I have discovered several secrets that have revealed themselves in the process of attempting to expose my offers and develop a network (there are really no secrets, just information I choose to ignore when I’m impatient or just plain bull headed): exposure is one of the most important keys to sales, networking is a group sport, and no one is going to promote your business unless there is something in it for them…oh, and one more thing…there is no such thing as free. Everybody seems to already know this common sense knowledge but few people practice it and many are paying to hear this age old knowledge. Now I’m still learning but from what I’ve seen so far there are very few opportunities on line that make any money and fewer that might help me make a living but selling these secrets has become big business. If I am going to make above average income I probably will need to put in an above average workday, for more than a few days, this is my guess. It’s not likely going to be an overnight sensation or be $5000 a month by the end of the first week. It’s already been a few years. I strongly believe it’s possible to make as much as anyone can imagine without taking advantage of someone else; providing a product or service worth the investment and delivering customer service that is priceless should build a loyal following and prosperity. Let me discuss each “secret” as I understand them thus far.
I understand that networking on line is not the same as networking with your friends and family, exactly. There seems to be a huge mistrust factor that stands between those looking for opportunities and those who have legitimate offers to make money on line. The networking community is still a community and I believe we have certain values and beliefs and a culture all our own. Still, it’s no wonder with 1000’s of sites offering to reveal the secret to success for a small and sometimes not so small fee that I might feel scammed after losing a lot of time and money and no return on my investment. I have been surfing
TrafficSwarm for over a year now and wonder at times if I should change my approach and join the many offering non-products. I have learned a lot over the last few months.
Are you wondering why anyone would advertise and surf for credits to an audience with the same intention? If not you should be. I have hope that exposure and action will result in development… is it true there is profit in all labor even if it’s not cash?
I have learned a lot from reading and viewing other sites, how they grab my attention and which sites “make me” want to find out more. Yet those others who are on the network are not likely to be interested in joining my network and most seem to be targeting marketers who have joined sites like
TrafficSwarm, promising they have the secret solution to their problem…traffic. It’s here that on line networking works like it does off line, but not exactly. Traffic exchanges are only a part of the vehicle driven by web marketers to promote their products and services. So, for the completely unknown web site, this might be the best place to start at no cost but time, my most valuable asset.
Is exposure the key to sales? I have heard it is possible that my web site will be found on a search engine if I have the right group of key words, web building knowhow, can add content to my web site and stay actively engaged in promoting my product or service; but having these skills is no guarantee that I will ever be found by someone looking for my product or service. Learning the skills I need does not have to cost me anything if I am willing to take the time and research information that is for “free” on the web, what can be found through Google Search and other marketers that are more than willing to share their experience. There is a ton of information here on how to build a web site and sites that host for “free” such as
Wix.com or Web.com I found a site that charges $10 a month and then pays me for anyone I recommend to them…every month a referral stays active, how cool is that
… the only thing better than free is getting paid…
GDI.com. I also found that Google offers to host and give you templates for a web site and a ton of other tools for $10 a year (I believe it’s in partnership with
GoDaddy.com). Promoting products from network marketing companies with ready-made web sites makes it even more difficult to be found on the internet and they seem to design their sites to be that way…maybe because it has something to do with giving one marketer an unfair advantage over those still working the friends and family list. Traffic exchanges like
TrafficSwarm might work for me, even if most of the traffic I’m getting couldn’t care less about what’s on my site… I still get exposure and I believe the universe rewards those who take action with intention as long as I allow the time it takes to develop recognition.
TrafficSwarm may be effective; time and exposure works in two directions. It’s easy to give up when I don’t see results as soon as I would like or not in the way I expected but exposure is my primary goal. Surfing for credits when I cannot afford to pay as a member any given month has not only taught me a lot about what sites interest me but has also exposed me to other opportunities and tools I did not know that I did not know about. It’s a great way to research competition and find new ideas and inspiration for my business. I may have stumbled on some really good information and training too. In the beginning I lost a lot of money with Pay-Per-Click. Google, Yahoo, and Facebook all have PPC targeted advertising that probably would work great if I had a lot of money to spend. I blew through thousands of dollars without seeing a single sale result from my investment. Exposure here might be effective if I knew my target market very well but it’s really expensive. As Jeff Olsen says in the introduction of The Slight Edge CD; learned knowledge (reading books, training sessions, research and CD’s) needs to be coupled with activity knowledge (actually doing the work). I believe the more I expose my offers the better chance I have in reaching the right person at the right time. Consider how many times you have walked by the neighborhood store on the corner of “so-in-so and so-in-so” without taking notice. As long as it doesn’t close-down it becomes a fixture in your subconscious, a land mark. I think of advertising the same way; keeping my expenses as
low as possible so I can keep my presence as
long as possible, letting exposure and time develop success. It reminds me a lot like the prints I developed in my darkroom back in high school. I’m learning as I go and I’m always looking for good teachers that are successful marketers on line. I’m not trying to teach here just sharing , I’m reflecting on my experience because I think it’s important to act on what I’ve been studying the last two years and reassess my learned knowledge with what I’ve experienced by activity. The more I expose my product or service the more opportunities open up; this is why exposure is an important key to sales.
Networking is a group sport. Simple logic…there is no such thing as a one man team. I know now that it’s hard to listen to someone tell you how to run your business but I have failed so many times in the past that I have learned that listening to a mentor, getting input, reflection, responding and change happen best in a dynamic environment with others. Having people you respect critique your work and offer constructive criticism helps develop a more targeted, clean and effective approach. This also means that those who join you in your quest, becoming part of your network are team members…not your down-line. Terminology is really important here to me. If I refer to those who join me as my down-line I imply they are always beneath me, it should always be possible that some of my team members will do a better job than me, because they work harder or just plain smarter than me and therefor MAKE MORE THAN ME. Each member of the team has something to offer the team as a whole. Communicating with each other is essential. On line this can be made amazingly simple. Emails give you an opportunity to think through your questions and time to consider the answers. Blogs offer the platform to explain any topic, both questions and answers, at length. Today with Skype any number of members can talk or chat in real time, sharing ideas and even planning small get-togethers’. Meeting, forums and briefings can all be done on line. Facebook pages can be centered on team experiences and private sites can be made for teams within the team to work on group projects. Then, when you get together for an outing, you have synergy, purpose, direction and a shared vision. Building a team takes time. I want my team to be small, no more than six members. Larger groups become hard to manage and helping each member build their own team is easier and more manageable if the number is small. Thinking of others as my “down-line” raises me above everyone else and it looks like a corporate pyramid with only one person at the top…who needs that? This is why networking is a group sport and not a “rock star” celebration. Network marketing is doing the little things that need to be done every day, the boring chores that need to be done even when we don’t see immediate results. It is easier to do them together as a group. Costs can be shared, resources can be shared, and the burden of boredom can be overcome by the entire team.
The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen explains how we are successful by doing the “mundane”. This is really important to me because I’m reminded that I have to keep up on the daily task of marketing long before I see results. A mentor is not always a team member. Finding someone that has what I want or has achieved success is essential, why should I listen to someone that has not. Everyone needs a point of reference to stay on course, and a ship with a crew is better equipped to navigate the rough sea than a one man boat…I just made that up but it sounds good. Most things I do will not make a million dollars but over time the things I do will have positive results well over a million. If I really want to develop a network that will make you rich I think you need to make rich relationships. Each network relationship multiplies my wealth because each person that understands how networking works benefits even if they are not on my team. All of my relationships enrich my life and the other person in some way, or the relationship does not last long. So, for me it seems obvious that networking is a group sport.
Hiring marketers can be expensive and if I want to do this for a living it makes as much sense as a painter hiring a painter to paint for him. No one is going to promote my business unless there is something in it for them, for a few out there friends and family don’t mind lending their support. I do not want to profit from the people whom I call friends and family, they are my primary referrals to others if the product or service I offer has any value to them but it’s not likely that they will be in my target market. I think most people that shop at Wal-Mart could care less how much richer they make the family that owns the company. I sell products to the general public, a much larger market than friends and family who are not reliable connections to the majority population and may have no connection to my target market; if my products and services are on line I need a wider marketing strategy and advertising is costing me either time or money. I thought it would be effective to advertise off line, like posters and bulletin boards so local people could see what they might find interesting by going to my web site so my friends and family don’t have to join my business or promote my product or service. On the other hand they know what I do and know where to send someone they know for anything I have to offer. Having very little money to spare for my advertising budget led me to traffic exchanges and off line guerrilla advertising. Having satisfied customers is my first goal, if my friends and family are not interested in what I have to offer than reaching my target market is going to take more time and it will be more difficult for me to relate to. From a social standpoint it’s not likely I’ll even know how to reach them since I don’t travel in their circles. Construction workers may find it difficult to sell makeup. Marketing takes on a different face when it reaches out to the general public looking for interested patrons. Building a customer base takes time because trust is not developed over night. The amount of time it takes to build recognition in any market is way too great for me to afford the financial expense of hiring someone else to build the reputation and brand I need.
I hope to learn a lot through working with the
Traffic Broker program on
TrafficSwarm. They have a complete course on how to market products by finding websites to place banner ads. What’s great is that they are teaching me how to find sites that have traffic to promote companies that can afford an advertising budget.
TrafficBrokers teaches that “"affiliate marketing" is generally considered to be the best way for the average person to start making real money online. This is where you earn commissions for promoting other peoples' stuff” and this sounds like a great place to start. Learning how to promote advertising for other business will help develop skills and understanding on how to develop connections for my own products outside my immediate marketing arena. I have already learned a great deal with the lessons included with the
TrafficBroker site. No one will promote my business for free and I can get paid for promoting someone else while I learn the ropes.
Lastly, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Developing the skill set to become a good marketer has cost me either time or money. I have spent several thousand dollars on formal education and countless hours in class and on line. Even the “free” information on line has taken many hours of research, practice and development. I have paid much in time and money making mistakes and trying to develop my own niche but in all activity I have learned more about marketing. The past three years have been an investment and I have enjoyed it.
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