Author Archive

Where Do You Get Your Leads?

June 9th, 2010

Leads. Everyone needs Leads.

Everyone talks about leads.

But how do some people get leads that perform and stay with you while others keep fishing in the same pool forever and never get any signups?  Is is the pool? Are YOU fishing in the wrong pool?

The concept is simple. How do you get people to come to your business? You want interested people. In the network marketing world and business world they are “targeted” people. Potential clients or customers or buyers. Where do YOU find them? I am interested in what YOU are doing. Of course I will share some tips here that you might not be doing already. And some that are so old hat you are probably tired of already!

Do you have your own  “lead capture page”?  Or “Squeeze Page”?  The purpose of that page or those pages is to obtain contact information from interested people. NOTICE THAT WORD…. INTERESTED people. When you seek leads you do not want to collect a list of apathetic or bored or angry “tire-kickers”. You want real people who are interested in your program or business.  Does your Squeeze Page convey the right message to achieve that?

Do you post meaningful comments in forums and then FOLLOW UP with people who you meet? Do you make valuable comments or are you always the last comment on the page? Sometimes the last comment is the one that gets the most attention. But often if you look at why it is the last comment you might think again.  It may be the last comment because the interest “window”  for that topic has already closed. All the questions have been asked and answered and you have not added anything of particular value that CALLS for interaction or INVITES further comment.

If you are a fly-by forum visitor trying to get as many comments as you can into as many forums as you can, perhaps you have not taken time to see how relevant they are OR perhaps your comments do not fit the audience. There is no such thing as one size fits all here. Perhaps you are getting a reputation as a fleeting  forum poster rather than a participant who is interested in the TOPIC and the PEOPLE. If you don’t have something of interest or value about the topic you will lose followers rather than collect them.  If you do not show a real interest in building rapport and relationships with PEOPLE you will get very little attention in forums or the leads you collect there may not be very valuable in the big picture.

Some people rely on Pay- Per-Click ads to find people who have an interest in their product. And sometimes that is effective. In my view that has a tendency to collect sellers rather than business builders or leaders.

Do not ignore traffic exchanges but do not rely upon them for finding quality leaders. Here too, everyone is interested in showing you their product or program and not many business builders are spending a lot of time on traffic exchanges. I surf a few traffic exchanges to see what is “out there”, to generate some traffic to specific sites, to create a presence, and to see who else is using the traffic exchanges. What kind of squeeze pages are they using? My surfing is a learning experience for me and it is relaxing. But I do not rely upon them as major lead sources. It is not the right “fishing pool” for that.

Actually, why are you even fishing in the first place? Is it because you are not aware there are better methods to find qualified leaders who are already interested and prepared to move into production in your business? Is it possible you have never thought about being the “hunted” instead of being the “hunter”?

Do you truly want to spend hours recruiting? Or wouldn’t you prefer to respond to people who have found you and already self-screen themselves to some extent? Wouldn’t your time be spent more effectively if you could identify those leaders swiftly and bring them into your team because they WANT to be there?  Not because you convinced them to “give it a try”.

I am sure one of the ways to lose a leader is to give a sales pitch and wrap it up with a bit of banter that includes something like, ” oh, don’t worry, if you don’t like it you can return it and get all your money back. It is a no-brainer, you can do this.”  How many times have you heard that?

Folks, if this person is already a leader that kind of comment is a turn-off. It reflects your own lack of confidence in your product and your lack of confidence and commitment to that potential partner.  Why do I want to join a company that is a “no-brainer”? Are you suggesting I do not have brains?  Why do I want to join a sponsor who is ready to wash his/her hands of me as soon as they bring me on board if I change my mind or have a problem?  NOT.  I want a sponsor who is committed to the company and product and who shows a genuine interest in helping me build my business in the best ways that I can.

That is the kind of person who ATTRACTS success.

Be the person you want on your team!

Model behavior that they respect and can duplicate.

Article Marketing for Affiliates

April 4th, 2010

Why do I have banners for Unique Article Wizard at this network marketing training site?

Because article writing and article marketing are  important tools for all network marketers who work online. Not only important. These are essential for your online business success.  There are two sets of skills. One is for Article writing, because writing for online is different. Attention spans are very very short. I will share a few tips here and give some links to a few articles as good examples.

The other set of skills is around the art and science of Article Marketing. Tips here also.

If you totally hate to write and freeze at the thought of it you might do well to do your keyword research and then hire some low cost writers to work for you.  There are many sources: Elance.com , Freelancer.com, Getafreelancer.com, Hireawarrior.com. Just do a Google search for outsourcing writers and you will have many choices.  I did a lot of work for Elance in my early years online and some for Getafreelancer but I find I have enough clients now and enough to maintain my own business that I have less time to farm out my writing. So it will be for a good reason that I take time to write for other people these days.

The PURPOSE of article writing for affiliate marketers is to pre-sell your products or service to your clients before you try to sell them anything. Good content at a trusted authority site will be far more likely to generate followers and sales. So you need to know how to do that.

TIPS for this kind of writing include doing keyword research for your site. Focus on what you want to promote and why. Sometimes I forget to do this and then I regret it. In addition, keyword density is important. You want enough to get your point across and get a good ranking for your article but not too many so it looks and feels overloaded and spammy. Precise percentages vary from time to time but most often a keyword density less than 5 or 6% will not carry much weight for your site. But much more than that and it is overload and time to rewrite.

It is trite but true. Content remains king on the web. And GOOD CONTENT is worth its weight in gold. So  know your subject or do some careful research to make the article worth reading. You might look at it and ask yourself, ” If I did not write this, would I have read it?”

Plus it is absolutely essential to link your article to your site. That is where the value of backlinking comes into play. If you are writing it, you are something of an authority on the topic so say so in your resource or bio box and make it interesting enough that people want to click on your links for more. Never tell everything you know in one article.  I learned that a long time ago relative to teaching and giving presentations. If you dump all of your knowledge at once, your victim/reader gets overload and when they ask for an encore or you ask for any questions you are stuck with nothing more to add! That is a real rookie blooper.

I use Unique Article Wizard for most of my article marketing, distribution and syndication because it is the best service around and I have tried and used many. Yes, I am an affiliate with them.  Therefore you see a banner for UAW on this training site for network marketers. And that is part of the big picture of where do you FIND reasonably reliable sources for residual income. Another topic another day. The short of it is Look for what people are using and try to become an affiliate of that service or tool.  Thanks for tuning in today. Your comments are helpful.

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