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?

Would you like to attend a free personal development seminar with me in Phoenix, Arizona?

I’m going to be in Phoenix on the 24-26th of April for a personal development seminar.  If you’d like to be my guest, hang out, pick my brain, etc.  Then let me know. You can use the contact form to the right to send me an email and let me know that you’d be interested in coming.

If you can’t make it to Phoenix, I’ll be in Atlanta on Saturday, May 30th for another seminar.  I’d be happy to meet you there if that works better for you?

Interested? Contact me for more information!

- Ben Fitts

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

Want to attend a free personal development seminar with me in Phoenix April 25th?

I want to start my own web page offering everything from printing services, advertising, web building, marketing, consulting and more since I work with people in this field already helping my clients.

I think one of the important things Todd is to not focus on too much stuff. You’re starting a new business and want to offer a bunch of services. But start small and add more services.  Do a great job at a couple of services then add more to the list.

One of the reasons I wrote my book Nichework Marketing was talking about the importance of selecting a niche.  The problem Todd has is he is trying to offer too many services to his clients.  If he focused on a niche he’d have less competition and be able to provide a better service to his clients.  Then develop referral partners for all those other services… and those partners will in turn refer clients back to him.

Todd goes on to write about some stuff that should bring this focus back on network marketing…

My problem is I’m always hitting the pavement and cold calling to try to make a sale to get a business to advertise. I spend many hours maintaining my clients business and so many more trying to find new ones. It gets to the point I have no more time to sell and find new ads because I have to maintain what I. Can you help with all this to increase my sales and my client’s sales?

Todd, the problem here is you are trading time for money.  You have your own business but you’re basically just self employed.  You have to do all the work.  There is only so much time in the day so you either have to get more efficient so you can do more in less time or raise your prices to make more money.

One way to get more time is to bring on some staff to handle some of these tasks.  That’s the traditional business model.  Hire some employees or pay some sales people a commission to bring in more clients.  At first you’ll have to give up a chunk of your income without any reward but once your staff get trained they’ll begin bringing in extra money. Whether or not they are doing some of your work for your clients or helping you sell. It will free up your time to do the aspects of your business that your employees cannot do.

One reason I do network marketing is I can leverage my time.  I build a team and train them so I don’t have to do all the work. I get a small override on their efforts.  Someone once asked…

Would you rather have 100 appointments to do your own business presentations or would you rather have 100 people who each go out and do 1 business presentation for you?

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to work that hard so I’d rather have 100 people who each do 1 business presentation for me!

- Ben Fitts

PS. Todd I’m emailing you more direct answers now…

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

User Question from Todd

• The simpler the better.
• The simpler it is the easier it is to duplicate.
• The simpler it is the less fear a new distributor has in doing it.
• The simpler it is the more likely they will be to take action immediately.

With that in mind I’m taking an introspective look at my own business.

I know how to do some pretty kick butt internet marketing.  I wrote a book on how I got one of the top rankings for my company name and several other keywords related to my business. I think I’ve boiled it down to a pretty easy method for people to duplicate what I do… BUT I also thinks its reasonable to assume that not everyone on my team can duplicate this.  Some of them aren’t computer techy at all.  Some don’t have time to learn/do what I teach.  Others might not want to.  They might prefer working face to face.

Can enough people duplicate what I do to make it worthwhile?

So that’s my question.  With things like my blogs, can enough people do it to make it worthwhile? Should I focus more on simpler activites that more people on my team can duplicate?  Is there anything wrong with doing the activites that are super effective but maybe less people can duplicate?

What do you think?

- Ben Fitts

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

What is duplication in MLM?

One good thing to come out of this is the reflection on our life.  My wife is only 35 and her sister was only 36 at the time of her death.  It has made my wife think about what she has done and what she wants to do.  She was trying to deal with family matters and she was getting all these petty emails on her Blackberry from people she works with. They knew she was dealing with the death of her sister and yet their sending her stupid emails about things like “ants” in their cubicle.

Can you imagine the nerve of some people?

She was faced with the reality that life is too short and other people she worked with are worried about ants.

A lot of good will come from my sister in law’s passing.  A lot of great kids at the school where she taught are taking inspiration from this.  My wife is taking inspiration too.  She has decided that perhaps there is something better out there for her than working a JOB. Or at least something better than the for profit company she works at now.

I don’t know what’s going to happen for sure but I know that she is more committed than ever to helping me achieve my dreams.  Why live an ordinary life?  Why live a life of stress and having to take orders from someone else?  Why have to beg a boss for time off?

Can you believe my wife’s boss only gave her 3 days off to grieve for the loss of her sister?

Who wants to work in corporate America? Not me!

- Ben

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

Life is too short to work for a crappy JOB

My family is in the midst of two family emergencies and we would appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

My wife has asked me not to share the details but we would appreciate your prayers for her and her family.

In addition I also heard that my aunt on my mother’s side of the family is in intensive care.

Needless to say have had to cut our cruise short. We left the ship and are sitting in an airport in Cozumel Mexico. We’re flying out in a few minutes for Syracuse, New York so my wife can get back to her family as soon as possible.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

With love,
Ben & Jen Fitts

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

Please Pray for our family

Hi everyone,

Today’s the day!

Jennifer and I are off for a cruise to Cozumel!  I won the prize for being one of the top distributors in Send Out Cards over the past year.  They offered the prize to the top 100 people who earned points by: sponsoring new customers, sponsoring new distributors, helping new distributors get started fast, and by helping people promote.

This is the first of many prizes I expect to win in my network marketing career (I won $500 in a sales contest, vip status, and other things but this is the first big prize I’ve won based on an entire year of effort.)

I called this the “joys of network marketing” because this is a business that can offer a lot of fun rewards. You can win lots of things.  Cruises are just one option. I know other people who have won “cars” or “rolexes” or similar prizes in their network marketing enterprises.  Most companies (mine included) have special rewards when you reach the top.  We all get a specially designed “eagle” ring when we reach the eagle rank in our company.  The ring is not only beautiful and custom designed but it is also symbolic of the reason our company started in the first place.

There are other joys from being involved in MLM and Network Marketing.  What about the joy of having more time to spend with your family?  What about the joy of getting to work from the comfort of your own home instead of having to go to a job every day?

Often we think about the money… but there is much more to MLM and Network Marketing than money.

Well I need to head out.  Our boat is leaving shortly.  I hope to keep in touch with you guys and maybe post some photos and things as I can.

Have fun and be productive while we’re gone!

Ben & Jen Fitts

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

The joys of Network Marketing

Secret Strategies for Effective Flyer Marketing

Remember the old phrase:  “KISS”

Keep It Short and Simple

This definitely applies to network marketing. Network Marketing is a business of duplication.  Remember to focus your activities on things that are easily duplicable.  You want anyone who joins your business to be able to do it regardless of their skill level.

I’ve written some network marketing ebooks on this topic that you can download for free.  For example I have an ebook on how I created some very effective flyers that get me up to 15% response rate.  Once you have a flyer that works well all you have to do is show people where to hang the flyers and you can even give your new people my ebook.  It explains the whole process and where I found good places to hang flyers.  That’s duplicable.  You’ve taken the hard work out of the equation. You’ve got the “flyer” already done.  They don’t have to create one from scratch.

Darlene from California called me about this issue last week.  She has several team members she’s trained to do the flyers and they are having great success with it.  BUT what they do is one on one business presentations.  They drive all over doing presentations, spending money on gas, car bills, etc.  What’s worse is that one on one presentations are hard to duplicate.  Unless you have a DVD or something that does the presentation for you new people get scared to do their presentations.  They are afraid they might say the wrong thing.  If you can simplify the presentation then you’ll have better success.

Some ways Darlene could simplify her presentation are:

1. Start new team members by doing presentations with them. The first presentation you do entirely for them. The second presentation you help them do. The third presentation they do it with you watching over them so you can help them if they stumble.
2. Use a automatic presentation like a DVD or web site presentation.  That way the new person doesn’t have to remember a lot.
3. Do a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly business presentation FOR your team.  That way all they have to do is invite people to your presentation.  That’s possible the most effective system because all they have to do is learn to invite prospects and because you can develop a lot of energy by getting a bunch of like minded people together and excited about the business presentation you’ve just given them.

Remember to focus on duplication and the easier you make things the easier it will be for new prospects to jump in and get started FAST in your organization.

Do you have tricks you use to help your prospects get started fast when they join your business?

- Ben Fitts

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Simplify Your MLM Business to Achieve Greater Success!

Sample thank you card I use

I’ve been writing a series of articles on my business plan for 2009.

One of the things I believe in and I’ve read a lot about is sending thank you cards.  One mistake many people make with their thank you cards is they write their thank you card expecting to get something in return.

MOST business people will send a thank you card with their full business card information inside. Or they’ll send a thank you card that will say something like “the best compliment I can receive is you trusting me with a referral.”

The problem is that is an expectation of getting something in return.  You’re giving to get not giving to give. When you give to give you win trust and favor with the person much more than giving to get.  Sometimes people give expecting to get something in return.  If you give just to give to the person, then they have a deeper appreciation for you.

I send thank you cards for lots of occasions.  I have a card (pictured here) that I send to say “it was great to meet you”.  I have thank you cards I send to every new client or customer.  I even send thank you cards when I get good customer service.

Just the other day my wife and I went to the AT&T store to get new cellular phones.  We received really excellent customer service from a fellow named Matt. We took up an hour or more of his time and it even went past closing.  He went the extra mile to make sure our phones got setup properly.  So I sent Matt a little thank you card along with some brownies.

I just returned to the AT&T store to switch phones.  Matt came over to me immediately.  He wanted to thank me for the brownies.  Even though another associate was already helping me Matt was more than happy to give me some extra help in picking out my new phone and accessories.  He was so thankful that I thought of him and even sent him some tasty brownies as a treat.  I guarantee you every time I go in to that AT&T store I’m going to get GREAT customer service. All from a little thank you card!

Do you send thank you cards to your customers or prospects? Do you have any stories to share?

Click on the “comments” to the right of this story and leave us a comment and let us know!

- Ben Fitts

PS. Are you looking for an awesome solution to send custom thank you cards like the one pictured here? I’d be happy to help you get setup with a free account to try it out.

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

Business Plan 2009 - Send Thank You Cards (without expecting anything in return!)

You might be wondering, why?

First of all I think we sometimes don’t want new friends because we maybe got hurt by old friends.  So we keep our friendships to a minimum.  At least I know I sometimes get like that.

Remember network marketing can also be called relationship marketing.  So think about those “relationships”.

That means you need to work on developing new friends.  You don’t want to simply target these new friends for your business though.  You want to actually BE a friend.  You want to GIVE to them.

One thing I did to meet new people was to get out locally and meet new business people.  I joined a BNI group.  BNI is a group that is designed to help other business people with referrals. One of the main tennets of BNI is that “giver’s gain”.  In BNI you give referrals to others.  You participate in the group.  Maybe you bring coffee/breakfast to your group meeting.  Maybe you go meet some of your other group members one on one to learn about their business.  You learn to look for ways to help other people.

As soon as I started to do this in my BNI group I began to get referrals back.  You see the people had learned to trust me and we had developed relationships.  I was giving out referrals. I was assisting the group by sending out welcome cards to visitors and new members.  I was sending invitations to the open house.  I was becoming an active member of the group.  When the other members saw this they began to trust me with their referrals, but it took awhile to build that trust.

So that’s what I mean by making new friends.  I mean looking at these relationships as friendships not simply business connections.  You would go out of your way to assist a friend. You would probably not go out of your way to assist a business connection you just met at a chamber luncheon.    By building relationships you grow stronger bonds.  If that business connection had gone out of his way to help you, if he had show genuine interest in you, your family, your business… then you’re much more likely to go to extremes to help that person.

Do you agree or disagree?

- Ben Fitts

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

Business Plan Week 7 - Make New Friends

Local Ad Link - the newest advertising FAD

Many of you have probably heard of the latest advertising gimmick, Local Ad Link. (NOT an affiliate link.)

In my opinion Local Ad Link is just a FAD that most businesses should avoid.

First of all people contacting me about Local Ad Link are idiots.  They’re telling me it’s ok if I don’t like it. I should buy a position and market it to others anyway. Hello?  McFly?  Are you there? Don’t you realize that if you are telling me to do it anyway just to make some money, this screams out “SCAM” to me.

Second of all, the advertising packages with Local Ad Link are HORRIBLE.

$50 a month for 3 zip codes and 2 search terms
$100 a month for 10 zip codes and 2 search terms
$200 a month for 50 zip codes and 3 search terms

Here is my big problem with this.

If you know anything about Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising you can get a better deal for yourself.

My dad has a web site for granticrete countertops.  He is only licensed to do these in Rhode Island and Connecticut.  So we have a simple pay per click campaign setup to target keywords in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

#1 My dad can buy more than 3 search terms.  We’re currently targetting 24 terms.
#2 My dad can target more than 3, or 10, or even 50 zip codes. We can target as many as we want.
#3 My dad spends less than $10 a month on average on his pay per click ads.
#4 My dad can specify the landing page! He can have a page that’s unique to Connecticut or a page that’s unique to Rhode Island.

Now take a look in comparison to LocalAdLink.  My dad targets the entire state of Rhode Island for example. He’d have to pay $200 a month to get even close to that with LocalAdLink.  Yet my dad spends less than $10 a month.

Are you getting the picture?

Do you see why this is a big scam?

How is LocalAdLink getting their ads on Google in the first place…. Pay Per Click!  Basically what you are paying LocalAdLink for is having them manage your advertising for you.  If you a computer novice then maybe LocalAdLink is for you… but if you are someone who is willing to learn you’d be much better off actually investing the $200 in Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. In an hour’s time you could manage your own PPC ads and save yourself hundreds of dollars a month AND do more effective ad campaigns than you’ll get with Local Ad Link!

And I haven’t even gotten into the real Pay Per Click tricks like customizing your campaigns based on your keywords, sending them to a landing page that targets that keyword, etc.  Local Ad Link sends you to their site (because they need to bump up their search engine and alexa ratings to convince more people to advertise!)  The person then has to click on a link from local ad link to be taken to your actual web site! So Local Ad Link is adding in an extra step in the process and you’ll loose some of your prospects right there!

Is Local Ad Link a scam? No. It’s not a scam but it is a company that is specifically targetting ignorant business owners that don’t know much about how to market online.  Personally that’s the kind of company I like to avoid. AND who the hell wants to go door to door selling internet advertising anyway? YUCK!

- Ben Fitts

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

Local Ad Link - Scam? or Legitimate Advertising Opportunity?

I want to pay you to help me get the word out about my little blog. I’m starting a membership drive to try and get my reader total up over 1000. We’ve been hovering around 240-260 for several months now (you can see the total on the right hand side of the page.) All you have to do is click here to send an email to your friends to tell them about Home Business Blogs!

I will give away $25 gift certificates as a reward for you helping refer your friends and associates to Home Business Blogs! I will pick one person at random each month who has referred new people to the blog to win a $25 gift card of their choice. The more referrals the greater your chance to win! We have about 10 different gift cards to choose from.

• American Express Gift Card
• 4 in 1 restaurants: Chilis, Macaroni Grill, Maggianos Little Italy, On the Border
• Starbucks
• Cheescake Factory
• Tim Horton’s
• Barnes & Noble
• Home Depot
• Bed Bath and Beyond
• The Options: Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic
• Wal Mart
• Canadian 6 in 1 Variety: Swiss Chalet, Second Cup, Kelsey’s, Harvey’s, Milestone Grill & Bar, Montana’s Cookhouse

PLUS everyone who refers a friend will get to download FREE copies of my ebooks on:

Dirt Cheap Advertising for your MLM or business opportunity
and Secret Strategies for Effective Flyer Marketing (how I get up to 20% response rate on flyers)

Get these 2 ebooks FREE when you refer a friend

Both these ebooks are free downloads to anyone who refers a friend to Home Business Blogs!

AND you’ll have a chance to win $25 each and every month that you refer a friend! The more times you refer a friend the more chances you have to win!

Click here to refer some friends now.

- Ben Fitts

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

Announcing the Tell A Friend Contest!

Hi team,

As you know we are going through some big changes at Send Out Cards.

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite quotes from one of my network marketing mentors.  He says:

“You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can’t make both.”

In Send Out Cards you can allow yourself to get sucked down into the bugs and problems with the new card editor OR you can rise above it all and continue working extra hard and building your business.

Now which person do you think is going to be the most successful?

The person who allowed the bugs to hold them back?  The person who blamed their lack of success on Send Out Cards? The person who took time off waiting on the problems to be fixed before promoting SOC.

OR the person who forged ahead.  The person who worked twice as hard to grow their business during the difficult times.

Let’s put it another way.

What is Jordan doing?  Do you think Jordan is making excuses?  Or do you think Jordan is out there working extra hard?

I know Diane is working extra hard. I am too.

The leaders don’t allow these little problems to bother them.  In the grand scheme of things they are TINY problems and EVERY company goes through phases like this.

Some companies go through issues where they have problems fullfilling orders.  Maybe the demand is so high the product is out of stock for long periods of time.  Some companies go through issues with investigations from the Attorney General.  Some companies go through financial troubles. Some companies go through periods of bad publicity with 60 minutes or whatever doing investigative reports on their company.

We don’t have those issues.  Our little issues with the new card editor are tiny and these issues will go away soon.

I encourage you all to do whatever you can now to work extra hard at building your business.  Come this winter when we’re experiencing our holiday rush, when all the bugs are worked out of the system, when we have a 2nd printer in Ohio, when we have new gift items available…  You’re all going to be rewarded for your persistence and hard work.

So you can make money or excuses.

Which one do you want to make?

- Ben Fitts
A Send Out Cards LEADER
Are you a leader?

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You can make excuses or you can make money but you can’t make both

Do you like to hear from other top Network Marketers?  Do you like to hear audio interviews about how they got to where they are today?

What about hearing from the top authors on MLM and Network Marketing?  What about hearing from personal development coaches?

What would over 130 hours of audio interviews be worth?

If they were worth $10 each that’d be $1300, right?

What if you could get all these audio interviews plus one year of upcoming interviews for only $99?

http://TheMasterMindSessions.com/SpecialOffer

You see my friend John Milton Fogg (Aka. author of the Greatest Networker in the World) has quietly been running an excellent web site called the Mastermind Sessions.  Every week John lines up great guest speakers and convinces them to give one hour of the best training AND usually they throw in a special bonus as well.

John is going to raise the price of the Mastermind Sessions soon.  Before he raises the price he has offered 100 special memberships at only $99 for one year.

Keep in mind in my opinion this is CONSERVATIVELY worth over $2000.  Needless to say $99 for a year of access to over 130 hours of audio interviews is well worth it!

Check out John’s special offer and make sure to tell him I sent you

http://TheMasterMindSessions.com/SpecialOffer

- Ben Fitts

If you’re curious you can check out some introductory audios from previous Mastermind Sessions at John’s Blog.

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

The BEST Audio Interiews with the TOP Network Marketers

This is a facebook application that allows you to get facebook chat messages sent to your cell phone. It costs $6 and has an MLM payplan associated with it.

Here is one example of why I hate it.

I got an email yesterday from a friend.  She is not a technical person.  In fact she has told me she hates being on the computer all day.  She is an outdoors person. She likes being outside. She enjoys traveling.  She enjoys meeting people and networking face to face, NOT working on the computer all the time. She explicitly told me she doesn’t want to spend a lot of time on the computer.

Yet this woman emailed me and asked me to take a look at Chat to Text.  This is a woman who doesn’t want to be on the computer all the time and yet now she is promoting a product that puts your computer chat on your cell phone.  If anything it’s the exact opposite!  This woman wants to try and get away from the computer and yet now she’s getting text messages on her cell phone?!?!

I feel like the ONLY reason she is pushing this crap is because:

1. Someone she knows probably sent her the link.

2. She hasn’t thought it through.

3. She is promoting it because of the MLM component and the ability to get paid for referring others.

In reality this is a product she won’t use. This is a product she actually won’t like at ALL!  Yet she is promoting it to others!

Chat to Text is one of the worst examples of MLM scam and is what causes people to not like MLM.  The majority of people promoting this JUNK aren’t even going to use it.  They are just promoting it for the MLM. That is how MLM get’s a bad name.

I encourage all of you to boycott Chat to Text.  Next time someone asks you emails you about Chat to Text send them here to find out why what they are doing is so bad for our industry.

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

Chat to Text is back and I still HATE it

Do you focus enough of your attention in your MLM business on income producing activities?

One of my associates was just complaining about our marketing tools. This is someone who has been here for 4 years and hasn’t had any success. Meanwhile some people have built 6 and 7 figure incomes using these same marketing tools in the same amount of time. It is not the marketing tool that’s causing them to fail. There’s something else causing them to fail. They make excuses and blame the marketing tool when in fact they need to look at their own business and their daily activities.

In my opinion what holds these people back is their activities. Are they doing income producing activities?

Complaining about things isn’t an income producing activity. Being on training calls all the time isn’t an income producing activity. You could get an A+ for attendance on all the training calls and still be a failure in business.

On the other hand if you are out there networking and doing business presentations constantly… even if you aren’t any good at doing them you will get better. You will gradually become better at your presentations and you will become successful.

So in your business… Think about how you spend your time. Do you spend your time on income producing activities? Do you know what your income producing activities are? Do you know what to focus your attention on?

What do you think? Am I being too hard on these distributors?

- Ben Fitts

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

Focus on income producing activities

Sunday February 22nd there is a GREAT Free Webinar for MLMers looking to generate more QUALITY leads.

This is the Free Robert Kiyosaki CD program where people can request a free copy of the Robert Kiyosaki interview about the perfect business opportunity.

With this tool I generated 22 leads last month. All of whom have purchased a free audio cd (they paid for shipping) and have given me a real physical address (because they are receiving a cd by mail.) Then I have a 5 card follow up campaign I implement using Send Out Cards to follow up with them.

I encourage ALL of you to get on this webinar Sunday, February 22nd.

Click here to reserve your seat now before they are all taken!

And if you have any questions about the program, how it works, how I’m promoting it, etc. Just leave a comment or use the link on the right to contact me.

- Ben Fitts

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

Great Free Webinar for MLMers looking to generate more QUALITY leads

Would you like to meet me next week in San Diego?

I’ll be in San Diego from February 27th to March 1st.  I’ve got a personal development seminar I’m attending on the 28th.  Would you like to be my guest?  I’d be happy to have you come with me and we can have lunch and talk about business, internet marketing, or whatever. I will even pay your way.

If you’re interested in meeting me in San Diego on February 28th just use the contact form and let me know!

If you don’t want to attend the personal development seminar I’ll have some time in the early afternoon on Friday.  Then I’ll be having dinner with a large group of my Send Out Cards team. Perhaps we could meet up before dinner?

- Ben Fitts

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

Meet me in San Diego next week!

My week 5 action is to lookup old friends.

You might think, you don’t want to spam your old friends, and I agree! I don’t want to spam anyone!

In my opinion your MLM enterprise is about building relationships. EVERYTHING we do is about building relationships.  Working with your customers and getting referrals from them is about realtionships. Working with your downline and helping them grow their business is about building relationships, and trust with them. Being a mentor to them.  Helping hold them accountable.

Prospects? Same thing.  Most prospects are joining someone because they feel that person can help them achieve their dreams and their goals.

So how does that apply to my old friends?  You have realtionships with these people already. Why not expand on those relationships and friendships? You never know when the time is going to be right for someone.  I’m not talking about spamming them with your opportunity, but just renewing that friendship and seeing where it will go.

I use Facebook a lot. To me, it’s a more grown up version of Myspace.  I also find it’s easier to find people and make connections on Facebook.  I’ve been able to connect with quite a few old friends as a result of Facebook.  One of them has expressed some interest in my business and is even working with me part-time as a programmer.  I didn’t renew the friendship for that. I renewed the friendship because he is a friend.  We all need more friends in our lives.  The fact that he started to work for me and is planning to join my MLM business is just a result of our friendship.  It’s a product of learning what his needs are and that he needed to supplement his income.

Some other web sites you can use to find friends are Classmates.com.  That’s a good one for looking people up by school affiliation.  Another good one which is becoming popular for baby boomers is BoomJ. A new one that is a bit different but still can help build realtionships is Twitter.

How many old friends have you connected with recently?

Got questions about these web sites? Leave a comment and let me know!

- Ben Fitts

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

Week 5 - Lookup some old friends

I hope you get some “brownie” points this week (And if you want to send a gift people who become customers can use my web site to send gifts like candles, brownies, gift baskets, etc.)

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Guys don’t forget Valentines Day is Saturday Feb. 14th