MLM List Building and Email Marketing Strategies

MLM Spies? What the….?

Sure, think about it. Whatever it is that you promote, someone else is trying to earn money from the same thing. Could be your primary program, a lead deal, or something you are an affiliate of.

This isn’t some huge secret thing I’m talking about. But it definately is worth being reminded of.

You see, I was looking through my stats and noticed someone had done an image search, looking for a thumbnail for a specific product. Something that I just happen to have a graphic for.

Obviously they were not looking to buy this, but rather promote it themselves.
Hmmm, spies, competition… Same thing.

So there are ways you can protect yourself and keep people from trying to copy your images. But I figure why bother. Because images also bring you extra traffic. Without work even.

The way to add profit from this is promote different things. Anne Sieg’s The Renegade Network Marketer for example or perhaps Mike Dillard’s Magnetic Sponsoring or even his new Black Belt Recruiting.

Something I remember from my old Adsense days (when it first came out) is people are click happy and easily distracted. It’s like leaving crumbs of something that tastes real good.

Many of the people that come to your website come looking for one thing, but they end up clicking on and buying something else that will help their business.

And that is a good thing.

Maybe later on they might join your primary opportunity as well. It’s been known to happen. If not, you are still positioning yourself to earn more income. And that is why you’re in business, right?

If you’re not already, set yourself up so you can earn more than just what you get from your downline. You can do it without any extra effort. I mean really. It’s free money. Get some!

We all want leads. We all want to find people that would be interested in what we have to offer. And yes we can buy them. We can start cold calling and hope for the best.

But a better way is to bring people to us with attraction marketing. By providing content. As in good helpful information.

The problem most network marketers seem to have is a lack of faith in themselves. They think they have nothing to offer. That they do not know anything of value that they can share.

Hogwash!

Everyone has valuable information they can share, teach, to other people. That’s one of the unique things I love about My Private Classroom. It’s a small tight community of people in mlm where you can get help not only learning web 2.0 and other marketing strategies. But also get help building yourself up so that you know that you can teach.

Because you can.

Now I’m calling this post generating leads. But I really don’t like that term. What I really see in my head for you is creating an audience. People who want to hear what you have to say. People that will hopefully read your blog or better yet, subscribe to your mlm newsletter.

One of my favorite ways to do that is with free reports. You can use them to direct traffic to websites. And you can also use them as an incentive to subscribe to your list. There are also things you can do to get other people to give away your reports for you.

No big secret.

I’ll give some ways to actually promote your reports in a future post but today I just want to give you the basics of getting one started so you can end up with a “system” like my Network Maketing 101

So there is a couple of things you will need. First, you obviously need the report. You could use articles that someone else wrote (not so effective). You could buy private label reports and articles (better). Or you could just write what you know. (best)

As I said earlier everyone knows something. Even though we often do not even see it. So to help you pull out that ebook that is inside of you, you must read Make Your Knowledge Sell. This is now free, but don’t pass this up. It did cost $49.95 just a few days ago.

The next thing you will need to increase the perceived value of your report is a quality image or graphics. There’s that old saying that you can’t judge a book by its cover. But guess what? We do!

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure my grandkids are better artists than I am. That and I hate learning complicated software. I even stick to Notepad when I write because I can’t stand that paperclip dude.

What’s he want anyway?

So I had to go a long time without being able to create my own ebook covers. But that was before I got this low cost graphics editing software.

Sure, I am still no artist by any means. But I am now able to get by just fine. Check that page out and see the graphics I made.

so there you have it. How to create a free report and how to make ebook covers so people will want it. A great way to build that audience.

Over the last nine years, of all those secret marketing tactics I have tried one thing and one thing only has stood the test of time and produced, over and over again.

This one thing worked hands above everything else in 1999 and it is still the most effective thing, even more so, in 2008.

That one thing I’m talking about?

List building. Creating your own MLM leads.

I first learned this concept from Joe Schroeder. And it’s okay if you have never heard of him. I have and I own thousands of dollars worth of his information.

Sounds like a lot, but I take my learning seriously. Because I take my business seriously.

But one of the things Joe shared with me is that one of his mentors was Dale Calvert. Now I had heard of Dale but never paid much attention. Not until Joe mentioned his name.

Now I am paying attention. Because a trick I learned about seven years ago that has really made a difference. That trick is to not just listen to what those gurus say…

But watch what they actually do.

So I have been watching Dale Calvert. For example one thing I saw was how he built his list getting other people to sell his little $8 report. Sneaky? Maybe. Effective? You betcha.

But the better news is he is now sharing 21 Ways to Create Online MLM Leads. I just bought this myself. Was shocked at the $297 bonus which I almost bought the other week, and now I don’t have to.

Here’s Your Chance to Legally Steal 21 No Cost Methods Dale Uses Month After Month to Attract 40,000 Visitors a Day 21 Ways to Create Online MLM Leads

No wimpy ebook here gang. Don’t look if you ain’t serious.

Can you believe I sprained my finger opening my car door? Yup, and it makes it hard to type. But that won’t stop me from telling you about the advantages of publishing your own mlm newsletter or how doing so will help you be a more magnetic, attractive ( but maybe not any better lookin’ ) network marketer.

This industry is changing. More and more people are fed up with all the hype. People don’t want to see your opportunity if you’re cramming it down their throat. They are tired of recruiters pretending to be your friend just so you might join their mlm program, whatever it is that happens to be the greatest business since sliced bread.

Those methods still work but they are less and less effective as each day goes by. And it will not get any easier.

What people really want is good quality information, leadership, and just to be able to find someone they can trust. Leads, prospects, and other network marketers want to do research and poke around at their pace to make decisions on their own time.

They do not want to talk to you until they want to talk to you.

Let’s repeat that. They do not want to talk to you until they want to talk to you. The key to magnetic sponsoring is getting people to want to talk to you. Attracting them to you.

How You Do Dat?

The simple answer is to give people what they want. Somehow help them achieve their goals, not yours. Of course there are many ways you can do this. More ways than any one human being could do all of those things. But an excellent way that is also one of the easiest is to publish an informative newsletter or ezine.

You do not have to be a writer. You do not have to be an expert. What you do have to be is a trustworthy resource. And you can absolutely do that.

This is what you need.

A newsletter that provides valuable information. You can write that yourself. Hire someone to write for you. Interview experts. Use articles other people have written. Or use the free system I created.

A website such as a lead capture page or blog where people can opt in to request your newsletter

A marketing campaign, paid or free, to get traffic and visitors to promote your newsletter.

An autoresponder such as Aweber to deliver your newsletter to your list of subscribers.

As you build your list and generate leads the key thing to remember is to build that relationship.

Encourage feedback. Get your subscribers involved.

Without having to worry about hardcore email marketing techniques you can easily just drip on them once a week. Avoid cramming your opportunity down their throat.

Just sign off each issue with your name, email address ( phone number if you dare ) and a link to your opportunity. What will work even better is a generic program such as Leaders Club for example, or a funded proposal or system.

As you continue to build trust people will respond to you, respect you, and join you. Plus you will have continuing means to add more income as opportunities and products come along that you can recommend.

I encourage you to start building a list now if you have not started yet.

Happy Newsletter Publishing

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. All this fancy social networking, Web 2.0…. stuff.

There’s a twitter and a twhirl, and then there’s a tweet. There’s My Space and your space and a book for your face. You can Digg or you can Stumble or do something with a Tube. But if you’re not careful you’ll look like a…. (fool?)

Seriously though, the MLM Industry is changing. Yes you still have people cold calling leads, and some distributors are out doing belly to belly. But people are starting to realize that nobody trusts anyone.

We as marketers appear as the enemy. As the bad guy. NObody trusts us which makes building a long term, strong downline pretty darn difficult.

So we have to build that trust. Earn it. To do that today in 2008 means we have to stop cramming our great opportunity in our prospects faces and become part of our prospects lives.

Gently, we want to go from being part of a group to leading our own group. To do that we have to share. And to the best of our ability we need to teach. To train. To lead.

We need to create a presence online like what is taught at My Private Classroom.

But here’s my warning. As network marketers are trying to keep up with all the hype. All the new technology, its’ very easy to get lost. Confused. And completey swept away and lose focus.

We are very social creatures. It’s easy to get so involved in socializing online that we can forget we are actually in business. Or we can get consumed with trying to just learn all there is to learn about what’s new.

But you will never learn all the tricks. All the secrets sites and special tools. You can however learn enough. In time, with effort you can become well known, well liked, and succeed in network marketing, in business, and in life like you have never been able to in history.

You do need a game plan though. You can’t just go running around doing this or doing that, just for the sake of doing. I am warning you. Have a plan. Focus on your desired outcome and not just on fun things you think are getting you there.