Have you asked yourself  “what am I working toward with my MLM”?

What are your dreams worth?

Are your goals written down and frequently examined?  Are you following a plan to reach those goals?  Are you inspired every day to keep moving toward your dreams?

I recently returned to Napoleon Hill’s “Think And Grow Rich”, and again found myself staring at his works with awe and feeling the re-stoking of the flames of desire within me that make me get up each day to face new challenges.  I hadn’t lost the fire… simply I found that his book added more volatile timbers to the blaze…

As I re-read this great work – one of the first of it’s kind on self help and motivation -  I recounted what life has provided me in the form of challenges and took stock again of what are my reasons for being.

In the realm of MLM, this is often regarded as the”Why”.  Why are you doing network marketing?  What are your reasons?  Family?  Financial freedom?  Fire your boss and work for yourself?  Simply add income to your month?

Most “Why” answers are valid (most are  moral, legal and honest).  Everyone who pursues the life of an entrepreneur has a very strong “Why”.

The question then becomes… how do you value your time and effort?  Are doing what is necessary to get to your “Why”?

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Headline Essentials

Do your article headlines GRAB attention, or do they whimper helplessly “please take pity and read me”?

According to the news industry, the average headline  will inspire only 200 people out of 1000 to read your ad or start reading your article.  If your headline is weak, you can cut your readers in half.  A strong, exciting headline can double the interest.

Consider that 70-80% of the response is generated in your subject line, so your success is largely dependent of your headline.  Even mediocre copy writing skills in your content will get more activity if your headline pulls them in.

You want to include 4 critical elements in your title to grab attention, and inspire action… which is to have the reader read your article.   So, you must start with a HUGE BANG!

Within 2-3 seconds your prospects decide whether to read your  message or pass by to the next: they scan for items of interest and leave the rest.

Here are four crucial  tips for writing your next “knock out”  headline for your network marketing business.

1. Your Headline Should Be The First Thing The Prospective Customer Sees

No one cares about you, your name, your product, or your company.  If you put this info in your headline, you are wasting your time.  People primarily care about one thing only… to meet their current needs or desires.

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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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I know people that buy new golf clubs every year, expecting the newest, most expensive set will make them a better golfer.

Is that how you run your MLM life?

But… is it the club?

Or is it the golfer that scores well?

Unfortunately, it’s wrong to expect that something external can cause significant changes when the same swing will get the same result!

This is the same affliction I have heard of countless times in network marketing.  People are quick to decide that all they need for success is something new.

Their old MLM company is – for some reason – not getting them what they are after.  The comp plan isn’t good enough.  The product is out dated.  There’s too many competing products.  There’s always an excuse.

The general theme of chaning business is this…

People are looking for an external cause of their failures!

Thus, they change the meaningless external influences to try to improve rather than change their own internal issues.

However, it’s internal tools and implementation – practice using them – that leads to success.

I’m absolutely certain that if I had the worlds best clubs, and gave Tiger Woods my grandfather’s 1970’s vintage clubs, he would still crush me!

What I’m getting at here – if you haven’t already guessed – is that the tools of success are not external.  Tiger has a better set of internal tools than any other golfer he plays against.   Those tools have made him successful.

That’s why there are people in MLM’s that are successful, regardless of the product or company. They have learned, practiced and implemented an internal set of tools that work.

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By now you’ve likely heard the term “attraction marketing” .  But do you have a good description of what it is.

It was not entirely foreign to me, but prior to my education on what it really is to market this way, I had been on the other side…

Companies have done this for years…  maybe you’ve seen some of them?

Home Depot does this type of marketing…  They have free classes at their stores on decorating, painting, building patios… they have books for purchase that teach people how to build, plumb, wire…

So what does this do?  It creates customer loyalty, and when the customer is looking at their next project, they look in the book for what materials and tools they need…

And where do you think the go shopping at?  Home Depot?

Exactly!

This is what attraction marketing  does.

It places you as an expert in the field, such that when someone is looking for a particular item or service,  they will come to you!

In network marketing, this is a powerful piece of leverage!  You position yourself so that people who want to have a successful network marketing business seek you over anyone else, thus putting already committed network marketers into your business.

They want to be there, and you do not have to sell them anything.  It does not matter what your company or product is, because you are what they are buying for your value as a leader… you’ve attracted them to you by showing that you have value – can teach them how to lead and build a profitable networking business.

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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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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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Has your MLM business imploded while you watch other network marketers EXPLODE their MLM?

I used to go into MLM battle with a single shot rifle and bayonette.  The trouble was, I was fighting in a war where others were using laser guided, remote, computer controlled weapons.  I wasn’t making anywhere near the same progress as them…

You’re here reading this because you have these same issues in your MLM business: still engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

What, exactly, is MLM hand-to-hand combat?  I’m sure you’re familiar with it…

Cold calls, buying lead lists, talking to your friends and family, posting flyers, giving away free samples (they weren’t free to you, were they?).

4 months back I was recruited to the other army.  I lay down my rifle and walked away… forever.

Weapons of mass mlm domination…  sounds daunting if you’re not the one aiming them.

The top online network marketers are using the weapons of mass MLM domination to do just that… DOMINATE their MLM businesses.

By now you’ve heard of pay per click, forums, classified ads, banner ads, social network marketing, video marketing, ezines, solo ads, listbuilders, article marketing…  the possibilities make the mind swim.

For many people, the arsenal of marketing tools is just down-right frightening.

“It costs too much”, “I don’t know how to use a computer”, “I’m not experienced with the internet”.  There are lots of excuses…

Lets get one thing in the open right now…

Fear holds you back, and keeps you right where you are, with exactly what you’ve always had!

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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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