Best mlm business today - lotions and potions can make you money!

I hear and see a lot of people asking what is the best network marketing / mlm business out there today?  What a hard question!  There are as many answers as there are people.  The best answer is probably not about companies but about categories.

Most companies that survive make great products or they wouldn't be in business. Typically the energy companies are the hardest to survive, technology changes so fast that the products they have have a hard time being value priced and the companies have a really hard time keeping up with the Jones!  You want to have something that stays a good value.  So if the product is one that is based on present technology, you will probably find them falling away in the midst of  competition.

  So when looking at a particular opportunity, the easiest first point to look at is from the five pillars, how long have they been in business?  If it is less than 2 yrs old, it has not passed the test of time.  Most fail in the first 2 years, so if you don't want to take a chance on it folding just when you are getting going, don't pick a company less than 2 years old.

The hardest thing for me was what kind of company or product did I want to get involved with.  I hear people making fun of the so called 'lotions and potions' type companies but let me ask a question....  how many times a day does the average person take a vitamin or nutritional supplement, wash something either on their person or in their home, use something as simple as hand lotion, get bit by a mosquito or stung by a bee, decide to go on a diet, or look for something healthy to snack on.  If you are looking at a hobby by all means look for something 'fun', but if you are looking for an opportunity to make money... what kind of product could be better than one that almost everyone uses every day!  The health and beauty industry is a massive one, and being a part of this gives you customers every where you look.

I am in this to make money and (a great side effect) to help as many people I can.  The old adage of  'If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want is tried and true.  And what better way to help someone be healthier and happier physically and sometimes emotionally and mentally as well.  I am looking to grow personally and the nutritional supplements just help me to be more mentally alert and see what I need to do to get what I want.  So I am not feeling bad about being a part of a multi-billion business, I am excited and thankful that the company I choose has such high quality products that help me so many other people feel better and get healthier, as well as make some great money.  Take a look at some nutritional supplement companies, and see just what great potential there is in a product driven company that can really make a difference in so many peoples lives.

So lotions and potions can be very lucritive.  If someone laughs at you for getting involved in something like this, laugh right along with them.... all the way to the bank!

Home based business success - what is it?

What is success?  We all want to be successful network marketers or home based business owners but many times we don't know what it is!  What do you need to have to consider yourself successful in business and in life? Would it surprise you to know that what you think of success  is not necessarily what others think of as success?  Can you be successful before you reach your goals for your home business or your personal life goals?

First I think of success as reaching my goals in network marketing and in personal growth, but I have short term goals that I reach everyday both in my home based business and my personal life, and embarking on the journey is a successful act by itself! So I am successful everyday. If you think of yourself as not successful until you reach a grand and ultimate goal, you miss all the little triumphs.  The little ones on your way to the really grand ones are just as important, and will serve to feed that grand goal. That is important for you to carry on when the road is a little tougher than usual.  

You have to define that goal for your home based business. Not just 'I want to have a lot of money' but how much money and by when?  How many people will you partner with in your home based business, what kind of people do you want to do business with?  If you don't give the universe that specific information, how can it help you get there? And how will you get there....  what about all the little things you will do everyday and every week, every month to get there?  Not defining this is like going on a trip without a map.  Sometimes it is fun to take time to wander, but if you are going to a convention, don't you want to get there in time for it to start? You can be flexible and you can always adjust the start of your convention so to speak but you need that direction to stay on course or you will find yourself wondering around so much you get nothing done and you never get there.

And what about perception.  You need to know where you are going and know that your path is just that, your path, and just because someone else is doing it different or going for a different goal doesn't make either of you less successful.  Everyone is important, the little jobs are just as important to someone as the big ones. If you take pride in the work you do and do it to your best ability, no matter what it is you are a success.  IF you don't think a simple job can be important to a lot of people, listen to this short story of a bagger in a supermarket.  His success was huge!  Some want to dig ditches, some want to be a doctor. some want a lot of money, some don't, but all are successful.  Being happy for others is just as important as being happy with yourself.

You can't compare yourself with others, everyone grows at different rates.  Some are ready for the grand goal and some aren't. You have to do the work to get there to be ready, so don't rush it. Your path is special and necessary for you. You are perfect just as you are, and you  are where you are supposed to be.   Personal growth is different for each of us and if we compare ourselves with others, we will usually find some we perceive have more of what we want and some less.  Competing with others in the game of life gets us no where.  Complete with ourselves and we will get somewhere. And don't be too hard on yourself, you can't win every race, but you do win every time you get up and race again!  And finally enjoy your journey!  This is your race, your time on this earth to explore and find your way.

 Your goals are important but don't forget to look for those little surprises along the way. You will find successes that you didn't plan for, and sometimes those are even better than the one you were working towards! We are all a work in progress, you don't stop learning and growing just because you reach that goal, you will find as soon as you get there another will take it's place.  So stop and smell the roses!

So success is what we define it as, and it can be as big as making a million dollars to baking a cake.  We decide what it is and how to feel about it... what we can choose our feelings!?  Yes to some extent. We can decide to accept other peoples successes as important and accept our little successes as just as important as our grand and ultimate idea of success.  We can DECIDE to enjoy the journey as much as the destination, and that will make the destination come about even sooner and grander than we imagined.  We can plan to succeed, make that roadmap and make sure to give yourself some playtime.  Look for the little surprises along the way, don't miss the wildflowers along the way to the mountains, they can give as much joy to the journey as the final destination.  Enjoy your life, your journey is special and it was meant to be just like you!

MLM Networking - You need more than knowledge to be successful!

I have been struggling with what to write about for a while. When I was stuck before I would find someone that wrote something that I really like and put it in my words.  Doing that now seems pretty dry and boring, maybe because that is how I have been feeling, a bit dry and boring!  I have been asking why would anyone want to listen to me, much less follow me?  I have had some success but it always goes away, my followers always seem to go away.

It all seems to come down to relationships.  If I write an article or this blog and just borrow other people's ideas, is that interesting to someone else, or more important, will that get someone to get to KNOW ME any better?  People join people, and people follow people, so it stands to reason if there is not a lot of me in what I write, people reading will not feel anything.  If they can't feel anything, why would they want to get to know me better by following me?

So this is what I have come up with.  When you are 'prospecting'... an awful word that we use all the time for looking for PEOPLE to join us, you have to put some of you out there for someone to identify with, so they feel something that will make then want to know more about YOU and what you are doing!  So instead of prospecting, try making FRIENDS. Try saying this is me and this is what I have learned, this is what I can teach you.  This is where I am going and I want to bring you along and learn from you as well.

How many of you feel good when you can help someone, and are grateful when a FRIEND shows you a kindness or just seems to understand when you are facing a challenge.  If someone is challenged. they generally feel comfort knowing that someone else has been there, and not necessarily want to be helped but just want some understanding at first.  There are self help groups for losing weight, for alcoholics, for almost anything,

For us network marketers that have been through the ringer, our self help group is our mastermind group.  To participate and really get something out of it you have to share some of yourself, something I have a hard time doing.  I have worked in this industry off and on for probably 20 yrs. I have had a little success along the way but never anything really great. I continue to struggle and have been asking why, now that I have a group to help me?

Well, I have not been sharing me. I listen but don't participate and still keep a little of me locked away,  My mastermind group has stuck by me all this time. Mentoring for Free is an amazing group that is always there.  Even when I take a vacation, they are there.  So this is me. I am a struggling network marketer dealing with negativity and looking for ways to combat it both in myself and my family.  I don't have all the answers, but I have information that I can share that can help people.  I have a belief in the system, in the business model.  I know this is the single best way for the average person like me to get more than social security and a gold watch, and be dependent on others for my well being when and if I can't care for myself.  I am scared silly of success, but know if I keep working with these people I will figure out why and be successful in spite of my fear.  I know I have something that is worthwhile that can help people. and I know that I am not the only one that feels this way.  I know that I can't do this alone and I need my friends.  I know I can love my negative friends and still love myself enough to honor my mind by limiting the negative talk that seems to happen around me.  I can say I am not interested in hearing about the awful things someone has done to someone else, I want to hear about ideas, not people.  I want to be inspired and inspiring and only positive thoughts can do that.

I still have some grudges, I still judge on occasion but catch myself much more now than I ever did before.  I am still struggling with my weight and get defensive when I hear other well meaning people tell me what I need to do to lose weight.  They are right, but it hurts to hear it because I know they are right, and I haven't been able to do it. I am still scared... in spite of my fear, I have to do what I know is necessary. I just have to DO IT! (Take a look at the just  'do it' video) I know I have to decide what I am to do with my life and take action to make it happen, in spite of my fears... yes I have more than one!

In spite of me and because of me, I know I will get where I want to go.  My belief may not be strong enough yet, yes I have doubts, but not in the system, in me.  I know using network marketing I will have the financial wealth I want and Mentoring for Free will prepare me for it if I don't give up and I won't...  I will own my life!

Network Marketing Skills - The myth of multi-tasking.... now is the secret to reaching your goals!

Is there such a thing as multi-tasking?  When we say we are doing several things at once, what are we really saying?  Can we physically, mentally do more than one thing  at a time?

If we are truly in the moment, living purposely and in the now... how can your attention be on more than one thing at a time!  You can only think one thing in any given moment, you can string a bunch of different ideas together but you can only have  one thought at one point in time.  The only reality is the instant you are living now, past and future are only memories and projections... they are not real.

This idea that multi-tasking is a myth, something I have been claiming to do all my life, really made me think and in an instant made me free!

I have been saying how I am not good at delayed gratification but really I am very good at it.  I dream of what I want in the future but since I can't have it today I continue to do what little I think I can to enjoy today.  I fondly remember the past and want to keep it alive but don't seem to move on.  The programming that I can only dream and not have any part of it now is still there.

It makes perfect sense.  Living in the now means I do what I can now to live my dreams.  The goals and dreams of the future need to live now in order to have life, we need to enjoy them in the now because now is what is real.

A long time ago I did an outward bound course in the Rocky Mountains.  I was 150 lbs over weight and not in great shape.  I loved to rock climb but only done it on a small scale.  Soon I was carrying the least amount of stuff and last to catch up.  All my energy was focused on right then, putting one foot in front of the other.  I had no money worries, no thoughts of relationships that weren't going the way I wanted them to, just that moment.  I loved every torturous minute of it and never felt more alive as I did on that trip.  I was focused on the now.

As an artist, when I am working and totally absorbed in the project, I am living in that moment.  Working on a project feels just like meditating. Think about the last time you were working on a project or doing something with a loved one and it felt like you and your loved one were the only ones on the planet, you are totally absorbed in the project or the person. Nothing else existed... you were in the now.

Living in the now means enjoying the moment.  Right NOW on this point in time I have all I need and life is perfect.  I can have what I imagine and can enjoy the dream now because if I imagine it now it is real.  It will come true because it exists NOW!

So next time you feel you are not getting what you want fast enough, think about what you are concentrating on. Are you dwelling on what you want from the standpoint of not being able to have it? Or are you celebrating the idea that you are living it, that you are one step closer and enjoying the journey.  Be appreciative of what you have now and look for ways to enjoy the moment. To use an old saying, take time to smell the roses and you will give your dream life and your life will be a dream!

Network Marketing - Why start a home based business? Why not!

Thinking of starting your own home based business, or joining a mlm?  You timing couldn't be better! History has shown that when the economy is reported to be less than perfect, people start looking outside the box to supplement their income. It is true that all we hear about is how bad the economy is but if you continue to do the same thing as you have been doing, nothing will change.  They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect your circumstances to change.  So if you keep doing what you have been doing and not seen any change, you need to do something different, like starting your own home based business!

I know what you are thinking... isn't this the worst possible time to start a new business or join some network marketing business, after all everyone is struggling. Who is going to want to invest in a business or buy from you? If you are thinking about a change BECAUSE of this, chances are other people are too. More people are using the internet to do business and online sales are increasing. Truth is, any time is the best time to start a network marketing business and times of economic stress are even better.  The best time to invest in yourself and a business is now, and now is the time to make yourself financially free!

Some facts about network marketing.....

Many network marketing businesses require small investments compared to the traditional brick and mortar businesses. A traditional business venture is many times out of the average working mans reach.  Many home based network marketing opportunities are well within most peoples budgets.

While you must invest time and work the business, you can run a home based business on a part time basis and still make it a success. It requires little space and can be run from home, no fancy outside office space required. The traditional business usually also requires you to be tied down to a specific schedule and to be there on a full time basis. If your doors are shut you make no money, with an online business your doors can be open while you are somewhere else doing something else!

Listen to this short video about why this is the best time for women to start a home based business!

Traditional business is dependent on local needs, but an Internet business is global.  If your town is not doing well, chances are another place is doing better and you can market your product there, as well as hundreds or thousands of places more!  Your reach is everywhere and anybody.

Think about it, you have been working for someone else making them wealthy for years, sometimes decades. Isn't it time you did the same for yourself?  You have been networking ever since you were old enough to talk and tell friend about the newest best movie or pair of jeans you just bought, and not been reimbursed for the endorsement!  Isn't it about time you got paid for recommending a great product you found useful?  That is network marketing!

And finally, one of the best reasons for starting a home based business is all of the people you can help.  Many are in the same or worse shape as you are, and learning to lead them to a better place as you learn to get there yourself is the best pay of all!

So make a change, and make yourself financially free. It isn't get rich quick, but is is work that is fun and lucrative, and anyone can do it.  So join the ranks of the entrepreneur. You will find it rewarding both financially and personally.

MLM Networking - A personal development program with a pay plan built in!

The best definition of a network marketing business is that it is a personal development program with a built in pay plan!  Without the personal development,  most of us can keep a business prospering and growing much less build it in the first place.  If you don't grow into the responsible leader you need to be when success finds you, you will not keep it!

Think about it, when you were a kid, learning to ride a bike, you had to learn judgement as well as the mechanics of steering and balancing on the bike. You didn't just get on and ride first thing. And when you had that down your parents probably had rules, no riding in the street when you were really young, because your judgement was not up to your skills, you couldn't judge how to safely ride with the possible traffic that could come your way. They kept you on less busy streets at first, until they were sure you knew to look both ways before crossing and you were better at judging what kind of terrain you could handle without losing control. You didn't throw off  the training wheels and venture out onto a well traveled road!  Your pay plan then was the added Independence as you matured and learned how to handle the bike!

So don't forget the important homework:

•   Read uplifting, self development books like Napoleon Hill's 'Think and Grow Rich",  "The strangest secret" by Earl Nightingale Conant, or "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"  by Stephen Covey (personal effectiveness).  
•    Find a mastermind group to keep you focused.  The more time you spend around the people you want to become the better off you are.  
•    Write down your goals and update them regularly.  Put pictures up to keep them foremost in your thoughts and keep your energy up.  
•    Develop a self talk to teach your ego, your subconscious mind what you want it to work on.  The old saying 'garbage in, garbage out!'  If you want the good stuff, you have to feed good stuff to your brain. 
•    Take your advice from experts, be a critical thinker and check out the people you are getting advice from.   If you are working on growing a business, you want to make sure the people that you are getting the advice from someone that has been there, not just someone that wants your money! Make sure the mentors you are listening to have done the same things you are about to do.  You want to use them as an example, so make sure they are someone you want to follow.

So enjoy the ride!  This adventure should be fun as well as profitable.  If you aren't having fun you are doing it wrong.  The person you become is just as valuable as the business you will grow.  You can reinvent yourself, the old saying 'this is the first day of the rest of your life" is really true! Past is gone and today you have a clean slate, network marketing is probably the only business model that allows you to reinvent yourself while you make money and learn to grow a business.  So work on yourself first and the business will grow right along with you!

What do you need to do to be successful in an MLM?

Hundreds of people try to build a successful network marketing business, and fail.  Why do some make it and some not? Maybe we need to understand what the MLM business is BEFORE we go and sign up with some network marketing company.  You need to have a clear understanding of what you need to build a successful MLM from the beginning.

MLM, Multilevel marketing started with Mytinger’s and Casselberry’s new marketing plan for the Nutrilite company circa 1945. These guys developed a three-pronged approach... Use the products, share the products, and sponsor the folks who like the products.

A professional network marketer working an network marketing business understands that the components of a successful mlm business are:

 1.  A self-development program (with a pay plan attached)

 2.  It is a relationship not a selling business.

 3  There is a product referral program, a sponsoring program.

 4. You must participate in an auto ship program.

 5.  You use the products yourself.               

You need to be active in all five of these areas to be successful.  If you are struggling, find a mentor and be accountable for doing what is needed to get what you want from your mlm. If that isn't your sponsor then find someone else that will be.   A mentor can be your lifeline to being accountable and to making sure you stay on track.  They should not be charging, there are too many out there that will help you for free.  Mentors can be the one thing that makes the difference.

MLM Networking - Inspiration and positive progaming is the key!

Most of us approach MLM network marketing from a traditional business point of view.  We focus on working the traditional way, from the outside... but to work smart means to work from the inside out!  We can do the mechanics, talk to potential clients, send out advertisements, and keep our books, but that isn't all you need to do to be successful. Ask yourself why do some do better than others when they are both doing the exact same thing with the exact same tools?  Why do some make it and some not, given the same opportunity and tools?  It is because of the work they do on the inside, it is because one group works on themselves and the other doesn't.

To be really successful is not supposed to be so hard!  The shortcut is sometimes called spiritual marketing. It is believing and really being emotionally in tune with yourself.  Some also call it attraction marketing.  You believe the tools will work, and you are ready to act when opportunity shows up.  The money, the clients, whatever you need to make it in what ever you are doing is there waiting for you to let it come to you, you just have to know how to attract it and be comfortable with your success enough to embrace it.

Consider this quote from Joe Vatali's book on 'Spiritual Marketing"...

“Spirit is substance which forms itself according to your demands, and must have a pattern from which to work.  A pan of dough is as willing to be formed into bread as biscuit. It makes as little difference to Spirit what we demand.”
--  Frances Larimer Warner,
Our Invisible Supply: Part One, 1907

There is a lot of opinions on what to do to make yourself successful in business, but if you are successful in your personal life, you can't help to be successful in business.  If  you plant corn and Larkspur next to each other, both will grow. The soil will treat each one the same, even though one is healthy and the other is poison.  Your mind is the same, it doesn't discriminate between negative and positive, it will consider them both the same way, unless you actively take part in what is going in to your mind. Make more positive things go in and you will see and feel the difference.

There are many things you can to to tip the balance to positive. Consider these actions and see if you are doing them.

     • Reading....  it seems like all the people I have met that are wealthy spend some time every day reading, not romance novels but uplifting, self improvement books.
     • Mastermind group... they have a group of like minded people they can go to to brainstorm ideas. Some like in Napoleon Hill's book 'Think and Grow Rich" can be imagined, figures from history or your life that you admire and respect, or people that are real that you get together with on a regular basis to help inspire each other, not necessarily in the same business but with the same mindset.
     • Your are being programmed whether you are aware of it or not... Control the programming.  Stay away from people who want to steal your dreams.  Don't allow negative people around you as much as you can. Sometimes you can't avoid them, at work or at home, but you can give yourself more positive than negative by refusing delivery, by putting more positive in your head so that the negative won't fit.
     • Make yourself up a positive self talk, one that will take the place of all the negativity that we encounter. Make it easy to remember and repeat it out loud and to yourself whenever you can.  Turn off the radio in the car and listen to your thoughts instead.  Think positive, talk positive and positive things will happen for you.
     • Turn off the news, no violent, negative programs, or better yet no tv.  The news stations are sending you negative programming, gloom and doom, and yet the sky hasn't fallen yet, has it! Give it a try for at least 30 days and you will be amazed.
     • Seek out positive videos and audios, put them on your mp3 player and instead of looking at magazines and their ads, listen to them while you wait at the doctors or when picking up your kids, anywhere you have to wait and be idle. Turn off the radio and listen to your mind instead.  You will be surprised what you hear. Fill you head with positive possibilities and watch them come to you!
     • Helping others will always help you as well. Remember Zig Ziggler's quote,"If you help others get what they want, then you will get what you want".  Running your business without an agenda, that is with the thought in mind that you are going to help someone without expecting anything in return, will have a great positive effect on your business. Do this and you will be surprised how much of it will come back to you.  Think of it this way, when you give to anyone or anything, you are giving to the universe, and the universe will give back to you.

These are just a few things that you can put into practice that will make a difference. Give yourself  30 days, invest in yourself and you will not be sorry. You will be a superstar and when your success happens, you will be ready to embrace it!

Optimized MLM Leads - The best way to find them and keep them!

Lead generation can be a real bear!  When asking people what their biggest struggles are, they almost always say finding people to talk to, finding MLM LEADS. 

Generating leads should be easy, and fun!  If you are struggling, you are not working smart, you are working hard. .

There are many ways to generate MLM leads. You can generate them offline, the old fashioned way or you can generate them online, the easy and fun way.

Generating MLM leads offline is,the old way to get them, it is hard and filled with rejection. These leads are found by:

• Making a list, friends and family, very much not targeted and a warm market.
• talking to people on the street, people you meet at the grocery store, the laundry mat, anywere else you go as you run your errands through out the day, a very cold market!
• buying leads, mostly scams and working hard and making money for the lead generation company, many times the same people that recruited you in the first place to that great MLM!
• buying booth at trade shows and flea markets, can be really expensive, again a COLD market and not targeted at all.
• postcards and other direct mail. Really expensive and really random, not targeted.

While these strategies have worked in the past by a select few, they don't work well for the majority of the people that get into network marketing.  If it did, the dropout rate wouldn't be at 90% on an average!  Truth is most of us just don't have that salesman talent to convince someone that network marketing is the way to go to make money working from home, and then to 'sell' them on our particular company.  Most of us also don't have the ability to keep doing that so that as our 'sold' leads drop out because they can't do this, we can replace them with new associates.  The old way of selling your leads on your opportunity will not give most of us the success we are looking for.

Using the 'age way' of generating leads online is the way to go. It eliminates most of the problems you have doing it the old way, if you do it properly.

A modern MLM company needs to use the internet, it is the level playing field for all of us to find TARGETED OPTIMIZED LEADS for our organizations.  This way we make our own warm market, and ensure that we are talking to people that are already interested in Network Marketing, and already wanting to talk to us about what we are doing.  Remember that network marketing is a relationship business, not a sales business. Don't try to sell your leads like they were marks, make them your friends.  Give them reasons to like and trust you, and them tell them what your are doing. but always with their best interests in mind. Zig Ziggler's famous quote, "if you help enough people to get what they want, you will get what you want" is especially true in this business.

Finding leads online doesn't mean paying for them, it means attracting them to you.  Here are a few ways you can do this:

•  The social networks, a great place to let everyone know what you are doing and invite them to check out what you have to offer.  For the most part it is free advertising, and a great way to make friends first.
• Safelists.  A great way to share your company with like minded people. 
• Articles and blogs. There are many free places that you can post articles. Blogs are just a string of articles and ideas in one place. You can pay for a self hosted blog or use on like this, both will help to get the word out and show others what you can do for them.
• Traffic exchanges are also a free way to advertise. They take more time than some and it really is a matter of getting your ad or webpage out there consistently so people seeing it will start to find it familiar and stop to see what it is.
• Commenting on other peoples articles and blogs. One of the most important things you need to do is brand your self, get your name out there so people relate you with an authority on network marketing. Your comments can create links that will help the articles and blogs you write get noticed and the people you comment on will appreciate it and many times comment on your articles as well. This give you a more favorable rating and gets your pages found much easier.  More exposure, more interested people in what you are doing. You will be recognized and more sought out by OPTIMEZED TARGETED LEADS.

These are just a few of the ways you can make your search for like minded people much easier and more fun. It is a great way to expand and give you a never ending stream of targeted leads to talk to. The way to the steady walk away income is to find associates that will stay and grow with you.  The more you retain, the easier your task will be and the more successful you will be in making network marketing work.  The old way is out, the new way is in and working. Try it, you will like it!

NOTE:   Finding a system to help you and give you guidence will be a great asset.  Find a mastermind group that can help show you the pitfalls and keep you from making the same mistakes they have will be a great help as well.  There are many such groups out there and most will want you to pay for the information.  While it is information you need, it need not cost you.  I found a group called Mentoring for Free that teaches you jus thow to do it and it is totally free. They will coach you and help you to weed out the expensive methods and how to apply the free ones so that you get all you can out of your efforts. They are teaching me to work smart, not hard, and I am having fun?  Want proof, the people I am working with have a retention rate of  65% up to even 90% by one mentor, that is opposed to the 10% the industry averages. They must be doing something right! .

MLM Work From Home - Avoid the pitfalls to be a success at MLM network marketing

You have a business opportunity and boy are you excited!  You dream of all the great things that will happen when you are successful with your MLM work from home opportunity and you are up and positive and eager to get going.  So you start talking to people.

Pitfall #1      Your sponsor tells you to make a list of everyone you have ever known, family, friends, the mailman, your pastor, and anyone else you know by name.  You are excited and think all these people, including your closest friends will want to be in it with you. You are doing them a favor by inviting them in to this mlm opportunity with you.   After all you are going to be rich and you want to take your family and best friends with you.  But somehow they all one by one aren't interested, and some are actually offended you even asked!  What happened?  They have no interest in network marketing MLM.  Some even laugh, to some it is a pyramid scheme, some just don't want to work, and many don't want their own business!  DON'T BOTHER FAMILY AND FRIENDS WITH THIS NEW BUSINESS, WAIT TILL YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL, THEN LET THEM ASK YOU WHAT YOU ARE DOING.  Now you have a receptive audience to talk to.  Don't try to sell apples to someone that hates them and prefers oranges.  Don't take it personally, they just don't get it yet, and may never get it.  Don't get stuck on them.

Pitfall #2      You've used your friends and family up, no one left to talk to, but you are still all excited. You need leads!  You are going to be just like that person they told you about that replaced their income in 3 months and quit the job and took off for an island vacation in the Caribean for a couple of months.  Your sponsor or your company has leads for sale, the better they are the more expensive they are, some are opportunity seekers that inquired about your company, these are gold!  For the company and your sponsor that is.  What you don't know is they are making more money from the sale of leads than from network marketing.  If the leads are so great, why don't they use them themselves?  You are your best lead source.   There are many  free or nearly free sources for leads that are optimized and targeted for a MLM work at home business.  You need a lead generation system that you control and can use to find and keep track of people that want to talk to you about MLM.  DON'T BUY LEADS!  They do not work.

Ptfall #3      So now what.  You aren't quite as excited, you have been told no many times, and yes very few sometimes not at all. How do you keep that enthusiasum going?  This is where alot of people quit before they even get started.  Get hooked up with a mastermind group.  What is that?  It is a group of like minded people, not necessarily in your company, but interested and successful in the MLM work from home industry.  Find a mentor, someone that has your best interests at heart, ABOVE THEIRS!  Getting hooked up with a group like this will hold you up through the difficult times when things just aren't going the way you want them to.  You can't build a MLM business all by yourself. DON'T TRY TO DO THIS BUSINESS ON YOUR OWN.  Take advantage of others experience and learn from thier mistakes!  Become a student of the industry  Take the time to build it strong, and build it once, build it right. Build it for your children and your children's children.  It is a great business, and you can do it with the right tools and encouragement.

Pitfall #4     Your company has the greatest products, they are going to cure the world of disease, or replace the utility company at a fraction of the cost, ect...   Every company has great products or they don't stay in business.  You are looking for a way to make money, if you love the product, great!  You can always buy it when you have your business up and growing.  Take a look at the comp plan and the policies and procedures, and know what you have to do to make money.  DON'T  JUMP IN UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT THE OPPORTUNITY IS.  How many people do you need to make 10,000 a month from residual income?  Does the company have a non renewal clause, that is can they cancel your contract and in effect 'fire you' if they want to down the road?  You don't want to build something that can be taken away once you have that walk away income.  Listen to this audio if you want to safegaurd yourself against this ever happening to you.

With the birth of the internet, we have instant information, but we have to pay attention to where the information we find is coming from. There are so many promises made in the name of MLM that it can be hard to seperate the truth from the hype.  Become a student of the industry and find out what you need to know to protect yourself and make the correct decisions to safegaurd your business and future.  If you were buying any other kind of business, you would take the time to investigate the industry, You would talk to people that were successful in what ever you are going into to see just what they had to do to get there. Do the same with your search for and MLM work from home opportuinity.  I found Mentoring for Free. They do just that, mentor for free with no agenda. You need to find a group like this to learn from and lean on.  It takes a mastermind group to be successful with network marketing.  Find your group of like minded people and find what inspires you to keep you going when the going gets tough, learn about the business you are or have entered to avoid the pitfalls and you will succeed in network marketing.

Home Business MLM - What does it take to be successful? What questions should you be asking?

  You want to make extra money, and you hear the buzz about home business MLM and wonder if it is for you?  What do you have to do to make money?  So much information out there, how do you know what to believe and what to look for in a company?

I bet you have asked yourself all these questions and more. There are so many choices it can be hard to choose what to do.  Think about it, if you are going to open a hardware store. would you not want to investigate how to run the store?  Would you find out what you have to invest and what your chances for success are before you buy the store?

It is the same with starting a home business MLM.  There are hundreds even thousands of companies out there to choose from and you need to get some education before you invest in one.  Yes, it is an investment just like any other business.  If someone is telling you can make money without investing in the business, they are a scam.  By the same token, you shouldn't have to put up thousands of dollars up front just to join.  There are plenty of opportunities out there where you can start at minimal cost if you need to.  Most legitimate companies offer several ways to join and make money. Here are some tips to keep you from losing instead of making money.

    •  Get some education.  There are plenty of places that will make you pay for the information but it is readily available for free.  A group called Mentoring for Free will help you to learn the ropes. They have helped many people to be successful in a home business MLM.  Read and think about what you read, take a look at the source of the article or website. Does this person want you to buy his cd that will tell you just what to do... and has he or she built a MLM business, or do they make their money selling the cd's and workshops?  A very good question!

   •  Make sure they have a legitimate product.  If the only money made comes from sponsoring someone, it is not legal.  You may be able to make money for a while, but sooner or later the government will shut it down and you run the risk of  going to jail.  YES JAIL!   Gifting programs are never legal no matter what they say.  If you give money to someone, that is fine, but if you expect and/or get money back as a result, it is illegal.  RUN, DON"T WALK AWAY!

   •  The product needs to be value priced, that is it should be something you would buy even if there were no business attached to it. If you are paying a hundreds of dollars for a product you can get for a few dollars anywhere else, how can you make money from the product? If the company can't make money from selling the product, your only customers will be the people you sponsor.  Check on ebay and or Craigs list, see what it costs there. If you can get it for pennies on the dollar compared to the MLM companies price, you will have a problem.  Would you be a customer if you weren't supposed to make money from this company?  Money needs to come from products, not from someone signing up.  Retail sales will give you a good foundation and this will make residual income, one of the really great perks that only home based MLM businesses can offer.  Customers and business partners alike will purchase over and over, this will build a stable business for you.

   •  Don't fall into the easy money trap.  Lots of offers out them appeal to the person that want instant gratification.  Join this company, we will build your down line for you!  No product to sell, no recruiting, make money the easy way!   So where does the money come from if no one is selling a product, no one is paying to sign up, and no one is recruiting a down line?  What good does it do you to have a hundred people that have signed up for your 'free' mall if no one buys anything. (and few do since it is easier to go straight to the stores website and buy there)  And when they do you make so little that to have any income at all, you have to have hundred of people buying at the same time to get a check.

   •  Most of the MLM's that fail do so in the first 3 years.  According to MLM Watchdog,  Less than a year old the survival rate is less than 10%.  One year to two the survival rate is 30%.  Year two to three the rate is 50%.  Over three years the survival rate jumps up to over 70%.  If  a company is new, a 'ground floor' opportunity, it hasn't proved itself in the market yet.  You run the very real risk of building an income that will be pulled out from under you and not be the company you can literally retire from and keep your checks coming.  You want the company to have time to work the bugs out before you invest your time and money into it.

   •  Who are the founders, the people running the show.  Do they have a track record in the industry... have they started other companies and every couple of years fold up and start new?  Have they EVER built an MLM business down line and worked a network marketing business before, or did they just want to jump on the bandwagon and make themselves a quick buck.  Even someone who it sincere, without the experience in MLM.  Find ceo's with integrity and experience.

   •  Expect to invest some time working the business.  You should be able to make money working part time, an hour or two a day.  Granted the more hours you put in the faster your business will grow but most people that do this are starting part time while working their full time job.  Anyone that tells you you can just sponsor 1 or 2 people then sit back and wait for the profits are just in it for the sign up, they are recruiting and once you sign up, you will never get help from them again and you will do just that, wait for the money that never comes.  A true opportunity will require a sustained effort at first. The idea is to work in the beginning building a solid foundation so that once you build it big enough, you can walk away and still make money.  In this day of pensions going broke, a solid built MLM business can be your retirement and your legacy, something you can pass off to your kids and they to their kids.

These are just a few of the considerations that you need to think about.  Getting that education will show you just what you need to watch out for.  Find a mentor and a mastermind group of like minded people to talk with and learn from.  They have been there already and you can learn from their mistakes.  Don't buy leads or invest without doing the homework.  Operating a home based MLM business is the greatest adventure and the best chance for most of us to be financially free.  The personal growth and the camaraderie you get from joining with the right group of like minded people all working towards the same goal is the biggest rush you can ever have.   I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.  You can be successful with the right tools and the right support. I believe in you!

MLM Networking - How to make your business from home flourish and last

MLM Networking is a fun and lucrative way to make money from home, and anyone can be successful in it once you understand how it works. It is one of the only business models where everyone is on a level playing field, doctors, lawyers, schoolteachers, housewives, even students all start in the same place, learning the same principals and with the same chances of success.

Consider this quote...

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
                                             - Anais Nin

What a great idea! Just think, network marketing is a relationship business and each person you sponsor in your business is a new world (their own business center), yet part of the group ( part of your group volume so part of your business)! If you think of it without the money, they really are adding a whole new world to yours, expanding your universe in ways you can't yet see. What a great present... If you think of it like this, you really do take yourself out of the equation and will be able to help them more effectively.

So want to see your business really shine, want to have a retention rate of 50% or more... don't sponsor people, make friends, find out how to help them, and in doing that you will be helping yourself.

Network marketing is a great business but so many treat it like a sales business, and once someone is sold, they become a customer, a number. Make sure you aren't selling, develop relationships instead.

I have heard the saying 'a stranger is just a friend I haven't met yet', think of your leads the same way. Find people with something in common, that being the desire to start a home business, and ideally someone wanting to do network marketing. They are your optimized targeted leads. They will become your best friends.

If you utilize this philosophy, you will successful in more ways than one. You will be a great leader, and a great friend.  You will be financially free and a role model for your children, you will truly own your life.

MLM Work From Home - Network Marketing instead of a second job

The biggest challenge in working a MLM business from home for me is being able to devote a block of time without interruptions to concentrate on my business.  Working from home has a unique set of challenges.  Family and friends sometimes don't seem to treat this as a real 'job' and your time is fair game.  They will interrupt you while working at home where they wouldn't dream of disturbing you if you were in another place working for someone else.  You have to make them understand and be determined to make this time as important to you and everyone else as it would be if you were going off to work.  After all you are working for yourself, isn't your business worth as much as someone esle's business?   Maybe more?

Working an MLM business can provide much more financial security than any other kind of job or brick and mortar business in a much shorter time, if it is worked correctly.  Luck has nothing to do with it, knowledge does. Make yourself a student of the industry. If you wanted to be a brain surgeon, wouldn't you go to school to learn the trade?  Even McDonalds has it's Hamburger University!

MLM is a business that can be marketed in several ways.  The old model says make a list of friends and family and get as many people in your living room or a hotel room as you can.  Talk to your warm market, and go back in your memory and look up as many people as you can to fill those rooms.  How many of you have tried this, only to have friends and family reject and sometimes laugh at your efforts, until you quit out of frustration. These days we have the Internet and if you learn how to use it, it can be a great source of finding optimized targeted leads that already want to work an MLM business.

There are many strategies both online and offline that will allow us to work from home and make the dream come true.  When you start your MLM don't just concentrate on the company and its products. Think about the  marketing system you will use because the process you apply for attracting and enrolling future partners needs to allow your personality to come out and be duplicatable for your clients joining you in your business. There are many different ways, and they are forever changing and evolving, so you will never run out of ways to advertise online. These new and improved strategies have only just started and will continue to generate fortunes for people that can understand and are able to use the power of the Internet.

What happens invariably with offline strategies is that unless you are a heavy hitter with a great influential circle, you will struggle with the friends and family because when you have exhausted your circle of friends and acquaintances, which for 90% of people out there is very limited, you are left with a cold market.  You first have to convince most of these people that a home business is a good idea, and then sell them on MLM.  No wonder it is called a cold market! What happens most with this kind of lead source is you have to have thousands of them to find one, and spend hundreds of dollars doing it.  A very expensive way to find people to talk to.

A good marketing system be easily duplicated and easy to implement. It should be inexpensive or free and give you a way to track your results.  It should be one that finds people that ALREADY WANT TO DO MLM.  It should make them want to talk to you. This in my book, is a whole lot better and easier than the old fashioned way of trying to convince others that don't have a clue about what we are trying to do!

 A Note:  Mentoring for Free is a free service that will help you learn how to advertize and find the system that fits you. Some MLM's have something already in place talored to the company, sometimes they will work well for you.  At Mentoring for Free there are experiences network marketers volunteering their time to help you out, and show you how to do things without getting caught spending money on worthless lead sources, and show you how to find your own optimized, targeted leads.  

Optimized MLM Leads - Don't get scamed buying leads!

Optimized MLM leads are leads that have shown interest in what you are doing, in Network Marketing they would have expressed interest in making money from home. The more specific the interest the better the online mlm lead. There are lead companies galore that will tell you they generate the best leads, that the people they are selling you are hot on the trail of building a network marketing business and prove it by making you pay top dollar for them. But what are you really getting?

They are giving you garbage and building their lists at the same time. Buying mlm leads from most of them means you will end up on someone else's list and if you call the leads, provided they give you real phone numbers, you will find them very neutral at best to ice cold and uninterested. Buying leads is a scam and totally unnecessary. You can find your own mlm opportunity leads at little or no expense and they WILL BE OPTIMIZED and TARGETED for your business!

First to get your own targeted optimized leads, you need to brand yourself. Put your name out there by starting a blog and learn to write your own articles. There are lots of free places to do this, and when you are more skilled you can get a self hosted site. Google likes Blogger and that is a good place to start. (I don't get anything from saying this!) Just put in a search for articles and blogs and you will see many results, find one that suits you. There are also many places that can give you good advice on how to write them.  You should write about something you are passionate about, use your knowledge to create something of value for the reader so they return to you. You are the expert.

My good friend and mentor Michael Dlouhy, author of "Success in 10 Steps"  is an expert on generating targeted mlm leads. Listen to what he has to say about buying leads...

You will need links to your articles, blogs and websites. Backlinks are important and easy to do. Get your self on facebook, linkedIn, twitter and any other social network you can find. You can use a multiple posting program like Onlywire to post to all of them at once. You don't have to write a book, just what you are thinking, a great saying you came across, good advice from someone (make sure you credit anyone quoted) or a thought for the day that would be uplifting and positive. All of this will help you to be branded, to get your name out there and support your blogs, articles and websites.

Make sure there is a way for readers to leave comments. Getting a conversation going is a great way to keep someone listening and reading. If you are giving them something of value they will want to come back and will want to know more about what you do. Now you have them asking you for information about your business!

Safelists take a little more time but are also effective. They are a way to share by looking at other peoples websites or ads. All are a little different in that some will require you to look at more ads than others but those that are struggling are looking at the ads, you can fly through them to optimize your time. All are free or you can join them, but first try them out for free to see how they work for you. I haven't joined any of them and have success. I track them so I know what I have, and if one is not performing like I want I just replace it with another.

Pay per click can be effective but beware, there is a cost. You will get a first $75 or $100 credit to try it, and by all means take advantage of that but when you start paying you can end up with a large bill if you aren't careful. Get some expert advice before diving in to pay per click so you don't end up emptying your bank account. There you MUST track your results to pay the least amount of money for your leads.

So stop buying mlm leads and start generating your own. There is a ton of information out there. This is called Attraction Marketing and you can do it mostly for free, and get better quality people to talk to as well. If you are looking for a lead generation system to help keep track of them, look into Mentoring for Free. They also have a great library of teaching audios and videos on how to get your own leads.

Be a critical thinker. If you see an opportunity for buying mlm leads, find out something about who is selling them, you may find the very people that are suggesting it are profiting from them as well. Google the name, research the company, and know what you are paying for. You will find it just won't be worth it and you will be happier and a lot less broke if you go get your own targeted mlm leads.

Getting qualified leads for your network marketing business - get a system to help you.

  

Want to be so busy, you
need an extra hand?

  When I ask people what is the biggest  challenge in working their network             marketing business, they almost always say they need to know how to get people to    talk to, and     then what do they say.  This isn't as difficult as it sounds.

  If you are working on your own, no direction, no mentor, and no system for getting   leads you are going to fail.  You need a system to get those qualified leads to talk to   and it needs to provide information and a good auto responder that will make it   sound like you personally sent that message, and a library of responses that are sent   as soon as the client shows interest.

  The best systems will find people that are already interested in network marketing. You don't want to have to convince anyone that the business model is a good one, spend your time with people that are already wanting to find what you have.

First, Promote yourself!  Learn how to brand yourself so when someone sees your name it is one they associate with your business, or with network marketing in general. That way you are looked on as a professional, a real leader.

Use a something free, some free info so when someone comes to you for help, they get something of  VALUE without being asked for money.  People join people and you want them to want to join you in whatever you are doing, because you are successful, and they want to be like you!

If you use these basic guidelines to find a system and a mentor to show you how, you should be looking like the guy in the cartoon, and you will be successful. 

Getting leads for your mlm - Network Marketing is a relationship business, not a sales business

Ever feel like a salesman when you are talking to someone about your network marketing business? BIG MISTAKE! You shouldn't have to sell anyone on network marketing, instead learn to target people that already believe in the business model, and forget being the salesman, be a friend instead. Network marketing is not a sales business, it is a relationship business. No one should be looking at you with this kind of expression if you build the relationship first!

Doing network marketing should be fun!  If you do it right, you will want to get on the phone to call perspective customers and business partners alike, and they will talk to you, because you are giving them a service. You are providing them with information that they want to hear. You are helping them out.

How do you do this?  You set up your advertisements so that those that are wanting help with network marketing will search for you. Use keywords that talk about helping and coaching, targeted leads and finding success in network marketing. Find a system that doesn't use the sales pitch but is designed to teach your people about how to do the business. The quest for knowledge will bring them to you. 

Nobody wants to be sold. Nobody wants to be a 'mark', but everyone wants to make new friends.  And when someone is struggling, they want someone to help them, not sell them. A small change in attitude and agenda will make all the difference in the way you talk to your prospects.  Make it a point to get the money out of the equation, make it about them, not about you. If you can do this, you will find success in more ways than one.

There are many benefits to doing network marketing.

There are many benefits to doing network marketing.  It is the only level playing field, that is no matter who you are, how old you are or what you have done in the past, all have the same chance to really make it. It is the only business model that can be done by anyone at anytime!  Here are some of the advantages of doing network marketing.

MAKE MORE MONEY

When you work for someone you are trading time for money, the only way to make more is to get a raise, or work more hours.  MLM does not have the same limitations. You can earn money when you are on vacation! Once you build the business, you can be doing something else and your team makes money without you even being there. How would you like to get paid for having fun!

WORK WHEN YOU WANT TO

You can make your own hours, work when you want to. You do have to put in the time, but you can arrange it any way you like. If you have job, you have to take off when they say you can, and in an emergency you risk not keeping the job or reduced earnings. Network marketing is not this way, you have to work, but you decide the schedule.

NO BOSS

If you are working for a company, you have someone over you that tells you what to do, when to work, when to take a break, and how many hours you must work. If you are working for yourself in network marketing, you decide these things, you have no boss except yourself and your ambition. You decide how many hours you need to complete a task and what to direct your energies on. You are the boss.

YOU CAN GROW AS A PERSON

Marketing has alot to do with personal growth. Taking responsibility for your business almost forces you to grow as a person.  You have the chance to see just what you can do, gain confidence, learn communication skills and teach others to do the same.  You become a leader. 

There are many advantages to working with a network marketing company. If you need help looking for a company there are people that can help you. Look for someone that has done it, that has a system in place to teach you as you grow, that you can use with the people you bring in to the business.  Don't jump into the first one you see, be selective.  Network marketing is an exciting business and you can make much more money than you can in a 9 to 5 job.  Find a mentor to keep you from the pitfalls, the scams and con artists.  It is a great way to make a living and to make difference in others lives.

Without support and the proper training, you can't hope to be as successful as someone who is being trained and supported by experts in the field.

Have you ever felt like you were drowning and no one was around to pull you out?  If you are trying to make a success of a network marketing business and doing it on your own, you may identify with this guy.  Trying to work a home based business by yourself is really difficult. Without support and the proper training, you can't hope to be as successful as someone who is being trained and supported by experts in the field. If you  fit this description and are failing, I can promise you YOUR FAILURE SO FAR IS NOT YOUR FAULT!

You need a support system to succeed and the proper training you or are most likely to be part of the 90% that traditionally don't succeed in network marketing. 

Here are some recent numbers I think are pretty astonishing. My group is part of a pretty good-size network market1ng company. Our team uses the "Success In 10 Steps" E-book by Michael Dlouhy to find prospects, and others in the company use other means.

Our team brought in 62% of the company's new business for the month of April.
- 82% of the company's new business for May.
- 85% of the company's new business for June.

My mentors have a 60% to even 90% RETENTION RATE! That is the same as the dropout rate of those that don't succeed using the traditional methods, our success rate is the same as the average failure rate!

"Success In 10 Steps" is generic. No companies or products are mentioned. No affiliate links are included. The point of the E-book is to find the Warriors in M-L-M, and to help you connect with them. This is a very effective system.

The traditional way is to make a list of friends and family, and call them to try to get them to a meeting to hear your 'plan'. The trouble with this is you are probably talking to people that don't have an interest in network marketing or even working a home based business! You have to work to get them to just listen to the idea of making money from a network marketing business. We say leave your friends and family alone! These guys are showing me how to find people already wanting to work a home based business. I skip this step completely, the people I talk to want to hear what I have to say!

It is a great ride, and fun since I am talking to others excited about the concept of network marketing. I don't have to get them excited about network marketing first, instead I talk to people looking for a way to make money from home, and I teach them how to think critically about the offers and opportunities out there.  

I didn't have success before but I am now and it is exciting. I am looking forward to being able to work my business and make my art when I want to. I am that much closer to owning my life, are you?