Top MLM List

Dear readers,

A  couple days ago I wrote about viral list builders.

A friend emailed me to ask about promoting his business opportunity on these email list building sites.  Very rightly he suggested that he might not want to promote his business opportunity.

Why wouldn’t you want to promote your business opportunity?

Well first of all most of the people on these sites like viral list builders and traffic exchanges already have a business opportunity they are involved in.  They get started with these programs to find more people for their business… but they’re marketing to people who already have a business.

If the reader of your emails has a business already why would he want to join a new one?  There are many reasons, not necessarily good ones:

• He might be struggling in his existing business and looking for something “better”
• He might be a program jumper that jumps from program to program every week or month
• He might be joining your program to reverse recruit you and recruit your downline
• He might think he has to join something “new”, “just launched”, or “pre-launch” to succeed
• He might think you are better able to help him in his business than his existing sponsor/team
• He might want to try a “team” approach
• He might have done the business before and want to try it again with a different sponsor/team
• He might want to setup multiple income streams
• He might want to use the product and being business oriented might want to make a little from referrals

Now… Take a look at that list.  Unfortunately half the reasons for joining another business are bad ones.  Unfortunately on viral list builders and traffic exchanges the majority of people are novices or are struggling in their business.  Many of them are brainwashed into thinking they have to join something “new” or “pre-launch”.  Many of them are looking for something bigger and better than what they have now.

You might say, well ok. I want to sponsor them into my business and make some money off them before they leave… Well that might make you some short term money but it won’t help you in the long term. Getting a bunch of “program jumpers” into your business will work great this month, but what happens next month when they all jump to something new.  You’ll lose a lot of your income.

In addition your legitimate business will have to compete against the online scams that promise you can make $36 million with a $10 investment or you can drive your dream car with only a $20 investment, etc.  It is hard to compete against those scams. The scam owners spend $20,000 to $50,000 to build a new splash page/web site and setup a new scam.  They rip people off for a month or a few months (and may even pay a few people) before they run off with all the money.  Meanwhile they’ve already setup their next scam so they launch a new scam. They get those few people they paid off to help them promote it (and why wouldn’t they, they made several thousand dollars before?)  The problem is most people get ripped off.

So what do you do?

Well you start by learning to promote the right things.

Next post I’ll give you some ideas about what the right kind of things to promote are.  I’ll tell you how by promoting the right things and helping people out you can build trust and expertise with your prospects.  I’ll tell you how you can build your brand and what that means to your marketing efforts in the future.

This is also the kind of thing I describe in my new book Master the Traffic Exchanges. This book will be free and we’ll start giving it away on November 15th . Stay tuned for more info.

- Ben Fitts

PS. This post contains an affiliate link to the viral list builder I recommend.

MLM Training > business opportunity

Dear Readers,

Last week I wrote about how to find your network marketing niche. Most of these examples were product based. What would you do if you wanted to find a niche for the business opportunity?

Let’s use the same set of examples.

If I wanted to find a niche for the business opportunity and I was a college student I would stick with what I know. I’d target other college students who want extra money. I’d target college students who want to earn money to travel Europe or go to Spring Break. I’d target disenfranchised college students who are learning about things like Rich Dad Poor Dad and the stuff that they aren’t taught in school.

If I wanted to find a niche for the business opportunity and I was a new mom I’d target other expectant mothers, new moms, etc. I’d talk about the unique aspects of trying to juggle the requirements of being a mom and having a job. Maybe I’d talk specifically to those moms that want to have more time to be with their family and eventually not have a job at all. Maybe I would talk to moms who home school their kids and want to make a little extra money. Maybe I’d talk about moms who have a fear of getting laid off from work. Maybe I’d talk about moms who don’t get enough maternity leave.

That’s just young moms. What about the moms that are getting older? What about the moms putting kids through college? What about moms who are afraid that retirement is getting closer but they don’t have enough money in their retirement accounts? What about the moms who are divorced and now have to live off one income?

I think you’re beginning to get the picture! There are a lot of niches where you can target the business opportunity. Many of these niches also go hand in hand with the products you sell.

Next time I’ll share some ideas on how to find your own niche.

In the meantime if you want more information you can get my 44 page ebook, Nichework Marketing.

Good Luck in your business this week!
Ben Fitts

MLM Training > business opportunity

Before joining a business opportunity, consider these things.

1. Would I join this even if it didn’t have a business opportunity associated with it?
2. Will this product be around 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years from now?
3. Does the product risk of bring priced to zero (or close enough to not matter) like long distance has become as a result of VOIP?
4. Is your product at risk of being superseded by technology / competition?

These are some important factors I know many people are not considering when they join MLM opportunities.  I have been approached in the last 7 days with 5 different opportunities which 4 of the 5 wouldn’t even pass these 4 questions above.

Question 1: Would I join even if it didn’t have a business opportunity associated with it?

To me this is very important.  If the product is good enough people will join without an opportunity to make money.  If you’re product is this good then you’ll find it much easier to attract customers AND keep your team members involved long term.  If they are only there to make money then a lot of your team members will give up and quit, jump to the latest greatest fad, etc.

Question 2: Will this product be around 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years from now?

Again another important item.  For example a lot of people are pitching opportunities that probably won’t even last a year, and if they are lucky might last 3 years.  However they will almost certainly not be around 10 years from now.  How can you develop true long term residual income from a business that won’t be around for 3 years?  Look at the Beatles. The Beatles catalog of music still generates millions of dollars in royalties annually but the Beatles broke up as a band in 1970.  That is true residual income.

Question 3: Does the product risk of bring priced to zero (or close enough to not matter) like long distance has become as a result of VOIP?

There is a big name company right now that has made their Billions selling technology related products like this but they are products that are becoming so cheap they are becoming commodities. This means that the quality of the product from any vendor is the same and the price gets driven lower and lower.  Take long distance as an example.  We now have VOIP based phone services that can give you an unlimited amount of calling for $20 a month.  In fact some services such as Skype for your computer or Magic Jack promise to give you an unlimited amount of calling for $20 a YEAR.  Now this company is selling video phones which require a service commitment of $20 a month for 2 years.  Meanwhile the same video phone type services can be had by software programs like Skype. Certainly within the 2 year time frame of a customer’s contract even more services are going to come up offering services for little to no cost.  Why would someone commit to $480 for video phone services when they could get similar services at little or no cost!  Now the company needs to develop another new technology or advantage to keep them ahead of the market.

Question 4: Is your product at risk of being superseded by technology / competition?

Another new fad are these web site based MLMs.  They basically buy off the shelf software and slap together an MLM.  The most recent are the ones that promise to be the next Facebook but pay you money.  Guess what?  Even Facebook probably won’t be around in 5 years.  Think about it.  5 years ago Myspace was hot.  Everyone was talking about it.  Now it’s Facebook.  In 5 years it will be something else.

First of all you’re assuming these guys have a clue at how to put together a social network.  Again most don’t. Most are buying off the shelf software to make a social network.  They are simply targetting opportunity seekers so you get a network full of MLMers.  This always fails because the MLMers just target one another.  It becomes a big spam fest.  Only a few people have ever managed to do this successfully and they haven’t done it with an opportunity. They did it around training for networkers.  The amount of content outweighed the amount of spam.

Someone just talked to me about a new social network… guess what it looks like a clone of?  Wowzza.  Wowzza is a social networking MLM I talked about in April 2008.  In the spring of 2008 it was really popular but by the end of 2008 my prediction was coming true.  The fad was over and only a few dozen people were joining a day.  In the heyday of Wowzza dozens of people were joining every minute and thousands were joining every day.  BUT the product sucked and it mostly attracted opportunity seekers.  Once they found out the product sucked and the promised spillover wasn’t what they expected they quickly dropped out.

The point of all this isn’t that every opportunity is bad. There are some good ones out there.  However if you want to build TRUE RESIDUAL INCOME then you want to make sure you are getting involved in an opportunity that is going to be around for awhile.  Take a close look at the products too, not just the opportunity.  Make sure this is something that can generate income for you 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years down the road.

If you have any questions about a specific opportunity I’d be happy to take a look at it for you.

- Ben Fitts

MLM Training > business opportunity

You might read the headline and think I’ve gotten started in a travel company. LOL.

In fact it’s quite the opposite.

I wonder if people who work in the airline industry are open to opportunity?  Think about it…

US Airways now charges per bag.  They also now charge for drinks. $2 for soda and $7 for beer or cocktails.

How would you like to be a flight attendant these days?

US Airways flight attendants are basically airbornne cashiers.  All they do is go up and down the aisles collecting money. Not to mention the passengers aren’t happy at all the extra fees.  I bet they’re dealing with more unhappy people than ever before.

Think about the dreams those flight attendants had of seeing the world and now they’re basically a fast food cashier at 30,000 feet.

Not very glamourous is it.

I wonder how many people in the airline industry are looking for a better opportunity to change their quality of life?

How can we reach out to people in the airline industry?

Any ideas?

- Ben Fitts
Learn more about me and my business here.

MLM Training > business opportunity