I’m not a big fan of purchasing leads. Why?

1. Although these can be high quality leads, they are never exclusive and are almost always sold to two or three other distributors from other network. If you don’t call back fast enough, someone else will have contacted them already. And there’s always the possibility that this person burnt this prospect about the business by being unprofessional, arrogant, and pushy. You can turn this around if you’re good, but chances are slim.
2. These leads are generated by publishing capture pages (ad pages if you prefer). The prospect reads the page, and submits a form to learn more about the opportunity. You never know what the capture page looked like or what is the message that the prospect read.

I prefer publishing my own capture pages to generate my own leads. It’s a bit more work, but definitely worth the trouble! The leads that are generated are 100% exclusive, and I control the message on these pages. So when I call my prospects back, I know exactly what that prospect read.

If you lack the technical skills to put everything together, there is a turnkey solution out there that will help you get started unitl you’re ready to do everything from scratch: http://www.ezleadcapture.com.

For $17.95/month (no contract required), you get access to a wide variety of templates that are very easy to customize. If you know how to use Word, you’re in business. The monthly subscription also includes a decent autoresponder and a back office to manage your capture pages and the leads that are generated by them.

Do not hesitate to share your experiences and/or comments with us

Wow! It’s been more than a year since I’ve written anything! You know what? I have no excuse!

If you just started your home based business or if you’re planning to, proper education is paramount! Like any other profession, you need to educate yourself to be successful and make the right moves to get results.

A lot of great books and audiobooks are out there. But building a good library can be expensive, especially when you’re getting started. Remember, the goal when you’re in business et to make more money than you spend - so every penny counts!

So here’s my recommandation to you (drum roll please!): YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY!

Seriously, get there, get a card if you don’t have one already and start browsing! I’ll post a list of my favorite books in my next post, so stay tuned! 

And please, do not hesitate to post!

Here’s something I received from Tim Sales that we tend to forget because we’re so passionate about our industry. By the way, I can’t recommend you enough to sign up to receive his free newsletter at Brilliant Exchange…

From Tim Sales:

A friend of mine told me a funny story about a conversation he overheard at Christmas dinner between his two brothers. It reminded me of how people often respond to Network Marketing Opportunities, so I wanted to share it with you.

One of my friend’s brothers is a pastor…and his other brother is a bona-fide “know it all”…who suffers from a “mouth in gear…brain in neutral” problem!

The pastor has led a fairly large, growing church for about 15 years. At Christmas dinner, the conversation came around to how the church was going to handle the growth in 2008.

He began to explain that he and the other church leaders had done months of research – and now they were considering some unconventional methods to deal with their growth.

He described how other churches in similar situations had tested these new methods with fantastic results and…

…that’s when the other brother - “Mr. Know-It-All” - chimes in…

“It’ll Never Work”

Now, keep in mind that Mr. Know-It-All hasn’t even darkened the door of a church for years!

And yet, he has the nerve to interject his (totally unqualified) opinion!

“No offense” says the Pastor to Mr. Know-It-All, “But…I’ve been doing this for a living for 15 years…wouldn’t you agree that I know a little MORE about churches than you?”

…and that’s when Mr. Know-It-All butts in - with a dismissing wave of his hand…”Ahhhh…if I was goin’ to your church, I wouldn’t like it. It ain’t gonna fly.”

Can’t you just see the Pastor about to “lose his religion”, jumping across the table to pound some sense into his big brother?”

Some Prospects Will Never Listen to You…
But They WILL Listen To An Expert They Respect

Mr. Know-It-All shut the idea down - not because it wasn’t a valid idea – but because it was being presented by his younger brother. Have you experienced this kind of reaction when presenting your business?

The Sure-Fire Cure For a Know-It-All

So what’s the best way for YOU to present your opportunity to people who know you a little “too well” and even those who don’t?

Are you ready for the surprising answer?

>>> DON’T <<<

That’s right. The key is - DON’T present your opportunity… instead let someone with credibility present FOR you.

I want to wish everybody a Happy New Year! I hope 2008 will be a GREAT year for all of you.

I’m sure you noticed by now that I’m a big fan of Tim Sales. Tim just published a new web site called First Class MLM. This is an amazing tool for those of you building the business. And it’s FREE! I cannot encourage you enough to bookmark this great web site and USE it!

What Is First Class M.L.M (from Tim Sales)?

Currently, when you show your prospect M.L.M they will often go to Google and type in “M.L.M” or “network marketing” and press the enter key. The first several sites that are presented are anti-M.L.M sites. In case you’re unaware, for every subject on the Internet there are those who are against that subject - these people are called “anti-{subject}.”

Often your prospects do not realize that there is an “anti” group for every subject. They just click on the first few websites and read negative comments about M.L.M. Those prospects rarely call you back or return any of your calls - so you never know what happened to them. If you do reach them, they are appalled that you are trying to get them into a “scam.” Frequently prospects will simply reply via email to you with a link to one of the anti-M.L.M sites. This causes you to go to the site and read it. Now you have that negative sentiment running around in your head. If this hasn’t happened to you… it’s probably happening to your downline.

I’ve been working for the past year to create a website to solve this problem for everyone. FirstClassMLM is a site that helps a person research the truth (good and bad) about M.L.M. Here’s my vision(s) of the way you will use it.

A prospect emails you a link to an anti-M.L.M site - you reply to them with a link to FirstClassMLM.com

Your downline comments to you about “all the negativity on M.L.M” on the Internet - you tell them to go to FirstClassMLM.com

Your family cuts you down for being in M.L.M - you say, “There are slimy hotels and first class hotels like the Ritz Carlton - same with M.L.M - go to FirstClassMLM.com”

When a person types in “M.L.M” into Google, one of the first sites they see is FirstClassMLM, thereby never getting that “negative view.”
That last vision (d) requires your help; let me explain.

How do the “anti-M.L.M” sites get to the top of a search at Google? Few people know this answer. Most people think it’s because “the sites at the top are the most popular websites.” Not true. I’m going to briefly explain one of the primary ways Google decides “who’s at the top” of their search pages.

The people who work at Google know they can’t correctly guess the industry experts in EVERY industry. Their view is that only the people in the industry can determine who the leaders are for their industry. Therefore, Google looks to see which websites [in each industry] have the most websites linking to them. Yes, I said that correctly. You see, their view is that if a website has great content, then many people will go to that site… plus, people who own websites about that industry will LINK to the site that has the greatest content.

You may recall being on a website and seeing a menu tab or link somewhere that reads, “Resources” or “Other links.” Then on that page there are several links to other websites within the same industry. This is an example of how websites link to other websites they think have valuable content.

Another way to link to a site is called a contextual link. This is a less obvious link. That is, in a paragraph within a website it will read something like, “…as the article here states, M.L.M was proven not to be a pyramid.” This is a less obvious link because it’s buried inside an article.

Another type of link is a graphic link. This is where you use a graphic (image) on your website and make the graphic (or part of it) a link. In other words, all or part of the image can be a link to another website, yet it’s not obvious unless you hold your mouse over the image and the cursor changes into a little pointing hand. This can be done in such a way that most would not know there’s a link there.

Regardless of which type of link is used, this is how we (as a team) beat the anti-M.L.M group because this is one of the main ways Google and other search engines determine which sites are at the top of their search engine.

The reason the anti-M.L.M websites have the highest positions in the search engines is NOT because they’re the most popular, but because several people (a handful) have written anti-M.L.M articles and have linked to other anti-M.L.M article websites. This makes it appear that there are more people against M.L.M than for it!

If we are to change the perception of the M.L.M industry on the Internet it will only happen if WE work together to get one or two sites to the top of the search engines so that when a prospect searches for M.L.M, they go to a neutral site (not anti-M.L.M and not hype M.L.M). Right now, they will either find an anti-M.L.M site, a competing distributor’s site or a hype-M.L.M site. None of these are desirable if we want to change the perception of the industry.

This should make you mad.
Here’s the biggest challenge we face in M.L.M becoming popular and accepted on the Internet. Each person in M.L.M is interested in building their business and not building the industry as a whole. An Amway distributor does not want to link to an Herbalife distributor’s website - nor should he! But this is the EXACT reason the anti-M.L.M people are kicking our butts! There are 30 million people doing M.L.M and only about 20 people trying to harm the M.L.M industry with their anti-M.L.M sites - but those 20 people appear more popular because they’ve grouped together and the 30 million people in M.L.M have acted as individuals!

So my vision with FirstClassMLM is to create a site for the industry. It will not work if the industry doesn’t do their part though. If you only send prospects there - you’ve helped yourself and your prospect - not the industry as a whole. I’m not suggesting you not use the site that way - I’ve worked really hard on it so you can use it to get your prospects past the negativity. But please, if you have a website, link to the FirstClassMLM.com site from your website. You will be helping the whole industry by raising FirstClassMLM in the search engines so it will be seen by prospects who are researching the industry.

I am aware that this might be technically challenging for some, therefore I’ve alerted my technical staff to be on standby to answer your questions. Don’t be ashamed of not knowing how - but do use this opportunity to learn how to do it.

Alright, the second part that needs your help is the articles themselves. Each article on FirstClassMLM represents an answer to an objection, a question or a claim an anti-M.L.M website has stated. At the bottom of each article is a place to write comments. Your comments will be seen by all prospects, families, business associates, investors and anti-M.L.M people. Your comments also help Google determine who to put at the top of their search engine (more on that below).

So I’m asking you to read each article (you will learn a lot!) and then make a comment. What comments am I looking for? Your honest thoughts. They can be quick comments like: “Great explanation!” They can be comments of agreement - “Wow, I’ve seen exactly what is stated in this article at the bank I work for!” Or they can be comments that challenge the article.

What we all want to see is every article on the site with many comments written by real people like you. This shows Google, every prospect researching M.L.M, as well as the Attorney Generals that this is where the industry goes to get non-hype information about the M.L.M industry.

This is how we change the perception of the industry - please help me.

Steps to take:

Go to http://www.FirstClassMLM.com

As you read an article, leave thoughtful comments while they’re fresh in your mind.

Link to the site from your website - if you have questions on how to do something, call my staff at 888-307-7104 or 801-374-2188.

Ask every person in M.L.M you know to help with this.
From my heart, thank you.

Tim Sales

In my last post, I started talking about people out there that are ignorant about network marketing (and business in general) and that are vomiting absurdities and lies all over the internet.

One of their favorite argument is that only the people at the top of a network marketing pyramid are making all the money, taking advantage of those at the bottom. I clearly demonstrated that this is exactly what happens in a corporate pyramid. Now, what about network marketing?

In network marketing, you get paid for moving products using a network of independant distributors who really believe in these products. The more you help others be successful with their business, the more successful you will be. If someone located in your downline is working harder and smarter than you at building their organization, that person will definitely make more money that you. This is impossible to accomplish in a corporate pyramid.

Also, in a corporate environment, people who are getting promoted are not always the most deserving nor the most qualified ones. Some of them just know the right people and/or are real good at politics. I’ve seen this time and time again.

In network marketing, there are no smoke and mirrors, and there are no political games either. The more people you help with your products and/or your opportunity, the more successful you will be. If you are not honest, if you are selfish, if you just sponsor people without properly training them, you will not have success and you will leave a bad taste in the mouths of those who trusted you enough to join your team.

So why do so many people fail at network marketing?

One of the reasons is that they do not treat their business like a real business but more like a hobby. It cost only a few dollars to get started (most startup kit will cost 20$ to 50$), and if you are not disciplined enough (especially if you’re doing this part time), you will quit within the first 90 days. So it is important to plan your activities and then stick to your plan. You also need to be doing the RIGHT activities. A great tool out there is the Pocket Tracker. This tool is so simple to use and will help you focus on the thirteen activities that will really grow your business and produce results quickly.

Another reason for failure is the lack of coaching. If the new associate gets no training and no support from his sponsor and is left to himself, he will most probably fail. To avoïd this, make sure before signing up that the person who’s presenting you the opportunity has a good system in place to get you started right and show you the ropes.

Lack of promotion will also cause you to fail. Just like any traditional business, you need to let people know what you have to offer. According to Tim Sales, a veteran in the business who has built a team of about 56 000 people in 20 countries, the best ways to promote your products or opportunity are:

1. Your circle of influence/Network Influencers
2. Purchasing quality leads from a reputable company
3. Running small ads in newspapers

Regarding promoting to friends and family, there is nothing wrong with that! You just need to do it in a professional way and if they are not interested in what you have to offer, you just need to respect that, thank them for their honesty and their time and move on.

But before you talk to anyone, I highly recommend that you order Tim Sales Professional Inviter. More and more high profile leaders from different organizations are using his system because it really works. And his system is all about integrity and sincerely helping others get what they need and want. Have a closer look by clicking here.

You’re interested in getting started? Please be careful about what you read on the internet. Listen to the right people, listen to experts. Do you really want to put your faith in the hands of frustrated losers who never took the time to really study network marketing or business in general. Most of them are stuck into dead end jobs, and lack the attitude to be successful at anything.

Instead, pay very close attention to experts like Paul Zane Pilzer. If you don’t already know who Paul Zane Pilzer is, check him out right away. That genius has been making predictions since the 90’s and almost all of them have been right on the money.

Did you know that in his latest book titled “The Next Millionaires”, he is predicting that there will be 10 million new millionaires between 2006 and 2016 in the US alone!?! Most of these new millionaires will emerged from direct selling, network marketing and product distribution gravitating around the wellness industry.

So you can listen to sad people who have no clue about what’s really going on and are trying to sabotage your future, or you can listen to experts like Mr. Pilzer who’s saying that home-based business entrepreneurs will be among the richest in our new economy.

It’s your call…

When I come across great tools to help you build your business, I just can’t help myself and must share it with you!

Ok. You’re using a great tool like Magnetic Sponsoring running on auto pilot 24/7 to generate tons of free leads that you can easily manage from your backoffice. Then what do you do with these leads? How do you contact them and present what you have to offer? That’s when Tim Sales comes into the picture.

Tim Sales used to be an underwater bomb squad technician for the U.S. Navy. And you think you had a stressful day at work today?!? When he came back home after the Persian Gulf War he discovered network marketing and within a few years had build an organization of more than 56,000 people in 26 countries. He’s now been retired for 10 years and still earns nice, juicy commission checks for his hard work in Network Marketing.

He now shares his knowledge through his company Brilliant Exchange and offers great tools to help you be more successful at what you do. These tools are 100% generic, and a lot of heavy hitters out there are already using them with a lot of success. You owe it to yourself to take a closer look at the following:

1. The Professionnal Inviter
2. The Brilliant Compensation video
3. The Pocket Tracker

Remember that in order to be successful, everything must be easily duplicable. This business requires a lot of sweat and hard work, but at the same time you want to keep it as simple as possible. Using these very smart tools will allow you to do just that. And they will also prove to be very useful for training new recruits.

If you are familiar with Tim Sales products or if you know about other great tools, do not hesitate to share these infos with the rest of us.

Yes, I’m back! I spent the last 10 days on vacation with my lovely wife I love so much. We left without computers, Blackberry or any other devices that could come between us and visited some very interesting places. Once in a while, you just need to do that

Today, I’ll share with you a great way of adding names to your LIST, and to your business! Yes! The LIST!!! If you don’t have one already, what are you waiting for??? People who make it to the top in Network Marketing all got started with a list of prospects and keep adding names to it every day. My former coach told me one day that each name on your list is worth between $20 and $50. And he was right! If you need some coaching about why the list is so important and how to use it properly, let me know. I’ll be happy to post an article on the matter.

Now, here’s what I do: each time I get excellent service from sharp individuals when shopping or dining out, I SINCERELY compliment them on their exceptional service and serve them a WARM thank you. Believe me, they’ll remember you because it does not happen often! I write down their name and the address of where they work and when I get home, I mail them a contact letter that goes like this:

Dear John,

Maybe you won’t remember me, but I’m the person who thanked you for your great service last Wednesday July 18. I’m taking the time to write you because I’m looking for sharp individual like yourself to help me build my organization. You really impressed me the other day, and I’d like you to consider joining my Team.

If I could show you a way to earn an extra $1600*** within the next 3 to 28 days without quitting your job, would you consider meeting with me for 30 minutes?

Call me ASAP,

Eric J. Wilson

(514) 609-6009

*** Depending of your compensation plan, this number could be higher or lower. Just make sure it’s realistic and achievable. Do not over promise and under deliver. Never.

That’s it! It works almost every single time! Try it and let me know how it went.

What about you? Do you have an effective approach that you would like to share with the rest of us?

Winners Never Quit, Quitters Never Win!

I’m sure you’ve heard this one before. Then why are 75% of people starting a home based business quit within 90 days? If you’re part of these statistics, try to go back in time…

I’m sure you started your business with very good intentions. It met all your criterias, all of your needs; you were full of dreams, on your way to success. Maybe you worked really hard to convince your wife, family and friends to trust you on this one. Then something happened along the way and you just quit.

But somewhere, other people who joined the exact same company at more or less the same time you did are already making money and are on their way to success. Why is it working for them and not you?

To help us figure things out, let’s take a closer look to the different key elements of a business opportunity:

1. The product(s)
2. The compensation plan
3. The System
4. Your sponsor
5. You

Everybody in your organization has to sell and promote the same product(s), is paid based on the same compensation plan, and follows the same system. That leaves only two variables: your sponsor and you. These are the two things you want to take a closer look at.

You:

• Did you follow the system? When a company has been in business for 15 years, and has hundreds and hundreds of successful associates who made it using this same system, why reinvent the wheel? I guarantee you, some other people got started at the same time you did and are being very successful already.
• Did you set yourself ambitious, realistic, and attainable goals within a specific time frame?
• Did you take daily actions to achieve your goals?
• Were you using the right tools?

Your sponsor:

• Were you the victim of a “hit and run” sponsor? That’s the kind of sponsor that won’t leave you alone until you sign up, and then magically disappear after giving you your starter kit. This happens way too often. Being a sponsor is a big responsibility
• Did he take the time to coach you about the system used by your organization and its different tools?
• Was your sponsor following up and supporting you?
• Was he hard on you and showing you some “tough love” when he knew you were not doing what you were suppose to?

The above are only a few of the things you should analyze in retrospective to understand why you experienced failure. Be honest with yourself; stop blaming everything that moves for your lack of success. Be humble and take responsibility. If you ever decide to start a new business, this could make all the difference in the world between failure and success.

For those of you who failed at network marketing before but still believe in the concept, you’ll soon get another chance at being successful. I’ll soon publish the details of my brand new network marketing leadership development program. One thing I can tell you is that it will be a 30-day boot camp that is 100% TASK-BASED. You will learn effective, powerful, proven network marketing strategies by taking specific ACTIONS everyday. And through ACTION comes RESULTS.

You too can achieve greatness!

First, what is Squidoo? The following was taken from Wikipedia:

Squidoo is a website launched in October 2005. It is a platform designed to make it easy for anyone, for free, to set up a single page on a topic he or she knows or cares a lot about. Squidoo came out of beta testing in March 2006.

Squidoo is a network of user-generated lenses –single pages that highlights one person’s point of view, recommendations, or expertise. Lenses can be about anything, such as ideas, people or places, hobbies and sports, pets or products, philosophy, and politics. Lenses aren’t primarily intended to hold content; more emphasis is placed on recommending and then pointing to content on the web. Annotation and organization and personalization delivers context and meaning.

Users who create lenses are called lensmasters. A lensmaster uses the tools available online to provide links, feeds, abstracts, and lists to users who are trying to make sense of a topic. For example, a single lens could point to Flickr photos, Google maps, blogs, eBay auctions, YouTube videos, and other links. Lensmasters are encouraged to promote personal agendas, expertise, causes, products, and opinions.

You might want to have a look at what a lens look like by visiting mine at:

http://squidoo.com/turborecruiting.

That being said, you must already have multiple web sites and/or blogs promoting yourself and your opportunity/opportunities, so why get a lens? The following was taken straight from Squidoo (Hey! Everybody can feel lazy once in a while!):

1. Share the knowledge: When you know a lot about something, it feels good to share. Help other people discover what you found out the hard way.
2. Increase your profile: A popular lens gives credibility to the Lensmaster. A popular lens reinforces your role as an “everyday expert.” And a popular lens makes you the go-to authority for those looking for help.
3. Increase your traffic: Your lens points (if you want it to) to your blog and to your website. Lenses have huge credibility with search engines, so your lens can help your other sites rise to the top of Google searches.
4. Earn a royalty for you, your organization, or your favorite charity. Think of the royalty as a bonus–and don’t quit your dayjob yet! A single lens might not earn a lot, but if you imagine hundreds of lenses working to your favor, or fundraising for a charity, it can really start to add up.
5. Just for the fun of it! Now, this fifth one is from me!!!

One thing I’ve learned is that an online marketer never have enough exposure! So get started right away. It’s free and has a very user friendly interface. Need any help? Drop me a line

Ready, set, SQUIDOO!!!

Click here to join now

Happy Belated Canada Day to my fellow Canadians, and Happy 4th of July to my American friends!!!

Everybody knows that good, effective NETWORKING is the key if you want to achieve greatness in business. So most of your time and efforts should be spent on activities aiming to expand your network. I now want to share with you another amazing tool that will greatly impact your business: APSense!

APSense is a free Social Network driven by people who share common business interests. It is the place to be if you want to make contacts, find new collegues and new customers. There’s even a free software to help you communicate with your network more efficiently.

So don’t wait. Open your free account right away and learn how to build your own Social Network in under 10 minutes by clicking here:

Like always, feel free to post your comment or to drop me a line.

Happy Networking!