I remember at one of my previous jobs I sat next to one of our marketing reps. All he did all day long was call prospective clients, introduce himself, and present our company. After listening to him so many times throughout the day, I had his presentation memorized.
He knew something then that I wasn’t aware of yet. In order to get one good lead, it was necessary to filter through a lot of non-leads. So, the more calls he made, the more often he would stumble upon a good lead. It has been called, “the law of large numbers.”
It is not much different in on-line marketing. If you are trying to make money through some program, or some affiliate sales, it will be necessary for you to make a lot of contacts in order to find the few who are interested in what you have to sell. So, massive advertising becomes the main task of any serious on-line business person.
There are free ways to do this, like traffic exchanges and safelists, but the percentage of people who will actually buy is quite small there, so you need to increase your initial numbers even more if you are using those methods. The law of large numbers still holds true, but in some markets, the numbers become even larger.
If you have a warm market – people who have already expressed interest in your product, or already bought something like that – then the percentage of people who respond to your advertising will be much better. That is why we will often hear it said that “the money is in the list.” If you have made contact with people (they know your name and react favorably to you), they are more likely to respond favorably again.
So there are two things that have to be done if you plan to build a business on-line. First, it is necessary to do general advertising (like cold calling). The more targeted your audience the better your response rate will be. Your primary goal in this phase is to get people to sign up to your list and for you to begin making a favorable impression on them. The goal is to build a list – preferably a list with large numbers.
That will then lead to the second step – advertising to your list. We have said that your best response is going to come by advertising to your list, so, once you have a nice list built up, you can share products with them. You will still want large numbers, but the response ratio will be significantly better here. This way you will have enough response to start making a living at this.
Just as a note, I have become part of a program that supplies thousands of warm leads to you every month. You can mail to, or call these leads in order to build your list. I have found it to work very well, both for list building and even making sales. You can read more about Little Ticket to Wealth by clicking here… http://www.littletickettowealth.com/indexG1.php?id=rjvander7
Category Advertising, Leads, List Building |
I enjoy cooking and will often be making the evening meal at our house. I will regularly try new things — sometimes trying to make something that is healthier, sometimes trying to make something tastier. Needless to say, some of my experiments are a success and some are total failures.
This past week I had a failure. We actually had a guest eating with us and I was trying to make a familiar rice dish healthier by making it with brown rice. Unfortunately I didn’t cook the rice long enough and it was almost too hard too eat. We actually had to offer our guest leftovers out of the refrigerator instead of the meal I had made. It was a failure.
The question is, how should I respond to that failure? I was embarrassed. One option would have been to say, I’m not a good cook, and I’m not going to do that any more. Just quit. Instead, we laughed about it. I swallowed my pride. I learned. The next evening I made a chocolate pie that everyone enjoyed and praised.
Success and failure are two aspects of life that will always be present. It is important to learn to handle both of them well, because we are sure to see them often.
I can remember car accidents that I have been involved in. They were expensive failures, but I learned from them. I also have been able to drive with my family across the United States. It was a huge success, but I still have learned to be cautious as I drive.
There have been relationships that I would like to forget. There were people that I just seemed to rub the wrong way. But there have also been wonderful relationships. I have been married to my wife for over 35 years. There are things that I need to be cautious about, but I enjoy the success.
Which brings me to on-line marketing. It too is a part of my life. It too is full of successes and failures. The failures have taught me caution. The successes have brought me joy.
Many people experience failure in on-line marketing and immediately claim that it must be a scam, and they quit. Maybe that is for the best. I don’t know. But the truth is that on-line marketing – like almost all of life – will have both success and failure. How should we respond?
Failures
It would be nice avoid all failures, but the only way to do that would be to never try anything. There will be things that we invest in on-line that won’t work out the way we expect. We may actually get burned by unscrupulous people. Wisdom would say not work with those people any more. It may also tell us to be cautious in certain programs. But, each failure is a stepping stone. It teaches us about what works and what doesn’t. It points us to a better direction.
As we mature in the business, we attempt to limit our failure because we have learned better what works and what doesn’t. It should never defeat us so that we retreat into a safe place and never risk again. Failures are stepping stones on our road to success.
Success
Given the chance to choose between success and failure, almost all of us would choose success. Beware. There are also dangers here. If success has come to us without having to experience failures, then we may not be cautious of the dangers that are always around. It is possible to fall farther and harder if we experience success without any failures.
Success can also make us soft. It can make us think we are immune to failure any more. But the truth is that failure is always there – perhaps just around the corner. It is there to lead us on if we are willing to step out.
So, be aware of both of these experiences. They must both be a part of your journey. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your road must be only successes. The only way to grow in your success is to go through the teacher of failure.
Category Winning and Losing |
There are several kinds of people who are trying to make money on the Internet. Many of them can be broken down into two groups.
On the one hand there are people who have limited resources and are looking for a way to win the lottery. They hear so many stories of others who have gone from indebtedness to millionaires by finally discovering just the right system on-line. So, these people figure that if they hunt around and find the right system, they too will be able to become millionaires.
The second group of people is made up of those who have taken the time to learn the way of on-line marketing. They are willing to spend the time to build a list, and they are willing to work with a program from days of little income to more fruitful times. They see their involvement in the program as a business, and they are willing to spend some money to make some money.
So, seeing both of these groups, is it possible to say that one is good and one is bad? I don’t think so. I know I have been part of both of them. It is important to see them both as distinct ways of interacting on the internet, and it is especially helpful if you can tell which group you are in while you are participating in an activity.
For example, I belong to a group, called Retire On This. We work with TrafficWave to create a downline and a residual income. I try to treat this as a business. I will invest money in advertising. I am willing to start slowly and build a significant income. This requires me to spend time talking with my referrals, and sending emails to people who don’t seem convinced of its worth yet. It takes time and persistence. There are times when I am frustrated, but I am committed to do what it takes to make it happen.
I have to admit that there are also times that I will join a cycler with the hope of making some extra cash. Most of the time I am disappointed, but I go into it with the attitude of, “If I make some money, fine. If I don’t, I haven’t lost too much.” This is not my business. It is just a side light.
The problem comes when people become confused about which group they are in. Some may join what in reality is a “business-type” program, and then complain that they are not making thousands of dollars in a few short months. They get discouraged and say that all on-line marketing is a scam (when it really is not).
It also becomes confusing when program owners are not sure who they are trying to attract. Often program owners will promote their program as “free”, or “no work necessary”. They are trying to attract the “lottery crowd” when in reality they need “business people”.
So, try to evaluate what you are trying to accomplish on-line. Are you looking for the lottery or a business? Are you getting involved in the right programs for the purpose that you are looking for? Everyone will be happier if we are all clear on these distinctions.
Category Network Marketing |
I was recently at a conference where Chuck Colson was speaking. You may know him as a former aid to President Nixon. He was convicted in the Watergate scandal and served a prison sentence. While there, he committed to Christianity and began a ministry to prisoners. He has since been released from prison and has been leading his prison ministry for over thirty years.
He told the members of the conference that when he first started his prison ministry, there were over 200,000 people in prisons in the United States. Today there are over 2 million! He believes that what we are seeing is a moral/ethical breakdown in our society. His main focus was on the breakdown of family values, but he also mentioned business.
It is obvious from the economic disasters that we have seen in the last five to ten years that business greed has been getting out of hand. A good business is one which, 1) behaves ethically, 2) improves the quality of life of its workers, 3) produces a valuable product or service, and 4) contributes to the well-being of the community.
Since many of us are involved in some form of on-line business, we need to evaluate our business as well. How do we compare ourselves and our businesses to the four qualities listed above?
Does your business behave ethically? I have challenged the idea of misrepresentation in advertising before, and that is certainly one area that must be measured against an ethical standard. But there are other issues. I have been a part of on-line investment programs where, after I had earned a couple of hundred dollars, the owner of the program basically took my investment and never paid it back. He would not acknowledge my emails, but kept doing business as usual, hoping to lure others into the same situation.
I have heard other people complain about the PTC industry. They claim that there are many dishonest owners who do not pay as agreed. You have to become aware of those who pay as agreed, and follow them. They are running ethical businesses.
The second quality that I mentioned, “improves the quality of life of its workers”, is closely related to the first. Is the business paying a fair wage? Are they taking care of their employees? In an on-line world that usually doesn’t mean benefits like health care and vacation pay, but certainly should include giving mentoring help and giving the time to train and lead in the business. Any way the leader/owner can help the fellow business people to gain maximum benefit from working the business is important.
Third, a business should produce a “valuable product or service.” This is often seen as a weakness of on-line businesses. Many times the emphasis is so much on making money, that a library of worthless e-books is thrown together just to be able to say that they are selling something. In reality, no one wants the e-books. That is one of the reasons that I like working with TrafficWave (and Retire On This). It is one of the best autoresponders on the market and something that all on-line business people need.
Finally, we need to think of our community. What can we do for others? That too is an important part of business. In Retire on This, we fore go our fast-start bonus so the new referrals can have an extra month of trying out TrafficWave. Personally, I try to give important information to the community for free in this blog. I also have a daily inspirational quote opportunity that many people have found encouraging.
So, I encourage all of us to be very conscious about our businesses. Evaluate them and hold them against the standard of the four qualities that I mention. If you do, we all (the entire Internet community) will benefit.
Category Giving, Leadership, Winning and Losing |
One of the beautiful things about working on the Internet is that it is possible to create multiple streams of income. When you work at a regular 40 hour/week job you work the one job and get paid for the hours you work there. If you want to make more money, you work over time or a second job.
On the internet, it works differently. First of all, you usually don’t get paid an hourly wage. Usually our income comes from commissions that are earned. The real beauty comes when your product involves monthly income and you are also making commissions on the sales of people that you recruited. Then you have developed what we call residual income – it come in whether you work any hours this week or not.
That brings us to the idea of creating multiple incomes. For example, you could be a salesperson for multiple companies (programs). Some think this is a bad idea. They say that you become too distracted or spread yourself too thin. I believe this is a necessary and important part of working on-line, but we must be aware of the difficulties.
First of all, it is true that you can spread yourself too thin. For everything that is being sold on the Internet, there must be a lot of advertising. We know that the numbers are usually quite small. For the thousands of ads that you may send out, there may be a 1% to 5% response. So, especially when starting out, it is difficult to get enough advertising out there to be profitable in one business, let alone multiple.
So the first thing that every on-line marketer should do is learn to market well for one product. You can build a list of interested people and find the most responsive advertising. After you have made a few sales, and have happy customers, and have a list of interested people, then it makes sense to expand your base a little.
The ideal situation would be to find another business that is similar to the last one, but not in direct competition to it. If you have been promoting Traffic Wave (an autoresponder), don’t move to promoting AWeber (another autoresponder). Instead, you could sell an e-book for Magnetic Sponsoring, or a software program like Tweet Adder. The advantage to working in similar markets is that you can offer your new products to previous customers or interested list members. Maybe they weren’t interested in Traffic Wave, but Tweet Adder is just the thing they were looking for. Similarly, as new list members are found for Tweet Adder, they may also be presented with Traffic Wave.
They key to developing multiple streams of income is to get a solid start in one program or product first. Then, using the basic infrastructure that you have developed for advertising and list-building, you can add a second and third product for multiple streams of income. If set up properly, each of the products can continue to pull in new people and make sales – even after your emphasis has moved to the second or third or fourth product.
Take it slow at the beginning and learn all you can. This is the time to lay a strong foundation. Then it will be inevitable that you will branch out and develop multiple streams of income.
Category Advertising, Business Plan, List Building |
Sometime we call it a white lie as if to say that its just a little deception and not really as bad (or evil) as a full blown lie. If you tend to exaggerate it may be just a personality trait that we learn to accept, whereas a liar needs help. Maybe we should send him to a counselor. Maybe he needs to be put in jail.
The basic fact is that we tend to tolerate exaggeration, but to catch someone in a lie can destroy them. Perhaps it is that distinction which allows many of us in advertising to live with ourselves. We may be exaggerating a little, but we never tell a lie.
I would like to take the time here to show some of the negative effects of exaggeration. When I talk about exaggeration, I include myself, because it is very difficult to be involved in this business without joining in that practice.
Exaggeration often takes place by not telling the whole truth. For example, an ad may proclaim that by joining this program, a person can make $100,000 in six months. On paper that is all true. If you get ten recruits and each of those ten gets ten and so on down the line, it will work. And if every body gets their ten in one month, the numbers may work out to 100,000 in six months. The program looks very attractive and may get many people to sign up. Then they find that it is extremely difficult to get one recruit in a month and that one may drop out after a month – leaving the original person with the decision of trying to start over or quit.
Now, the question is, has exaggeration served your purpose? Yes, it did result in a new recruit. Ultimately, though, everyone probably quit. On top of that it fostered a new skepticism among all those who tried, and failed. They will be convinced that all on-line programs are a scam – just interested in getting my money. So the simple stretching of the truth resulted in zero recruits and a new attitude that makes it harder to get more recruits in the future.
That is what happens among those who join a program like this, but there is a negative effect among those who are advertising too. For example, imagine that every program out there is advertising and saying that if you join, you can retire and have a residual income of thousands of dollars. Now, I try to be more truthful. I say that if you join my program and are willing to work hard and get ten recruits (which may take you ten months), you might be able to earn $100/month. Then, if you keep at it and also train your recruits to do the same (and replace any that drop out), maybe after a couple of years you will be able to make a couple thousand dollars a month. How many people would be attracted to that program (even though it may be the exact program that the other person is advertising)? So, exaggeration in advertising has forced all advertisers to exaggerate some just to compete!
What can we do to improve the environment we work in? I would like to suggest two things.
First, talk to your computer. When I watch television and I watch some ridiculous ad that I know is stretching the truth, I talk to them. I say how ridiculous it is that they expect me to believe that. Everyone in the room hears me and together we are creating an awareness that there is deception going on here and we are not going to believe it.
Secondly, if you are involved in advertising yourself, tone it down. You probably can’t completely get rid of exaggeration in your advertising, but try to move it in a more truthful direction. Go ahead and describe the end goal that is so attractive to people, but also be clear that this will take some work and time. People will appreciate such honesty. If it is done well and in a positive way, it can play a part in winning people back to MLM and build your business as well.
Category Advertising |
As I reflect back on the days when I was just starting out in on-line business, I remember giving all kinds of reason why I didn’t need an autoresponder. I reasoned that it was impersonal and not far from being spam. It seemed to cost too much and didn’t make me any money. And, besides, I was sure I could do it myself better and cheaper.
Today, having been in the business for a number of years, I currently work with two autoresponders (and have worked with three). It has become the very heart of my business and is irreplaceable.
Let me discuss some of my earlier concerns so that you too can see that a good autoresponder needs to be one of your earliest acquisitions in an on-line marketing business.
It is impersonal and like spam
Yes, it can be impersonal. To some degree this depends on how well you are able to write the follow-up letters. Can you give them a little of your personality? Can you keep the letters from sounding like a heavy-handed sales pitch? If you are trying to find ways to help people out and speaking to the concerns that they probably have, then these letters should not sound quite so impersonal.
Still, it will not be the same as a personal letter to your friend – but then its not meant to be. It is a way for thousands of people who are on your list(s) to get to know you and get a feel for whether you are trustworthy, and to be informed of the product or opportunity that exist to solve their problem.
Also, proper autoresponders do not produce spam. They work very hard to make sure that people are legitimately asking for this correspondence. People are also given the option to opt out of any correspondence. It is automated, but it is not spam.
It cost too much and doesn’t make any money.
When that bill for twenty dollars a month comes in, and you are hardly making twenty dollars a month on your product sales, then it is sometimes difficult to justify that expense. In reality, this is one of those expenses that just has to be included in your cost of doing business. It has to be paid, or you can’t do your job.
Statistics show that an autoresponder does make money. It is not like a product that is sold, but if used properly, it will create multiple follow-ups and develop a relationship with thousands of people which will eventually lead to many sales that would not have been possible with an occasional email from you.
One solution to the cost issue is to join a program like I use with Traffic Wave. Traffic Wave is am excellent autoresponder that will give all the tools needed for good on-line business. With our program you can join for free, continue free for two months while we help you get some referrals, then your autoresponder will be free forever. You can’t beat that. (Read a review of this program here.)
I can do it myself
You cannot do what these tools do by yourself. You may be able to answer a few emails of interested parties. But when the list of interested people gets to 100 or 1000 or 10,000, for you to be able to know who gets what response and who showed interest in what and when, is almost impossible.
We always say that the money is in the list. This is a basic fact of on-line marketing. And the basic tool for building a list is an autoresponder. This must be one of the basic building blocks of your business.
Category Leads, List Building, Network Marketing |
I was in a conversation the other day and we began talking about Oprah Winfrey. They asked me, “Why is it that everybody loves Oprah?” Apart from the fact that it is probably not 100% true, I thought it was a good question.
Some might claim it is because she is an amazing entrepreneur and knows how to touch the issues that touch people’s lives. Some might say it is because of her book club. Or, maybe its just because she is on television all the time and has become a household name/face.
I am sure that all of those together have played a part in how Oprah has worked her way into the lives and hearts of many people. But the more I think about, I think there was a point at which she went from another talk show host to an international powerhouse. Maybe she was doing this all along, but there was a time when she became famous for giving things away. People would find amazing gifts under their seats at the show. She would give away cars to the audience. She built schools for girls… The more she would give away, the more her fame (and power) increased.
Therein lies the lesson for us as marketers – and really for all of life. If you would like to make an impact on this world, then learn to give people gifts. In some ways this seems so counter-intuitive. Especially when we are starting out in on-line marketing, we are often broke and can only think of how we are going to make any money for ourselves. It is hard to think of giving things away when we are struggling to make ends meet ourselves.
It is sometimes hard to comprehend, but much of this has to do with attitude. It’s the old, is the glass half full or half empty question. Your wealth is often determined by comparing yourself to others around you. If everyone has two cars, a four bedroom house and cable TV, but you are having trouble paying your cable bill, then you see yourself as poor. In reality anyone who simply owns a car is in the top 5% of the world’s wealthy.
So, the first step is to begin to see our wealth. Focus on all that we do have. Learn to understand that many in the world would envy us for the many things we have.
Next, learn to let generosity become a daily part of our lives. This may start with just giving people our time. Being willing to email or talk to them can be generous. Then we can share information. We can even pay the first month’s membership for people just getting started. There are many ways to be generous (without going broke). We simply need to change our mind-set. The more you give, the more impact you will have. Even though it may seem that the more we give, the more depleted we will become, it just doesn’t usually work that way.
Category Finance, Giving, Riches |
I want to take an honest look at the network marketing business today. Many of us are trying to make money through some sort of internet sales. This can be done through selling products or getting people to buy memberships in a multi-level marketing program.
Either way will work, and the principles are similar in both. But you should be aware of the facts if you are trying to make a reasonable income on-line.
You should be aware of the percentage of income that the owner shares with the affiliates. For example, if a product sells for $10, how much of that gets back to the affiliate? Traditionally the numbers have been quite low. A small bottle of vitamins may sell for $10. The affiliate (you) may make only $3. If it is possible to make income from what your downline sells, it may be possible to make 40% of the profits. Chances are you are doing 60% to 80% of the work. The owner has no marketing costs other that what is paid out to the affiliate.
Other companies may share 50% – 60% (maybe even as much as 70%) of the profits with the affiliate. This is where you want to be involved. It is good that you be excited about the product you are selling. It is important that you are convinced that it is a valuable product that will benefit those who purchase it. But ultimately you are in business to make money, and in the case of on-line marketing, most of us are trying to make enough to reduce the hours that we are working. In order to do that you need to be involved in a healthy compensation plan.
Now, on top of being aware of the percentage of profit that you will share, another consideration is, what percentage of the affiliates are successful. This is often much more difficult to determine.
Be aware that the real wealth of network marketing is made from your downline. In other words, in order to make $10,000/ month, an affiliate may need 5000 people in the downline. Despite all the promises and hype, there is only a small percentage of the affiliates that are able to achieve this goal (maybe 2% – 5%).
Once again, if you percentage of the profit is larger, this will help you profit with less people in your downline. It is also a big advantage if there is a way to make profits quickly rather than waiting a year or so until your downline get large enough to make a significant income. This can happen through fast start bonuses and higher earnings from the earlier downline levels.
The point is that there are several things to consider as you decide what company to work with in your on-line business.
1. Find a company that is honest – not all hype to cover up its weaknesses.
2. Look closely at the compensation plan. Only consider companies that are offering 60% or better profit sharing.
3. Consider how easy (or difficult) it is to build a downline, and preferably, find a company that gives higher commissions at the earlier levels of the downline.
Be aware that this will take time. It may well take a year or more to build a downline to a size large enough to be profitable for you. If you are planning on it taking that amount of time, you won’t be as tempted to quite when it doesn’t all happen in the first month.
Category Network Marketing |
We live in a fast-paced world. When an earthquake occurs in Japan, I can see pictures of the devastation within hours. I can talk to any of my fellow workers any where in the world instantaneously with Skype. In fact, I can be in a conference or webinar with people from around the world almost any night of the week.
In a similar way knowledge seems to be growing at an exponential rate. What I learned in college has become common knowledge for a fifth grader. This affects many of us at work as well. Unless we work hard at continuing education, we find ourselves losing ground in the current practices of our own occupation.
The reason that I mention all of this is because it has created within us an impatience, and need to see results quickly, and an affinity for moving on quickly to the next item. So, when we try to develop an income by working on-line, we expect to see results within the first few weeks. If it doesn’t happen quickly, we are very comfortable moving on.
To be sure, the on-line community probably moves even faster than most other work environments. There is the vehicle for creating a community of hundreds of thousands of friends on Twitter and Facebook within a matter of weeks or months. With one short tweet, thousand of people can be invited to your web site and encouraged to do something (buy?). But there is no quick formula to success.
It is still necessary to become known. This can be done through communication with a list, or making comments on Facebook over time. It is necessary to become trusted. You must be seen as consistent and reliable – someone who is looking out for my interest and not just his own. Regardless of all the hype that you can $5,329,010.33/month, it is rarely (if ever) true.
The fact is that on-line business is not like playing the lottery. It is not a matter of investing X amount of dollars and expecting 1000 times that X in return. It is a business. We need to put thought into the steps we plan to follow over the next 12 months in order to build that business. We need to learn the process so we can improve. It may take four years of college to learn a business. It might be appropriate to view your first year or two of on-line marketing as primarily educational.
The point is that we need a long term perspective to be successful in business on the internet. There may be a place for trying many different things – that can be educational. But when it comes to developing a business, make a twelve month plan. Set monthly goals. Make modifications to your goals each month which match the realities that you are uncovering. But don’t be so quick to quit. If, through this experience you are finding that you are not cut out for this kind of business, then it may be appropriate to quit. But, if you are just frustrated by not reaching success fast enough, I challenge you to stay the course. Keep learning. Keep improving. Keep moving toward your goals. This can work for you if you are persistent.
Category Business Plan, Goals |