Many conversations have occurred on the concentration factor required to be successful in network marketing. Numerous articles have been written and published on why people fail in network marketing. The net effect of all of this attention is that this subject has been researched, dissected, and preached about.  Although many items occur on the list of distractions, the largest culprit or automatic income reducer appears to be somewhat unanimous and that is the television.

How the term, the automatic income reducer, was derived is really not important and who ultimately coined the word is hard to distinguish but it is an excellent term. What the term represents is one of the reasons that people struggle in network marketing. This term presents an idea that causes people not to concentrate on building their business because they are distracted.

So, is this term hype or is there really something with sustenance here?

Depending on whom you discuss this topic with, many different opinions surface.  The best discussion I have heard comes from Cedrick Harris of Team Takeover Marketing Inc.  His take on this topic is quite interesting. He believes most of the people struggling in network marketing do so because of a very simple calculation. In Cedrick’s opinion, people that have a large number of televisions and / or very large televisions in their home seem to struggle in network marketing.

In Cedrick’s opinion, many people with large televisions and / or a large quantity of televisions in their homes. Unfortunately, every hour that a marketer spends in front of the television is an hour that they are probably not spending on their marketing or their marketing education. Presuming that the average marketer spends 2 hours per day watching television works out to 56 hours per month or 672 hours per year.  Imagine what could be added to a marketer’s knowledge if those 672 hours were devoted to marketing training.  The thought is mind boggling.

Cedrick has a unique point of view concerning televisions and the struggling network marketer.  He believes that the total horizontal inches of televisions in the home should equal the total horizontal inches of marketing training materials in the home. For instance, if there are three 42 inch televisions, that would be 126 inches of television.  If the marketer would have 126 inches of marketing material, that would be a quite large book shelf.  A quick walk through the house would determine if, in fact, that book shelf existed. Very seldom will that book shelf be found.

A different but similar fact seems to put validity into this discussion.  For years, research on wealthy individuals has proven that these people, almost without exception, have large reading libraries in their homes. It appears that the larger the library, the wealthier the people seem to be. Here in lies the eternal “chicken and egg” question, did they person become wealthy because they read many books or did they read the books to become wealthy?  The answer seems rhetorical but the result is the same.  Large numbers of books in a personal library USUALLY equal large amounts of wealth.

So, according to some of the current theories, if you want to be successful in network marketing, get rid of your televisions.  OK, not all of them, but if you have a large horizontal total of televisions, they are probably hurting your marketing.  Decreasing the time in front of the television will allow you to put more hours into your marketing and marketing training, which will increase your marketing income.

So, turn off your automatic income reducer, the television. Get the training material out of the pile and continue to increase your marketing education. Your wallet will appreciate the extra padding. Need some training material, go to: http://www.MLMIntegrityMarketing.com

According to a recent survey, over 80% of the population is committing a serious lifestyle error. They are banking their entire livelihood on a single income. If that one income stream is disrupted, they will face a serious financial situation.

Throughout history, many financial experts has extolled the need for financial diversity.  They understood the risks of only having a single source of income and have written many books and articles explaining that risk.  Unfortunately, a large percentage of the world still doesn’t understand diversifying. They understand the concept but are afraid to deviate from the status quo for fear of alienating their friends and family.

Many of the decisions people make throughout their lives are predicated on their upbringing. They have been taught to do what their leaders (parents and grandparents) are doing and not to try new, risky adventures. This concept has its roots in early creatures where survival of the individual was necessary the good of the group. The larger the group, the better the chances of surviving an attack from predators or other clans.

The risk of this style of upbringing is that new concepts are considered exceptionally risky, whether they are or not. Because the clan dictates what is acceptable and unacceptable, new thoughts are quickly ridiculed and dismissed. It takes an unusual amount of effort and fortitude to survive the efforts of the clan to kill an idea. Not that the idea is good or bad, it’s just different and that is unacceptable.

In today’s world, that used to mean working a job for 30 or 40 years and retiring. People who moved between jobs who called job-hoppers and usually felt the wrath of the clan. They were ridiculed for failing to stay in that one position, like their ancestors did. Whether they were able to improve their lifestyle was irrelevant. They were different and that was not acceptable.

People who worked in direct sales seemed to be the people that were disliked the most. Because of the quantity of true scam artists, the salesman was considered a scam artist whether he was legitimate or not. These salesmen, because of their nature, were also people that understood the benefit of having multiple products to sell.  That way they almost always had something of interest to everyone. This allowed them to make a sale when other people that didn’t have multiple products would walk away empty handed.

As sales and marketing evolved, these people taught their protégés the way they were  selling and how to incorporate that thought process into their lives. As this passed from generation to generation, more and more people began to understand the financial benefits of having these multiple income sources. At some point, this process came to be called multiple streams of income.

Unfortunately, because this concept is different from the traditional, single income source, many people today still don’t understand.  They don’t understand that multiple income streams will allow fluctuations in the market to occur without impacting the total income. The more streams of income that exist, the better the chance of having your lifestyle survive market changes. You don’t have to panic because something changes.  You also have less financial risk of being laid off or downsized because you are not dependant one only one income source.

The vast majority of today’s marketers have been taught to develop multiple income streams for the reasons listed above. In review, they will have a more stable financial picture. They usually will develop a larger gross income. They tend to have a standard of living that is higher than the people around them.  Usually they will be risk takers, chasing the new opportunities that come on the market to try to grab their piece of the pie before it gets out to the masses.

Today’s marketers are living in the best financial times.  They have the opportunity, and because of online marketing, the total number of opportunities available is almost mind boggling. Any marketer that does not have at least three different income streams is missing the boat.  Only marketing a single product or service is grossly inefficient and limits their total income potential.  As with the true direct salesman, the more products one can offer, the better the chance of putting money in your pocket.

If you don’t have multiple income streams of income, it’s time to get with the program.  Your financial health is at risk.  To add a new income stream, go to: http://www.Millionaire-Marketing-Plan.com If you are interested in adding new life and marketing to your existing business, Bill can help at: http://www.MLMIntegrityMarketing.com

Web 2 . What? What is that? I can imagine how all the 50 year olds and above feel out there about using today’s online marketing strategies to promote their MLM business. You feel overwhelmed, as if the model T was just invented and you’re still in a horse and buggy. Well rest easy my friends as I am one of you and I’m here to put your online marketing minds at ease.

There are several marketing strategies that seniors (according to AARP) should become familiar with if you want to become a successful online marketer. We not only can survive but thrive in this new information age. We just need an open mind, a computer and some kids or maybe grand kids to help out. Our typing skills are horrible, we can’t see well, yet we can still prosper as long as we use the power of our brain. Also, using these strategies just might aid in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Go figure!

Let’s take a look at some basic strategies to successfully market your business online today:

1.Facebook – Get your children or grandchildren to set up a page for you with friends and family photos. Once you feel comfortable with that begin to seek out people you know but have lost track of and hopefully their children and grandchildren have done the same for them. Invite their friends to be yours and begin to build a relationship. Join groups that you are interested in and post comments or articles within those groups.

2.Twitter- Similar strategy as Facebook except the conversations are shorter and you follow people you are interested in and those interested in you will do the same. You might not like the feel of Twitter because you will see a lot of nonsense tweets. Ignore those and begin by tweeting about what you like to do that may not be business related. For example, you can tweet about how to grow tomatoes and talk about something that may have helped a loved one‘s cancer or diabetes, anything that peeks your interest. Tweet a few times daily and it will soon become addictive. Once you develop a good following you can begin to ease in marketing tweets about your business and your website (which someone should have helped you develop).

3.LinkedIn – This is where all the professionals are located. This is a very clean and polished group of folks here and may be the best hunting ground for your business. This is where the cream of the crop hangs out. Generally you have to know someone to invite to become a connection. One way to do that is to join various groups you are interested in and then post articles to that group. If someone leaves a comment about your article, thank them and ask them to become a connection to you. This will require article writing but a couple of articles a week should do the trick.

4.YouTube – I know what you’re thinking here, “But I have A Face for RADIO”. I have those same feelings myself. However, if you’re going to be a successful online marketer, video is one avenue that must be tackled. Again, enlist the help of children and grandchildren for making a video and include them in it if necessary. You may have the most potential here to reach more people than anywhere else and with the help of the younger generation they will have you jazzed up and ready to market. Depending upon your creativity, this may be the strategy that skyrockets your business.

After using a few of these strategies, the key would be to get traffic to your website and convert traffic into sales. This is a little more complicated and may require outsourcing. However, if you have the energy and drive you can also accomplish this using some specifics tools. That’s a lot to swallow and you can outsource everything as a business investment. The fun, however, might just be to do a few of the strategies yourself to get some basic understanding of how it’s done so that you too become an active part of this Web 2.0 revolution.

Market you!
Valarie Taylor
linkedin.imvaltaylor.com
713.440.6799

Bill Palte is an Online Marketing Coach & Business Builder who helps struggling marketers build their business. Build Your Income Stream Here

For years people have direct marketed to potential customers by randomly distributing business cards. Sometimes, they would “drop” the cards so that someone would pick up the card to see what was on it. Usually these cards would have something on them to make the bystander curious about the card so they would pick it up.

Recently, a new version of the dropcard has become famous. The dropcard has been redesigned to look similar to currency but with an advertising message on the back of the card.  The most effective dropcards have been printed to resemble the look of a $100 dollar bill.  These bills have been very effective in many different strategies because they resemble US currency.

To make the dropcards very effective, there must be a compelling message on the card. This will cause enough curiosity so that the person picking up the card will take action on the message. What the message includes seems to be up for discussion on a regular basis but most marketers agree on several items.

First, the message on the dropcard must include a compelling call to action. The message needs to be short and precise so anyone reading the message will know exactly what to do. Typically, the message would be a short statement or question, such as, “You need to check this website NOW” or “Number 1 Home Based Business”.

Second, most messages are better if a phone number is not included on the dropcard. Although this may seem counter productive to many, not having a phone number forces the person with the card to log into the marketer’s system to have their curiosity resolved. This gives the marketer another chance to reinforce his message and to start to build some trust. It also provides more time for the prospect to review the marketer’s information before starting a conversation.

Third, the message on the dropcard must include a website for the prospect to review. Typically, this will be a page that presents an overview of the opportunity and a form to record the prospects contact information.  There is sometimes a phone number for contact since the prospect now has an idea of what product or service is being promoted.

Much has been written and discussed about the most effective marketing strategies for using dropcards but there appears to be a short list of the most effective strategies. These include: gas pump credit card slots, newspapers, tollbooths, clothing stores, and bookstores.  Each of these marketing areas require a specific technique to be effective.  All of these strategies can be implemented most anyplace in the country and are equally effective anyplace.

Now for the disclaimer.

Unfortunately, the dropcard techniques will not get you hundreds on leads everyday.  They will get you a steady, reliable stream of leads, of which most will be highly qualified since they took the time to track you down. These are the type of leads that you are looking for anyway. They will also understand how effective dropcard marketing is since they were discovered using the exact technique.

Unfortunately, most people will start out strong with the dropcards but slowly lose interest. The primary reason is that dropcard marketing is not high glamour.  It’s easy to lose interest since you are not getting the type of leads that you would with pay-per-click, for instance. However, you are also not paying the high cost of pay-per-click with a dropcard marketing strategy. Consistency will make this strategy pay well with time and the cost to get started is quite low.

This is truly a low cost marketing strategy that can be implemented by most everyone.

Order Your DropCards and  learn how to Market Your DropCards Effectively

In the marketing arena today, there seems to be two distinct styles of marketers.  The most common type is the old school MLM marketer, what I will call the “used car salesman”.

We all know the type, long on hype and short on details. Everything is the deal that will make you millions with little work.  You know the ads “No Cost, No Work, No Advertising, No Calling, etc,” Why then would they need you? Read the rest of this entry

OK,  Lets dig in…

*** The MAIN Reason Most People FAIL ***

LACK OF MARKETING TRAINING & SUPPORT.

It is ridiculous to think that bugging
your friends and family could be a solid
foundation for ANY business.

Why? Read the rest of this entry

In today’s MLM marketing world, there are two types of people in business – the Marketer and the Wanna Be. If you are marketing for an MLM, how do you know which category you fall into? The answer is actually quite simple. Read the rest of this entry

We have all seen the ads stating that they have the facts that show which companies are scams and which are not.  When you read through the site, you will see many facts and “testimonials” giving details about how unfair the business treats people. There are typically two or three graphically Read the rest of this entry

In traditional MLM companies, the marketing program hasn’t changed in years.

People who join an MLM opportunity are instructed to contact family and friends to “convince” them that this new opportunity is the answer to all of their financial problems. Next they are told to make a list of “acquaintances” Read the rest of this entry