Baseball stars who were inducted into the Hall of Fame only played every third game and only when they felt like playing. Or was it when they were wearing their lucky socks? Every baseball fan knows the key to great ball players who made it into the Hall of Fame was consistency and riding out the ups and downs of each game. If you want to become an MLM success, you have to be consistent in all that you do in the business.

How do you leverage that consistency into success – into profit?

See people for what they are and money for what it is. Don’t treat customers and prospects as a means to an end for your business.

Build A Relationship With People

Caring about people, investing in their lives, and getting involved in their success is what motivates people and makes them gravitate toward you. The users always end up as losers – losing their downline, losing profit, and ultimately losing their business.

There’s a sad joke that says to get to the top of the money-making ladder, you have to step on people. The trouble with that kind of thinking is that after awhile they’ll move out of the way and you’ll fall.

What You Don’t Want To Do

So if you think of people only in terms of what you can add to your bank balance, you need to change your philosophy. The marketers who are enjoying the greatest success put money second to people.

You don’t want to get a reputation as someone who believes in success at any cost. Multi level marketing was never intended to be a business that promoted one person’s success over anyone else.

It was meant to be a business structure that shared the wealth available to anyone who wanted to invest and work to reach his or her monetary dreams. Your goal as a marketer should be to help others reach their dreams, to teach them and show them ways they can get the job done when they stumble. Caring about the people you bring on board is the key to having the most mlm success.

But you also have to stop daydreaming about what could be. This takes away from your productivity. You need to be focused on what tasks are at hand right this second and forge through the down times so that you can one day enjoy the fruits of your labor.

If you have not read the book, saw the movie or have the audio book of “The Secret”… GO GET IT!! You will see what I mean.

In Gratitude,

Perhaps you want to start a new internet network marketing business because the job or business you are coming from has lost its fervor, which in turn means you probably lost your focus and challenge. That, of course, would mean you have little chance — if any — to be passionate about what you do. You also may be in a business that you are not succeeding in, because lack of action or a poor sponsor.

So you are thinking about starting a new business, which is OK. Just be sure that the business you choose does not leave you in the same position you were in before — void of passion and action. Now, you must be sure the business you choose will drive you to have a passion for success — a passion to achieve — not only for yourself, but also for the customers you and your business serve. It will be very obvious if you are talking to someone about your business opportunity and have absolutely no energy behind what you are saying… it can come off as fake.

Know what success means to you. By defining what success means to you, you will discover the foundation of your passion and its meaning. It all starts with a positive mindset.

So, by now, you have defined what success means to you and you have identified your challenge to lead the good life. You have gotten serious, decided to start a business, chosen someone that you have connected with and have committed yourself to being an entrepreneur until you can claim your success. Now you are ready to begin the next part of commitment, setting goals.

What are your specific goals in becoming an entrepreneur? You’ve already started making goals by defining what success means to you, but now you need to get specific. Now, I’m not talking about your day-to-day goals. Before you can set daily goals, you must set your broad business goals. Each goal you set is one step along your Journey of Success.

Break your vision of success into concrete steps. If you are that single mother who wants to finish her degree and establish a business that allows her to spend time with her daughter, you have three goals right there: the degree, the business and your daughter.

Break each one into smaller goals that lead up to accomplishing the larger goal. For example, what will it take to finish the degree? Twelve more credit hours, a thesis, a portfolio? Whatever the requirements are set each one down as a goal.

What will it take to set up your business? Learn all you can, set up an office, create a business plan and start making contacts (networking is key!) — each one should become a goal. And, most importantly, what will it take to spend more time with your daughter? It is not necessary to achieve the first two goals to work toward the third. Do not wait to spend time with your family. This can, and should, be a part of everyone’s goal planning.

Perhaps your challenge is to become your own boss. Essentially, you want to become an entrepreneur and quit your present job. When you break it down, it becomes two goals. What will it take for you to accomplish these two goals?

To start your own mlm or internet network marketing business, you must learn all you can about that business, set up your branded site and so forth. To quit your present job, you must save enough money to be able to support yourself and your family from the income from your business.

As you can see, each goal you set can be broken down into smaller goals or steps. By breaking down your steps, you give yourself direction or a plan, so to speak, for working toward your larger goals.

For now, this process of setting your goals only involves identifying them, writing them down and breaking them into smaller goals. So, if you have suddenly realized that you have your work cut out for you, don’t get too overwhelmed. As you build your value, you will become more secure in your ability to accomplish all the goals you set for yourself. You will have the confidence you need to be able to speak to anyone about your business and better yet you will be passionate to do so.

Also, as you write down your immediate goals, don’t worry too much about missing a goal or two. If you think of other goals later, you can always add to and revise your list. The purpose of setting and writing down your goals is simply to get you started as an entrepreneur. I find that writing these thoughts, ideas, goals, to-do’s and anything that is going to help get your business off the ground, is hugely helpful. By doing this, you can hold yourself accountable and also SEE the progress happening… therefore, giving you some motivation to keep moving forward.

So many people never accomplish things they desire, because they simply never get started. For some, they simply don’t know where to start. No matter what you are trying to accomplish, you can always find a starting place by setting goals and breaking those goals down into smaller goals.

Online, there are several very useful programs that allow you to set up an attractive site which is informative – and the best part is that they’re free:  Squidoo lenses, Google Knols, Hub Pages and WetPaint Wikis are the top most used sites which concern your MLM needs.

Squidoo lenses are basically a one page site that has “plug and play” modules for the various types of content – including text modules for articles, a poll module to get quick input, easy Amazon links for books appropriate to the subject, an RSS blog feed module, and much more.

With each Squidoo lens you create, you can feature some aspect of your business – starting with raw recruiting of getting your prospect joining your downline to the on-going educational materials you’ll want to provide to them.

With Squidoo’s many content modules, you can feature educational articles, which lead your reader to understand the benefits of being in business for themselves. You can also include audio file sound bites, live opt in forms, and video on your lens, so it’s a true multi media experience for your prospects and downline.

In your first lens, the one you present when someone wants to know how to make money online, for example let your reader know that there’s a solution and that you’ll lead them through the solution.

Now isn’t the time for a hard-sell approach. You’re warming them up, so play your personality up in the lens and make them feel comfortable that you aren’t out to take advantage of them.

You’ll build momentum with your sales pitch, starting with soft links for those who are anxious to get going, but linking to other lenses, Knols, or pages with more bait and information until your reader will be sold that they need a business like the one you offer and that you are the person they want leading them.

Those are the basics of what’s called Attraction marketing. But before we get into some attraction marketing basics, we need to cover some basic search engine optimization tips to ensure your social media content gets found in the first place.

SEO 101 – Basics of Search Engine Optimization

Now, it would be nice if people could just type in “how to make money at home” and just show up at your lens or Knol about how to make money with MLMs, but that’s fantasy – there are just too many others vying for the same position.

That’s not to say that someday you won’t pull in a top 10 SERPs position for those keyword phrases, but in the meantime, you need to find other less competitive phrases to attract your prospects.

This is where some basic search engine optimization (SEO) comes in handy.  Basically, you will take some general search terms like “make money from home” or “work at home” and type them into a keyword research tool, like the free Google Keyword external tool for a basic search.

When you do a search, it will come back with dozens of terms that contain your main term plus the synonyms in the list below the main one.

From your list of results, choose one and then write articles around that phrase.  The idea is that you will write 3 to 4 short 250 word articles per lens or Knol that your reader digests from one to the next.

For example, for the phrase “work at home,” you would write an article with the title, “Best Work At Home Plans,” “How To Work At Home,” “Making Time For Work At Home Jobs,” and “Work At Home: 5 Steps to Success.”

Here’s the important part:  The idea is to include the key words in the title and content.  Some go so far as to include two keywords (Ex. Work At Home – 5 Things to Look For When Looking for Ways to Make Money Online”) in the titles.

In that title above, you have “work at home” and “make money online” in the title.  But don’t just stop there.  You need to include them in the introductory paragraph and at least in the closing paragraph of each article.  This way the search engines can tell that the article is indeed about “work at home.”

You will do this for each keyword phrase.  Write 3 – 4 short 250 word articles for each lens or Knol for each search term. And don’t forget to try to use them in the URL that you create when you first register for a lens like this: Squidoo.com/work-at-home.

The same principle applies for Hub Pages and WetPaint if you choose to add them to your arsenal. Over time, that will amount to dozens, if not hundreds of lenses and Knols – but that’s your goal – to get a small and growing empire in your niche which will eventually dominate your MLM niche subject matter.

You don’t want to get hung up on the inclusion of keywords so much that the articles don’t sound natural to a human reader – because after all, you are writing for them not just the search engines.

Google won’t like it either.

But following the above layout, these basic tips will help your lenses hopefully they will show up on the first pages of the SERPs.

Finally, make sure you include anchor text links to your website where the product/opportunity is sold using those keyword phrases and create a lensroll that includes links to the next lenses in your pre-recruiting or MLM educational series so they know where to go next.

What to Feature on Your Lenses

Now that you know you need to write articles for lenses and other web 2.0 sites, just what do you need to cover and how do you organize it?

First of all, it might be helpful to know that statistics indicate that a person needs to be exposed to an idea 7 times before they will accept it.  So, rather than writing an entire lens on “why you need my MLM,” you’ll need to start way back.

Break it down into smaller steps.  While this education process could be all on one lens, it might be better if you utilize a different lens for each step through the pre-recruiting phase.

Start back with dream building.  Devote a lens to the freedom achieved by being your own boss.  The next lens could be about how simple it is to have a home business and other advantages like tax breaks.

Next, start to teach them about the various kinds of home businesses:

• Service businesses like electrician, computer programmer, and virtual assistant.
• Product/sales type of business, which include MLM or info product creation.

The next lens would discuss the advantages of working with a supply that will basically drop ship or deliver via email any orders directly to the customer or handle any of the technical part of the service business.

Also devote a lens to teach the advantages of residual income.  Spend a good amount of time on this one because people don’t really understand the advantages of doing something once and having it pay for a lifetime.

By the time they finish your step-by-step lens-to-lens pre-training, they will be all ready to know all about your particular MLM.  At this point, they will hopefully have given you contact information on one of your live opt in forms on your lens requesting more information.

Nothing throws water on a new multi-level marketer’s enthusiasm than to have a prospect hang up the phone or scoff in their face when being approached with a business opportunity.

Since the lifeblood of your business depends on a strong, independent base of distributors for your downline, you’re faced with the difficult task of reaching fresh prospects, which isn’t an easy task.

Then to make matters worse, even if you can manage to recruit a new downline, you face the challenge of keeping them motivated and growing – not to mention succeeding.  Assuming you’ve been in network marketing long, you may have already run into that wall of “How do I get and, more importantly, keep a downline that’s active and growing?”

Problem #1 – How Do You Reach Serious Prospects?

When you’re prospecting for new IBOs (independent business operators), you want to focus your reach toward those who are actively seeking a home-based business and not use the scattergun approach to hitting up everyone you know.

In the past, the only way prospects were contacted was through what was affectionately known as the contact list.  Our hypothetical IBO, Jerry, was told to write down the names of anyone and everyone he could think of, including his great Aunt Sue and his family dentist – basically anyone who breathed.

Everyone in his sphere of influence was a prospect.

The problem was that not everyone on Jerry’s list really wanted to be a prospect.  Most weren’t even remotely interested in selling what it was he was trying to share with them.  Consequently, Multi Level Marketing opportunities have gotten a bad name simply because of this “everyone is a prospect” approach.

Who wants to be tricked into attending a business meeting, right?

There’s a better way, thanks, in great part, to the advent of the World Wide Web and social media networks that expand your search to all four corners of the world, and not just your local geography.

But even if you succeed in bringing an ample supply of prospects to your downline, you might still be stalled by the second obstacle.

Problem #2 – Convenient Training and Encouragement for New Recruits

Once Jerry has a new member in his downline, how is he supposed to get them the training and encouragement they need?  You can’t rely on a prospect to hunt around the ‘net digging up kernels of knowledge about how to succeed with MLM – because many either won’t go searching or don’t know how to find the information.

If you’re new to MLM yourself, then you have no credibility to speak of, which makes it even harder to motivate your downline to succeed.  While it’s true that many MLM companies provide excellent training materials and kits for their IBOs, unless the new distributor has regular contact with an active upline support system, they often flounder and eventually “die,” meaning they abandon the opportunity and further spread the misinformation that MLM is just a scam.

What Jerry needs is a way to keep in touch with the new and growing members of his downline in a way that’s convenient for both him and the recruits.  While some training is best done one-on-one, most can be accomplished through websites accessed through the Internet.

Solution #1 – Perfect Prospect/Contact Solution

Through the marvelous means of the Internet and the many social media now available, network marketers have at their disposal the perfect medium of reaching prospects. Using it, you never have to be concerned about offending anyone by inviting them to a meeting where they ended up leaving in disgust.

Never again will you get “death threats” for approaching someone in the mall in an attempt to get them interested in your business (true story). No more avoidance from friends and family.

They don’t even need to know you’re building a business until it’s well underway.  By then, you have some credibility and they’ll be more likely to want to hear about your business opportunity.

Through such social media as Squidoo lenses, Google Knols Hub Pages and other hot spots, you can present the business in the very places opportunity seekers are hanging out.

No more hard selling.

No more slammed doors.

No more jeers from scoffing friends – all because you aren’t trying to convince a person that they need to get into your business.  The people you are putting your opportunity in front of are actively seeking – and therefore are already a warm prospect.

All you have to do is win their trust by building a relationship through a series of articles and downloadable PDF files, which are designed specifically to lead your prospect to make the decision to join your business.

Actually, if done properly, your prospect will be practically banging down your door to get access to your business.  Hard to believe?   It happens every day using what’s called Attraction Marketing.

You’re going to build pages in social media sites that speak to whatever it is they’re searching for. It might be “make money online,” or “pay off my debt,” or even “find a new job.”

It could even be based on the product your MLM is built around. If it’s travel, then you might hook someone who loves to travel, wants to buy your product, but wouldn’t mind raking in a few dollars just for recommending something they already love to people they know.

These pages you build will reel the prospects in because they’ll use keywords in the content, and when the prospect goes on Google or another search engine to find what they’re looking for, Google will present your page to them as an option, which starts the ball rolling.

Yet once these people are in the loop, how do you help them grow in the business?  Most people coming to you will only have that initial enthusiasm which caused them to sign up – but they don’t have the faintest idea how to take the next step.

Solution #2 – Training Your Downline Is a Cinch Online

While it’s true that you are part of someone else’s downline and have access to their training materials, there is nothing keeping you from being your own group leader.  As a matter of fact, that should be your goal.

It’s what makes MLMers successful.

When you use the many tools available online to build your downline and train your IBOs and maintain communication, then you are maximizing your investment. Besides, you want your training materials to be better than what you were given, utilizing your own slant on the topic of marketing and product sales.

Your downline is your workforce – it’s in both yours and their best interest to train them in the things they need to know in order to be successful.  Motivation and education is the key to keeping your downline enthusiastic and vital.

He or she is already excited about the business opportunity.  Now take advantage of that excitement and do what you need to do to provide the tools they need for success.

Training and education take time, and it’s best to break it down into smaller bites.  Some will learn more quickly than others – but they all need to learn two main things:

#1: The product line of your business, what you have and how it benefits the buyer.

#2: How to sell the business opportunity to their prospects and future customers.

That education should include regular contact either by autoresponder or blog.  Squidoo lenses, Google Knols, Hub Pages and WetPaint wikis are ideal for creating training modules for your downline.

They’re free and extremely easy for even non tech savvy individuals to set up and maintain.  Then for those quick messages, you can use Twitter or even just email broadcasts on an autoresponder.

This is one of the questions Ive often asked myself about the network marketing industry. After all, everyone told me how easy it was, I was simply sharing not selling!

I used to believe the answer was The Lack Of Education, yet now the picture has become even clearer. Education without Action leads to failure! One of the reasons is, people do not take their business serious enough.

Can You Still Make It In Network Marketing?

Yes you can! The only tool – system youll ever need is you. There is a law of attraction, people are attracted to those that can most help them achieve what they truly want. The final question you have to decide is, do you want to be in the 97 percent category or the 3 percent?

Talk soon,
Toki Tover

http://www.MyGlobalRiches.com