Thursday, September 6, 2007
Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin
Network marketing is, or should be, organic by definition. After all, it comes about as a natural product, or byproduct, of normal actions of you, the network marketer. Like most things organic, it might benefit a little from some planting, fertilizing and removal of parasites.
A genuine "network marketer" is concentrating more on the network than the marketing side of the equation. Many of the sales made by network marketers come more often from the trust and relationship the buyer has with the marketer rather than from the perceived qualities of the product itself. Make no mistake here, a good product at a reasonable price can influence a lot of potential buyers, but the trust in the seller will have a lot more to do with success, all other things being equal.
This brings up a point for those interested in getting into a network marketing program, but who are afraid of having to "sell" things. If done properly, the major "job" of the network marketer is to continually expand their circle of friends and acquaintances. It's a rough life, isn't it?
Another point to remember is that many internet business opportunities and internet marketing techniques adapt themselves quite easily to the network marketing model. The main difference the network is built in cyberspace and you may never see a single customer.
HOW TO BUILD A NETWORK
There are many places and activities that are good for building your network, but there are a couple of steps you might want to take first.
* Prepare yourself: At first, there are going to be two strong tendencies on your part. One is to throw up your hands and quit at the first question or contact, the other is going to be the desire to make every meeting into a sale. Both of these will probably be influenced primarily by ignorance. If you don't know what you are talking about, you will either avoid the topic completely, or babble idiotically.
You should definitely be as familiar as possible with your company, its history, its place in the business community, the products you sell, prices, return policies, and the business opportunity itself, in the case of a multi-level-marketing business. You don't have to have every figure or statistic immediately at hand, that's what brochures, website, and lunch dates are for, but you should be able to present a rational overview without consternation.
You should also prepare some simple, tantalizing responses to such beautiful lead in questions such as, "And what business are YOU in?" In his book "The Wave 4 Way To Building Your Downline," Richard Poe offers tips from a successful network marketing professional named Jerry Campisi. When asked what he does for a living, Jerry would commonly reply, "I'm a lifestyle marketer." This response would very often elicit a request for further details on the part of the listener who would then be in the position of asking about what Jerry had to sell rather than having to run away from a sales pitch.
In his network marketing classic, "Big Al's Super Prospecting: Special Offers & Quick-Start Systems", Tom "Big Al" Schreiter offers much the same advice, including a list of sixteen possible responses, such as, "I put people on the fast track to retirement. I save them money and help them retire 15 years early". See how it works?
* Prepare your tools: It doesn't hurt to have some brochures in your pocket or purse, but the biggest single physical network marketing tool you will need for building your business and your network is the simple business card. Always have plenty of these with you and hand them out liberally. They should be simple and unobtrusive but should give the prospect all they need to get in touch with you. They should NOT be sales pitches, although they can contain the name of your business and/or a quick overview of your business. For example: Bob's Mowing - Complete Landscaping and Lawn Care. It is also a plus to include a website and email, particularly if they contain information about your business: bobrobertslandscaping.com, email bob@bobrobertslandscaping.com. That website did not exist when I wrote this, by the way, so if you are Bob Roberts and are in landscaping, go for it!
WHERE TO BUILD YOUR NETWORK
Your network will be mainly built from two groups, professional contacts and social contacts. I view professional contacts as two groups, although there might be some overlap or blurring between the two. I refer to connected and non-connected professionals.
YOUR PROFESSIONAL NETWORK
Connected professionals are the people you work with or come in contact with as a result of your "real" business if you are just getting started in network marketing. You have to be careful here as you can alienate someone you need for your regular business, or you might create a conflict or overstep a boundary. Just as one example, many companies frown on soliciting and might consider even talking about your network business as grounds for censure or even firing.
Non-connected professionals are those such as property managers, real estate agents, car sales people, and others who may already have a rich network of contacts, who may have some sales experience or expertise, and who might be interested in your opportunity if not your product. I won't call these people "fair game", but you certainly do have a little more latitude in contacting them and explaining your business, and having them join you could be quite a boost.
YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK
You may already have a broad network of social contacts, but here are a few suggestions of what you can do to broaden this network.
1. Public places and events: You can frequent malls, fairs, coffee shops, sidewalk sales, garage sales, and other group functions...all in the interest of broadening your reach. Stay away from selling. Talk of generalities or the weather, or who won the game last night, but have your cards ready and know what you are going to say when the moment arrives. A lady asked me about a wrap I had on my wrist the other day, and I jokingly replied that it was an occupational hazard. I spent so much time making money on my computer that I must have gotten carpal tunnel syndrome. Trust me, after that, she was more interested in the money she could make than possible damage to her arm. By the way, I switched to an ergonomic keyboard and mouse along with a better chair and it cleared up.
2. Clubs and organizations: While many of these are targeted groups with agendas of their own, there are a great many opportunities to network with the membership, and they are a great way to expand your own group of contacts. You can also sometimes get some great help in other ways as well. More than one person, including myself, has gotten a good job through a social contact, or a good price on furniture.
3. Speaking engagements: If you are knowledgeable on a subject related to your business, you can provide free workshops, classes, or talks on that subject. Don't think it works? I once watched woman who sold self-defense items such as pepper spray, whistles, and books, sell over 200 items after giving a 45 minute talk on protecting yourself.
4. Business lunches or seminars: Here's an opportunity to mingle with like minded people who might be interested in what you have to offer. It's a great time to exchange cards and practice your "what do you do for a living?" response. By the way, there is a website called MeetUp.com. You can go there and sign up to join or start groups of people in your area who share your interests. Two weeks from today, I am going to participate in a seminar on search engine optimization. The audience will include a lot of people who will be interested in internet marketing...a topic I know a little about. I wonder if I can give them a card?
There are many other situations such as PTA meetings, weddings, and even church functions which become great network marketing opportunities when you leave the selling at home and concentrate on making friends and acquaintances.
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Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer and webmaster. A graduate of the University of West Florida, member of Mensa, and retired from the Army, he writes articles for his own use and that of other webmasters, covering a broad range of subjects. He has a blog on internet marketing at http://donovanbaldwin.blogspot.com
7 Steps To Branding Any Resell Rights Product For Free
Copyright 2006 Philip Ritchie
As an ebook and software reseller, you know that when it comes to increased website traffic, viral marketing and resell rights make an explosive combination. But what if the ebooks or software you want to resale or that you have master resell rights to isn't brandable? Well, never fear! There is a simple and very effective solution. But best of all its free!!!
Follow the 7 simple steps below and you can sell ebooks and software on a whole new level!
1. Upload Your Resale Rights Product
First of all, you will need to upload your ebook or software into your "downloads" file in your server. If you don't have a file that you store your downloads in you can easily make a "downloads" folder in your server with your FTP Client and upload your products there.
2. Making Your Thank You Page
Next, you will want to make a one page "welcome" or "thank you for your order" document on your Microsoft word processor. On this one page document you can include your web site's logo or the picture of whatever it is your selling that you want your increase in online traffic to go to. Then you can include the link to your website under the image. I like to say, "This product was brought to you by…" and then have the picture under that and then my link under the picture. Under all of that you will want to type in "To download your product, click here."
3. Converting Your Thank You Page To PDF
Next, you will want to obtain a free PDF converter to convert your word document into PDF format. PDF995 is a PDF converter that can be used for free or can be purchased. The only disadvantage to the free version is that it takes a couple of minutes to convert the document to PDF. Now, once installed on your computer, it is very simple to convert your document to PDF. Simply select "print" to print your document. Then instead of printing to your printer, select print to PDF. The file will then automatically convert to a PDF document.
4. Making Your Resell Rights Product Brandable
Now you can obtain pdfedit995 from the same website and use it to activate the links in your "thank you" page. After you print and save your document to PDF as mentioned above, be sure to close it. Next, select "Links" on the PDFedit995 software and install your hyperlinks where appropriate. You will want to put the download link to the actual product they ordered Now close the PDF document after you save it with the new links.
Please note: You must close the newly converted PDF document prior to installing he links, otherwise the links will not install with this software.
5. Make Your Branded Page Secure
This step is very important and will keep anyone from copying or altering your branded thank you page. Download the pdfsignature995software and click on "PDF Rights Management". Then select :Do not Modify" and then "convert". What this will do is keep anyone from copying or modifying the page.
6. Upload Your New Branded Thank You Page
This is the page you want your customers to first receive when they download your product that they purchased. So, you need to upload the PDF thank you page to your "downloads" folder. The address or link to that page can now be the one that gets sent to your customer once their purchase s made.
7. How It Works
O.K., So here is how it all comes together. Your customer makes the purchase and is then sent the download link. The customer opens the download link and is presented the branded PDF "thank you" page. The first thing they see on the page is your advertisement logo and the link to your website. Under that they see the link to the actual product that they ordered. When they click on the link to the product that they ordered, they will be prompted to download it directly from your server. What's even better is that when they download the product from the link, the address or URL to the download doesn't show up in their browser. Since many ebook resellers simply pass on the link to their customers, your viral marketing ad will pass along with it.
Selling ebooks and software with viral marketing should always be one of your strongest tools in gaining increased web site traffic and now with these 7 simple steps, it always will be!
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Philip Ritchie has been creating and selling ebooks for over 3 years. For exclusive access to his unique niche resell rights collection visit:
http://www.ebookstacker.com
8 Ways to Grow Your Business During a Summer Lull
Copyright 2006 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com
Have things slowed down for your business now that the warmer months are upon us and people are on vacation or otherwise taking a break from their usual routines? Use this downtime to focus on getting your business ready to rock for the fall by implementing some of the 8 ideas below:
1. Evaluate your staffing needs.
If you haven't hired an assistant yet, whether that's a virtual assistant, an in-person assistant, or a combination of the two, now is a great time to do so. Begin by creating your ideal profile of what you want your assistant to look like, and then start putting out feelers to your networks about exactly what you're looking for in an assistant.
Once you've found the right person for you, the summer months are a great time to train someone so they are up to speed come the busier fall months.
If you already have help, take some time to evaluate their performance. This includes taking a look not just at your current assistant(s) but also any outside vendors you work with, like your web designer, your shopping cart system, your list service, or your copywriter.
If you're finding their work to not be meeting your needs and expectations, follow the same process as you did for hiring an assistant. Start with creating the ideal profile of who you're looking for and then put that information out to your networks for recommendations.
2. Increase your learning to increase your earning.
The summer is a great time to educate yourself on whatever it is you need to know to take your business to the next level. Choose a business-building project, like building your list or increasing your search engine rankings, and invest some of your education budget into a program or product that will help you learn what you need to know. Then plan the time to actually learn and implement the material, and you will reap the benefits come the fall.
3. Makeover or create your ezine.
Take an objective look at your ezine, and ask a few colleagues if they's be willing to offer you some feedback on it as well. Make any changes you think might help it be more effective as marketing and sales tool.
If you haven't started your ezine yet, the summer is a great time to put one together and start sending it to your list regularly.
4. Clean out and organize your email.
Is your inbox an energy drain?
Mine is! And I am committed to having an empty inbox before leaving for vacation this summer, which means I have 985 emails at present to go through and either respond to, file in the appropriate folder, delegate or delete.
I've been working through it at the end of the day for about an hour, and with each email I handle, I can feel the drain from it sitting in my inbox slipping away. Take some time each day to delete old emails, reply to ones that only require a quick response, and set the 'rules' feature to automatically sort future incoming mail into appropriate folders.
5. Revamp your office.
This is another task I'm working on at the moment. It feels great to throw out so many old files and restock my bookshelves so I can actually see what I own! And by doing so, I'm creating space for more clients and more abundance to come into my business!
But revamping your office doesn't just include cleaning out and reorganizing your stuff. If you also have tools that aren't working the way they should, get them fixed so they do, or replace them. So, if you're printer only works when it feels like it, get it fixed or get a new one.
6. Clean up your computer.
Tired of wasting time searching for stuff on your computer? Take some time this summer to clean up your files, delete ones you don't need anymore, reorganize what you do need into appropriate folders, and remove old software that you no longer use. Your hard drive will thank you!
7. Write down your accomplishments so far this year.
It's important to pause periodically and recognize your successes. And now that we're halfway through the year, take some time to write down and savor your accomplishments so far. Then plan out what you'd like to achieve for the rest of the year. This will motivate and inspire you going forward.
8. Enjoy yourself!
Summer is a special time of year, where people are more laid back and life takes on a more leisurely pace. Make sure you take some time to enjoy it. After all, isn't time freedom one of the reasons you went into business for yourself in the first place?
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WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach™, founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com , and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™, teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
