Online Networking Communities

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For many people, the words "network marketing" or "MLM"
(multi-level marketing) conjure up images of hitting up your
so-called "warm market" (those two or three hundred people
near and dear to you as well as those unfortunate enough
to have crossed your path at some time in the distant past)
and pleading, cajoling, persuading, arguing and plain
pressuring them to join your program. Or organizing house
parties and presentations to make your pitch to a captive
audience. Or having to approach complete strangers while
standing in line at the supermarket.

Any or all of these options may be unpalatable to you, and
for good reason. They certainly were to me. But what if
you didn't have to do any of that? What if there was a way
to have people approach YOU to join your business rather
than the other way around? What if you didn't have to hold
face-to-face meetings at ALL? What if you didn't have to
make a single approach to someone you know? Or to
someone you don't? Would you think differently about
network marketing then?

Well, there is such a way. Running a network marketing
business using the Internet.

I've heard many people say that it's just not possible to run
a network marketing business exclusively online. Well, I'm
here to tell you different. Because I'm doing it and if I can
do it, so can you.

Before I tell you a bit more about how a network marketing
business can be run exclusively online, let me clear up a
couple of possible misconceptions. First, running an online
business does NOT mean creating a website and then sitting
back expecting the business to run itself. You will work every
bit as hard in an online network marketing business as you will
in an offline network marketing business. This is just a
different method, that's all.

Secondly, when I say "exclusively" online, I mean that's where
your lead generation and prequalification work happens, it does
NOT mean you will never have to pick up a telephone and speak
to a real, live person at the other end.

OK, so what's involved in running a network marketing business
online then?

The first thing to understand is that network marketing, just
like Internet marketing, is a numbers game. It is for this precise
reason that network marketing is IDEALLY suited to being run
online. Why? Because ANY Internet business is a numbers
game. Just ask anyone with a web site what their focus is when
their web site is up and running. It's traffic. It's getting as
many people to their web site as they can because somewhere
in the range of 2% - 4% of site visitors will click on a link that,
in some fashion or another, can generate revenue for the web
site owner. Of those 2% - 4% of visitors who click on the link,
however, only 1% or so of THEM will go on to buy after clicking
on the link. Ergo, with such tiny response rates, high traffic is
the name of the game. The same principle holds true for your
network marketing business.

At its core, network marketing is a simple business. It's all
about generating leads, qualifying those leads and then
following up with those qualified leads until they take the action
you want them to take (or tell you to stop) - either purchasing
product from you or joining your downline as a productive
distributor.

As you read above, online advertising is getting people to your website or blog or squidoo lens, etc. So it begins with writing (or creating) words or audio or video on your website, blog, or other site that will provide your reader with something valuable and will cause the reader to come back again and again until that reader joins your "community" or buys your product. This is often called "Attraction Marketing."

It is also important along the way to "brand" yourself so that when your brand comes up in a search or link, the readers will click through. What is a brand? Think Pepsi or Ford. When the word comes up, you know what it represents. You want your "brand" to signify help, concern, value to your readers.

Not sure I agree with the article above that calls it "simple" and it certainly isn't instant. You must have many articles recognized by the search engines like Google before your "brand" becomes well known by readers. A company that is working as a community to brand its name for the benefit of all its members is Occupy the City. If you're reading this lens, then you know that's what I'm trying to do here--provide you with value so that you'll want to come back and see what I add next.

1. Your prospects will find you on the internet either from content you have created such as your Squidoo lens or other blogs or ezines. Or they will find you on social networking sites you have visited such as Twitter, You Tube, My Space, etc.

2. When your prospects read your "stuff" on the internet, they're lead to your "lead capture pages." This can be your own website or one provided by a system like The Renegade, or Marketing Merge, or OTC, etc. When the prospect fills out your lead capture form, you have added that prospect to your list.

3. At this point you should provide value to the prospect. This can be by giving them free information, or summaries of articles or books, or sharing videos, or information about events, etc. Upon filling out your form, they have given you permission to communicate with them.

After building the relationship by providing value, you can then give your prospect offers for product.

Everyone doing business on the internet needs traffic. So how do you turn a Twitter account into an Internet Traffic Click Magnet?

There are two very important things to realize: click from your Twitter account are easy to get and clicks from Twitter are more likely to access your goods or services.

I am part of the Twitter community and use my real name and you should too. Mine is www.twitter.com/judykkelly. The purpose of twitter is to update your friends/followers with the answer to "What are you doing" but it can contain only 140 characters. These posts to twitter are called "tweets." Twittering is a great way to give your readers little snippets of who you really are. However, you want to minimize the communication of too much worthless information. Your tweets should be directed to getting clicks to your money making online internet business sites.

Because of so few characters in each tweet, your reader often has to click to "get the rest of the story." You can also put links in the "About" header on your twitter page. Another source of clicks can be a URL put in the "welcome" or "thanks for following" message that you place either directly in the tweets or in a pm (private message). There are automatic programs developed that will even send these messages out for you. Search google for a "tweetlater" program. The final clicks come from links placed directly in your tweets. Something such as "click here for more..." Anytime you put a link in your tweet, you can use a tracking link. Use snipurl.com for this.

Your main goal is to get as many followers as possible. Some ways to do this are:

--Find and follow smart people with your interests who are on twitter
--Do a search for people talking about what interests you: search.twitter.com
--Ask everyone following your current content in blogs, etc.

Do not use twitter to blatently spam your message to people who are not interested in what you have to offer. You will get blocked and will not receive any clicks. Be honest about your intentions.

One of the fastest growing segments of the market today is health and wellness. This includes natural products including cleaning and skincare, functional foods, and nutritional supplements. It has become a mega-trend and a visible social development across the globe.

Network marketing has become the enticing business model. In network marketing, representatives of the company sell products directly to consumers rather than through a retail store. In this business model, the customer is more targeted and the representative is more informed about the product being sold. Network marketing provides the representatives a home based supplemental income, a chance to run their own business, and improved morale. The majority of network marketing companies provide a unique compensation structure that is the primary driver of this business model. Representatives, or associates as they are sometimes called, are also compensated based on the revenues generated by the representatives whom they recruit into the business. These recruits are referred to as a downline, and as the downline expands, so do the representative's commissions. Representatives can earn income not only by selling products retail at a markup but also on the group volume generated by their recruits and again by their recruits' downlines. Commissions can run as low as 35% and as high as 44%. This becomes even more valuable when all this can be done online as "internetwork marketing."

Retail settings with crowded shelves of multiple varieties and brands of vitamins and minerals and other supplements indicate the lack of information there is about nutritional supplements as a whole. Salespeople are not trained and therefore not knowledgeable about the products and cannot help with customers' choices. Networking representatives are product users themselves and therefore the best advocate for the products. When a person's life is changed as a result of product use, a strong loyalty is created to the product and to the business opportunity.