Karl Hummel
In Network Marketing, promoting or advertising your business opportunity or your products and services on the Internet, can be a real challenge. Because of the rules and restrictions that most Network Marketing Companies have implemented for their Distributors to follow, it can make it almost impossible to do.
As I discussed in my last blog post, “Why Network Marketers Can’t Have A Network Marketing Website”.
There are a lot of good reasons why your Network Marketing Company has implemented these rules. But there are ways that you should be able to legally and ethically get around this without getting into any trouble with your Network Marketing Company.
What To Promote
One thing to consider is that you don’t necessarily have to promote your business opportunity or the products and services you provide to promote your business, get leads, prospects, or even distributors on the Internet. You see most people don’t understand the importance of promoting themselves. The truth is, when people join a business opportunity they join you just as much as they join your company!
You’re the one who presents the Business Opportunity to them. You’re the one they think can help them make money with it. And you’re the one who they sign up with or don’t sign up with. It’s not just the company that they’re joining.
Sure you have to have a good company to promote with a good compensation plan and good products or services, but ultimately it is you they sign up with. They have to believe in you or the chances they will ever sign up under you are very slim.
Network Marketing Business
You are allowed to do is promote yourself on the Internet. Your Network Marketing Company isn’t trying to stop you from being successful or building a large business, they’re just trying to protect you and their company, so most won’t have any problem with you promoting your business in this manner.
If you want to promote your business opportunity and get leads on the Internet you can still do this by simply attracting people to your website who are already in, or who are interested in Network Marketing to begin with.
Online Network Marketing Guidelines
I’m not a lawyer and cannot guarantee that this won’t get you in trouble with your Network Marketing Company so be careful and check with them if you have any doubts. I’ve used these guidelines myself and have been able to promote my business while still staying in the good graces of my Network Marketing Company. That said, here are some guidelines you can follow that should allow you to do this.
- Never use their company name in your URL address.
- Never place a link on your website that connects to your affiliate website.
- Never specifically write about or promote their company by name.
- Never write anything you can’t prove relating to your business.
- Never over hype anything.
If you follow these guidelines your Network Marketing Company generally won’t care because legally it won’t affect them.
Network Marketing Online
One of the easiest ways to promote your Network Marketing Business is through the use of a blog. You do this by writing blog posts that are related to the Network Marketing Industry. You can write posts about your experiences, your strategies, your results, etc.
Using a blog in this manner allows you to stand out as a Network Marketer. By providing valuable content for your readers, you’ll be able to attract people who are interested in Network Marketing and brand yourself as a knowledgeable leader in the process.
Then you just provide your visitors with a way to contact you directly, or to request more information about your Network Marketing Opportunity. This way you can still promote your Network Marketing Business online and your Network Marketing Company won’t get upset with you!
To Your Success!
If you’re a Network Marketer or an MLM Business Owner and you’ve considered using your own website to promote your business opportunity or your products and services, you’ll soon find if you haven’t already, that your Network Marketing Company doesn’t want you to have your own website for this purpose.
Network Marketing Company
These days most Network Marketing Companies are aware of the importance of having a website for their distributors to send people to so that they can promote their business opportunity as well as their products and services. Because of this the majority now provide their Distributors with what we refer to in the Internet Marketing world as an affiliate website.
Internet Marketing
An affiliate website is simply a website that is used for anyone promoting a company or their products and services through that company’s main website. These affiliate websites normally allow you to list your name, personal information, and your contact information on them, but that’s about it.
In this model the same website is used by everyone. You’re given an affiliate ID or user name which is then used to give you a unique URL which you can have people enter into their browser to access your affiliate website. This unique URL then registers any visitors who go there, to you as the Distributor.
Generally these websites are very professional looking, have good sales copy, are very informative, are nicely laid out, and provide all of the information you would want, to adequately promote your Network Marketing Business. Designing a website like this on your own would literally cost you thousands of dollars, so in this sense they are a great deal.
Network Marketing Websites
The downside to these websites is that they are being used by every other Distributor in the company. The only thing that set’s your Distributor Website a part from every other Distributors in that company, is your name, your personal information, and your unique affiliate ID. Additionally, most companies won’t even let you promote or advertise your affiliate website online.
The reason for this is quite simple. For legal purposes they need to control what you say about the business opportunity and their products and services. By providing their Distributors with these affiliate websites, the Network Marketing Company controls what is said on the website about their company.
This is completely understandable and very important because it not only protects them, but it also protects you the Distributor. Although this may sound very constraining to the Distributor, it is a good thing and it’s also absolutely necessary.
Network Marketers
From the Distributor stand point this creates several problems.
- You have no way of standing out because everyone has the exact same website.
- The search engines do not and never will index an affiliate website.
- Search Engines will only index the main website which does not include any affiliate ID’s.
- You can’t promote or market your website online because of these rules.
Your Network Marketing Company isn’t trying to stop you from being successful they’re just trying to protect their Distributors as well as themselves. The good news is that there are ways to get around some of these issues and still promote your business opportunity online. In my next blog post I’m going to cover them with you, so be sure to come back and visit this website in the next few days.
To Your Success!
Are you wondering whether building your Network Marketing Business is the right thing to do? Many people in Network Marketing and even in Internet Marketing ask themselves this question from time to time. It’s really only natural when things aren’t going quite as well as you’d like them to!
A friend of mine and one of my up-line mentors, DeMarr Zimmerman sent me an email last week that I thought was absolutely extraordinary. I’ve never really followed Earl Nightingale’s teachings because he was a little before my time. but even though this was originally published and aired in the 1950’s this motivational piece still holds true even today.
Here’s an excerpt from “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightingale:
The Strangest Secret
“George Bernard Shaw said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them.”
Well, it’s pretty apparent, isn’t it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.
Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn’t know where he’s going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry – his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing… he becomes nothing.
How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I’ll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.
Suppose a farmer has some land, and it’s good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn’t care. It’s up to the farmer to make the decision.
We’re comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn’t care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn’t care what you plant.
Now, let’s say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land…and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.
As it’s written in the Bible, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
Remember the land doesn’t care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants – one corn, one poison.
The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn’t care what we plant…success…or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal…or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant must return to us.
You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.”
If you’d like to listen to the entire broadcast in its entirety, which I thought was fantastic, just click on the link below.
The Strangest Secret
To Your Success!
If you’re involved in Internet Marketing then I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “The money is in the list”, before, and that statement is 100% true. But building an email list of targeted prospects is something that is a very difficult challenge for many Internet Marketers. Simply setting up a Lead Page and an offer, does not assure you that anyone will ever subscribe to your email list.
Conversion Rates
There are literally dozens of things that can affect your conversion rate for a Lead Page, but the one that is the most important and will affect your conversion rate more than anything else is your Lead Magnet.
What’s A Lead Magnet
A Lead Magnet is what you are offering your visitor in return for them giving you their information and subscribing to your email list. I love the term Frank Kern uses to describe it, he calls it your ethical bribe. And essentially, that’s exactly what a Lead Magnet is. In order to get the highest optin conversion possible, a Lead Page should offer your visitor the best lead magnet you can possibly come up with. The best looking webpage in the world won’t convert for you if you have a bad Lead Magnet.
How To Decide On A Lead Magnet
A Lead Magnet must offer value to your visitor. If they do not see what you’re offering as something that provides value to them, they will not take it even if it is free. The more valuable your Lead Magnet is perceived as the more visitors will optin. It’s really that simple.
Value isn’t always defined by a price tag. It’s defined by the value that the prospect conceives it to have. I can say a report is worth $10,000 but if the report I’m offering does not entice the visitor they won’t take it even if it is free.
Creating A Lead Magnet
The best way to create a high converting Lead Magnet is to think about what the person who is visiting your Lead Page is experiencing, that brought them then consider in the first place. If there is a problem that they are looking to solve then what is the pain they are experiencing that is making them want to solve that problem. If you can figure out a way to help them ease that pain or discomfort, then make that your lead magnet.
Example: Someone is overweight and wants to lose 15 pounds but hates to exercise or diet. You could write a report or shoot a video that tells them how they can lose that weight without exercising or dieting in as little 60 days. If they’re really interested in losing weight, this might be very appealing to them. And if you’re offering it to them for free, there’s a very good chance they’ll optin to your list to get it.
Now you can start building a relationship with that person and market them many different types of weight lose products, for as long as they subscribe to your list. And if you really treat them right, that could be years!
An AutoResponder is one of the most useful and profit generating Internet Marketing Tools you could use for an Internet Marketing Business. They serve many purposes but the biggest thing they do is give you a way to build a marketing list of prospects that are interested in the types of products and services you market.
List Building
Every type of Internet Marketing Business needs to consider the benefits of building a list of people who are interested in their products and services. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling Auto Insurance, Real Estate, Weight Loss Products, or Informational Products you need to be building a list of targeted prospects.
The reason for this is simple, you want to be able to build a relationship with people who are interested in the types of things that you market, and you want to be able to market to as many people as possible over, and over, and over again. Many of the Internet’s most successful Entrepreneurs will tell you that the real money in any Internet Marketing Business is in your list!
What Do Autoresponders Do
Autoresponders do many things. The first thing they do is generate a script that you can post on your websites, blogs, sales pages and even some videos and social networking sites. This script allows a form to appear where it is placed that will allow your visitors to enter their information to subscribe to your mailing list automatically upon submission.
An Autoresponder also allows you to write a series of follow up emails that you want to send to the people who subscribe to your list. These emails can contain links so you can deliver more content, send people to a webpage, and even deliver links to downloadable products on your download pages. In addition you can set it up so that each email in your campaign is sent to each person on your list at certain days and even times. So once you’ve set them up, each person will receive each email you have scheduled automatically without you doing anything else.
Do You Need An Autoresponder
If you’re planning on starting an Internet Marketing Business, already have an Internet Marketing Business, have a Website online, or even a blog then you should have an Autoresponder. And if you haven’t started already, you need to start building your list as soon as you possibly can. This is a key to making money online.
If you haven’t signed up for an Autoresponder service yet and you’re looking to do so, I use Aweber myself, and I highly recommend their monthly service. Another company that has great rates, is proven to get spectacular results, and is highly recommended by many Internet Marketers is GetResponse. Yes I am an affiliate for both of them, but I would still recommend these services even if I weren’t, because I believe these two companies have the best Autoresponder Services available and their prices are very reasonable. You can try out Aweber’s Service for just $1 by following my affiliate link below. Or you can get a free trial of Get Response by clicking on their link below if you would prefer!
Aweber Autoresponder Service
GetResponse Autoresponder Service
To Your Success!
Disclaimer – Marketing is my primary source of income. If you buy something as a result of clicking on any of these links, I’ll get paid money that I will have no choice but to use to support my family, LOL.
