Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Network Marketing Do's and Don'ts

Why did you become a network marketer? Most people immediately respond, “for the money!” However, this is not the real reason.

No one subjects them to the hard work of building a business just for little pieces of paper with the faces of dead presidents. The truth is you work in order to obtain what those little pieces of paper can bring you.

The first thing you need to do is to find the reason WHY you are a network marketer. Is it the freedom to choose whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it? Maybe you are looking for a different lifestyle. If there is one thing that is critical to your network marketing success, this is it. If you don’t have a reason, there is no motivation to succeed.

A network marketing business is a teaching and coaching business. If you don’t like interaction with other people, a network marketing business probably is not for you. There’s a concept that most network marketers just can’t seem to get a handle on. You do not sponsor “reps,” you sponsor “people!”

If you have to find a reason why you are building your business, then doesn’t it stand to reason that other people will have to do the same thing? If that’s the case, then why is it that network marketers continually focus on how much money your prospect can earn?

There’s no way you are going to convince “Joe Sixpack,” to get out of his Lazyboy recliner unless you find out what his motivation is. Most network marketers literally pound in the amount of money Joe can earn. They bombard him with message after message about how “Successful Sam” has just purchased his 10th Porsche, refurnished his 25,000 square foot cottage and promise Joe that he can do the same!

Just how realistic is this approach? Joe isn’t stupid. He works long, hard hours at his job in order to provide for his family and truly believes that the best thing he can hope for is saving enough money by summer to pay for a camping trip. Then here you come, promising Joe that he can have everything that Sam has and he can have it if he will just sign that piece of paper making you his sponsor!

You will probably sponsor a few people that way, but if you are in business for the long haul you need to change your approach and do it fast.

The proper approach is so simple, but in your rush to sponsor another “rep” instead of helping another person, all too often you talk yourself into and straight out of sponsoring the Joes of the world.

God gave you two ears and one mouth and he did it for a reason. We are supposed to “listen” twice as much as we “speak.”

Instead of pouncing on Joe with the latest and greatest network marketing program of all time, find out what Joe wants and needs. Ask him questions, lots of questions. In fact, in your first meeting with Joe, don’t even mention your business! Yes, that’s what I said. Don’t even bring it up. Remove yourself from the super duper network marketing persona and spend time making a new friend.

Follow these recommendations and you are set to grow your business exponentially.

e-Marketing Basics

e-Marketing, commonly known as an Internet marketing tool, refers to 'how' businesses market their services or products online. In this new age of technology, an Internet presence directly affects the success of a business. From an ecommerce site to an informational site, e-Marketing begins at your homepage.

Utilize a Website

Every website has one goal and that is to heighten the interest of the reader. For the homepage to be an effective e-Marketing tool, web content needs to follow the search engine optimized (SEO) techniques outlined by search engine domains like Google and Yahoo. Once landing on your site, the content will act as a sales letter.

Whether you operate a service or sell products, e-Marketing is more affordable than the traditional means of marketing. Over 130,000,000 people surf the Internet daily. It would take a hefty investment to reach this number of people in the more traditional means of marketing.

Producing a website that ranks well in the search engines, will assist you in obtaining more visitors and visitors easily convert into customers at a rather amazing rate.

Cost Comparison

Printing promotional material can be quite costly. With a website, this cost is significantly lower because your site eliminates the need for brochures or an abundance of business cards. Instead of sending a new prospective literature in the mail, re-direct them to your website. It will guide potential customers through the basics of your business.

Studies show that the per-reader response rates of newspaper advertisements are low. This is due to the number of readers that scan over your add that really have not interest in your services or products. Online readers, however, are a direct result of search engines. These people want to know more about your services or products. The likelihood of turning visitors into customers is higher.

Advertising Campaign

With e-Marketing, the cost of an advertising campaign is drastically lower. The same rules apply but with less effort. You'll need to locate your target market, address their interest, and show how they can benefit.

Typical, ezines or announcements serve as an e-Marketing campaign medium. Utilizing these mediums will improve your online business. Here's how you can get started:

Ezines: Ezines are nothing more than an electronic newsletter. There are several services online that will assist you in writing an ezine. But use caution! It's bad business to send an ezine to someone who hasn't subscribed.

Announcements: Announcements are similar to a press release. Using the electronic transfer of news to an email box, you can announce new events, new services, and new products a lot faster.

Hottest e-Marketing Tool

Today, e-books are the hottest marketing tool of the Twentieth Century. Once Internet Gurus grasp the concept of selling their services or products with an e-book, the market jumped. Adding an e-book to your tools of e-Marketing is a smart move.

E-books consist of hidden links (as in, not apparent) that the inexperienced e-book reader can't see. These links help promote affiliate programs and sell your services or products. The readers click through the e-book and find themselves at your site.

E-books are an e-Marketing medium that needs careful planning. It makes no sense to develop an e-book on dogs if you sell household appliances. To be successful at e-Marketing with e-books, you need to write content related to your business. For instance:

· Home Improvement - How to Design a Kitchen

· Accountant - How Small Businesses can Benefit From a CPA

· Web Developer - How a Website Can Help

Bottom Line
e-Marketing has saved businesses thousands of advertising dollars. It's an effective marketing tool that every business should take advantage of. With a better understanding of how e-Marketing can help improve your business, you can prepare for an e-Marketing campaign that will exceed all of your expectations.

Paid Surveys Revealed

Who does not like some extra cash in hand? What about when that ‘extra cash’ comes relatively easy, with the least of exertion? What about when that extra cash comes to you right in your home, without having you to move to any other place?

You guessed right! I am talking about home business. There are a great number of home businesses with the advent of the Internet. Many people are drawing a decent income from such endeavors. Each one of us is tempted to try out some of these offers, because they sound so easy and within our reach, that we feel we would miss out on a great opportunity if do not try it out. The temptation is even harder to fight when we are in dire need for cash.

I got hooked on the idea, when I had lost my job two years ago. I had more than 16 years’ seniority and never expected to get the axe. My heart was broken; but what hurt the most was that I had, all-of-a-sudden, to cut and curtail on each every expense. I was faced with an acute emotional and financial poverty.

It was at this time that, one day while idling over my computer, I clicked on a link – which I think mentioned cash from home – and I was hooked. At first I was overwhelmed at the variety and diversity of the Internet income opportunity. I found a multitude of offers ranging from data typing, to freelancing; from web designing to copy writing … to the one of the most lucrative options, paid surveys.

Taking paid surveys is an extremely convenient and easy way to earn cash online. I can see the interest growing in your eyes. What are online paid surveys, you will ask?

That is exactly what I was asking two years ago when I rediscovered the meaning of earning at my convenience! Let me start at the most important part. Money! How much can you make with online paid surveys? Will you believe when I tell you that you can make anything between $1 and $150 per survey?

They say that the difference between real and fiction is that fiction needs to make sense!! This is really applicable to making money with online surveys. It does not really make sense, but it is there life-size and true! But do not take my word for it. You go out there and just type ‘online paid surveys’ in the browser line and see what comes out of it. Try a few and just get the feel of it and see how easy is to fill in a survey.

The online surveys are just simple questionnaires which require certain information or opinions from you. These feedback are analyzed by the companies who send you the surveys and the information thus obtained go to form the future product strategy of that company, be it marketing, production, content, correction, etc.

The next logical question you would ask is why the companies would pay people to do surveys. Companies need access to information regarding the reaction of the public on the products they promote. In order to get this information they do extensive market research studies which are expensive and sometimes not reliable – when the data can be manufactured. Paid online surveys give these companies direct access to the public. The payment is calculated based on the importance of the product and the difficulty the company has to gain serious insights on it. Hence, online surveys are a healthy business proposition for the companies.

You could, as I could, build a good reliable source of income with online surveys. There are a few tips that you should keeping mind however, so you do not run into headaches.

Seek those companies that have a good feedback on the Internet; in order to find what others think of it, run a search on the name of the company asking for review or comments. Invariably, the net will throw up sufficient feedback for you to get a good idea about the company;

Remember – this type of work is just like any other work, even if it requires less mental and physical effort. Completing online surveys require patience and persistence if you want to earn a significant amount;

Another trick is to get your name enlisted in as many companies as possible. Logically speaking, even if you have only $5 surveys – which usually take anything between 20-25 minutes max (this also depends upon the speed of your browser) – and you have 4-5 per day, you could earn a very tidy sum;

I advice NOT to enlist in the survey databases who ask you a fee for membership. You can find the same market research companies for free. Why pay for the free information?

Money Making Hobbies

Which ones can be money making hobbies? A friend made a life-sized cow out of plywood once. He painted it, put it in the yard, and people started asing if he would sell it. He soon had a waiting list of customers for his plywood cows. With a profit of about fifty dollars each, he wasn't getting rich, but isn't making money with your hobby more fun than a job?

Money Making Hobbies - Two Approaches

The first approach is obvious: Look for ways to make money with your existing hobby or hobbies. What do you produce that other people might want? Do you collect dolls? You might produce a newsletter for other doll collectors, or buy and sell doll furniture.

The second approach is to think of all the hobbies you might take up that can generate a second income for you. When I found that I really enjoyed making walking sticks as a hobby, I sold more than a thousand dollars worth one summer. There are probably things you would enjoy doing that can make some money.

Get creative in your thinking. Look at the list of activities or hobbies below, and see if you can think of a way they can be used to make money. Do you like to travel? You might become a tour guide, or write articles for magazines.

Painting ... Crafts of all sorts ... Sewing ... Caring for animals ... Talking ... Playing with computers ... Traveling ... Rock Climbing ... Stamp Collecting ... backpacking

How To Make Money With ANY Hobby

In the past, you could argue that not all hobbies can be money making hobbies. This is no longer true. If you go to my sites, you'll notice the ads. I just copy and paste some code (no selling involved), and make a little bit everytime you click on one. In a matter of days, with almost no money, you can have a website up where you write about your favorite hobby, and collect for the advertising clicks.

Network Marketing Online Saves Time

Network marketing online is a great way to do business from home, at your own time and pace. Moreover, the vast resources of the Internet are at your fingertips. You no longer have to start out locally, building gradually over several years to a significant market presence. Most successful network marketing online companies have spurts of meteoric growth.

The core job of a company and its distributors is to motivate, educate, and support their consumers and downline. The Internet allows distributors to accomplish their responsibilities on a level never before imagined. Technology, by allowing distributors to accomplish more in less time and to communicate more effectively to more people, is essential to new network marketing companies. In other words, network marketing online is the new age business!!

If you are like most people, you have always wanted to chuck the day job that keeps you chained to your desk, earn a large income, lead the life you always wanted, work conveniently from home, and give time to your family and kids. Right? Well then, network marketing online is the perfect thing for you.

It's indeed possible, as all those websites screaming out in large headlines will tell you, to get seriously rich in a short span of time, doing network marketing online. But please remember that you need to put in loads of hard work and devotion. There is, as always, no free lunch. There is one company that signed up over a million distributors in less than three years! Such rapid growth creates enormous challenges for the company, true, but it also creates enormous opportunities. This is what you need to keep in mind when considering network marketing online.

Now that a distributor no longer has to devote so much of his or her time to a single sale, the money a company spends on paying its distributors has gradually shifted from sales commissions to downline commissions. That is what makes it possible for you to earn more in a shorter span of time.

If you would like to earn a comfortable income from your home office, working only a few hours a day, then network marketing online can be your roadmap to success. More and more companies are offering products and services that the average person uses. All you have to do is build a global network of results-oriented partners and sit back and relax.

In network marketing online, the work you do today reaps rich rewards for years to come. However, you need to be careful in choosing the particular network marketing online program that you sign up for.

Paid Surveys Online - An easy way to make money online?

Paid surveys are being promoted as an easy way to make money online. Some ads promise you up to $250 per hour for taking paid surveys. Are they realistic? Can one really expect to earn that much money from online paid surveys? Let us find out the answers to these questions.

Such advertisements are usually put up by paid survey database companies like Surveyscout. They charge you for giving access to a database of market research companies, often in the range of $30 to $60. They typically have 400 to 500 survey companies in their database.

Is it worth paying these companies to get access to such a database? Whatever information you get from these companies, you can get for free on the internet on many free online survey sites. Secondly, these survey database companies do not send any surveys by themselves, and you have to join each market research company in their database individually to get any surveys. In addition, most of the survey companies in their databases are good for nothing. Only about 40 to 50 survey companies are really worth joining.

What does this mean? If you are planning to try online surveys, you never have to pay anyone. You can get the list of the best survey companies for free on the internet. You can join them and get started.

Now let us take a closer look at on the rewards offered by paid online surveys. Survey companies can be divided into those which reward you with cash for each survey, those that give you points which can be redeemed for cash, and those which enter you into sweepstakes or prizedraws.

Survey companies that pay cash give $1 to $20 or more per online survey depending on many factors. This group includes many of the best survey sites like American Consumer Opinion Panel, Surveysavvy, Ciao Surveys, Greenfield online(Gozing) and Pinecone Research. You can expect to get 1 to 4 surveys per month from each site.

Surveys that reward you with points let you accumulate reward points which you can later redeem for cash or gifts. Some of the most reputed market research companies like Globaltestmarket, Opinion Outpost, NFO Mysurvey and Lightspeed Research reward you in this way.

Yet other companies enter you into draws for cash or gifts as reward for taking surveys. Although many people don't like this form of reward system, your chances of getting the prize is quite good as the pool to select the prize winners is usually small. Some good survey companies that follow this reward system are Synovate, NPD Research, NOP World (Surveys.com), ECN Research and Nielsen Netratings.

Another important factor which determines how much you can earn from online surveys is your profile, particularly your country. Generally residents of the USA and Canada can expect to make more money from paid surveys, as there are more market research companies operating in these countries. Also they get more frequent surveys. However, participants from other countries can also hope to make some good extra money from paid online surveys.

All said and done, the maximum earnings an average person can expect from doing paid surveys is not more than $200 to $300 per month. This can be a good source of extra income for some people. But the claims that paid surveys can make you rich or replace your real job are largely unfounded. Hence, it is always best to stay with free paid surveys.

The Key to Successful Marketing

If your business has limited marketing resources in terms of people, expertise and materials then you might want to consider outsourcing your marketing functions to an independent marketing professional or a marketing and promotions agency. Small businesses, downsized companies, and expanding corporations all have different reasons to outsource.

Marketing can be an expensive activity and maintaining in house resources can really make this a difficult program to commit to. But marketing is a very mportant part of business success so allowing someone else to focus on marketing gives companies a chance to focus on their core business and areas that will enable them to surpass their competition.

Outsourcing marketing resources comes with a price, but this cost is usually lower than it would be if the companies had employed and undertaken in house activities. By eliminating the need to hire full-time employees, using an agency for marketing resources saves companies thousands of dollars on wages, taxes and benefits. You are also gaining expertise in an agency that you might not find in individual employees. In addition to their own staff, agencies also have other resources to help you, such as their own outside contacts, suppliers, designers, copywriters and printers--saving you time as well as money.

When you hire an outside agency, you are hiring experts in marketing. These are professional people who can focus on all your marketing needs and not be hindered by your internal politics, relations between employees, or lack of knowledge among staff in relation to marketing strategies and how they integrate with business strategies. Marketing professionals whether independent or through a marketing agency - will often have more experience in the particular aspects of marketing than you staff, and undoubtedly more than you could pay for in an employee. Also, since they work with other clients, they have seen what works and what doesn't in other company campaigns. This knowledge translates to more efficient and effective marketing for you as you have the benefit of their hindsight.

As with outsourcing any business function, allowing an outside agency to do your marketing or advertising brings a certain kind of objectivity with it. Sometimes you just need a fresh perspective to overcome difficulties and to achieve specific goals. An objective marketing professional will help you see things you might otherwise miss and will be more open to offering a range of fresh ideas as opposed to a bunch of tired ideas that you might have been toying with for years but have yet to implement.

How To Make Money From The Internet

A guide to the easiest ways of how to make money from the internet armed with a computer and a bank account.

Ways to Get Money from the Internet
The basic way to get money from the Internet is to promote products via ads. These ads are placed on your own website or on someone elses such as a search engine in the form of sponsored ads.

The product might be your own product or someone elses where you participate as an affiliate and receive commissions on sales.

How Much Money Could You Make from the Internet ?
With your own product you would make a profit on each sale based on your sale price minus the cost of materials, shipping and other expenses.

Own Product Example
You market an eBook priced at $49 for download from your website and use a 3rd party payment provider such as ClickBank.

Each month you have 1,000 visitors to your website and a sales conversion rate of 5% so your revenue is $2,450 per month.

Now consider expenses like web hosting at $10 per month and credit-card processing fees of 8% giving costs of $206 per month.

So, in this example your profits are $2,234 monthly.

Affiliate Marketing Example
You have a website about fishing where you review equipment and have product links carrying your affiliate tracking code.

Your website gets 10,000 visitors a month and 10% click on a product link. 10% of these people purchase an average of $100 of merchandise. You get paid 5% commission.

So 1000 people click and 100 buy a product and you are paid 5% of $10,000 in commission.

You only have web hosting costs of $10 per month to deduct.

This nets you $490 per month profit.

Own Product or Affiliate Marketing ?
From the above examples it is clear which is the most profitable approach to take. However, you may struggle to develop your own product, yet you can immediately access 1000's of other people's products via the affiliate marketing route.

The affiliate commission on eBooks is generally far higher than physical goods so you can make good money marketing other people's eBook products rather than developing your own.

For physical products, successful affiliate marketers generally create sites that recommend the products such as sport's equipment. If the price of the products is high, you can make good money.

How to Make as Much Money as Possible
Which ever route is taken you need to balance the following factors for maximum profits:

Maximize Visitors
The more people that see your ads, the more will click and buy. Some ways to maximize visitors are:

Add more content and pages to your website
Optimize your website for search engines
Get more links to your website
Advertise your URL in Google adwords and pay per click search engines
Advertise your URL offline in classified ads
Maximize Click-throughs
Pre-sell products with reviews, articles and related information then provide links in easy to find places.

Maximize Profit
Adjust the selling price to balance sales volumes at the point where maximum profit is produced.

Minimize costs by reducing shipping costs and administration costs. One of the best ways to do this is to market digital products such as software and e-Books that don't require physical shipping.

Maximize commission. Look for large commission percentages and high conversion rates in affiliate partnerships.

Living Without Credit Cards

Credit cards have taken over a lot of lives in the past few years because people think, "Great, a free loan!" The problem with that is that they don't keep track of how much they're spending and how quickly they'll be able to pay it back. There's a reason why credit card companies are so successful. They are great to have, but when people misuse them, things go downhill and they make tons of cash because so many people that own them aren't able to pay them back right away. The interet just keeps rising and rising. People that get into credit card debt are usually people who don't have a lot of money in the first place because if they did, they probably wouldn't be using them. By following these steps, you will affectively eliminate the need for credit cards in your household because you will have paid off your debt and saved enough money to buy what you need or want.

The first step to living without credit cards is to cut them up. Cut every single one up and cancel them if need be. The reason you want to do this is because you won't pressure yourself to use it. There will be no pressure if there's nothing there besides cash, a debit card or a check. You're already living life without credit cards and are on your way to being debt free.

Next, you want to learn where to put your money and how much to save so you can follow your budget. You should sit down once a month and plan your budget. That includes putting away the needed amount of cash for heat, electrcity, groceries, clothes etc. The money that you would be spending on your credit card bills, put in the bank once you've paid your bebt off. You could use a debit card, but if there's a charge, you could just subtract an appropriate amount of cash to spend on groceries, clothes or gas.

When the monthly bill comes for your credit cards, make sure to never pay the minimum balance due on your bill. The minimum balance is what your credit card company wants you to pay so they make more money off of you. Pay as much over the minimum balance due to pay off your debts quicker.

If you're trying to completely eliminate the need for credit cards in your life, you need to get rid of them. Get them out of your house so you can live without them. Remember, there's a reason why the companies are so successful. Learn how to budget properly and save the money that you would be spending on your credit card. Check into getting a debit card if it's free with your bank. Another important step is to make sure you pay more than your minimum balance due so you can easily pay off your bills and not get yourself stuck with climbing interest payments.

A Little Extra Money

If you have already eliminated the need for credit cards in your life but you haven't quite payed off your debt, there are a few ways to make some extra money. Some ways are online, and others are things that might be laying around your house. They might not bring in so much money that you're able to pay off all your debt, but they can be helpful.

One is to write articles online for eHow. They pay you for writing articles and after you've earned $10, they'll send you a payment through PayPal at the end of the month. The important thing is to write articles that people are going to be looking for. You also need to get a good foundation. The first month you might not make a huge hit but that payment goes up and up every month.

Have a yard sale. You probably have a ton of things around your house that you could be making decent money off of. Whether it's old toys that your kids don't play with anymore or a brand new computer that has a broken part, people will be willing to buy. Even if you don't make a ton of money, you'll still be cleaning your house, garage, basement and attic out.

Another helpful hint is to save your change. Usually after you go shopping or even after getting a coffee, you end up with a pocket full of change. Place an empty jelly jar on your bureau and every night when you're getting undressed, empty your change into the jar. After a few months, roll the coins and then trade them in for cash at the bank. If you don't want a ton of change, use it when you buy something. Cashiers like change so they don't have to open a roll of coins.

Combine all your errands into one trip to save gas. This not only helps because you're not driving as much, but because you use more gas when your car is cold. When you combine your trips, it stays warm. You don't have to take your car to the shop as much either. Also ride with friends to work. Ride in their car one day and in yours the next. You save mileage on both of your cars, you save time between services and you save gas.