MLM Talk Online

by Anne Ahira

You found the best Network Marketing company and signed up. You read all the material and got excited about the potential you see in this new career. Your upline sponsor has contacted you and said they would be available to help you out. Life is good. You’re on your way!

Now let’s fast forward three months. You have no sign ups. You’re discouraged. You’re feeling overwhelmed. You never seem to have any time to do what it takes to succeed. You’re getting ready to drop out. Maybe this Network Marketing stuff just isn’t for you.

Sound familiar? We’ve all been there at one time or another. Network Marketing isn’t just about stepping into a new career, it’s also about creating a new thought process. That takes time. And it takes commitment.

Lots of people in Network Marketing fail simply because they never mastered the art of time maintenance.

So how can you make sure you don’t fall into that category?

1. Schedule time for your business.

You MUST sit down and create a work schedule. Simply saying, “I’ll work on it sometime this week.” is not going to cut it. You have too many distractions, too many other things going on in your life. If you don’t make MANDATORY time for your business, it won’t happen! Will you have to sacrifice a little? Yes. Will it be worth it in the end? More than you could ever imagine. Take your calendar out NOW and decide when your business hours will be.

2. Don’t research yourself out of business.

If you spend your whole time researching and learning things about your business, will you ever make any money? While you’re getting “book learning”, others are out there prospecting, making mistakes and SALES. Don’t think you have to know everything before you get started. You will never know everything. Earn WHILE you learn.

3. Create a priority list and follow it.

The top activities are the ones that will make you money. Make sure you do those first. Otherwise, you could get lost in filing or researching and never get around to prospecting. Remember, the hardest part is getting started. If you commit to just one email, one phone call a day, you will find it easier and easier to do it again.

4. Try and do one thing a day to improve your business.

This could be talking to someone about the opportunity, reading a chapter in a self-help book, creating an email or flier for your business. It doesn’t have to be a big, huge task. The key is to be persistent and stay focused on the big picture. And the big picture is that you are on your way to early retirement one small step at a time.

5. Stay organized.

You will waste valuable time if you have to hunt for everything. Keep a neat office space and stay on top of the paper work. Little things done right from the very beginning will help you grow faster as your business gains momentum.

6. Stay focused.

This business develops over time. Commit to sticking with it for at least a year and you will realize the power behind Network Marketing.

About The Author

Anne Ahira
Editor The BEST Affiliate Newsletter
http://www.thebestaffiliate.com

by Suzanne Falter-Barns
www.getknownnow.com.com

Ever notice how some websites feel great, energetic, fun — you just want to linger to soak up more? And yet other sites are truly repellant. These tips will help you create a truly happening site….

1. Don’t use a dark background.

Think about the websites you’ve seen that are fun, refreshing, and really draw you in. Ever notice they usually have a white or light background? Dark or heavily patterned background are emotionally draining to look at, and they’re hard to read. Since the Web is a written medium, color counts!

2. Don’t pick hard-to-load graphics.

You’ve heard it before. Don’t use little graphics that sing and dance not only because they take longer to load (not everywhere has a high speed connection.) Search engines get confused by them, and could potentially downgrade or even ban you in their rankings. Even cascading style sheets, often used in templates, can slow down SE responsiveness. Ultimately, tricky stuff like this does little to enhance your site. What counts … is content!

3. Don’t confuse the reader.

Pick one focus and stick with it. Resist the temptation to cram all of your many skills into one small website. Chances are they speak to different audiences, so serve up only focused fare for a singular audience. For example, if you’re a coach who works with the chronically disorganized, plus those who need relationship help, you’ve got the making of two powerful websites, not one. After all, you can always have more than one website to speak to your different readers. (I do!)

4. Make sure your brand — your site name, URL and ezine/blog names — reflects your focus.

If your site helps disorganized, menopausal women get a grip, choose a URL that reflects that. Go with ‘getagripover50.com’ for instance, instead of a generic life coaching term like ’strategicliving.com’. Again and again I encounter coaches who think they must put all of their myriad products under one generic name that means nothing. No one says you can’t have several websites that reach several different audiences and sell different products and services. (Remember, however, you’ll have to promote all those sites, so don’t go too crazy.)

5. Make sure your ezine and blog scream ‘BENEFIT.

Nothing worse than a soft, mushy ezine/blog that doesn’t really DO anything for the reader. Using the example above, why not an ezine or blog called ‘Hot Flashes Over 50′? Your ezine must be more than your collected thoughts, unlike your blog which can be more conversational. A good ezine delivers useful info to exactly who needs it. And the title reflects that.

6. Don’t hard-sell the reader.

Websites that come at the reader with all the offers up front, and then some, dash our interest quickly. Don’t put all of your offers right out there on the home page. Rather, entice us in to spend a little quality time with your free articles, your ezine, your insights. Give me some of what you know for free, in a dignified manner, and I’ll probably be willing to pay for the rest.

7. Don’t use look-alike templates.

Tempting as that site-in-a-box price point is, avoid it studiously. We seen them A LOT, and they do nothing for your site or your image. Instead, hire a designer who can tweak your template to become truly your own — it’s not as hard as you might think. Add your own personalized images, and feel free to have them strip away some of the bells and whistles.

8. Don’t blow off the keywords.

When it comes to search engines like Google and Yahoo, keywords are your best friend. Something like 85% of your web traffic will come from these words, so you’ll want to handle them carefully. Various tools like www.wordtracker.com and Overture’s keyword tool can help you see what’s out there, and pick and choose intelligently.

©2006 Suzanne Falter-Barns LLC.

Download Suzanne’s free list of 50 Top Publishing & Media contacts at www.getknownnow.com. Drop by her blog at http://www.painlessselfpromotion.com for almost daily tips on how to get known now … the easy way!

Copyright 2004 Bob Leduc

Here’s a simple way you can generate lots of sales leads or traffic to your web site. Use postcards. They’re highly effective and very low-cost. Plus, postcards provide the following 6 unique advantages over most other types of advertising.

1. Maximum Exposure for Your Sales Message

Postcards are delivered “ready to read”. Even people who usually ignore other advertising will find it hard to avoid looking at your message when it’s on a postcard, especially if you keep it brief.

With other types of advertising you often lose prospects who would have been interested in your offer, but they never saw it.

2. Simple and Low-Cost

Postcards are simple to produce - and very low-cost. You can print 4 x 6 inch postcards on your own computer for less than 2 cents each. Or you can reduce the cost down to about 1 cent each if you print 4 at a time on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of card stock and cut the sheets into quarters.

Even postcards printed by a commercial printer are not expensive — usually about 4 cents to 8 cents each.

The postage for mailing postcards is low too. In the US you can send postcards by First Class Mail for only 23 cents. This reduced postage rate applies to postcards that are at least 3 1/2 x 5 inches but not over 4 1/4 x 6 inches.

3. Get Immediate Results

Because postcards are simple and easy to use - they produce results quickly. Often your postcards can be mailed within a week from the time you decide to use them. You will start getting replies 2 or 3 days later.

4. Gain Control of Your Sales Activity

Postcards put you in control your sales activity. You can avoid getting too many or too few responses during any time period by regulating how many postcards you mail and how often you mail them.

That means you can quickly boost your sales activity any time it slows down. And you can avoid losing customers you can’t handle immediately because you got flooded with too much activity at one time.

5. No Wasted Advertising Expense

Postcards enable you to spend your entire advertising budget on your best prospects. You don’t have to pay for advertising to a large audience in order to reach a few good prospects.

With a little advance planning you can make sure your postcards only go to prospects likely to be interested in what you offer and who also have a prior history of acting on offers that interest them.

For example, analyze your customers and make a list of the characteristics they share. Then call several national mailing list brokers and tell them what you are looking for. You’ll be surprised at how specific some mailing lists are today.

6. Can Evaluate Results Quickly

Postcards normally generate 90 percent or more of their total number of replies within 7 to 10 days. This enables you to quickly and accurately evaluate the results of postcard advertising. You’ll know in about a week if you can confidently send more of the same postcards - or if you need to make some changes.

Don’t overlook postcards when you want to generate sales leads - or web site traffic. They’re highly effective, very low-cost …and they provide these 6 unique advantages you cannot get with most other types of advertising.

About the Author
Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards and launched BizTips from Bob, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You’ll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

If your goal is to go full-time in your MLM business by next year, here’s some things you can do to prepare yourself so you can make that dream into a reality.

Reduce your expenses over the next year. If you have debts — start a plan to start paying them off right now — and don’t incur any new debt in the next year. Use this year when you have your salary AND the part-time income to clear the decks and get ready. You also may want to start building up your savings so you’ll have a fall back if you have a down month so you won’t have to worry about how you’ll pay your expenses.

Cultivate and find some real business builders in your MLM business — and help them achieve their financial goals. Let them know what your plans are and find out what their financial business goals are for the coming year. This way you can use the synergy from all your goals to propel yourselves forward.

If you don’t belong to a local Leads club or networking club — join one now. Start to get involved in the club and even volunteer for a leadership position. Networking is one of the best ways I know to increase your business and people that actively give referrals to other members will get referrals in return.

Even though you are still part-time — treat your business as if it were a full-time business. Focus as much time as you can on your business and don’t get involved with any extra outside activities that would interfere with your business goals.

Linda Locke
http://www.mlmtalk.com

By Wendy Weiss

I spent my formative years in ballet class. While other kids went out to play, I went to ballet class. In high school while others attended after-school activities or hung out together, I went to ballet class. By my mid-teens I was taking class five or six times a week or maybe even more. This was a habit that continued till injuries sidelined my professional dancing career.

This habit of taking a ballet class every day was not mine alone. Every dancer, professional or those seeking to become professional, takes class every day. It’s a habit, it’s a reality, it goes with the job. It is impossible to dance professionally without taking class. Even the stars, Barishnykov, for example, take class every day.

In my late teens I had some personal crises that stopped me from going to class everyday. At one of my rare appearances in class, my teacher asked where I had been. I told her what was going on in my life. She said to me, “That’s no reason not to take class. You have to take class everyday, no matter what.”

Sounds harsh doesn’t it? But she was right. Not taking class only gave me something else to feel bad about.

When I started my sales training business, I used that same “no matter what” approach to prospecting. I prospected every day. I started out with absolutely no corporate connections. I was a ballet dancer, I only knew other ballet dancers. I did, however, know how to prospect. On and off for years my “day job” had been telemarketing. I began to prospect the same way I learned to take class, every day, no matter what. Five years later I have a thriving business. Even today I continue to prospect every day, while perhaps not for as many hours. Every day brings some prospecting activity, no matter what.

So how does the busy entrepreneur, busy owner or sales professional find the time to prospect every day no matter what? The answer is simple, put it in your calendar. Schedule time in your calendar every day for prospecting activity. At the scheduled time put aside what you are doing and prospect.

Do not take other calls, do not work on other projects, do not allow interruptions. Simply prospect. When the time you have scheduled is over, stop prospecting and go on with your other tasks.

Schedule appointments with yourself to prospect and keep those appointments. We get angry and upset when prospects miss appointments. Ask yourself: Why is it all right to miss an appointment with yourself?

Prospecting success (just like learning to dance) comes over time. In order to keep your sales funnel full you must constantly be on the lookout for leads and prospects. By keeping your funnel full you avoid the boom and bust cycles that so many entrepreneurs and sales professionals experience.

To be successful you must engage in some prospecting activity everyday, no matter what. It’s a habit, it’s a reality, it goes with the job.

Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success,” is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. Her recently released program, Cold Calling College, and/or her book, Cold Calling for Women, can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com. Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendy’s free e-zine at
http://www.wendyweiss.com.

© 2005 Wendy Weiss

Here’s some good advice from Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank of
Direct Sales Industry News.

Stop Losing Sales - Build Your Own Website

If you are in Direct Sales, you may not realize how many sales you are missing by not having a website of your own. Rep websites aren’t usually indexed in the search engines, and most can’t be personalized completely.

Let me give you an example of why it’s so important to have your own website. I searched for “Watkins Vanilla” on Yahoo, Google, and MSN.

- On Yahoo, Watkin’s company page was #7 in the listings. Ranked before them were reps with their own website.

- On Google, the company page was #5. Again, reps with their own websites ranked above them. more

Linda Locke
http://www.mlmtalk.com

If you think that New Year’s resolutions are just a waste of time, here’s 5 resolutions from Suzanne Falter-Barns’ Blast O’ Joy blog that might change your mind this year. Here’s an excerpt:

Five Good New Year’s Resolutions

The New Year is about new beginnings. So let’s make 2006 the year you start “getting a life,” not merely “making a living.”

Have you been waiting for the right time to get to work on your dream? That would be right now … and with the New Year upon us, you’ll have some momentum to keep going.

1. Carve out regular time slots for your dream, and get to work. If you’re a morning person, get up an hour earlier and create as the sun rises. If you’re a night owl, stay up late to get it done. Either way, give yourself a regular shot of at least thirty minutes per day (an hour is better) five times per week.
Read more here.

Linda Locke
Editor, MLMTalk Blog
http://www.mlmtalk.com

Here’s a interesting post from Wanda Loskot’s Attraction Marketing blog about what makes people decide to buy.

According to recent studies, here are the most important factors in the decision making of today’s buyers:

1. Level of Trust in the Salesperson - 87%

2. Level of Respect for the Salesperson: 82%

3. Reputation of the Company or Product: 76%

4. Features of the Product or Service: 71%

5. Quality and Service: 58%

6. Price: 16%

7. Like the Salesperson: 3%

Linda Locke
http://www.mlmtalk.com
Online Profits at the Speed of Light

by Wendy Weiss

One of my new favorite books to recommend to coaching clients is “The Feeling Good Handbook” by David D. Burns, M.D. This is a book about depression. The subtitle reads: “Overcome depression, conquer anxiety, enjoy greater intimacy.”

So why am I recommending a book about depression to my clients? This book is about a type of treatment called cognitive behavioral therapy. The word “cognition” means “thought” and this book is a common sense look at changing the way people think and thus changing their behavior.

In “The Feeling Good Handbook” Dr. Burns lists “The Ten Forms of Twisted Thinking” that occur when people are depressed. These ten forms also exist when people are not depressed and they exist within many, many sales professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners. If you use any of these twisted forms (and most of us do in one way or another) it will negatively impact your sales. I am listing all 10 so that you can judge for yourself. The following list of “Twisted Thinking” is paraphrased from “The Feeling Good Handbook” by David D. Burns, M.D.

1. All-or-nothing thinking

Everything is black or white. If a situation falls short of perfect, then it’s a total failure. An example of all-or-nothing thinking is dieters who have one cookie and then proceed to eat the entire bag since they’ve already blown their diet. Another example would be sales people who because they do not have the time to make 100 calls in a day make no calls.

2. Overgeneralization

Seeing a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. People who overgeneralize use words such as “always” or “never.” “Cold calling never works for me.” “Prospects always reject me.”

3. Mental filter

Picking out a single negative detail and dwelling on it to the exclusion of everything else. An example: You receive many compliments from your associates about your presentation. If, however, you receive even one mildly critical comment you obsess about it and forget about all of the positive comments.

4. Discounting the positive

You reject positive experiences by insisting they “don’t count.” If you do a good job, you may tell yourself that it wasn’t good enough or that anyone could have done as well.

5. Jumping to conclusions

You interpret things negatively when there are no facts to support your conclusion. There are two categories here:

**Mind reading: You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you with no evidence to back that up. You arbitrarily conclude that a prospect does not want to speak with you with no evidence to back that up.

**Fortune telling: You predict that things will turn out badly. Before a prospecting call you tell yourself, “They’re not interested.” “I’m bothering them.” “They’ll probably say ‘no.’”

6. Magnification

You exaggerate the importance of your (or your company or product or service) problems and shortcomings. You also minimize the importance of your (or your company or product or service) desirable qualities.

7. Emotional reasoning

You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are. “I am uncomfortable making cold calls” therefore “People do not like cold calls” therefore “Cold calling does not work.”

8. “Should” statements

You tell yourself that things should be the way you hoped or wanted them to be. “I should have made that sale.” “Musts,” “ought’s” and “have to’s” are similar offenders. Should statements that are directed against yourself lead to guilt and frustration. Should statements that are directed against other people also lead to anger and frustration. “My prospect should call me back.”

9. Labeling

Labeling is an extreme form of all-or-nothing thinking. You attach a negative label to yourself or to others. Example: You make a mistake and then say to yourself, “I’m a loser.”

Labeling is quite irrational because you are not the same as what you do. These labels lead to anger, anxiety, frustration, and low self-esteem.

You may also label others. When a prospect does not respond as you had hoped you may tell yourself, “He’s a jerk.” Then you feel that the problem is with that person’s character instead of with their thinking or behavior. This makes you feel hostile and leaves little room for constructive communication.

10. Personalization and blame

You hold yourself personally responsible for an event that isn’t entirely under your control. An appointment with a new prospect is cancelled because that prospect has left the company. You think, “If only I was better at prospecting, this wouldn’t happen.”

Some people do the opposite. They blame other people or their circumstances for their problems and they overlook ways that they might be contributing to the problem. Blame doesn’t usually work very well.

Do you see these forms of twisted thinking in yourself or others that you manage?

Dr. Burns gives terrific exercises that one can use to overcome these various forms of twisted thinking.

Copyright 2006, Wendy Weiss

About the Author
Wendy Weiss “The Queen of Cold Calling” Sales Training/Sales Coaching **Gain confidence, reach more prospects, close more sales and make more money. Visit http://www.wendyweiss.com today. E-mail wendy@wendyweiss.com for a complimentary consultation.

What Are the Key Factors for Financial Success in MLM?

1. Choosing a good long-term company to promote that offers products you love and use and feel good about recommending to others.

2. Being honest, patient, persistent, consistent, positive, full of integrity, truthful, supportive, and never - never giving up (you cannot fail if you don’t quit).

3. Promoting your business in a way that other people can duplicate — in other words — creating a system for success that your downline can follow.

4. Choosing a supportive and successful upline (the person who sponsored your sponsor and so on).

5. Choosing a good sponsor who offers continual training and support for their downline. Don’t be afraid to shop around and interview potential sponsors — it may mean the difference between success and failure for you.

6. Having the unconditional support (and hopefully help) from your spouse or partner.

7. Taking personal responsibility for your success. Remember the old adage - “If it’s to be it’s up to me!”

8. Making a commitment to improving your business skills and your attitude through constant study and training.

Linda Locke
Online Profits at the Speed of Light