- MLM Consultants’ Blog - http://MLMConsultantsBlog.com -

You Don’t Have to Spend Thousands To Build Your MLM Business

Posted By Debbi A. Ballard On October 29, 2008 @ 1:44 pm In MLM Articles, MLM Marketing, MLM Training | 2 Comments

by Debbi A. Ballard, MLM Consultant

In this mlm blog , I recently told you about the need to plan for the downturn in the economy,

protecting your mlm business and staying focused.

I warned you about not wildly spending money on
support products and services available to assist you that don’t give you a good ROI (return on your investment).

Just recently there was yet another online posting
by a frustrated internet marketer who did just that and
said that he ended up spending over $50,000 on books, CDs,
coaching programs, etc. and still was not reaching his goals.

With the downturn in the economy, panic can override
common sense and impulse buying can take place by
people frantic to build profitable network marketing businesses
as soon as possible.

Here is what I have found during an exhaustive study
of thousands of online offerings. This short list can assist you
in making some serious mistakes where you lose time, monies and effort on products and services that just don’t work.

1) Make Sure You Have a Business Plan for Your MLM Business

Understand that first having a business plan (doesn’t have to be lengthy as long as it addresses the critical pieces of the puzzle) will prevent a ton of wasted monies, time and effort. Most affiliates or networkers for an MLM company jump right in without doing this and wonder why they are getting nowhere in building their businesses.

When you have a plan you’re not going to be jumping from one home-based business opportunity to another. Also, it’s going to help you prevent from making impulsive buying decisions when looking at products or services that purport to expedite the success of your affiliate or MLM business.

YOUR BUSINESS PLAN WILL HELP YOU STAY FOCUSED.

YOUR BUSINESS PLAN WILL HELP YOU MAKE WISE DECISIONS.

Once you have your mlm business plan and you’ve decided which MLM company you wish to promote (and/or which affiliate programs), you have to look to developing a flexible business building system that is tailored to your plan.

2) Commit to Conducting Your Business Within Ethical and Legal Parameters

Hopefully, you will conduct your business within ethical and legal parameters. Most networkers and affiliates have no idea as to the legal challenges they can face when conducting their home-based businesses. Remember this. If an MLM or an affiliate program is operating outside of legal parameters and you end up promoting it, you can be charged with regulatory violations.

LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN ABOUT THE MLM LEGAL ISSUES PERTAINING TO YOUR HOME-BASED BUSINESS….DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE IN CHECKING OUT THE LEGALTIES OF THE OFFERING ITSELF AND THEN GET EDUCATED ABOUT HOW TO OPERATE YOUR ASSOCIATED BUSINESS WITHIN ETHICAL AND LEGAL GUIDELINES.

MLMConsultantsBlog.com will have an MLM legal best practices list, along with many other such lists, to help you do this.

In the meantime, you can visit the various mlm legal websites to gain some valuable information. Look for those owned by reputable MLM attorneys.

3) Picking the Right Support Products or Service For Your MLM Business

There are experienced entrepreneurs online who sell a variety of business support products and services like specialized marketing and management software, autoresponder services, search engine optimization services (SEO), lead generation services, promotional campaign offerings relating to traffic generation, pay-per-click campaigns, marketing webinars, coaching programs, etc.

Some of these are absolutely excellent with great guarantees and very good support. Others are a waste of your time and monies.

How can you cut to the chase?

a) Do comparison shopping online to see what similar products/services are available.

b) Read the guarantees carefully. (Print those out for any purchases you make.)

c) Read reviews that are available online. You must BE CAREFUL with this, however.

Some reviews are made by affiliates marketing the product/service who sincerely do not know much about them but just jumped on the bandwagon to make some monies. Other reviews can be more thorough and credible when made by affiliates or others who have actually used the products/services and gotten great results.

4) Try to Get a Handle on Your Emotions When You Read a Sales Page

Be aware of the emotional traps linked to "scarcity" whereby the marketer tells you that you only have X amount of time to get the products and the doors will be closed forever OR promotions telling you that only 500 copies will ever be sold. They tell you that because of this, you must get the product or service immediately or be left out!

Yes, these are tactics that marketers have used for a long time both online and offline. However, I have found many of them turn out to be misleading. After a few months have passed, the marketer announces how people have begged him/her to open up the product again to new customers…so much for "scarcity."

Read this carefully. There is a big difference between someone who has a legitimate promotion and sticks to what was said in the original promotion rather than someone who intentionally misleads people with an initial "scarcity" promotion to launch a product that really isn’t scarce at all since he/she never really intended to limit sales. The intention all along was to come back at a later time with another promo of some sort for the same product.

"The ONE Thing You Need to Be Successful" type campaigns are numerous online. There are sales pages filled with testimonials, results, income verification…all the bells and whistles to get you to buy. As you sort through everything, you make the decision to purchase and after you do, guess what happens???

You are immediately hit with a ONE-TIME ONLY offer (referred to as "OTO" in the online marketing world). Yes, the 10 CDs you were just told as all you needed to be successful are suddenly NOT enough!

Here comes the "upsell." You need another 5 CDs with the "insider secrets."

What in the world?

People in the know are now laughing as these same promos are being used over and over by the Internet "gurus." Now many are just expecting the "upsell" to appear. Does the "upsell" tactic work? Yes, many internet marketers selling to those in the MLM industry, the affiliate marketing world and other online arenas are dramatically increasing their profits using this and other similar tactics.

However, are many astute online entrepreneurs starting to get a bit tired of these pitches? You bet. And here’s why.

Again, it’s all in the message. Yes, you can pitch a product or a service honestly without making outlandish promises about all the things that one product will do and then after purchasing, an "upsell" can immediately appear whereby you offer something else that fulfills a different void for that person’s business. No problem.

But to misrepresent the benefits on the initial sales page just to get the first sale and to capture the person’s contact data with the intention of getting them to buy an additional product that will "really deliver the goods" (when you already basically said that the other product would accomplish that) is a tactic that can destroy your credibility.

It simply is NOT the way to begin building a sound long-term relationship with your customer. Nor is it a way to cement a relationship with an existing customer.

As you read this blog and my newsletter, you’ll learn much more about internet marketing, affiliate marketing, MLM , and how all these worlds intersect. You’ll read many things you typically don’t find discussed anywhere else.

You’ll find out how people are getting tired of the "games" being played online feeling like they are constantly trying to be manipulated.

You’ll find out how you can run your business differently
and capitalize on that big time when you show you respect your prospects and your customers.

So, no, you don’t have to spend thousands to learn how to build your MLM business. Just keep reading this mlm blog .

copyright, 2008, Debbi A. Ballard All Rights Reserved

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Furl
  • Propeller
  • Reddit
  • Spurl
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

Post to Twitter

Related Posts


Article printed from MLM Consultants’ Blog: http://MLMConsultantsBlog.com

URL to article: http://MLMConsultantsBlog.com/you-dont-have-to-spend-thousands-to-build-your-mlm-business/

Copyright © 2008 MLM Consultants' Blog. All rights reserved.