Catch up on Key 1 here

Find Key 2 here

Building a Relationship

This sounds so obvious but how many networkers actually do it? There is a reason that we are trained to contact our warm market or circle of influence BEFORE we venture out into the big wide world to find new people.

The reason is that we ALREADY have a relationship with our warm market so we don’t need to spend valuable time when launching our business BUILDING relationships. Makes sense right?

So when you generate MLM leads or attract prospects or just meet an interesting person in your daily life what should you?

It may be easier to cover first what you should NOT DO!

No pitching them the minute you meet them
No foaming at the mouth when they mention they are looking for something!
No rambling on and on about your life changing wonder product….

Ok I think you get the picture right?

What TO DO:

Listen to what they have to say and ask them questions AND LISTEN AGAIN to the answers

Listen some more…

Establish some common ground or build some bridges between you i.e.: you both used to live in London or New Jersey OR

You both have a new baby OR

You both just got divorced OR and the list goes on

Seek and you shall find some kind of commonality.

As we’re focussing on building MLM using affiliate marketing here let’s be specific to that. The best way to build a relationship with your affiliates is to give lots of good value with the information you provide.

That way they come to see you as someone they can trust. If they are in the right place to look for a new opportunity they will probably check out your business.

Make it easy for them to do! Don’t HIDE it like your MLM is some dirty little secret behind your affiliate marketing.

In your follow up messages integrate a little bit of information about your MLM business and working with you like I have done with my affiliate marketing system.

By the same token don’t hit them over the head with it if you want to maintain and build a large list of affiliates.

It can be as quick as that or as slow as you building a relationship for 6 months and never getting up the nerve to talk about your business. Then they come back and tell you they joined a new company. Ouch!

Top Tip: If you struggle with relationship building and talking to strangers read ‘How to make friends and influence people,’ by Dale Carnegie. I can’t say enough good things about this classic book. It’s a book to keep on your bookshelf and to keep reading again and again.

Ok so you’ve analyzed yourself and are aligned with the perfect MLM business and are ready to start attracting prospects.

It sounds a little esoteric or even mystical doesn’t it? Well let’s simplify it and look at what it really is and is not. It is the process of LEAD GENERATION.

Lead Generation is the lifeblood of building a big business and whether you do warm market networking or online list building or BOTH (recommended especially when launching) you MUST HAVE MLM LEADS!!

Doh you say. We know that Rachel. That’s why we’re trying to figure all this confusing Attraction Marketing stuff out!

Ok I hear you. Just wanted to be sure that you’re really listening!

So attraction marketing is not about being some guru leader (although there are many) It’s more about positioning your marketing content on the internet in strategic places that will attract suitable prospects to you.

When you set your marketing up right and have a compelling message it becomes scientific. If you type my name into Google at this time of writing there are 33,700 references and most of them are to me.

I think there’s an actress and maybe even a President of an orchid society too but I dominate as you can see:

Imagine all the keywords that bring up my blog and marketing pieces all over the internet. Can you see how it becomes scientific and if people search using my niche keywords they CANNOT HELP but find me! Sweet.

You can do this for your MLM Company and/or for your niche market and affiliate products. I digress though as we’ll cover Attraction Marketing direct to your MLM (without affiliate marketing in the next series)

So to summarize Key 2 you need to do ENOUGH to start being FOUND! Don’t worry you don’t need this many references to make money and generate leads. I was being found pretty much off the get go by promoting my site with ezine articles.

Add in the other millions of ways you can choose from to generate MLM leads such as blogs, using Twitter, Facebook, Hub Pages, Ezine Paid Advertising, Pay per Click etc. etc.

It is really not that complicated when you get clear on what you want to do. So Lead Generation by CREATING CONTENT and attracting prospects into YOUR MARKETING FUNNEL is the name of the game. (Not the End Game though!)

Stay tuned for Key 3 ….

Secret 2

Have a positive attitude of expectancy. Many new team members are absolutely fine with making a list when they see it is the normal thing to do here. What else are you going to do with them? Have them invest $2000 per month in Google adwords so they don’t have to talk to anyone they know?

They will widdle in their panties with fear, both at losing money and talking to strangers. New team members don’t really like talking to strangers.

If they won’t do a list because they are wounded MLM soldiers then they will need to take massive action with networking on or offline. This works well when done consistently over a period of time but is SLOW for launching.

By the time they have a good prospect so you can train them they have forgotten why they joined! With no list they will probably need to do paid advertising to launch so they have enough leads, which is not ideal for a new team member as you want to get them into profitability asap. not further into debt!

So Secret No.2 is about giving some leadership and expecting your new people to take action to launch their business and follow your business plan.

Secret No.3 will be coming soon! Why not leave a comment with one of your best ’secrets’ for helping your new team members to launch fast without spending a fortune on MLM leads etc.

Today’s post is about building your MLM or Network Marketing list.

So you decided you would start a blog…

You decided you will write articles and/or make videos to generate MLM leads for your business?

Makes great sense right? You read all the stuff from Mike Klingler, Mike Dillard and you read my |Attraction Marketing blog and it all seems like it should be the answer to your prayers.

So why is it that you haven’t updated your blog for the last month?

Or why haven’t you posted your blog articles to 5 article databases this week?

Have you linked up your social networks so that your content is zinging and zanging, whirling and churning all over the place so you can attract wonderful like-minded followers and leverage each and every piece of content to the hilt?

If you’ve done those things then I take my hat off to you. If you do them every week then you are an incredible, outstanding human being and you are going to win big! (As long as you have a marketing funnel in place to attract your leads, of course)

It is a New Year so if you started your blog on January 1st then it is likely that you are still excited! If you started it last year or the year before, are you still blogging?

Consistency is the key. (OK I know YOU know this so don’t shout at me!) Sometimes we need to hear these things over and over again. Just knowing is not enough is it?

Doing is the magic get out of jail card.

So are you just a knower.. or a doer?

When I write my blog I have no idea who is going to read it. I send out articles and I make videos and I really do not know who is going to be attracted into my world.

BUT that is all of the excitement. Do you see that?

I have faith that every word counts and that makes all the difference.

In MLM we ‘know’ that one runner in our business can change everything for our results. So when you are blogging, making content and/or wondering whether to blog and/or write articles … remember this, my networking friend:

It only takes one person with a dynamite vision to change your world (i.e.; if it wasn’t for Bill Gates would we all be working at home on laptops?)

It only takes one person to come into your team and go for it big to make a huge difference to them and to you.

It only takes one person to read your article and to become a subscriber to your list.

That same person becomes an affiliate partner with you through your business or joins your MLM Team in a couple of weeks..or even a couple of months..or even next year?

And then that person’s time is right and they go diamond or whatever you call it in your company.

All because you got your ass into gear and added your unique voice to the online world one day.

So next time you are wondering if it’s all worth it.. or wondering why you are doing this, remember that it only takes one person to change your world by coming into your list.

So don’t be lazy, and don’t be negative and don’t be a doubter.

Be a do-er and be a person who contributes. If it is through your blog or articles or videos – all the better. It may be as simple as giving a testimonial at your MLM meeting, or inviting a new prospect along who hears someone else’s word.

Build your own list of prospects and stay in touch with them. Be smart and build up your own network.

It all counts but you just never know who’s life you are going to change with your words, and who is going to change your life by entering your world.

If you write a blog and 1 amazing person reads it, gets inspired and joins your list then it is all worth it right?

Is it worth 1 hour to write the article and post it on other sites and networks? What else can you do in 1 hour that will have residual value for your business and can sit there for years after you worked on it once?

Oh and did I remind you that it is FREE to create content? At the most you need some simple low cost tools to improve your results but you can actually start free. That still blows my mind after paying $10 per lead for years in my old business!

As you get better at creating content and promoting it more people will read, join your list and come into your world.

I’ve gotta tell you it is pretty mega when I check my inbox and find the latest emails from my subscribers giving me feedback about my content. Or someone calls me to ask for more info.

How cool is it when people leave great comments on your blog?

For that to happen you need to stick with it and believe in yourself. Write to your ideal subscriber or business partner. Don’t worry who is reading – just imagine that you are writing or talking to that one person.

OK well I’m wrapping up now. I hope I’ve inspired you a little to stay in the content game and start contributing your voice in a more consistent manner to the online world.

Top Tip: Be sure to have your attraction marketing funnel in place so you can reap the rewards of contributing content online. Otherwise it is like working with a leaky bucket, and you are not leveraging your time and energy. Go here for more details about the Attraction Marketing Funnel I use and read the 7 Pieces FAQs here if you want more info.

Happy New Year and if you enjoyed this article please leave a comment on the new disqus software at the blog. Let us hear your wonderful voice!

Whether you are working online or offline or both, generating high quality MLM leads for your business is the key to bringing enough people through your MLM funnel so that some will pop out the other end.

Sounds obvious I guess. But how many of you are really generating MLM leads each and every day?

If you’re working offline you need to be extremely focussed to meet enough new people to build relationships with so that some of them will become leads in your MLM funnel.

If you’re working online you need to be extremely focussed to get enough lead generation in place so that some of the prospects you generate will be right for your MLM business NOW!

You generally need more leads for online marketing because face to face is more powerful, and with people you already know you don’t need to spend time building the relationship because you already have one.

So we’re back to being FOCUSSED! We talked about that last week so scroll back to last week’s article if you are distracted and need some help with that.

So instead of talking theory let’s get into some real stuff you can do to generate leads for your MLM over the next week, (not your Amazon affiliate program, or your dog training business, but your MLM – remember that one?)

Lead Generation Method
*Join 2-3 forums or online networks with forums in them that interest you. Create an interesting profile and complete every field and add a real photo of you looking sharp. Don’t be lazy with this stuff as you only have to do it once and it is there working for you 24/7.

Q. How do I find good forums?

Q. How do I get people to click on the link to my website?

Tip: Open a file for your marketing and keep these signature posts in a place you can find them easily when you need them!

Q. What do I write in my signature post?

A. Here are some real examples of magnetically pulling forum signature posts that I am using now for my MLM marketing campaigns.

1) Little book gives you complete attraction marketing blueprint for your MLM. Grab Your Free Copy Here: http.xxx

2) Safe is the new risky. How can one create security in this worrying economy? Free DVD reveals new plan.

3) Thinking about starting a home business? What business model works today? Free video reveals blueprint.

Do you see how the words intrigue and entice the reader to click and find out more?

In my copywriting studies I have learned that it is a basic need for people to want to find out what they don’t know. The more intriguing you make it (that doesn’t mean hyped or salesy) the more people will click. Some of them will become a lead in your MLM funnel.

Basic copywriting (writing for marketing) skills are essential for attractive and effective content online so make sure to incorporate that into your training plan if you are serious about building your business online.

Recommended Resource: Lack of copywriting skills is like expecting to generate a good prospect offline if you can’t speak! Go here for the best copywriting course I have found so far: Ultimate Copywriting Crash Course

David Garfinkel (master copywriter) describes it as ‘the Quickest, Easiest Way for People Who Don’t Like Writing to Turn their Words into Wealth.’

Don’t just copy my offers as they won’t be relevant for your MLM funnel unless you are using my systems. If you are using my systems then copy all you like!

Spend some time thinking about your MLM funnel and what your value based offer is. (This should be a video, DVD, audio, e-book or free report for best results)

If you are doing online marketing with NO value based free offer you are going to really struggle to generate leads online for your MLM so make sure to set up your MLM funnel ASAP.

If you join forums that are of value to you, you will be motivated to return to them regularly. You MUST post in forums at least 20 minutes per day or every other day if you want to generate leads. You need to become one of the community and people will start to click on your link if you are consistent.

Q. What do I say in my forum posting?

A. Just be yourself. (Your best self!) Interact with people and comment and give feedback on what the other members are saying. Be sociable and participate in the discussion with your comments. If you have answers or questions put them forth and see what comes back to you.

Please don’t talk or post about your MLM. Post about the subject i.e. property that is the focus of the forum. Got it? This is a biggie for beginners to get a handle on. You’ll be banned from the forum if you pitch people rather than contributing to the discussion.

Top Tip: Don’t spend more than 20 minutes a day in the forums. This is not a hang out and chat to kill the time activity. It’s a smart marketing activity when done smartly!

We’ll cover loads more methods In future articles for generating leads to your Attraction Marketing funnel but in the meantime make sure you have these 3 things in place:

1) A customized MLM online system or Attraction Marketing funnel, with an opt-in to an attractive, prospect pulling free value based offer which is not just your MLM directly. (That is just inviting them to pay you after all)

2) A sharp domain name (with good and relevant keywords in it) that you can forward to your website if the website is your team or affiliate website. (Don’t use affiliate links as they look very unprofessional and naff for this kind of marketing. It takes 10 minutes to buy a domain name and forward it)

3) A 1-2 line magnetic summary of your free offer

Keep yourself motivated to return often to the forums of your choice by creating friendships there. If the forum doesn’t prove to be of value to you then find new ones.

The great thing about forums and networks is that your posts stay online forever! This kind of networking and posting has real residual value and many prospects will find those ‘threads’ way after you have forgotten you ever posted them.

That’s another good reason to get your own domain name – cloaked affiliate links may no longer be valid a year down the line but you have complete control over your domain name.

Not got a funnel yet? You NEED one to be effective in online marketing or you are working with a leaky bucket – in fact no bucket at all…

For more information about setting up your customized MLM Online System or Attraction Marketing Funnel for ANY MLM go here: MLM Online System

For personalized coaching and training resources go here: Coaching and Training with Rachel

Thanks for reading! I hope you will take some action on this. Please share your comments at the blog and if this has been of value to you share it with your network. They may thank you!

p.s Remember if you enrol in any of the courses I recommend in my systems or at the blog you automatically qualify for a 30 minute free Attraction Marketing consultation with me to get you off to a fast start.

Ok so you’ve just about got your head around how to generate some leads through your website and now comes the real work… What on earth are you going to say to these guys when you call your MLM leads?

Let’s look at a few different things you could do/say:

a) Call them and introduce yourself and see what the prospect is actually looking for (rather than ranting on about your wonder pills or ‘greatest compensation plan,’ in the history of the world! A.K.A ‘The Big Pitch!’)

This gentler version is known as the ‘consultative approach,’ for MLM and you can learn a lot more about that in Renegade University. When you think about it, it’s a great way to build relationships and network so nothing new there but it’s amazing how many ‘recruiters’ don’t do it.

b) Not call them at all… wait for them to be so ATTRACTED by your brilliance that they call you.

Yes this does happen and as you build your list and become more credible in online marketing and the MLM world, it will happen more and more BUT and this is a big BUT… if you sit waiting for the phone to ring when you’re just getting started in your business you are choosing the painful and slow route to recruiting.

Yes it requires some courage to pick up the phone (work with your sponsor on this or get the training you need elsewhere if that’s your situation.) The pay off is huge.

How are you going to ever learn how to recruit new business partners and product users if you are too scared to phone them?

Every time you call you will be practicing and getting a little bit better so that’s another great reason to start calling every lead you generate.

Unless you’re an internet direct sales marketer with a heavy hitting sales model or affiliate marketing business you need to speak to your prospects ASAP. and begin building the relationship with them.

The beautiful thing about building your MLM with online marketing is that it removes a lot of the time wasting of having to phone people who are not even interested. (although I still recommend you talk with your warm market when you start, but that’s another blog..)

However this is Internet Network Marketing or MLM using online tools. That’s all it is. It doesn’t mean that your auto-responder builds your team for you.

It is simply a tool – albeit the best tool I have ever discovered which means that all night long while I get my beauty sleep leads are plopping into my inbox.

Still you need to speak with your leads. Once you have so many coming in you can think about using a VA or Virtual Assistant to assist you for those initial calls, or only call back certain ones that email you or watch your video (if you have online tracking) etc. etc.

It’s up to YOU how you qualify your prospects BUT….(Another BUT!)

Until that day when you are flooded with leads please call them all. Start to develop the phone skills you need to be a top recruiter in your company.

Mike Dillard and Mike Klingler will both tell you that you still need to call your leads. No matter how fancy your capture page, there is no way around that so embrace it and make it fun.

Top Tip: Allocate batches of time where you just do calling. No distractions and no multi-tasking. (Apparently it lowers your IQ any way!)

If you have lots of leads set aside a couple of hours twice a week or whatever it is to call all your leads and say hi. If you’re just starting then set up a couple of times each day that you can try to reach them.

Find out what they’re looking for and assist them to come through your MLM online funnel with confidence.

A human voice makes all the difference in the world and will set you apart from the majority of network marketers who are new online and who think their auto-responder and capture page is going to build them a big team. (Yes really!)

Here’s an amazing free video for you today if you’re ready to start actually recruiting people rather than just creating fancy blogs and websites: Black Belt Recruiting Video.

The content in this video is pure gold and will show you that even Mike Dillard with all of his new school online marketing still practices and preaches ‘old school’ follow up which of course is just MLM 101, neither old school or new school!

For those of you already receiving Magnetic Sponsoring newsletters from Mike Dillard then you’ll know that he is arranging training courses for offline marketing now.

He has realized that many baby boomers and none geek types will want to do MLM in this new economy, but may not want to bury themselves learning all the skills needed to generate MLM leads online.

This is a happy day… Old School MLM meets New School in an amicable marriage of key networking skills.

Old School or New School – Just make sure you are ‘In School’ and put aside 1 hour to watch this incredible free training video interview series with Mike Dillard and Mark Wieser who personally sponsors over 250 people each year, and was one of Mike Dillard’s first mentors.

Download your free copy here!

Just a little post today about the wonders of Squidoo. Yes I know there seem to be a million and one things to do online and it can get a bit crazy but this is one to put at the top of your list.

Why so?

1) Squidoo is highly ranked on Google and other search engines so can get you a lot of traffic and Network Marketing leads through your keywords to your blog or webpage that you promote.

2) It is FREE but valuable. Actually it amazes me how many really brilliant Social Media resources are available to us now to build the business online. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because it’s free it’s not worth your time.

3) It is easy to do. Yes I mean it – all you need to do is 1 page of content! If you think blogging is a piece of work then start with easier things that you can monitor and get very quick results. Check out my first Squidoo lens here and you’ll get the idea.  

4) Your one page Squidoo Lens can have great residual value so you do the work once but it can keep generating Network Marketing leads for you long term, and just sits there on your internet alley waiting for nice people to pop in. (Or whatever kind of leads you want!)

5) Squidoo is really cool and fun so check it out. (I bet you like that reason best!)

Grab yourselves an account at Squidoo.com and when you visit my lens please leave me a nice comment and invite me to review your lens also.

So it’s free and easy… what more can we ask for?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Rachel Henke coaches Network Marketers to transition into building their business online. Subscribe to the Professional Networker Blog here:  

I’ve been spending the weekend doing some research on our industry and I tell you what; it just seems to get more and more confusing here!! Talk about confused.com (An annoying advert in the UK)

Everyone and his brother is claiming to be an ‘expert’ and whichever internet route I meandered through to learn more about attraction marketing I just kept coming up against ‘conspiracy theories.’ We have the ‘The 7 great lies of network marketing’ and all of those ominous sounding google ad words adverts that go with these endless conspiracies. You know the ones.. all about your nasty upline and what he or she doesn’t want to tell you. Golly and those upline guys seemed so genuine in every other way…. Is it possible these people are living a wicked double MLM life?

I absolutely love the principles of attraction marketing but all of this hype saddens me and confuses the socks off all the newbies. Not to leave it there though as the plot thickens. For those who can’t implement the ideas in Ann Sieg’s Renegade Marketer e book right off the bat, there is a next step… (Of course) Mike Klingler who seems like a pretty genuine and good guy to me, has come up with something called the ‘Renegade University’ which helps one learn how to implement the geeky stuff discussed in her book. It all looks pretty cool but of course what everyone seems to forget to mention is just how looooooooooooooooooooooong this stuff takes to implement. I was reading one of the mentor’s blogs and she wrote that it took her 6 weeks to set her site up. 6 weeks!!

We have people in our industry whom reach the top level of the pay plan in 3 months. (Okay not so many!)  Does the geek route sound like a recipe for showing someone how to get out of the rat race?  On paper, or on the screen, these systems of course always look really impressive with testimonials of guys sponsoring 10-50 reps a month. I’m not sure about you, but personally (i.e. personal enrolees…) I don’t think I could handle 50 reps signing up whom I have attracted to me because of my amazing IT and teaching skills. Of course I would always have to be on call as well. I have declared myself to be their saviour and superhero for all things they can’t understand or work out on their blog. (Lord help me – please don’t let it be a Word press or I’m stuffed! It’s all I can do to run my own.) So that kind of messes with my 4 Hour Work Week mentality!! Sorry Tim. In this industry if we build it once and build it right, we’re promised walk away income and freedom to travel the world with 24/7 residual cheques while we sleep. I don’t recall signing up to be an IT support engineer do you? Or perhaps a Virtual Assistant would be more on the money. I would certainly need to get outsourcing ASAP!! (I didn’t want the hassle of employees though did I?)

I have ranted slightly on my blog about this before because it irritates me that these guys use negatives to draw people into their own names’ list. They use standard adverts and really have no idea what each company or sponsorship line is teaching, but lump them all together in one ‘old school’ pile. I hear now that some are under fire from the DSA for exactly this reason. If only they would go about implementing these new principles with more finesse that wouldn’t be necessary, but they seem to live and die by the philosophy that they are single-handedly saving the MLM world from the upline demons who don’t want to work on the internet all day, and insist on actually talking to people they know and trust about their business. Honestly whatever next?

The irony is that there are great principles and systems contained within both styles of marketing. To cut out the basics is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Likewise to say attraction marketing doesn’t work is just plain silly. The guys who moan they ‘don’t know anyone’ when they do their warm list will be the equivalent of the guys who moan ‘I don’t know how to do all this techie stuff.’ The point being this is a challenging industry where we need to talk to people in one way or another. What concerns me is that many of the timid ‘I don’t know anyone’ people are hiding behind their computers, building websites and have been in the business with their new company (whilst their wicked sponsor calls them repeatedly, trying to work out why they haven’t exposed their exciting business to even one person yet) for months without getting into action. Meanwhile they are spending money faffing about learning social book marking and watching more gurus’ videos. By the time these poor folk work out how to generate a lead they’ll have lost heart and talked themselves out of their opportunity.

So what’s the secret? As one of my very successful and surprisingly truthful (!!) upline said, ‘there are no secrets when there is a pay plan this good as there is no benefit to stopping your people doing well.’ That’s very true but of course there are always new and better ways to do things.

If you’re still sharpening your pencil, picking up that heavy phone and putting it down again (after giving it a quick polish) and in confused.com land… I recommend not reading every conspiracy report that comes your way. It is a basic principle of this industry that mindset is a key element to your success, and so therefore dwelling on what you don’t have cannot be a positive thing. The sensible and sane thing to do is to follow the basic plan from your successful sponsorship line which is active in the field today and (most companies don’t have one so don’t be confused by those glossy brochures) Your warm list may be of great value to you and the people on it need to be told what you’re doing and given an opportunity to review a 3rd party tool. (Note 3rd party tools deliver the business message instead of you begging, pleading and whining!) Then you can focus on meeting new people as you go about your life, and learning the very complex strategies needed for online attraction marketing. The point being that you are already in action, whilst you learn. If you’re not excited enough to whiz over a video link to a friend to let them know what you’re doing then maybe you should rethink your career path!

The 3 foot rule does not exist anymore except for MLM psychopaths… this is a relationship business and if you focus on expanding your network both on and offline you will be moving in the right direction to becoming a Professional Network Marketer. Social Networking has opened up a whole new world for those who want to build online but also to keep it simple.

If you want to advance beyond the basics then I favour Mike Dillard’s attraction materials because in a confusing world they are simple to obtain and easy to absorb. They are also very good value for money, and Mike spreads a positive message. Click here for more info on Magnetic Sponsoring and how you can apply it to the business of your choice.

Note added as of 2 February 2009. I confess to having misjudged some of the resources I reviewed in this post. As Social Media has become more and more accessible to the masses and I have achieved some fabulous results generating leads and cash with the ‘geek’ route I have since researched the Renegade University and have been blown away by the training that Mike Klinger gives. It really is ‘click by click’ even for those in your team who are very non technical.

If you are not one of the fortunate golden ones that makes it in 3 months (not many are!) then I recommend you take a serious look at establishing your own web of content and cash machine online.  You can learn how to do it here

by Rachel Henke, (c) 2008 If you’d like to use this article for quality content on your website or blog please do so with our blessing but ensure the author’s link remains intact.