Whether or not you are a Christian there is something to be learned from this phrase. Basically what this phrase means is that Christian’s will use this idea to reflect upon their own lives and whether or not they are living the kind of life they should. They will say to themselves “What would Jesus do?” Then reflect upon whether or not their actions are the kind of actions they think Jesus would be doing. Perhaps they might react to a negative situation and say to themselves WWJD? (What would Jesus do?)

Now I know some of you aren’t Christian’s and you’re wondering why on earth I would bring this up when talking about MLM and network marketing. Here is why. This is a powerful idea and a powerful way to reflect upon your own life.

Instead of saying what would Jesus do… Say to yourself “What would my upline do?” Perhaps you don’t have a strong upline. Instead you might say “What would the distributor of the year do” or “What would the top distributors do?” Think of the top people in your company, the people recognized at your convention, on the conference calls, or in your marketing materials. What would those individuals do?

Hopefully you have a mentor or idol within your company that you can model your actions after.

Each day as you’re going through the day ask yourself WWDYD? (What would the distributor of the year do?) If you find you’re doing actions that the top distributors wouldn’t do, then perhaps you’re doing the wrong activities.

Another way people refer to this is… If your downline did what you’re doing today, would your business be growing? Would it be growing as fast as you want it too?

This is a great way to keep on track. Make sure you’re spending your time working on the right activities. Make sure your being the right kind of leader for your team.

So remember, “What would Jesus Do?”

- Ben Fitts

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What would Jesus do? How does this apply to MLM?

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a fellow named Robert Pagliarini. He said that he was the author of a new book called The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create Wealth & Purpose. He wanted to send me a free copy of the book to review it, no strings attached.

I agreed to read the book and less than a week later the book arrived from the publisher.

I had a plane flight and brought the book with me.

It turned out to be a great book and I highly recommend all of you get over to the Other 8 Hours and check it out. When you get there you’re going to find a ton of free resources, a newsletter, and yes, you can also buy the book. I don’t get a commission or anything other than a free copy of the book to read

The book talks about how we have only 24 hours a day. In the book Robert explains how MOST of who we are in our lives is made up of what we do in that other 8 hours. Meaning the 8 hours we aren’t at work or aren’t at sleep. In fact most of us really don’t have 8 hours. Our day probably goes something like:

6 AM wakeup & get ready for work
7:15 AM leave for work
8 AM arrive at work
8 AM – Noon work
Noon-1 PM lunch
1 PM – 5 PM work
5 PM to 6 PM drive home (why is afternoon traffic always worse than morning traffic?)
6 PM – 11 PM (5 hours of personal time)
11 PM to 6 AM (7 hours of sleep, not even a full 8 hours)

Most of our lives probably looks very similar to this. Between getting ready for work, going to work, working, driving home, etc. we actually end up with less than 8 hours of personal time a day.

However this extra 8 hours are in fact the most important hours of our lives. Let me state that again. These other 8 hours are the most important hours of our lives.

Think about it… You probably met your spouse and dated your spouse during these other 8 hours. If you have kids you probably made them during the other 8 hours. You raise them during the other 8 hours. You go to church and do your social activities during these other 8 hours. Some of the most important things we do in life make up the other 8 hours.

What this book is about is about making the most of the other 8 hours. The web site the other 8 hours also resources on how to make the most out of your other 8 hours. Robert even mentions starting a business as a way to eventually have more time and do the stuff you want to do instead of going to work a job for some corporate boss. He even mentions network marketing as one possible business. Although he doesn’t speak real highly of network marketing.

One of the other tools he has is similar to my schedule for part-time networkers. It helps you plan out your schedule and make the most of your time.

The book was a really good read. I read the entire book and underlined several parapgraphs. I think you’ll like the book too.

- Ben Fitts

PS. Dear FTC (see my post from a month or so ago about FTC guidelines.) I did receive a free review copy of the book but was not paid to endorse it and these links are not affiliate links.

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Book recommendation: The Other 8 Hours

Tonight I received a phone call offering to sell me MLM Genealogy leads. Let’s call this woman Ms. B.

Ms. B. told me she had a list of YTB people to sell. She said she had heard some bad things about YTB and that the company might be shutting down. She said she had about 8400 names, phone number, email, and address for YTB people to sell and she was calling me because she thought someone in my company might be interested in them. She thought these people might be looking for a new opportunity.

Being an ethical guy, little warning bells started going off in my head…

After she gave me her pitch I asked a few questions.

Question 1.
Why aren’t you using the leads yourself? Why are you trying to sell them?

Ms. B answered.
She has a lot of MLM experience but she prefers to be a leads broker and she has a lot of experience brokering these kind of leads. Her family were MLMers but she never really got into that side of the business.

More warning bells are going off for me. Why doesn’t she do MLM? Did she sell these to family members or friends already? If they are so great why isn’t she working them?

Question 2.
How many times are you going to sell these leads?

Ms. B answered.
Anyone selling you leads would be lying if they said they didn’t sell them multiple times. However she said since it was a small list she would only sell these 3-6 times and would give me 3 months exclusivity before selling them to anyone else in my company.

This was pretty honest. She is right leads companies sell leads more than once.

Question 3.
How fresh are these leads?

Ms. B answered.
18-24 months old.

More warning bells are going off now. If they are 18-24 months old, why are they just now going up for sale? Has she been selling them for the last 18 months? Did the person generating the leads already milk the leads as much as they could before selling them off to someone else?

Question 4.
How were these leads generated? Were they from an existing YTB members genealogy list?

Ms. B answered.
These names were generated from web sites of YTB members on the internet. Someone wrote a program to capture the names, emails, phone, and address of YTB members from the internet.

At this point I’m livid with anger. You see I run web marketing web sites for my company. I HATE people like this. This person is what we call a “scrapper”. They scrape the content of web sites. They find someone who has YTB marketing web sites and they scrape the content to find the name, email, address, phone, etc.

If you’re someone like me that runs marketing web sites for team members of my company, what happens is this person points a computer program we call a “bot” which is short for robot. They point the bot at your web site. Then the bot tries a bunch of different combinations of usernames until it find someone that exists. It then scrapes the content off the site for the name, email, phone, etc. and puts that info a database. It then continues trying more variations of usernames.

Besides this being unethical it is also a computer attack. They generate tens of thousands of requests or even hundreds of thousands of requests on the web site in order to find a few thousand names. It can even temporarily break a web site, cause a web site to perform poorly, etc.

In addition I feel this is unethical behavior. I feel that people who try and steal genealogy lists are bad apples. I would hate for someone to attack my downline and try and steal them all away for some new opportunity and I would never want to do that to someone else.

Ms. B. couldn’t believe that I was upset. She couldn’t believe that I didn’t understand that this is they way business is done. She claimed that because this information was freely available on the internet that I was upset.

Needless to say the phone call ended shortly thereafter and I won’t be recommending anyone to her.

I hate people like this. She isn’t a networker so she has no idea how dirty her behavior is. She can never truly understand because she doesn’t have a downline. Or maybe this is one reason why she doesn’t do MLM herself and only brokers MLM genealogy leads.

What do you think? Have you ever bought a genealogy list? Have you ever bought lists that were generated from spamming/scraping web sites? Have you ever had someone attack your downline to try and steal them away to another company?

- Ben

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Buy MLM Genealogy Lists

What is your plan to grow your MLM business?

I heard a great tip from a friend of mine who is the top money earner in my company. He said he starts with a plan of action every year to pretend like he is starting over in his business. He acts like January 1 is the first day he is starting and puts together a plan of action based on that philosophy.

I know for me personally when I start a new project I’m excited. When I start in a new network marketing business in the past I’m very aggressive. I build my lead list. I call all my friends and family. I get aggressive with my advertising and marketing.

The problem I personally experienced is that I built a large business quickly. I then got into a mode of managing and working with my team. I have 6200+ people on my team. I let myself get too busy managing my business, training others, etc. It’s a different mindset than when I was first starting out.

Plus over my many years of being involved in my business I’ve met new people and my friends list probably needs to be updated.

Starting now I’m refocusing and pretending I am starting out from scratch again. I’m setting my goals. I’m building my list of friends and family. I’m contacting my warm market. I’m going back to basics. I’m going to work hard again just like I was starting out from scratch. I’m not ignoring the people already in my business I’m just refocusing on building again. Leading by example.

I think it’s a great idea.

If you were to pretend to start over in your business, what would you do?

Leave us a comment and let us know!

- Ben Fitts

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Start 2010 Right with a New MLM Plan

Yet, how do they do it?

How do they manage their job, their family, their personal lives and their new home business?

One of the biggest things I’ve found in my network marketing career is the importance of consistency. Consistency of working even a little bit every week is far better than working hard, then stopping for a while, then working hard again. If you can find a way to consistently build your business each and every week you’ll look back a year later and see a successful business growing. However if you stop and start a lot you’ll probably find that your business is struggling.

I came up with this schedule to help out part-time network marketers.

The schedule allows you to create a time schedule of your week. You can put in times for working your job, spending time with your family, even time to have a personal life. As you create the schedule you’ll begin to find that you have little pockets of time where you can build your business. It might be your lunch hour at work. It might be Tuesday nights…. It might be on the weekend. You’ll still be able to have time to do all the things you enjoy doing, but with a little sacrifice you can find some time to consistently build your business.

Download a copy of the schedule for part-time MLMers here.

This is my first draft at this schedule. Leave a comment and let me know if you find the schedule useful or if you have any suggestions. I appreciate you!

- Ben Fitts

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How to setup a schedule for Part-Time MLM Networkers

Did you know the FTC has updated their requirements for bloggers to disclose paid endorsements?

That means you and I as network marketers that are paid to promote a particular product or opportunity now need to disclose that information.  It also means if you refer some affiliate program for a autoresponder or internet provider or whatever you now need to disclose that information as well.

Here are 6 quick videos from the FTC explaining the new requirements. You can also view the text of the endorsement guidelines here. (PDF)

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FTC Guidelines for Endorsing Products on Blogs

Many of you reading this already have a home business but perhaps some of you are still looking.  Perhaps you haven’t found the right business yet. Perhaps you’re looking for something better. Perhaps your just looking for something different.  A different product.  A different compensation plan.  A different mentor and team leader.

If you’re looking for an opportunity I have a couple of webinars I’m doing this week that might interest you.  I’ll show you a bit about what we do and why we’re different than literally every other network marketing and direct sales company out there. (We have no direct competition. No one sells the same product or type of product we do.)

Just use the contact form to send me an email and I will respond back to you later today by phone or email. Let me know which one you prefer. I will also give you a link to join one of our webinars or a link to try out the service totally free.

If you already have an opportunity, GREAT. I don’t want to steal you away from what you’re doing.  Focusing on your opportunity is really important.  I think you should stay where you are and build build build.

But if you’re looking for something new or different contact me.

- Ben Fitts

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Are you looking for a home business?

I wanted to share some good news with you.

We’ve been rated a top 50 MLM blog and a top 10 MLM Blog. I’m pretty proud to be included with some of these other famous MLM trainers.

In August we were rated a top 10 MLM Blog by Roosevelt Cooper.

Just this week we were rated one of the top 50 (his isn’t in numercial, but alphabetical order) by That MLM Beat and George Fourie.

Thanks Roosevelt and George! I appreciate the recognition!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Top 10 MLM Blog!

Today I want to continue my conversation on how to be a successful part-time networker with 5 Tips for Part Time MLM Networkers.

1. Get your own domain name
2. Get a permanent email address
3. Get a dedicated phone number & voicemail
4. Get professional business cards
5. Setup your own web site (not the company site)

Some of these might seem obvious to you but I can’t tell you how many people on my team don’t do these basic things.  They treat their business as a hobby not a business!  If you want to attract GREAT leaders to your team then you need to follow these 5 simple steps.

Get Your Own Domain Name

Most people don’t understand just how simple this is.  You can register your domain name for about $10 a year (a little less or a little more depending on where you register.)  You can then “forward” your domain name to the web site your company gives you.  This is super easy to do and usually only takes a few minutes of your time. It makes you look A LOT more professional this way.

For example, my company provides me a web site like:

http://www.sendoutcards.com/1899

I bought a domain name to forward to my site like:

http://www.TryBensCards.com

Not only does it give you a more professional image but it has a practical reason too.  It is a lot harder for people to type the wrong name or to go directly to the company web site without my affiliate id.  I’ve seen people do things like type “www.sendoutcards.com/1899″ into Google.  Guess what? Google does a web search and doesn’t neccessarily show my site!  It might show an advertisement for another Send Out Cards rep!  Now if someone enters in “trybenscards.com” into Google they will only get results back that point to me, not another Send Out Cards rep!

Get a Permanent Email Address

Take this example.  You’re at a networking event for the local chamber of commerce and you receive two business cards for people with the same greeting card company.

One of their business cards has an email address:

redsoxfan72@yahoo.com (not a real email)

The other has an email address:

ben@TryBensCards.com (not a real email)

Which one looks more professional?

Again this both has a more professional appearance but it also has a practical use. If you have your own domain and email address associated with it you can forward your email anywhere. You can forward your email to gmail or yahoo or comcast or whomever you want.  When you change your internet service you just change where your personalized email address is forwarded!

Imagine you’ve been building your business for 5 years like I have.  Imagine someone who met you a couple of years ago is now at the right place and is ready to start a business. They contact you at your email address but it bounces back to them as undeliverable.  You just lost a new distributor because you changed your email address!

Forwarding your email address is usually as simple as forwarding your domain name.  Many domain name registrars will offer you email for your domain or email forwarding.  Usually there is no cost or very little cost (under $10) to do this. So why not do it?  Why risk someone not being able to get in touch with you because you changed your email address?

Get a Dedicated Phone Number & Voicemail

This one should be obvious but how many people get started in their business and put in their cell phone number or home phone number as their main contact method.  Imagine a business owner who just had a business failure and is interested in getting back into business.  He hears about your opportunity and contacts you but when he calls he gets your personal voicemail with the music background, the kids playing, the dogs barking, etc.  Is he going to take you seriously?  Worse, what about those of you pursuing multiple opportunities at once.  How do you setup a professional voicemail for 2 or 3 or 4 opportunities?  You need to get a dedicated number for your business!

There are a couple of good options for this.

#1 You can setup a toll-free number.  The service I use starts at only $2 per month.  You can give your business a professional image, get your own voicemail, fax service, etc. all for $2 a month. Then you just pay 6.9 cents per minute.  You can even search for your own numbers.  I figured out my name “BEN FITTS” spelled out on a telephone is “236-34888″ so I did a search for any toll-free numbers that contain 236-3488 and found 877-236-3488 was available.  I bought this for only $10 a month!  BOY what a professional  image that makes me have!  MANY times people have commented on how cool it is that I have my own name as a phone number. PLUS it’s easy for people to remember.

#2 You can get a cheap VOIP phone line.  VOIP phones run off your internet service. They offer unlimited calling, long distance, and voicemail for one low flat rate.  I have a VOIP line which comes in really handy for long distance calls to host conference calls, call back prospects, etc. Plus I have my own voicemail which I can record which is specific to my business.

You can get a VOIP phone for $199 a year flat rate.
You can also get a VOIP phone for $25 a month if you prefer to pay monthly.

Get Professional Business Cards

Your company probably provides some basic business cards for you to use.  However these are usually fairly generic. For example our “Send Out Cards” business cards have the company logo and such on them but they don’t really talk about what we do! They don’t talk about our products or our business opportunity.  It’s not a very effective business card.

Another practical reason to get your own business cards, as well as your own phone number, email, and web site is that you MIGHT change companies in the future.  My business cards say “The Custom Greeting Card Guy” on them.  They don’t say “Send Out Cards”. Heaven forbid if something happened to SOC I’d still be able to use my business cards.  They’re building my brand not my company’s brand.

You can even get free business cards at some place like Vista Print. You only pay shipping. (Or you can customize the cards and make really nice cards for only a few bucks extra.)

Setup Your Own Web Site (not the company site they give you)

This one is a little bit more advanced… But setting up your own web site is a great way to give yourself a more professional image.  It helps you build your brand, not your company.  People buy into you, not your company, your product, or your compensation plan. They buy into the belief that you can actually help them achieve their goals and dreams.

There is also a very good practical reason to use your own web site. That reason is Google loves unique content. Google hates all the company web sites because Google knows most of these web sites are the same.  I’ve actually written a 44 page ebook about this topic.  You see Google knows that when you have an affiliate site for your company 99% of the content is the same as everyone else in your company.  They know that you’re name and photo on your site might be different but the content is the same.  Google doesn’t want their listings to show 10 web sites that all look identical. Instead they want the 10 listings that show up to be unique.  Owning your own web site will give you an advantage in Google.

I don’t care if you start out with a Web Site Builder that basically allows you to answer a few questions and setup a web site, or if you pay a professional to do it for you.  The fact that you setup your own web site will be a huge advantage to you vs. all the other distributors in your company that don’t have one.

In Closing

Building your network marketing business part-time doesn’t mean you have to look like a hobbyist.  A few simple tricks like registering a domain name, setting up a permanent email address, buying a dedicated toll-free or voip phone, getting professional business cards, and creating a unique web site will give you a professional image. These tricks also often have practical uses that can help you be more effective in sponsoring and recruiting others.  Your total cost for these services is minimal and the rewards are truly great.

What other tips do you have for making your part-time MLM business have a professional image?

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

5 Tips for Part Time MLM Networkers

My friend Shay Wheat just emailed me and asked for our help.

She is a member of Successful Thinkers along with some other really cool people like Rudy Ruettiger from the television movie “Rudy”.  This is a new group of entrepreneurs, coaches, and business professionals and they’re holding a big event on November 6th for success minded people like YOU.

If you can be in the Sacramento, CA Area on November 6th from 6:30 PM to 10 PM you can attend for FREE.  If not you can watch the web cast live (also free!)  I know I’ll be watching the webcast myself.

Use this link to register so my friend Shay can benefit. She’s competing TODAY to see who can get the most referrals. If she is one of the top people she will get international exposure for her business!

Topics from the Hope Dream Succeed event include:

• Building your local community
• How to approach others about your business
• Taking advantage of technology
• Relationship building
• Branding yourself online
• Business to business
• Referrals are your best source of business
• Women’s leadership
• Facebook
• Twitter
• …. and more!

Register for FREE Today and help my friend Shay while empowering yourself by listening to these other powerful successful thinkers and business experts.

Remember if you can get to Sacramento on the 6th you can attend the event live and in person for free!

- Ben Fitts

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(Free Registration) Join Rudy Ruettiger and other successful business minds

I’ve written a couple of times recently about how I’ve had to go back to work part-time. (read them here and here)

One of the key things you want to do when you build your business part-time is to always be prepared. You might be at your job or at your kid’s soccer game. No matter where you are you always need to be prepared to do business.

One thing I do to stay prepared is I keep a plastic storage container in my car.  Inside this container I keep all my marketing materials. It has rungs to hold file folders. In these folders I store things like flyers, brochures, magazines, DVDs, business cards, etc.  That way when I’m out and about and an opportunity arises I’m always prepared.

For example in my ebook on how to effectively market with flyers I talk about how I use tabbed flyers like you might see in a convenience store or grocery store.  The other day I was at my new part time job and I went to a local shopping area to get some lunch.  As I got out of my car I noticed this shopping area had some little community bulletin boards setup where I could post a flyer.  I got a flyer out of my car and tacked it up on the board.

If I wasn’t prepared I would have missed that opportunity!  Sure I could come back another day and put up a flyer but I’d have missed my first opportunity.  Maybe the next big money earner came in that day and I would have missed them.

The difference between success and mediocrity is very small.  In baseball 3 extra hits per 100 at bats is the difference between being an all-star or a average joe.

The same goes for your network marketing business.  By being prepared 100% of the time you’ll find a few situations where you can capitalize on that opportunity.  It only takes a few of these opportunities for you to distinguish yourself from everyone else!

Do you have any examples of missed opportunities or examples of how you always stay prepared?

- Ben Fitts

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Building an MLM business part-time. Always be prepared…

I was torn up over whether or not to talk to you guys about my situation.  When my wife and I decided I needed to go back to take a job I didn’t want anyone to know. I’ve been a full time network marketer for a little while now and I felt like it might be confusing to others to see that I was going back to work.  I thought they might loose their faith.

Most people’s dream with network marketing is to do what I did. They dream of quitting their job and going full time as a network marketer.  They dream of buying their dream home. They dream of staying at home with their families.  That is the position I was in.

I was afraid that people who read about my situation would give up their dream.

Then I realized it was  more important to be honest with everyone.  Life has ups and downs. Your business will have ups and downs.

For example when prospecting or holding opportunity meetings I like to be honest with people that you can make a lot of money in this business but it is going to require work.  It will require some skills. It will also probably require some time.  It won’t happen over night.

Similarly it’s important to let people know that they could have ups and downs in their business.

I make more in my network marketing business than many people’s full time jobs.  Yet for me living in an expensive area of the country and spending too much of our money meant we got into some debt and I needed to make some more money.  My wife wasn’t really as into the business thing as I am. She wasn’t into the idea of living on a budget. For me my dream was to not have a JOB.  For her she was satisfied working for a living and being comfortable. She liked a guaranteed paycheck every month, not a paycheck that fluxuated greatly depending on my business.

Now that we’re separating (or divorcing – I’m not sure yet) we’re going to be taking on extra expenses.  I don’t have healthcare so I have to pay my healthcare out of pocket. I have to have a place to stay, heat, electricty, etc. I will have some lawyer bills and other expenses.  I may even have to pay some alimony or give my wife a percentage of my business. So for at least a little while I’m going to have to go back to work.

What worried me most was that my  team members might not understand. Some of them may live in parts of the country where they pay 1/3 rd what you pay for living expenses.  Others may have a spouse that makes a lot of money.  Some people might be able to build their business full time on $20,000.  Others might need $100,000.

For me I had to bite the bullet and go back to take a job for awhile. It sucks. It hurts me a lot to admit I wasn’t very good with my finances. It hurts to say I didn’t grow my business as much this year as I wanted/expected.  BUT I know it’s temporary.  I know this just drives me more and makes me want to work harder at my business.  I also know I’m in a great position.  I have an awesome business already and if I focus on my business for a little while it grow faster and I’ll be able to work my way out of this situation.  Having that business gives me a lot of freedom and luxuries that other people wouldn’t have.  For that I’m thankful.

In the next couple of weeks I want to talk more about what to do when you’re a part-time networker.  How do you focus on your business while you’re working a job, having a family, etc.  How do you make the time for your business.

For more info, come back next week

See you soon and always keep your dream alive.

Ben Fitts

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Don’t be ashamed to do what’s best for your family

I’ve been writing about network marketing and MLM for several years on this blog.  Usually I post once or more a week even on a bad week. On good weeks I might post 5 times.

Lately you might have noticed I was writing a lot  a couple months ago, and then suddenly not writing so much… What happened you ask?

I’m going to be honest. Probably more honest than any other network marketer you’ve ever seen.

#1. Our debt was kicking my butt so I went back to take a part-time job.

#2. My wife decided she was ready to quit on our marriage. Didn’t want to work on it.  She just wanted to move on. I won’t get into the gorry details but part of the reason why I’m back at a job part-time is my marriage.

SOOOOO…. It’s been tough around here lately.  I’m trying to get things squared away. Meanwhile I may have more time to write and pursue my business than ever before.  I think I’m due for a whole series on how to build a business while you have a job…

I’ll keep you guys posted.

Your thoughts and prayers are welcome as always…

- Ben Fitts

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What the heck is wrong with Ben….

The gatekeeper is the secretary, receptionist, personal assistant type person that is the one answering the phones for the decision maker. Successful business to business sales people have to learn to get past the gatekeeper so they can get to the decision maker.

I thought this was a pretty interesting article and wanted to share it with you. This is not the only way to get to the decision maker. As the greeting card guy I can attest that brownies with a card are another powerful way but this is one idea for cold calling businesses…

Click to read the full article.

I hope you liked the article!

- Ben

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

How to Get Past the Gatekeeper and to the Decision Maker

However one thing I’ve discovered is that it is a little like “Yin and Yang”.  The reverse is just as important.  It’s equally important to know what the negative traits are.  Especially when you have big teams you want to focus on working with the right people.

A few “experts” out there might not approve of my calling it like it is, but when you have a team of hundreds or even thousands or tens of thousands of team members you have to focus on the right people.  You cannot allow the bad people to drag you down.

I for example have some people who I come into contact with that are maybe overly selfish. They’re only worried about making money for themselves not helping their team make money.  Maybe they’re only focused on new people and not people who they’ve already sponsored.   Other people might talk bad about team members or cause negativity in the ranks.

A lot of times you’ll find team members that ONLY focus on the negative.  They only call with complaints.  They never do things for themselves but always call you to ask you how to do it.  You want to figure out who these people are so that you can make their contacts a low priority.  You might not want to answer their phone call but instead let it go to voicemail.  You might not want to return their phone call right away or perhaps respond via email only. Often times by forcing the negative distributor to wait they will get over their issue which was so urgent to them.  They might actually go and figure out how to do it themselves or perhaps their anger or frustration over their issue dies down and they’re able to think and react more clearly.

You have to keep your distance from the negative people so you can have more time to focus on the positive.  This is how truly successful leaders get to whether they are.

What do you think?  Am I off my rocker?  Have you had any experiences like this? Do you have any tips?

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Personality traits we don’t want in our team members!

I have a question for you today… As a network marketer what are some of the charactertistics you look for in a leader?

Dedication?
Persistence?
Honesty?
Self Motivation?

What kinds of things do you look for in a leader?  Both someone you’d want to join and in someone on your team who stands out as a leader.  What are some of the qualities these people embody?

Leave me a comment by clicking the link on the right and let me know.

- Ben

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

What are some characteristics you look for in a leader?

1. Would I join this even if it didn’t have a business opportunity associated with it?
2. Will this product be around 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years from now?
3. Does the product risk of bring priced to zero (or close enough to not matter) like long distance has become as a result of VOIP?
4. Is your product at risk of being superseded by technology / competition?

These are some important factors I know many people are not considering when they join MLM opportunities.  I have been approached in the last 7 days with 5 different opportunities which 4 of the 5 wouldn’t even pass these 4 questions above.

Question 1: Would I join even if it didn’t have a business opportunity associated with it?

To me this is very important.  If the product is good enough people will join without an opportunity to make money.  If you’re product is this good then you’ll find it much easier to attract customers AND keep your team members involved long term.  If they are only there to make money then a lot of your team members will give up and quit, jump to the latest greatest fad, etc.

Question 2: Will this product be around 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years from now?

Again another important item.  For example a lot of people are pitching opportunities that probably won’t even last a year, and if they are lucky might last 3 years.  However they will almost certainly not be around 10 years from now.  How can you develop true long term residual income from a business that won’t be around for 3 years?  Look at the Beatles. The Beatles catalog of music still generates millions of dollars in royalties annually but the Beatles broke up as a band in 1970.  That is true residual income.

Question 3: Does the product risk of bring priced to zero (or close enough to not matter) like long distance has become as a result of VOIP?

There is a big name company right now that has made their Billions selling technology related products like this but they are products that are becoming so cheap they are becoming commodities. This means that the quality of the product from any vendor is the same and the price gets driven lower and lower.  Take long distance as an example.  We now have VOIP based phone services that can give you an unlimited amount of calling for $20 a month.  In fact some services such as Skype for your computer or Magic Jack promise to give you an unlimited amount of calling for $20 a YEAR.  Now this company is selling video phones which require a service commitment of $20 a month for 2 years.  Meanwhile the same video phone type services can be had by software programs like Skype. Certainly within the 2 year time frame of a customer’s contract even more services are going to come up offering services for little to no cost.  Why would someone commit to $480 for video phone services when they could get similar services at little or no cost!  Now the company needs to develop another new technology or advantage to keep them ahead of the market.

Question 4: Is your product at risk of being superseded by technology / competition?

Another new fad are these web site based MLMs.  They basically buy off the shelf software and slap together an MLM.  The most recent are the ones that promise to be the next Facebook but pay you money.  Guess what?  Even Facebook probably won’t be around in 5 years.  Think about it.  5 years ago Myspace was hot.  Everyone was talking about it.  Now it’s Facebook.  In 5 years it will be something else.

First of all you’re assuming these guys have a clue at how to put together a social network.  Again most don’t. Most are buying off the shelf software to make a social network.  They are simply targetting opportunity seekers so you get a network full of MLMers.  This always fails because the MLMers just target one another.  It becomes a big spam fest.  Only a few people have ever managed to do this successfully and they haven’t done it with an opportunity. They did it around training for networkers.  The amount of content outweighed the amount of spam.

Someone just talked to me about a new social network… guess what it looks like a clone of?  Wowzza.  Wowzza is a social networking MLM I talked about in April 2008.  In the spring of 2008 it was really popular but by the end of 2008 my prediction was coming true.  The fad was over and only a few dozen people were joining a day.  In the heyday of Wowzza dozens of people were joining every minute and thousands were joining every day.  BUT the product sucked and it mostly attracted opportunity seekers.  Once they found out the product sucked and the promised spillover wasn’t what they expected they quickly dropped out.

The point of all this isn’t that every opportunity is bad. There are some good ones out there.  However if you want to build TRUE RESIDUAL INCOME then you want to make sure you are getting involved in an opportunity that is going to be around for awhile.  Take a close look at the products too, not just the opportunity.  Make sure this is something that can generate income for you 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years down the road.

If you have any questions about a specific opportunity I’d be happy to take a look at it for you.

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Things to consider before joinging a business opportunity

Are you interested in taking your business to the next level… Are you interested in doubling your income?

Guess what? It’s actually simple to give yourself a raise.  It’s NOT easy but it is simple.

You see each level of income requires a new you.  You have to constantly get better. You have to develop new skills and new attitudes in order to make more money.  Here is an example that might make more sense.

1. You start out learning the basics and recruit a few people.  Call this skill level #1.
2. You become a team builder and master the aspects of recruiting and marketing. You have recruited dozens of people to your  team. Call this skill level #2.
3. You become a team leader and start looking for other leaders on your team to work closely with. You find those 5% who are showing leadership and put them in a position to succeed. Call this skill level #3.
4. You are a world class business leader. You not only recruit leaders but you help those 20% er’s on your team that have a lot of potential learn to develop into leaders.  Call this skill level #4.

For me it’s pretty obvious because I can look back at my business and see where I was at a lower level.  I thought I was doing well but to take my business to that next level I had to develop some new skills and develop as a person.

It’s kind of like I’ve built a big team.  I’ve hosted the big events.  Now I’m moving on to the next phase in my own organization.  I now have big leaders who have their own teams and their own events and now my role is to not host my own events but be a guest speaker at my team member’s events.

If you look at my 4 skillsets above, where do you fit on the scale?  Are you at #1 still?  Are you at #2?  Compare where you are now to the next skillset then think about what you need to do to advance to that next level of your business.

If you have questions or if I didn’t do a good job of explaining it, let me know!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Want to give yourself a raise?

It’s a project I have wanted to do for about 4 years but just haven’t had time to dedicate to it.  Are you interested?

The site is HomeBusinessInterviews.com I’m selling the domain name as well as the software I used to setup the web site and the content I have created so far.  The software is setup for a complete membership web site.  The membership software is integrated with a Wordpress blog so you can host interviews like a Podcast and make them available on iTunes.  Then you can charge subscriptions.  I even had the hopes of making them available as a cd of the month club where people could purchase a monthly audio cd of interviews from the web site.

You can take advantage of this… You can get a complete web site in a box, with 5 hours of consulting included where I will help transfer the site and software over to you.

I’m holding an auction at Flippa for the web site, software, content, and domain names.  Pop on over and check it out!

I had even started to promote the site in the search engines.  It had picked up a couple of rankings for keywords like “home business interviews” and “mlm interviews”.

You’d simply have to pick up where I left off… setup some interviews and start promoting the site…

Got questions? Feel free to email me or leave a comment.

Thanks!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Complete business web site for sale… Are you interested?

Do you know what Twitter is?

Do you know how to setup a Twitter account?

Do you know how to use Twitter to market your business or product?

Do you want to know what all the cool software, tricks, and tips for getting the most of Twitter?

Here is a free ebook for you called A Beginners Guide to Using and Marketing with Twitter!

Download it free

- Ben

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Would you like to know how to use Twitter?

1. Gather customers
2. Teach other people how to gather customers

One of the problems in many MLM organizations is the focus isn’t on gathering customers. The focus is on doing the bare minimum of customer gathering and mostly sponsoring new distributors.

When I’m focused strictly on sponsoring new people I sponsor people that don’t do anything. I sponsor customers that don’t use my product and I don’t make much money! This is one of the habits many MLM’ers fall into. They just focus on the short term money made from sponsoring people. The people they do sponsor tend to drop out quickly because they haven’t gotten any customers and haven’t made their money back.

When your focus is on gathering customers and sponsoring customer gatherers then you build long term income. The people who join your organization will be more likely to stay longer as they will be getting quick income from their customers. The volume in your organization will grow and so will your residual income.

Don’t fall for the hype of short term income by focusing too much on the opportunity. Remember to always keep your focus on people who will use your product and teach other people to use your product. That is how you will build true residual income.

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

There’s only two ways to make money in MLM

There are a few methods to finding your niche. A few of the ones I cover in my book are:

• Choosing topics you know something about already.
• Choosing topics you think you want to learn more about.
• Choosing a topic that you think will be a hot topic or controversial topic.

I’ve recently become aware of another method for those of you that already have a business and have had a little success. That method is called LCD or Lowest Common Denominator. The idea is you look at your business and try to figure out what one thing most of your customers or most of your distributors have in common.

Are they male? Are they female? What ethnic group are they? Where do they live? What kinds of jobs do they have? How much money do they make? Where do they shop? What do they like to do?

So for example… My business appeals to realtors. My business does well in the winter when real estate typically slows down. My business also has a product that goes really well with the real estate industry. So for me a niche I might focus on might be realtors. By focusing on this niche I learn how the real estate business works. I learn what language they use when they talk to each other. I learn what software they use. I learn about how transactions work and how the broker takes a big chunk of the sale. I learn why realtors get involved in my business and now I’m better able to go talk to realtors.

So what is your lowest common denominator?

You might think it’s women… but what type of women? Middle aged? Baby Boomers? Gen X? Gen Y? What race? What kinds of jobs do they have? Are they busy? Are they moms? Are they grandmoms? Are they active? Do they participate in clubs or communities? Are they church goers?

You might be surprised at the results. When I was taught about this method of finding your niche it was in regards to a lady who had a window treatment business. It’s sort of like interior design but focused primarily on window treatments, blinds, curtains, etc. She thought her market was “anyone who needs curtains” but WHO needs curtains? Most people you talk to don’t need curtains. When she looked for her lowest common denominator she found that most of her customers were women… that makes sense right? But she also discovered most of them were nurses. She began to talk to them and find out why they wanted to purchase her service. She came up with the following:

• Nurses have good jobs, so they have money.
• Nurses are busy at their jobs, often working long hours, or overtime so they don’t have a lot of time to fix up their house.
• Some nurses work nights and evenings so they sleep during the day and want nice curtains to keep the room dark.

Now she had her niche. She could target nurses and specifically could target nurses who worked the night shift. Imagine how successful her business became after that! Plus she got more and more referrals because the nurses talked to one another!

Are you beginning to see how a niche can help you?

There are some other tricks to finding your niche especially online. If you are wanting to market your business online check out my book on internet network marketing. I teach how to find your niche and build a web site to focus on that niche.

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

How You Can Use LCD to Find Your Niche

Yesterday I was at a BNI (Business Networkers International) training and the director was talking about how we all need to know what our niche is. She was saying how important it is when you advertise. When you market your business your target isn’t “someone”, “anyone”, or “everyone”. That is too broad and you will have a very hard time marketing to such a broad audience.

The same thing goes in your network marketing business. Your target market is not anyone, someone, or everyone. Those are all too broad. Your target should be tightly focused. Sometimes when we’re just starting out we think that if we tightly focus on a specific group of people we limit ourselves too much. We’re afraid we won’t get enough prospects if we focus on a small group of people. However the opposite is true! If we focus on a small group of people we actually get a much better response rate so we get more prospects! Plus when you focus on a small niche you are able to build upon your success. You begin gathering testimonials and referrals. You learn the “language” of that niche. You may join one of their trade organizations. You may begin to advertise in their industry specific magazines. Are you beginning to get my picture?

It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about gathering customers or finding distributors for your business. Either one can benefit from you having a niche. Let’s say for example that you find that you sell health and wellness products and you are finding a lot of chiropractor’s that like your product and recommend them to their clients. Some of the chiropractor’s are joining your business so they can develop a second income stream. You begin to learn what issues are important to chiropractors. You begin to learn their language. You can talk to them instead of talking at them. More and more chiropractors join your business. Some of them have great testimonials about how your product has benefited their customers. Are you seeing the picture yet?

Finding your niche is how people make millions of dollars. Not everyone can be everything to everyone. By focusing on a smaller group of people you can be much more successful.

Tomorrow I’m going to talk a little bit more about finding your niche and how you can use the “Lowest Common Denominator” to find what your personal niche is. Also if you’re interested I wrote a book on how your Niche can help you succeed in marketing online, especially with Google. You can get my 44 page book on finding your niche here.

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Do you have a niche?

I just posted an interview with the legend, John Milton Fogg.

John Milton Fogg is one of the most well known network marketers who authored the best selling book The Greatest Networker in the World.  In this interview we discuss the book and the lessons learned from the Greatest Networker in the World.  Plus John has some great advice that you don’t want to miss about building a massive network marketing empire!

If you are serious about growing your MLM business then you definitely want to check out this interview.  It’s free

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Interview with the Legend: John Milton Fogg

I found this GREAT article by Mari Smith.  I had to share this with you.

How to secure your Facebook username (Vanity Url)

You see on Friday evening at 9:01 PM Pacific time you’ll be able to choose your own facebook username instead of having a number.  This also means that you will be able to have your own facebook vanity url like:

http://www.facebook.com/username

If you have fan pages with at least 1000 members you can also secure a vanity url for your fan page.

Now is your chance to protect your online identity. If you have a nickname you use a lot on the web now is your chance to protect it.  That way people who go to facebook looking for you can easily find you.  It also makes it easier to remember your links to put links to your profile on your other web sites.

Mari Smith goes into complete details on how this process will work.  She explains the rules, what types of usernames are allowed, and how to go about registering your username.

Read all about how to get your facebook username here.

Thanks Mari for the great info!

-Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

How to select a Facebook Username / Vanity URL

You’re probably wondering why I haven’t been writing as much this week.  Well I’m happy to say it’s because I have been working on a new podcast called: Home Business Interviews!

This will be a regular weekly interview program where you can hear from top producers in our network marketing industry, the brightest personal development coaches, expert internet marketers, and much  more.  Every Wednesday I’ll post a new interview with another expert.

I’ve already recorded the first several shows.  They’re really good!  And I’ve got a half dozen more experts lined up for interviews in the next few weeks.

Best of all the web site is free to join (or download on itunes!) So check out Home Business Interviews today!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

New Podcast: Home Business Interviews!

We’ve had a lot of comments on my article: Local Ad Link – Scam or Legitimate Advertising Opportunity?

A few of our readers have had some pretty interesting arguments.  Several felt that Local Ad Link (LAL) was a scam and were claiming bounced checks.  Others (mostly people SELLING the service) were talking about how great LAL is.  They talked about how LAL had problems and was in beta and things were getting better all the time.  They also talked about customers who were happy because they saw themselves listed on Google.

A couple criticized me and said I don’t know what I am talking about.  One criticized me for recommending people invest $47 in a Perry Marshall training on how to properly do their own PPC advertising.  Keep in mind that the top package at Local Ad Link costs $200 A MONTH.  I was recommending a training program that someone would buy one time and would give them a good understanding of why LAL is a scam.

Some other people recommended I do my homework.  They didn’t think I knew what I was talking about.

So let me clear up a few things…

I’ve been doing pay per click probably longer than most of you have been on the internet!

I’ve been on the Internet since 1993. I’ve owned my own internet service provider (1995-1996).  I created a search engine of soccer web sites which I sold for 5 figures in 1999.  I’ve been doing pay per click since Overture was called GoTo.com (Overture was bought by Yahoo and is now Yahoo’s PPC service.)  GoTo.com got started doing PPC in 1998 and I started with them in 1999.

Here are some reasons why I continue to think Local Ad Link is a bad investment.  I won’t call it a scam for now but I’ll continue to say LAL is a rip off and is for people who don’t know any better.

First and foremost…

Most LAL customers are basically buying ad placement on Google NOT clicks!  They are happy just to have their web site listed on Google. They don’t realize that there advertisement may not be getting clicked on AND even if they do click on their ad they have to go to Local Ad Link first before getting to their web site!  Since LAL is basically reselling Google ads Google requires them to go to the LAL web site first, then on to their web site.  Most of the LAL customers are too ignorant of internet marketing and PPC so they don’t realize how bad this is for them. This also effects the page relevancy which I’ll talk about in a moment.

Second, LocalAdLink provides a limited number of keywords and you must pay more if you want more keywords.  LocalAdLink limits you to 3 keyword phrases.  You should only pay more for more clicks NOT more keywords. That way you can buy keywords that are not clicked on very often and you can buy a bunch of them. Therefore you can buy a bunch of cheap keywords.  LAL instead charges  you based on the number of keywords you buy regardless of whether or not you actually get any clicks from them! (In the search engine world we call these long tail keywords and they can be some of the most profitable keywords to bid on.)

Third, You cannot select negative keywords which allow you to exclude certain negative phrases from your ads. PPC experts know that negative keywords are just as important as the keywords you want people to use.  Negative keywords allow you to weed out freebie seekers and people who are wasting your money. For example, you can setup negative keywords like “free” or “hacks”.  If you were selling cellular phones for example you wouldn’t want people who are looking for cell phone hacks to waste your advertising money.  LAL does not allow you to select negative keywords.

Fourth does Local Ad Link allow you to pick exact matches? I doubt they do since they don’t allow you to do negative keywords.  Basically there are 4 types of keyword matches at Google.  Broad match which would match any keywords were “cellular” and “phone” appear in the search.  Phrase matches where only phrases that match “cellular phones” appear in the search and exact matches which are only “cellular phones” and no other matches so it would exclude “free cellular phones” or any other 3 keyword searches.

You might be saying Local Ad Link defaults to “broad searches” so that’s best but in fact this is a major flaw in the LAL system. Because they are by default doing broad searches it means they are paying for a lot of extra clicks that are not effective clicks.  Since LAL is basically reselling Google PPC ads and they are wasting money on broad matches, they will run through their advertising budget faster!  If they used phrase matching, exact matching, and negative keywords the advertisers would get fewer clicks but they’d get better quality clicks.  LAL would save money.  LAL is trying to show a lot of clicks to their advertisers which is actually the OPPOSITE of what you want to do in PPC advertising! You don’t want a lot of clicks you want HIGH QUALITY clicks that lead to sales!

Fifth, LocalAdLink offers limited zip code selection and charges you based on how many zip codes you select. PPC should charge you based on the number of clicks you receive not the number of zip codes. You should be able to pick as many locations as you want!  If you pick a zip code of a high end neighborhood for example you might not get a lot of clicks.  For example I know of a neighborhood in Boston’s Back Bay that is very exclusive.  One city block has it’s own zip code!  Needless to say you wouldn’t get very many clicks by targetting that zip code, but anyone who clicked would be a millionaire and would be the kind of audience you would want to target.

Finally and perhaps worst of all is the fact that Local Ad Link provides a negative relevancy on your advertising. Google has a page relevancy or advertising relevancy rating. This essentially means that if you link your ad to a crappy web site you will show up lower in the listings.  It also means that if you’re ad gets more clicks than your competition you might be able to bid less on the ad and get rated higher on Google’s search engine listings. LAL is providing a negative relevancy because they are performing in a role of intermediary.  Linking to your page at LAL isn’t as good as linking directly to your web site is.

When you click on a LocalAdLink advertisement you are taken to LAL’s web site! This is the WORST possible thing to happen. MANY MANY MANY people who click on your ad will get to LAL and will NOT click through to your web site. You have a short period of time to get someone’s attention and making them click through LAL before they get to your web site adds complexity.  This means you’ll be paying for a lot of people to visit your web site that will never actually get there. They will get to LAL and click back to Google, click away to another link, etc. BUT you’re paying for them to visit your web site and they NEVER actually get there. (Actually LAL is paying for them and that is one reason why they will never succeed at this game financially unless they rip off a lot of users by providing them far less advertising for their money.)

Let’s say LAL is a good web site. Let’s say the design is good. Let’s say they Let’s say do a good job of getting people to click on your link  and go to your web site.  A GREAT result would be 80% of the people who click through get to your web site… That basically means you’re paying for 20% of the people to click on your add that don’t actually get to you. That’s 20% LOSS.  That’s 20% BREAKAGE.  What if the site isn’t any good? What if 50% of them fail?  Should you pay for a 50% failure rate? Should you pay for a 20% failure rate?

Here are some other good articles on whether or not Local Ad Link is a scam:

http://www.forestmarie.com/why-localadlink-is-a-scam-localadlink-review-local-ad-link/

http://hubpages.com/hub/Local-Ad-Link-Scam

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/427/ripoff0427685.htm

http://www.idowebmarketing.com/local-ad-link-review-its-a-scam-people-heres-why/

And some message boards where there are a lot of complaints.

http://www.feedagg.com/feed/138261/Local-Ad-Link-Scam-Comments

http://scam.com/showthread.php?t=80303

Some of these go back to the discussion of bounced checks, bad support, and technical problems with Local Ad Link.  I haven’t used it so I can’t talk about those things.  My analysis is based on sound PPC advertising practice.

I dare anyone with a strong background in PPC to tell me that using LAL is better than doing your own PPC advertising OR hiring a firm who charges you a small percentage to manage your ads for you.

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

I still think Local Ad Link is a scam or rip off

What do you want to know more about?

What kind of tools or skills do you want me to cover?

Leave me a comment (to the right of this post) and let me know!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

How can I assist you today?

This is your last chance to meet me this weekend in Atlanta!

I’ll be in Atlanta from Friday the 29th to Sunday the 31st.  It would be great to meet you.  Use the “contact form” if you’d like to get together this weekend. Ok?

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Last Chance to meet me in Atlanta this weekend!

I want to continue our conversation from yesterday about the Residual Income game and tools to grow your Network Marketing business.

RI Training provides several other helpful tools for growing your MLM business. RI Training’s staff holds a series of skills training calls where they go over 50 key skills. This skill training is free and is available every week on Thursday afternoon. The recordings are also kept online for several days so you can listen to them even if you missed the training.

You can sign up for the skill training calls here. If you do sign up using my link they will send you a $5 coupon towards our next training tool…

The Personal Effectiveness Profile – personal skills assessment. This skills assessment is a series of questions you answer about your network marketing skills. The assessment scores you in 50 critical skill areas ranging from your ability to communicate effectively with others to understanding your company’s compensation plan.

One of the great things about the PEProfile is that you can email copies of your score to your upline. This allows your upline to see how you rate yourself and to learn what your perceive your strong and weak points to be. In working with my team I’ve discovered a lot of simple things I can work with my team members on to make them more effective at presenting the business to others.

The idea being that the more skills you have the better you are at presenting the business and building a team. When you play the Residual Income game for example you have Personal Effectiveness Points. The more points you have the better you are when you speak to a group of 10 people at getting them to purchase your products. The more points you have the better you are when doing business presentations for your team.

The PEProfile skills assessment allows you to have a mechanism for tracking someone’s effectiveness and helping them become more effective. The PEProfile skills assessment is only $30. (get yours here) That way it’s affordable to anyone on your team AND anyone that is serious should be willing to do the assessment. If you have a big team and find it hard to know who to work with… this is one tool you can use to determine who is serious about their business and who is wasting your time.

Whether or not you play the Residual Income game, listen to the RI Training skills teleseminars, or do the PEProfile skills assessment you’ll find the tools provided by RI Training to be top notch.

One more tip… You can use these tools for things other than training your team! You can use these tools as bait for other network marketers! You could host game nights to show other networkers or for friends and family that were interested in developing some extra income.

I hope you like the game and if you’re in CT or you’re in Atlanta (next weekend) let me know. I’d be happy to play the game with you.

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Tools to Grow Your MLM Business: Personal Effectiveness Assessment

Let’s continue our series of trainings on tools to grow your MLM business.

A few months ago I was introduced to a series of training tools specifically for the direct sales and MLM industry.  The flagship training tool is a game about the direct sales industry. If you’re familiar with Robert Kiyosaki then you might be familiar with the Cashflow games.  This game is a lot like Cashflow but in it you build a direct sales/network marketing business.

In Residual Income you start out with a profession. You could be a teacher, a landscaper, a house wife, a corporate executive, or even a plumber. You have a job income and expenses. You also have a number of prospects and personal effectiveness points (or skills) based on your profession. Your goal is to go around the game board and build your network marketing business. As you build your business your income goes up and you earn promotions in your company eventually allowing you to quit your job and pursue your business full-time.

One of the really cool aspects of the game is that there are several tasks you can do to grow your business. The game doesn’t pick the tasks for you. Often you have to pick between prospecting, personal development, or team development. This choice provides some really powerful insight into why certain people are failing in their business. Sometimes people spend too much time trying to build a team BEFORE they have a team. Other times they don’t spend enough time prospecting and quickly run out of prospects.

Another great aspect of the game is that the game provides ideas for people. The cards that each player draws often have new ideas or techniques on them. Some cards are “practice” cards which include scripts that your team members have to practice on other people. This is both a great training because some of the scripts might be useable by your team members and also provides good practice so they can begin to get comfortable talking to others. Finally some cards provide tasks like making lists of dreams and goals or performing memory joggers to find new prospects.

The Residual Income game is only one of the training tools provided by RI Technologies. Tomorrow I’ll talk about some of the other training tools they provide.

- Ben Fitts

PS. Use this link to check out the Residual Income game and also sign up for their free skills training series. I know you’ll be as pleased as we have been with the results in our team.

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Tools to Grow Your MLM Business: Residual Income Game

Hello readers,

I hope you have been enjoying my series on tools to grow your network marketing business.

This week I want to talk about one of my favorite tools, webinar services.

One of my mentors in network marketing told me that everything I do should be a training.  This applies itself wonderfully if you have a local team and you can go out and meet prospects and do business presentations together.  However, what do you do if you work on the internet? What if your team members are spread all over the world?

That is why you should investigate webinars.

A webinar is a software program that allows your team to watch on the internet as you do things on your computer.  At it’s most basic level you can show powerpoint presentations and your team can listen in over the web or over the telephone while they watch on their computer screen. If you do a lot of internet related stuff you can turn this into a full on training session.  You can show someone how to use your web site, how to use their back office, or even give internet marketing lessons.  Your team can see your computer desktop while you are training them.  They can see your web browser or your software and learn by watching you.  It is a very powerful training method!

Best of all some webinar services allow you to record the training.  The training is recorded as a Flash movie that you can put up on a web page for your team members that missed your training session.  If the training was complicated your team can refer back to the training over and over again.  New members joining your team six months or a year later can benefit from your “library” of trainings that you recorded.

There are some webinar services out there which are really crap and are just sold because their is an MLM component to them.  The webinar service I use is the best in the business. My favorite webinar software is from Citrix. They make GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.

With GoToMeeting you can host up to 25 people at a time. With GoToWebinar you can host up to 1000 people at a time!  They include teleconference lines and the ability for people to listen in using VOIP. We use it a lot to build our international business and save our team members money since they can just watch and listen over the web.

You can try GoToMeeting: Free for 30 days and host meetings of up to 25 people at a time. You can also try GoToWebinar for 30 days to host meetings of up to 1,000 people.
These webinar services can be powerful ways to train your organization or do sales presentations. They also allow you to record the webinar and make it available as a flash video that people can watch over the internet.  I’ve even called this my favorite training tool!

I hope you like it!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Tools to Grow Your MLM Business: Webinar Services

One of the tools that I sometimes take for granted in my MLM business is conference calling services.  As you become a leader you will find lots of reasons to use conference calling services.  Essentially any time you have more than 3 people you will need a conference calling service. Some of these might be:

1. Training Your Downline
2. Hosting Business/Sales presentations for large groups
3. Planning events with your team leaders

I have an up and coming leader who is hosting business presentations in her area.  Before the business presentation we like to do a conference call with her team to get them excited for the event.  This helps build anticipation and makes sure that everyone is working their hardest to get people to the event.

There are many free conference calling services available.  I’ve had the opportunity to use a couple.  Usually they provide free calling services for 100 to 200 people.  Sometimes they lack the features of the paid conference calling services, but usually the free services are fine as long as you don’t mind an announcement that says “this calling service was provided free by…”

The free service I am currently using is called FreeConferenceCalling.com.  They offer a lot of great features including the ability to record your conference calls so your team members that missed the call can still benefit from the training.

For a little bit higher end service I use InstantTeleseminar.Com.  They offer a $1 trial and then their service is $47 a month.  One of the reasons why I like their service is they also provide a series of web interfaces that allow the listener to listen over the web as well as on the phone.  They also offer a web page where your listeners can type in questions over the web.  Best of all at the end of your teleseminar they can automatically replace the web page with the recordings of your teleseminar. It’s a pretty cool service and it’s what I’m using for Home Business Interviews.

Having your own conference line gives you a professional image and allows you to better train and facilitate your team members.  Getting a conference line is free so there really is no excuse for any leader to not have one!  You’ll find a ton of opportunities to use your conference line!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Tools to Grow Your MLM Business: Conference Calling Services

Next weekend I will be in Atlanta to attend a personal development seminar and support some of my team members.   I’d love to meet you while I’m there.

Are you interested in personal development?
Are you interested in the law of attraction?
Are you interested in goal setting?

Or would you simply like to hang out with me and chat?

Or maybe you’d like to play the “residual income” game with me?  (It is a direct selling game that is one of the most innovative and fun training tools I have ever seen.)

If so let me know!  Use this link to contact me. I’ll be in Atlanta May 29th-31st.

See you soon!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Meet Me in Atlanta Next Week!

One of our readers, Mark Stevens suggested that I talk about anti-spam laws and how that applies to what you are doing with your email.

Sometimes you may not think that spam laws apply to you in your MLM business.  However this is not true! Spam laws apply to you as much as they apply to big retail firms and corporations.  You need to be aware of the laws.

In the USA the most important legislation about what is legitimate bulk email or what is spam is called the CAN-SPAM Act.

What the Law Requires

Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:

• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
• It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
• It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

  Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
  
  

• It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

Basically this means that you need to send legitimate mail and not fake your emails.  You can’t fake your address so that it appears to be coming from someone else.  You also need to make sure your email matches your subject line.  You need an opt-out method for people to easily opt out and it needs to be identified as a commercial email and include your physical postal address.

One of the advantages of using email services like Aweber for your mailing lists and autoresponders is that they take care of the last two issues for you.  Aweber will automatically put in a footer at the bottom of your emails with your physical address.  Aweber also puts in a link for people to easily opt-out of your emails. I know a lot of network marketers try and start sending email from their free email accounts.  They definitely don’t list their real address and they don’t have an easy way for people to opt out.  Guess what? This means you could be liable of a fine of up to $11,000 for the FIRST offense.  So make sure if you are doing bulk email you use a legitimate email provider that protects you!

The other thing that Aweber encourages you to do is use double opt in.  What this means is that when someone subscribes to your list they have to confirm by responding to an email.  Usually by clicking a link in the email to confirm that they do wish to be on your mailing list. This is another method of protecting you from spam complaints.

The downside of double opt in is that a lot of people fill out the form to get on your list but don’t confirm the email. This means they never get your messages.  It can be caused by people using dumb spam filters. It can be caused by someone accidentally deleting a message. It can also be caused by people who typo or other things.

Double opt in is not a requirement by the FTC but it is suggested.  By using double opt in you ensure that the people on your list really want to be there.

Double opt in effects network marketers because a lot of network marketers buy leads.  They want to dump the leads into an autoresponder and sit back and wait for the phone to ring… They don’t want to have to confirm them by using double opt in. Unfortunately since you often don’t know where the leads are coming from, how fresh they are, etc.  Dumping them into an autoresponder without asking them to confirm whether or not they want to get email from you often leads to a lot of spam complaints!  Services like Aweber won’t let you import names UNLESS you send them a confirmation email to see if they really want to get on your mailing list.

I think one reason why people like Get Response is they can import names without confirming them as long as the leads company provides some basic information on where the lead came from.  I’m not sure about that though. You might want to check with Get Response.  Basically I don’t use leads and don’t do that crap with autoresponders anyway. I’d rather build relationships with people so I can’t really give you advice on that.  Maybe someone else can comment on a good mailing list provider for people who want to bulk import leads lists?

Another quick tip for you…

Use a REAL email address in your emails and ask people to reply back to you.  Most email lists come from an email address like do-not-respond@myemail.com.  My friend Jack told me to use a real email address and solicit my list members to get them to reply back.  When I started to do that I found that they were surprised that it was a real email address and I would really reply to their messages.  It makes you stand out from the crowd and remember… my philosophy is we’re building relationships.  Replying back to their emails certainly helps build that relationship and gets them more involved in your mailing list.

So Mark, did I do a good job of covering anti-spam and can spam laws?  Let me know!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

How to use email without spam complaints

I wanted to take today to go into a little bit more depth on how I actually use those tools and how you can use them to grow your MLM business.

As I mentioned yesterday I use Aweber for my mailing lists and email autoresponders.  Aweber is a great service that allows me to create an unlimited number of mailing lists.  I can then associate a series of automatic emails with that list, create broadcast (sent only one time) messages, or even connect it to my blog to automatically update my list every time I write to my blog.

Most people think of network marketing and they immediately think of a lead capture page on the internet that leads to an autoresponder series.  Usually these lead capture pages offer something for free like 5 tips on getting more traffic to your web site, 10 tips on making money from home, etc.  The “tips” are nothing more than a series of emails.  The emails are setup so that day 1, you get the first email with a “tip”. Day 2, you get the second email with a “tip” in it.

When they join your autoresponder this is really nothing more than a mailing list which has some pre-configured emails that go out.   You setup how many emails you want to go out and how often they are sent.

One of things I wanted to do with this series of articles is to get you thinking outside of the box.  There are a lot of other ways to use the autoresponder.

I do a couple of things with autoresponders that you might want to copy.

1. I use a greeting card system that works like an email autoresponder but sends a physical greeting card in the mail.  I can set it to send a card every couple of days or once a month or whatever.  I can also send postcards using this system.
2. I send a follow up series to every customer.  I first send them a thank you.  A little while later I send them a “just checking in” to make sure they are happy with their purchase.  Then I occasionally send them reminders about other features and products and I always remind them that I am here to answer any questions they have.  I want to build a relationship with each customer because they are really the backbone of our business (and some good distributors come from customers who upgrade.)
3. I send a follow up series to every new distributor.  The fact is some distributors like to go slow.  Some distributors like to go fast. My goal is to find the ones that want to go fast, but I don’t want to leave out the ones that want to go slow.  So I get all of them onto  my training series.  Either an email autoresponder series of 14-15 trainings or a series of greeting cards (usually both email and cards).  Each mailing tells them about a different training tool or important aspect of the business. My goal is to give everyone the tools they need to succeed and I don’t want anyone to say I wasn’t willing to help.  In each autoresponder/greeting card is my personal information so they can get in touch with me, when they are ready.

When you are thinking about implementing autoresponders in your business, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.  You might use a tool like Aweber to do email autoresponders but also use a tool like a greeting card autoresponder to send physical cards. You should also use these tools, not just for prospects, but for people who are actively involved in your business.  They can be a great resource and training tool for current customers or distributors.

- Ben Fitts

PS. Mark mentioned I should talk about anti-spam laws… so that’s what I’ll talk about next.  Thanks Mark!

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

How to use Autoresponders to grow your business

Let’s start by talking about email. One of the very best tools you can use to keep in touch with your team members as well as to prospect is email. Some common uses for email are:

1. Autoresponder series for prospects
2. Autoresponder “getting started” series for new team members
3. Autoresponder “getting started” series for customers to check in with them occasionally and make sure they are happy
4. Email announcements for big events, training calls, etc.
5. Two way discussion list for team members to chat, ask questions, help one another, etc.

IMPORTANT
Don’t use a free email account. If you do get a domain name to point to your email address. You can get a free email redirect and direct your email to go to your Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, etc. It looks more professional.

IMPORTANT TIP #2
Make sure you don’t send bulk email from your personal account. Also make sure you don’t send bulk email from your desktop. It’s easy to download free software like Worldmerge and blast out emails from your desktop but to the email anti-spam companies it looks like junk mail. Even if they opted in to your emails or asked for your email it looks like spam. The only computers that should send email are email servers. Your desktop computer connects to an email server to send mail. It shouldn’t send mail directly. It’s complicated but basically this is how a lot of spam is sent. Viruses take over people’s home computers and blast out spam.

IMPORTANT TIP #3
The best way to send email is to send all your email through a professional email service! They get paid to deliver your emails. They get paid to check and see if your mail is flagged as spam, etc. These services can ensure your emails get through.

Email Service & Autoresponder
The email service provider I use is called Aweber.  The way Aweber works is pretty cool. They have the ability to setup autoresponders or to send regular emails.  So you could setup a basic autoresponder series for new team members then blast out “broadcast” emails when you have an important announcement or training coming up.  Another really cool feature is you can connect your Aweber email list to a blog’s rss feed.  This means that Aweber can send all your blog posts to your mailing list. You don’t have do anything it does it automatically.

2 Way Mailing List
The two way mailing list we use is jYahoo Groups.  You can create a Yahoo group for free.  Make sure you set your list to moderate new members.  One problem we’ve found is that people from other teams will try and join your group.  This can lead to a lot of extra headaches and problems.  Plus you want to be able to prevent people from joining your group and spamming the group.  The Yahoo group allows people a web interface to check the mailing list and it also sends out emails.  People can get emails as they happen or they can get a daily digest of all the emails from the previous day.  The Yahoo group also has an area where you can store files like training materials, flyers, documents, etc to share with your teams.

Some other email tools
If you want to try a different mailing list service and generate real pretty emails from templates then check out Constant Contact. They have a really nice template system for creating things like email newsletters.  I don’t know if they allow autoresponders.

Another popular autoresponder for network marketers is Get Response.  The features of Get Response and Aweber are very similar. You can do autoresponders, broadcast emails, and also automatic emails from your blog.  One reason why so many network marketers like Get Response is the easy importing of leads into their system.

Finally, if you’re a bit technical and want to host your own email list then there is a free php script called PHP List.  You need your own web site to install it on.  One advantage of PHP List is you can import your own names (good for those of you that buy leads.)  The downside is mailing from your own web site can lead to spam complaints that eventually lead to your web site being blacklisted. I consider using PHP List to be a waste of time.  Since you can use Aweber or Get Response for $20 a month why pay $8 or $10 a month for web hosting and running your own list.  It isn’t worth the time effort, the frustration, the spam complaints, etc.

- Ben Fitts
PS. Tomorrow I’ll talk a little bit more about how I use Aweber in my business.

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Tools to grow your MLM business: Email Lists & Autoresponders

This web site will bring you interviews with the top names in network marketing, mlm, personal development, and internet marketing.

If you want to learn from the best in the business then you’ll want to return here every week for a new interview. New interviews will be posted on Tuesdays starting this Tuesday May 19th. We will also allow registered members to listen in to the live interview and ask questions. Our first two interviews are scheduled for:

Interview #1 Wednesday May 13th at 11 AM Eastern time.
Interview with the authors of Navigating the World of Network Marketing!

Interview #2 Friday May 15th at 11 AM Eastern time.
Interview with the author of the Greatest Networker in the World

For these first two interviews ANYONE can join in on the live interview and ask questions!

See you then!

- Ben Fitts
Home Business Interviews

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Announcing: Home Business Interviews

Now is your last chance to get a subscription to one of the biggest archives of MLM and personal development training on the internet.  The Mastermind Sessions is about to go up in price.  Currently the price is only $1 a week!

What some people say about the Mastermind Sessions with John Fogg:

Get Your Mastermind Sessions NOW for only $1 a week!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

The Mastermind Sessions – Last Chance!

In-N-Out Burger just held a job fair in Mesa, AZ.  They were looking to hire 60 people.  However 600 to 800 people showed up.   The line stretched out the door and around the corner from the hotel.  People had been in line since 6:30 AM that morning. (See articles on East Valley Tribune and ABC 15.)

Someone told me (I can’t find the news story) that 100-200 of the people in line were former corporate executives.  These were people who had good corporate jobs and fell victim to the economy.  They were applying for a fast food job! You see In-N-Out Burger pays well above minimum wage. They pay $10 an hour.

Even if the story I heard is partially false the fact that over 600 people showed up to a fast food job fair is a sign of the times we are living in. With a sky high unemployment rate there is more competition than ever even for “fast food” jobs.

Think of how many people out there are desperate and looking for an opportunity like the one you have to offer.  There has never been a better time to be involved in network marketing.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

600 to 800 people show up for fast food job fair

You see a few weeks ago I was wondering if some of my marketing wasn’t effective because my team couldn’t duplicate what I was doing. I’m pretty darn good at the internet marketing stuff.  What if my team can’t duplicate what I do?  Should I stop doing it even though I’m “great” at it?

A couple of weeks ago I was hanging out with Big Al and I thought I’d mention it to him and get his opinion.  He simply replied with a question.

If you had a team member who had 600 family members would you tell them NOT to talk to their family because it isn’t duplicatable?

It hit me like a ton of bricks.  Of course you wouldn’t tell them not too.  They shouldn’t be held back simply because they have a larger family than most people.  They should be able to use that advantage.

Since I’m great at internet marketing I should use that advantage.  Even if not all my team members can do what I do.  There’s no reason for me to penalize myself because I am so good at something that it’s hard for others to duplicate.  After all I can share my knowledge with my team and some of them can do what I do…  I should play to my strengths not my weaknesses.

It’s like if you sponsor someone famous you don’t tell them to hide their celebrity status. Instead you tell them to use that sphere of influence as much as they can.

So MLM doesn’t have to be about duplication.  Do you think I’m crazy?  Do you agree? Do you have any suggestions for me?

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Not everything in MLM has to be duplicable!

I’m looking for one more person to personally coach and mentor.  I’ve recently begun working closely with a few people to really dedicate my time and energy to helping them succeed.  It’s not that I’m ignoring the rest of my team but I’m looking for those that are willing to put in the effort it takes to grow a successful MLM business FAST.  These are the people I’m going to spend most of my time with. I’m going to be coaching and mentoring and working one on one with each of these people. I’m going to help them develop a marketing plan and do 3 way calls.  I’m going to help them put together advertisements and web sites. I’m going to help them prospect. I’m going to help them with business presentations. They will learn exactly what it takes to build a successful team and then develop the team as it grows.

I have room for one more person to coach and mentor.  Interested? Contact Me

- Ben Fitts
877-BEN-FITTS (236-3488)

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Who wants a mentor?

If you shouldn’t you should be   LOL.  But that’s pretty obvious isn’t it?

How do you get the most of these meetings and events?

One of the tricks I’ve found is that there is sometimes more going on outside the event than the event itself.  For example when I attend the events for my company I’ve been to them a dozen times. I’ve been to 4 of these events already this year.  I know a lot of what they are going to say.  I still get something new out of it every time, yet there are moments where I can take some time off.  There are some moments where I already know what they’re going to talk about.

One of the things I try and do is go outside into the halls.  Often times you’ll see big players hanging out in the hallways.  They might be on a break from their speaking gig and you get a chance to talk to them.  Likewise check out the hotel bar or restaurant.  Often the big names will be in there having dinner.  Buy them a drink, get to know them.  Hang out with them and pick their brains.

Plan to come early to the event and stay late.  Don’t run back to your room at the end of the event.  Don’t run out to your car.  Stay and chat and get to know the presenters and the big players in the room.

Last event I was invited out afterwards to a party.  Several of the top players in our company were there.  Some of whom I didn’t even know yet so it enabled me to get to know them better.

Sometimes I even take a nap during the event.  I don’t want to be so tired that I don’t go out.  Remember the “blue” personality that always likes a fun time or a party.  These people are often leaders in our company and they can always be found around a party, the bar, etc.  I rest during the event so I can hang out and socialize afterward.

If it’s an evening event I usually try and eat in the hotel restaurant / bar.  You can often times find people who are planning to attend the event or speak at the event in the local restaurant / bar.  If they are flying in then they may not have a lot of time.  Picking up a bite in the hotel restaurant is their best choice.

My particular plan usually goes like this:

1. Come early, meet my team members and guests I have invited to the event. Introduce myself to their guests and help edify their sponsor.

2. Participate in the beginning of the event.  Position myself near the isle or exits so I can get out easily without disturbing too many people.

3. Take frequent breaks to see what is going on outside the event.

4. (OPTIONAL) If it’s a several day long event and I have been spending a lot of evenings partying and celebrating with people, I will take a nap during the day.

5. Hang out after the event.  Don’t go back to my room right away.  I try to find out where the party is happening. Who is going out to eat? Who is going to a party? Who is going to the bar?  Connect with as many of these groups as I can.  Usually get one or two phone numbers of other groups.  So I pick one group but try and make plans to connect with another group later.  That way I can meet more people.  Sometimes you’ll connect with a group that might go out for a bite but might break up early.  If you have some other numbers you can connect with some of these other groups during the later part of the evening.

6. Don’t plan your flight too early.  Give yourself extra time after the event.  The worst thing you can do is leave the event early because you have to catch a flight.

Remember you can always sleep tomorrow.

Do you have a plan that you use when you attend events?

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

How to get the most out of Meetings & Events

Don’t forget your mom!  Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 10th.

Send your mom a Mother’s Day card or even a little gift to let her know how much she means to you.

You can even use my web site to send your mom a card for free (but you’ll have to pay for any gifts you want to send

There is no catch.  Just send a free card to your mom.  I do this because I know that most of you will send a free card and really like my service and want to join, but some might not.   I’m willing to give them away free so you can try it out AND you can send some good vibrations to your mom.  I’m sure your mom would love to hear from you!

And guys… you can send a couple of cards so you can send one to your wife too.

Just go to Remember Mothers Day and send your mom a free Mother’s Day card.

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Mother’s Day is next week! Send Your Mom a Card!

How is your MLM enterprise like a fly?

Have you ever seen a dead fly at the bottom of a window sill?

It flew and flew and flew. It kept trying to get through the window.  It was persistent and never gave up, even to the point of death.  The fly doesn’t try and go around the window.  It flies to the light.

Jordan Adler shared this example with me.  He says if you have 18 flies and let them loose they will all try and fly through the glass of the window.  All they see is the light on the otherside and they want to reach it.  Meanwhile just a few feet away is freedom.  A few feet away is an open door.  All they have to do is go around the window but they refuse to.

What if one fly decides to go around?  The other 17 flies keep going. They keep trying to break through the glass and they never do.  That’s why we find so many dead flies on the window sill.

In your network marketing business many of you are like the fly. You keep bashing your head on the window of success.  Meanwhile just a few feet away is an open door.  All we have to do is fly around the window and go to the open door.  If we just take a second to think differently than the rest success is easy. We can fly at that window for hours or days.  The glass keeps us away from our goal.  Yet if we just think differently.  If we decide there is a better way and go off to the side we can find the open door way to success.  It is easily within our reach!

Does that make sense?

If not I will share another example with you which might make a little more sense… So come back and check Home Business blogs tomorrow

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

How is your MLM enterprise like a fly in a window?

When you’re learning to ride your bike, it takes awhile.  You start out with training wheels.  Then your parents take the training wheels off.  They hold you and help you try and gain your balance.  You try and try and try. You fall over and over again.  Then suddenly “you get it”.  Once you get it you have your balance and you can ride and ride.  You might ride and fall a little bit but it doesn’t take long and you can ride around the block.

This is like your MLM business.

Jordan was in 10 MLM companies without making a dime.  Yet suddenly in his 11th company “he got it”.  It wasn’t anything special about the company. It was within Jordan.  He found a system and started using it.  His belief system changed.

When you learn to ride a bike you learn balance.  As soon as you learn balance you never forget it.  You could stop riding a bike for 10 years and still remember how to balance.  You don’t even have to practice. You just get on your  bike and you immediately have balance again.

Your MLM business is like this.  Once you know what works you don’t even have to worry about it ever again. You just do it.

Once you know how to go fast you just do it.  There is no reason to go slow.  It’s like gaining balance.  Once you have it you will always have it.  Nothing can take it away from you.

Do you want to go FAST in  your MLM enterprise?  It really is simple.

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

MLM is like riding a bike…

You see a Roulette wheel has 38 spaces. 36 numbered spaces from 1-36 a 0 and a 00 space.

Prospecting in your MLM is like playing Roulette.  Sometimes the ball lands on your number.  Often times it doesn’t. Sometimes when you talk to a prospect they sign up on the spot.  Sometimes in Roulette you get lucky and sponsor the person on the spot.  Often times it takes 2 or 3 or more times before you get the prospect to sign up.  Sometimes you miss and you have to keep trying over and over again.  Maybe even a dozen times or more.  Sometimes you give up before you win.

This is a lot like playing Roulette.  Sometimes you hit the number quickly. Sometimes you hit it after a few tries.  Sometimes you play over and over and over again and just can’t seem to hit the number.

Often times when people come to us and tell us they want to replace their full time income with their MLM they are being unrealistic.  They only talk to one or two people a week.  It’s like the Roulette wheel.  Sometimes these people aren’t ready and you have to keep following up with them week after week after week.  But if you are only talking to one or two you probably aren’t going to sign up anyone this week and probably not next week either.  You might be lucky and sponsor one a month.

You see if they want to grow their business RAPIDLY and replace their full time income they need to sponsor at least one person a week and probably two.  But if you have a 1 in 38 chance you can’t sponsor one person a week.

However what if you threw 38 balls onto the roulette wheel. Your number would come up every single time.

If you want to grow fast in your MLM enterprise you need to talk to more people.

SIMPLE.

Just talk to more people!  If you’re talking to 30-40 people a week the odds are you’re going to sign up at least one of them!

What do you think? Do you think Big Al is crazy? or do you agree with him?

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Prospecting for your MLM is like playing Roulette

This is your last chance. If you want to meet me in Phoenix this weekend… I need to finalize my plans today.

I will be in Phoenix (actually Scottsdale) from Friday April 24th to late Sunday April 27th.  I am attending a personal development seminar on Saturday… if you’d like to join me just let me know.  I need a firm commitment from you today so I can make sure to get you on the guest list for the event (and for lunch.)

You can use the contact form to let me know that you will be attending.

I hope I can meet you!

- Ben Fitts

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Last chance to meet me in Phoenix this weekend!

Consider these definitions.

To be a coach, you don’t have to know how to do what you are coaching. Many coaches simply listen to their distributors and tell the distributors they already know what to do and how to do it. As coaches, they simply hold the distributors accountable for their actions.

These coaches don’t have to be good sponsors, good presenters, or good leaders. They simply hold the distributors accountable, and attempt to motivate them into action by talking about their “Why,” etc.

To be a mentor, you should already have the skills the distributor seeks to learn. In this case, the distributor does not have certain skills and experiences, and seeks the answers from the mentor. The mentor is not responsible for motivating or holding the distributor accountable. The mentor assumes the distributor already is highly motivated and will put the lessons into action.

To be a mentor, you must first master the skills the distributor seeks. And if you master the skills, the distributor seeks you.

And what if the distributor is not self-motivated?

Well, the distributor won’t be seeking you out.

Are you simply a coach that talks a good talk? Or are you a coach that motivates distributors to take action? Are you a mentor that has mastered skills and can pass them on to self-motivated people?

Or, are you simply a lousy sponsor that recruited a distributor and quickly moved on to finding your next new distributor?

Reprinted from Big Al’s Fortune Now newsletter.  Get great tips and advice like this from Big Al (and join his monthly cd club – I bought an annual subscription.)

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

Are you a coach or a mentor? Or just a lousy sponsor?

Last night this lady named Lisa was spamming Facebook about a new MLM company called “Efusjon”.

When I commented that I didn’t like the company she wrote back to me that Send Out Cards wasn’t good enough for her. She wasn’t making enough money. So she had gone and joined this new company. (She’s working multiple companies at once which I also disagree with.)

Efusjon looks interesting. They make an “acai energy drink”. So instead of juice they combine acai to make energy drinks. That’s a good idea. It’s a good market and it’s a new twist to the acai juice idea.

Unfortunately in my opinion Lisa hasn’t thought things through. When you look at a company you have to look at the compensation plan.  One of the main things your prospect wants to know is:

1. What does it take to get their intial investment back?

2. What does it take to get their monthly order of product for free?

The problem with Efusjon is both of these.  You purchase your first order of product (4 cases) and a distributor option for $150.  Then every month you purchase 4 cases of product for $120 a month.

Here’s the problem.  You only make 4.25% commissions on your $120 a month orders.  That works out to be about $5 per order.  To make your money back you need to sell approximately 30 orders of product.

MOST people aren’t going to sell 30.  Less than 5% of people will probably do 30 sales. 20% of people will probably do a few sales but they won’t make enough money to pay for their investment.  So 95% of people in this company won’t make enough money to pay for their monthly autoship.  That means the attrition rate is going to be really high.  Most people will probably cancel their autoship within 3 months.

When you look at your MLM company you need to make sure you can help your people make their money back right away.  Even if they just get the product for free that’s enough reason for a lot of people to stick with it.  Your attrition rate in your organization will be much lower and because these people continue to work the business they’ll have the opportunity to grow and maybe one day find a leader that makes them a lot of money.

Efusjon gets around this by telling people it’s a 3 x 15 matrix (they call community overlap.) So the idea is you’d have overlap and you’d get rich…  Of course it never works out this way… It only works out like this for the first few people.  I don’t want to take the attention away from the point of this post.

Do you know what it takes to help your people make their money back?

The more people you can help to make their money back the better!  The easier it is to make their money back the better!  The more successful you will be!

- Ben Fitts

PS. Maybe Efusjon will work out. I like the idea for the product I just think their compensation plan is bogus.

Post from: Network Marketing & MLM Training from Home Business Blogs

What does it take to make your money back?