Blogging to Grow Your MLM Business

If you're looking for creative ways to generate interest in your MLM business, avoid wasting your money paying for leads and jump on the back of the latest hot trend - blogging.

One of the most significant communication trends right now is 'blogging'. For those that aren't familiar with a 'weblog' or 'blog' for short, it is simply an online message board where you can write your thoughts, ideas or opinions on any topic. By its very nature, as a place for like-minded people to share their opinions, a blog is a powerful tool for all entrepreneurs.

This article is designed to give the Network Marketer techniques to improve their networking, and ultimately grow their MLM business.

Remember, you are in the relationship building business, not the 'sales' business so any way that you can improve the way you communicate and network will give you a greater chance of building your business. A blog is a powerful communications tool and it is extremely suitable for social and business networks, like MLM. The other great benefit of having your own blog is that it establishes you as an authority in your field and can give you loads of credibility, which is great for Network Marketing.

So you've decided that you want to give blogging a go, so the first question you may have is, "how do I get started?"� Lucky for us not-so-tech-savvy entrepreneurs, setting up your own blog is relatively easy and quick. There are a number of online sites that will provide you with all the resources you need to start your own blog. The best part is that it can all be done for free! I have used both www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com and comfortably recommend both of them.



Listed below is a quick action plan for establishing your blog and how to market yourself and your business opportunity:

* Sign up for a free blog on one of the above websites. I now use www.blogger.com and have found it easy to use. You don't even need to have your own website.

* Decide on a theme. I recommend something as simple as your journey as a home based business entrepreneur. You can share both your business successes and challenges. Include useful tips and tricks that you have used in your business.

* If you are concerned about what to write about, just start brainstorming ideas with your team and you will find the list of topics are endless.

* Make the information interesting to the reader, and even add humor wherever possible.

* Add some content over a few weeks, including a couple of core articles along with short conversational, journal style entries.

* Send out the links to everyone in your downline and selected people in your upline. With this type of initial audience, you will find blogging a great way to share information and techniques amongst team members.

* Encourage your team to post comments on the blog and provide feedback to you about the content and usefulness of the blog. Make adjustments as required.

* Once you are happy with the character and theme of your blog, submit it to a number of blog directories (simply search on the term "blog directory" and you should find plenty!).

* Become the distributor of the latest news and offerings from your company.

* Use alternate techniques like a video post. Simply record yourself with your computers webcam or digital camera and post away! Alternatively, you can take a video of interest from places like Youtube.com and place them in your blog. This will give your readers a great multimedia experience and reasons to keep visiting your blog.

* Tip: I recommend that you do not try to sell your business opportunity on the blog. Build a relationship first and then you may be able to ask for expressions of interest.

* Tip: You can refer network marketers from other companies to your blog to help them grow their business. When they see how helpful you are, they may even be encouraged to join your organization.

* Consider using Google Adsense on your blog as an easy income source.

* Be seen as the expert on the latest social networking technology (have you tried conference calls with www.skype.com yet? Watch out for a future article on this hot, free, communications method).

It's important to keep up with technology and the latest trends, and blogging is a great way you can really take the lead and get ahead of the game. Being a leader means stepping up and providing a strong community amongst your team through the sharing of information. With a blog, you may find yourself being the entrepreneur that keen prospects want to get to know and be around. You are a leader and people want to be around leaders that provide them a better vision of the future. This will mean great success for you.

Looking at other ways to supercharge your MLM business? I recently gathered together 5 Superstars for a special MLM training seminar. Just follow the links below to find out more.

How To Stop Information Overload

Here are some tips to stop information overload:

Stop visiting forums and reading threads. 95% of the threads are written by inexperienced people - who have no clue what they are talking about. Freedom of speech is very overvalued these days. Everyone seems to have an opinion and everyone wants to express it. Stop reading those useless threads. They are keeping you back. If you keep reading them, you are stealing money from yourself and the people you love. Only read them for entertainment value and only if you have already done the tasks that build your business for the day.

Stop buying every new ebook that comes out - except if it analyses something that is already part of your game plan. For example, if you are using Pay Per Click extensively and you see a new guide on Google Adwords that comes out, you may want to check that out. But don't buy every new "make money" product just because it's out there. People have been making money for decades without the "new" ebooks that come out all the time. Every time you really feel like buying a new ebook, WAIT for 2-3 days and THEN consider buying it. Many purchases you make are "impulse" purchases and do not really solve a problem you have...

Unsubscribe from all the free newsletters that you are not reading or that you get no value out of it. More isn't better.

Discontinue your membership to paid sites that you don't use or that you get no value out of.

Get a personality of your own and stop doing things because everyone else seems to be doing it. Most of them are not making a dime. Why would you want to copy them? If you hear of "mass hysteria" of people buying a specific product, it doesn't necessarily mean you should buy it as well. Wake up. Start thinking for yourself. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of others.



Stop using 10 different complicated techniques. Choose one traffic method, distil it down to its simplest steps, master it and then use it massively. Stop jumping from project to project and opportunity to opportunity. If you have an opportunistic mindset, you will get the results that most "opportunists" get. You'll be poor.

Create a site. After you have it rolling, DON'T start another site. Instead, add more backend offers to that first site. People who are subscribers and customers of yours trust you and you can make money on some pretty high-end products just by sending an email. Forget about starting another "campaign" and then trying to warm up new people in a new market all over again and trying to make money by selling a $29.95 ebook that pays you 50% commissions.

Here's another great trick you can use: Create a text file (Notepad, Word etc...) and create the "perfect" money-making system based on your current knowledge. This file may have some sections like: Finding a market, creating a product, driving traffic to the site, tips on time management, personal development stuff etc... Then, every time you read a new ebook or watch a new DVD, or read a good article or a forum post, note down the new knowledge it provides you with at the appropriate section of your text file. That way, you won't have to go through the main product again. Before you know it, you will have a "super ebook" with all the good stuff that you find useful. Then you can refer to this ebook every time you need inspiration or reminders on a specific part of the process.

A note about "ideas": Ideas are neutral. They are not necessarily something "good." Most people have been actually HURT by ideas. Ideas themselves mean jack crap. I can sell you all my ideas for a buck a piece and I would be a millionaire. You need to get an idea and then test THAT idea and focus on THAT idea. You have another idea shortly after you start the first one? Then note the new idea down. You will get to it AFTER you have worked with the first idea...

Here is Why You Need To Use Landing Pages

All the products that you want to sell online are ready. You have already signed up with the Google Adsense program or with other affiliate marketing programs and you have already prepared the ad you want to post on your affiliate’s site. Your mind is now set to being the next most successful online businessman. But is there anything else that you might have forgotten to prepare? Maybe none. But how about your landing pages? Are they all set for your business?

Landing pages are simply web pages where visitors are directed to whenever they click a result in a web search or whenever they click a web ad. For affiliate marketing, landing pages would refer to the web page where you, as a merchant, would want your potential customer to be directed after clicking your ad on your affiliate’s website. Landing pages are, at most times, nothing really different from other web pages in a particular website, especially if the said website is an e-commerce site. Some online businessmen would even use the homepage of their websites as the landing page for their ads. Are these businessmen making a big mistake? Or should you follow their method in creating landing pages for their ads?

Well, you can always follow what most online retailers do, directing their potential customers to the homepages of their websites. But if you want to achieve something more from your online business, and if you want to earn a lot of profits, you better create a special landing page for your web ads. Why? Here are a few reasons why you need to use landing pages for your web ads. And take note, it would do you a lot better if you create a great landing page than a so-so one.


Reason no. 1: It is the only way you earn conversions in an affiliate marketing program.

There are a variety of affiliate marketing programs today, but most of these programs let the merchant pay the affiliate in a pay per click basis. Basically, all you have to do is sign up with the program and submit your ad. The program owner would then distribute your ad to various affiliates who would then place your ad on their websites. Whenever your ad is clicked, a visitor would be directed to your landing page and you would have to pay the affiliate for his service.

As a merchant, you earn in an affiliate program through conversions�"that is whenever a visitor that is directed to your site actually buys a product on your site. Without these conversions, you actually earn nothing from the program. Also, the more visitors that your affiliates have directed to your site, the larger would your expense be. And the only way that you can recover from these expenses is through conversions.

Now, you sure won't get any conversion if you have posted an ad on your affiliate's site without an actual landing page for the potential customer to be redirected into. It's just like advertising a product without actually having a store to sell your product. Your advertisement may be enticing enough to encourage people to purchase a product, but without the landing page, how will they know how to purchase the product

It is therefore important to have landing pages for your ads because it is the only way for you to earn something in an affiliate program. Without landing pages, all you do is spend money paying your affiliates without actually getting anything in return.

Reason no. 2: Other web pages may just not be enough.

Many people make the mistake of making their website's homepage as the landing page for their ads. The same is true for those who make use of other pages like a "contact us" page or a product page. Homepages are often designed to serve multiple users and contains a lot of links to other pages or to other websites. The same is with the other two pages mentioned. If you want to be successful in an affiliate program, we're sure that you don't want your landing page to cater to the needs of various people, most of which may not be really interested with your product.

When choosing a landing page, you must always have the customer directed into that page in mind. Therefore, your landing page must be relevant to the keywords and the contents you placed on your ad. It is also important that the landing page can induce your visitor to take action�"that is to purchase your product or at least provide leads for potential customers.

Final Word

You probably entered into an affiliate marketing program with these things in mind: to save on advertising expenses and to gain more profit. But if you get into an affiliate marketing program without actually having a landing page, you'll end up paying too much without getting anything in return. So if you still don't have a landing page for your ads, you better start creating one now. And don't get us wrong; it isn't enough for you to have just a landing page�"it should be a great landing page!