So Have You Put any of My Advice to the Test yet?

Greetings from a blustery September day in NJ! Well that was a FAST summer! I got the kids to school last week and well now looking at my pool saying...oh joy...have to close it now :-( I am wondering of all of you that have read this blog and have followed my gibberish since June, did you get anything out of all this? Have you tried to implement what I wrote all summer (well ok I skipped July) and have you noticed a difference? You see the other key to all this social networking stuff is to also be yourself but always convey a sense of leadership. In other words, I see alot of people out there that in one breath they say "I am brand new in internet marketing but I have stumbled across this GREAT new business and I would like you to join my wonderful team!" Now, let's look at that sentence above for a moment. You know what that sentence screams to me?? "I haven't a clue what I am doing and I was led like a sheep into this business and fed this script and they told me I would get hundreds of signups" Did you see that too? Why, oh why on this earth would you tell someone in an AD that you are new to internet marketing...then say I found this great new business and please join my wonderful team..??! Do you really think anyone would want to sign up or join a business WITH you if they are looking for someone's HELP? Do you think they would want a new person in internet marketing to help them? NO they want a leader, someone that has some experience...or at least conveys those qualities! Here is what a novice internet marketer might want to say instead... "My xyz business has not only generated income for my family and I but also our team has helped many people understand how to market successfully on the internet. Come take a look and I am here to help if you have any questions." That's a bit more palatable to someone that is looking for not only a business on the internet but also they are looking at the person that is inviting them to this new venture and want some support. It did not say that they were new on the business, it spoke about how they were generating income and are working with a team that basically can help them too. That's an inviting statement. Better make sure you have that team in place however and you are not being misleading. Then everything I just spoke about WILL blow up in your face! I hope that was helpful to you...it popped into my head a few moments ago and I had to come in and post it. Have a good one. - Laura

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Lesson 4: Instilling Confidence in Yourself

OK! I have taken the month of July and part of August here to be with my kids who are growing so much like weeds I do not know where the time goes! So now on to: Lesson 4. Instilling Confidence in Yourself Let's face it folks....we all do better when we feel confident about what it IS we are doing. When you start something new you feel like a baby learning to stand or walk...uneasy on our feet, worried we will fall and not know how to get back up, or worried the fall will hurt. The fall could hurt. That's what makes you stronger. The steps to success are that of baby steps sometimes, not a mad dash to the finish line grabbing anyone and anything you find along the way but norturing your craft, learning. studying, making mistakes, taking chances, it's ALL part of the process! Once you learn from the mistakes you now can help others to not make the same mistakes as you OR you can help them if they are struggling financially to maybe find alternative ways to get the word out about their business...Be a leader....when you start THINKING you are a leader you will become one! It's really really true! Took me a long time to admit it! I thought I was just a pushy Italian red head from NJ! NO... DUH I was a leader but didn't really think so at first. Guess what? I think so now! You will TOO!! Do not ever give up! ------------------------------------------------- My brain is going in another direction now I am running with it... I get emails, hundreds actually, a day, and most of it is spam. You know good old fashioned spam emails that tell me how to get 10,000 in less than 30 days. Well I have news for them I could get $10,000 in approx. 30 minutes but then again I would probably land in jail....but I would have just robbed a bank. Those types of emails crack me up THEY should be in jail for the hype and the false misleading dreams they instill on so many. They are hunters looking for the starving and the hungry so they can feed them morsels and actually never give them a feast. In fact most take the morsels away and leave that person more hungry than they were before only this time discouraged and feeling stupid. OK I am rambling but I think you get the point I am trying to make here. There is NO GET RICH QUICK BUSINESSES! I am almost positive I have said that in one of the other lessons. If I did well I am saying it AGAIN! :-) There ARE great businesses out there, however, that with the proper support and the proper tools to help you succeed you will be half way there. The REST is all up to YOU... WORK! Can you do this? Of course you can! WILL you do this? Thats your choice. What IS it that you are doing? Again that's up to you! Find your niche. Your comfort zone.... your mentor.... your friend. Need one? I'm free for dinner tonight. ;-) Make your dreams a reality...that's not a crock...just believe in yourself and your dreams will come true. Hey mine did....now I am working on my husband's dreams... You know what I am working on now? Getting over being nervous giving presentations. Yeah ME...who was an extra in movies years ago... who walked the catwalk on runways in my teens and early twenties in NYC....who loves to sing for large crowds and did so in a hometown band...ME who USED to have to talk to boardrooms full of suits in business meetings for years and years! Ask me NOW to get on a podium talking in front of a live audience or in a webinar..I get all nervous and think I sound like a complete moron. Hey we are human..I am working on my jitters and I WILL get over my fear...will YOU? Enjoy the rest of August...I'll be back!

Lesson 3: Time Management

Hello and welcome to Lesson 3 of Social Network Marketing! Lesson 3 I am going to discuss Time Management. This is a big issue for most people and I was included in this for a long time. It's one of the HARDEST things to train yourself to take care of because most people are not used to working for themselves and get a bit relaxed when they are their own boss for no one is going to fire them...right? RIGHT. So you have your business picked out, you have a strategy now you have to implement all this. When? How? When: Let's deal with when first. When do you possibly have time to work on a home based business if you have a full time job? Sit down and look at your daily schedule and routine. Actually physically sit down and write down what you do in all 24 hours of the day........go on.........get the paper & pen..........I'll wait. Split the day up into 4 sections: Morning: Afternoon: Evening: Sleep: Fill this in with 7 hours first. No buts, you need at least 7 hours so just do it. If you are getting more, get up earlier, if you are getting too little, fix that we need you healthy. In each section start adding the times by hours, for example if you wake up at 7:00am start Morning section with 7:00am and fill it out like this: 7:00am: Wake up get ready for work. 8:00am: Eat breakfast, out the door by 8:30. 9:00am: Arrive at work. 10:00am:Take a 15 min break. 11:00am: Check emails when the boss isn't looking ;-) Afternoon: 12:00pm Lunch 1:00pm Back to Work 2:00pm etc. etc. etc. You catch my drift. Now the evening time, if your daytime is pretty routine, evening is where things can get crazed. You are now home from work, either you have to cook dinner or you are expected to eat the dinner someone just cooked for you, play with the kids or the dog or cat or whatever, pay bills, talk to relatives or friends on the phone, watch that special tv show on at 9:00pm whoops toilet is clogged oh geez gotta go fix that etc. Really focus and try write down everything you do throughout the day, yes it will be hard for some people everyday is a different thing however, this is showing you where you may or may not have time to fit in working your home based business or internet business. Yes you may have to sacrifice a show or two on tv but I had to also so don't feel bad. As a matter of fact I double up somedays so I CAN watch my favorite TV show now :-) In the beginning try to give your business an honest hour everyday for at least 5 days in a row or at least 5 days total in a 7 day week, whether it's Mon., Tues., Thurs., Sat., & Sun., or maybe you notice there is just NO WAY you can get to your business during the week but you could devote 5 hours a day on the weekend here and there. Oh remember, this doesn't mean sit in front of your computer non stop and don't eat or take a break or don't even THINK about going to the bathroom, I mean give it maybe 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, maybe try that 3 times a day each day, that's an hour and a half right there. Sometimes when you write out your schedule you see either you just have way too much on your plate and you may have to scale some of that back if possible, or you may see in print that you actually do have some spare time to fit in your new business. Also, when you do figure out when you can work on your business, please write down WHAT you are going to do for your business. In other words, if you had a chance during the day to check your emails great! You saved some time for yourself during "business hours". Perhaps you have to make some phone calls, or market your business, place your advertising ads, etc. etc. Make a schedule of what you are going to do each day so each day you actually get something done! Self discipline is a very hard thing to accomplish for some people but with a little effort, and a little organization you will be so much more productive and not feel like you are wasting your time when you actually have some to spare! Now go get organized!!! See you in Lesson 4 ;-)

Social Network Marketing: Lesson 2: Finding Your Niche

Hello! It's been about 5 days since I posted Lesson 1 on social network marketing. Hopefully those that read it got something out of it and understand now that marketing socially is not so much about the business you are in or are trying to "sell" it's about YOU as a person.

"People join people, not businesses."

I have been in home based businesses since 1995 and I can tell you that MOST of them were not what the "hype" cracked them up to be.

I have always been a very outgoing creature, since I was a little girl and although marketing DOES have ALOT to do with YOU as a person it does NOT always mean that people will always join your opportunity just because you followed the rules and learned from Lesson 1 and did everything I mentioned. That is unrealistic.

Let's explore why.

In Lesson 2 I am going to talk about finding your "niche".

Finding that business that you are interested in generating an income with. This in itself can be WAY harder than learning how to promote successfully in the social networking realm.

Why?

Well, for instance, first you have to choose what type of business you may be interested in promoting. Do you want to own your own franchise? Do you want a physical retail store of some sort? If so, have you done your due diligence to find out what the start up costs for something like that may run?

Let's back up a minute.

Do you have a lot of capitol to start up a physical small business or retail type store? Remember, office space and or retail space would be required. Will you own a building or will you lease space? Don't forget about product inventory and overhead. This is just the beginning of the things you will need to look into before you jump into your own business and can run in excess of 6 figures for start up.

Most people do not have the financial ways and means especially in this economy to be jumping in with both feet starting up their own physical store etc. but that doesn't mean you will not be able to make money having your own business, far from it.

After my disasters trying to find the right "business" for me it only took about 9 years to figure out I was doing it all wrong!

Another reason why I started this blog, to let you know if you are reading this and you have failed online or with home based businesses before it's OK we all have, took our shots, learned as we grew, and now I am here trying to educate those that may have not had the hard knocks yet, helping them to perhaps identify the businesses that may work to the businesses that don't work or probably won't.

What was wrong for me may not necessarily be wrong for you I might add. I am just giving you my personal opinions and my personal stories. Only you know what it best for you, I'm just here to give you some advice, take it or leave it.

I was very focused in those 9 years on product based businesses.

You may have heard of this before. Buy a certain amount of product monthly, get a small commission off what you buy, refer your friends and family, tell them to do the same and soon your products will pay for themselves and you will have a hefty income in a short amount of time. NOT exactly true. I cannot tell you how embarrassed and foolish I felt when I followed that old school way and because I was such a newbie in all this independent business owner stuff and not to mention was taught wrong in my approach, I looked like a fool in front of my family and friends although some did purchase products and even though I left a couple of businesses, some of my family continues to use the product, and I am not missing out on any major commission just telling you the product was good enough to keep customers happy, just not good enough for me to make a living with and perhaps my methods were so bad back then I could have done better. Don't know and don't really care now.

I actually bought an easel with marker and sat in people's living rooms showing people the great and powerful plan, oh gosh I shudder thinking about those days. Flying to live conferences, weekly meetings, gas driving to people's homes holy cow what a disaster BUT I thought I was doing the "right" thing back then. Oh how times have changed.

That was then this is now. Back to you. You need to focus on what you want to do. Remember you are your own boss now. No one is going to be watching you, only you...well maybe your spouse or significant other too but you will have to discipline yourself to make something happen. When you stop, so does the business, at least in the early days. Now you will hear people claim "Put your business on autopilot and never have to work again". That's a bunch of baloney in my book. Not going to happen. That is a "guru" telling you to get my next best "thing" in the hopes we will get your name and email address so he has you permanently in his "list" of other crap to sell you. Residual income however is a beautiful thing, if you build your team correctly and are actually a leader for them and teach them how to lead as well.

And yes I did say crap, but they are correct in one thing. You do need a list.

I just prefer to grow my "list" knowing I gave my supporters and team members, down line, whatever you want to call it, content and help and there is an actual reason why I have a list. Not because I spend $10,000 to get a massive list of names and numbers of people that are so tired of hearing from salesmen they would shoot me if they had the chance. No, not my style. I have a list because those people need me, want to be my friend and usually want to work with me in the end.

So you are thinking now hmm Laura I have no clue what is my "niche" and have absolutely no idea where to start.

Well I can help you there if you wish. Only at the moment telling you that I turn my head to product based businesses (i.e. vitamins, health aides, cellular phones, online power selling, grocery items, online stores, etc.)

Why? It's not my "niche" I feel there are way too many of them out there, way too hard to "sell" and way too much a waste of my time. Plain and simple but again one of those type businesses may be your passion, it is just not mine.

I personally am involved with businesses that service people. For instance, a site that may be a social site that pays to refer people into it. Where those people can join and start promoting their businesses to other members, etc.

It is a win win in my book for you are helping business people help themselves while if they are interested in making money with their new "tool" I can teach them how. That's just one example of what I do. I have a few but this is about you not me.

Once you find your interest, research and find a company that attracts you.

If they have a compensation plan, get a hold of it, ask questions, try to understand it as best you can and see how long they have been around or at least read their TOS (Terms of Service) and their Legal disclaimers. If you cannot find either on their website leave. Just trust me, leave.

If you are afraid of the word MLM, don't be. Not all are scams just watch the payout. For instance, someone tells you they have this great business $10.00 a month to join and you get a $1.00 per sign up. that equates to only 10% commission per person. You would need to get 100 people in your business to see $100 a month...ummm not great and a lot of effort needs to be put into a business to get quality results. Some MLM's are quite lucrative, depends again on what it is. If it doesn't have some sort of product

that is attached to it, it's probably useless though and borderline ponzi or pyramid, but that's another topic in another blog post. :)

THIS is VERY important....when you get into a business you probably want to get to know your sponsor a little first before jumping into anything. I have done this tons of times! I would get all excited about a business opportunity I thought looked great, jumped into the opportunity without even blinking an eye, had no CLUE who was sponsoring me in then I got there and I had no support. No team, nobody but the big corporation that I signed up with and they were hard to get a hold of.

Try to have some sort of relationship with the person you team up with BEFORE you sign up, why? Well first of all you want to work with a person you are comfortable with, and well you are interviewing them actually.

If you call them or email them and you say you are interested in learning more about their business and you do not hear from them they probably aren't working their business. Now I give people an entire week to reply to me only because people do go on vacation and sometimes life happens so I give the benefit of the doubt but if I don't hear from someone after a week I am gone!

If your leader, sponsor, team support upline, whatever you want to call them are non existent, that's going to be a problem. Always hook yourself up with someone or a group of persons that will help you build your business and grow.

Lastly and probably most important. Have a budget. Don't think suddenly because you want to build a business online you won't need any money for that is very unrealistic. Spending your time joining the "join this for free" and you will make thousands a month is a marketing PLOY to get your name and email address, contact info. to get you IN and to get you to see their system and then fork up the real amount of money the business will cost.

I like being up front with people. If they want info. on my businesses, I tell them what I have to offer, how and who you can market the business to, what it costs, if it fits in to their budget and let THEM make up their mind.

Look for these traits in people, they will lead you down the right path.

Not to mention the easiest way to lead is to lead by example. Follow the ways of others that are successful and they will lead you in turn to greatness.

Anyone that is selfish and pressures you into any business venture does not have your true best interests in mind. Following those types of people could lead you down a very expensive and dangerous path.

That's important I am going to say that again!

ANYONE that is selfish and pressures you into ANY business venture does NOT have your true best interests in mind. Following those types of people could lead you down a very expensive and dangerous path.

Going to mention something again that I mentioned in Lesson 1.

Building a successful business is going to take WORK. If you think you can sit back and relax you are wrong. Have the drive and determination and discipline to succeed, get into a good program or business, learn by the leaders and duplicate their efforts and you will start to see results far faster than you expected. Will you be a millionaire in 6 months...oh probably not, but you will be getting closer.

Thanks for reading and much success to you!

- Lesson 3 coming soon.

Social Network Marketing: Lesson 1

Before I go into Step 1 in detail, ask yourself this question... Do I like people? If the answer is even remotely close to NO then exit this page. Why? Because the key to Social Network Marketing first and foremost is to like people and to be likeable.

So now that you are still with me after the paragraph above then great, let's proceed! Fine Laura, but what is the point to all this Social Network Marketing stuff anyway?

The answer is simple. The purpose of Social Network Marketing is to build a strong list of contacts, business partners, friends and colleagues that can take you to places you have never dreamed of before financially, emotionally and you may just learn a few things from the people you meet along the way, I know I did! Let me explain it like this, if you were at a restaurant for the very first time and when you first walked in you saw a clean, neat, organized layout, smelled delicious food and were greeted at the door by a smiling, happy, upbeat and positive hostess you would have a great first impression yes? Yes. Then you sat down and immediately your server greeted you just as the hostess did, in the same happy upbeat manner, asked you what drinks you wanted and brought those drinks back expediciously to you with no errors you would be really starting to enjoy yourself right? Right. Then after ordering the food everything came as ordered again in a timely manner, the food was amazing and your server made sure everything was great yet not coming back too often to become a nuisance, brought you your check on time and the owner popped over to your table after you were finished with your dessert to make sure you enjoyed your meal you would probably come back to that restaurant time and time again yes? Yes. Social Networking is the same thing. Only YOU are the owner, the hostess, the server and the chef.. Your business is the restaurant, you are representing your restaurant and YOU will be the reason why your customers come back time and time again. Ok you say, great analogy but what do I do first? Simple.

1. Get a professional picture taken of yourself. Pretend it's going to be a picture on your resume for the 6 figure job you want to land. Any social site you join add that great picture of yourself to it, this is your first impression, as if you were walking into an interview for the first time.

2. In a Word document write up a profile about yourself. An "About Me" page. Do not be afraid to get wordy here or to talk about your personal life. People join people not businesses. I am going to be saying this alot so you never forget it. Save that profile and make it easy on yourself to be able to copy and paste the document right into the Profile Section or the "About Me" section.

3. Start mingling. If you are using a social network like MySpace or Facebook this will not be a hard task to start. Search for people in a specific category of people you would be interested in attracting to your business. If you request their friendship in anyway please pleasant and personable.

4. Do not make your inital contact all about YOU. That's what your homepage is for. Remember? You have great profile picture and write up about yourself? Well pretend this initial contact is calling up the new job position respondin to the classfied ad. You certainly wouldn't call the company and the first thing you say is, "Hi, this is Bob Jones and I have the most amazing skills you have ever seen you wont need to interview anyone else after you meet me I am the greatest". Would you? If you've done that let me know how that's working for you. I think you would be more courteous and perhaps say "Hello, this is Bob Jones and I am calling today to inquire about the classified ad I saw in the newspaper. If that position isn't filled I would love to set up an appointment if I may so I can show you my credentials and perhaps get to know your company better."

Well it's the same thing here in the social networking arena. Only instead of asking for an interview you are asking to find out about them. It's all about THEM. "Hi there!" "How are you today?" "Wishing you a great day!" Some really easy examples of an nice non intrusive ice breaker. Send a little blurb along with your friend request and wait for them to add you. THEN you get back to them with a "Thank you for your friendship" or "Hi John, thank you for your friendship, tell me more about your business when you get a moment" Now you are showing a vested interest in THEM.

Here's a perfect example of what NOT to do in a first encounter. "Looking for a way to increase your sales? Well I just happen to have the world's greatest business in the history of internet marketing that will EXPLODE your income! Click on this link and sign up today!"

Is something terribly wrong with this picure? You bet. Not only did you sound like an advertisement, and a bad one I might add, but you didn't even have the decency to say HI! Not only will you have totally screwed up your chances of selling this person your world's greatest product since sliced bread, you have probably been deleted from that person's mind and will NEVER get the chance to redeem yourself...DONE.

Now let's just say you did contact this person in a nice and friendly manner. Let's also say you did express interest in their opportunity. Well if you are paying attention for real to them sometimes they indicate a clue that they are not happy in their current business. If you say to them after going back and forth a few times, "That's very interesting if I know anyone that is looking for that type of opportunity I will send them your way" guess what? You've just made a friend for life! If you say the above and they say, "But what about you? Wouldn't you be interested?" There is your open door #1...

Open door #1? WHAT are you talking about?!?!

Open door. They just asked you why wouldn't you be interested in MY business? You then have the "open door" to freely and openly explain to them why you are not looking for any opportunities because your business is so successful there is no reason to look elsewhere, or something along those lines. Guess what the next question is going to be? Yep....."So, what do you do?" or "Well what is it" Ahhh door number 2 just opened.

Door #2 has just opened for you to freely explain your business in detail.

Some people opt to give them a little bait at first, give them enough to make them want more, I do it and it works. Sometimes I get so carried away with myself I just tell them the whole thing. I like the one step closing, not the 2 step. One step is explain everything, answer questions, overcome objections and get the signature right then and there. The 2 step is give them everything they need to know, walk away, follow up with them in a day or so then get them to sign up. Realtors like myself know this method, as does probably every salesperson under the sun. Here's the best part, social networking requires little to no sales skill. Why? Because becoming friends is half the battle. Follow yourself up with a good business and you have a win win combination.

5. Repeat step 4 over and over. Guess what and here's the part you will hate. It's going to take some work & some time. This is Net"WORK"marketing not:

Net-OK-I-AM-GOING-TO-SIT-ON-MY-RUMP-AND-DO-NOTHING-AND-GET-PAID-FOR-IT marketing.

That's called a "Get-Rich Quick" Scheme...ever heard of that? Well they exist but they do not work because if they really did work everyone would be doing it, RIGHT?? Right.

Ok this is the end of Lesson 1.

Enjoy!