Hi Ken and all!

Since this nook on ALP is titled network marketing advise, I thought I'd drop a quick post with a question and my tips.

We all know that people are the key to Network marketing. These can be people looking to work from home, or, they can be people who have a need for what we offer.

My question is this...

What techniques do you ( the other readers of this forum/thread) use to reach the general public online and offline?

Now, before some of you get excited about a chance to post affiliate links to stuff like traffic exchanges, safelists, downline builders and the myriad of other "traffic and promotion tools" floating around ALP and other sites, I want to be perfectly clear. DON'T POST THEM PLEASE

I am not asking what you do to reach other marketers, which is what these tools do. Marketers are not the general public. 65 year old grandmother Mary who is online to send email to the grand kids and surf for Crochet patterns is not likely to know a thing about safelists or traffic exchanges, letalone actively go looking to sign up for them.

To start things off and give anidea of what I am looking to share, here are my top 3 techniques that generate a air chunk of my business...

1. Advertise in small community newsletters.

These are great because the ad space is usually dirt cheap, it lets me target a specific geographical area or demographic of people, and offers persistent advertising. My ad could be in the Jan 1st-7th edition but be read by someone in the middle of march.

2. Minor gifts with a Business card type handouts for specific people.

I deal with a service that about 60% of the Canadian population can use. When I see someone that falls in this group I walk over and hand them a pencil with my web address on it and a small card that says somethng like " Here's a little something for you. Have a great day! - Roy from http://www.whateverurliam promoting.ca"

I have had a lot of traffic from this one when I have used it. I can't say WHY it seems to work. It just does. I don't think it will work well for affiliate links though... just an observation there...short and sweet seems best.

3. Targeted text and insterstial ads on specific websites.

In the past I have used a site that lets me pick which websites I want to advertise on. These are sites frequented by non marketers and includes sites like gawker.com, tickle.com, Ebaums World, Friendster and Brave net to name a few.

I pay a flat rate based on pageviews and click history, and my ad runs for a day, a week, or a month...whichever I want to pay for. While this is usually the most costly of my techniques, it is also the one that has the best targeting while still falling into my ad budget.


That should give everyone an idea of what I am talking about.

I am aware that none of my techniques is free. That's ok, I don't want to reach people who look at free advertising. I have found over the years that a a large part of free advertising is ineffective, draws the wrong target market, or is just plain useless. IF wasn't done juuust right, I've often got what I payed which was nothing. The return from free advertising has rarely been worth my effort that I put in to place the ad to begn with. ( just my two cents there )

I hope this thread gets people thinking and sharng.  I am looking forward to seeing what people have to offer and will add to the post if I come up with any other ideas.

All the best

Roy H

Branding yourself as an Expert.

 

I'm sure you would agree that in order to build
and own a large Network Marketing Organization, you
need to attact a certain type of person.
ie: Somebody who has leadership skills, has a strong
desire to succeed and finally unshakable commitment
to see the people in their business, dupliate and grow.

Now you can always Build your People so they build
the business.....

OR

You can attract the people who already have the
leadership skills, strong desire to succeed and
unshakable commitment to see the people in their
business, dupliate and grow.

Now if you are a Leader yourself, You'll know it's
not really about finding the opportunity, as there is
opportunity everywhere. It's really about Marketing
and Branding Yourself as a Professional and handing
people a SYSTEM where they
can market and brand themselves too.
If this system is NOT Generic you will not attract leaders
throughout the Network marketing world.

Why Would a Leader want to join you in your
Opportunity? They already have an Opportunity! They
want a better way of Marketing and attracting quality
people to their business.....

So how do you create daily cash flow, Build a
database of E.S.P. (EDUCATED SERIOUS PROSPECTS), earn
on the production value of your organisation (ie -
get paid 5-6-7 times from every member in your
business) rather than at the end of your sales
funnel, and last but certainly not least get paid
even when people say no to your primary business ??

Some say this is revolutionary - I say it's the
secret your Million Dollar Earners in this industry
never wanted you to know.

Hi Chris!

Thanks for the feedback here and yes branding yourself as an expert is one way to generate interest in what you do. This method however, has a downside.

A person can't call themselves an Expert persay. That is a designation that needs to be earned based on experience AND track record if it is to be of the most benefit. It's like a nickname which is given to a person by another and sticks. Just because a person has the experience behind them, without a proven and documented track record it's just unfounded claims. The proof is in the pudding so to speak.

For example... I consider myself to be a Professional Telecommunications Consultant but I don't designate myself publically as an "Expert" yet. When my services go live to the public I'll be able to prove myself and earn that designation.

Also, IF one calls themselves an Expert, they had better be able to stand their ground and prove it because unprepared "Experts" are often the first people to be shown up as "know nothings"

For anyone considering using this method, I wish you much success with it but strongly recommend that you be well prepared to professionally defend your position. One day someone will question your "Expertise" and force you to lay it all on the line in a make it or break it type of deal. Your peformance and reaction to this challenge will usually be THE deciding factor in the quality of your "Expert" designation.


All the best!

Roy H.

Hi Roy,

Roy now day there are so many sites with the same keywords that search engine traffic is near impossible to get.

Search engine tend to send traffic to pages that are already getting traffic.

My main way to get traffic 98% of all my traffic is to use free surf for traffic programs. I surf 500 to 1000 pages a day and when I find traffic for sale at reduced prices (bargain prices) I buy traffic.

My pages now get 10,000 to 30,000 visits a day. So I get some search engine traffic because of this.

I also get quality traffic buy contacting people in communities who share my interests.

There are too many ways to get traffic to list here. I did make a page to help my friends get traffic.

See my Help "To Succeed Page" in my signature

Also see http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/602047.aspx 

 

 

WEll, hearing that free advertising is a waste just put a damper in my steps because, I have been using free advertising for a while and have seen great results. I have also done the flyer thing and now will be venturing into local newsletters. I try to advertise on all the free sites that's available and... why not, after all it's free. I am a sucker for freebies and since I am on a budget as my business is my only source of income and growing quite well.