Social Attraction

For the Internet marketer, two dynamic forces have come together to create a virtual storm of business opportunity online today. The first was the development of the principle of Attraction Marketing that sets forth the proposition that people buy people and not products. The attraction marketer realizes that his or her personal brand is what prospects ultimately respond to. It may be due to a reputation for extreme value, for groundbreaking thinking, for performance tips and techniques, or any one of a myriad of other aspects of a person’s business and life. But for whatever reason, a person who successfully deploys attraction marketing acts like a magnet drawing hordes of potential prospects into the business.

The other critical dynamic that is happening today is the rise in popularity of the social networks. The press has been filled recently with reports about Twitter and its ubiquitous use by everyone from congressmen to rock stars to senior corporate executives. But Twitter is just one of many. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Squidoo, LinkedIn, and Plaxo are all examples of highly active — and interactive — social media sites.

And this is where the perfect storm happens. By combining the principles of Attraction Marketing with the use of social media to deliver and distribute marketing messages, the Internet entrepreneur gains tremendous leverage at little cost. Because social media are by definition forums for like-minded people to share ideas, thoughts, communications, tips, and everything else that forms their common bond, it is the perfect method of marketing. The attraction marketer simply needs to develop a strong personal brand, a clear-cut set of brand messages, and then deploy them using the tools offered by the various social media.

It might be a bit of a challenge however because each social media platform is different. Each one has its own set of rules, protocols, and processes for interacting and communicating with members. Anyone who runs afoul of these regulations runs the risk of having their site taken down and permanently dismantled. For that reason, it is essential that the online entrepreneur master each individual social media platform in order to use it effectively.

Of course this type of mastery requires significant learning curve and effort. Some online entrepreneurs find it easier to outsource their social media management functions to a company well-versed in such matters. Because the younger generation has been using social media for so long, many of these companies were formed by people who use their social media contacts daily, almost as a hobby as opposed to a business. But because they understand the nuances and intricacies of navigating the social media, they can provide a very valuable and cost-effective service.

The combination of attraction marketing with a social media marketing strategy is a very powerful approach to online success. Any entrepreneur or who has ventured online must absolutely incorporate both tools into their Internet marketing toolbox.

Local Impact

One can hardly argue the evidence of the recession visible all around us. Jobs are being lost by the millions, people are being evicted from their homes, and entire retirement portfolios have evaporated almost overnight. The scariest thing about this is that many people never even saw it coming. Even the financial experts and talking head pundits who report on such things failed to recognize the magnitude of the impact of the present recession. The news has even taken to calling it the Great Recession, and there is evidence that it could last for several more years.

Amazingly however not everybody has been impacted in the same way. History shows that during times of global financial stress, opportunities for personal growth and wealth creation abound. The key is in understanding how to spot these opportunities and then to take advantage of them. This is very true for the recession that we are currently in. People all over the world have seized the opportunity to launch lucrative personal businesses, to implement recession proof incomes, and to increase their wealth.

The one tactic that many people are using to accomplish this is to begin an online Internet marketing business. Because the Internet connects a global marketplace of over 1 billion people, it is essentially recession proof. Even during an economic downturn, people will be spending money all over the world. The challenge is to be able to tap into this ongoing stream of commerce, and to leverage it for one’s personal benefit, income, and financial security. Commerce on the Internet is growing at an astounding rate and will continue to do so. Anyone interested in bolstering and improving their personal financial position should evaluate this approach.

The fact is that even in times of a recession, people still need many things. Although billions and billions of dollars of wealth have been lost in this recession, trillions of dollars of wealth still remain. The key is to find a product that everybody needs and wants, and then to provide it to them. Even people who are feeling the impact of the recession are willing to spend money if they believe it will help them, or if it is something that they absolutely require. By finding a business that provides this type of recession proof product, an individual can virtually ensure their long-term financial future, and personal success.

Successful Time Management (aka Managing Yourself!)

Countless books, audios, videos, and training material exist out there already on the complicated topic of Time Management. However, this article is going to review what might be considered hidden productivity secrets or big picture ideas that will help any work-at-home entrepreneur. The material here was largely gleaned from an excellent video on the topic by Eben Pagan.

First off, as a home business operator it is difficult for us to quantify our daily output. Most manual labor jobs, even white-collar jobs, can easily be quantified in terms of productivity or widgets produced/hour or per day. However, when you are you own boss in the network marketing industry you are instead dealing with “knowledge-based” activity which is very difficult to quantify in terms of effort. Because of the onslaught of information and knowledge we face every day, it is very easy to lose focus and fall into the “curse of multitasking”. Multi-tasking…a curse? You bet it is! Why? The bottom line is multi-tasking is not efficient. One recent scientific study actually showed that multi-tasking lowers you IQ to less than someone smoking marijuana! In short, you are far better off to focus on one thing at a time. (And yes, this applies to women as well even though it has been shown that they are better than men at multi-tasking!). Ideally, one should focus on one specific task without distractions for two hours at a time – close your e-mail program, close the Internet browser, switch your cell phone’s ringer and/or text feature off, tell family members not to bother you during these periods, etc. and do whatever it takes for you to remain focused. Then take a short break, but one that is “healthy” as your body naturally goes through pulses of energy, so get in touch with your own rhythms.

Another excellent tip is to create routines at the same time of day, day in day out – at first this may seem like “work” as you free-spirited folks may feel that this is limiting, but in fact establishing a routine for important tasks will make you infinitely more productive in the long run. We all have to work at reducing the distractions of life and avoid a scattered “monkey mind” or letting a “busy idiot” syndrome from taking over. Believe it or not, but top producers do not check their e-mail every 2 minutes. Block aside specific periods of time to deal with e-mails if necessary, but frankly you only need to do that a couple of times per day. Working in concerted, focused bouts of activity on one task is far more productive than trying to do 3, 4, or 7 things at once! For example, I bet that the top producers get more done in 90 minutes working on one activity than you can ever do now juggling 3 or 4 actions at once and over double the time frame.

However, it is also important to balance your activity with periods of renewal to give your body and brain a chance to rejuvenate. The top producers understand this and have learned how to efficiently renew themselves and increase productivity. This can involve exercise, even simple things like walking the dog, or working in your garden – but try to avoid watching TV or surfing the Internet during your breaks. You’re better off to read a good book on personal development for 10-15 minutes, or do some basic meditation or breathing, or jot down some personal thoughts in a journal.

As for structuring your day or time, you can use the following percentages as a guideline to give you an idea of where you should best be putting your efforts:

Spend 40% of your time on building your business — generating leads, tweaking your marketing…anything that drives traffic to your website or landing pages;
Spend 20% of your time converting prospects to sales — this may or may not mean talking on the phone or in person with them, but note this also includes improving your sales copy or sales funnel process;
Spend 10% of your time on improving your content or marketing material;
Spend 30% of your time “managing” your business — this includes the administrative or financial side of your enterprise, but also people management (e.g. you may be interacting with if for example you are outsourcing your marketing efforts, or with any team members underneath you who need a nudge or guidance).
Please contact me if you have any specific questions on how to improve managing your MLM or network marketing time. I’d also like to hear your comments and your own tips on time management!

Attraction Marketing 101 – Your MySpace Formula

Next in my series of Attraction Marketing how-to’s includes you establishing a MySpace page. As we should all know by now, it is crucial to establish and position yourself as a leader. Your MySpace content should certainly set you apart from the pack, but don’t forget to add personal touches such as a photo slide show with shots of you having fun on a vacation with friends or family.

In a nutshell, your MySpace “formula” should consist of the following:

1. Personal Pictures (preferably those with you having fun with loved ones and/or vacation photos);

2. Provide some personal background so that people can connect with you or relate to you while also keeping them interested in learning more about you. And yes, you should include the “obvious” things: where you are from, what jobs you’ve had in past, what are some of your hobbies, are you a sports fan, etc.;

3. Personal problem — paint a picture whereby you describe your challenges or obstacles and how you went about looking for a SOLUTION. In order for this to work, you must tell a PERSONAL story that you yourself experienced that was a major frustration for you;

4. Share your SOLUTION by telling your story on how you got introduced to the solution and your experiences with it. “All of that changed when I discovered…(INSERT SOLUTION HERE).”;

5. Make sure you include a call to action, e.g. invite them to call or e-mail you and share their own frustrations or problems, or have them subscribe to your blog or newsletter.You can send them to your “My Story” Page where you really sell yourself and you go into more detail about your business or businesses. Remember, it’s important to build what we call “You INC”…not your MLM business replicated site;

6. Describe exactly who you’d like to meet and work with; who would you like as your perfect business partner? This is a powerful step and helps pre-qualify prospects and further establishes your stance as a leader.

Your page content should open with a powerful LEADERSHIP statement…something along the lines of “Hi, my name is John/Jane Doe, I am the owner and creator of yourdomainname.com”… If you don’t have your Own non-replicated website [what is stopping you btw?!], then you could say something like you are “a contributor to the Better Networker forum”, mention your Blog site, or articles you’ve written.

Another great tip: make sure you use HTML in your profile as that will also set you apart from many other marketers and also make it easier for visitors to go directly to your site. Use NVU, a free to download HTML editor — just enter and edit in their WYSIWYG tab, and then copy/paste the source tab in the Source Tab (just the code between the to sections). NVU is a great program and highly recommended to help you ensure your URL-domain name is always hyperlinked. [UPDATE: try a search under KompoZer to download latest version of open-source NVU].

Lastly, you’ll want to start adding friends and you can then let your MySpace page run on autopilot! Try to be disciplined and add AT LEAST 25 new friends per day — there is a handy search function so you can search for like-minded people or other MLM’ers. However, if you find adding friends a bit tiresome and time-consuming, I highly recommend FriendBlasterPro and you can add dozens to your list of friends on MySpace in a matter of minutes (instead of hours!). Just remember to keep the number of new friend requests between 50-100/day with FriendBlasterPro and use its time delay function between requests (e.g. set between 9 to 20 seconds), otherwise MySpace may flag your activity and they will DELETE your profile for spamming!

More Articles (click here)