How Much Money Have You Made?

Have you gotten this question? It's hard for newbies, but can be hard to answer once you've been around a while too. Art Jonak asked his mentor, Tom "Big al" Schreiter this very question, and Tom gives us the answer that can diffuse this question immediately.

Weekly Advertising Tip: Traffic Exchanges

It has been a couple weeks since I did one of these marketing venue posts. I hope you all find something to take from this one.

Here is a rather controversial advertising method. For every person that says Traffic Exchanges don't work, another will tell you how they work wonderfully. I can tell you that they do work, to an extent, but what and how you promote makes ALL the difference. 

There are so many hundreds of traffic exchanges out there, so many programs, and so many individuals that there is no magic formula. There is no one size fits all strategy. However, the basics of using traffic exchanges are constant. 

The number one thing to remember about using traffic exchanges is branding. If you are using any pages that do not have your name and picture on them, you are wasting your time. But, if you have your picture and name getting out there, and your message is consistent, people will start to know you, and they will start to respond. 

Another thing to consider is WHAT you are promoting. Promoting a business opportunity does not work well. While this is the only venue remaining that will yield any result from pitching an opportunity, it's still not the best idea. Offering to help people with the things they need for their business works Much better. Traffic, prospects, coaching, time savers and such are things everyone is looking for. Find something you can offer, preferably something unique that nobody else is offering, but you can always use an existing product until you develop something of your own. 

The main drawback to traffic exchanges is the time investment involved. You can spend hours, days and weeks clicking for credits. The other option is to buy credits, but I would be sure your ads are getting response before doing that. 

One more thing to consider is which exchanges to use. There are hundreds of them out there. At one point, I was actively using more than 50 of them. That was exhausting. I did get results, people giving up their contact info for my incentive offer. 

On the plus side, there are so many exchanges, and so many people using them, that a team could theoretically be built using nothing but traffic exchanges. 

One of my business partners, Wilfredo Diaz, just posted a great piece on traffic exchanges as well. I urge you to have a look at his link below.

The First Traffic Exchange Program With Its Own Algorithms

Here are a few other links pertaining to Traffic exchanges that you may find helpful.

You Best Converting Traffic Exchanges

Your favorite smaller exchanges

massivefreetraffic/traffic-exchanges

 

 Are you currently using traffic exchanges? Do you plan to in the future? I would love to hear about your experiences, past, present or projected. Please leave a comment below to let us know.

Who is Your Coach?

It's Bill here again, and again I'm borrowing from Randy Gage. If you are not subscribed to hit blog, newsletter and/or youtube channel, I suggest you go handle that right now, then come back and finish reading this.

The video from Randy below asks the question, "Who is your coach?" This questions really hit home for me. I've had lots of coaches, or mentors, in my life. From a job, to business, and of course spiritual coaches and mentors have helped me along the path at every turn.

Unfortunately, some coaches just are not that good at it, particularly when it comes to Network Marketing Business Coaches. For most, it is not their fault. They are working from the same tired old playbook that didn't work 30 years ago, and certainly dose not work now.

On the plus side, there are people out there who will help coach and mentor you, regardless of what company you are with, and they will never charge you a dime. How can we do this you ask? It's simple. Anything that can help improve our industry as a whole, is a benefit to us all.

Let's face it, there are a lot of MLM companies out there that are not worth the time it takes to fill out the enrollment form. If we can help make a positive change, and help to reform our industry as a whole, then maybe we can eventually root out many of the misconceptions about the Network Marketing Industry. That would make life easier for us all right? You bet it would.

I have also recently started working along side some other wonderful people from outside the MLM industry. These life and career coaches are some of the most amazing people. They help folks from all walks of life to better themselves. What could possibly be more rewarding?

That is what we do too. We hope to help as many people as possible. Even if you are not in the same company as me, that's okay. I still hope to see you be successful, and will do anything I can to help make that happen.

Alright, I know you're wonder, "What's the catch". Well here it is. I will only work with the volunteers. If you don't show an interest, I'm not going to waste my time chasing you down. Beyond that, all I ask is that you be coachble and be willing to do what is required, and I can almost guarantee your success.

So, who is your coach? If you are in need of a business coach, show me that you are a volunteer and read the eBook, "Success in 10 Steps" and I will b e in contact with you soon.

Are You Always Thinking Positive?

Is every thought that passes between your ears, on a daily basis, a positive one? If you answered "Yes", you're only lying to yourself. We know the truth. Negative thoughts are going to creep in. It's a matter of how we handle them that makes ALL the difference. 

We hear a lot of talk in our industry about the power of positive thinking. Most every MLM Blog has posts on the topic. Countless book, eBooks, videos, webinars and conference calls have been devoted to the topic of positive thinking. 

Think about all of these instances you have seen. Have any of them even suggested that positive thinking was anything less than 100%? Now, do you really think that anyone alive, in this fallen world, could possibly maintain 100% positive thoughts? Me either. 

Well, I do know of one mention of positive thinking, only one, that sheds light on this dilemma. I share videos here from Randy Gage from time to time and this is one of my personal favorites. It is the first time I ever recall anyone mentioning that it is absurd to think anyone could never have a negative thought.

Enter the 51% Rule. 

If you are like most of us, you try to remain positive, but it can be discouraging when those negative thoughts creep in. Negativity breeds negativity. One negative thought creates discouragement, and therefore more negativity. But, there is hope. 

 The 51% Rule is so simple it's scary. Fully positive thought is not the goal. The goal is to reach 51% positive thoughts. This is the point in which real change starts to happen. But how do you get to this point?

Here is an idea. Every time, throughout the day, that a negative thought comes to mind, counter it with a positive one. Keep in mind that simply thinking of ice cream, a puppy, or anything else will not work. You must infuse these positive thoughts with emotion. Thinking of your first kiss, your wedding day, or the day your child was born could all be good ways to counteract negativity. 

Without emotion, these positive thoughts cannot reach the subconscious mind. They linger briefly in the conscious mind until something else draws it's focus. Since the conscious mind can only focus on one thing at a time, that unemotional positive thought will be gone, never to return. 

I can tell you this works. I woke up this morning tired from having stayed up too late. I felt the negativity monster creeping in, and immediately went to that moment when my daughter was born. Before I knew it , I was dressed and ready to head out, and had not had another negative thought. 

Just remember, it's okay to have a negative thought. Don't beat yourself up over it. Replace it with a positive one and move on. 

Now, here is the video where Randy Gage presented this, and the inspiration for this post.

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. 

Big MLM Tip: Emotions in Marketing

Emotions

Surely you have heard the expression "sex sellls". This is a true statement, but does not tell the whole story. The rest of that story is, " Emotions sell, and sexual attraction is one of the strongest emotions, therefore sells best". Of course, that's a bit long winded in comparison. 

Emotions sell. Some focus on positive emotions like love, sexual desire, the desire to fit in. Others play on our fears, usually covertly, but not always. Many simply try to play to the emotion of humor. 

An effective marketing campaign must include an emotional aspect. This is the only way to reach where you really want with your prospective customer, their subconscious. In the same way that we emotionalize our seft talk for effective autosuggestion (see the chapter on Auto Suggestion from "Think and Grow Rich"), so too can seeds be planted into the mind of your audience. We are all subjected to this every time we watch TV or listen to the radio, or even view most websites. 

Take a look at the examples below. These are some exaggerated examples, but it gets the point across.

I can hear all the germophobes squirming in your seats. This is obviously playing to a particular fear. My hands actually felt dirtier after watching this.


Now let's contrast this with something inspiring. This one taps into our inner emotions of self worth, and is one of the most powerful messages I have heard in my lifetime.

How is that for contrast? one video plays on your fears while the other tries to combat the fear of failure. Sadly, often times the marketing efforts with a negative connotation have the bigger impact. Don't believe me, wait until the next political cycle and watch a few campaign ads. 

I wanted to add some online advertising as examples, but that posed another problem. Either it would sound like a sales pitch on my part, or I'd have to show soemthing that I cannot condone. Either way, I decided to stay clear of that for this post.


So, are you ready to take this concept and run with it in your marketing efforts? Maybe you'll want to mix it up some to see which works best for you? I'd love to hear about your results, or results you ahve already experienced, in the comments section below.

Big MLM Tip: Marketing Venues: Free Options

My last post discussed some of the paid methods of advertising online. This time we want to look at free methods. When I say free, that does not mean there will be no cost, just no monetary cost. There will almost always be a cost involved, usually in time. 

 

As I have been working on planning this post, I realized that there is no way I could possibly cover this topic adequately in a single post. So, today we will cover an overview of free advertising methods. The plan is to do a weekly segment here at Bill's BIG mlm Blog on free, or very low cost, forms of advertising. You won't want to miss these. Subscribe to my RSS Feed to be sure you get all the updates. 

For today, let us simply mention a few of the methods by which you can market yourself online for free. The options here are really only limited by your imagination. Take social media for example. The possibilities are truly endless. With groups. Pages, hanghouts, events, private messages, chats, group chats and others at your disposal, all you need is to get creative. 

I use social media as an example because that is the medium I use most, but many other options are available.

A lot of people are using classified ad sites quite successfully. Others utilize credit based systems such as traffic exchanges and/or safelists. Still others rely on organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and focus soley on Search Engine Marketing (SEM). 

There are certainly many more options available. If you have any questions, ideas, or other thoughts to share, please leave a comment below. 

Next week will begin the weekly series mentioned above. In the meantime, I want to wrap up this series, in my next post, and discuss adding emotion to your marketing efforts.