MLM Online Marketing

If your upline offers you shares in an advertising coop consider yourself lucky and buy as many shares as you possibly can. Here's why:

• They are very cost effective. Do the math and find out how much your latest Solo Ad or Ad Words Campaign cost you per lead. The coop is probably much cheaper


• They are highly targeted leads


• They are exclusive leads, and if you've ever had the horrible experience of being the fifth or sixth person to call a generic biz-opp purchased lead, you'll appreciate that


• Most important, when your downline starts buying shares, the leverage factor is positively through the roof

That last part is often overlooked and really pretty amazing, so let's break out the calculators and do some math.

Let's say you spend $100 on some shares in your organization's coop. Now let's say you have 10 people in your downline, and like good little duplicating monkeys, they also buy $100 worth of shares. That means that in addition to your $100, you have the $1,000 (10 distributors x $100) worth of advertising going toward your business. Voila: your $100 advertising budget just turned into $1,100. And as your downline increases along with your coop budget, the results are exponential.

So, get in on that coop. And if your upline doesn't offer one, start shopping around for a better one. Here is a good place to start.

Labels: advertising coop, duplication, leads, leverage, MLM

A lot of people get into MLM with dreams of being their own boss. But I think that's sort of short sighted. Having a boss or being a boss implies there's work to be done. I'd much rather replace my income, not my job.

That's why I look at it as more of an investment than a home business. I'd much rather spend money on advertising and have the leads come to me than spend time networking online or (heaven forbid!) offline for free. I can't get my time back, but the the return on my Google Adwords campaign is pretty darn high.

Yes, the analogy falls short because most investments are much more passive, and in MLM, no matter how automated your marketing is, you need to spend time helping out your downline. But that can be fun, too. Especially when your downline starts having success. That's a pretty cool bonus you don't get with stocks and real estate.

Anyway, I think the temptation in this business, especially when you're starting out on a shoestring budget, is to waste a lot of time with a lot of "free marketing" activities that are ultimitely a waste of time. I say, don't be afraid to pay for a classified ad or start a little Adwords campaign. Even if it doesn't pull like you'd hoped, at least you can learn and write a better ad next time. Having your advertising automated frees up time to spend with your downline.

I really can't think of a more simple straight forward way to put it than Tim Sales did in What the Wealthy Buy on Payday: the poor and middle class buy liabilities, the wealthy buy assets. Advertising is an asset.

Labels: Advertising, Adwords, solo ad, Tim Sales, What the Wealthy Buy on Payday

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet. I'm not going to go into the explanations of what a Matrix, Unilevel, Binary, or, the cutely named Aussie 2-Up plans entail. If you have time to analyze all that, go nuts.

Just make sure you know the answer to this question:

How many people do I need in my organization to earn $10,000/month in passive residual income?

If the answer is anything higher than 500 memberes, find another MLM.

Believe me, 500 members per $10,000 is not asking too much. Keep in mind, this $10,000 does not include any fast-start bonuses or other rewards. Those extra incentives should just be icing on the cake.

Don't take your sponsor's word for it, crunch those numbers for yourself. Some MLM companies require almost three times as many people as that, which is shocking.

Even if your ultimate goal is to only make $500 per month, if your company can't compete with the 500 members per $10K rule, they're wasting your time.

Labels: aussie 2-up, binary, matrix, mlm comp plan, passive residual income, unilevel

"Go as far as you can see and when you get there, you will always be able to see farther." -- Zig Ziglar

One of the reasons most network marketers fail so miserably is that they lack the hardcore sales skills required of MLM. Once the new MLMer's warm market is exhausted they usually resort to buying leads and cold calling them. And if you've ever cold called or done telemarketing before, it's rough. Very rough. Sends chills down my spine just thinking about it....

But now that the MLM companies are are finally being dragged into the Internet age, the network marketer's role is changing from one of salesman to customer service rep. Lemme 'splain:

Rather than nervously pitching their opportunity to a skeptical prospect, the new network marketer can focus on getting his or her website in front of prospects, who are already interested in joining an MLM, and let the replicated site do all the selling for them. The idea of being the messenger, not the message.

Now that he's no longer concentrating on learning how to sell, he can focus on helping his downline get up and running. His role becomes more of a customer sertice rep than a salesman.

This new model makes duplication much more viable. It's much easier to duplicate a customer service rep and nearly impossible to duplicate a salesman. People who take to selling like fish to water are very rare. (Freaks of nature I call them!) But anyone can provide customer service to their downlines, or at least go to their upline to find the answer.

Add to that the recorded training calls, video tutorials and other tools available to the new recruit online and duplication becomes really easy. And once your downline starts duplicating, that's when it starts to get really fun and you see what leverage is really all about.

Labels: cold calling, duplication, leads, leverage, MLM, salesmanship

"Most stress is caused by people who overestimate the importance of their problems." -- Michael Laboeuf

I freakin' hate people like that.... By the way I have no idea who Michael Laboeuf is. Is that bad?

Labels: Michael Laboeuf

I'll admit that on paper, traffic exchanges look like a honkin' huge waste of time. Everyone using them is clicking through to the next site with the sole intent of racking up more credits, for what? So that other people, in the exact same boat, can "view" their site.

The marketing resistance is pretty darned high for all of these folks. Seems like an awfully circuitous waste of time, doesn't it?

Funny thing is, they work.

I've gotten lots of sign-ups directly from traffic exchanges. It's sort of a headscratcher, but if you've ever spent some time surfing on them, every once in a while something will catch your eye and you'll be snapped out of your "nothing to see here, move along, move along" daze.

It also comes back to numbers. I'm usually willing to trade cash for time, and upgrading in these programs gives you waaay more exposure than the poor guy who surfs on them for hours on end. (Cheap bastard.)

And as for the other supposed detractor of traffic exchanges, that the traffic they send your way isn't targeted, I say hooey! Most of them are involved in or are at least familiar with MLM. They're probably just starting out if they're on an exchange. That's exactly who I'm looking for.

Not all are created equal, but there are some good ones out there. The good ones can be a great place to place solo ads, too.

Labels: MLM, solo ad, traffic exchange

"The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts" -- Marcus Aurelius Antonious

I've always been drawn the to the whole Get Rich Slow idea, and yesterday I heard someone say something that really nailed the whole idea.

Paul Birdsall said this on a PIF4P training call (and I'm paraphrasing). He said when people ask him how long it will take them to start making tens of thousands of dollars a month in their MLM business he asks them, does it matter?

The idea being, if you build your MLM business really big over a long period of time, the income you make with it is "forever money." This is passive residual income we're talking about, not a salary from a job that goes away when you stop working.

Which brings me back to the idea of building slowly and consistenly. I'd much rather work one hour everyday than 12 hours straight one day a week. Even the person who only works 1/2 hour a day can build a great long term income if they do so everyday. (Granted they are involved with the right MLM, not some fly-by-night ground floor start-up. But that's another post.)

Labels: MLM, network marketing, passive residual income, Paul Birdsall, Pay It Forward 4 Profits, PIF4P

"In the long run, the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip." -- Daniel L. Reardon

Ever hear a network marketer say “people word of mouth products all the time and never get paid for it.” The idea being if you tell your buddy about the great movie you saw and he goes to see it, the producers owe you a cut for your advertising efforts. Companies are getting free advertising from us all the time and we never see so much as a red cent. Oh the injustice!

But word of mouth marketing is such a powerful force precisely because the people doing the marketing are NOT getting paid to do so. We truly believe you when you say you loved that film because you have no ulterior motive for saying so. And therein lies the major flaw of the network marketing business model.

I know, I know. You really believe in your products and would recommend them even if you weren’t compensated. Me too. But since we are getting paid to recommend our products, there will always be a little bit of doubt in our prospects heads. Sorry, but that’s the truth.

Here’s the other major flaw of MLM: it’s very, very personal. There’s a good chance the person you are enthusiastically (and sincerely, of course) pitching your products to isn’t completely sure it’s legal. They may be worried that you’re getting yourself into a pyramid scheme. (A shockingly prevalent misperception even to this day.) Not a very fun or fruitful conversation to have.

Worse still, is the guilt purchase. They may be completely uninterested in your product, have absolutely no desire to buy it, and would tell you to take a hike if you were some peddler on the street. But, since refusing this particular peddler (a friend, co-worker or relative) would prove too awkward, they buy from you out of guilt. Now in addition to their buyer’s remorse they have a sneaking feeling you’ve exploited their relationship all in the name of a sale.

I don’t know about you, but I like my business transactions to be guaranteed mutually beneficial. I like the motives of the seller and buyer to be completely transparent. And network marketing destroys this transparency.

That is, unless, you are marketing your business online.

When you’re marketing online all these nasty little problems disappear. Here’s why:

• Initial transactions are between two strangers with no prior relationship baggage


• The customer is part of a target market who is already educated and sold on the MLM business model


• The transactions are initiated by the customer who brings their own personal motives for buying; not ones manufactured by their friend of family member

Online marketing takes the backward, awkward, embarrassing and generally unprofessional network marketing business model and transforms it into a standard mutually beneficial business transaction.

The Internet has changed and continues to change the business world in ways that we can’t even comprehend yet. And as people become more educated about online business and see the potential for passive residual income offered by MLM, I predict the horrid industry success rate of 3% will improve dramatically within the near future.