By Charles Fuchs
The biggest challenge for most any MLM home based business has nothing to do with selling its products. The chief hurdle a MLM home based business usually faces involves building a successful downline. Just how do you find recruits who are genuinely interested in becoming part of your MLM home based business sales team?
Well, before you rush out and start trying to generate leads for your MLM home based business, you need to have a plan. It isn’t enough to tell people about your MLM home based business and its products and expect them to sign up. You need to know as much as you possibly can about your MLM distributor, the products, and the compensation plan so that you can answer any questions a MLM lead may have.
The more you know and the more comfortable with it you are, the easier it is to make people want to become part of your MLM home based business. Not knowing the answers to their questions or giving vague answers is more likely to make any MLM leads you do generate mistrustful of you and your MLM home based business. And be sure to have a follow-up plan for what you’ll do after you’ve generated some leads and started making contacts because it generally takes several contacts before people take action of any kind, whether buying a product or signing up for a MLM home based business opportunity.
Once you know your MLM home based business inside and out, you’re ready to start generating those MLM leads. One of the first places to look, of course, is to your friends and personal acquaintances. Make a list of everyone you know. You’ll likely be surprised by how long that list is, and the people you know are a good place to start looking for MLM recruits. A lot of the time, even if your friends and acquaintances aren’t interested in a MLM business themselves, they can give you names of people they know who will be interested in your MLM home based business opportunity. And if they don’t volunteer any names, don’t hesitate to ask them, politely of course, for names of people you can contact.
Another thing you should do to generate MLM leads for your home based business is start collecting. Business cards. Email addresses. Phone numbers. You never know who may or may not be interested in an MLM home based business of their own—and you won’t know unless you contact them and ask. Again, the person you contact may not be interested in a MLM home based business himself, but more often than not, the person will know someone else who is. Cold-calling isn’t necessarily easy when you first start doing it, but as you gain experience, you’ll get more comfortable and confident, and that confidence will ultimately pay off. Just be prepared to hear no and don’t take it personally.
MLM trade journals are another good place to generate leads for your home based business. These journals are read by people who are already interested in MLMs which makes them a “warm” market. Including a press release with your ad will greatly improve the number of inquiries you get. And make your ad for your MLM home based business as different from the other ads as possible. This is important so that your home based business MLM ad doesn’t get lost in a sea of others.
Buying MLM leads is one of the most popular wayw to generate leads for your MLM home based business. Many companies have email lists and phone number lists for people who have expressed their interest in getting information on MLM opportunities. Often you can even buy MLM leads who want to be involved with your particular type of MLM home based business opportunity. This makes purchasing leads a great option for most MLM home based businesses.
When buying MLM leads for your MLM home based business opportunity, you want to be sure you’re getting them from a reputable company. You don’t want to buy an out-of-date MLM leads list or one that’s been sold over and over. So do some research on the list selling company before you buy. Also, be sure to check any phone numbers you buy in the Do Not Call Registry. Doing this is your responsibility, not the company’s you buy the list from, so you need to be sure to check them before you call. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Charles Fuchs, President of Vision Management Enterprise Inc., is an established online marketer who specializes in helping people start their very own Work at Home Program and exploding their business with the Best Work at Home Leads.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Fuchs
Work At Home and MLM Lead Generation
Friday, August 3, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
How do you compare part 3
How do you want to generate leads for your business?
Lead generation can take many forms. I suggest you use MULTIPLE sources of lead generation for your business. My personal favorites in priority order are:
Pay Per Click Advertising – If you are new to PPC advertising then you need help in getting started. Otherwise, you will waste an endless amount of time and money doing it WRONG! Trust me, that’s what I did. The best book I’ve found for explaining this is Day Job Killer which you can pick up here:
http://www.biz4anyone.com/dayjobkiller
Articles – Article writing is the BEST long term way to grow your business – hands down! What happens is that when you write an article people view you as an authority. The second thing that happens is that they visit the website you put in your article (which is yours). The final thing that happens is that your article gets indexed on the search engines for the key words you choose. So, whenever someone types in your keywords your article pops up – forever! How cool is that?
Blog and Forum Postings – Like articles, blog and forum postings get you indexed on the search engines quickly. The key is to create a signature on your user account that gets shown with every post you do. Then, whenever someone reads your post they will naturally click your link (if they think you have something interesting to say) and visit your website. There you are – FREE traffic for you!
WARNING: Make sure you post something of value! Don’t be categorized as a spammer by putting a one word response just to get your signature shown. Provide content and your post will live forever!
Purchasing Leads – This is my least favorite way to grow my business because I create my own leads through the methods above. But, if you are new to the internet this is the quickest way I know to make that happen. Head over to:
http://www.biz4anyone.com/Adcoop.html
to start your campaign for $5.
Monday, July 30, 2007
How do you compare? Part 2
Question #2: How much money do you have to invest in your business? Many people will tell you that you can start your business totally for free. I don’t believe it. I DO think you can advertise for free but it will take a much longer time. But, if you are serious about starting your business you need to invest in your future. You should have a minimum of $50 per month ready to invest (and possibly lose) if you truly want to start a business. Personally I think anything less than $100 per month puts your business on too tight of a budget but that’s just me. I understand that you are getting into these businesses because you want to make more money and don’t have enough now but it is IMPOSSIBLE to expect a thousand dollar per month return by spending ZERO dollars on your business. It just won’t work. So, if your budget is tight you need to do whatever it takes to free up $50 to $100 per month. Then, you need to choose a business that meets that monthly goal. Here are a few you can start for $50 or less per month that I KNOW have worked for me: You’ll invest about $45 per month on this business and will receive 30 days of step by step marketing training http://www.biz4anyone.com/pluginprofit You’ll invest $50 per month on this educational website and receive in return thousands of dollars of educational material. You also receive a “plug and play” money making business at the same time. http://www.biz4anyone.com/success To review – in my opinion you CANNOT join a business for free (with a few exceptions) but you can learn marketing and business growth for free if you really want to. Set aside some money and invest in your future NOW!
Your Work At Home And MLM Lead Source!
Your Work At Home And MLM Lead Source!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
How do you compare with gurus? 1 of 5
How Do You Compare With Internet Gurus?
If you could fill out a marketing questionnaire online and answer some commen business questions, wouldn’t you like to know how your answers compare with the best internet gurus available today? In today’s series we’ll explore one of the areas you may need to improve upon!
Question #1: How much time do you have for your business?
I could sugarcoat this for you but the truth of the matter is that the best business gurus in the world devoted well over 20 hours per week to their business when they first started. Does that sound easy to you? Maybe and maybe not.
Gurus like Stone Evans talked about spending every evening on the internet as they figured out the best ways to build their business. And Stone even had a full time job managing a restaurant! So, if YOU are serious about running a business you need to carve out 20 hours per week MINIMUM! If you think about it, there are 168 hours in a week and if you just dedicate at least 3 hours per day to your business for starters you will make it happen!
The keys to fitting your new business into your schedule involve:
Removing the tasks that waste your time. My personal time management ‘thief” is television. I have been known to sit down in front of a television and “poof” four or five hours have gone by! So, what is your time “thief”? Identify it and eliminate it from your life. Remember, the time you invest now can serve you and your family for many, many years.
Schedule your time. Now that you’ve created more time you need to schedule in your business building efforts. And by this I mean WRITE DOWN the day and time you will spend working on your business. And, block yourself from others (physically) during that time. Don’t answer the phone, don’t respond to e-mail. Only do the tasks you have chosen to do during this block of time!
So, today you need to dedicate yourself to finding 20 hours per week to start or grow your internet business. Make a plan to succeed! And keep in mind that doing nothing is a plan too - a plan for failure!
Your Work At Home and MLM Lead Source
If you could fill out a marketing questionnaire online and answer some commen business questions, wouldn’t you like to know how your answers compare with the best internet gurus available today? In today’s series we’ll explore one of the areas you may need to improve upon!
Question #1: How much time do you have for your business?
I could sugarcoat this for you but the truth of the matter is that the best business gurus in the world devoted well over 20 hours per week to their business when they first started. Does that sound easy to you? Maybe and maybe not.
Gurus like Stone Evans talked about spending every evening on the internet as they figured out the best ways to build their business. And Stone even had a full time job managing a restaurant! So, if YOU are serious about running a business you need to carve out 20 hours per week MINIMUM! If you think about it, there are 168 hours in a week and if you just dedicate at least 3 hours per day to your business for starters you will make it happen!
The keys to fitting your new business into your schedule involve:
Removing the tasks that waste your time. My personal time management ‘thief” is television. I have been known to sit down in front of a television and “poof” four or five hours have gone by! So, what is your time “thief”? Identify it and eliminate it from your life. Remember, the time you invest now can serve you and your family for many, many years.
Schedule your time. Now that you’ve created more time you need to schedule in your business building efforts. And by this I mean WRITE DOWN the day and time you will spend working on your business. And, block yourself from others (physically) during that time. Don’t answer the phone, don’t respond to e-mail. Only do the tasks you have chosen to do during this block of time!
So, today you need to dedicate yourself to finding 20 hours per week to start or grow your internet business. Make a plan to succeed! And keep in mind that doing nothing is a plan too - a plan for failure!
Your Work At Home and MLM Lead Source
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Top MLM Lead Companies
MLM Leads - The Top 15 MLM Lead Companies in Network Marketing
Posted under: Marketing by Todd
That is a sound of music to my ears. Why? I worked MLM Leads for nearly 8 years, and had great success with them. That is why that I have a pretty good understanding of what really makes a good MLM Lead, and what does not.
In the pursuit of finding these top 15 Network Marketing Lead companies, there were some requirements and considerations that went into the mix. An MLM lead is only part of the MLM Lead Success Formula. There were 5 things that we looked at when we were considering MLM Lead Companies.
What are they?
1) Quality of the MLM lead.
Quality of lead is everything. There are some great looking websites out there that look totally rocking, but we found that the quality of leads when we called them, were less than what you should expect in an MLM lead.
Beautiful site, great looking logo, lousy leads.
That is why we actually had people order leads, and we called them. We called more than one bunch of leads as well. This at least would give us a feeling of consistency or lack of it. The MLM Lead companies we chose were highly consistent in quality of lead, and people who truly were looking for a business. It took us 7 months to complete the research on MLM leads.
2) Training of working the MLM Leads.
Many of the beautiful sites offered no type of ongoing training, and that was something that really needs to be be a part of any good MLM leads programs. There were some that had online training, as well as cds and training series you could purchase. That was good, but the ongoing live training was the best idea, and we found many MLM leads Companies that did just that.
Training also includes scripts, handling objections, presentation, following up, closing, and other MLM leads topics. There are some HOT MLM leads sites out there that truly delivered on this quality of MLM leads training.
3) MLM Leads Support.
The support factor was key. Once the MLM leads were purchased, was there somehow support in case of need? Most had email support, some had live phone support, and some had live instant message support. There were sites that offered no support, and if you had a challenge with your MLM leads, then good luck.
The support should be somehow resolving issues that arise, including bad mlm leads, wrong numbers or emails, and general problems. The MLM Leads companies we found that were the best, had a support system. And some type of guarantee also should be part of the network marketing lead program.
4) Targeted MLM leads.
Many companies had different types of targeted mlm leads, including company specific, live tv leads, local leads, gender specific, product specific, area code specific, among others. Targeted mlm leads are the favorite of the Networkers I talked to, as it gives people a more focused lead, and a more targeted impact.
5) Pricing of the MLM leads.
This was a huge factor in determining many people’s decision to buy. But to be blunt, you get what you pay for. There are many cheap network marketing home business lead companies with cheap leads, but here is a warning:
Be careful. You get what you pay for.
Ask if you can try maybe 15-20 leads to see if they are worth the money. Many companies give free network marketing leads away to try.
Understand that a great MLM lead may cost you several dollars, and rightfully so.
INFERNO Secret:
An MLM lead purchase is NOT a purchase, but an investment in your business. One good MLM lead can produce tens of thousands of dollars in volume and revenues. If you understand that, then the pricing should not be as important as the quality and training of the Network marketing lead company.
And of course, REPUTATION had a lot to do with the selection as well. Some companies that came across really well, when checked on, did not have a very good reputation for MLM Leads and service.
Soooooo:
What are the Top 15 MLM lead Companies? (They are in no particular order, as all are really good as far as our research would tell us.)
INFERNO Secret:
Do your OWN DUE DILIGENCE before you purchase, but these we found are pretty strong as all scored well in the above areas of requirement.
1) Cutting Edge Media
http://www.cuttingedgemedia.com
2) Leads2yoursuccess.com
http://www.leads2yoursuccess.com
3) Networkleads.com
http://www.networkleads.com
4) ProStep MLM leads
http://www.prostepinc.com
5) LeadsLab MLM leads
http://www.leadslab.com
6) Leaders Club MLM leads
http://www.leadersclub.com
7)Traffic Oasis (Need a referral source for this one)
http://www.trafficoasis.com
Fast MLM Leads
http://www.fastmlmleads.com
9) Pro MLM Leads
http://www.promlmleads.com
10) NPros (Company specific mlm leads)
http://www.npros.com
11) Jungle Leads
http://www.jungleleads.com
12) Optimized Leads
http://www.optimizedleads.com
13) Laser Leads
http://www.laserleads.com
14) Leads Lists
http://www.leadslists.com
15) MLM leads.com
http://www.mlmleads.com
There ARE other good MLM lead companies out there, depending on what you are looking for. But these we found as far as research, were the better ones, and some were beyond exceptional.
MLM leads are a great source of NEW BLOOD for your business. You can find Gold mine after Gold mine, in a good Network marketing lead and great MLM Leads.
Blessings…Doug (c) 2005/ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PassionFire Intl
http://www.passionfire.com
http://www.passionfire.com/pf_heat_7.html
Doug Firebaugh is one of the top MLM Network Marketing Trainers in the world. Over a million people a month read his training ezine. He spent the last 7 years traveling the world speaking and training on Success. He lives in Birmingham Michigan, and you can receive a FREE subscription to his training ezine - The MLM Success HEAT- at: http://www.passionfire.com/pf_heat_4.html and http://www.passionfire.com
Todd@MLMLeadFormula.com
Work At Home MLM Lead Generation
Posted under: Marketing by Todd
That is a sound of music to my ears. Why? I worked MLM Leads for nearly 8 years, and had great success with them. That is why that I have a pretty good understanding of what really makes a good MLM Lead, and what does not.
In the pursuit of finding these top 15 Network Marketing Lead companies, there were some requirements and considerations that went into the mix. An MLM lead is only part of the MLM Lead Success Formula. There were 5 things that we looked at when we were considering MLM Lead Companies.
What are they?
1) Quality of the MLM lead.
Quality of lead is everything. There are some great looking websites out there that look totally rocking, but we found that the quality of leads when we called them, were less than what you should expect in an MLM lead.
Beautiful site, great looking logo, lousy leads.
That is why we actually had people order leads, and we called them. We called more than one bunch of leads as well. This at least would give us a feeling of consistency or lack of it. The MLM Lead companies we chose were highly consistent in quality of lead, and people who truly were looking for a business. It took us 7 months to complete the research on MLM leads.
2) Training of working the MLM Leads.
Many of the beautiful sites offered no type of ongoing training, and that was something that really needs to be be a part of any good MLM leads programs. There were some that had online training, as well as cds and training series you could purchase. That was good, but the ongoing live training was the best idea, and we found many MLM leads Companies that did just that.
Training also includes scripts, handling objections, presentation, following up, closing, and other MLM leads topics. There are some HOT MLM leads sites out there that truly delivered on this quality of MLM leads training.
3) MLM Leads Support.
The support factor was key. Once the MLM leads were purchased, was there somehow support in case of need? Most had email support, some had live phone support, and some had live instant message support. There were sites that offered no support, and if you had a challenge with your MLM leads, then good luck.
The support should be somehow resolving issues that arise, including bad mlm leads, wrong numbers or emails, and general problems. The MLM Leads companies we found that were the best, had a support system. And some type of guarantee also should be part of the network marketing lead program.
4) Targeted MLM leads.
Many companies had different types of targeted mlm leads, including company specific, live tv leads, local leads, gender specific, product specific, area code specific, among others. Targeted mlm leads are the favorite of the Networkers I talked to, as it gives people a more focused lead, and a more targeted impact.
5) Pricing of the MLM leads.
This was a huge factor in determining many people’s decision to buy. But to be blunt, you get what you pay for. There are many cheap network marketing home business lead companies with cheap leads, but here is a warning:
Be careful. You get what you pay for.
Ask if you can try maybe 15-20 leads to see if they are worth the money. Many companies give free network marketing leads away to try.
Understand that a great MLM lead may cost you several dollars, and rightfully so.
INFERNO Secret:
An MLM lead purchase is NOT a purchase, but an investment in your business. One good MLM lead can produce tens of thousands of dollars in volume and revenues. If you understand that, then the pricing should not be as important as the quality and training of the Network marketing lead company.
And of course, REPUTATION had a lot to do with the selection as well. Some companies that came across really well, when checked on, did not have a very good reputation for MLM Leads and service.
Soooooo:
What are the Top 15 MLM lead Companies? (They are in no particular order, as all are really good as far as our research would tell us.)
INFERNO Secret:
Do your OWN DUE DILIGENCE before you purchase, but these we found are pretty strong as all scored well in the above areas of requirement.
1) Cutting Edge Media
http://www.cuttingedgemedia.com
2) Leads2yoursuccess.com
http://www.leads2yoursuccess.com
3) Networkleads.com
http://www.networkleads.com
4) ProStep MLM leads
http://www.prostepinc.com
5) LeadsLab MLM leads
http://www.leadslab.com
6) Leaders Club MLM leads
http://www.leadersclub.com
7)Traffic Oasis (Need a referral source for this one)
http://www.trafficoasis.com
Fast MLM Leads
http://www.fastmlmleads.com
9) Pro MLM Leads
http://www.promlmleads.com
10) NPros (Company specific mlm leads)
http://www.npros.com
11) Jungle Leads
http://www.jungleleads.com
12) Optimized Leads
http://www.optimizedleads.com
13) Laser Leads
http://www.laserleads.com
14) Leads Lists
http://www.leadslists.com
15) MLM leads.com
http://www.mlmleads.com
There ARE other good MLM lead companies out there, depending on what you are looking for. But these we found as far as research, were the better ones, and some were beyond exceptional.
MLM leads are a great source of NEW BLOOD for your business. You can find Gold mine after Gold mine, in a good Network marketing lead and great MLM Leads.
Blessings…Doug (c) 2005/ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PassionFire Intl
http://www.passionfire.com
http://www.passionfire.com/pf_heat_7.html
Doug Firebaugh is one of the top MLM Network Marketing Trainers in the world. Over a million people a month read his training ezine. He spent the last 7 years traveling the world speaking and training on Success. He lives in Birmingham Michigan, and you can receive a FREE subscription to his training ezine - The MLM Success HEAT- at: http://www.passionfire.com/pf_heat_4.html and http://www.passionfire.com
Todd@MLMLeadFormula.com
Work At Home MLM Lead Generation
Friday, July 6, 2007
Time Management Tips Part One
Posted under: Time Management by Todd
In today’s “Ask Todd” series I’m answering a problem that MANY of you are facing - Time and Time Management. When I asked “what is your biggest business challenge?” an overwhelming amount responded that they DON’T have the time to start their business.
So, Ive decided to dedicate the next several posts to finding the time in your life to make your business work. Below you will see some general tips and over the next few days I will be launching specific tips designed to help you find the time in your life to change your life! Enjoy!
One of the most difficult aspects of running your own business is the time it takes to do it. When you have a family as well as a business, this can mean that time is also taken away from the ones you love. Sometimes it seems to be a double-edged sword. If you spend too much time with your business and not enough with your family, the most important relationships in your life can suffer. But if you spend too much time with your family and not enough on your business, the success of your company can be in jeopardy. And, since your business is likely your main source of income, its success can determine the well being of your family. Is there really a way to balance out business and family time so that neither is pushed aside for the sake of the other? As a matter of fact, there are several ways, and it doesn’t take a superhero to manage any of them. All it takes is some patience, a little savvy scheduling and a lot of willpower. In fact, if you have the time to read the following tips, then you have the time to do them!
Tip #1: Schedule every minute of your day. Well, maybe not every minute. You don’t need to set aside one minute for chewing and 30 seconds for swallowing, but do schedule the time you’ll spend on business-related activities and family-related activities. Part of the reason we have a difficult time balancing work time and family time is that our activities are so jumbled in our minds that we can’t begin to schedule time for each of them. If you actually sit down every night or every morning and write out a schedule on how much time you plan to spend with each and every activity, from calling a client to helping your kids with homework, you’ll be more able to organize and manage time for everything.
Tip #2: Know it’s OK to say no. If something doesn’t fit into your schedule and impedes on another activity you’ve already planned, just say “no.” Say, for instance, a client calls at 6:00 in the evening and pleads with you to have a teleconference with him at 7:00, but your son’s basketball game starts at the same time. It’s really OK to tell your client, “I would love to be able to help you, but I have a very important event to attend tonight.” Or perhaps your daughter rushes into your office and begs you to take her to the mall, but you’ve already scheduled yourself to work on a project for the next two hours. It’s fine to tell her, “Honey, I know this is important to you, but I really need to work on this project right now. Can you get one of your friend’s parents to take you?” In fact, showing her your actual written schedule may help her to understand and teach her a little time management of her own.
Tip #3: Take a day off from work at least once a month. Remember when you were working for someone else and you would tell yourself, “I wish I had my own business. Then I could take a day off whenever I wanted.” Well? What are you waiting for? Chances are, you’ve been working more days with your own business than you were when you were employed by someone else. If you don’t take the weekends off from your business, make sure you take at least one day a week for no work and all play. Then, on top of that, schedule one day per month for a mini vacation. For one day, do no work whatsoever and spend all day with your family. That means no computer (unless you’re helping your kids with homework or playing games), no business phone, no fax, no meetings, and no paperwork for one entire day. In fact, leave the cell phone and the laptop at home and take your family to the beach, the park, the movies or wherever they want to go!
Tip #4: Take a day off from your family at least once a month. This actually means taking a day off from your business and your family. It means taking one day to spend with yourself and only yourself at least once a month. Come on, don’t feel selfish. It’s only one day a month — that’s only 12 days a year, less time than a lot of people get for vacation annually. Tell your family, your clients and everyone else that you’ll be out of pocket for a day. Then leave all electronic communication devices and all family members at home (or even just in another room!) and be alone for a while. Take a road trip, sit by the pool, go to a museum, exercise, take yourself out for dinner — just do something that makes you happy and that you would never be able to do without this one day off. This may seem impossible when you have 10 projects due by next week and a newborn baby at home, but one day isn’t going to keep a project from getting done and just about anyone can find a babysitter for only 24 hours! If you still feel a little selfish, consider this: If you’re so tired and worn out that your mental and physical health are in danger, what good does that do your business or your family? Both will suffer in the end. Taking care of yourself first once in a while is the only way to ensure that you’ll be able to take care of everyone else the rest of the time.
Tip #5: Use your family for cheap labor. There are incredible benefits to getting your family involved with your business, and they aren’t restricted to time management benefits, either. It may take some coaxing, but if you can get your spouse to help you balance the books, your son to help you pack boxes for shipping and your daughter to help you lick envelopes, you’ll manage to spend quality time with your family while spending time at work. They may not seem too happy about it at first, but they will most likely realize the benefits themselves when they see how much more time they were able to spend with you while they were helping. If you do enlist your children’s assistance, you can use the opportunity to teach them to have a good work ethic. Pay them a little something for their time and let them experience the satisfaction of earning their own money. This is especially beneficial for younger children who couldn’t have a job outside of your home. And when they are helping you, don’t be critical of them. If your son isn’t packing the boxes correctly, just calmly show him how to do it. Don’t get frustrated with him or neither one of you will find your time together worthwhile. This should be a time to lighten your workload and brighten each other’s day.
Tip #6: Become a master of compromise. If you learn how to successfully make deals with your family and clients, you’ll find how simple it is to balance your time between both of them. Many times, we let the stress of running a home business and running a family get us frustrated and moody. This can lead to snapping at people when they demand time from us. Calmly compromising with them instead will allow you to get your immediate priorities met while they leave satisfied with the deal. If a client gives you a week to complete a project, yet she contacts you two days prior to the due date saying she needs it right away, don’t let your frustration show in your voice or your words. Say something like, “Well, this will definitely be a time crunch. I’ll tell you what, why don’t I give you what I have already completed now and then I’ll work tonight and tomorrow on the rest. I’m very sorry, but I expected to have two more days to complete this project. I simply don’t have it done yet.” Or, if your husband insists that you spend Saturday helping him in the yard, but you know you have a huge project due Monday morning, compromise with him by promising to help him with something else another time. Say, “I know you’ve been working hard all week, too, sweetheart. I really wish I could help you with the yard, but this client is firm about my getting his project done by Monday. How about if I cook you your favorite dinner Saturday night and then I’ll leave plenty of time next weekend to help you with whatever you choose?” That’s incredibly more effective than saying something like, “Don’t you realize all of the work I have to get done this weekend?! How can you be so selfish?!” Showing your frustration and using negative, abrasive words will only anger the other person and could result in your losing a client or getting a record making silent treatment from a family member.
Conclusion
I’ve started this time management series with a few general tips. Some of them may apply to your situation and others may not. But, keep with me because I plan to hit this topic from MANY angles and I know one or more will be applicable to your situation.
Todd@Biz4anyone.com
Work At Home MLM Lead Generation
In today’s “Ask Todd” series I’m answering a problem that MANY of you are facing - Time and Time Management. When I asked “what is your biggest business challenge?” an overwhelming amount responded that they DON’T have the time to start their business.
So, Ive decided to dedicate the next several posts to finding the time in your life to make your business work. Below you will see some general tips and over the next few days I will be launching specific tips designed to help you find the time in your life to change your life! Enjoy!
One of the most difficult aspects of running your own business is the time it takes to do it. When you have a family as well as a business, this can mean that time is also taken away from the ones you love. Sometimes it seems to be a double-edged sword. If you spend too much time with your business and not enough with your family, the most important relationships in your life can suffer. But if you spend too much time with your family and not enough on your business, the success of your company can be in jeopardy. And, since your business is likely your main source of income, its success can determine the well being of your family. Is there really a way to balance out business and family time so that neither is pushed aside for the sake of the other? As a matter of fact, there are several ways, and it doesn’t take a superhero to manage any of them. All it takes is some patience, a little savvy scheduling and a lot of willpower. In fact, if you have the time to read the following tips, then you have the time to do them!
Tip #1: Schedule every minute of your day. Well, maybe not every minute. You don’t need to set aside one minute for chewing and 30 seconds for swallowing, but do schedule the time you’ll spend on business-related activities and family-related activities. Part of the reason we have a difficult time balancing work time and family time is that our activities are so jumbled in our minds that we can’t begin to schedule time for each of them. If you actually sit down every night or every morning and write out a schedule on how much time you plan to spend with each and every activity, from calling a client to helping your kids with homework, you’ll be more able to organize and manage time for everything.
Tip #2: Know it’s OK to say no. If something doesn’t fit into your schedule and impedes on another activity you’ve already planned, just say “no.” Say, for instance, a client calls at 6:00 in the evening and pleads with you to have a teleconference with him at 7:00, but your son’s basketball game starts at the same time. It’s really OK to tell your client, “I would love to be able to help you, but I have a very important event to attend tonight.” Or perhaps your daughter rushes into your office and begs you to take her to the mall, but you’ve already scheduled yourself to work on a project for the next two hours. It’s fine to tell her, “Honey, I know this is important to you, but I really need to work on this project right now. Can you get one of your friend’s parents to take you?” In fact, showing her your actual written schedule may help her to understand and teach her a little time management of her own.
Tip #3: Take a day off from work at least once a month. Remember when you were working for someone else and you would tell yourself, “I wish I had my own business. Then I could take a day off whenever I wanted.” Well? What are you waiting for? Chances are, you’ve been working more days with your own business than you were when you were employed by someone else. If you don’t take the weekends off from your business, make sure you take at least one day a week for no work and all play. Then, on top of that, schedule one day per month for a mini vacation. For one day, do no work whatsoever and spend all day with your family. That means no computer (unless you’re helping your kids with homework or playing games), no business phone, no fax, no meetings, and no paperwork for one entire day. In fact, leave the cell phone and the laptop at home and take your family to the beach, the park, the movies or wherever they want to go!
Tip #4: Take a day off from your family at least once a month. This actually means taking a day off from your business and your family. It means taking one day to spend with yourself and only yourself at least once a month. Come on, don’t feel selfish. It’s only one day a month — that’s only 12 days a year, less time than a lot of people get for vacation annually. Tell your family, your clients and everyone else that you’ll be out of pocket for a day. Then leave all electronic communication devices and all family members at home (or even just in another room!) and be alone for a while. Take a road trip, sit by the pool, go to a museum, exercise, take yourself out for dinner — just do something that makes you happy and that you would never be able to do without this one day off. This may seem impossible when you have 10 projects due by next week and a newborn baby at home, but one day isn’t going to keep a project from getting done and just about anyone can find a babysitter for only 24 hours! If you still feel a little selfish, consider this: If you’re so tired and worn out that your mental and physical health are in danger, what good does that do your business or your family? Both will suffer in the end. Taking care of yourself first once in a while is the only way to ensure that you’ll be able to take care of everyone else the rest of the time.
Tip #5: Use your family for cheap labor. There are incredible benefits to getting your family involved with your business, and they aren’t restricted to time management benefits, either. It may take some coaxing, but if you can get your spouse to help you balance the books, your son to help you pack boxes for shipping and your daughter to help you lick envelopes, you’ll manage to spend quality time with your family while spending time at work. They may not seem too happy about it at first, but they will most likely realize the benefits themselves when they see how much more time they were able to spend with you while they were helping. If you do enlist your children’s assistance, you can use the opportunity to teach them to have a good work ethic. Pay them a little something for their time and let them experience the satisfaction of earning their own money. This is especially beneficial for younger children who couldn’t have a job outside of your home. And when they are helping you, don’t be critical of them. If your son isn’t packing the boxes correctly, just calmly show him how to do it. Don’t get frustrated with him or neither one of you will find your time together worthwhile. This should be a time to lighten your workload and brighten each other’s day.
Tip #6: Become a master of compromise. If you learn how to successfully make deals with your family and clients, you’ll find how simple it is to balance your time between both of them. Many times, we let the stress of running a home business and running a family get us frustrated and moody. This can lead to snapping at people when they demand time from us. Calmly compromising with them instead will allow you to get your immediate priorities met while they leave satisfied with the deal. If a client gives you a week to complete a project, yet she contacts you two days prior to the due date saying she needs it right away, don’t let your frustration show in your voice or your words. Say something like, “Well, this will definitely be a time crunch. I’ll tell you what, why don’t I give you what I have already completed now and then I’ll work tonight and tomorrow on the rest. I’m very sorry, but I expected to have two more days to complete this project. I simply don’t have it done yet.” Or, if your husband insists that you spend Saturday helping him in the yard, but you know you have a huge project due Monday morning, compromise with him by promising to help him with something else another time. Say, “I know you’ve been working hard all week, too, sweetheart. I really wish I could help you with the yard, but this client is firm about my getting his project done by Monday. How about if I cook you your favorite dinner Saturday night and then I’ll leave plenty of time next weekend to help you with whatever you choose?” That’s incredibly more effective than saying something like, “Don’t you realize all of the work I have to get done this weekend?! How can you be so selfish?!” Showing your frustration and using negative, abrasive words will only anger the other person and could result in your losing a client or getting a record making silent treatment from a family member.
Conclusion
I’ve started this time management series with a few general tips. Some of them may apply to your situation and others may not. But, keep with me because I plan to hit this topic from MANY angles and I know one or more will be applicable to your situation.
Todd@Biz4anyone.com
Work At Home MLM Lead Generation
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Two Techniques for FREE MLM lead genration
Today’s question comes from Leroy N.. He asked:“My biggest question is how do you start your business with little money? I have a website and now I need traffic. I’ve heard about Join Venturing to get started but I’m not sure if that’s best. Help!”Good question Leroy.
Most people who want to work at home for themselves do so because they don’t feel they have enough money with their “real” jobs. So, you start out in a “catch 22″ right from the beginning! But it doesn’t have to be that way! The truth of it is that you NEED traffic coming to your website on a regular basis or your business will die - period! But, without money how do you get traffic?
Well, I’ll be honest up front and let you know that you CAN send traffic to your business for little or no money but it will often take MORE work than the pay methods. So, the choice is up to you - work for FREE traffic or pay for QUICK traffic?
Today we’ll focus on FREE traffic because that is the question Leroy asked. When it comes to FREE traffic sources you will find a million of them on Google or whatever search engine you choose. But, that’s not what you wanted to hear. You want specifc suggestions on how to grow your business for FREE.
So, here it goes.If I was in Leroy’s situation I would use the following two sources for traffic in priority order:
1. Forum Postings - This is by far my FAVORITE and BEST secret for driving traffic for little or no money to my website. First of all, what is a forum? Well, it is a place where people go to talk about the niche you are promoting. In other words, it has your MOST TARGETED audience all in one place! You have people who are interested in what you are selling at your fingertips! So, your first step is to go to a search engine and type in “YOUR NICHE forum”. Obviously you replace YOUR NICHE with your chosen NICHE such as “work from home”, “boating” or “golf”. Your goal is to find at least FIVE forums for you to post in on a regular basis.Now, go to the forums and register.
But, make sure that when you are registering you put YOUR WEBSITE URL in the bottom of your signature. And, to make it even more appealing add a phrase:Want to learn the golf secrets that will save you 10 strokes this weekend?
Go to: http://www.mygolfwebsite.com
Now, every time you post at this website you are also creating an advertisment to your website. You are getting FREE traffic that is also QUICK traffic so it solves both problems.A couple of warnings. First of all DO NOT SPAM! In forum posting circles it is considered SPAM when you don’t provide anything of value in your post. Remember, if you are just going there to put a one word post and a 20 word advertisement then you will fail. But, if you add value by providing an answer to a question then you will gain respect and thus visitors. Your goal is to post ONCE to each of your FIVE forums on a daily basis. That’s 150 posts in a month. And, if you truly due that you will have an advertisement that keeps on giving, and giving and giving. PLUS, post forums get spidered by Google and other search engines VERY quickly which means your website name will start to appear in the search engines quicker than you ever could imagine!Start posting now and you WILL get targeted and quick traffic to your website - guaranteed. Does 150 a month sound like a lot? Then you probably aren’t serious about growing your business for free. Remember, the rich do what the poor will not!2. Article submission - the second part of your FREE traffic strategy is to write an article on your subject and submit it to one of several thousand article directories. The best part is that you can do this for FREE by searching for “Article Directory” in Google. When you find at least 25 to choose from you have a good start. One directory I recommond you use on a regular basis is:http://www.ideamarketers.comThis website has a high page rank and a regular audience so your article is more likely to get viewed quickly.
So, what do you say in your article? Well, you first have to create valuable content. It could be a few paragraphs from your website about lowering your golf score (if that’s your niche) or the three steps to golfing success, etc. The point is that your reader has to gain enough value from it that they deem you as an expert. Then, somewhere in the signature of your article you need to create a link to your website where they can go for more information.
The beauty of article distribution is that it lives FOREVER in the search engines. So, like forum postings, you have an advertising piece that goes on, and on and on! Continually promoting your website.
The downside to this method is that you actually have to write something and it will take a little longer to build an audience but the long term benefits are far worth it! If you are serious you need to create and submit two articles a week for the rest of your career!
So there you go. My top two strategies for creating FREE traffic. These WORK and I use them even to this day. I hope this has helped you in some way and I want you to keep your questions coming to:
Work At Home MLM Lead Generation
Most people who want to work at home for themselves do so because they don’t feel they have enough money with their “real” jobs. So, you start out in a “catch 22″ right from the beginning! But it doesn’t have to be that way! The truth of it is that you NEED traffic coming to your website on a regular basis or your business will die - period! But, without money how do you get traffic?
Well, I’ll be honest up front and let you know that you CAN send traffic to your business for little or no money but it will often take MORE work than the pay methods. So, the choice is up to you - work for FREE traffic or pay for QUICK traffic?
Today we’ll focus on FREE traffic because that is the question Leroy asked. When it comes to FREE traffic sources you will find a million of them on Google or whatever search engine you choose. But, that’s not what you wanted to hear. You want specifc suggestions on how to grow your business for FREE.
So, here it goes.If I was in Leroy’s situation I would use the following two sources for traffic in priority order:
1. Forum Postings - This is by far my FAVORITE and BEST secret for driving traffic for little or no money to my website. First of all, what is a forum? Well, it is a place where people go to talk about the niche you are promoting. In other words, it has your MOST TARGETED audience all in one place! You have people who are interested in what you are selling at your fingertips! So, your first step is to go to a search engine and type in “YOUR NICHE forum”. Obviously you replace YOUR NICHE with your chosen NICHE such as “work from home”, “boating” or “golf”. Your goal is to find at least FIVE forums for you to post in on a regular basis.Now, go to the forums and register.
But, make sure that when you are registering you put YOUR WEBSITE URL in the bottom of your signature. And, to make it even more appealing add a phrase:Want to learn the golf secrets that will save you 10 strokes this weekend?
Go to: http://www.mygolfwebsite.com
Now, every time you post at this website you are also creating an advertisment to your website. You are getting FREE traffic that is also QUICK traffic so it solves both problems.A couple of warnings. First of all DO NOT SPAM! In forum posting circles it is considered SPAM when you don’t provide anything of value in your post. Remember, if you are just going there to put a one word post and a 20 word advertisement then you will fail. But, if you add value by providing an answer to a question then you will gain respect and thus visitors. Your goal is to post ONCE to each of your FIVE forums on a daily basis. That’s 150 posts in a month. And, if you truly due that you will have an advertisement that keeps on giving, and giving and giving. PLUS, post forums get spidered by Google and other search engines VERY quickly which means your website name will start to appear in the search engines quicker than you ever could imagine!Start posting now and you WILL get targeted and quick traffic to your website - guaranteed. Does 150 a month sound like a lot? Then you probably aren’t serious about growing your business for free. Remember, the rich do what the poor will not!2. Article submission - the second part of your FREE traffic strategy is to write an article on your subject and submit it to one of several thousand article directories. The best part is that you can do this for FREE by searching for “Article Directory” in Google. When you find at least 25 to choose from you have a good start. One directory I recommond you use on a regular basis is:http://www.ideamarketers.comThis website has a high page rank and a regular audience so your article is more likely to get viewed quickly.
So, what do you say in your article? Well, you first have to create valuable content. It could be a few paragraphs from your website about lowering your golf score (if that’s your niche) or the three steps to golfing success, etc. The point is that your reader has to gain enough value from it that they deem you as an expert. Then, somewhere in the signature of your article you need to create a link to your website where they can go for more information.
The beauty of article distribution is that it lives FOREVER in the search engines. So, like forum postings, you have an advertising piece that goes on, and on and on! Continually promoting your website.
The downside to this method is that you actually have to write something and it will take a little longer to build an audience but the long term benefits are far worth it! If you are serious you need to create and submit two articles a week for the rest of your career!
So there you go. My top two strategies for creating FREE traffic. These WORK and I use them even to this day. I hope this has helped you in some way and I want you to keep your questions coming to:
Work At Home MLM Lead Generation
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