Working From Home Archives

The Immoral List Of Lies Told To Budding Online Marketers

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 1:21 pm  
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If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Never a truer word was spoken. Budding online marketers are bombarded by the promise of untold prosperity and that they will get rich beyond their wildest dreams. If you are planning to build a home based online business please take heed and ignore the following lies.

Anyone can do it.
My gizmo sells itself.
You won’t have to sell a thing.
Our system is fully automated
Our system is “set and forget”.
You can make $1000 a minute.
Two hours a week is all it takes.
You don’t need a dime to get started.

You might say, “I know that and I’d never fall for it”. I hope your right. Doing your due diligence on business opportunities will certainly filter out most of these slick operators who can be very convincing. Believe me when I say that I speak from experience.

Your success will be entirely up to you. Follow your selection criteria for finding your online opportunity and approach this with the right mindset. The fact is that many people make money online and you certainly can too.

So, stop looking for get rich quick programmes and get some “skin in the game” and then you will have some real motivation for success. Educate yourself, find what works for you and seek a mentor/coach who you feel comfortable with. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

I have found a great company that works for me with great people, great training, great results and great alliance partners. I am certain you can do the same. I encourage you to learn how to succeed in this industry, it is well worth it.

Ian Shilton

MLM Myth #7 "You can make money in this business with next to no money down…"

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 6:19 pm  
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Ever heard the saying “You get what you pay for?”

MLM Myth #7

Never a truer word was spoken. It applies in this context as well.

Now, certainly, if you are planning to build a business working from home, you have far fewer capital outlays than someone in a brick and mortar business, or even a franchise.

In either of those business environments, you will typically have expenses like a lease on a building and equipment, stock and wages. And if you are a franchisee, in addition to all of those costs, you will also have paid for the ‘privilege’ of doing business under someone else’s name.

Forking out money for any of these running costs is by no means a guarantee that you will make any money. There are many brick and mortar business people and franchisees who go out of business every day, despite having great products and services on offer.

Now it is true that you can opt in to a MLM or Network Marketing business opportunity and expect your capital outlay to be less than in another business model, but you still must understand that there are ongoing running costs associated with owning a business.

The home truth is that you cannot run a legitimate business on fresh air.

For starters, there will be a cost to opt in.

This is where the type of business model you choose will be incredibly important. While it may be tempting to join a company with a low cost product range, you must realize that this means the commissions on any sales you make will also be very low. It makes sense that you are not going to be paid a commission that is more than the product is worth.

If you opt in to a company with a range of low cost products, you are going to have to sell a very high volume of products before you will see a return on your investment.

Higher value products will yield you a higher commission on your sales, as long as you are positioned in such a way in the compensation plan to collect that commission.

If you are currently doing a due diligence on business opportunities right now, we suggest that you have these criteria in mind when you go looking:

1. Opt for Top Tier direct sales opportunities over MLM or Network Marketing.

Top Tier simply means that the buy in level is much higher, so while you will invest at a higher rate to get started, your commissions will also be higher and you will be targeting a niche in the market which has the money to invest. It is not an effective business strategy to promote your products or business to people who have no money to spend

2. Look for a company with a G.P.T. payment plan.

G.P.T. stands for ‘Get Paid Today’. This means that you get paid first when you make a sale, and after taking out your commission you pass the wholesale cost of the product back to your company.

Negative cash flow is particularly deadly for new business owners, and this type of payment structure means that you will have a cash flow as soon as you make a sale.

3. Avoid companies which have a “Two Up” compensation plan.

What this means is that no matter where you are positioned in your company compensation plan, you will be required to ‘pass up’ the commission on your first two sales to your sponsor. Most often, this type of compensation plan does not have a residual component built in, so beyond your first two sales, your sponsor has absolutely nothing to gain financially from mentoring you.

4. Look for companies which have a ‘dual income’ structure.

A dual income structure is one where you are paid for the sales you make at the front end, but also make a residual income on the sales of the consultants you personally sponsor.

Beyond the investment to opt in there are running costs, from membership fees, travel (if it is an International business), to communication costs, just to name a couple.

There is another saying that goes like this “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”, and that is highly pertinent to this situation.

From a psychological point of view, if you have no “skin in the game”, if you have nothing to lose, you are going to be far less motivated to lift yourself and do what it takes to get your business going.

We see many people opt in at the lowest level financially with a “I’ll give it a go and see what happens” attitude. They never last long. Frankly, it is not possible to make money with this attitude.

You do need to invest money to make money. If an opportunity presents itself as one where you can make money with no money, it sounds too good to be true…and it is.

Respectfully,

MLM Myth #7 "You can make money in this business with next to no money down..."

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

MLM Myth #7 "You can make money in this business with next to no money down..."

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

MLM Myth #6 "You can make money working as little as seven hours a week…"

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 5:02 pm  
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Ahhh…another clever marketing ploy to appeal to the “get rich quick”, “time poor”, and just plain lazy prospect.

MLM Myth #6

Now this is simply a bald faced lie. Again, think about this logically.

Every person who steps into this industry for the first time (especially if they have no previous business experience of any kind), is faced with an enormous learning curve. We are not exaggerating, it is huge. Less a curve, and more of a Mt Everest in fact.

There is only one way to learn, apply and master new skills, and that is with time. And unless you are an exceptionally fast learner, you will need to be prepared to devote lots of it.

Now, don’t get us wrong, you can definitely start learning how to run your business in as little as seven hours a week, and if you have a very strong desire to start your own business, and that is all the time you have available to you, then you have to start where you are at.

There may be one exception to this statement, and that is if you have the capital to outsource your business set up, and your lead generation. But in any event, you will still need to invest the time in learning how to deal with your business once it has been set up and is running.

Now, many companies use testimonials in their marketing and promotion, where top earners talk about how they earn X dollars working only 10 hours a week.

It is important to understand a couple of things about these testimonials.

Firstly, without exception, the people who have been very successful in their business dedicated a huge amount of time to learning their new business, getting set up, and then running.

And it may be true that they have relaxed the pace a little, and are now working far fewer hours in their business.

But we know that the person who is inclined to go hard to make that kind of money in the first instance, is not likely to be happy resting on their laurels. They are more likely to be planning and working hard to take their business to the next level. It is the nature of the entrepreneurial beast.

Which brings us to another home truth. If you do not have the time to invest in building a business, or you are not inclined to spend the time it takes to build a profitable long term business, you should reconsider your motivation to start your own business.

There is no getting away from it. Successful business requires work that is smart and hard. In this industry, perhaps like few others, you can expect to put in the hard work once, and be paid for life. But there is no way around doing the hard yards.

We would be lying if we suggested otherwise.

Making a six figure income from home and only working seven hours a week sounds like a business that is too good to be true…and it is.

Respectfully,

MLM Myth #6 "You can make money working as little as seven hours a week..."

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

MLM Myth #6 "You can make money working as little as seven hours a week..."

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

MLM Myth #1 "This business is so easy ANYONE can do it…"

Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 5:49 pm  
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And so to “MLM Myth #1″.

Sorry to burst your bubble so early in the piece, but such a business simply does not exist.

If you have been involved with MLM or Network Marketing before, no doubt this was almost the first thing your ‘sponsor to be’ said to you. By the way, usually this person is quite new to the industry themselves (they tend not to hang around too long before they discover that they too have been mislead, or they have maxed out their credit card – whichever comes first).

This is how it all begins. You will be shown the product range. You will be told that the products are “revolutionary”, “life changing” and “so powerful that everyone will be knocking down your door to get their hands on them”.

You will be told that even with absolutely no previous experience of any type in business it is possible for virtually anyone to build a residual income by “sharing” these products with anyone and everyone you come into daily contact with.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here, more of MLM style “marketing strategies” in MLM Myth #2.

There are many reasons why people are attracted to the MLM or Network Marketing Industry. These might be some of the very same reasons that you are looking.

The promise of making money from home.

Sacking your boss.

Choosing when, where and how much you work.

No more office politics.

No more commuting.

More time with family.

More time doing the things you love.

Achieving financial security.

These are all highly valid reasons for wanting to pursue this as a business. Unfortunately, these benefits are almost always combined with marketing strategies which lead prospects to believe that the business is easy.

The marketing tends to focus on the income claims of the top earners (and these people usually represent about the top 1% of the total number of active consultants in the company).

And so now you are to believe that not only is the business easy, you need no previous experience, and only need to do the minimum amount of work to realistically generate a six figure income at lightening speed.

Now, what this style of marketing does, is attract the wrong type of people to the industry in the first instance. People who are looking to “get rich quick”. People who have a “lottery mentality”. People who expect that the money will come flooding into their bank account by osmosis.

People who think that any legitimate business can be built this way should not even be considering self employment.

The simple home truth of the matter is that in many ways, this business is even tougher than a “brick and mortar” business.

Just think about it for a moment.

Let’s imagine that you have opened a shop in a busy part of town. You lease a building, put up signs, bring in stock and then advertise your new business.

If you have done your market research well first, you will have positioned your business in a place where your niche market is likely to be walking past your shop every day, and there is a pretty good chance that at some point, they will walk in your front door to see what you have to offer.

Not so in a home based business. There is just you, your phone, and often a cupboard chock full of your ‘life changing’ new products.

No boss to answer to.

No deadlines (except perhaps those imposed by your bank or lending institution).

No daily routine to work to.

No need to even get dressed if you don’t feel like it.

It may all sound idyllic, but it takes a particular type of drive and discipline to build a business out of nothing under these circumstances.

Our experience has been that people who have had previous business experience in either brick and mortar or MLM have a far greater understanding of the consistent and focused effort that is required to build a business. People who have been career employees tend to find the learning curve far steeper.

So if you are looking at a “business opportunity” and it all sounds too good to be true, keep looking. Because if it sounds too good to be true… it is

Respectfully,

MLM Myth #1 "This business is so easy ANYONE can do it..."

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

MLM Myth #1 "This business is so easy ANYONE can do it..."

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

Free Leads Vs Death Online – Video Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 11:57 am  
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Ahhh…one of my favorite topics. I love the concept of video marketing for many reasons. And video marketing is rapidly gaining in popularity thanks to the emergence of You Tube, and distribution tools like Traffic Geyser. More online business people than ever before are utilizing video marketing as a powerful means of free lead generation.

But don’t get discouraged that so many people are using this medium to promote their business. The good news (for the emerging savvy Internet marketer – that would be you Free Leads Vs Death Online Video Marketing Dos and Donts , is that most people are doing it pretty badly. I see far too many people online commiting the business equivalent of hari kiri with poor quality videos.

And for someone who understands how a) the medium works b) attraction marketing works and c) information marketing works, this will narrow the pack substantially.

Alright, down to the nitty gritty. Why is video marketing such a powerful medium?

Internet video is now the most sought after commodity on the search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.). These search engines love video content and will generally push your posted videos up in the free search results (also known as the “organic” or “natural” search results).

30,000,000,000 web videos are watched every month in the United States. That’s right, videos. In fact, videos now comprise THIRTY BILLION. This represents 60% of all web traffic.

Not only is there tremendous video traffic on the internet, but surfers who are looking for videos are a highly desirable demographic. 71% of You Tube viewers are employed (repeat after me – we don’t want to particularly target broke people – sad for them, not much use to you). 15% are students. The median income of a You Tube viewer is $75,000. Almost 50% are married ( not totally relevant, but interesting fact), and 70% are college educated.

When you combine and apply the fundamental principles of attraction and information marketing in your videos, along with smart keyword research, you can learn how to dominate the search engines.

So, what to talk about in your videos. Here, I am going to direct you to the Carbon Copy Pro training under the Resources tab -> Training call archives. There are a series of five calls, hosted by John Jackson, with Traffic Geyser co-founder Mike Koenig. You will find that I will continually refer to these calls, because every principle that you will need to understand, implement and master in your online business is represented there.

Mike will take you through advanced keyword research techniques, and then go into how to create content relevant to your keywords and your niche. His favorite strategy is to use the 10 x 10 x 4.

In short , you will kill two birds with one stone here. You will attract the people who are looking for what you have to offer, by positioning yourself as a leader and an authority in your industry, through the delivery of the valuable, useful and relevant information they are searching for.

Now would be a great time to discuss what you don’t do. This is very simple and easy to remember – and hopefully, you will have already guessed what I am about to say…

Don’t talk about yourself, and pitch your business. Ever. I mean it – EVER.

This is an ‘old school’ offline marketing technique. Leave it in 1980 where it belongs.

Remember why people are online looking for information. They are not looking for you, or your business in the first instance. They do not care about you (they don’t even know you yet), or your ‘next best thing’ biz opp.

They are looking for information that will help them to answer a question, solve a problem, or make a decision.

So, to the content you will post. Answer people’s questions. Deliver high quality, accurate information that your niche might be searching for. Be generous. Don’t hold back your best stuff. Serve it right up front and centre. This is counter intuitive, I realize, but it will establish your expertise, and more importantly, trust between you and the searcher. People will be more inclined to take the next step in your marketing process, if they can see that your primary intent is not to blatantly pitch them.

Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that your story is not important. It is. Vital, in fact. But not right up front. The purpose of your personal blog, website or social media profile is to allow your prospects to get to know you better. And this is the appropriate place to tell your story.

You do not want to be posting lengthy “War and Peace” style videos, two to three minutes long is plenty. Aim to cover one Q and A per video.

Your videos will serve to educate your prospects, establish you as a person of value and allow you to direct your viewer to take the next step in your marketing process.

All you are EVER trying to “sell” is the next click. Where you send people to next will depend on how you have designed your pipeline. It may be to a landing page, or yMy Blog. But, and this is also important – they should find what you tell them they will find when they get there. Make sure you transition your viewer in a smooth and logical way to the next place.

Video marketing is particularly powerful when you combine it with a PPC strategy. The idea is to build your list relatively quickly using PPC, and then communicate with your list on a regular basis via your autoresponders. In this way, you can let your list know that you have posted a video on topic “X”, provide them with the link to view the video, and invite them to comment on your post.

This will increase the views of your video. And if people have been invited to leave a comment, they will have had to watch your video through to the end. If the viewer actually leaves a comment, pat yourself on the back. This is a marketing trifecta, because Google rewards all of these elements by giving your video a higher ranking in the organic search listings.

You will not need any fancy equipment to record your video, in fact $150 will get you a snazzy Flip camera, which will do the job perfectly.

Now, just a couple of other snappy tips:

Choose a quiet location to record your video. The sound of background noise (traffic and wind in particular) is very distracting.

Outdoor locations are great, but make sure you are not squinting into the sun, or wearing sunglasses (we made the sunglasses mistake in our first videos – people like to be able to see your eyes).

If possible, make sure the viewer can see your hands – again, a trust issue.

Make sure you are confident about your subject matter before you start. Speak with authority.

Never use the words “thank you” “please” or “just” ( an excellent little tip from Andrew Cass).

E.g. “I’m just making a video to tell you about X” or “thank you for watching my video”. Sounds needy.

Near enough is NOT good enough. If you are not really happy about your video, don’t post it. Practise is the mother of mastery, so practise this skill until you are very comfortable about what you are producing. I personally think that a poor quality video does more harm than good.

Create some “interview” style videos. If you are part of a couple, have your spouse ask you the questions you want to cover. The presentation tends to be more relaxed when you work this way.

Try to avoid walking and moving around too much as you film – it can be very distracting, and detract from the material you are presenting.

So there you go, some ideas to get you going on a video marketing campaign.

Make today a great one.

Cheers,

Ian

Respectfully,

Free Leads Vs Death Online Video Marketing Dos and Donts

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

Free Leads Vs Death Online Video Marketing Dos and Donts

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

A Lesson From The Wright Brothers … How to Give Your Business Wings!

Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 11:53 am  
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by Ian Shilton

In 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright were struggling to fly the world’s first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. At the same time another man, Samuel Pierpont Langley, was also trying to build an airplane — with the assistance of an entire staff.

His assumption was that if he put a big enough engine on the airplane, he could get anything off the ground. He focused all his effort on that one project: creating a super-powerful engine for the plane.

The Wright Brothers’ approach, however, was to build a glider that would glide from a hilltop with no engine at all. They focused their energy on (finesse), balance and steering — power was almost an afterthought. Only after it worked with no power would they try to put an engine on it.

After three years of tedious experimentation the glider was working well, so they commissioned bicycle shop machinist Charlie Taylor to build them an engine. It was the smallest engine he could design — a twelve-horsepower unit that weighed 180 pounds.

Needless to say, the Wright Brothers changed the world and became famous historical figures, while few have ever heard of Mr Langley. Their approach of making the plane fly before applying high power was the superior one.

“Langley had spent most of four years building an extraordinary engine to lift their heavy flying machine. The Wrights had spent most of four years building a flying machine so artfully designed that it could be propelled into the air by a fairly ordinary internal combustion engine.” – Smithsonian Magazine, April 2003

There’s a direct analogy to your success in network marketing here. Your advertising budget is the engine. Your sales and marketing system is the glider.

An engine without a good set of wings will not work. But when you put an engine on a workable glider, you have a plane. When you feed customers to a sales and marketing system that can “fly,” you have a business.

If you have an effective sales and marketing pipeline that simply lacks customers, you have a glider; just apply a lightweight engine (read: sensible marketing budget) and it will soar. But if you have traffic that’s going to a lousy or non-existent sales and marketing pipeline, you don’t have a business. You have a money pit.

Here’s the lesson:

Money can bring you a lot of traffic, but it’s only valuable to the extent that your sales and marketing pipeline is designed to convert the traffic to leads and sales. It’s about lead conversion. You grow your business by having a quality system. So as you’re getting started, marketing methods such as Google Adwords are like a lightweight engine that you can turn on and off instantly. You can test your glider safely without crashing, without killing your momentum, without burning through a lot of money fast.

This is the lesson that network marketing casualties like Tanya and I learned the hard way. We were a lot like Langley. We focused on the engine instead of the wings. When it didn’t take off, we just poured more gas into the engine (bought expensive leads, paid for expensive newspaper ads, conventions). When none of that worked, we thought we’d put it on a rocket launcher and force it up into the air (we were going to hire a copywriter to design a system for us for $US60,000).

Thank goodness we found CCPro before we went to that stage! Think of all those companies with their “platinum leads”, their useless cookie-cutter websites, their pills & potions. Their exotically named products, their empty promises, small checks and their fast-folding downlines. 97 percent of distributors make a beautiful arc, smash into the ground, and explode in a ball of flames.

And you know what’s interesting? Some never see the crash coming. Some never trace the arc and wonder why they’re not gaining altitude.

Our friends in network marketing, great people, hard workers, are quietly digging themselves into a deeper hole as their company and its heavy hitters feed off their labor and dreams.

Laughing all the way to the bank.

While we continue to wonder how it is that a company can present as “an opportunity” something in which at least 97 percent of people will spend more than they earn. Not to mention the toll it takes on their self esteem, energy and lifestyle.

And the companies seem genuinely surprised when people claimthe “brick” they were sold, won’t even make it off the ground, no matter what size engine you put on it.

We on the inside, at CarbonCopyPRO, are never surprised.

What are you waiting for? Give yourself some wings.

Respectfully,

A Lesson From The Wright Brothers ... How to Give Your Business Wings!

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

A Lesson From The Wright Brothers ... How to Give Your Business Wings!

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

Would You Seriously Buy A Vehicle Without Checking Under The Hood?

Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 11:51 am  
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by Ian Shilton

Joining a network marketing company, on the basis of “it’s such a good product” (like I almost did) is the caryard equivalent of buying a van without checking under the hood. Let me explain.

Like it or not, the primary purpose of any business, network marketing companies included, is to move product.

Similarly the primary purpose of a van is … (you guessed it) to move product.

Trouble is, most companies offer a great “looking” vehicle, but on closer inspection, the home business owner finds it doesn’t have an engine capable of driving sales. You pay your money and get your van back home — loaded to the brim with product, hopes and dreams.

You put the key into the ignition, turn it clockwise and … click … nothing … It won’t go anywhere. The van you bought won’t move, let alone move product.

It’s a shell … a souffle. All hot air. The used car salesman didn’t say anything about this?

So what do most people do?

They push their van around the block a couple of times, hoping it will somehow gather momentum.

They try putting more fuel (money) into it.

But it doesn’t make any difference.

In the end the clever ones realize they have to buy or build their own engine (and then cross their fingers that it works with their particular vehicle).

Meanwhile, the company puts on “rah rah” training sessions and meetings all about their “products” and their “success stories”.

Of course, they rarely mention anything useful about driving sales.

This is what you really need to know.

The core problem here is this. When looking for an opportunity, most people only focus on the product or service they will be selling. This is natural and understandable (the companies bank on that). But it is a HUGE mistake.

There are some incredible products out there. There’s no doubt about that.

But the product is only half the equation.

If you don’t believe me try ordering a pallet of any product in the world.

Have it delivered to your garage. Are you rich yet?

Of course not.

It won’t move itself. It needs to be marketed (no matter how good it is). And no amount of affirmations, no law of attraction, no “awakening” or “abundance mentality” is going to shift that sucker.

You see, the most important — and the most often overlooked — criteria for choosing a business opportunity is being able to crawl under the hood and check that it has a powerful and automated sales and marketing machine.

Without an engine to drive sales, most home business owners quickly find themselves at the side of the road — alongside the rusted out wrecks of the 97% of other independent distributors whose dreams stalled.

And you know what the real tragedy is? Those 97% of people never realise what went wrong. No-one tells them you need an engine to drive a home business. They blame themselves for not “pushing the van” hard enough. “Maybe if I’d done another lap of the block, another meeting, bought more leads, listened to more training calls?”

They never realize that the bright and shiny “shell on wheels” they were sold was never going to get out of first gear.

And that it wasn’t their fault.

Meanwhile the companies and their “heavy hitters” ignore the wreckage — somehow managing to put it to the back of their minds, as they welcome a new round of eager members ready and willing to test drive a shiny new van.

Respectfully,

Would You Seriously Buy A Vehicle Without Checking Under The Hood?

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

Would You Seriously Buy A Vehicle Without Checking Under The Hood?

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

When search engines attack…

Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 11:25 am  
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I want to share with you today, a story that is all about love, hatred and betrayal. It is an inspiring and gripping tale that will leave you wondering what the next chapter will bring. You can rest assured that there will be no end to this saga.

At it’s core, this is a classic story line. You know it very well, I’m sure. It is the quintessetional “boy meets search engine” tale. For those of you who are unaware, it goes something like this: Boy meets search engine, boy becomes besotted by the power and unparalled reach of the search engine, search engine kicks boy to the curb (for no apparent reason), boy’s account is suspended and his once thriving business is shut down overnight.

What I have just described, is the most recent round of ‘slaps’ for Adwords advertisers. For the purposes of this story, we’ll refer to the boy as “Cam” and the search engine as “Google” (this is actually based on a true story When search engines attack... .

From the very start, we could see the unbelievable power of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to our landing pages. It is fast, targetted and when done well, yields an extremely high ROI. We knew that the top earners rely almost exclusively on PPC to generate the number of leads necessary to build a profitable business in this industry. So from day one, Cam immersed himself in learning PPC. After a couple of months of full throttle study, he unleashed our campaign, and within four months, we had been recognized with a master marketing award by CCPro. It was a giddy ride. Cam loved the science and precision of PPC. We could see immediately which of our campaigns were working, and which weren’t. Our campaigns delivered us highly qualified leads within hours of turning them on, almost more than we could handle in fact.

But then the rules of engagement changed. Google, partly at the behest of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) went on the rampage in the home based business industry. Any Adwords campaigns that drove traffic to landing pages which were replicated, or obvious “biz opp” pages, were shut down. Use of trademarked company names in Adwords campaigns, such as Liberty League International, Lifepath or Global Resorts Network, also led to the shut down of the campaign.

Now, in some cases, accounts were ‘slapped’, and advertisers received a warning. In other cases, accounts were suspended (definitely more serious). Worse, some advertisers were advised in writing, that Google would not accept any advertising from them ever again.

Obviously, this is pretty devastating, but when we consider what has happened in the context of why it has happened, it is actually not as grim as you might imagine.

Having spent a lot of time listening to people such as Perry Marshall, Dr Glenn Livingston, Frank Kern and Cherie Yvette (as well as gleaning information from Google itself), it has become apparent that a couple of forces are at work here. Firstly, the FTC is cracking down on the home based business industry in a big way.

It would seem that there is a strong move to clean up the “get rich quick” marketers who extract a lot of money from people who are chasing a dream, and are generally not well suited to work this type of business (these same marketers give this industry a very bad name). This is a very good thing. For those of us conducting our businesses online with integrity and professionalism, this will narrow the pack considerably. It will also protect consumers to a greater degree than ever before.

Google enjoys market share online (a staggering 83.5% amongst a field of thousands of search engines), and the reason why, is because it consistently delivers value to searchers in the form of relevant, current and unique information on each and every search. So you can understand why Google might be inclined to crack down on replicated websites.

This is where a solid understanding of marketing principles is going to be absolutely critical to your success online. You will need to know how to research what your niche is searching for, and how to deliver that information to them in a professional manner. And the principles that underpin the way the search engines function are not likely to change in dramatically in any way, other than to continue to tighten up to protect searchers/consumers when they are online looking for products, services, businesses and information.

You have now joined the ‘Information Marketing’ industry. You will need to learn how to research and present high quality relevant information online, and in doing so, position yourself as a person of value and a leader.

So, in the final wash up, the ending is not necessarily the disaster it first appeared to be. Increase your value to the world, present your business in an honest and professional way, and stay abreast of search engine requirements (by tapping into as much training in the CCPro back office as you can), and you should be well positioned to enjoy a happy ending.

Make today a great one.

Cheers,

Respectfully,

When search engines attack...

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

When search engines attack...

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

Landing Page versus Branding Page. This is sooo important.

Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 11:23 am  
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This week the guys at mystoryhub let us know about a new service that is detailed here … http://myccmarketing.com/services/mystoryhub.php

A quick word of advice/clarification … I think (pls correct me if I’m wrong as I wasn’t on the call), I think this is a service offering to set up a hub site. Now this is fine, if you want someone to set up a good looking personally branded website.

But (and this is a big “but”) if you’re after a Google Adwords-friendly landing page to beat Google slaps, I don’t know if this is the answer. You’ll have to clarify it with the guys at MyStory Hub.

My big concern, when I checked out the http://myccmarketing.com/services/mystoryhub.php

offer is that it didn’t mention that they can or will design any “landing pages” for us.

Now, here, everyone needs to understand there is a huge difference between a landing page (squeeze page, capture page, opt-in page) and a “branded personal website or blog”.

The examples at http://myccmarketing.com/services/mystoryhub.php are “branded personal websites/blogs”. Tanya and my branded personal website is http://cameronandtanya.com. On the other hand, an example of one of our Landing pages is http://IanShiltonMarketing.com. Huge difference in form and function.

A landing page is set up with the sole purpose of capturing a lead’s name and email address (and possibly phone number). You can have dozens of these doing their job all over the internet.

A branding page (personal website) on the other hand serves a totally different purpose (in terms of our sales process). This is where people go — after they have become a lead. You direct them there, once you have established contact with them to get to …

* know you

* like you

* build rapport with you

* and trust you.

It’s like inviting people to your Home, after you made initial contact with them in a business sense (after they’ve been to your landing page).

So, your prospects will generally (99% of the time) become a lead from your landing page, not from your branded website/mystory hub/Wordpress blog.

It can be confusing. But it is dangerous (if that’s the right word) to imagine that you can have a personal branding page that ALSO functions as a landing page (lead capture page). The two have to be considered as serving two completely separate functions. One capture, the other rapport.

I would have liked to see the mystoryhub offer include a Google Adwords-friendly landing page design, with the form and everything. You’ll want to check this out with them.

Yes, you can certainly include a landing page within your personal website. But the landing page’s purpose and navigation should be isolated from the rest of the site. Otherwise people will get there, get distracted and start wandering around, instead of focussing and giving you their name and email address in return for the promise of “what’s on the other side”. You see, if there is no “other side” because the other side is already conveniently laid-out for them in your navigation bar, then there will be no reason for them to provide their name and address.

So I’d be asking the guys at mystoryhub if they can incorporate a Google Adwords-friendly landing page for you.

You will want them to basically copy the general wording and layout from one of the landing pages from the back office. But change the design and change the names of the graphics and maybe include a pic of yourself and a sentence to introduce you (to make it Google Adwords-friendly). You will want them to bring across a “form” (the bit where the person fills in their name and email address) and they will need to link that back to aWeber and then back in to CCPro back office for you so you can track your leads.

I’ve just been through this today. Quite involved (sheesh). Good luck.

At the end of the day when approaching the thought of planning a landing page that’s not hosted by CCPro don’t be thinking you can incorporate one with, for instance, a personal blog site Home Page for instance. I just don’t think it will work. Too distracting. A traditional welcome page with a “For More Information” Form, is not a Lead Capture page, not an effective one anyway.

Yes, it is still a good idea to have a lead capture form on your Home Page and wherever else you might want one, but it’s not going to get many leads for you.

Of course there’s always an exception. Michael Forces blog (see picture below) at http://securebusinessmodel.com is the exception in this case. Michael has designed this whole site like a personal blog site.

But it’s not a “blog site that acts as a landing page”.

It is, rather, a landing page that looks like a blog site. Or, to be more accurate, a series of landing pages that, together, look like a blog site. Very cool. You go from one page to the next and unwittingly you are being confronted by one “landing page” after another. Ingenious. Each page makes you want to join Michael to see what’s on the other side. He gives a lot of info, but he’s careful about what he doesn’t tell so that there is still the offer of something incredible “on the other side”. Every page has an opt-in Form. You have to fill in the form to see a “Private Business Overview”. Every page has pics of Michael and Dalila enjoying the lifestyle made possible by “whatever it is on the other side”. Every page has great headlines. Every page follows a similar rythm and feel.

I hope this makes sense. Please understand you don’t have to worry about Google Adwords-Friendly landing pages unless you are doing Google Adwords advertising to get your leads.

Cheers,

Respectfully,

Landing Page versus Branding Page. This is sooo important.

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

Landing Page versus Branding Page. This is sooo important.

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

Some ramblings about insanity…

Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 11:17 am  
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I want to share with you the experience I had with a consultant of ours who dropped out of the business a couple of months ago. He was a guy who got started in the business all fired up with sky high hopes, dreams of travel, luxury cars, and a life of complete financial freedom and independence (can you relate so far?).

A very likable man, who had experienced a modest degree of financial success in his previous business. He had spent a marathon 30 years in the construction industry, and had worked so hard physically, that it had ultimately taken a severe toll on his body. He looked to the Internet (as many people do) as a means of building another business, without working himself into an early grave.

He had never had any experience in sales, marketing, or working online. A complete infant, in that regard. But he did have time to learn, and the money to set himself up well, and position at a high level. He proclaimed himself to be 100% teachable, and someone who never gives up. I have heard these words often.

So he threw himself into the set up and marketing, absolutely convinced that he was going to make it big in record time. I admired his passion and commitment, but from early on, his expectations concerned me.

He started marketing, but had not completed his set up properly. When this was pointed out to him, he literally threw together an “About Me” page, which contained a very poor quality photo, and a “My Story” that was 95% business pitch. I suggested to him that he slow down, and take the time to do this well. After all, in business, it is vital that we put our best foot forward because first impressions are critical.

His response was “but that IS me”. He would not change what he had done.

Next, he posted dozens and dozens of free classified ads. His results staggered me. He had 194 visits to his landing page in 3 days. But not a single lead. He called me up, and complained that classified ads don’t work. You can see, from the results he got, that they do work (and he had obviously written some excellent ads, to generate that response). But when the visitors got to his landing page, what did they find? A blurry photo of a guy dressed in fishing clothes, lounging in a deck chair, beer in hand, in front of a faded wooden fence, with a blatant “join my business” style sales pitch to go with it.

I spoke to him about the importance of transitioning searchers from your advertising material to your landing page, so that you are delivering the information they are looking for. And then I taught him how to interpret the feedback you get from the market. For example, if you write an ad that sends 194 people to your landing page in 3 days, it is correct to assume that it was a compelling ad, right? The crack opened up when they hit the landing page, and saw the poor quality, unprofessional customization.

I was starting to feel really frustrated. He simply WOULD NOT take on any of the suggestions I made. And he was getting frustrated as well. He was working hard to set things in motion, and he did not generate a single lead from his efforts.

I was starting to wonder what he would throw at me next. And it was a doozy. He engaged the services of the SEOPROS to optimize his landing pages. This, despite the fact that CCPro had posted warnings to members that they were scammers.

I explained this to him, and he said that they had been really nice to him on the phone, and he was going ahead with it. Nothing I could say would convince him otherwise.

A week or so later, he got back to me again, and complained that the landing pages don’t work. His pages had been “optimized” for page one ranking in organic search, but again, lots of visits, and not a single lead. I took a deep breath (I am a patient person, but we all have our limits Some ramblings about insanity... and checked out his page. It had been butchered. It was certainly “optimized” but it reeked of scam. Buried on the landing pages were things like the day’s weather forecast for Chicago, sports results for ice hockey in Canada, and political news stories from Washington (consider that his keywords were “CEO level income potential Sydney). Okaay.

I walked him through this, and he vowed to get back to SEOPROS and demand they correct it. Naturally, their response was that all they guaranteed was page one ranking, and they had delivered. Case closed. So now he is another $5,000USD down. And not one single lead.

After this debacle, he emailed me to say he was quitting. He had stuck at it for less that four months.

When we join this business, we fill in an application form, where we are given the opportunity to explore whether we are suitable to do this business. The questions we fill out, relate to our level of determination, and our teachability. Everyone (that I have read), without exception, professes to be 110% determined, committed, teachable and focussed. Unfortunately, the reality is that few people actually possess these qualities, and don’t understand the importance of developing them.

We all start out with ideas in our mind about how we are going to do our business, and we become emotionally “attached” to our plans. Few people like to change their minds, because on some level, they feel that it is an admission that their previously held beliefs are somehow “wrong”. And let’s face it, no-one likes to be wrong.

Understand that part of the learning curve requires you to stretch yourself and process new ideas. And learning also requires change. Most people are uncomfortable with change, because by nature, change IS uncomfortable. I’m sure you can all relate to feeling overwhelmed with new information and frightened by higher expectations you suddenly have of yourself when you first got started. Being out of your comfort zone is confronting, and you can find yourself struggling, like a fish out of water. It is natural to want to reach backwards for the relative safety and familiarity of what you have always known and always done.

But in this business our goal is to move forward, so take a moment to contemplate this: Are you completely happy with the outcomes of your decisions and actions in your business to date? Are your plans delivering you the results you want? If the answer is “no”, then it may be time to really embrace new ideas and make changes. And you don’t have to start with huge bold leaps on your own. Simply following instructions and completing one new task at a time is a way of shaping change, one baby step after another.

After all, as Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying “The definition of insanity is continuing a behavior with the belief it will result in a different outcome”.

If you want things to change, you must change. You beliefs, your behaviors and your plans. Embrace the discomfort in the short term, and enjoy the journey as you see how you ultimately determine your own script.

Make today a great one.

Cheers,

Respectfully,

Some ramblings about insanity...

Ian Shilton, Duke Street, Myrtleford, Victoria Australia 3737.
Email Me Here: ianshiltonpromarketing@gmail.com
Meet Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/AboutMe
Join Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/Welcome
Ask Me Here: http://IanShiltonMarketing.com/FAQ

NOW … If you are serious about creating a real, substantial, wealth building income for yourself, CLICK HERE. My colleague Jay Kubassek has an important message for you.

Some ramblings about insanity...

Click here … to see Jay’s inspiring message.

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