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Posts Tagged Network Marketing

How to Pick the Best Network Marketing Company for You

Oct 5

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

I have seen a lot of stuff lately about how to pick the best network marketing company, and some of them make some very good points. So I want to summarize some of the important things to look for in a company when you decide to start your network marketing business.

A Product or Service you are Passionate About

To be successful in a business you have to be passionate about it. In the case of network marketing, you have to be passionate about the product or service that the MLM company sells. When people buy the product from you it is going to be more about your passion for the product than the product itself. Likewise, when you approach someone to join you as a business partner, you want to pick people who you think will also be passionate about the product or service. For example, if you are a Mary Kay or Avon distributor then you probably won’t approach too many men about your business.

A Reputable Network Marketing Company

When you look at starting a network marketing business you want to build one that can be successful and generate you an income for a long time to come. A big part of that is the company that you partner with. I don’t pay much attention to new companies because, like any other business, a high percentage of them will fail during the first five years. I like old companies because they offer a level of security that new ones cannot offer. An established company has a proven product that provides a definite benefit that has been proven over and over, otherwise the company would have failed. They also have a proven compensation plan. If their distributors weren’t able to make money then again, the company would have failed.

Another part of that is to look at how long the distributors have been with the company. Is it a 10 year old company but none of the distributors have been there for more than a year? Why? Or is it a company that is 30 years old and there is a large number of distributors who have been with them for 15 or 20 years? If a company has distributors who have been around a long time then the company probably takes good care of the people in the field.

Cost of Doing Business

Finally, there is the cost of doing business. How much does it cost to sign up as a distributor with the network marketing company and what do you get for that money? Is there an autoship or other monthly costs? I don’t think these concerns are necessarily deal breakers as long as the company is reputable and provides a real product or service, but they will definitely affect you as you are getting your business going. If you are short on money, can you afford to keep your business going for the first six months until you develop an income from the business? These are important things that you need to keep in mind.

That’s what I look for when I’m looking at a company. I feel blessed that I found a network marketing company that has been around for 35 years and operating in the US for 21 years now. I also have access to distributors who have been with the company for 17 or 18 of those years, so they really  know how the business and the company works. You can find out more about this great company and working with me here.

If you found this helpful, I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below. Please share this with your friends on the social networks.

Wayne Woodworth

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Are You Following Up With Your Network Marketing Prospects?

Sep 29

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

You’ve probably heard before that it is important to follow-up with your prospects. The people who contact you or that you contact about your network marketing business, or the products, aren’t likely to take a lot of action after the first time that you talk. Therefore it is absolutely essential that you check back with them periodically to keep them moving forward.

I have read that studies have shown that 82% of sales are made on or after the third contact and other experts say that your customers need to see your offer seven time or more before they will act. That’s a big part of what makes direct mail so expensive.

Fortunately, there is a better and far less expensive way to follow up with your customers if your business is online. You can set up an email series with an autoresponder so that your prospect or customer receives a new message from you on a regular basis. This way your customers start to recognize your name and you can build a relationship with them by offering valuable content.

To use an autoresponder you will need to create an account with one, setup your email series, and create a form to put on your website for your customers to use to sign up. I know it sounds complicated, but other than actually writing the emails it is pretty much all done for you. There are several autoresponder services available on the internet and I use Aweber, which has worked very well for me.

I have two examples of how I’m using Aweber to keep in touch with my prospects and customers. First, the customers for my MLM company’s products can sign up for a free monthly newsletter in the right sidebar of my product page at www.getmywellness.com. The second example is for people interested in learning more about my network marketing business opportunity on my Work with Wayne page.

Are you using an autoresponder to follow up with your customers? What kind of content are your offering them through your autoresponder and how well is that working? Let me know in a comment below. I would also appreciate it if you would share this with your followers on the social networks too.

Wayne Woodworth

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Why Is There A Low Network Marketing Success Rate?

Sep 10

Posted by Wayne Woodworth in Network Marketing | No Comments

I think there are two reasons why network marketing has a low success rate. One is that people aren’t taught to treat it like a real business and the other is that they are taught a very difficult way to do it.

Network Marketing Business

It is important to treat your network marketing business as a real business if you want to be successful and make some real income. Most people treat it as a hobby and, I don’t know if this is true for you or not, but I’ve never made very much money from my hobbies. To build a successful network marketing business you will have to devote time to it on a consistent basis.

One thing that works for me is to create a to-do list. I have two actually, a daily to-do list of things that I do every day to keep my business on track, and a running to-do list of all the other things that need to get done. Your daily list needs to be small enough that you can get it done in a couple hours so that you have time for everything else.

My running to-do list grows faster than I complete things on it, so prioritizing the items is required so that the most important tasks get done first. The highest priority tasks should be the things that will give your business the biggest benefit for the amount of time that they take to accomplish.

I start my day off by knocking out the items on my daily to-do list as quick as I can, usually in an hour to two. Then if I have time left, I pick the most important task that I can complete before I have to break to take my kids to school. It may not be the most important task because I don’t want to start something that I cannot complete, or at least get to a good stopping point. Once I get back home I go after the most important thing on my to-do list.

How to Make Network Marketing Work

The second problem with network marketing is how people are taught to do it. I know you’ve heard it before. When you start out your are told to make a list of 100 people that you know who you would like to work with. You start with friends and family then add your doctor, your dentist, kid’s piano teacher, and your mailman until you get 100 people. That’s a challenging way to build a business. I’m really! Are you seriously going to ask your mailman to join your network marketing business and actually expect him (or her) to join?

Everybody is different. Some people will actually do very well with the “list method”. They are the people who have been in network marketing for 10 years and have a huge list full of business contacts with solid experience in network marketing. You can be sure that they have a lot more than 100 people on their list and you will have scored big if you can land one of these people on your team.

I have a friend in my network marketing company (wish he was on my team) who does very well with cold-calling. He says that he could sell ice to an eskimo and I’m sure he could. So cold calling is what he has been teaching his team so far but he knows it isn’t for everyone. He has been helping me prototype a training program to teach my way of building the business.

My method is to first sell product online to build retail profit first then build a team second. I use a blog and social media to generate traffic and product sales and it has been very successful. Once a new teammate has money coming in then they can shift to prospecting online for leads. My goal is to build a team that moves a lot of product volume because moving product is where the money is in network marketing.

The point here is that not everybody is the same and not everybody will do well with the same network marketing strategy. Build a team of people with different skills or create an alliance with other people in your network marketing company who can train your new people in the different strategies. This way you open up your business to a variety of people and everyone shares in the success.

I know this was a long post but I hope you received some value from it. What network marketing strategy works well for you? Let me know in a comment below then use the buttons at the top of this post or below to share it with your followers on the social networks.

Wayne Woodworth

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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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