Like it or not, it’s officially the holiday season.  I like to loosely wish people “Merry New-Thanksgiv-o’ween-mas” with a slightly cynical side of “bah-humbug”.

I’ll admit, I’m not much of a fan of what consumerism has done to the last 2 months of the year, but I deal with it and try to ensure that I keep focused on what Christmas is traditionally about.  For me, it’s still about Christ’s birth and spending time with my family.  For all I care, most everything else can stay in the media and stores.

As the holidays approach, it is more important than ever to keep focused on what you’re doing to build your online MLM business.  Too many people get side tracked and their business suffers for it.  If you want to keep your commission checks coming in to pay for your Christmas expenses, here’s some considerations you must take.

1. Pushy sales people!  It doesn’t matter if you’re in a store or online: pushy is still pushy.  At this time of year, everyone is selling something.  For a refreshing change of pace, consider offering to help people buy instead of stuffing your product or service down their throats.

2. The sales pitch from strangers.  This applies to online marketing too.  There is nothing I dislike more than meeting someone online for the first time who immediately pitches their service or product at me.  They don’t know me, or what I need.  This is a fast track to being spammed!

3. Holiday specials. Watch the prices on items you consider buying, because in August, September and October they tend to be lower in cost.  The prices often are inflated this time of year so that the 10% sales price looks like a good deal, when you’re really getting the same price you should have been offered in the first place. Don’t be one of these marketers.  You’ll lose customers in the long run due to your dishonest practices.

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Is your online advertising rocking… or rotting?  Are you generating the leads you should be getting for your efforts?

I used to stink at advertising.   I mean, I was spending money, and getting little return on my investment.  Cash seemed to be flying out of my my pockets with little response, and I ended up calling luke-warm prospects who didn’t understand what I was offering.

Quite frankly, I don’t think even I really understood what I was selling.  Worse, I didn’t know how I was supposed to be selling it.

Have you felt that way?  Are you still feeling like that?

Do you think – even have a slight hint – that learning how to market better might help your business?

Most network marketers start their MLM opportunty without knowing how to effectively market. That makes it pretty easy to see why 95% fail.  I was one of them until I learned the marketing tips I’m about to share with you.

Like you, I started in my MLM business with determination and vigor, and absolutely no idea what I was doing.  My ads were similar in content to the majority of ads you see out there.  They looked a lot like this one:

Company XYZ in Pre-Launch!
Ground Floor Huge Opportunity.
Contact me today!

I have dreams that wake me up from deep sleep because of these ads. In the dreams I am still stuck, struggling, suffering, not able to make a dime with my MLM.

Since then I have learned how to write better copy…  how to make a connection with my readers… what words and content can make the simple difference between 2 readers and 2000.

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Affiliate marketing.  Why would anyone want to do that?

There are people that absolutely despise affiliate marketing,  others who think you can’t do without it,  and the furthest extreme are people that do nothing but affiliate market!  What does it all mean?

There’s good, and bad ways to use affiliate marketing.  Everyone has their ideas, and everyone is entitled to their opinions, likes and dislikes.

I’ve heard people complain that affiliate marketing is not what you want to do to build your MLM.  The argument is that it can distract you from your true purpose, which is to build your MLM business.  I’ve also hear the stats that most people won’t make more than 1-2 sales in their affiliates.

While this can be true, I feel people may be losing sight of the intention of using affiliate marketing.  It’s purpose is not to consume your entire focus, but rather to be a secondary stream of income that allows you to pay for the advertising you’re doing for your MLM business.

3 considerations about affiliate marketing:

1. The Primary Objective Of Affiliate Marketing is to keep reps in positive cash flow.  When used properly, affiliate marketing provides needed income while the person using it is learning how to build their MLM business.  Instead of all their commissions going back out to pay for marketing, they can put their MLM income in the bank and use their affiliate payments to market.

2.. Learning to be a good networker takes time. And because it takes time to learn how to be an effective network marketer, reps need something to get them in positive cash flow.  By now you’ve likely seen the stats that most network marketers quit by 90 days (the average amount of time a rep stays in a business).  This is because there is more money out than money in.

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The MLM industry has a bad name.

If you’ve been in a network marketing business for longer than 24 hours, you’ve already seen people roll their eyes and give you that “not you too” look.  Probably had a family member chastise you for being suckered into another “pyramid scheme”.

Over the years there have been too many people selling the fantasies of getting rich quick, quitting your job, telling your boss where to go…   And…IT”S STILL HAPPENING!

No one seems to be telling the truth about MLM.  The reality is that building a lucrative MLM business is such hard work that 97% of people fail.

Why does fantasy sell?

We want what we want, and we want it NOW!

Our society is impatient, and everything we desire should be given to us as fast as possible.  No waiting, no working…it’s all about simple immediate gratification.

Consider our North American habits:  fast food, processed food, drive through coffee kiosks, drive through pharmacies, banking,… everything that used to have relationships is being replaced with getting immediate service with as little human interaction as possible.

We can all instantly rattle off the stage names and real names of the members of the TV show “Friends”, but don’t know the names of our neighbors two doors down.  We know more about the private lives and troubles of professional athletes than we have knowledge of the issues in our own communities.

We work longer hours, spend less time with our families and wonder what’s wrong with our children.

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Be truthful when you answer this… Have you ever looked critically at what you’re doing to see where you are going wrong?

Seriously, it’s a business killing mistake to NOT ask yourself “What mistakes am I making?”

I know that I have made mistakes in the past.  I’m human… it’s one of the things we do best.  Screw things up! (look at the government… but that’s too long a topic to cover here!)

One of the greatest attributes of a true leader is that they are introspective enough to ask them self “What mistakes am I making?”

To improve as a leader, you have to stop making the same mistakes over and over.  Each mess up is an opportunity to learn.  It requires admitting that you made a mistake and taking the necessary steps to prevent repeating it.  Each mistake requires awareness and an open mind to learn.

MLM biz owners make many mistakes, often because they have never been taught how to lead a business.

The biggies that will crush your biz faster than a peanut under an elephant are:

1. Signing up anyone.  Many networkers have been lured by the possibility of making lots of up front money from sign-up commissions, taking little consideration of the ability of their reps to succeed.  Know this: the BIG income you’re after in your business comes on the back end from having a large and successful organization full of leaders.

2. No follow up. Relating to the tendency to sign up anyone, there exists team leaders who don’t follow up and provide direction and coaching – a replicatable system – to help their reps grow their own organizations. Every leader must have one.

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Ever wondered what happened to the reps you signed up?   Why did they stop working at building their down-lines and disappear?

In the past, I’ve had reps do the same thing in my organization.

There were sign-ups in my organization I was sure would become MLM rock stars, but they withered away at the first sign of difficulty.  They didn’t get the immediate roll of income from their MLM and they decided it was time to move on to something else.

Here’s what I’ve learned…

The top 7 reasons your reps quit your MLM are:

7.  Natural born quitters.   Not overly profound a concept here, but you know the type.  They quit jobs, they quit marriages, they quit school.  They quit almost most anything except making excuses because there’s no drive or determination to do what’s necessary to succeed.  The fact that you’re reading this article shows you’re not in this category.

6.  I don’t mean to offend, but his group I term “Diarrhea of ideas, constipation of action”.  These people start all sorts of things but never follow through.  They often start many things  but never finish.  Likely they’ll have joined many MLM’s before yours.

5.  Emotional decision makers. They jump on board your opportunity early based on what they percieve to be a great opportunity.  These prospects will buy anything that gets them hyped up,  but at the first hint of not getting everything they want fast – aka money -  they jump ship to  join the next great opportunity they see.

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So, what to network marketing prospects look for in an MLM opportunity?  Is it your product?  Company? Comp plan? Ground floor start up?

No. Nope. Uh-uh. Not chance!

I started my first MLM biz like most others in this business…blind and stupid based on an emotional decision to jump into an opportunity because of all the excitement and the chance to get in on the ground floor.

Bad decision on my part.  I had to chalk that one up to experience, or lack thereof, learn and move on.

The worst part of that choice was that I was looking for reps that bit at the same thing I did.  I signed up people that got excited early and made an emotional, uninformed decision.

And they did the same thing I did… got a few reps, lost their emotional energy when it became hard to convert more reps, and flopped!  We immediately became part of the 97% who join an MLM and fail, because we joined for the wrong reason.

I no longer allow people to sign up for my primary company if I have any indication that they’re making an emotional decision.  I only allow reps to sign up if they are personable, analytical and are willing to do one thing…

They have to be willing and capable to lead.

That’s right, I only sign up leaders.  Reps in my down-line must be relationship oriented, willing to help others and able to teach their team how to succeed.

If you’ve ever had a group of reps that sign up reps who are just as emotional in their decision making as they are, you soon realize that you are stuck being a baby sitter getting lots of calls from people who are unwilling or unable to build their own team, and thus have to rely on you.

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Can it be done?  Can you be ethically and morally market your MLM business and still make money?

Maybe in the past you’ve felt like you’re selling your soul in order to make a sale in your MLM business?

I don’t mean that you’re actually dealing with the devil – and I sincerely hope you’re not doing that… but you somehow feel  that, in the course of attempting to convert your prospect to a rep, you are dealing in deception.

Marketing and sales have always felt that way to me too.  I felt that in order to sell whatever product I had, there had to be some sort of angle.  It seemed there was no direct and ethical approach to sales.

I’ve been subjected to “up-selling”… that nefarious activity of selling an item and then notifying you that it needs all these other add-on items for it to actually work.

The “bait and switch” technique has angered me on many occasions too.  You get offered one thing -usually a spectacular offer to get you in the door – and then once you’re there, they require that you buy more to qualify for the spectacular deal.

Where’s the integrity?

These kinds of tactics drive me absoultely nuts. And they’re why I have always had an aversion to selling… anything.

Likely it’s happened to you also… many more times than you care to remember.

So how do you ethically and morally market your MLM… and still make money?

I’ll let you in on a secret here…

You’re not selling anything but YOURSELF… and if that lacks moral or ethical balance, your MLM biz will never succeed.

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