How can I assist you in your network marketing business?

What do you want to know more about?

What kind of tools or skills do you want me to cover?

Leave me a comment (to the right of this post) and let me know!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 17% [?]

Hi Readers,

This is your last chance to meet me this weekend in Atlanta!

I’ll be in Atlanta from Friday the 29th to Sunday the 31st.  It would be great to meet you.  Use the “contact form” if you’d like to get together this weekend. Ok?

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 18% [?]

Dear Readers,

I want to continue our conversation from yesterday about the Residual Income game and tools to grow your Network Marketing business.

RI Training provides several other helpful tools for growing your MLM business. RI Training’s staff holds a series of skills training calls where they go over 50 key skills. This skill training is free and is available every week on Thursday afternoon. The recordings are also kept online for several days so you can listen to them even if you missed the training.

You can sign up for the skill training calls here. If you do sign up using my link they will send you a $5 coupon towards our next training tool…

The Personal Effectiveness Profile – personal skills assessment. This skills assessment is a series of questions you answer about your network marketing skills. The assessment scores you in 50 critical skill areas ranging from your ability to communicate effectively with others to understanding your company’s compensation plan.

One of the great things about the PEProfile is that you can email copies of your score to your upline. This allows your upline to see how you rate yourself and to learn what your perceive your strong and weak points to be. In working with my team I’ve discovered a lot of simple things I can work with my team members on to make them more effective at presenting the business to others.

The idea being that the more skills you have the better you are at presenting the business and building a team. When you play the Residual Income game for example you have Personal Effectiveness Points. The more points you have the better you are when you speak to a group of 10 people at getting them to purchase your products. The more points you have the better you are when doing business presentations for your team.

The PEProfile skills assessment allows you to have a mechanism for tracking someone’s effectiveness and helping them become more effective. The PEProfile skills assessment is only $30. (get yours here) That way it’s affordable to anyone on your team AND anyone that is serious should be willing to do the assessment. If you have a big team and find it hard to know who to work with… this is one tool you can use to determine who is serious about their business and who is wasting your time.

Whether or not you play the Residual Income game, listen to the RI Training skills teleseminars, or do the PEProfile skills assessment you’ll find the tools provided by RI Training to be top notch.

One more tip… You can use these tools for things other than training your team! You can use these tools as bait for other network marketers! You could host game nights to show other networkers or for friends and family that were interested in developing some extra income.

I hope you like the game and if you’re in CT or you’re in Atlanta (next weekend) let me know. I’d be happy to play the game with you.

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 18% [?]

Hi Readers,

Let’s continue our series of trainings on tools to grow your MLM business.

A few months ago I was introduced to a series of training tools specifically for the direct sales and MLM industry.  The flagship training tool is a game about the direct sales industry. If you’re familiar with Robert Kiyosaki then you might be familiar with the Cashflow games.  This game is a lot like Cashflow but in it you build a direct sales/network marketing business.

In Residual Income you start out with a profession. You could be a teacher, a landscaper, a house wife, a corporate executive, or even a plumber. You have a job income and expenses. You also have a number of prospects and personal effectiveness points (or skills) based on your profession. Your goal is to go around the game board and build your network marketing business. As you build your business your income goes up and you earn promotions in your company eventually allowing you to quit your job and pursue your business full-time.

One of the really cool aspects of the game is that there are several tasks you can do to grow your business. The game doesn’t pick the tasks for you. Often you have to pick between prospecting, personal development, or team development. This choice provides some really powerful insight into why certain people are failing in their business. Sometimes people spend too much time trying to build a team BEFORE they have a team. Other times they don’t spend enough time prospecting and quickly run out of prospects.

Another great aspect of the game is that the game provides ideas for people. The cards that each player draws often have new ideas or techniques on them. Some cards are “practice” cards which include scripts that your team members have to practice on other people. This is both a great training because some of the scripts might be useable by your team members and also provides good practice so they can begin to get comfortable talking to others. Finally some cards provide tasks like making lists of dreams and goals or performing memory joggers to find new prospects.

The Residual Income game is only one of the training tools provided by RI Technologies. Tomorrow I’ll talk about some of the other training tools they provide.

- Ben Fitts

PS. Use this link to check out the Residual Income game and also sign up for their free skills training series. I know you’ll be as pleased as we have been with the results in our team.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Hello readers,

I hope you have been enjoying my series on tools to grow your network marketing business.

This week I want to talk about one of my favorite tools, webinar services.

One of my mentors in network marketing told me that everything I do should be a training.  This applies itself wonderfully if you have a local team and you can go out and meet prospects and do business presentations together.  However, what do you do if you work on the internet? What if your team members are spread all over the world?

That is why you should investigate webinars.

A webinar is a software program that allows your team to watch on the internet as you do things on your computer.  At it’s most basic level you can show powerpoint presentations and your team can listen in over the web or over the telephone while they watch on their computer screen. If you do a lot of internet related stuff you can turn this into a full on training session.  You can show someone how to use your web site, how to use their back office, or even give internet marketing lessons.  Your team can see your computer desktop while you are training them.  They can see your web browser or your software and learn by watching you.  It is a very powerful training method!

Best of all some webinar services allow you to record the training.  The training is recorded as a Flash movie that you can put up on a web page for your team members that missed your training session.  If the training was complicated your team can refer back to the training over and over again.  New members joining your team six months or a year later can benefit from your “library” of trainings that you recorded.

There are some webinar services out there which are really crap and are just sold because their is an MLM component to them.  The webinar service I use is the best in the business. My favorite webinar software is from Citrix. They make GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.

With GoToMeeting you can host up to 25 people at a time. With GoToWebinar you can host up to 1000 people at a time!  They include teleconference lines and the ability for people to listen in using VOIP. We use it a lot to build our international business and save our team members money since they can just watch and listen over the web.

You can try GoToMeeting: Free for 30 days and host meetings of up to 25 people at a time. You can also try GoToWebinar for 30 days to host meetings of up to 1,000 people.
These webinar services can be powerful ways to train your organization or do sales presentations. They also allow you to record the webinar and make it available as a flash video that people can watch over the internet.  I’ve even called this my favorite training tool!

I hope you like it!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 20% [?]

Dear readers,

One of the tools that I sometimes take for granted in my MLM business is conference calling services.  As you become a leader you will find lots of reasons to use conference calling services.  Essentially any time you have more than 3 people you will need a conference calling service. Some of these might be:

1. Training Your Downline
2. Hosting Business/Sales presentations for large groups
3. Planning events with your team leaders

I have an up and coming leader who is hosting business presentations in her area.  Before the business presentation we like to do a conference call with her team to get them excited for the event.  This helps build anticipation and makes sure that everyone is working their hardest to get people to the event.

There are many free conference calling services available.  I’ve had the opportunity to use a couple.  Usually they provide free calling services for 100 to 200 people.  Sometimes they lack the features of the paid conference calling services, but usually the free services are fine as long as you don’t mind an announcement that says “this calling service was provided free by…”

The free service I am currently using is called FreeConferenceCalling.com.  They offer a lot of great features including the ability to record your conference calls so your team members that missed the call can still benefit from the training.

For a little bit higher end service I use InstantTeleseminar.Com.  They offer a $1 trial and then their service is $47 a month.  One of the reasons why I like their service is they also provide a series of web interfaces that allow the listener to listen over the web as well as on the phone.  They also offer a web page where your listeners can type in questions over the web.  Best of all at the end of your teleseminar they can automatically replace the web page with the recordings of your teleseminar. It’s a pretty cool service and it’s what I’m using for Home Business Interviews.

Having your own conference line gives you a professional image and allows you to better train and facilitate your team members.  Getting a conference line is free so there really is no excuse for any leader to not have one!  You’ll find a ton of opportunities to use your conference line!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 19% [?]

Hi readers,

Next weekend I will be in Atlanta to attend a personal development seminar and support some of my team members.   I’d love to meet you while I’m there.

Are you interested in personal development?
Are you interested in the law of attraction?
Are you interested in goal setting?

Or would you simply like to hang out with me and chat?

Or maybe you’d like to play the “residual income” game with me?  (It is a direct selling game that is one of the most innovative and fun training tools I have ever seen.)

If so let me know!  Use this link to contact me. I’ll be in Atlanta May 29th-31st.

See you soon!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 19% [?]

I’ve recently written a couple of articles on using email autoresponders and mailing lists to grow your business.  You can see the first article here, and the second article here.

One of our readers, Mark Stevens suggested that I talk about anti-spam laws and how that applies to what you are doing with your email.

Sometimes you may not think that spam laws apply to you in your MLM business.  However this is not true! Spam laws apply to you as much as they apply to big retail firms and corporations.  You need to be aware of the laws.

In the USA the most important legislation about what is legitimate bulk email or what is spam is called the CAN-SPAM Act.

What the Law Requires

Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:

• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
• It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
• It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

  Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
  
  

• It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

Basically this means that you need to send legitimate mail and not fake your emails.  You can’t fake your address so that it appears to be coming from someone else.  You also need to make sure your email matches your subject line.  You need an opt-out method for people to easily opt out and it needs to be identified as a commercial email and include your physical postal address.

One of the advantages of using email services like Aweber for your mailing lists and autoresponders is that they take care of the last two issues for you.  Aweber will automatically put in a footer at the bottom of your emails with your physical address.  Aweber also puts in a link for people to easily opt-out of your emails. I know a lot of network marketers try and start sending email from their free email accounts.  They definitely don’t list their real address and they don’t have an easy way for people to opt out.  Guess what? This means you could be liable of a fine of up to $11,000 for the FIRST offense.  So make sure if you are doing bulk email you use a legitimate email provider that protects you!

The other thing that Aweber encourages you to do is use double opt in.  What this means is that when someone subscribes to your list they have to confirm by responding to an email.  Usually by clicking a link in the email to confirm that they do wish to be on your mailing list. This is another method of protecting you from spam complaints.

The downside of double opt in is that a lot of people fill out the form to get on your list but don’t confirm the email. This means they never get your messages.  It can be caused by people using dumb spam filters. It can be caused by someone accidentally deleting a message. It can also be caused by people who typo or other things.

Double opt in is not a requirement by the FTC but it is suggested.  By using double opt in you ensure that the people on your list really want to be there.

Double opt in effects network marketers because a lot of network marketers buy leads.  They want to dump the leads into an autoresponder and sit back and wait for the phone to ring… They don’t want to have to confirm them by using double opt in. Unfortunately since you often don’t know where the leads are coming from, how fresh they are, etc.  Dumping them into an autoresponder without asking them to confirm whether or not they want to get email from you often leads to a lot of spam complaints!  Services like Aweber won’t let you import names UNLESS you send them a confirmation email to see if they really want to get on your mailing list.

I think one reason why people like Get Response is they can import names without confirming them as long as the leads company provides some basic information on where the lead came from.  I’m not sure about that though. You might want to check with Get Response.  Basically I don’t use leads and don’t do that crap with autoresponders anyway. I’d rather build relationships with people so I can’t really give you advice on that.  Maybe someone else can comment on a good mailing list provider for people who want to bulk import leads lists?

Another quick tip for you…

Use a REAL email address in your emails and ask people to reply back to you.  Most email lists come from an email address like do-not-respond@myemail.com.  My friend Jack told me to use a real email address and solicit my list members to get them to reply back.  When I started to do that I found that they were surprised that it was a real email address and I would really reply to their messages.  It makes you stand out from the crowd and remember… my philosophy is we’re building relationships.  Replying back to their emails certainly helps build that relationship and gets them more involved in your mailing list.

So Mark, did I do a good job of covering anti-spam and can spam laws?  Let me know!

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 21% [?]

Yesterday I wrote about some tools to help grow your network marketing business including mailing lists and email autoresponders.

I wanted to take today to go into a little bit more depth on how I actually use those tools and how you can use them to grow your MLM business.

As I mentioned yesterday I use Aweber for my mailing lists and email autoresponders.  Aweber is a great service that allows me to create an unlimited number of mailing lists.  I can then associate a series of automatic emails with that list, create broadcast (sent only one time) messages, or even connect it to my blog to automatically update my list every time I write to my blog.

Most people think of network marketing and they immediately think of a lead capture page on the internet that leads to an autoresponder series.  Usually these lead capture pages offer something for free like 5 tips on getting more traffic to your web site, 10 tips on making money from home, etc.  The “tips” are nothing more than a series of emails.  The emails are setup so that day 1, you get the first email with a “tip”. Day 2, you get the second email with a “tip” in it.

When they join your autoresponder this is really nothing more than a mailing list which has some pre-configured emails that go out.   You setup how many emails you want to go out and how often they are sent.

One of things I wanted to do with this series of articles is to get you thinking outside of the box.  There are a lot of other ways to use the autoresponder.

I do a couple of things with autoresponders that you might want to copy.

1. I use a greeting card system that works like an email autoresponder but sends a physical greeting card in the mail.  I can set it to send a card every couple of days or once a month or whatever.  I can also send postcards using this system.
2. I send a follow up series to every customer.  I first send them a thank you.  A little while later I send them a “just checking in” to make sure they are happy with their purchase.  Then I occasionally send them reminders about other features and products and I always remind them that I am here to answer any questions they have.  I want to build a relationship with each customer because they are really the backbone of our business (and some good distributors come from customers who upgrade.)
3. I send a follow up series to every new distributor.  The fact is some distributors like to go slow.  Some distributors like to go fast. My goal is to find the ones that want to go fast, but I don’t want to leave out the ones that want to go slow.  So I get all of them onto  my training series.  Either an email autoresponder series of 14-15 trainings or a series of greeting cards (usually both email and cards).  Each mailing tells them about a different training tool or important aspect of the business. My goal is to give everyone the tools they need to succeed and I don’t want anyone to say I wasn’t willing to help.  In each autoresponder/greeting card is my personal information so they can get in touch with me, when they are ready.

When you are thinking about implementing autoresponders in your business, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.  You might use a tool like Aweber to do email autoresponders but also use a tool like a greeting card autoresponder to send physical cards. You should also use these tools, not just for prospects, but for people who are actively involved in your business.  They can be a great resource and training tool for current customers or distributors.

- Ben Fitts

PS. Mark mentioned I should talk about anti-spam laws… so that’s what I’ll talk about next.  Thanks Mark!

Popularity: 22% [?]

I thought I’d start a series of emails discussing tools I’ve found really helpful in building my MLM enterprise. I take it for granted sometimes that everyone has been doing this as long as I have and has access to all the same tools I have to build my business. In this series I am going to provide some links to some of the tools I suggest you utilize in your business.

Let’s start by talking about email. One of the very best tools you can use to keep in touch with your team members as well as to prospect is email. Some common uses for email are:

1. Autoresponder series for prospects
2. Autoresponder “getting started” series for new team members
3. Autoresponder “getting started” series for customers to check in with them occasionally and make sure they are happy
4. Email announcements for big events, training calls, etc.
5. Two way discussion list for team members to chat, ask questions, help one another, etc.

IMPORTANT
Don’t use a free email account. If you do get a domain name to point to your email address. You can get a free email redirect and direct your email to go to your Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, etc. It looks more professional.

IMPORTANT TIP #2
Make sure you don’t send bulk email from your personal account. Also make sure you don’t send bulk email from your desktop. It’s easy to download free software like Worldmerge and blast out emails from your desktop but to the email anti-spam companies it looks like junk mail. Even if they opted in to your emails or asked for your email it looks like spam. The only computers that should send email are email servers. Your desktop computer connects to an email server to send mail. It shouldn’t send mail directly. It’s complicated but basically this is how a lot of spam is sent. Viruses take over people’s home computers and blast out spam.

IMPORTANT TIP #3
The best way to send email is to send all your email through a professional email service! They get paid to deliver your emails. They get paid to check and see if your mail is flagged as spam, etc. These services can ensure your emails get through.

Email Service & Autoresponder
The email service provider I use is called Aweber.  The way Aweber works is pretty cool. They have the ability to setup autoresponders or to send regular emails.  So you could setup a basic autoresponder series for new team members then blast out “broadcast” emails when you have an important announcement or training coming up.  Another really cool feature is you can connect your Aweber email list to a blog’s rss feed.  This means that Aweber can send all your blog posts to your mailing list. You don’t have do anything it does it automatically.

2 Way Mailing List
The two way mailing list we use is jYahoo Groups.  You can create a Yahoo group for free.  Make sure you set your list to moderate new members.  One problem we’ve found is that people from other teams will try and join your group.  This can lead to a lot of extra headaches and problems.  Plus you want to be able to prevent people from joining your group and spamming the group.  The Yahoo group allows people a web interface to check the mailing list and it also sends out emails.  People can get emails as they happen or they can get a daily digest of all the emails from the previous day.  The Yahoo group also has an area where you can store files like training materials, flyers, documents, etc to share with your teams.

Some other email tools
If you want to try a different mailing list service and generate real pretty emails from templates then check out Constant Contact. They have a really nice template system for creating things like email newsletters.  I don’t know if they allow autoresponders.

Another popular autoresponder for network marketers is Get Response.  The features of Get Response and Aweber are very similar. You can do autoresponders, broadcast emails, and also automatic emails from your blog.  One reason why so many network marketers like Get Response is the easy importing of leads into their system.

Finally, if you’re a bit technical and want to host your own email list then there is a free php script called PHP List.  You need your own web site to install it on.  One advantage of PHP List is you can import your own names (good for those of you that buy leads.)  The downside is mailing from your own web site can lead to spam complaints that eventually lead to your web site being blacklisted. I consider using PHP List to be a waste of time.  Since you can use Aweber or Get Response for $20 a month why pay $8 or $10 a month for web hosting and running your own list.  It isn’t worth the time effort, the frustration, the spam complaints, etc.

- Ben Fitts
PS. Tomorrow I’ll talk a little bit more about how I use Aweber in my business.

Popularity: 21% [?]