A new PPC keyword tool just launched.  To be honest the claims sounded too good to be true so I didn’t look at it until this morning.

I think you’re going to be impressed!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 29% [?]

In my business plan for 2009 I’ve put together a list of weekly actions to take to grow my business to the next level.

My week 3 action is to attend a personal development seminar.

I recommend this because when people join you in your network marketing business they join YOU.  You need to be constantly working on improving you and growing as a person.  By doing so you’ll attract more people to you and perhaps even attract a better quality person to you.

I did this activity. I flew down to Tampa Florida to support my team. We had a company provided personally development seminar called a “Treat Em Right” Seminar.  It’s a lot of fun and it’s a great personal development seminar.

There are a lot of personal development seminars you can attend.

You could attend a seminar like Jeff Combs Breakthroughs to Success (I went in October 2006).  That’s one I had the opportunity to attend a few years ago. You could attend a seminar on how to be a public speaker.  You could attend a seminar on the law of attraction.  Maybe for you attending a personal seminar might be going to a Yoga retreat.  Maybe the meditation and excercise would be personal development for you.

The important thing is to find something and take action.  Don’t delay.

For me attending my company’s personal development seminar probably isn’t enough of a stretch. I’m going to continue to seek out more opportunities and see if I can find some more good seminars for this year.

What personal development seminars do you plan to attend this year? Maybe you can help me find another good seminar to attend this year?

BTW if you want to attend a Treat Em Right seminar with me and see what our seminars are like, I’ll be in San Diego on February 28th.  Want to come? Just contact me!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 30% [?]

In my series on my business plan for 2009 I’ve been discussing a plan of action.

My week 2 plan of action is to do something that makes me feel uncomfortable. Why would I want to do that? It makes me feel uncomfortable right?

The reason is because I’m trying to stretch myself. I’m trying to push myself.  When I do these things I grow as a person and my business grows because of it.  If you are comfortable you probably aren’t making enough money.

Think about the athlete.  If they didn’t constantly make their workouts longer and harder they’d never get any stronger.  By stretching themselves and pushing themselves they allow themselves to grow.

So what might make you feel uncomfortable?

For me, I’m an internet guy.  Going out and joining a networking group makes me a little uncomfortable.

For you it might be talking to your family.  Your family might be the person you are most afraid of rejecting you.

Or maybe it’s cold calling.  Maybe it’s just a fear of the phone.

If you can push yourself you can grow and your business will grow as a result.  You won’t be perfect at it the first time and that’s ok!  Learn from it and get better.

Are you willing to push yourself to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable? What makes you feel uncomfortable?  Let’s start a little discussion on this… Leave a comment and let’s talk!

- Ben

Popularity: 33% [?]

Hi readers,

I’ve always thought it was better to create your own leads than to buy leads.  However I recently found myself trying to win a sales contest in my company and I was a little bit shy of my goal.  So I decided I’d buy leads.

My hunch was right. I never should have bought leads in the first place.

I went online and did some research trying to find a decent company.

I purchased some leads that were supposed to be real time. They are also supposed to be telephone verified.

Well several of the people are telling me that they requested information a long time ago.  Many others are saying that they are not interested.  Several others mentioned that they’ve received LOTS of phone calls.

PLUS the terms and conditions for the company I purchased the leads from say that I cannot get a refund.

So essentially I paid a premium for leads that were supposed to be better than average but they are the same old junk every other company is selling.

What a freaking scam.

I’d have been better off investing that money in classified ads or PPC.

Sorry, I don’t mean to rant. I’m just a bit frustrated that these jerks got my money. I’m so frustrated I don’t even really want to call anyone back.

Be warned.  Buy leads at your own risk.  Be prepared to waste a lot of time on the phone!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 25% [?]

Whether or not you like President Elect Obama…

I think it’s safe to say that most Americans are excited that change is finally here.

One thing that stood out to me this morning watching inauguration coverage, is that we can change.  A couple hundred years ago there were slaves being sold in the place where the crowds have gathered in Washington DC. 144 years ago a civial war raged across the United States partially over slavery.  50 or so years ago black americans were considered second class citizens.  41 years ago Dr. Matin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

Yet we as Americans can change.

We elected an African American to be the President and leader of our country.

We can change.

The question is… are you willing to change?

You might say, Ben, what does this have to do with my business?

It has EVERYTHING to do with your business.  What kind of baggage are your bringing into your business on a daily basis?  What kind of fears and doubts or anger are you bringing into your business?

Can you change?  or a better question is… are you willing to change?

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 24% [?]

Anyone want to meet me in Tampa Florida on Saturday?

I’m flying down for an event with Send Out Cards.

If you want to meet up just give me a ring or send me an email using the contact form.

- Ben

Popularity: 23% [?]

As I’ve been discussing recently one of the most important things you can do for your MLM enterprise in 2009 is to start with a business plan. (see the business plan category for related posts.)

So far I’ve come up with a little over 30 different things to work on in 2009.  I’m going to attempt to do these myself.  You might find some ideas here that are things you’re interested in. You also might be able to share some comments and give me some new ideas.  Please do!

This is week 25-36… the first 12 weeks can be found here, weeks 13-24 can be found here.

Week 25 Join some link / advertising exchanges
Week 26 Buy some text links
Week 27 Setup Google PPC Advertising
Week 28 Live everyday like it’s your last
Week 29 Recognize someone on your team that deserves recognition
Week 30 Hire an accountant
Week 31 Hire a virtual assistant
Week 32 Incorporate your business
Week 33 Join a networking group, like BNI
Week 34 Hire a PR Firm
Week 35 Write an ebook
Week 36 Setup a mailing list with an autoresponder

That’s all I have so far for 2009, but I’m sure I can find a few more things to add.  Do you have any ideas on things I can add to my action plan?

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 29% [?]

As I’ve been discussing recently one of the most important things you can do for your MLM enterprise in 2009 is to start with a business plan. (see the business plan category for related posts.)

I’m still working on my plan of action for 2009 but so far I’ve come up with about 30 ideas for ways to expand my business.  I’m planning to break these down into 1 activity per week.  I thought I’d share some of my ideas with you and each week I’ll blog about them.  It will help hold me accountable and you might find this information useful.

This is week 13-24… the first 12 weeks can be found here.

Week 13 Do a press release and submit to PRWeb
Week 14 Make everything you do a training for someone on your team
Week 15 Attend an expo as a guest and befriend 5 vendors
Week 16 Take a vacation
Week 17 Develop a  Massive Action Plan for 90 days
Week 18 Give to charity
Week 19 Create a new blog
Week 20 Comment on other blogs
Week 21 Get yourself a business or life coach
Week 22 Be accountable to someone else
Week 23 Attend your company convention
Week 24 Travel to meet your team in their local enviorment

Come back tomorrow and I’ll share some more ideas I have for my business plan for 2009.

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 27% [?]

As I’ve been discussing recently one of the most important things you can do for your MLM enterprise in 2009 is to start with a business plan. (see the business plan category for related posts.)

I’m still working on my plan of action for 2009 but so far I’ve come up with about 30 ideas for ways to expand my business.  I’m planning to break these down into 1 activity per week.  I thought I’d share some of my ideas with you and each week I’ll blog about them.  It will help hold me accountable and you might find this information useful.

Here are the first few action items from my 2009 business plan. (I may re-arrange the order of some of these…)

Week 1 finish business plan for 2009
Week 2 Take 1 Step that makes me uncomfortable
Week 3 Go to 1 personal development seminar
Week 4 Talk to 10 people I’d normally be afraid to approach
Week 5 Look up some old friends
Week 6 Make some new friends (join some new organizations? perhaps?)
Week 7 Send thank you cards
Week 8 Send unexpected cards to my customers/downline
Week 9 Help 1 networker from another company
Week 10 Work with the willing
Week 11 Build a new marketing web site
Week 12 Write some articles and submit them ezine directories…

Come back tomorrow and I’ll share some more ideas I have for my business plan for 2009.

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 25% [?]

Here is a real powerful way to use blogs.

Go to all the free blog sites and setup a blog.

WordPress.com
Blogger.com
Myspace.com
thoughts.com
livejournal.com
clearblogs.com

(Note I haven’t Thoughts.com or Clearblogs.com before. I googled “free blog” to see what I could find. I will try them out though.)

There are many many more.

Now even if you don’t post to them regularly, post to them a few times.  In one day you can write say 10 posts. Then “post date” them to come out once a week over the next 10 weeks.

In your blog posts link to your main web site.

Now submit each of these blogs to rss directories and blog search engines.

The way this works is like the spokes on a wheel.  You have 5 freebie blogs (or more) that all point back to your main web site.  Don’t link your main web site back to the blogs only link one way.

This way you’re passing your link juice to your main web site.

You also don’t want to waste your link juice pointing at your company web site. You want to point to a unique web site that you and only you own.

Does that make sense?

So in my case I’d setup a bunch of blogs and point them all to my custom greeting card guy web site. NOT my Send Out Cards corporate web site.  If I point it to my corporate web site I’m just passing all my link juice to the corporate web site not to my own sites. AND the corporate web site doesn’t need any more link juice!

Popularity: 22% [?]