we keep trudging along then? Why don't more of us kick the 9 to 5 and go out on our own? I think it's fear. Not only that, but I think the fear is both created and promoted by big business. I mean, if all of us had our own business, who would they get to make the widgets, sweep the floors, or take out the trash?
You want to talk about fear? What could be scarier than to be at the whims of the people running Wall Street right now? With the swipe of a pen you can be downsized, like a non-person. You become just another number, a statistic.
While most of us have bought in to the whole master/slave mindset, I'm finding more and more people are questioning its validity. If you're reading this, you're probably one of those people.
When you first contemplate going out on your own, it can indeed be scary. Breaking the paycheck mentality addiction takes guts, and if you're going to do it you need a plan. I would highly recommend investing in some personal development or growth before making the jump. Remember, you're not only changing your lifestyle, you're also changing your mindset.
In today's economy, however, jumping may be much safer than staying aboard a sinking ship. Thousands of people, pink slips in hand, are finding this out on a daily basis. Unfortunately, most addicts don't change until they hit rock bottom, which is where Wall Street appears to be headed right now.
In the long term, owning a home-based business provides much more security, as more of us are learning every day.
Any self-made millionaire will tell you that the key to wealth is leverage. Leverage is simply making more money by doing less work. This is impossible as an employee, regardless of your salary. With a home-based business, you even earn while you sleep, especially with the enormous power of the Internet at your disposal.
Never before in history have we been able to connect to billions of people worldwide. Not only that, but we stay connected 24/7! Take a moment and imagine the implications of this.
In just 5 minutes, you could be set up to offer your products to customers anywhere on this planet. You have a store whose open sign is always on.
Compare that to working a job. If you're on salary, you probably work more than 40 hours a week, and still bring home the same pay. If you are hourly, you only get paid while you're on the clock. No surprises. You already know what your next week's check is going to be. There's not much you can do to change it.
Why do we keep trudging along then? Why don't more of us kick the 9 to 5 and go out on our own? I think it's fear. Not only that, but I think the fear is both created and promoted by big business. I mean, if all of us had our own business, who would they get to make the widgets, sweep the floors, or take out the trash?
You want to talk about fear? What could be scarier than to be at the whims of the people running Wall Street right now? With the swipe of a pen you can be downsized, like a non-person. You become just another number, a statistic.
While most of us have bought in to the whole master/slave mindset, I'm finding more and more people are questioning its validity. If you're reading this, you're probably one of those people.
When you first contemplate going out on your own, it can indeed be scary. Breaking the paycheck mentality addiction takes guts, and if you're going to do it you need a plan. I would highly recommend investing in some personal development or growth before making the jump. Remember, you're not only changing your lifestyle, you're also changing your mindset.
In today's economy, however, jumping may be much safer than staying aboard a sinking ship. Thousands of people, pink slips in hand, are finding this out on a daily basis. Unfortunately, most addicts don't change until they hit rock bottom, which is where Wall Street appears to be headed right now.
In the long term, owning a home-based business provides much more security, as more of us are learning every day.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Why Do It Any Other Way?
As a network marketer, I do about 99.9% of all my marketing online. With the Internet, it's just a no-brainer. Network marketing is a people business, and where can you reach more people than the Internet?
Offline marketing is just so time consuming. I remember the hours spent on the phone calling numbers from a list I'd purchased. If I did get through to the person I was trying to reach, which happened about 3% of the time, they were usually rude, said they hadn't requested any information, and would appreciate it if I took them off my list.
What a waste of time!
Another offline technique I'd used was the 3-foot-rule. You know, that's the one where you strike up a conversation with anyone coming within 3 feet of you, and snaking your business message in there somehow. I used to go to the grocery store, solely for that purpose. Oh yeah, that one really brought me a lot of business (not!).
Still another tactic was placing or handing out flyers. I was taught to go to apartment building parking lots at 2am and put flyers on all the cars. This one felt sneaky, almost dirty, like I was ashamed of what I was doing. No wonder so many of us quit this business.
The discomfort factor really plays into it, as well. Unless you have incredibly thick skin and a "sales" personality, offline marketing can be quite intimidating. You experience it the very first time you try to make a cold call. If you're like I was, your mouth becomes the Sahara, and the phone suddenly weighs 700 pounds. You make every excuse you can think of to put this off until another day.
With offline marketing, it's also difficult to target prospects. Face it, handing out flyers at Walmart is not going to net you many serious prospects. Neither will placing an ad in your local newspaper.
Another downside to offline marketing is their training, or lack thereof. Training usually consists of going to meetings, either in a hotel room or somebody's home. If the meetings are held Thursdays at 7pm and you work from noon until 8pm, then where does that put you?
That's a double whammy, because offline marketers tend to get beat down more than online marketers. Because of this, they actually need that training, just to stay focused and motivated.
If you're thinking about marketing online, you will need at least some training in online advertising and marketing. If you don't know much about autoresponders and capture pages, for instance, those are two aspects of online marketing you will need to become familiar with.
One very positive aspect of online marketing is that it's very easy to target your prospects. Safelists, traffic exchanges, and keywords for search engines provide just some ways to take aim at your market.
Probably the biggest selling point for me, however, is that online marketing doesn't require any sales skills or outgoing personality. And honestly, network marketing is not set up for just those kinds of people. It's all about duplication, and just because you might be a sales type, doesn't mean that everybody in your downline has that type of personality. How, then, would they duplicate your success?
As far as training goes, you can train and motivate your downline daily, with all the online methods available. Is a downline member struggling? Shoot her an email with a link to a motivating website, or maybe to some training she needs to overcome a problem.
Personally, I see little reason to market any other way.
Offline marketing is just so time consuming. I remember the hours spent on the phone calling numbers from a list I'd purchased. If I did get through to the person I was trying to reach, which happened about 3% of the time, they were usually rude, said they hadn't requested any information, and would appreciate it if I took them off my list.
What a waste of time!
Another offline technique I'd used was the 3-foot-rule. You know, that's the one where you strike up a conversation with anyone coming within 3 feet of you, and snaking your business message in there somehow. I used to go to the grocery store, solely for that purpose. Oh yeah, that one really brought me a lot of business (not!).
Still another tactic was placing or handing out flyers. I was taught to go to apartment building parking lots at 2am and put flyers on all the cars. This one felt sneaky, almost dirty, like I was ashamed of what I was doing. No wonder so many of us quit this business.
The discomfort factor really plays into it, as well. Unless you have incredibly thick skin and a "sales" personality, offline marketing can be quite intimidating. You experience it the very first time you try to make a cold call. If you're like I was, your mouth becomes the Sahara, and the phone suddenly weighs 700 pounds. You make every excuse you can think of to put this off until another day.
With offline marketing, it's also difficult to target prospects. Face it, handing out flyers at Walmart is not going to net you many serious prospects. Neither will placing an ad in your local newspaper.
Another downside to offline marketing is their training, or lack thereof. Training usually consists of going to meetings, either in a hotel room or somebody's home. If the meetings are held Thursdays at 7pm and you work from noon until 8pm, then where does that put you?
That's a double whammy, because offline marketers tend to get beat down more than online marketers. Because of this, they actually need that training, just to stay focused and motivated.
If you're thinking about marketing online, you will need at least some training in online advertising and marketing. If you don't know much about autoresponders and capture pages, for instance, those are two aspects of online marketing you will need to become familiar with.
One very positive aspect of online marketing is that it's very easy to target your prospects. Safelists, traffic exchanges, and keywords for search engines provide just some ways to take aim at your market.
Probably the biggest selling point for me, however, is that online marketing doesn't require any sales skills or outgoing personality. And honestly, network marketing is not set up for just those kinds of people. It's all about duplication, and just because you might be a sales type, doesn't mean that everybody in your downline has that type of personality. How, then, would they duplicate your success?
As far as training goes, you can train and motivate your downline daily, with all the online methods available. Is a downline member struggling? Shoot her an email with a link to a motivating website, or maybe to some training she needs to overcome a problem.
Personally, I see little reason to market any other way.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Death of Rejection, The Dawn of a New Age
I remember how terrified I was the first time I tried to cold call from a leads list. The first time a very rude woman told me to take her name off my list and never call back, I thought I'd never recover.
The truth is, most network marketers fear prospecting because of the rejection factor. And even though I eventually overcame my fear, I know many marketers who didn't, and subsequently quit the business because of it.
Now for the good news: The old ways are dead. Yep, you heard it first here. Cold calling, hotel meetings, hounding family and friends, and the 3-foot-rule died a slow but welcomed death.
Gone are the days when the preferred action was to buy lead lists for hundreds of dollars a month and cold calling, fishing for that one soul who could see the big picture.
Good riddance, I say.
And what mongrel murdered the dreaded tactics we so despised. Why, his name is Internet, of course.
Think about it: Network marketing is a people business. Where can you reach more people than the Internet? People all over the world, 24/7, are surfing somewhere.
The Internet has removed the rejection factor. No longer do we network marketers need fear picking up the telephone. We don't need to feel guilty because we missed the Thursday hotel meeting, or went to the supermarket today and didn't pitch our business to a single soul.
Imagine that.
No, now our websites handle all the rejection. That's OK, because they're emotionless creatures. You can call them names, they don't care. You can tell them their products suck, and still they're unaffected. Best of all, they keep at it, 24/7, and need no breaks of any kind.
Now, like everything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to use the Internet. The wrong way is to put up a website, list your products or try to sell your opportunity, and expect success. "Build it and they will come" is the motto of the Internet fool.
There are many right ways to use the Internet, but all of them revolve around generating traffic, that is, visitors, to your site. Traffic has been called the life blood of a website. Without it, the website serves no purpose.
There are some purists who argue that Internet marketing is inferior to face-to-face methods because it's difficult to build relationships. I couldn't disagree more.
I personally have made many, many more friends on the Internet than I ever could by going to some hotel meeting or handing out flyers at Walmart. The key is to remember that the Internet is only a tool.
Yes, you still need to develop relationships, and yes network marketing is still very much a people business, but that initial contact is much more comfortable when it occurs online. At least, that's been my own experience.
In days past, marketers had little choice but to attend meetings and cold call. Nowadays, we have webinars and teleconferencing, where you can talk to people on the other side of the world without leaving your home. How awesome is that?
I for one am glad to see the old ways disappear. My phone weighs a lot less, I don't feel guilty because I didn't ask Uncle Fred to do a 3-way call with my upline, and I'm making a lot more money since my downline has no problem duplicating what I'm doing.
Life is good.
The truth is, most network marketers fear prospecting because of the rejection factor. And even though I eventually overcame my fear, I know many marketers who didn't, and subsequently quit the business because of it.
Now for the good news: The old ways are dead. Yep, you heard it first here. Cold calling, hotel meetings, hounding family and friends, and the 3-foot-rule died a slow but welcomed death.
Gone are the days when the preferred action was to buy lead lists for hundreds of dollars a month and cold calling, fishing for that one soul who could see the big picture.
Good riddance, I say.
And what mongrel murdered the dreaded tactics we so despised. Why, his name is Internet, of course.
Think about it: Network marketing is a people business. Where can you reach more people than the Internet? People all over the world, 24/7, are surfing somewhere.
The Internet has removed the rejection factor. No longer do we network marketers need fear picking up the telephone. We don't need to feel guilty because we missed the Thursday hotel meeting, or went to the supermarket today and didn't pitch our business to a single soul.
Imagine that.
No, now our websites handle all the rejection. That's OK, because they're emotionless creatures. You can call them names, they don't care. You can tell them their products suck, and still they're unaffected. Best of all, they keep at it, 24/7, and need no breaks of any kind.
Now, like everything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to use the Internet. The wrong way is to put up a website, list your products or try to sell your opportunity, and expect success. "Build it and they will come" is the motto of the Internet fool.
There are many right ways to use the Internet, but all of them revolve around generating traffic, that is, visitors, to your site. Traffic has been called the life blood of a website. Without it, the website serves no purpose.
There are some purists who argue that Internet marketing is inferior to face-to-face methods because it's difficult to build relationships. I couldn't disagree more.
I personally have made many, many more friends on the Internet than I ever could by going to some hotel meeting or handing out flyers at Walmart. The key is to remember that the Internet is only a tool.
Yes, you still need to develop relationships, and yes network marketing is still very much a people business, but that initial contact is much more comfortable when it occurs online. At least, that's been my own experience.
In days past, marketers had little choice but to attend meetings and cold call. Nowadays, we have webinars and teleconferencing, where you can talk to people on the other side of the world without leaving your home. How awesome is that?
I for one am glad to see the old ways disappear. My phone weighs a lot less, I don't feel guilty because I didn't ask Uncle Fred to do a 3-way call with my upline, and I'm making a lot more money since my downline has no problem duplicating what I'm doing.
Life is good.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Who's Your Target Market?
Like most, my first few attempts at network marketing failed miserably. Looking back, I now realize this is because of how I was taught. The most poisonous of the crap your upline tells has got to be that everybody is a prospect.
This idea alone is probably responsible for more failures in this business than anything else. You want to lower your self-esteem a couple notches? Try using the 3 foot rule more than a few minutes.
So if everybody is not your prospect, then who is? Many these days are focusing on people looking for home based businesses, but is this really going far enough? My own experience with this has shown me that many people looking for legitimate home businesses consider network marketing taboo.
I’ve seriously had people ask me, “Is this MLM?” When I say it is, more often than not, the line goes dead. They have their reasons, many of them valid, but that’s a whole nother subject.
I’ve also encountered people who were looking for business opportunities who wanted nothing to do with selling. What? Show me one business that stays afloat without selling. Too many of these people believe the hype that’s out there. You know, like “No selling involved?” This alone makes them less than ideal candidates to be considered a target market for network marketers.
Who then? Who understands network marketing requires work and discipline? Who has made their names list, done business presentations for their families and friends and, because they were taught to find a way to snake their business opportunity into every conversation, now find themselves not being invited to family gatherings and such?
Well, considering more than 95% of network marketers fail within three to four months, the answer should be somewhat obvious. The target market for network marketers is fellow network marketers.
I’m not saying to persuade those in other companies to join your opportunity. More than likely, that would also end in frustration. However, with a 95% failure rate, there are a whole lot of people out there who believe in network marketing but haven’t been given the proper support or training. This is where you come in.
If you target these disillusioned, but motivated souls, you’ll find a gold mine. By teaching them solid, no nonsense marketing techniques, many are likely to succeed, which translates into more success for you.
This idea alone is probably responsible for more failures in this business than anything else. You want to lower your self-esteem a couple notches? Try using the 3 foot rule more than a few minutes.
So if everybody is not your prospect, then who is? Many these days are focusing on people looking for home based businesses, but is this really going far enough? My own experience with this has shown me that many people looking for legitimate home businesses consider network marketing taboo.
I’ve seriously had people ask me, “Is this MLM?” When I say it is, more often than not, the line goes dead. They have their reasons, many of them valid, but that’s a whole nother subject.
I’ve also encountered people who were looking for business opportunities who wanted nothing to do with selling. What? Show me one business that stays afloat without selling. Too many of these people believe the hype that’s out there. You know, like “No selling involved?” This alone makes them less than ideal candidates to be considered a target market for network marketers.
Who then? Who understands network marketing requires work and discipline? Who has made their names list, done business presentations for their families and friends and, because they were taught to find a way to snake their business opportunity into every conversation, now find themselves not being invited to family gatherings and such?
Well, considering more than 95% of network marketers fail within three to four months, the answer should be somewhat obvious. The target market for network marketers is fellow network marketers.
I’m not saying to persuade those in other companies to join your opportunity. More than likely, that would also end in frustration. However, with a 95% failure rate, there are a whole lot of people out there who believe in network marketing but haven’t been given the proper support or training. This is where you come in.
If you target these disillusioned, but motivated souls, you’ll find a gold mine. By teaching them solid, no nonsense marketing techniques, many are likely to succeed, which translates into more success for you.
Taking The Focus Off Yourself
Not too long ago, my network marketing business struggled. My marketing budget was almost zero, and I hadn't recruited anyone in a long time. It hurt.
Then Eric, who was in my downline, called me with a problem more serious than mine. His wife was leaving, and, in addition to the emotional stress he felt at the time, he didn't know how he could make ends meet without her income.He was thinking about quitting the business.
Eric had been one of my top producers. Losing him would be devastating. He became my focus.The next couple weeks I helped him find every free advertising source we could find. Safelists, traffic exchanges, traffic bars, posting video to YouTube, press releases, blogs . . . You name it, we did it. Oh, and along the way, I did these same techniques.
What happened? Within a month Eric sponsored 5 new premium members, advanced in rank, and was able to generate enough additional income to stay afloat! Not only that, but I was able to sponsor 3 new premiums myself that month. How did that happen?
Zig Ziglar is famous for many things, but one of his most famous sayings goes like this: "If you can help enough people get what they want, then you can have whatever it is that you want."Nowhere does this saying apply more than in network marketing.
In reality, you are nothing without your downline. Think about this for a moment. If every member of your downline were to drop out right now, where would you be?And yet, so many times I've heard about how difficult it is to reach your upline. Reach your upline? A truly supportive upline should be calling you at least twice a week.
If you don't communicate with your downline, how do you expect to succeed? They are literally the air in your balloon.
I can guarantee you that if you take the focus off yourself and your business and put it where it belongs, on your downline and their business, that yours will take care of itself. Yes, you'll still have to prospect and recruit new members, but when you focus on others, a kind of magic clicks in, and it seems to happen almost effortlessly.You can call it karma, reaping what you sow, or Universal backlash, but it's all the same.
It's kind of like when you watch someone else's back, someone else automatically watches yours. I've done this several times now, and it's always the same. If I start getting frustrated or worried about my business, I'll simply focus more time on one of my downline who might be struggling. Without fail, when I check my numbers again, they're up. It's really the strangest thing.
Then Eric, who was in my downline, called me with a problem more serious than mine. His wife was leaving, and, in addition to the emotional stress he felt at the time, he didn't know how he could make ends meet without her income.He was thinking about quitting the business.
Eric had been one of my top producers. Losing him would be devastating. He became my focus.The next couple weeks I helped him find every free advertising source we could find. Safelists, traffic exchanges, traffic bars, posting video to YouTube, press releases, blogs . . . You name it, we did it. Oh, and along the way, I did these same techniques.
What happened? Within a month Eric sponsored 5 new premium members, advanced in rank, and was able to generate enough additional income to stay afloat! Not only that, but I was able to sponsor 3 new premiums myself that month. How did that happen?
Zig Ziglar is famous for many things, but one of his most famous sayings goes like this: "If you can help enough people get what they want, then you can have whatever it is that you want."Nowhere does this saying apply more than in network marketing.
In reality, you are nothing without your downline. Think about this for a moment. If every member of your downline were to drop out right now, where would you be?And yet, so many times I've heard about how difficult it is to reach your upline. Reach your upline? A truly supportive upline should be calling you at least twice a week.
If you don't communicate with your downline, how do you expect to succeed? They are literally the air in your balloon.
I can guarantee you that if you take the focus off yourself and your business and put it where it belongs, on your downline and their business, that yours will take care of itself. Yes, you'll still have to prospect and recruit new members, but when you focus on others, a kind of magic clicks in, and it seems to happen almost effortlessly.You can call it karma, reaping what you sow, or Universal backlash, but it's all the same.
It's kind of like when you watch someone else's back, someone else automatically watches yours. I've done this several times now, and it's always the same. If I start getting frustrated or worried about my business, I'll simply focus more time on one of my downline who might be struggling. Without fail, when I check my numbers again, they're up. It's really the strangest thing.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Not Getting Enough Traffic? Try Giving A Little.
When I get online, I usually look for information. Yea, I buy some things here and there, and do business online. But when I'm surfing on my own time, it's usually to find new recipes for salmon, how to upload a video to my blog, or who was the winning general in the Battle of the Bulge.
I know I'm not alone. People are hungry for information and, with the Internet, almost anything they want to know awaits a click of the mouse. What an age we live in!
The exciting thing about this is that the marketers who fully understand this and constantly give away free, valuable content now make very lucrative incomes. Nowhere else has it ever been more obvious that the more you give, the more you receive.
And all this giving translates to long term income. For instance, articles that I wrote over a year ago and posted on some submission sites still bring me large amounts of traffic even today.
How do you get in on the action? There are several things you can do. Firstly, do what I just did. Write articles, post them to submission sites (there are several out there), and watch your traffic soar.
Article submission sites allow you to post your contact information, including your website address, in the author resource box. Ezines, blogs, etc. can then use your article, free of charge, as long as the resource box remains intact.
This creates a win-win for everybody. The ezine or blog gets free content, and you get your name and website out there for all interested parties to see. What's more, is that you are establishing yourself as an expert in your field.
A second way to give away free content is much simpler. After you've written a number of articles, compile those with a common theme into an ebook, or a report. You can then use the ebook or report to bribe visitors to give you their names and email addresses, thus building your ever-important list.
So, what if you're not a good writer, or if you just hate to write? No problem. You can hire ghost writers fairly cheap to write 10 or so articles for you at a time. Posting 10 articles a month comes to 120 a year. Not bad, eh?
Doing business this way is probably the best way to create long term growth for your business. What's more, this growth is viral, meaning it grows almost exponentially. Imagine exponential growth combined with continued input. Sounds unstoppable, doesn't it?
With all the talk about the economy these days, one thing that will never go down in value is good information. If you're on a budget, you'd be a fool not to use this method to promote your business. After all, it's free, and the dividends are outstanding.
I know I'm not alone. People are hungry for information and, with the Internet, almost anything they want to know awaits a click of the mouse. What an age we live in!
The exciting thing about this is that the marketers who fully understand this and constantly give away free, valuable content now make very lucrative incomes. Nowhere else has it ever been more obvious that the more you give, the more you receive.
And all this giving translates to long term income. For instance, articles that I wrote over a year ago and posted on some submission sites still bring me large amounts of traffic even today.
How do you get in on the action? There are several things you can do. Firstly, do what I just did. Write articles, post them to submission sites (there are several out there), and watch your traffic soar.
Article submission sites allow you to post your contact information, including your website address, in the author resource box. Ezines, blogs, etc. can then use your article, free of charge, as long as the resource box remains intact.
This creates a win-win for everybody. The ezine or blog gets free content, and you get your name and website out there for all interested parties to see. What's more, is that you are establishing yourself as an expert in your field.
A second way to give away free content is much simpler. After you've written a number of articles, compile those with a common theme into an ebook, or a report. You can then use the ebook or report to bribe visitors to give you their names and email addresses, thus building your ever-important list.
So, what if you're not a good writer, or if you just hate to write? No problem. You can hire ghost writers fairly cheap to write 10 or so articles for you at a time. Posting 10 articles a month comes to 120 a year. Not bad, eh?
Doing business this way is probably the best way to create long term growth for your business. What's more, this growth is viral, meaning it grows almost exponentially. Imagine exponential growth combined with continued input. Sounds unstoppable, doesn't it?
With all the talk about the economy these days, one thing that will never go down in value is good information. If you're on a budget, you'd be a fool not to use this method to promote your business. After all, it's free, and the dividends are outstanding.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Imagine Ozzy Osborne Pumping Gas . . .
In 1981, I pumped gas at a full service gas station in Ohio.
Well, during the day anyway. At night I played in a rock and roll band named Warrior. We rehearsed just a few blocks from where I worked. I was 19.
I remember the smell of the gasoline when it got on my hands. Worse, in the winter I wore gloves under the misconceived notion that they would keep my hands warmer. When drenched in gasoline, however, their smell became unbearable.
My hands sometimes became numb. Keep in mind, this was when most gas caps were metal, and without feeling in your hands it was easy to cut yourself and not even know it until later.
One day, I was extremely hung over. I fell asleep under the hood of a car while checking the oil. It was an Audi, I believe, and its dipstick was hard to find. The lady was nice enough to show me where it was. I'm still not sure she knew that she'd interrupted a dream.
Working there taught me a lot. I learned that companies expect a lot from their employees, even when they pay you next to nothing. I learned that customers, regardless of how nice and helpful you try to be, will sometimes just be jerks.
One day a man and his wife parked next to our office and came inside. They dressed like they had just left church, and I was expecting an invitation to the cathedral down the road.
Surprisingly, however, they weren't thumping bibles. They were pushing Amway.
Now, at the time, I'd only seen Amway in passing. In those days, if it didn't have something to do with rock and roll, I didn't pay it much attention. This couple seemed convinced, however, that Amway would change our lives.
The way these people talked convinced me that Amway was their religion. It could solve any problem confronted by man.
They told us they could teach us how to be wealthy . . . that we could have success beyond out wildest dreams.
Well, success to me meant only one thing: Rock Stardom. It certainly didn't include driving around to gas stations and talking to minimum wage workers who could barely afford to eat.
Such was my very first experience with network marketing.
In all fairness, I've peddled my business to the wrong crowd as well. I did it mostly because my upline taught me to do it that way.
I've spent endless hours on the phone trying to get Bubba the truck driver to take a look at my business. I've bought lead lists from every company out there. I've memorized scripts, tracked my results (zero), and even paid for coaching.
Sponsoring even one person became my Holy Grail.
Even though it wasn't that long ago, just a few months, actually, today I look at those days and laugh.
I've now built a sizeable downline with hungry, motivated people. My duplication is through the roof, as my team's system is simple to teach and execute.
And guess what? I didn't call one prospect. I didn't pitch my business to anybody.
What changed for me? I was lucky enough to find a team of individuals that developed a system that is super-effective.
Gone are the days when duplicating my upline means handing out flyers or approaching strangers in Walmart.
If you're serious about financial independence, this might be your lucky day.
Well, during the day anyway. At night I played in a rock and roll band named Warrior. We rehearsed just a few blocks from where I worked. I was 19.
I remember the smell of the gasoline when it got on my hands. Worse, in the winter I wore gloves under the misconceived notion that they would keep my hands warmer. When drenched in gasoline, however, their smell became unbearable.
My hands sometimes became numb. Keep in mind, this was when most gas caps were metal, and without feeling in your hands it was easy to cut yourself and not even know it until later.
One day, I was extremely hung over. I fell asleep under the hood of a car while checking the oil. It was an Audi, I believe, and its dipstick was hard to find. The lady was nice enough to show me where it was. I'm still not sure she knew that she'd interrupted a dream.
Working there taught me a lot. I learned that companies expect a lot from their employees, even when they pay you next to nothing. I learned that customers, regardless of how nice and helpful you try to be, will sometimes just be jerks.
One day a man and his wife parked next to our office and came inside. They dressed like they had just left church, and I was expecting an invitation to the cathedral down the road.
Surprisingly, however, they weren't thumping bibles. They were pushing Amway.
Now, at the time, I'd only seen Amway in passing. In those days, if it didn't have something to do with rock and roll, I didn't pay it much attention. This couple seemed convinced, however, that Amway would change our lives.
The way these people talked convinced me that Amway was their religion. It could solve any problem confronted by man.
They told us they could teach us how to be wealthy . . . that we could have success beyond out wildest dreams.
Well, success to me meant only one thing: Rock Stardom. It certainly didn't include driving around to gas stations and talking to minimum wage workers who could barely afford to eat.
Such was my very first experience with network marketing.
In all fairness, I've peddled my business to the wrong crowd as well. I did it mostly because my upline taught me to do it that way.
I've spent endless hours on the phone trying to get Bubba the truck driver to take a look at my business. I've bought lead lists from every company out there. I've memorized scripts, tracked my results (zero), and even paid for coaching.
Sponsoring even one person became my Holy Grail.
Even though it wasn't that long ago, just a few months, actually, today I look at those days and laugh.
I've now built a sizeable downline with hungry, motivated people. My duplication is through the roof, as my team's system is simple to teach and execute.
And guess what? I didn't call one prospect. I didn't pitch my business to anybody.
What changed for me? I was lucky enough to find a team of individuals that developed a system that is super-effective.
Gone are the days when duplicating my upline means handing out flyers or approaching strangers in Walmart.
If you're serious about financial independence, this might be your lucky day.
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