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Posts Tagged Network Marketing

Internet Based Network Marketing Success

Aug 27

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

Your success in network marketing is based on how well you can provide service to your customers, prospects, and downline. This is especially true when building a network marketing business online because you will have trouble even finding prospects unless you are offering value.

There are many ways to build a network marketing business online. Connecting on the social sites, pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), and article marketing are all methods that can lead to success in internet network marketing. What ever method you choose though, you will probably want a blog as your hub, and that is what I use. All of the other methods you may use to build your business can be used to syndicate your content and drive traffic to your blog.

The key to make a blog work and get repeat visits from your readers is to freely provide the valuable content that your readers are looking for. In other words, don’t just blog about how great your product or you MLM company is. If your blog is about network marketing, then you could offer tips and suggestions about how to build a successful network marketing business, regardless of what company they may be with. If your company sells nutritional supplements then you could blog about the what to look for in nutritional supplements or the benefits in taking nutritional supplements.

The idea is that if you focus on providing service then the rest will take care of itself. By providing service to your readers you are also establishing your own value with your readers. When that happens, your readers are more likely to follow you and some will become customers and / or join your business. When that happens, continue to provide service. Help them build their success and yours will naturally follow.

Always provide service first.

I hope you found this valuable. Please share a time when you achieved some form of success by being of service to someone else. I would also appreciate it if you would share this with your followers on the social networks.

Wayne Woodworth

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A Day in the Life of a Network Marketer

Aug 15

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

I want to share what a typically day can look like for me as a network marketer so that you can see if this is something for you.

I’d like to start off by telling you that I get to sleep in as late as I want, but that’s just not true. My cat still thinks that I have a regular job and wakes me up every morning between 5:00 and 6:00. Once he is taken care of though, I have the option to go back to sleep if I want to. Usually I take advantage of the morning quiet and get to work cleaning out the email that I received during the night and write a new blog post, as I am doing right now.

Soon it is time to get my daughter, Tessa, up and ready for school. I get cleaned up while my wife makes sure that Tessa has everything she needs and then I drive her to school. She’s in first grade this year and we enjoy having time with each other for the half hour drive. When I get back home it is time to take my son, Kelby, to pre-school if he wants me to go along, which he usually does.

I’m back home to stay by about 9:30. Now I can finish up the blog post that I started earlier and get it published. Next I find some other people’s blogs to leave comments on. This has a lot of benefits for a network marketer. I find some great information and meet new people who are doing things similar to what I am doing. I also get my name better known in the blogging community and get links back to my blog that can bring in additional traffic. It really is a lot of fun checking out other people’s blogs.

I can take a break and help around the house, which my wife really appreciates. I have the freedom to do just about anything I want to do while most normal people are stuck at their normal jobs. I try to take a morning off once a week and go hiking with my wife. It gives us a chance to get away, take a break from our normal routine, and enjoy nature for awhile.

While working in the morning I might also work on a draft of a blog post for later in the week, work on a newsletter that I am putting together to stay in touch with my retail customers, or record a training video for my business prospects and new team members. I try to get most of my “working” done in the morning so that I have the afternoon free for my kids.

I break for lunch and afterwards it is time to pick up Kelby from pre-school. Soon after that it is time to go get Tessa from school too. Then it’s time with the family for the afternoon. I don’t usually take much more time for work until after the kids go to bed. I’ll spend another hour or two working on a webpage or some more emails then call it a day.

So, that’s my normal day. With network marketing I have the luxury of working from home and making my family a much higher priority than if I had to go to work at a job every day. For me, that’s what this is all about. If this is something that you are interested in, then check out my Work with Wayne page and sign up for more information. There I share with you how I make money with my network marketing business.

If hope you found this interesting. If you have anything to share about the benefits of working from home then please leave a comment below. I would also appreciate it if you would share this out with your followers on the social networks.

Wayne Woodworth

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Network Marketing Doesn’t Make Money

Aug 5

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | 2 Comments

I’ve been looking around at what people have been saving about network marketing lately, and what people in my own MLM business are saying about making money with our company. Most of what I’m hearing is that you can’t make money unless you have a huge downline.

That just isn’t true.

How Network Marketing Works

There are two activities that are important with any network marketing business: recruiting people and selling products. Most people seem to focus on recruiting and almost forget about selling product. They depend on new distributors to get on their autoship program. If that is the only way that your team is selling product then, yes, you will need a huge team to make any kind of living in network marketing.

Selling product is where almost all of the money is in network marketing. You get paid based on customers and downline distributors buying product. I currently make more money on a regular basis than my sponsor even though he has more distributors on his team. That is because I sell product to customers.

There is one distributor with my network marketing company who is teaching people to put all of their effort into selling product. He says that you can make more money as a Bronze than as a Silver. Without getting too much into how the company works, you can get to Bronze by just selling a lot of product while making the next jump to Silver requires you to have at least 3 distributors on your team. The problem with going to straight profit is that you start at $0 every month. You don’t have any residual income.

I know there are at least a few companies that pay a “training commission” when you sign up a new distributor, but the focus of the company still has to be on selling a product or service. If it doesn’t, then it is an illegal pyramid scheme.

How to Build a Profitable Network Marketing Business

The best way to build a sustainable income in network marketing is to put some effort into both recruiting and in selling product. My preferred approach is to attract customers and sell them product. Once they have made a purchase I encourage them to join my list so that I can keep in touch with them. They get a monthly newsletter and as an additional incentive, I offer them a 20% discount on orders as long as they remain on my list.

Now that I have their permission, I can give them great information about information related to the products and the business. I can also plug the recruiting side in my newsletters. A certain number of people are going to have an excellent experience and take a look at the business side, and a percentage of them will join.

Once they join, I teach them to do exactly what I am doing. Now I have a team of people who go out and find customers and convert a number of them into distributors. Everyone makes money this way instead of just the people at the top. The new people see what can be done and are motivated to do the same thing. This way is easier for new people because they have something real, a physical product, to tell their prospects about instead of something intangible like wealth or success.

I hope you found this informative. Please leave me a comment below and share this with your followers on the social networks. If you would like to learn more about how I’m building my network marketing business, then just click here.

Wayne Woodworth

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Network Marketing Intent

Jul 27

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | 2 Comments

What is your intent in building your network marketing business?

Is it to make a lot of money? To be able to spend more time at home with your family? We’ve all heard the reasons that people build their own home-based business.

I like to think about intent. I’m also a massage therapist and very interested in energy healing. When you do that kind of work it is all about your intent. It guides your every movement when you are working with a client in that environment.

Intent is just as important when you are sharing your network marketing business opportunity with a prospect. What is your intent? Is it to get them to sign up so that you can make more money? Or is it because you know your prospect is in a difficult spot and you want to offer a way out?

I offer my opportunity because I want people to know that they have options. Yes, I do need to make money to support my family but I have other options if that was my only goal. I believe that it is wrong for people to be stuck in a job they hate or have to desperately search for a new job if they lose their job.

The main reason that I started my business was because I wanted to be home with my family. I have two small kids I want to be around as they grow up. My daughter started kindergarten last year and I was able to drive her to and from school every day. That meant a lot to both of us. That probably isn’t the reason my prospect would want to start a business. So, when we share our network marketing opportunity with other people we need to know where they are and where they want to be and only offer the opportunity if it serves as a possible solution. Otherwise we are just wasting time, both their time and our own.

Wayne

PS. If you found this informative or you have thoughts on the subject then I would love for you to share them in a comment below. Also, please share this with your followers on the social networks using the small buttons below.  Thanks.

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Take a Chance to Live Your Dream

Jul 6

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | 1 Comment

Most people would rather live in their current misery than take a chance with the unknown. I think this is why most people never start their own business to pursue their passions.

I went on a caving adventure recently. It was a guided wild tour through a section of Cumberland Caverns in Tennessee. At one point of our 2.5 hour journey the guide shared with us the rules of caving.

  • Always have 3 people with you, 4 people total
  • Always have 3 sources of light
  • Always let someone else know where you are going and when you will be back.

The person who discovered the caves, Aaron Higgenbotham, didn’t follow all the rules and was stuck inside the caves until a rescue party found him 3 days later. I don’t know if you have ever experienced total darkness before, but that is what you get underground when your flashlight goes out.

That got me thinking about the fear that some people face when thinking about starting up their own business, whether in network marketing, a restaurant, or anything else. When you start a business you need to take certain precautions, like the rules of caving. You need to make sure that you have some money to live on until your new business starts making money. If you can start your business while keeping your job for a little while, then that works. That’s what I did.

You also need to know that you have a market. There is nothing worse than starting up a brand new venture and finding out that nobody wants what you have to offer. With the Internet it is easy to prevent this. You can do all the research you need with Google to see if their are people searching for what you plan to offer.

Once you take precautions to cover as much of the risk as you can, then you are ready for the adventure. Never let the fear of the unknown or fear of failure hold you back from accomplishing what you want in your life. In my opinion, the worst kind of failure is to get to old age and have to face the regrets of not having tried.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Leave me a comment below and please share this with your friends and followers on the social networks.

Wayne Woodworth

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Deciding – A Success Tip

Jun 30

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

The word “decide” literally means “to cut off”, so to make a decision about something means to cut off all other possibilities. When you decide something, you have chosen one path to the exclusion of all others.

It sometimes takes a lot of strength, willpower and courage to make a real decision and follow the course. A lot of people have very weak decision making muscles. They are constantly re-deciding their course of action.

I picture it like they are there weaving a tapestry. They make a decision and cut a thread, then the re-decide and try to tape the thread back together and cut a different one. Then change their mind again, and again, and again. It becomes a very weak tapestry in the end with all of the tape holding it together.

Sure, sometimes you do have to rethink your course of action because you get a new piece of information that you didn’t have before. These should be slight alterations in your path, not the radical changes that some people make.

I made a decision a couple years ago that I was going to build my future in network marketing with this particular wellness company that I learned about. That was a firm decision and all other possibilities were immediately eliminated. I started down that path and learned a lot as I went.

Then I made the decision that I was going to pursue that business online. I didn’t change my mind. I narrowed my focus down to eliminate more possible distractions. In October 2009 I further refined my decision and quit my job to focus on this exclusively. That also allowed my to reap some of the benefits that I was picturing with my new lifestyle, more time with my family. Let me tell you, it’s awesome.

In 4 years that decision has not changed.

What kinds of decisions have you made about your life? Decide what you want and go for it. Feel free to share your decisions in a comment below. I would also appreciate it if you would share this with your friends and followers on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever they are.

Wayne Woodworth

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Using Twitter and Tweet Deck

Jun 23

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

I listened to a webinar last night with Eric Goldstein about how to use Twitter. I want to take a few minutes to share some of the things I learned about Twitter lists and using TweetDeck to make life with Twitter easier.

First thing is Twitter lists. I remember them adding this feature and was excited to see on my profile that I’m listed 12 times, but I had no idea what it meant or how to use lists for any real benefit.

It turns out that it has a very nice benefit when added to TweetDeck. When you start following a LOT of people it becomes impossible to actively follow everyone, and you probably don’t really want to either. You can create lists for different categories of people you follow so that you can keep a better tab on what is going on.

For example, if I want to keep up with some people that I meet on the Unified Tribe, I can create a list for that purpose. I go into Twitter (assuming that it isn’t “over capacity”) and find one of the Unified Tribe friends. I then clicked on the Lists button on the line below their picture and selected “New List”. In the new dialog box I entered a name and description for my new list, made sure that “Public” was selected, then clicked “Create list”. My new friend is automatically added to my new list. Now I can go find other Unified Tribe people I am following and add them to this list by selecting it from the Lists drop down. I’ll talk about how this makes things really convenient with TweetDeck in a moment.

I like TweetDeck and have used it for a while. It is a convenient way to keep up with tweets from the people I am following, tweets that mention me (which are always cool), and direct messages. What I didn’t know is that you can create additional columns to sort your tweets out.

I can create a new column in TweetDeck to follow only the tweets from people who are on the list I just created. If you haven’t installed TweetDeck, then you will need to do that first. It is a stand-alone application on your desktop. Once you are in TweetDeck you will see the default columns for the things I already mentioned plus an additional one for TweetDeck Recommends. At the very top of the application is a circle with a plus in it. Click it to add a new column. In the new dialog box, select “Groups/Lists” then select your new list. Back in the main application you now see a new column with the recent tweets from the people in that list and you can easily keep up with what they are doing.

Another Twitter feature that Eric Goldstein stressed was it’s search utility. You can use TweetDeck to continuously run a Twitter Search and monitor the feed. In TweetDeck click the button to add another column. This time select “Search” and type you search string in the text box. I’m involved in network marketing, so I’ll type “Network Marketing” (including the quotes because I want the phrase, not the individual words) and click “Search”. Now I have a new column that lets me see what people are saying about network marketing.

The short version is that TweetDeck makes it very easy to use Twitter’s features and stay plugged in with what you want to know.

I would appreciate it if you would share this with your friends and followers. I’d also love to hear your thoughts in a comment below.

Wayne Woodworth

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Can’t Become Wealthy in MLM

Apr 19

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

One of my current prospects sent me a link today to this story about two people who quit Nikken. They feel that it is a myth that people can become financially independent as a Nikken distributor, and it’s Nikken’s fault. I want to address some of their key points.

First, it is very possible to become financially independent with Nikken. I have met a few and know of many more. My local Royal Diamond upline, Jack and Sheri Clarke, then way up at the top of Nikken income earners: Dave Johnson and Reid Nelson. I missed an opportunity to meet Dennis Estes when he was in town last year. The cool thing about these people is that they are just regular people. You would never know that they are wealthy.

They came to 3 conclusions as to why Nikken’s marketing plan doomed them to failure:

  • Nikken does not concern itself with sales but is predominantly interested in the recruitment of people
  • The customers are primarily the Distributors themselves
  • The Nikken products are not officially approved and also expensive. This combination means that the products are very difficult so sell to ordinary consumers.

It is true that Nikken, and all other network marketing companies, are more concerned with recruiting people than with sales. They aren’t in the business of selling their product. That’s what the distributors are in business for. McDonald’s doesn’t sell hamburgers either. They recruit businesspeople who open franchises to sell hamburgers.

It is probably also true that the distributors make up the largest percentage of customers, which is unfortunate. But that isn’t Nikken’s fault. It is the distributor’s job to find customers and sell the product. That’s what a distributor is. Another interesting point here. The same prospect told me that she was talking to other Nikken distributors today about internet marketing. They told her it wasn’t possible to sell Nikken’s products online because they have to be demonstrated first. I haven’t done a product demonstration in years and I am finding more and more customers online all the time.

As for the third conclusion, I think I just partially answered that one. I am selling these products online to regular people every day. $60 for a pair of magnetic insoles that last 10 years looks very inexpensive compared to the $60 shoes that people buy and wear out within 3 years. A $1500 magnetic mattress pad to resolve sleep problems doesn’t sound like much compared to what people are spending on hi-def flat-screen TVs. I’m not sure what they mean by “officially approved” other than by something like the FDA. Vioxx was approved by the FDA. Do I really need to say anything more?

The rest of their gripes apply to all MLM companies, not just Nikken. The problem really comes down to the sponsoring distributors. They are targeting regular people who don’t know what it means to run a business, and then don’t teach them once they are in. If they did, it might be harder to recruit new people but they would get better results from the ones who did join. As a distributor with a network marketing company you are a self-employed business owner. You are also your number one salesperson and your job is two sell two categories of product. One is the actual product or service that the company offers, and the other is the business opportunity. Old-school uplines recruit new people through hype and then teach the new people how to recruit others through hype. Once the hype wears off, chances are that the new distributor will disappear. That’s why most people fail in network marketing and there is such a high turnover.

So, if you are interested in “joining the club”, getting excited, and hyping up rookies, then please find another sponsor. On the other hand, if you are interested in owning your own business, building a team of responsible business owners who want to run a real business selling remarkable products, then I would like to talk to you.

Wayne Woodworth
Self-employed independent Nikken wellness consultant

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What is Your Intent?

Apr 5

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

Using social networking sites, or several other services offline, are a great way to find prospects for your business and products.  Prospecting can’t be your primary intent in making your first contact though.  You have to want to get to know people, make friends, build a relationship and trust.  Then, when you think you have something that they will be genuinely interested in, you can tell them about what you have.

I have talked to several people who dropped out of network marketing because they were tired of looking at everyone as a prospect.  I can understand that.  They were in perpetual hunting mode looking for prey.  When you watch a nature show, what position do you usually see the lion in?  Laying down, right?  Hunting is exhausting.  It is a whole lot easier to look at a new person you meet as a potential friend.  It makes the meeting a whole lot less stressful because you can be yourself.  Maybe they will join your business.  Maybe they won’t.  Either way you are much better off for having made a new friend.

Wayne Woodworth
Prospecting for friends

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Niche Marketing

Mar 28

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

All of the internet marketing experts I have read lately are talking about niche marketing, that to be successful you have to focus on a niche. The same thing really goes for face-to-face marketing too, so this all applies whether you are internet-based or not.

Niche market is defined on Wikipedia as “the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing” and is usually used to refer to something other than the mainstream market. Niche marketing just means that you have a specific target market and offer products that meet their needs. The benefits to working in a niche market is that you have one set of needs that you need to learn about, so you can quickly become an expert at understanding those needs and satisfying them. Once you’ve done that, you are a recognized name in that area.

Since this blog is mostly about network marketing and I’m with Nikken, I’m going use Nikken as an example of how network marketers can use niche marketing. Since you are probably not with Nikken, just follow along and see how you can apply it to your business.

Nikken is a wellness company that offers a wide variety of products that cover a wide variety of needs. This gives a new distributor a lot of options to choose from when picking a niche.  I’m a massage therapist, so I’m interested in pain relief and relaxation. It just so happens that Nikken has massage tools in their magnetic line, so I decide to build my first niche there and focus on telling people who want an alternative from drugs about magnets for relief from discomfort. Now I know where to focus my marketing.

New distributors also gain in that they only have a handful of products to learn about, instead of the whole catalog. Once they are established in that niche then they can pick another niche to build. For me, that’s water filtration then sleep. I don’t put a lot of attention on learning the rest of the products.

Like I said before, this doesn’t just apply to Nikken. There are a lot of companies out there that offer a wide variety of products. Shaklee is one that I am somewhat familiar with. For teams that still do the hotel meetings, this approach gives them experts who can present different aspects of different products with real authority.

So, is this something that you can use with your business?

Wayne Woodworth
Niche Network Marketer

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