Network Marketing - Are We Still a Land of Opportunity?

I just happened to hear a blurb on tv that a couple of our politicians were questioning the ability of people that have less than ideal situations growing up to rise above their beginnings and make a life for themselves. Our country has been called the 'land of opportunity' ever since I can remember. It was more important what you did with what you had than where you started from. The journey was the thing and the prize was getting there and starting your next great journey!

It would be a sad place to be if you were destined to be what you started with. I was not impoverished or terribly mistreated as a child but I still struggle with a lot of things internally. I have an internal 'life should be fair' monitor and even though I know that a lot of time it doesn't look that way I believe it usually is. We make choices every day that determine our outcome later in life, most are small things but they all add up to what we have and where we are now.  I always loved seeing the stories where someone gets to do a 'do-over' and see if they can make a better outcome if they just did or said something different. We can' t do that in real life but if we just paused for a second to consider what we are about to do or say, it could make the biggest difference down the road.

I believe this IS the land of opportunity, we have the ability to make great changes in small ways.  One kind word to someone that is not being considerate could make his or her change their attitude just enough to not say the next cross word to someone that is at the end of their rope, and instead of a fight they can do the same to calm someone else, and the chain reaction would continue to be positive, not negative.  Just one kind word can really make a difference to someone ready to take a desperate act. If the right words would have reached that horribly disturbed boy that killed all those kids at Sandy Hook, would they still be here?  I don't know but isn't it worth the effort to choose being kind over being right? We know what happens when you leave someone alone that is unhappy, never is the outcome good. Isn't it worth the chance to make the effort to let then know as soon as you notice them that they have options other than striking with in thier pain  before they reach that horrible end?

I know it is idealist thinking. So I am an idealist. I think that anyone can change their life for the good, and network marketing is the one place where anyone can make it with a little effort and the right support system to aid them. I used Mentoring for Free, because of the personal developement attached but you can use whatever resource you find to help you. But you need help and support to make it. A good idea can either die without ever getting off the ground, or can be improved on and be brought to the world to make a great change, maybe all someone needs is a little encouragement to believe they can do it! Just one kind word can turn a decision to do good or bad.

As a network marketer you have a tool that can really change lives, but you do it by making relationships. Your 'prospect' most likely needs to believe he or she can do it! Most of us are greatly lacking the belief in ourselves more than anything, so that once the excitement wears down and we are met with obstacles we have the belief in ourselves to continue. Many people stop just short of the gold, if we just would have gone one to dig a few more feet, we would have found what we were looking for. If we don't every quit we will get there.

So help someone to believe in themselves and you will have a star. They will go on and you will both prosper. Remember Zig Zigler's famous quote, 'If you help other get what they want, you will get what you want'. It is true, the way to pay your bills or get that trip you want to win is to help someone else to do the same, your problems will disappear along with the people you help.The land of opportunity is here, and it lives in you and me, in our willingness to help and support each other.

Network Marketing - What is Network Marketing?

Bet you have heard "I don't want to do 'network marketing', that is an illegal pyramid! Or I can't sell stuff, or I don't know anyone that makes money at that! There are so many incorrect ideas about this industry that it can be difficult for the person new to the industry. But when it comes down to it, WE ALL DO NETWORK MARKETING, SOME OF US JUST DON'T GET PAID FOR IT!

 So, just what is Network Marketing?!

Network marketing is just promoting and recommending products and services that you like to other people.  We have been doing this since about age 5, when we told a friend what kind of candy to get our parents to buy or what tv show to see. Network marketing is just doing something right one time, and getting paid for it over and over again. J K Rowling, wrote her Harry Potter series of books once, did it right and now gets paid for it when other people promote the books and movies. If you told anyone about the last movie you saw and told them to see it too, you were promoting the movie for the actors, directors and writers that made it. Did you get a check in the mail for you help?  Of course not, BUT YOU WERE DOING NETWORK MARKETING, YOU JUST WEREN'T GETTING PAID FOR IT!  If you explain it to people properly, they will see and understand the concept and can't help wanting to get involved!

Pyramid you say... how about this picture.  The large corporation has the owner at the top. the ceo and his secretary under him, department managers under him, more department heads under each to those, more employees under them and so on.  Familiar shape isn't it?

Use stories to tell people what you want them to understand, with a story they will put themselves as the star character and see your point without you 'selling' them on it. Remember no one wants to be sold. You are building a relationship and you are teaching a marketing system to those that are unfamiliar with it.

Start with questions about them. The theme should be "How can I help you?", not how much can you spend so I can make money. Remember the old quote, help other people get what they want, and you will have everything you want!

I love this business, it is the only level playing field no matter what kind of education you have, what kind of background you come from, or what you have been doing for a living. A company CEO has the same chance that a grocery store clerk has or a construction worker, or a kid just out of college! We can all be successful and build an income with this business model no matter what our background or education, or financial situation.

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!

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.

Network marketing is the best second j-o-b!

Network Marketing is not only the best way to earn money with a business of your own but the only way that is a level playing field for ANYONE wanting to be financially free.  I have found no other business model that will allow anyone from the high school dropout to the finest scholar, the person who knows everyone or the person who knows no one, or even the one that has trouble doing presentations to the one that thrives in the spotlight. Blue collar, white collar, any collar are all equally qualified to do this business.  All it takes is being able to follow directions, to follow a proven system and ask questions when you need to and listen once you ask them.

I had it all wrong, I thought I had to be like those other recruiters, the ones that can sell snowballs in Alaska!  I tried to be like them, but I just was not them, and couldn't duplicate what they did.  Consequently I didn't have the success they told me I could.  When I asked for help, I got told talk to more people, make a bigger list of family and friends, 'close' them this way or that way.  But my friends and family didn't want to be 'closed' and I soon ran out of them.

Now I have fun.. I talk to people that want to talk to me.  I do what is natural to me, I am making friends and helping them to be successful, sometimes just helping them to be better people, NOT CLOSING THEM!  What a great way to make money... just doing what comes naturally, making friends and friends helping friends!  Anyone can do this that wants to, it just takes the desire,a system, the right team to support you and being yourself.

Want to find out more about starting a network marketing business that will give you more time to do what you want to do.... click here!

A new year is here and I am working on lots of things. This year is going to be focused on finally owning my life! I have been working on mlm companies for many years, switching from company to company when the last one didn't work or get too expensive with little success. But now have found a system called 'Mentoring for Free'! They are making all the difference.

They started out by saying my lack of success was not my fault... WHAT!? All the other companies and sponsors would lay it squarely on my shoulders when I asked why I wasn't prospering like they promised when I joined. Talk to more people, make your list of friends and family and add to it, talk to people at the grocery store, join more lead sources ( this was expensive). Mentoring for Free says, DON'T BOTHER YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY.... ? Here are low or no cost stratigies for talking to people already wanting to work a business from home, they already believe in the business model. WOW! What a difference!

Now I spend my time working with people that want to do what I do! I have mentors that take the time to help me find ways that FIT MY PERSONALITY and pocketbook to get my message to quality prospects. I get to help other people do the same, we are a family of like minded people working together to finally own our lives. It is fun and prosperous, and I want to get on the phone, because I am going to talk to people just like me and really make a difference.

To get your free mentor, click here!