Do you have your online marketing system yet?

I hope you answered yes.  If you did, are you getting the results you wanted?

A marketing system is something that should simplify your life.  You stay consistent with it, doing your regular daily tasks (a previously planned and executed daily method of advertising) and reap the regular and consistent results that come with your efforts.

The acronym for SYSTEM is this:  Save Your Self Time Energy & Money.  If this acronym does not accurately describe your current system, your system needs work!

I think we all recognize the equation Time=Money.  This is likely the most important reason a marketing system is needed.

You are marketing your MLM to not just anyone….You want to focus your marketing on your target group: other network marketers!  This enables you to make the most of your time. The intention is to put your marketing in front of as many people as you can who area already interested in network marketing opportunities- which is what online marketing allows you to do.

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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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You’ve started building your lead lists online, making your calls to the prospects that visit your capture pages…

But while that’s happening, what are you doing to generate leads outside of the cyber world?

When I first started my MLM biz, for the first month or two, there were weekly calls, three way calls, e-mails, webinars…support of the kind needed to get you up and going – fast.  All of it was sell, sell, sell.

I made some prospect conversions, built a grasp of the info and was able to talk shop to anyone – and I did… to the point of scaring off many prospects.

Slowly the communication and support from my upline started to fade.  I found myself working on my own.

Someone in my upline  suggested buying lead lists… which I did, and got a few customers. Let’s just put the concept to rest right now.  Lead lists suck!

You buy supposed hot lists of people who “just signed up”… call them and get hung up on by folks who don’t want to be bothered…who have already been called by other saps who bought the same leads… who don’t want another telemarketer bugging them…

Lead lists are dead.  If you want to practice getting hung up on, go ahead… All you’re doing is chasing.

So, I started listening to another of the CD sets, listening to ideas, learning how to become a leader in the MLM industry…

When I came across a couple simple ideas…

But, how do you know what works and what doesn’t?

One answer is this… Try them!

I had always known to listen to people that had already done what I wanted to do.

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Have you ever posted an ad for your MLM biz online?  Did you know what you were doing when you posted it?

I started out the same way…I littered various social sites with thinly disguised offers that avoided any mention of a networking biz… until some poor sap went for the sugar coated proposition. Then I unloaded all my MLM biz’s stats, promosies and whatever I could to

I’ll give you the success rate in as few words as possible… It sucked!

For some reason I didn’t realize that I was just another gnat swarming around in the over stimulating pages of internet advertising.   I was annoyingly visible, but like the others, not worth swatting at.

You may have seen some of them…and post similar ones for your MLM?

Company XYZ Looking For Hard Working People
Get in on the ground floor
Great compensation
Call me today!
(555) 555-5555

If you’ve done this in the past or are still currently using ads like this…

Let’s get this straight right now, THE MADNESS HAS TO STOP!

MLM success in the past was based on direct sales, telling everyone about your product or company the first time you met them – and every time after that too!

The best of the best today are using internet attraction advertising.

What is attraction marketing?

Direct sales is dead.  Instead you provide value in who you are, attracting people who want to work with you.   From this data base comes networkers who ask to join you with your primary networking biz.

Prospecting online is pretty straight forward.

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Have you ever noticed that there are very few people who seem to be making a killing with their MLM?

And you’re not one of them?

It’s staggering to see the statistics of how many people join a MLM and never recover their initial investment.  Sad but true, 97% never make it in their MLM business.

But the other 3% are making so much money they are attracting hundreds and thousands of reps into their businesses.

What makes them so different.

I truly believe I can help you answer that.  Just follow along here for a bit.

I recently watched a couple live webinars from my marketing group in which a guy by the name of David took 2 hours to provide a step-by-step blue print of the exact methods he uses to generate tremendous amounts of leads.

In fact, the week he did the webinars he had over 70 leads in one day.

Simply amazing.

And better yet, he did this is less than 3 months!

Still not impressed?

He had never done internet marketing before starting using the system that was creating insane numbers of leads with!

Just what was that mind blowing system?

Article marketing.  David uses several simple tools available to absolutely anyone with a pulse – and likely even those without a pulse too.

It’s so simple that even I set it up on less than 2 hours a day of work in less than a week, without any prior knowledge of internet marketing or computer programming.

And in reality, I’m pretty much a bozo in regards to using a computer.  I’m smart at lots of other things, but honestly, html scares the crap out of me!

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The other day while I was at the coffee shop, admittedly I was eaves dropping as a young man extolled all the virtues of his latest network marketing company on his poor, entrapped victim.  As he blathered on and on about his new super tonic from the rainforest of South America, I was amused by the uncomfortable chair dance of the unfortunate sap who agreed to sit and listen to him explain the ingredients, the comp plan, the amazing ground floor opportunity.

As this continued on, the young man looked up as a someone he recognized passed by.  He briefly slowed his dialog to wave and shout “Hey, Dan!” to the other guy walking past.  I held back a laugh when “Dan” quickly averted his eyes when he recognized who was calling to him, and made for the door at double pace.  As “Dan” avoided confrontation, the uncomfortable squirming of this young man’s prey ramped up, and attention was soon fixed on him again as the benefits of joining were explained.

I actually had to leave before I made a scene, as I was starting to be very amused with the situation and was threatening outright laughter.

Is this how you prospect?

Have you ever seen someone you know purposely avoid you because they know you’re going to try to sell them on your latest and greatest network marketing opportunity?

It’s how I used to prospect, before I realized that this direct sales approach was not effective, and better methods exist that reach way further!

No longer am I chasing leads… in fact they’re now finding me.  I use 5 different tools that allow me to submit articles to over 300 article directories daily.

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It’s ok to admit it…

You’re using old technology, aren’t you?

Well, you’re not the only one.

Most network marketers are using the old ways of networking…  cold calling, buying lead lists, talking with strangers, meetings, bugging friends, family, neighbors.  I’m sure you’re as familiar with those as I am.

The difference is I don’t use those techniques anymore.  Over 90% of people in network marketing will fail because they do not use new methods.

Old school methods and new technology: both can get you to your destination, but one will take you a lot longer!

When I joined my first networking company, I was given the “old school” tactics.  Make a list of everyone you know – family and friends -  and start calling!  Use your company’s sales webinars, sell your product.  Buy prospect lists and cold call them.  Put out flyers.  Generally, tell everyone you know about the great new opportunity that they absolutely have to join because it will change their lives!

As I now see, this is like going through an open market in Tijuana.  There are so many advertising and selling that people stop paying attention and actually want to run away.  Everyone has a pitch, trying to sell to anyone with a pulse.  It’s funny now, watching people trying to do just what I did.  They look like a hungry dog below buffet table, hoping – praying – for some fallout or maybe even some pity.

That method is called “direct sales”.  It is not networking.  Networking involves creating and building relationships, not destroying them the way direct sales does.

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There is something very wrong with our health care industry.
Yeah, this is supposed to be a blog about network marketing… just bear with me a second, because we’re going there after an analogy…
Having worked in health care for 12+ years, I’ve seen – what I would call – a self serving industry grow in the direction of creating dependence.  Patients are told they have to come back, that they cannot take care of their problems on their own and that they require ongoing treatment.  Dependence = money.  Plain and simple.  Keep them coming back, take care of the symptoms, but never treat the cause of the problem.  If patients keep coming back, so does money.
This is a gross disservice and I find it to be insulting of intelligence.  Personally, I won’t return to a provider who won’t make an effort to educate me about what I am being treated for and what I can do for myself.  Thus, in my health care career I have made it a point to educate.  Empowerment is a great thing.  Certainly, there are those who for some reason can’t or won’t take advice and continue to rely on me for care, but this is of their own choice.  I still take every opportunity to help them learn how to help themselves.
Ok, you’ve been waiting patiently for how this semi-rant has any comparison to network marketing.  If you’ve been in networking for some time, you may have run into a MLM team that is operated like your HMO plan: team leaders who give you minimal amount of information on how you can keep your business healthy, old information that is not effective and keeps you returning for more support.  They run on the concept of get the new one in and out fast (sign anyone up), make them dependent (meetings and trainings), and never teach them fully how to succeed!
How did that work for you?  Did your MLM business grow and thrive?  Were you able to provide your downline an effective way to build their businesses?  Or, did you and your company flatline?  95% of network marketers experience this and fail.
Empowerment comes from knowlege that can be easily applied.  You can provide your downline with the information necessary to be able to help themselves and others.  They come to you when the run into new problems they don’t yet know how to solve.  When they are leaders of thier own group and ready for more, you again are positioned to educate them on how to grow their leadership skills.  This is kind of like going through rehab after an injury.  You start with small tasks, and when you can perform those, you graduate to bigger physical tasks until you are capable of doing everything on your own again.
Leaders help you implement the knowlege and skills that they teach you much the same way a therapist or provider teaches you more and more as you advance through the stages of healing.  They provide more information about other methods or systems you can use to improve once you have graduated to a point where you are capable to do more.
That information should come in a series of steps.  Once you have mastered one method of generating leads, it’s time to introduce another.  When you have figured out how to successfully convert your prospects more regularly, you learn another skill.  Your value improves in increments, and your team does the same.  Too much information at once and you overload the system and slow the progression.
Are you ready to get the education that has been holding you back from getting your MLM business healthy?

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A quote from the young but wise Calvin and Hobbes… ” Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”

Have you ever had that feeling…  A vague sense that you are all alone?  That something “out there” could significantly impact your life if only you had contact?

If you have ever felt that way, or currently feel that way about your network marketing company, you’re not the only one with that burden.

When I started my mlm, I thought I had the best team available!  Frequent contact, direct link to the top dude in the company – one with behind the scenes access to corporate.

For the first month or two, there were weekly calls, three way calls, e-mails, webinars…support of the kind needed to get you up and going – fast.

I made some prospect conversions, built a grasp of the info and was able to talk shop to anyone – and I did… to the point of scaring off many prospects.

Slowly the communication and support started to fade.  I found myself more and more to be working on my own, as it should be…

But, there was suddenly a void and I was tapped out on ideas and leads.

Someone in the group suggested buying lead lists… which I did, and got a few customers.  But I was not growing my business, and worse yet, those I had sponsored were ending up right where I was.

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