Sunday, May 31, 2009

Working From Home Opportunities


Working from home opportunities are out there by the bucket load if you know where to look. Millions of people have used the internet to create their own business empires, and many of them have done so without any formal business training of any kind or any experience running their own companies. Could it be your turn? Consider the following small home business ideas and work from home program and the things you need to think about before you turn to the net to make your first million. Do remember that there is no way to make fast easy money online.

When it comes to working online from home, there is one mistake many rookies make. They think that they can just throw up any old website and then boom - the money will start rolling in. The fact of that matter is that even though doing business online gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to your working hours and how and where you do your business, it really is not as different from “real world” business as you might imagine.

You still have competitors. You still need to find your customers. You need some way to advertise. You still will have operating costs. So, before you jump in, you need to get to know your market. You need to write a business plan. You need to know who you will be competing with and where your customers are lurking online. You need more than a website - you need a plan of attack, a proper program to put your small home business ahead of your competitors.


Another rookie mistake when it comes to working online from home is that people often “chase” the latest trends online. For example, they hear that social networking sites are becoming all the rage, and so they decide to start their own. This is a surefire way to make your working from home opportunities a flop. Instead of chasing fads that will go out of style as soon as they come in, make sure your business is one that utilizes your talents and interests.

Go into a field that lets you use your knowledge and that keeps you engaged. If you don’t, you won’t be able to tap into the drive to keep the business afloat - or if you do, you’ll be miserable. The whole idea is to leave the pain of the workday lifestyle in the dead end job you can’t stand behind you. Don’t create your own worst job for yourself.

With those caveats in mind, it’s time to consider which work from home program or small home business ideas could work for you. The salesperson in you might enjoy online selling through internet auction sites. Start with your own miscellaneous stuff (your junk equals someone else’s major score) and then branch out into selling the stuff of your neighbors and beyond for the people who have stuff to get rid of but not the desire to do it themselves.

You can also consider online writing, web design, web editing - the possibilities are endless. Your best working from home opportunities are the ones you’re going to love doing. If you decide to work online from home, be prepared to be committed and focused to make it a success as there is no way to make fast easy money online.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

How To Have Guaranteed Downlines

As a network marketer, how often have you come across prospects who have no interest at all in your home based businesss? Better still, how often have you done presentations to prospects who seemed eager to hear your compensation plan only to have their enthusiasm fizzle off and they are not ready to join you in your buisness opportunity?

Are you sick and tired of wasting your time and getting rejected time and time again?

Basically you are faced with two types of markets, the targeted market as well as the untargeted market. In order to have guaranteed downlines, you need to aim for your targeted market rather than the untargeted market.

Generally ninety-nine percent of network marketing companies will teach you to go for the untargeted market. This can be likened to fishing without the bait. THe leaders in the network marketing industry together with your uplines will get you to write down a whole list of names. This can be achieved by scrolling through the phone book on your mobile phone and making a list of each and every contact you have. "The longer the list, the greater the success". They believe that the list is your greatest asset. You are then required to call every single person on your list. This exercise is doomed from the very beginning as statistics show that only a small percentage of the new downlines will succeed in getting a positive response.

To go for your targeted market, you must first identify your target market and look in the right places. This will help you get a guaranteed downline. Most network marketing companies do not teach you to reach out to your targeted market. However if you want to succeed, you sometimes have to go against the grain of what is the norm and tap into other result proven sources.

In recent years, more and more people are venturing online to put their home based business in front of their targeted market. It is easier to market online to your targeted market and find good prospects by advertising your network marketing opportunity to the right people. This could be someone looking for a product or service which your network marketing company provides or someone just looking for the right opportunity to make money.

To market online, you need to be familiar with the various options available. Some may be free and yet others may put you out of pocket quite a bit. You may use a few methods concurrrently. The idea is to generate traffic to your website.

In order to drive free traffic to your website, you can be an article writer. Submit articles in your niche to various article directories. When people publish your articles on the internet, traffic is driven to your website through viral marketing. You will want to brand yourself as an expert. Be a big fish in a small pond. Creating a blog on network marketing and branding yourself as an MLM expert is very important for getting your name out in the market. Remember to give value, build trust and create rapport. If you market your blog well, you will be able to generate lots of free traffic.

If you are willing to pay for traffic, a few options include pay per click advertising and banner advertising. Google Adwords is a good example of pay per click advertising. You will need to set your budget. Paid advertisements generally is a faster way of driving traffic to your website.
Others like traffic exchanges and email marketing are also available. These can be paid or free depending on the various sites.

The main advantage of online marketing is freeing up precious time spent with the untargeted market.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Multi Level Marketing – A Problem of Structure or of People?


When it comes to multi level marketing, doubters always point to the structure of the business as the reason these programs are doomed to failure. First of all, the multi level marketing program lends itself to becoming pyramid schemes – in fact, many multi level marketing organizations are nothing more than exactly that. Others point to the fact that even legitimate business opportunities in multi level marketing are destined to go bust because the very nature of the set up causes the market to become saturated with more sellers than buyers. Since reps recruit new members from their circle of family and friends, suddenly everyone you know is selling, and there is no one left to buy. So who else can you marketing the multi level marketing opportunity to?


These all sound like logical arguments to approach multi level marketing with a great deal of skepticism and doubt. But the fact remains that some multi level marketing outfits are indeed profitable, thriving, legitimate businesses, so there seems to be some flaw to blaming the sky high failure rate of multi level marketing get ups on the structure alone. So, what else could be causing the problem? The real root of the issue here might be the people that tend to jump at these multi level opportunities.


To explore this issue, we have to leave aside the subject of multi level businesses that are outright scams. These will fail eventually, and people will lose financially and personally when they do. But taking the multi level marketing programs that have the potential to be successful – why such a rate of failure? Well, much of this comes down to the people that are lured into multi level marketing deals. People with a lot of business experience have a natural distrust of multi level marketing deal, even if at their base, the best multi level businesses are hardly different from a franchise. What that means is that there’s not a lot of business skills and know how flowing into multi level marketing deals. The reps that many of these programs end up with are wet behind the ears or worse. Many of them have a history of failing at business and a tendency to flit from one get rich quick scheme to the next. They simply may not have the knowledge to capitalize on the legitimate opportunities a multi level marketing scheme can offer.


What are some of the rookie mistakes these people tend to make? They often overestimate their own potential in the business, and in turn, they overestimate the value of the product when they are trying to sell to customers and the value of the opportunity when they are trying to recruit new reps. They often fail to figure out when is the time to try and make a sale and when is not (like their neighbor’s cookout). Further, they may simply not know how to sell, which is at the very crux of making it in multi level marketing, making their failure the only sure bet. If you’re considering joining a multi level marketing program, be honest about your abilities, so you don’t end up losing more money than you make. Be assured that legitimate business opportunities can be found in the multi level marketing industry.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

MLM Cashflow Generation Using Affiliate Marketing


The most important aspect of keeping your network marketing or multi-level marketing business alive and successful is generating leads and cashflow. Although leads are essential in your network marketing business, they are useless and serve no purpose if they do not convert into your customers who buy your products. When there are no sales volume, your business will suffer because there will be no money to pay for your monthly expenses. Carrying on like this is simply putting yourself into boiling water.

A network marketing business functions just like any other business in the sense that you do have certain expenses to cover every single month.

  • Buying products. There will be a monthly autoship where you need to make purchases each and every month. Maintaining your autoship every month simply means that your downlines are required to do the same as well and this will translate into a monthly income for you. Certain network marketing businesses do not require a monthly autoship. However in order for you to continue getting a monthly income, there needs to be business volume.
  • Fixed expenses. These are fixed daily and monthly expenses that you need to pay for including transportation and food. Many network marketers get so fired up about their business and they forget about these expenses. When the realization hits them, they quit because they have run out of money.
  • Personal development. To grow yourself as a leader of your organization, you need to invest in self development programs. There are many books, CDs, DVDs, tapes and seminars that can be found in the market. They can be expensive but are worthwhile investments that will pay off in the long run.

All this goes to show that cashflow is an essential component especially in your network marketing home business. How then can we get this cash coming in consistently? Discussed here are three ways to get consistent cashflow.

1 Continuously recruiting and signing up new downlines. This will give you the fastest way to get your commission as most network marketing companies offer you an incentive in the form of a fast start bonus for every new downline you sign up. The more downlines you have in your organisation, the more commissions you will make from the monthly autoship and other purchases.

2 Keeping up the retail sales will ensure your monthly commissions. This means having a customer base where you retail your company’s products is essential for a consistent income.

3 Using the internet to make money from your leads and prospects via affiliate marketing. This is a good way to target leads and prospects who may not fall into the two categories above and is virtually untapped by network marketers.


As an affiliate marketer, you would basically market generic network marketing information that anyone can use. Due to its low cost and high demand, there is a huge target market for such practical information.

There are many affiliate programs that you can join. The payouts range anywhere from forty to seventy-five percent for marketing these information products. When you have your affiliate marketing program, you can at least offer them to your leads and prospects who do not sign up or buy your network marketing products and generate cashflow from this alternative stream. This can be a good way of making money by driving traffic to your blog and marketing affiliate products. You can thus continue to generate cashflow and keep your business afloat. In fact, your affiliate marketing customers may even join your network marketing opportunity some day in the future.