Weekly Advertising Tip: Offline #1

I was on the fence as to what to write about this week. There are so many options, but I read a post this morning that gave me some new ideas, and I decided to go with some offline marketing tactics.

The article I was reading this morning was on 37 Ways to Re purpose a Single Blog Post. This was a good post, and it prompted me to think about how those older posts could be used offline. Particularly, the author mentions using those posts for a printed Home Business Newsletter. This is something that I plan to do in the near future. I even looked for newsletter templates, and Microsoft has plenty available right here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT010104328.aspx#

 If you have a decent color printer you should be able to get things started on your own. Once you find enough places to distribute your Home Business Newsletter, you may look into having them printed. For a single sheet, printed on both sides, then folded once to make a 4 page newsletter, you could reasonably expect no more than a few cents per copy at most print shops. 


Okay, I know what you're thinking. "Where could I distribute these?" Well I'm glad you asked... so to speak. Here are a few ideas of places you may find to place some copies of your Home Business Newsletter. First, look for any place that has a bulletin board. A magnetic clip of some sort, with a few copies fanned out, would be good use. What abotu the car wash or oil change place? Do they have magazines laid out? Maybe you could leave a few copies of your Home Business Newsletter lying around with the magazines. Same for the doctor's office or anywhere else with a waiting room.


Your public library may be another good place to check. They may have a place where you could leave some, and they may even know of other community resources that may be of benefit to you. I've heard of people inserting business cards into most of the books on business. The same could work here, but I cannot condone this activity.

There is always the option of blanketing parking lots or hanging them on front doors of houses, but these methods are not very effective.  Most of your newsletters will eventually find their way into the trash or storm drain. 


Be sure to have your contact info prominently displayed. Another consideration would be to allow a space on the back for a postage label. Now you are prepared for when people subscribe to your Home Business Newsletter. 


I would love to hear some other ideas you may have. If anyone has any other ideas for where to distribute their newsletters, please share in the comments section for all to read.

What is "Living Rich" - Rangy Gage

I first watched this video a few days ago, the day it was posted. I enjoyed it then, but as time has passed, it seems to have more of an impact. The more I think about it, the more I realize just how critical this is when working with your team.

What would "Live Rich" look like to you? Is ti fancy cars and exotic vacations, or simply having more time to spend with your family doing the things you enjoy? Maybe it's a combination of things. Whatever it is, grab onto that. But, what is more important is, what does it look like to your team? To your Prospects?

If you do not know what is motivating your team, then it is going to be almost impossible to help them effectively. Keep that in mind. You need ot make it your business to find out the "WHY" of everyone you work with so that you can really help them achieve it.

Now, sit back and listen to what Randy has to say on the topic.

MLM Tip: Facebook vs. Google+

LEEEEEET's GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLLLLLE!!!!

Can't we all just play nice? The animosity is growing by leaps and bounds. It seems that people are so entrenched in their competitive nature that they cannot just enjoy life. 

Be it Facebook vs. Google+, iPhone vs. Android, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, or PC vs. Mac, people tend to pick a side and are ready to go to war over it. 

Personally, I look at the emergence of g+ as yet another place to get to know people. I see no reason for it to be an either/or battle with Facebook. Facebook has been very good to me, and I expect to see great things from Google+ as well. 

All that being said, let's do a little compare and contrast between the two. The idea is not to determine a "winner", but rather to see the strengths in each platform so as to use them more effectively. 

The same rules apply on g+ as on Facebook. Blatant self promotion will get you nothing but ignored. You must interact with people and get to know them. If someone is interested enough in you to find out what you do, that person will be much more receptive than some stranger who sees your promotional links.

Now there are some distinct differences between the two platforms. Google+ follows the same no frills approach Google has always been known for. Plain white background and little to clutter the screen make it easy to focus on the task at hand. Facebook, on the other hand, has subscribed to the more is more, and more is still not enough method. They try to get as much info on a page as possible. This model typically works best for people who are not as technical and need everything right there within easy reach. I am a member at several other social sites that are such a jumbled mess I find it hard to be very critical of Facebook. 

The biggest difference, however, is the type of user at each site. While your mom, grandmother, friends from high school and everyone else are on Facebook, most have yet to venture over to g+. And, they likely never will. But, if you are into tech gadgets, photography, Star Wars or anything else Geek related, then Google+ is the place to be. 

These differences also cause most people to use them differently, myself included. Sure, there are a few shameless self promoters on there shouting about the next greatest money making program, but not nearly as many as with most other networks. 

The bottom line is, neither can be said to be better or worse. It is all a matter of how you use it. It's a little like arguing that a wrench is better than a hammer, or a comb is better than a toothbrush. They have different uses, and each does a good job in its respective area. 

In case you haven't noticed, this post is less about the difference in the two platforms and more about the "Big Deal" attitude. Many of the people now bashing Facebook are the same ones who bashed myspace in favor of Facebook back in the day. There is some sort of belief out there that, the latest and greatest is all that deserves our attention. Anything older is to be cast aside.

Have fun, experiment, and find what works for you. If you have any experiences or thoughts to share, feel free to do so in the comments section below.

Weekly Advertising Tip: Facebook

I had an interesting experience the other day. While surfing on Sweeva, I noticed some comments being made by online marketers that they were not members at Facebook. I couldn't help myself. I had to make a comment that, if you are trying to market online and you're not on Facebook, you should just quit. Facebook is that important. 

Ignoring Facebook would be like selling boats in Arizona. It would make much more sense to sell boats in a region where lakes are more plentiful. On the same token, we are in a people business, so it only makes sense to go where the people are. 

Yes, Facebook has millions of users, but the kicker is the time spent on the site. People spend more time on Facebook than any other site.  So, not only are lots of people there, but the people who are there are more attentive. What does this mean to you? Simply that the people who are there have that much more chance of finding you. 

So, millions of people are spending considerable time on Facebook every day. Tell me again why anyone would ignore this as a marketing venue. 

As for how to market on Facebook, it all depends on who you ask. The safest way is through Facebook ads. At least you won't have to worry about FB shutting down your profile for that. But, this can get costly. So, the real trick is being able to connect with as many people as possible and still fly under the radar. You never want to look like a spammer to Facebook or its users. 

I do have a system that I use on Facebook, and it is highly effective. If the system is followed correctly, people will be calling you almost daily, without spamming the entire network. 

Then there are those people out there teaching others the worst possible methods for using Facebook. They are easy to spot. They send out random friend requests, spam groups and pages, or even spam the profiles of their friends. 

Another tactic is to send messages to everyone in FB that comes up in a search for MLM, or whatever the person is targeting. They will claim to be a top producer, and can show you how to do the same. But, there will be a few red flags to watch for. #1, if they have their friends list hidden, even to friends, RED FLAG. This usually means they have very few friends and don't want you to see that. All they really have to offer is to show you how to use this same failed method. 

The "Fake it 'til you Make it" mentality has found its was to social media too. I cannot even begin to tell you how many people have approached me saying they were the top earner in their company, or that they were working with the top earner. Seriously? These are some of the same people that have all of their friends and wall posts set to private. What are they trying to hide?

Facebook will be a common topic in this weekly advertising series. Social media in general will be a recurring theme. It is such a wonderful medium for getting to know people that network marketers cannot afford to ignore it. 

If you would like to know more about the Facebook method I use, shoot me an email. Be sure to include "Facebook Method" in the subject. Or, if you are serious about an education in the Network Marketing industry, start right now by reading "Success in Ten Steps" and call me when you're done (my number is on the last page).I look forward to hearing from you.

Weekly Advertising Tip: Twitter

As promised last week, here is my weekly post on marketing venues and strategies. This series will be weekly and the purpose is to share some knowledge on where and how to advertise for free or at least very low cost. The plan is to post this early each week, say on Monday. 

For being such a simple site, twitter sure is complicated. It seems that for every person who mentions success with twitter, 5 more say it doesn't work for them. In my opinion, this has little to do with twitter and everything to do with those who use it. 

At the time of this writing, I have just over 11,000 followers on twitter, and to be honest, it is far from my most productive network as far as finding people to work with. That being said, twitter has been very useful in other ways. 

One of the biggest benefits to using twitter is the ability to easily share content with a lot of people.  Twitter is the most widely used network among the users of my syndication group on Facebook. Pwrsonally, I share a lot of content, from a lot of sources, via twitter. 

The real power in twitter is through the use of hash tags. Admittedly, this is an area where I could use work. Fortunately, my good friend Rex Harris (http://rexharris.net) wrote a good book on using twitter. I urge you to download "Tweet My Niche" and give it a read. I found it helpful. 

Here are a few other twitter tools I personally use and the task I use them for.  

Socialoomph.com for auto follow back and auto DM to new followers. 

Justunfollow.com for unfollowing those who never return the favor. 

Twitterfeed.com for feeding your blog or any other RSS feed into twitter. 

Youlikehits.com is a credit based site for gaining followers on twitter and several other sites. 

With these tools, and Rex's book, anyone can get started using twitter fairly easily. All you need is followers, but as the book explains, hash tags can be more important than followers.

See my twitter accounts below.  Feel free to follow any or all. Note that a few of them are keyword specific as per the instructions given in "Tweet My Niche".

http://twitter.com/abdeel_11  ***This is my primary account***
http://twitter.com/wgelwick
https://twitter.com/mktg4Christ

http://twitter.com/mlmprospecting1
http://twitter.com/ProMLMBlogger
http://twitter.com/mlm_myth_Buster

I would love to hear from you. What sorts of results have you had with twitter? Do you have anything you would like to share in the comments below? Feel free to add your twitter I'd so we may follow you.