Philip Harman
There are thousands of experts out there who will tell you how to succeed with network marketing. Some of them really do know what they’re talking about, even if their message is often delivered in that rather ‘consultant speak’ manner that makes so many of us cringe and shy away.
After many years of watching the rise and fall of ‘the next big thing’ here are a few observations for any would be online marketer to think about – more a case of how not to go about things, which, hopefully, might save some of us a lot of pain.
1) You get very little in this life for free – if only everyone would accept this simple truth, the network marketing arena would be a happier place. By free, I’m not just talking in monetary terms either. There is no doubt that the internet is still a place where you can find success with minimal initial outlay, but for the most part, the people who have had the greatest success are those who have put a lot of thought and/or effort into their business, along with some investment. You also have to add the downright dishonest folks, who are prepared to make a buck at anyone’s expense and have little or no conscience about what they do – trust me, there are plenty of them out there circling too!
2) A business means a product or a service – you cannot sell thin air to people, other than the downright stupid ones. When the next flash website catches your eye and promises you all the wealth your little heart desires, remember that they know what buttons to push to ignite your interest and talk has always been cheap. If nobody is expected to sell anything, there won’t be any money will there? So, on to the next step….
3) It’s staggering what some people can be convinced will make them money. We mentioned products and services, and if we accept that they form the basis of any business, there is much more we have to accept. Before rushing into an online venture just because it says on the screen that millions of people want to buy what they are asking you to sell, think about it carefully. Would you want to buy what they are selling at the price they are selling it at? I mean, come on, you must have known people who have got involved in a network marketing company and tried to sell you on it too; vacuum cleaners, cleaning products, beauty products, miracle potions, timeshares, beef jerky, online shopping malls – the list is endless. I’m not saying that these products are not valid (well, maybe the miracles are pushing it a bit) but the likelihood of them making you rich, are, let’s be honest here – slimmer than a very slim thing! So let’s move on to what you’ll be given for free shall we?
4) A web page of your own to promote your business! Sounds great in theory for people who don’t know much about websites or marketing and they just can’t seem to get enough of them. I know we all have to learn and start somewhere but I say this because if it weren’t true, we wouldn’t be seeing these awful pages with a low resolution grainy photo of the ‘marketer’ either sitting in their dingy little living space peering in a hopefully vacant way at their monitors or, even worse, a cell phone snapshot of the site ‘owner’ with their little rat like dog. Remember the old saying, ‘would you buy a used car from THIS man?’ It applies here in spades. Like it or not, in this world, image is everything, so think about yours and that of the business you are trying to promote. Showing me a video of some smug fool in a rented sports car does not make me want to be like him, nor does it inspire any belief in what he might be doing. Remember that in advertising yourself and your business, your audience have a huge variation of aspirations and are looking for someone to provide what they need – bragging shamelessly about your own success makes many people want to hit you upside the head rather than aspire to your not so lofty ideals. If you want people to trust you and your business, get yourself a domain name, learn how to build a website of your own and you are already many steps ahead of thousands of affiliates and would be marketers. Oh, and when you write your ad copy, please, please, please….proof read everything. Badly written and misspelled copy makes me click elsewhere faster than anything and if people try to tell you differently, don’t believe them – your professional image takes a huge battering if your writing is below par.
5) Which leads on to a quick thought about offline promotion. Maybe you’ve seen it too – ’Want A Part Time Income Of $6000 Per Week?’ plastered across the trunk of a twelve year old automobile. Erm…need I say more. If the driver of a top of the range Bentley did it, maybe you’d believe them, but then you’ll never see such a display. In the same vein, all those flyers taped to light poles or slapped on your windshield while you’re at work. What am I getting at? One word – desperation. It will not inspire people to flock to an ‘opportunity’ because it smacks so loudly of desperation and the fact that by believing your sales pitch they too may well be reduced to wandering parking lots at night, furtively slapping flyers on windshields. Hardly a business success model is it? You are demonstrating only one thing with these tactics – your own lack of funds or willingness to even invest in effective advertising. Keep your offline efforts professional too. If that means restricting yourself to business cards and small ads so be it, your credibility will at least be intact.
6) OK, time for a little positive relief. There are some good opportunities to be found online. I don’t know about them all and space prohibits a long list of the good, the bad and the ugly here. When you do find something that you think can work for you, don’t be afraid to try it. As the saying goes – if you think you can do it, or if you think you can’t, then you’re absolutely right. Take time to learn from people already involved and try to find out just how much help you can expect. A good network marketer understands the need to help others in his organization and thus enhance his own business and income – there should be no ‘secrets’ and people have to be team focused. The vast majority of people give up on network marketing because they never get any support from the ‘team’ who recruited them in the fist place
7) Once you’ve taken the plunge and start to work on your program, don’t be disheartened after the first week with no visible results. No matter what anybody tells you, it will take time. If you’re looking to give up your day job, sit on the beach and watch the cash flow into your account while you sip Pina Coladas then perhaps network marketing is not for you.
8) The hardest aspects of network marketing are advertising, marketing and recruiting. These will take up more time than anything else, especially if you are on a tight budget. There are countless solutions on offer; some that work and some that don’t and you will also spend a lot of time sorting through them. This is where having a helpful up line will pay dividends, so get involved with the team and find out how they do it. Overcoming the skepticism of potential customers/members will also be a regularly occurring theme in your days. It’s a fact you just have to accept and it’s thanks to all the cons that have been perpetrated in the past. Never resort to that old enemy, desperation. Many programs now make things a little easier with matrix builders that help you to grow your business without recruiting hundreds of people yourself, but this still relies on the need for an active and effective team working to gain new customers.
9) Give all your strategies time to pay off, but if they’re not working, try new methods. Doing the same old thing day in and day out will produce the same results. When you get new sign ups, help them as much as you can and don’t jealously guard your knowledge, no matter how hard won it may have been.
10) If you want to change your life, network marketing is a viable model for doing so despite the high failure rate. It will take work and it may be frustrating, but people do succeed and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be among them.
