The marketing tool is a lead capture page which promotes a free audio CD from Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki.  The cd talks about the importance of owning your own business and how network marketing is a very affordable way to get started and learn business.

I haven’t pushed a lot of traffic to it, but what I have done is pretty promising so far.  I have sent 46 hits to the site and 3 of them converted. They “purchased” the free cd.  I say purchased because they do have to pay for shipping and handling.  So this means roughly 1 in 15 hits are converting into a prospect.

That’s pretty darn promising and I am going to send some more traffic to the site to see what happens.

Meanwhile they are holding a Webinar for affiliates on how to use the Free Robert Kiyosaki CD.  The webinar is Sunday November 23rd.  If you’re curious about how to use this marketing tool then click the link above to register for the free webinar.

I think you’ll be pleased!

- Ben Fitts

My friend Dvorah from Electronic Marketing Magic shared this link with me.  She found this site called Tweet Later.

Tweet Later is cool because it allows you to send a private message back to anyone who follows you on twitter.  This is one way you can add in a little self promotion and advertising.  I reply back with a link for people to check out my web site.  It also allows you to send out a public reply welcoming your new followers once per day.  This helps them get a little exposure too. Finally it allows you to auto-follow your new twitter followers.

It looks like the service is free, so that’s pretty awesome.

Check out Tweet Later.  It’s very COOL.

- Ben Fitts

http://www.twitter.com/benfitts

I’ve been considering putting these on my car.  I had a sign on the back window of my car before but it probably wasn’t the best sign, the best message, etc.

I did find these cool business card caddies.  You stick it to the side of your card where your vehicle wrap/text is.  It displays your business card and allows people to take a card.

Often times when people see your sign on your vehicle they don’t have a way to write your information down.  This way they can take a card with them.

One of my downline started using these card caddies and already has gotten a good response.  I just ordered 4 for myself.  2 for each of my cars.

http://www.cardcaddie.com

This is not an affiliate link.  I just think it’s really cool and you guys could all benefit from it.

- Ben Fitts

Just yesterday of my team asked me about a card campaign they were going to send out and it lacked a little bit of the WIIFM factor.  She probably could have benefited from this great info.

Here it is…

Today, a taste of Tom Hoobyar’s Word Magic for Copywriters course.
This comes from a section of the special bonus report titled
“7 Sales Killers & 10 Sales Winners”:

TEN WORDS MOST OFTEN USED IN SUCCESSFUL HEADLINES

Most Master-level copywriting courses include dozens and sometimes
hundreds of headlines. They are valuable as templates, and classic
ad headlines can be tailored to new product or service offerings and
never get tired.

The following words have already made millions of dollars in successful
sales for close to a century. This list is useful if you’re writing your own
headline, and want it to be a winner.

Remember, everyone is listening to their favorite mental “radio station”

W.I.I.F.M., which stands for “What’s in it for me?”

1) You - The most important person in the world

2) Your - The most important possessor in the world

3) How - Monkey curiosity bump, scratched here

4) New - Oh? Really? Am I one of the first to know?

5) Who - This one frequently begins, “Who else wants to …” and
continues with “become rich without working?” “have a million dollar
smile for a fraction of the cost?”

6) Money - no one ever has enough, even billionaires, so this is a
strong hook.

7) Now - time is related to money in most people’s minds. So,
better pay attention to whatever is being announced “Now.”

People - Hey! That’s me! I’m people; maybe this is addressed to me.

9) Want - We all want more. And different. And new.

10) Why - Monkey curiosity again. The answer to this question is
always “because.”

To see the rest, just click here:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/magic/

Perry Marshall

P.S.: You can hear the MP3 of my whole conversation with
Tom at http://www.perrymarshall.com/magic/download.htm

One of the things they talked about… and this is kinda esoteric stuff.

They were breaking boards.  Like Karate kind of stuff.  BUT the people breaking boards were people with no karate background and yet they were breaking two boards.

One thing they said was that the board doesn’t care if it breaks or not.

Your MLM business is the same way.  The universal laws don’t care if you build your MLM business fast or slow. You are the only one who cares.  Your mind is what is holding you back.

If you think you have to build a network marketing business slowly then you will build a business slowly.

If you think most people will say no to you, then most will.

If you think most people won’t have the money to get started, most won’t have the money to get started.

If you want to go fast then you need to change your mindset.  It’s what we call a paradigm shift.  An example of a paradigm is if you wear yellow sunglasses all the time, everything looks yellow.  If you look at a white t-shirt it looks yellow.  All colors are distorted by your yellow sunglasses.  Then if you take the yellow sunglasses off, suddenly everything changes.  You see new colors that you never saw before because you’re no longer wearing those sunglasses.

There is no reason why you have to build your business slowly.  You simply change your mindset and take action.  That’s all there is to it.

I started with new goal statements.

“I am growing fast”

“I am attracting the right people into my business and they are finding me”

“We are the fastest growing team in SOC”

This is how I began. I began by programming my mind.  I then combined this with massive action.  AND that’s why my business is growing fast.

I know it might be difficult for you to understand. You might feel like you don’t “deserve” this. BUT you do. You deserve it as much as anyone else. So make it happen. That’s why I call it esoteric. Some of you reading this just won’t be able to grasp what I’m saying.

The same universal laws that make you go slow can work in your favor and make you go fast.  This is what the Slight Edge is all about.

Do you want to grow fast?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this… Leave me a comment and let me know.

- Ben Fitts

I was reading Dr. Ivan Misner’s book The 29% Solution: 52 Weekly Networking Success Strategies…

And right in the introduction he quotes some of the same research used in Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

Ever hear of the 6 degress of seperation?

The reality is there is no such thing.  This was research done in the 70’s and 80’s where people who had no direct connection were asked to get in touch with a specific person in New York City.  This is where the 6 degrees of seperation comes from, because in the test results the average person took 6 connections to connect with the specific person in New York City.

The reality of the test was that in the best test only 29% of people were able to connect with the specific person.  That means 71% of them failed.

Back to my original point.  Dr Ivan Misner in his book is talking about ways you can improve your networking skills.  He talks about ways that you can become one of the 29% who has enough connections and clout that you can “connect” with anyone.  This is a key to becoming a successful network marketer and these are the kind of people I personally am looking for in my business.  I guess that’s one reason why so many successful network marketers I know are members of BNI.  BNI is a social networking group for business professionals.

BNI is founded by Dr. Ivan Misner the man whose book tells us how to become “mavens” and “connectors” like Malcolm Gladwell speaks about.

Having said all that… and knowing that BNI is a great place to network… I’m going to my first BNI meeting tomorrow!

I’ll keep you posted of my results.

- Ben Fitts

Since Robert Kiyosaki is so well known and has a publishing company with lots of books.  How about making some business cards with your URL to give away your free audio cd.  Then go to the local bookstore and go to the business section and start putting your business cards in the books.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Cashflow Quadrant

Own Your Own Corporation

The Business School for People Who Like Helping People

Etc.

Don’t you think you’d get a few leads?

What about going to the local Robert Kiyosaki events.  Right now they are going around the country holding stock investment seminars.  RK has some new software I think he’s trying to sell so they are hosting free seminars.  What if you went to the local seminar and passed out business cards offering your free Robert Kiyosaki cd?

What other ideas can you come up with for marketing with the Free RichDad cd?

- Ben

We just got a new kitten!  My wife Jennifer fell in love with hairless cats.  Then we became friends with a great local breeder.  We had two cats, Gunther and Tallulah.  Gunther passed away in May and we’ve been hesitant to bring a new cat home…

Yesterday we were visiting our breeder and fell in love with a new kitten.  She’s 5 months old.  Her name is Glinda.  Our breeder (Classical Cats Cattery) names all her cats after Opera’s.  So Glinda is named for the “good witch” from the musical Wicked.

Here are a couple of videos of Glinda playing.

Video #1

Video #2

We’re pretty happy to have found a new member of our family.

- Ben Fitts

The formula for success is quite simple: double your rate of failure.

- Thomas J Watson Sr. (Founder of IBM)

This really so true.  If you want to be successful in anything just do it more.  You want to be a great guitar player?  Play all the time.

Failure is a part of the learning process.  When you start playing guitar you don’t know the chords.  You make lots of mistakes.  You begin playing some “3 chord rock” because it doesn’t take a lot of skill.  Gradually you work your way up to playing harder songs.

In network marketing many of us are afraid to fail.  It’s like we think we have to go out and be great right away.  But professional musicians know they spent hours and hours and hours practicing.  They probably had a teacher helping guide them.  They played in the school band.  Etc.  It took a lot of practice to get to where they are today.

In sales (and network marketing IS SALES) anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.  In sales, we simply have to get a bunch of no’s.  If you are a horrible sales person it will simply take you more sales before someone says yes, BUT eventually someone will say yes.  You simply have to ask enough people to hear enough no’s before you finally find someone who will say yes.  AND along the way you’ll be learning and getting better at selling!

Internet Marketing is the same way.  You build a crappy sales page or lead capture page.  You send a few thousand hits there and find it isn’t converting very well.  So you tweak it and make some changes.  Maybe this sales page or lead capture page does better.  You keep tweaking it until you learn what works and what doesn’t. You make it better and better.  In essence you’re failing over and over and getting better by learning from your lessons.

If you want to be successful in network marketing and MLM just fail faster. 

Talk to more people.  Get more no’s!

- Ben Fitts

Like my training? Check out my business.

In the Tipping Point, Mr Gladwell talks about mavens, connectors, and sales people.

The connector is the person who knows everyone.  He or she is the person who has a thick address book.  They can remember names and faces of all the people they’ve met.  If you needed to ask for a referral you’d ask them because they always know someone.  I have a friend named Al who has 3 businesses.  He grew up in the area and he always seems to “know a guy”.  If I need someone to do some work on my house, he knows a guy.  If I need to get my car repaired, he knows a guy.  Al’s a connector.

Maven’s are people who are willing to freely give advice.  They’ll meet a stranger and share a tip with them.  They’re the person you meet when you are on vacation and they recommend a great little local restaurant to you.  They aren’t looking for anything in return they just genuinely enjoy giving free advice and recommendations to others.

I haven’t been to BNI. (The largest business networking organization)  I build mostly on the internet and find that I don’t have a lot of local leads to share with other members of BNI.  Yet I’m beginning to build locally and I wonder if I am missing out by not participating in BNI.  These are people who have agreed to help share leads with other members of their BNI group.  These are mavens and connectors.

I think I’ve been missing out by not being a part of BNI!

Do you have experience with BNI or LeTip or another business networking group?

I’d love to hear from you!

- Ben Fitts

It works like this.

People go to this web site and see a professionally designed sales page offering to tell them how the rich get rich. It has several photos from Robert and offers the audio cd a $11.97 value for free.

The people click the link and are taken to the form to order the cd.  They pay $3.44 in the US for shipping and handling. The cd is free. You don’t pay anything and the prospect only pays for shipping.

See an example here: http://www.benfitts.com/recommends/freecd

You’re then building a list of prequalified candidates who are getting 3rd party credibility from Robert Kiyosaki aka. Rich Dad Poor Dad.

The system costs $30 then $19.97 a month after that.  They ship an unlimited number of cd’s for you for that price. And of course there’s an affiliate program.  Recommend 3 people to use the system and you get your cd’s free.

It was pretty much a no brainer and I signed up right away and am putting links up on all my web sites.

I’ll keep you posted and let you know how well it works for me.

- Ben Fitts

One of the lessons I’ve learned over the years from sales is that there are 2 big mistakes we make.

1. We give out too much information.

2. We don’t ask for the sale.

I know many of you reading this blog are the analytical types like me.  The alpha types don’t have time to read this blog

When you’re an analytical person you like to have a lot of information. BUT that’s only about 14% of the population.  That means 86% of people need less information than you to make a decision.

Big Al says that stuff is “training” that happens after they sign up to be on your team.  You only need to give them enough information to make a decision then ask for that sale.  Worst case scenario they ask for more information, right?  Or say no.  And saying no is a great thing.  Because now you know you can move on to the next person.

Which leads me to my next point.

If you have a lot of prospects you can’t close, it’s probably because you haven’t asked for the sale. You need to ask for the sale so you can weed out the interested people from those that aren’t interested.

Right now I only have about 5 people on the fence and ALL 5 have committed to joining me.That’s out of dozens of prospects.  I don’t have a lot of people who can’t make a decision.

Why? Because I asked for the sale. I wanted to know if they were serious about joining me or not.  Nothing personal but i only have so much time and I need to know who is interested and who isn’t.  If they aren’t interested I need to move on to the next person.  Someone telling me NO is just as good as someone who tells me YES.  The worst thing I can have is someone who can’t make a decision.

If you learn to master these two simple skills then you’ll find you’re closing a lot more sales and spending a lot less time on the people who aren’t going to make a decision.

What do you think? Do you have some sales techniques that work well for you?

- Ben Fitts
The custom card guy

For me as an entrepeneur a lot of the lessons are things I already knew but they are explained so much better by Jeff.  That’s probably one of the key things is the stories he uses to explain the slight edge.

Take for example someone who is beginning to work out.  One of the reasons why so many people buy gym memberships and quit after a month is that they don’t see the results immediately.

Imagine if a marathon runner did that.  When he is starting out learning to run a marathon he has to start small.  Maybe only a mile at first.  Gradually he increases the distance.  After a month maybe he’s running 3 miles.  Certainly not anywhere close to a marathon! (26 miles!)  After a few months though the runner is now running 8  miles once a week and training 3-4 times a week at shorter distances.  The runner can now feel a difference and begins to know that they can do a marathon. (see training schedules for marathon runners.)

There is an excellent story in the book about the water hyacinth.  The water hyacinth is a flower that grows on the surface of ponds.  The hyacinth doubles every day by reaching out under the water and starting a second stem every day.  If you were to look at a small pond on day 1 you wouldn’t even notice the single water hyacinth.  Yet after just one month the ENTIRE pond surface would be covered.  BUT that’s not the real story.

The real story is that for the first few weeks you’d have to search the surface of the pond to find the small patch of water hyacinth.  On day 15 you’ll see a single square foot of color on the surface where the water hyacinth grows.  On the 20th day (2/3rds of the way through a month) you’ll see a small dense patch of water hyacinth floating on the surface.  About the size of a small mattress.

On day 29 half the pond’s surface will be covered.  It will have taken 29 days to go from one little water hyacinth stem to covering half the pond.

On day 30 the pond will be entirely covered with water hyacinth. You won’t see any water at all.

Now think about that and compare it to your network marketing business.  You’re working hard.  You’re recruiting and building a small team.  It feels like such a struggle. You sponsor people who don’t do anything.  People who join you and seem like they could be a star seem to be in slow motion. You know they have the talent but they aren’t doing anything yet.

That’s the first 20 days of the water hyacinth.  You’re working hard and not seeing as much results as you hoped.

Yet quickly momentum builds.  The water hyacinth goes from a little patch to covering the entire surface of the pond.  In fact in just one day it covers half the surface of the pond!  It goes from only covering half to covering the entire surface in just 24 hours.

That’s momentum in your MLM enterprise.  It takes time to get there, but when you hit momentum your business grows by leaps and bounds.  Your team will grow in short periods of time what it took months or years to achieve as you started your business.  In the last year my downline DOUBLED.  It took 3.5 years to get build a team that size and then over just 1 year it doubled again.  And it will probably double again in 6 months time!

That’s momentum.

It might not feel like it at the beginning as your beginning to build but that consistent daily action is what will grow your business.  Think of the water hyacinth.  On day 1 there was just 1 flower.  On day 2 just 2 flowers.  But day 3 there were 4.  Day 4 there were 8.  Day 5 there were 16.  Day 6 there were 32 flowers.

Don’t give up on day 2.  Don’t stop working your business.

BUILD BUILD BUILD.  Be patient.  Be persistent.  Be a bulldog.  Be ferocious about follow up.  Work with the willing. AND GROW a massive organization

- Ben Fitts

Have you seen the issue of Success from Home featuring my company and 5 of my downline?

What’s funny is I opened it and read the inscription Art put inside the book to congratulate me.  But that’s it.  I didn’t read it.

One of the things that we teach in our business is to read a little bit every day.  Read a good book about business or personal development even just one chapter a day. To be honest I was neglecting that part of my business. I was working on prospecting, following up, training people, and goofing off.  I work from home full time so sometimes I enjoy the fact that I don’t have to work.

Jen was sick last week. (My wife)  So I had to take her to the doctor and was looking for something to read. I saw the book Art Jonak sent me on bookshelf.  I finally picked it up.

Boy what a mistake I made. This is a great book and I suggest it to everyone.

The concepts in the book go back to a topic I’ve written about before… About how consistent daily action is what it really takes to succeed.  Even if it’s just a little bit every day like the idea of reading a chapter of a good business or personal development book every day.  The book discusses how if you read just 10 pages a day you’d have read 3560 pages by the end of one year or about a dozen great books.

There’s a lot more to it than that.

Think about it this way.  Let’s say you work a full time job and have a family.  You only have a small amount of time to put into your business every day.  It’s very important to take the right actions and do it consistently.  Developing new prospects and consistently following up with your existing prospects in your pipeline… Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the activities that aren’t going to impact your business.

It’s like the lady at the beginning of the slight edge.  She had a great personality.  She knew all the employees by name.  Yet in her down time she spent time reading novels instead of books about personal development, finance, business, etc.  Imagine how different her life would have been if she had spent time reading books like that!

It’s not just about reading books.  Over the next couple of days I’ll try and share some more stories with you from the Slight Edge.

Maybe we should start a topic on books you recommend?

- Ben Fitts
Check out my business.

No I don’t mean a multi-level marketing team.

I mean do you have advisers to help you grow your business? People like an accountant, lawyer, financial advisor, and business mentor?

I just hired a new accountant to not only do all my taxes but do all the bookkeeping for my business. So far the guy has cost me $700 but has saved me over $4000 in taxes. Plus because he does all my bookkeeping it frees up my time.  It’s hard to say how much my time is worth but certainly worth $700.  AND the headache. I hate bookkeeping and taxes and I procrastinate because I hate it so much.  On the other hand it makes my wife happy to know that there is a professional watching over my business.  A happy wife is definitely worth $700!

Here is a tip for you.

When you go out to find a team, look small.  Don’t look big.

My wife still has a job. She is a middle manager of an engineering company and reports to the Chief Financial Officer.  So when I was looking for an accountant I asked my wife to talk to her boss.  So I got the name of a big time accounting firm.  The kind of place that has a building in town named after them.

That big accounting firm became my first accountant.  I met with a junior partner of the firm.  They talked about helping me learn Quickbooks and I’d basically send them Quickbook files. It sounded ok. It wasn’t my first choice but it was the first time I ever met with an accountant so I thought it sounded like a good deal. Unfortunately they basically relied on me to do every thing.  I needed to do all the bookkeeping and send them info.  They weren’t very proactive on my account.  They would basically contact me last minute to let me know quarterly taxes were ready.  In some cases they’d contact me so late the only choice was to file an extension. AND I was expected to pay an estimate of what I owe even though we were filing an extension.

Needless to say that wasn’t working out for me and my wife was getting frustrated.  So guess what? We contacted one of those cheesy little accounting firms.  You know the franchise “Liberty Tax“?  They are the ones that have people dress up and stand outside on the street in a Statue of Liberty or Uncle Sam costume during tax season.  It looks a little cheesy but I talked to the guy and I was impressed by him.

So I went to meet the guy from the cheesy little accounting firm.  It turns out he thinks the marketing is cheesy too, but they have done studies that show they get recognition from the people standing out on the street.  So much so that within 1 year of opening an office in an area that they get name brand recognition where you could ask a random person where the nearest liberty tax is and they’d be able to tell you!  That’s pretty good right?

To make a long story a bit shorter… I met with the guy and I was totally impressed by him.  His prices are very reasonable and they can do all my bookkeeping.  They could even pay my bills and such if I want them too.

When you’re looking for a business team don’t get distracted by the glitz of a big agency.  Sometimes for small business owners the little guys are easier to work with and they’ll work harder for you because they are hungry for your business.  The little Liberty Tax guy works harder for me because I’m a bigger part of his business and he knows I can bring him a lot of referrals.  The big accounting firm doesn’t really need my business because they are used to working with large companies that do tens or hundreds of millions in business.

So I’m happy.  I have someone who can do all my bookkeeping and free my time up for the parts of my  business I can’t hire out to other people.

How about you?  Do you have a business team?  Where did you find them?

- Ben Fitts

Does your company have one of these entry level distributor programs that doesn’t really give them the tools they need to succeed?

One of the strategies I use is I encourage my prospects who don’t have money to signup for the full distributor program to sign up as customers instead.  Begin to use the product.  Start to develop their own stories.  Start to develop some referrals.  Begin to act as if they were already a distributor. I start to work with them just like they were a distributor.

One of the reasons most people say they don’t have the money is because their belief system isn’t strong enough.

If you showed them a briefcase full of money and said they could have it in 6 months if they paid $400 now, most of them would find a way to get $400.  They’d hold a garage sale.  They’d borrow money from a friend.  They’d sacrifice in some other areas of their life to save the money to invest.  They’d figure out a way to make it happen.

If you can  get the prospect to start as a customer at the very least you’ll get a customer out of the deal.  If you can get them to begin to develop some referrals then you’re showing them that briefcase.  You’re showing them money they could be getting if they invested in becoming a distributor with your company.  Showing them that they can do it and showing them that people will genuinely be interested in the product or opportunity is one of the ways to get them to increase their belief.

Having people who don’t have money is not a bad thing.  It can be a very strong motivator.  Someone who is really hungry for the business is a great thing.  It’s a very powerful thing and I’d love to have a team full of hungry people who are motivated than a bunch of people who are already successful.

Sometimes the successful people go slower because they aren’t as hungry!  I have on my team a few people who have a lot of experience and already own very profitable businesses.  These people have the contacts and the skills to be successful but they’re already so busy and they don’t have a strong need for another income stream.  Sometimes they can be the most frustrating to work with because they don’t “need” this business.  I’d almost rather have someone who is hungry and motivated.  They’ll be more likely to get to work quickly.

What do you do with people who say they don’t have enough money?

- Ben Fitts

The Custom Greeting Card Guy

Some people get all caught up in he facts and figures, the numbers, the unique qualities of the product, etc.  MOST people don’t care about that stuff.  About 14% of the people you talk to are of the personality type where that stuff matters.  The other 86% could care less.  Some of them will be immediately turned off if you start to talk about your ingredients, your manufacturing process, etc.

So how can you sell better?

Learn to tell stories.  Learn to paint word pictures.

Tell stories of people who have used your product and had great success with it.

Suzie, one of my customers is in the construction business.  She sells products to contractors and with our recession and the down turn in the real estate market most contractors are struggling.  You might think Suzie is struggling too because her job is to sell to contractors who don’t have enough money, have to lay off employees, etc.  However a few months ago Suzie started to use our product.  She started sending cards just to check in with her customers and see how they were doing.  Her customers realized Suzie really wanted to help them and they ended up ordering more products than ever from Suzie.  While Suzie’s competitors are all struggling, Suzie is doing better than ever now that she started to use our greeting card follow up system.

Tell stories of how having a home business has changed your life.

About a year and a half ago I was working a job and building my business part-time.  My business had grown to be very successful and I was very busy trying to keep up with both the job and the business. Our annual reviews had come up and my boss called me into his office. I sat in the chair with confidence because I knew no matter what he said it wouldn’t matter.  I had a great review but that didn’t matter any more to me because I knew I was about to tell him that he couldn’t pay me enough.  That coming to work every day was costing me money and it was time I went full time in my business.  It was a great feeling!

Would you like to be able to have a story like these to tell your prospects?

These stories allow your prospects to envision themselves in the picture.  They can envision going into their bosses office and telling their boss that they can’t pay enough to keep them.  They can envision being able to retire from their job and focus on their business.

When you’re starting out in your business you may not have your own stories but you can use the stories of your upline.  Learn their stories and share their stories with your prospects.  As you grow your business collect these stories.  Write them down.  Ask your downline to share stories.  Ask your customers to share stories. The more stories you have the more successful you’ll be

Do you have any interesting stories you use to grow your business?

- Ben Fitts

The idea is you donate to help families in impoverished areas by helping them raise their own food.  You may help purchase a flock of chickens, sheep, ducks, or even a cow.  The families sign an agreement that they will return the favor and pass on the first generation from these farm animals to their neighbors.  So one family gives a few chickens to their neighbors to help them create their own flock of chickens.

The charity is called Heifer International.

It’s a great charity and I recommend it to everyone.

- Ben Fitts

PS. Remember your donations are tax deductable too!

We as network marketers, especially those of us making a good income from our business need to realize how fortunate we are.

Some families won’t have enough money to buy Christmas gifts this year.  Their behind on their credit cards and mortgage.  They may have recently gotten laid off from their job.  They’re struggling to survive and they can’t afford the simple things like Christmas gifts for their kids.

When I was young my family had several bad years. I remember one year in high school where we were so broke that we wouldn’t have had Christmas at all if some people from our church hadn’t helped us out.  I remember being poor enough that our electricity was cut off and we slept in the den around the fire. I know what it’s like to live without.

This year if you’re fortunate to be making a decent income from your business remember to give to others.  Some organizations you might want to donate to include:

• Toys for Tots
• Goodwill
• The Salvation Army
• Your local foodbank
• Your local church may also have fundraisers for lower income families and shut-ins

Don’t forget those that are less fortunate than you!

- Ben Fitts

One of the most important things to remember about internet marketing is it takes time.  There are dozens of different ways to market on the internet and learning to master them will take you time.  Depending on how fast you learn and who is teaching you it could take months or even years.  I’ve been on the internet since 1993 and I’ve been building and marketing web sites since 1997.  Heck even this blog is 3 years old.  I didn’t get good at it for probably the first 2 years!

You can learn the internet stuff and it can be great for your business but don’t let it distract you from building your business.  Keep using offline marketing methods.  Keep talking to your friends and family.  Keep passing out your company DVD or product samples or whatever you do.  Keep inviting people to opportunity seminars and passing out flyers.

That way you continue to build your business WHILE you learn the internet stuff.  That’s what my good friend Jack did.  He was already a sales person and was good at the offline marketing but he didn’t know the online stuff.  So he started learning the online stuff while continuing to grow his business offline.  Pretty soon he had a thriving business both on the internet and off.

If you want to learn the internet stuff I recommend a great place to start is my 44 page ebook Nichework Marketing.  It gives a great overview of how I market on the internet.

- Ben Fitts

There is more to blogging than simply writing a blog post.

Did you use keywords in the title? Did you tag the post?

Do you submit the post to news/marketing/bookmark sites like Digg, PlugIM, Marktd, Sphinn, Propeller, etc?

What was the content of your article?

How did you follow up the article?

Did you encourage people to comment on your articles or leave a question for them to answer?

Here is a BIG trick.
1. write a controversial article
2. use every bit of contacts with friends and family you can to get them to digg, sphinn, plugim, etc. your article.
3. post to forums that day with signatures linking back to article
4. announce to your mailing list to read that article
5. encourage people to comment

That’s more than most of you do… BUT You have to go one step further. You have to follow up IMMEDIATELY with some of your best articles ever. Whether or not it’s more controversial stuff or giving away some really good free tips and advice. Whatever it is make sure you follow up the very next day with some of the best content you’ve ever written.

That way when you get momentum you keep the momentum going. If someone reads your blog because of your controversial article you want them to keep coming back. If your blog is dormant for 5 days after your controversial article you’ll loose most of the new readers you picked up.

- Ben Fitts
The Custom Greeting Card Guy

A friend of mine (Jack) who is not currently doing MLM has been telling me about his successes. You see he started a podcast about the economy.  He calls it the Survival Podcast - Helping you live the life you want if times get tough or even if they don’t.  He has been having tremendous success with this podcast.  He has hundreds of listeners and is closing in on a thousand listeners.  He has a popular discussion board with thousands of posts.  He has people voluntering to help promote his site.

You see Jack has a few things going for him.

1. He picked a hot topic.  He’s writing about what to do if times get tough and they actually did get tough.
2. He has personality.  You might not always agree with the guy but he’s fun to listen to.
3. People are desperate for help.
4. He marketed it a little bit to help get it going.
5. He consistently posts new shows.  He tries to post a new show 5 days a week.

Now let’s think about this from a MLM point of view.  You could go out and create your own blog or podcast (a podcast is basically an audio blog in MP3 format and can be downloaded from sites like Apple iTunes.) You can pick a hot topic like the economy.  Or you can go out and find blogs and podcasts on these topics and simply buy advertising on them.

I’ve considered setting up my own podcast since I hear how successful my buddy Jack is. My concern is this is my busy time of year.  I don’t have a lot of spare time.  So I could instead perhaps buy advertising on other sites.

I have both money and leads already coming into my business.  So I don’t neccessarily need to start my own web site on the economy to get more leads.  Since I have some money to invest in advertising I can go out and buy some ads.  That way I can focus more on following up with the leads I have and less on making a web site to get new leads.

If however you are new to MLM or Network Marketing or aren’t making a lot of money yet, you might want to take the cheaper route of creating your own blog or podcast about the economy.

- Ben Fitts
The Custom Greeting Card Guy

Are you guys taking advantage of the down economy to recruit for your MLM?

One question I have for you is… Are you using more coupons?  Are you reading through the coupons like the “Valpak” coupons that come in the mail?  How about the cheap little newspapers like the Thrity Nickel, PennySaver, or ClipperMagazine?

I normally don’t advertise in these kind of newspapers and coupon guides.  I usually find them to be a bad source because the people who respond to the ads are usually looking for a job or don’t have money to sart a business… But I wonder… Are more people looking at these newspapers for ways to save money?  Might we find better prospects here than in the past?

What do you think? Have you found any tricks that are working for you to market in this down economy?

- Ben Fitts

Earlier this week someone from my team called to ask for some advice.  She was complaining about her lack of upline support and she was reaching out to me because her immediate upline hasn’t been helping her.

While upline support is important it isn’t essential.

I don’t have an upline any more.  They quit or sold out of the business years ago.  So it’s just me.  There’s no one else for me to blame but myself.  If I don’t succeed it’s just me to blame.

Some people might be shocked.  But the reality is when you know you have leaders is when you know that they will continue in the business with or without you.  When you have real leaders they are the kind of perrson that can do things without you.  Sure you’re help can help them succeed faster but they’re unstoppable.  Even if you quit the business they would continue on and continue building without you.

I’m not saying upline support isn’t helpful. Upline support can help you go faster because you don’t have to do it all yourself.  Your upline can provide training or resources that you can plug your team into.  You won’t have to create these tools and training materials from scratch.  That allows you to focus on recruiting and helping your new people get started quickly.

But you know you’re a leader when your upline isn’t helping and you STILL succeed.

- Ben Fitts

If you’re looking for upline support that provides free training, free marketing web sites, and support then I think I do that (learn more about my business here.)

Natalie says “I really do appreciate all the help and support that you provide.  It makes the business so much better to have support like you. Have a wonderful day.”

In the past I’ve accused Kim of changing over from being a “generic” trainer to being someone who is running her own company and recruiting for her company through her “generic” training.

I understand her belief in the product is great.  That has nothing to do with what my problem with her is.

My problem with her in the past was that she built a list based on generic training products like the Truth Book… What it really takes to succeed in Network Marketing.

My issue with that is very simple.  She violated trust with people like me who sent people to her generic training materials. We promoted her stuff on the idea that she was generic and wouldn’t try and cross recruit our teams.  However she did start cross recruiting our teams and that was a big violation of our trust.

I think since my original post I understand where she’s coming from even more.  I was trying to decide whether or not I should continue this “blog” (see original post here and Kim’s response here).

You see when you’re trying to do generic training and you have a business you are passionate about and committed to how can you do both without one rubbing off?  That’s where I think she’s coming from now.  She’s very committed about her new venture and it is mixing with her other training materials.

So if you’re afraid your people will jump ship, don’t send them to Kim.  However if you think Kim’s got some great material to share (like the truth book) then continue to send your people her way.

I’m doing a little bit more cross promotion now too. So I’m certainly not going to sit her and claim that Kim is doing anything wrong.

- Ben Fitts