Most of us were taught by our sponsor to construct a list of names. I was even asked to build this list before I started my network marketing business. The quantity of names that we are asked to put on that list varies. I was absolutely terrified because my sponsor asked me to continue until I had 200 names on my list. I didn’t even know 200 individuals. Luckily I was given the names list memory jogger. Sound familiar? I was very amazed to discover that I did know 200 people.

When we began our business we had our list of names, our leads. But for most network marketers, that initial list of family, friends, contacts and people named “Bob” runs out. We are then instructed to hunt for people in church, at chamber of commerce meetings and in Starbucks. All of these are fantastic ideas. I still do that today, but not nearly as much. But, that list of names, that hunting at Starbucks was just not moving swiftly enough to create the kind of revenue that I desired – or that I needed. And, I know that my body does NOT need as much caffeine as I was slurping up.

So, why do we need leads anyway? Well, our sponsors have continually told us that the fortune is in the follow up. That is true to some extent. But, it is my belief that the fortune is actually in the “leads”. If we don’t have sufficient leads, we won’t have someone to follow up with.

We all have heard that 95% of folks just are not interested in the best business in the world, network marketing. So, if just 5% of your names list becomes interested, that amounts to only 10 business partners. I have to confess that the statistic did not hold true for me. My wife accurately observed that the folks on our list had a “poor” mentality; they were not able to envision the possibility of not working in a JOB. You’ve also heard that “like minds” attract. We formerly had that same “poor” mentality – until we learned how to steer toward accomplishment. We developed incredibly and learned to partner with associates with a “rich” mentality.

We’ve also heard of the 95% failure rate. So, back to my 200 list example, 5% of the 10 business partners eventually lead to 1 enthusiastic long-term partner. Thus, do we need more leads? Do we need qualified leads? Do we need to be able to spend more time chatting with recruits and new partners, instead of wandering the malls? Of course!

I learned through my training that leaders in our industry find a system that helps them locate qualified prospects; that helps them become magnetic so that qualified leads locate them. You should use a system used by leaders in our industry. It should have guidance so that you can advance as a leader. It should show a step by step method to make the most of all of the tools that we have heard about – from social networks, to article writing and marketing, to blogs, to Google Pay per Click, to free advertising and to SO MUCH MORE! Follow the links below to learn even more!

Most experts, be they individuals, e-books, online articles or affiliate marketing companies stress the importance of creating a successful blog.

So, why even have a blog? The reasons are many, and here are 9 of the most important:

1. To Help Achieve Your Goals. You need to define your own goals. After they are determined, you can structure your blog so that these goals are satisfied. Maybe you have goals of finding leads for your primary programs or affiliate programs.

2. Create Personal Branding. In my opinion, this is the most important reason to create a blog. Personal Branding, as defined by Wikipedia is: …“the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands. …success comes from self-packaging. Further defined as the creation of an asset that pertains to a particular person or individual; this includes but is not limited to the body, clothing, appearance and knowledge contained within, leading to an indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable. So, why is this important? To put it bluntly: your personal branding shows your visitors that you are a professional who knows what you are doing.

3. Create Position. With numerous well written articles, your blog will establish you as an expert in your market. Naturally, visitors will want to return to your blog frequently to read your latest posting. They will want to subscribe to your blog. They will want to take advantage of the programs you offer. They will want to opt-in so that they can learn more from you.

4. Create Stickability. Stickability is the desire for your audience to “stick” around for a while. If your blog is interesting, people will want to explore the entire site, read your articles, and explore your opportunities. This will create a desire to subscribe to your blog and return often to learn.

5. Create Trust. Your blog can provide a “safe” place for your prospects. Most often, trust is not established immediately. By learning about you, your family, your struggles and your ultimate success, they develop a kinship with you. They can see similarities and a reason to find out more. By reading posted articles they can learn how you think and eventually develop trust in you. This creates a reason for them to fill in their contact information for you and, in fact, buy from you. In general, strangers do not care about your products or your opportunity before they care about you. On the other hand, if your blog shows you as someone they are not interested in learning more about, if your blog shows pictures that are distressing, if it is filled with nothing but “sales pitches”, they learn to NOT trust you and leave, never to return.

6. Create Search Engine Ranking. Google and other search engines love blogs. Blogs are ranked very high by these search engines, primarily because they provide frequent updates. With higher rankings on search engines, more people will find out about you.

7. Build Your List. After you have built trust, have established yourself as a leader and have provided valuable content, visitors will want to opt-in to your list so that they can learn more from you, the expert. It is best not to lead your prospects to your capture page from Facebook or Twitter. They are Social Networks – primarily a way for your friends to find out more about you, the person.

8. Build Equity. Over time you will have hundreds of posts on your blog. This is an asset and is very valuable to your readers and yourself.

9. Attract Quality Traffic. You will attract individuals interested in what you have to offer with your personal branding, position and articles written for your niche. They will be quality prospects. Period….

Bill McMahon

To learn more blogging and social networking secrets:  http://joinbillmcmahon.com

If you’re not yet earning enough in your business and still need leads, the best approach is writing articles. Most people steer away from this tool. They are simply afraid that they cannot write well enough or just don’t have anything interesting to say.

This is understandable, even normal. However, the benefits of writing articles are too numerous to ignore. The fact is you instantly become a published author when you post your first article; therefore you have already added instant credibility.

When people see things in print, they automatically believe what they have read; so now you have quickly become someone they want to learn from.

Finally, when you have written several pieces, consistently, you become the expert advisor for your target audience. They now look to you for guidance. How would you like to be the first person they think of when it comes to your field of expertise? Article writing is your answer.

Now, if you are still wary of going down this road, but do want to benefit from this powerful tool, there are three “secrets” to becoming a powerful article writer.

1. Start writing reviews on areas that you are interested in – remember Siskel and Ebert and their movie reviews? They never starred in, nor wrote movies; however they made quite a name for themselves by simply reviewing movies. Their opinion was what made them rich and famous. You can do the same with reviews of experts, articles or books in your particular field.

2. REMIX! – We’ve all heard remixes in music when a composer takes an existing piece and adds their own flair. Some results are even better than the original. Within the article arena, there are many individuals who read other people’s articles, rewrite them with their own style, put it out in the marketplace and get paid top dollar. You can use an article that you like as a model to show your own creativity without starting from a blank slate. This is the reason you find similar content in several different articles. Don’t re-invent the wheel; just paint it a different color and add a few more spokes. That is MUCH easier than starting from scratch.

3. Interview remarkable individuals from your discipline – Oprah Winfrey is an expert in this arena. She is a billionaire, right? That all started from her talk show that started over 20 years ago. She interviewed many out of the ordinary people, and became famous doing that. Everyone likes to hear attention-grabbing stories on their favorite subject, so go find experts to interview and write about it. If you have an hour long interview, you can break that into several compelling articles so that your readers want to read the next segment in the coming days or weeks.

Take the pressure off yourself when it comes to writing articles. Be creative and innovative in branding yourself. When you do, you become the expert that everyone wants to learn from.

Now this article was originally written by a network marketing expert and good friend Jocelyn Jones. I paraphrased her article to give you one example. Check out her blog: www.networkmarketingsuccess4u.com

Bill McMahon
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/joinbillmcmahon

Find out more how to work smarter, instead of harder:
http://tr.im/wyBL

It’s a proven fact that upwards of ninety-five percent of all Multi Level Marketing Networkers fail to achieve success in the industry. You will always hear stories from these washouts about how the opportunities and products were without value, or worse – they were made to believe that building a network marketing business didn’t have much work involved.

You will rarely hear suggestions of downfalls that were the distributor’s own fault. It’s like it was simply forgotten that making a network marketing business work is mainly the distributor’s responsibility. It’s easier to blame the mother company, but would that solve anything? Whining will not improve the MLM industry’s attrition rate.

Let’s focus on the individual distributor and the negative characteristics that can lead him to disappointment and failure. Everyone has personality flaws but some of them can be absolutely disruptive to an individual’s personal and financial development.

Many entrepreneurs find it hard to take their MLM business seriously. To most of them, it’s as if they’ve taken up a hobby to keep them busy in their spare time. When they realize that this “hobby” needs a lot of work for it to function, they ditch it.

Multi level marketing is a serious opportunity that requires serious effort. The system has to be studied for you to employ it properly. To make a decent living out of your network marketing business, you have to educate yourself. Do your homework. There’s no reason why you can’t – not in the Internet age. There are hundreds of training tools available online and many of them are free or affordable. Learn everything there is to know on the latest methods in promoting your product and opportunity. Update yourself on information about your main competitors and their practices.

Gaining a bit of know-how never hurt anyone. It doesn’t take much to acquire either. It’s actually nice to have people, fellow network marketers, come to you for education. Being looked-up to as an industry leader gives you a huge advantage. It could even push you to the top of the MLM food chain. You’ll never know unless you become an expert.

One bad habit a distributor or even an MLM company can do without is the tendency to promote the business as one that involves little actual effort to gain success. The only thing it does successfully is recruit people who don’t want to work; people who desire the benefits and residual income but with little or no motivation to develop the business themselves.

Incompetence, indifference or plain laziness – they’re the real MLM killers.

Bill McMahon
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/joinbillmcmahon

Find out more how to work smarter, instead of harder:
http://tr.im/wyBL

There are different types of sales funnels for Network Marketing. Each may have its own advantages and benefits but all these are for one common goal – get the most people to enlist in your business. Sales funnels are simply schemes to convert “leads” into actual sales that profit your business. It includes all the methods a network marketer employs to market his or her product and business opportunity. Now let’s take a look at the two basic types of sales funnels.

First we have the traditional or “old school” sales funnel. The “entrance” to the funnel is where your up line asks you to make a list of names or prospects– your “100” or “200” list. Typically recognized as the “warm market” funnel since all of the people listed are supposed to be known to you. After that are a series of stages – calling the list or giving out CDs to guide the prospects. It sounds simple but it’s easier said than done. These steps are initially made under the supervision of an up line to avoid disastrous results. If you think it’s a tedious process, wait till you exhaust your warm market. Cold calling burns out most budding network marketers even before they could get their businesses off the ground.

The traditional sales funnel has often been branded as ‘hard selling”, and with good reason. You impose your business on people with no interest in it. You have no other option because profits can be made only at the end of the funnel.

Now let’s look at the second basic type of sales funnel – the Reverse Funnel System. Some types are just better than others and it’s easy to see why this system is a cut above the traditional platform. Current high end reverse funnel systems are automated programs that employ various forms of marketing to drive very large amounts of traffic to the system. The system educates and closes the prospects for you automatically on a 24 hour basis. This means no personal cold calling, selling, and follow ups. Leverage is developed with marketing to large numbers. The beauty of it is prospects pay for the education they get from the system. The reason why it’s called a “reverse funnel” is you earn money while generating leads. You earn money while building your residual income.

A system that takes full advantage of the various marketing methods offered by the Internet is what the modern day network marketer needs. The truth is his business would get eaten alive in the present MLM industry if he insists on being traditional.

Bill McMahon

Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/joinbillmcmahon

Find out more about the Reverse Funnel System:
http://tr.im/wyBL