There is one book which seems to lay the "real deal" on the table, especially when it comes to how to evaluate an opportunity and how distributors are really paid in this industry. With all the hype that is out there, this was a fresh and unique approach. If you are ready to find out how all of this works, read on!

-It will all be done for you.
-Our system will recruit for you and your group will be built by "spillover"
-Instant downline system

The truth it, anyone who believes statements like these and joins an opportunity, most likely will not be successful. Why? Because with any business, including mlm, one must WORK at it. There is no such thing as something being handed to you on a silver platter. If one doesn't want to do the work, why even start a business?

So, in order to avoid being taken in by hype, you must learn how to carefully evaluate an opportunity. How? By following this 5 step formula.

Tip #1: Ask yourself, "Does the compensation plan work with the numbers? You see, in mlm, virtually any successful networker will tell you that most of their income comes from 2-3 people in their group. Therefore, the compensation plan needs to be set up so that you are paid well even if you don't recruit a lot of people. There should be an ample retail profit as well. Making 5-7% on a wholesale price will get you nowhere fast. Think about Wal-Mart. How long would they be in business if they only made 5-7% profit on their wholesale prices? Not long! It's the same with mlm. People must be paid well. Making 40% on the retail price would be a lot better right?

Tip #2: Ask yourself, "Can the average part-timer build and prosper"? The reality is that most of your team will be part-time people only. If they cannot get into profit quickly, have to jump through many hoops to get paid, have to worry about losing their downline if they don't recruit a certain number of people in am month, etc., you will be constantly building.

Tip #3: Does the company's pay plan work for the average recruiting numbers? In the network marketing book that I read, it stated that the average mlm industry statistics for sponsoring people is 2.7. In other words, most distributors only sponsor 3 people in their home based business career. Now, if distributors are taught only how to constantly sell and close people with no type of relationship building first, the revolving door will never stop. No one wants to worry about having to constantly re-sell and close their people every month to get them to do any work! So, make sure that pay plan works well even if a person is not a sponsor super star. Make sure your training is always built around relationship building first.

Tip #3: Ask yourself, "Does the company have a product that people will buy even with no compensation plan? Many people seem to feel that they have to fall in love with a product first and then sell it to people. In reality, it's the other way around. There needs to be a hot and hungry mob of people who rave about a product. So, you market the product to them! You don' have to absolutely love it yourself; just offer it to people who want it. Just focus on the people and the market, and choose a company with a product that everyone wants and you will be fine.

Tip #4: Before joining ANY opportunity, ask yourself, "Does the company management have experience in network marketing?" Being a CEO of a big fortune 500 company who decides to start a mlm company because he or she heard there is good money in it doesn't count. Get past the smoke, mirrors, and hype and do your research logically. All you have to do is go to Google and put in the company's owners name around quotes. Then, carefully read about the leadership. If there are many negatives and red flags, their company is one you run from.

Tip #5: Ask yourself, "Does the company have a system in place"? If so, make sure it is proven and duplicatable. A system is not making a list of friends and family and buying leads. A system is not one in which only the top 1% of the distributors can work successfully. It needs to be so simple a child could do it! It should be so simple you can teach it to anyone who joins your team and they in turn can become successful using it. So, make sure there is such a system in place.

This network marketing book presented things very clearly. The information was such that it will help anyone carefully evaluate a mlm opportunity easily. So, make sure you follow these 5 tips before making a decision. You will be glad you did!

If you are thinking like this, stop! All of us have been recommending and promoting for years and years. If we choose to stop, we will just stop our paycheck.

The problem is that many of us have been convinced that mlm is a sales business. Because of this mentality, we stop recommending and promoting.

One of the secrets to mlm success is realizing this is a mentoring and coaching business; a relationship business. Anybody can do this if they truly want to. We just teach how to pick up the paycheck.

Tip #2: Learn to generate your own leads. Many people in mlm buy leads. This is not the best way to build your business. You see, many leads lists are sold to a number of different companies, so your "hot" prospect might already have had numerous other calls from folks trying to get them in "on the deal".

When it come to how to recruit in mlm, another important point is that this isn't a duplicatable system. Believe it or not, some people out there are paying $100 per lead and spend $1500 a month on leads. Plus, they spend around $2,000 on their company's product. Now, think for a minute. How duplicatable is this for most people? $100 a lead and $2,000 a month on products? Can you see when it comes how to recruit people in MLM and how to build MLM, this is a bad strategy?

The bottom line is first, you do not need to buy leads especially when it is much easier to generate your own. Second, it is crucial you have a duplicatable system so it is not difficult for you and your downline to recruit people for your mlm business.

Tip #3: Take a careful look at how big the company's building is. This sounds weird, but it is something that should be carefully considered.

Have you ever taken the time to think about how much upkeep a huge building requires? Not only this, but also how much staff it takes to keep the operation going?

You see, when a company has a huge building with a lot of staff, the company has to pay for the lights, keep the lawn mowed, pay for electricity, maintenance people, etc., that can add up very quickly!Plus, with all that staff comes salaries, bonuses, vacation time, health benefits, short-term disability, and the like. The bottom line, it all adds up, for some, to millions a month in overhead.

You may ask who is paying for all of this? In many cases the money has to be taken from the compensation plan. Also, products prices can be high to help cover costs. Whatever the case, this is a bad scenario.

You want to always make sure you bring your people into a strong company where they will be paid well for their efforts and where products are sold to consumers at the best price. This will help them build a successful business.

So, when it comes to how to recruit people for mlm and how to build mlm, if you keep these important points in mind, you will be well on your road to success!

-Vampire network question #2: Is anyone retailing products or are they just garage qualified? Of course, everyone should continue to seek new leaders to grow and develop, but not to the point where no retailing of products occurs. There has to be a balance.

-Vampire network question #3: Where is the focus? If the focus is only on recruiting, and you are getting paid just to recruit, this is vampire networking.

-Vampire network question #4: What is the product price? Is it competitively priced? Is the product price being inflated? Remember, only a few companies manufacture products for most mlm companies. Inflated prices occur when a company's products are very high and the same product can be found with another company for much less. Plus, if you can find the product in places like Wal-mart, Costco, Safeway, on Ebay, etc., this spells trouble for distributors. Who can compete against Wal-Mart? When it comes to how to be successful in mlm, being involved with a company such as this will make success difficult.

-Vampire network question #5: What profit are people making? A profit is simply the difference between the wholesale and retail price of a product. If distributors only get 3%, 5%, 7%, etc. of the wholesale profit, they are going to need many, many people to build a good income. Many people more than likely means a couple of thousand or more. Ouch! Vampire networking!

-Vampire network question #6: How much overhead does the company have? For some, this sounds weird but it is important to consider. The less overhead, the more a company can put in a compensation plan for distributors.

-Vampire network question #7: Are bonuses paid out? Do people have to go through so many hoops that only the top 1% of people are qualified? This is especially important to consider since most people in mlm are part-timers. If almost no one ever qualifies, where does the money go? If people are looking at how to be successful in mlm, think about this very carefully.

-Vampire network question #8: Would people buy the product if there were no business opportunity associated with it? The question to always ask is if the recruiting stopped for any amount of time, would the company still be in business? If there is no true product yet lots of recruiting going on, it's an illegal pyramid scheme.

So, to answer the question how to be successful in mlm, think carefully about the above questions. If some people don't like their answers, it means they very well could be in a vampire network where success will be very difficult. Choose to be part of a company where you can build it big for your children and your children's children.

Tip #2: Make your lens easy to find. This is done by doing your keyword research first. You can also check the tag clouds within Squidoo itself. The words in larger fonts are the ones that are highly searched. After you have done your research, place your chosen keyword phrase in the title of your lens. You can also add them to your lenses tags. Make sure you find keyword phrases for all 40 tags Squidoo permits you to have per lens. This will help people find you even easier when they use search engines such as Google.

Tip #3: Proclaim yourself as an expert. You can do this in your bio section of Squidoo. Make sure you add your picture as well. Always use a professional username. It is ok to say that you are an expert. After all, each of us are experts in some area!

Tip #4: Get your readers involved. This is a great free mlm marketing tip for Squidoo. Your readers need to view you as someone they can connect with. Here are a couple of suggestions for you:

-Have controversial topics on your lens.
-Use the Guestbook module to ask provoking questions.
-Permit others to link your lens to theirs. you do this with the Plexo module. What is neat about this is that it also helps your lens rank to go up and gives your more content. It also shows that you are open to other's views.

Tip #5: Keep fresh content. When you start a lens, you will want to keep it updated with fresh content everyday. You can do this by adding modules. A good one to use is the RSS module where you put RSS feeds from your blog or others and set it to update daily, hourly, etc. The key is to keep the fresh content coming.

Tip #6: Keep your readers coming back. You will want to keep your readers constantly coming back to visit your lens. You can easily do this by having an autoresponder set up where you can notify then when you make changes. If you blog, participate in forums, comment on others blogs, etc., you can also have the URL to your lens in your signature file.

Tip #7: Use social bookmarking and pinging services. You want to create links coming back to your Squidoo lens. You can do this by using sites such as Only Wire and Social Poster to bookmark your lens. You can also use the RSS functions of sites such as Pingoat or Pingomatic as well. All of these resources will increase traffic to your lens.

As you can see, there are a number of things you can do to effectively market your mlm product, service, or opportunity with a Squidoo lens. Begin to follow these free mlm marketing tips today!

Lately, a huge number of people have been lured by the idea of making their millions on the Internet, but the sad fact is, few of them ever make a decent living, let alone a fortune, online. Why is that? Many online opportunities are promoted as being very simple, and easy enough for everyone to do. If that were truly the case, there would be a lot more online success stories today than there are!

One problem people have is too much choice. There are so many different opportunities and ideas, that they try and run with the lot, and end up falling quite heavily, simply because without focus a business is doomed to failure. Another problem is that many people really don't have any idea about running a business, and don't think about their home business as they would a real, traditional business.

If you really do want to start a work at home business, and aren't afraid to put in a lot of time and effort (especially in the beginning) there are a few important things you need to know to set you on the right path.

Firstly, watch your expenditure. An online business can be one of the least expensive businesses to run. Most people already have the basics they need to get started (a computer with an Internet connection). However, the problem comes when they actually start looking at online businesses and means of making money. Suddenly they're confronted with a million and one different products ALL of which are supposed to guarantee success.

Many people spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, very quickly when they're starting out in the world of Internet business, and soon find that most of it was money down the toilet. To avoid this, you need to work out what it is you're going to be doing online and create a plan. There are numerous ways of making money on the Internet, including: eBay and other auction sites, affiliate marketing, Adsense (and other contextual advertising), as well as marketing your own product. Once you know what it is you want to do, then find one very good resource, and stick to it, The hint here is to do a bit of research first, and get honest reviews of any product before you purchase, rather than letting a sales letter induce you to purchase another worthless product.

The next thing you need to focus on is how you're going to build your business. Most online businesses start with a website (and although there are plenty of sites that promise you don't need a website of your own, anyone who wants to make a long term living online will need a website). You then need a step-by-step plan you can follow, and you need to be able to follow it! One of the best things about working from home is also one of the most problematic, and that's the fact that you can work your own hours. Unfortunately, if you're not able to discipline yourself you may find that the hours actually spent in front of your computer aren't enough. It helps if you can work out a day to day plan of exactly what you want to accomplish each day, so that you know you're on the right track.

Finally, it's worth remembering that a work at home business, even an online one, will require a certain amount of dedication and effort before you'll be rewarded with results. It's not a matter of whipping up a quick website and waiting for the money to start flowing in, and if anyone tells you it is, odds are, they're lying! Be prepared for months (even years) of hard, consistent work, and you'll reap the rewards, but fall for too many get-rich-quick schemes and promises and you'll be back to your day job before you know it.

Marketing Mistake #2: Failing to offer a solid guarantee. With everything you do, whether it be online or offline marketing, you have to have a guarantee. Some people are hesitant to do this because they fear people will take advantage of them and drive them out of business. It's natural to think this way, but it's false. Instead, always include a money back guarantee as this will increase sales.

Marketing Mistake #3: Failing to target a market. This free mlm marketing tip you have to follow at all costs. If you are just trying to target everything and everyone in MLM, good luck! Even in MLM, you must specify who you want to target. Maybe it is people who are looking for a duplicatable system to attract prospects to their business. Maybe it is people who need more skills in how to build a downline. Whatever the case, always ask yourself before starting a marketing campaign who you are trying to reach.

Marketing Mistake #4: Failing to do keyword research. It does not matter what type of marketing you are doing online, keyword research is essential. If you fail to do keyword research to find what your target market is searching for, any type of marketing will be like shooting arrows in the dark. I would not even bother to market online if you are not going to take some time to do appropriate keyword research. This simple method will save you frustration down the road.

Marketing Mistake #5: Using an advertiser just because of their readership, listenership for radio, or viewership for TV. This free mlm marketing tips are for those who really like to get creative and think outside of the box. For example, while it is great your budget can afford these marketing methods, if you advertise from 2:00 AM-5:00 PM on a radio station that is an all-sports talk radio and you are selling a female product or service, how successful if your campaign going to be? So, once again, make sure you are targeting your audience correctly.

Marketing Mistake #6: You have no upselling. Here is a free mlm marketing tip that might step on some toes. If your mlm product or service only lets you make one sale per customer, you are going to have a very tough road ahead. You have put yourself in a position where you just have a job. You need to be able to offer your customers more than just one product or service in order to keep them coming back for more. Otherwise, where is your residual income?

Following these free mlm marketing tips can really be to your advantage. Avoid these 6 deadly marketing mistakes and instead focus on proven marketing strategies that will take your business to the next level.

MLM Leads

Lack of Quality Work at Home Information:

Every work at home make money program out there needs your effort and money for the program to work. Not a lot of money just a little can go a long way. If you know how and where to invest your money for work at home online success will be yours.

If you are not willing to work hard and wisely spend money on your work at home business to make money. Then, the odds will be stacked against your success.

This is were you get an unfair advantage in your pursuit of success. You will have to guide yourself to finding quality information, tools and tactics to become successful from working from home.

With some or absolutely no idea how to make money online you have to be diligent in your efforts to succeed.

It is our experience that you should follow the path you feel comfortable pursuing. This will enable you to be successful and happy in the pursuits of your goals.

No cost work for free business models are abundant where they can be found on the Internet and in business opportunity magazines. You may not be aware of the abundant amount of work at home free opportunities that are available on the internet. If it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

This is the reason most people fail to be successful with work at home for free business models. It's way to easy for work from home business seekers to sign up for this program and that work at home program. I know this to to be factual. Why? I was the jump head first sign up for this and that work from home program. Whatever the next hot program, I was there. I failed miserably losing more money then I was making. I became a very good time waster.

How can you lose money with free work at home opportunities you ask? Very simple. Not valuing and measuring the amount of time you are spending on these various work at home online business that you are working on. Seriously,if you really want to make money online you need to take note. This is a business you need to get paid at.

The simple act of you reading this article on work at home free opportunities is an investment in your future earnings. You should benefit from my four years of acting like a dog chasing it's tail.

Pick one free or paid opportunity and go with it. The Internet rewards goal setting and patience.

*Always have a advertising budget whether you are marketing online, offline, or doing a combination of both. Advertising is essential to your business life and growth. Stick to your budget for a year so that you will have on-going momentum. At the end of the year, evaluate how you have done and make adjustments as needed.

*Be consistent with lead generation. As a network marketing distributor, having a constant influx of interested prospects in your pipeline is necessary. It is also important to make sure that the system you use to attract prospects is duplicatable. In other words, it should be so simple that a veteran or someone just starting out can use successfully.

*Build leaders and make them successful. You want to hear from your business builders, "I'll do whatever it takes", and not "Well, I'll just try and give it a shot." The second response usually means if things don't work out for the person, they very well may quit. Leaders also make sure their distributors order products. They never complain to their upline or downline, and have their own aspirations, goals, and drams. True leaders also will run a meeting if you are away. You want to build leaders with strengths such as these on your team.

*Have a written plan. As a professional network marketing distributor, always write out your plan and how you desire to achieve your goals. Do this on a weekly basis, work it, and then review it at the end of the week. If you are not satisfied with how things turned out, make adjustments for the following week.

*Discover the marketing practice that works best for you and become really good at it. This may be article writing, blogging, creating on-line videos, e-zine advertising, etc. If you are not sure what you want to do, implement what is working for others until you find what works best for you.

Becoming a successful network marketing distributor and leader does involve following the best practices others are using with great success. Study them, implement them consistently, and watch your business experience on-going growth.

If you are familiar with Napoleon Hill's classic, "Think and Grow Rich", in the chapter entitled 'Organized Planning', he discusses thirty-one major reasons for failing.

Reason #1: Lack of a well-defined purpose in life. If you have no definite goals, not only for your network marketing business, but life in general, you will not be successful. Hill reports that 98 out of every 100 people he talked to had no well-defined purpose. Don't be one of the 98 who are wandering aimlessly in life. Spend some quiet time brainstorming what you want out of life and your business, write down your goals and aspirations, and then read them out loud every day to keep them fresh in your mind.

Reason #2: Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity. If you are the type of person who is totally indifferent to your lot in life, have no desire to get ahead, and are not willing to work for it, you will not succeed at anything.

Reason #3: Lack of self-discipline. A lack of self-control can wreak havoc in your life. You must learn to control all negative qualities, including the ones that are in you. This, of course, isn't always easy to do. If you don't have self-control and discipline, your self will conquer you!

Reason #4: Procrastination. This is one of the most common causes of failure. Every human being on the planet faces this demon, which can spoil your chance of success. Many of us float through life waiting for just the right opportunity to come. You must learn to take action. Why? This is important because many times things won't be "just right". The key is take action with whatever tools and resources you have. If you do this, you will be amazed at what a difference this can make in your home business and life.

Reason #5: Lack of persistence. Many people become professional quitters. Most of us are very good at starting, but the "quitter" category usually claims the majority. Plus, many people give up at their first defeat. You must learn to be persistent no matter what obstacles you are facing. If you are persistent, you will find that "failure" will not able to keep up!

Reason #6: Negative personality. To put it bluntly, if people avoid you because you are the king or queen of negativity, there is no hope for success. Success comes by applying power and this is obtained through cooperation of others. Negativity does not glue people together, but tears them apart.

Reason #7: Desire for "something for nothing." Any type of "get rich quick" attitude, an unwillingness to actually work at your network marketing business, or wanting others to do all the work for you will doom you to failure.

Reason #8: Lack of concentration of efforts. If you are one who jumps from opportunity to opportunity because things seem to be going too slow, or to generate as many streams of income as possible, things will not be good for you. If you constantly chase the next "get you rich quick" opportunity, you are in grave trouble. Everyone will view you as a highly unfocused person who clearly has no idea what you want. Learn to concentrate all your efforts on one definitive aim.

Reason #9: Lack of enthusiasm. People will view you as someone who is not convincing if you seem ho-hum about your opportunity. If you are not excited about what you are doing, why should others be? Remember, enthusiasm is contagious and people will want to be around you if you have this spirit.

Reason #10: Egotism and vanity. If you are one who likes to control, don't want to listen to what others have to say, have an attitude of "my way or the highway", etc., people will see this as a red light and will keep away. These attitudes are fatal to success in your network marketing business, as well as other areas in life.

So, there you have it. The top ten reasons that could be influencing why you are having difficulty finding success not only in your MLM home business, but also in other areas of life. Work on eliminating these fatal attitudes from your life and you will be well on your road to achieving your hopes and dreams.

And be sure to get the right MLM training!

Now, since we all know it is impossible to sell anything from a cart that is empty, we want to make sure our new team member do not start off handicapped! Here are four tips to help your new MLM distributors launch and build their teams, based on the four different areas of the business.

2. Retail Sales: It will be hard for a new distributor to make any sales if he or she has zero products to retail. Don't you think it will look bad when your new recruit approaches a customer to make a sale, and doesn't even have any product on hand? Therefore, it is important to remind your new MLM distributors to be supplied with some products when he or she starts their new home business.

3. Samples: Most companies have products that can be given as samples to potential customers. As a true leader, it is important that you lead your new team members by example. So, show them how to give away the free product samples to customers.

4. New Distributor Start-Up: This is similar to number three. When you start a new distributor in your MLM business, if he or she is a local person, the individual will need products as soon as he or she joins. If you plan on starting more than one person at a time, you need to have enough supply on hand to give to each of them. This is necessary because your new team members needs something to carry them until their first product shipment comes in. This approach also helps motivate your new distributor to keep their new home business in the forefront, to focus on getting the word out, and to start building their own teams. This step is crucial to getting your new team members started off right.

In summary, as a team leader, you want to do all you can to assist new distributors in starting their MLM home business right. They need to earn money by moving products, and, in return, to become even more motivated to be successful when sales are made. So, follow these tips and your new team members will be so thankful to you and your help!

Mostly people's income is obtained from the work they do, the hours they put in to a job. That situation poses problems. There is a real danger, which is also a common harsh reality many people have found themselves having to unexpectedly go through. Perhaps you right now are in the condition of being in between jobs.

Downsizing, cutbacks, firings, weeding outs, whatever. Maybe you did something wrong. Maybe you did not. Maybe you got too close to retirement age. Maybe you got too worn out to keep up with production - getting overworked takes its toll. Maybe you've gotten ill, injured, or otherwise disabled.

In any case, having to work for a living means you are expendable and can be let go at any time. After all, there is an abundance of the unemployed looking for work. There is also an abundance of people who cannot make ends meet having just one job and need to get a second or even a third one.

Having reliable income is a very scarce and volatile thing. Many are struggling just to make it from paycheck to paycheck. But even the biweekly paycheck can be here today and gone tomorrow with little or no compensation available for the loss. What to do then?

What you have to do is not wait for then. Make things happen and grow rather than just maintaining yourself in a dead end job. The economic stability you get from working for others is transient. The reward and stability you get from working for yourself creating residual income can be great and lasting. It will also eliminate any worry about retirement finances.

Network Marketing your own Independent MLM Home Business can give you the security we just cannot get from regular jobs anymore, let alone the abundance and prosperity we have never been able to get from regular jobs. It allows you to build residual income, override royalty income that will keep coming in even when you quit working.

There are plenty of legitimate MLM Business opportunities for you provided by companies who see Network Marketing as an ideal distribution system for their products and services. Investigate them. Do your due diligence and see if you can find one you can get impassioned about. Then share that passion with others and be set for life.

"Network marketing has proven itself to be a viable and rewarding source of income, and the challenges could be just right for you. There have been some remarkable examples of success, and those successes have been earned through diligence, enthusiasm and the right product combined with timing." -Donald Trump, famous real estate developer, star and co-producer of the hit television show The Apprentice

"I am often asked if network marketing is a pyramid scheme. My reply is that corporations are really pyramid schemes. A corporation has only one person at the top, generally the CEO, and everyone else below. A true network marketing business is the exact opposite of a traditional business model. The network marketing business is designed to bring you to the top not keep you at the bottom. A true network marketing business does not succeed unless it brings people to the top." -Robert Kiyosaki, author of the New York Times and international best-seller listed book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Those two quotes from the "Your Business" volume 2 issue 2 article called, "Why We Recommend Network Marketing" by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump shows that MLM has really come of age and is worthy of serious consideration. They also provide ammunition to prevent naysayers from dampening your enthusiasm.

So what do you want to do? Stay poor and keep getting poorer working for someone else? Or get RICH in Network Marketing!

There is an often over-looked area of marketing that is ignored by many in network marketing. This area is offline marketing. While the Internet is a source used by many, there are also thousands of prospects that can be presented with your MLM business opportunity through offline sources. Here are eight offline strategies that you can use to expand your network marketing prospects, and, in turn, explode your business.

a business card
a business opportunity flyer or mini flyer
a discount coupon
a mini flyer of current special

Hand out the baggies to bank tellers, retail cashiers, at your kids sport events, etc. In other words, everywhere you go! This is a quick and easy way to let folks know what you are about.

2. Print flyers with your contact information, your website address, and email address, along with any current specials you are offering. Then, contact mobile home park offices, apartment complex rental offices, housing developments, etc., and ask for permission to leave flyers in their office or hang on tenant doors. You would also give the office employees a free gift or discount on your product or service.

4. Contact your local bridal supply stores, bridal gown stores, caterers, tux rental centers, wedding DJ's, etc. When contacting them, ask if you can leave your business card with them as a flyer for their customers to pick up.

5. Don't overlook daycare centers! They are excellent places to contact and leave business cards and/or flyers. Make sure that for whatever company you represent, you find items that cater specifically to children or moms. Make sure your flyer clearly shows this.

6. Contact your local churches. A lot of churches hold spring and fall festivals, Christmas bazaars, plan special events around Thanksgiving, etc. Contact them about getting a table or booth. This is a very inexpensive way (generally less than $15 a table) to promote your network marketing business.

7. Connect with your local Chamber of Commerce. Many times they hold local business events that you can participate in.

8. Do you have a college in your town? If so, great! College students are always looking to lose weight, spend money, and for more ways to generate extra income. Remember, how broke you were in college? So, students are also great prospects for your MLM business opportunity.

As you can see, this is just a small list of endless strategies that you can use to market your business offline as well as build a great MLM prospect list. Try one or more of these strategies to start off with, and watch your network marketing business explode!

1. Stair step breakaway. The advantage of this compensation plan is that you can go as wide as you want. If you have 50 people, everyone can be placed on your front line. If you have 5 out of the 50 people who are doing well and want to really build, you can build 5 legs underneath them and not really worry about what everyone else is doing.

The disadvantage of this plan is that if you place a heavy hitter under a dud, you won't qualify for your company's bonuses and commissions. Also, the fact that there is a break away component isn't good. For example, if you have 5 legs with 10,000 worth of volume in each leg, when your downline reaches a particular volume, they can break away. Sometimes, this can be as much as 10-12% of your volume. Other times it can mean losing all the volume. This is not a pretty picture is it?

2. Matrix. Matrix's can be 3x5's, 5x7's, 3x9's, etc. For example, if you are in a 3x5 matrix, you can have 3 people on your frontline and can go 5 levels deep. Many times with a matrix, there will be a lot of talk about "spillover" which sounds wonderful to many people.

All the "spillover" talk leads right into the disadvantage of a matrix. You see all the "spillover" mumbo jumbo really promotes a welfare mentality. People think they won't have to do any work. As professional network marketers, we know this is not the case! It's not a "sit back and let all the people come sailing in" type of business. You have to build relationships and talk to people.

Another disadvantage of a matrix is that you have to guard your front line positions very carefully. These positions are really like gold. If your upline sponsor puts a dud in your frontline due to "spillover" and wants you to build for them because you are an awesome builder, you're toast! Make sure nobody ever does this to you.

Also, it's very likely that you will be able to build deeper than 5 levels. Unfortunately, with a matrix, you won't get paid on volume for the levels that go below our example of 5. This is not a good thing at all!

3.Aussie 2-UP. It isn’t known where the word "aussie" comes from, as this doesn't really have anything to do with Australia. Anyway, in this plan, you would give the first two people you sponsor to your upline. Everyone else you get to keep. The advantage of this type of plan? Hmmmm, let's see. Zero!

Since the industry standard is that most people only sponsor just 2.7 people in their network marketing company, can you imagine having to give them away right from the start? Ouch! Now, if you are a hard-hitting, sponsor monster that loves to sell big ticket items as promoted by many aussie 2-ups, this is the plan for you. For the rest of us, this just doesn't work.

Keep in mind as well that with aussie 2-ups, there really is no residual income. The day you stop selling is the day your income stops. So, carefully evaluate if this is the type of plan you want to commit to.

4. Binary. This plan promotes two legs. The advantage with this network marketing compensation plan is that it pays on volume and you can build the two legs as long as you want. The disadvantage is that you have to balance both legs and the pay is based on the legs being balanced.

You have probably heard people bragging about having thousands of people in their downline with this plan. What they don't tell you is that they are barely making any money because all the people are in the strong leg. They also don't tell you they are struggling to build since they can barely get the weak leg moving. Unbalanced legs equal no money! Keep this in m mind when you look at a binary MLM compensation plan.

As you can see, there are clear advantages and disadvantages with these four networking marketing compensation plans. Now that you know what they are, you can make an informed decision about what type of plan will work best for you.

That's why I’ve developed a new cold calling approach that will automatically put you ahead of the game and in a league above your competition quickly.

When all you know is the traditional way of cold calling, selling is indeed a numbers game. Yes, you can call people over and over. You can also chase them until they listen just so that you go away.

Have you ever wondered how someone came up with the “numbers game concept?” It was really about the rejection we constantly experience when making cold calls. The boss just said to call someone else, and so we did. The idea is that if we call a hundred people a day, then we should squeeze out at least a few good leads. However, there’s a better and easier way of getting your product or service message across -- all on one call.

If you simply change your cold calling approach, you'll make fewer calls and more sales. How? By engaging in conversations. Yes, that’s right. Just talk to people...in your normal tone of voice, and without the usual sales pitch approach. When we focus on relationship rather than salesmanship, we’re calling with the anticipation of meeting someone new. We’re looking forward to a pleasant conversation to find out whether we can be of service.

The other person subtly but powerfully feels this mindset. You’re no longer meeting with defense and resistance right from the start. That will dramatically change the way people respond to your cold calls.

OLD COLD CALLING GURU MYTH # 2 "Use a sales script"

People can tell when you're reading from a script, even if you think you're pretty good at it. There's just nothing personal about a sales script, and people pick up on that. Being artificial immediately tags you as a typical salesperson. Therefore, if you can learn to get your message across in a different way, then you'll eliminate the negative triggers that can lose your sale within seconds.

So once again, the best way is to begin with a conversation. Anticipate a dialogue, not a monologue. People will respond much more positively. When you allow a conversation be natural and to “breathe,” they know you’re present and listening. T hat feels good to someone who is having to “fend off” salespeople who are really just talking billboards.

OLD COLD CALLING GURU MYTH # 3 "Focus on closing the sale"

Are you "going in for the kill" with your closing sale technique? If you are, you could end up killing your deal instead.

Old cold calling sales techniques do nothing more than pressure potential clients. They feel like they’re being chased. What do most people do when they feel chased? They run! They naturally want to retreat away from that pressure -- and that pressure is you.

So learn to avoid the "push-pull" dynamic between you and the potential client. You'll actually find the sales process moving forward much more naturally (and more often) than when you’re forcing things.

In this old myth, the idea is that if a sale is lost, it’s usually at the end of the sales process. The truth is that it’s often lost at the beginning of the cold call. When all you’re doing is going for a sale, the other person can sense it, no matter how well you think it’s camouflaged. When someone senses this sales pressure, “The Wall” goes up and the defenses come out. So stay away from focusing on making the sale. Rather, your goal is always to discover whether you and your potential clients are a good fit.

I can’t tell you how useful these new ideas have been in my own life, and in the lives of hundreds of others who have tried it. It’s not always easy to shed the old cold calling myths. Nevertheless, it’s worth it. With a little practice, you’ll come to a place of actually enjoying your cold calls and getting better results.

Ari Galper, founder of Unlock The Game, makes cold calling painless and simple. Learn his free cold calling secrets even the sales gurus don't know. To receive your 10 free audio mini-lessons visit Cold Calling Made Painless

Well, the only way to find out the truth of the situation is to ask them. However, before you do, let’s stop and consider some important points. You must approach this in a way that invites trust and diffuses the barriers to comfortable communication.

Prospects are used to the traditional buyer-seller relationship. They assume you’ll pressure them. Therefore, they may decide not to tell you things that make them vulnerable to pressure. Until you’re sure you know the complete truth, you can never assume the sale is yours.

2. Keep making it easy for potential clients to tell you their truth.

Toward the end of your conversation, ask, “Do you have any more questions?” If the answer is no, follow up with the 100% final truth gathering question: “Now, are you 100% sure that there’s nothing else that I can do on my end to make you feel more comfortable with this situation?”
You’ll be amazed how often people will reply, “Well, actually, there’s one more issue...” It’s at this point that you really start to hear their truth.

3. Call back to get the truth, not close the sale.

Most potential clients who suddenly disappear expect you to chase them down. They expect you to call and say, “Hi, I was just wondering where things are at?”
Instead, eliminate all sales pressure by telling them you’re okay with their decision not to move forward, based on their not having called you back. In other words, take a step backward. Most of the time, this will open the door to a new level of trust-filled communication.

4. Reassure them that you can handle a “no.”

Of course, we’d rather hear a yes. However, the only way to free yourself and your clients from subtle sales pressure is to let them know that it’s not about the sale – it’s about the best choice for them. If that means no sale, it’s okay with you.

5. Ask for feedback.

Whenever prospects disappear, call them back (e-mail only as a last resort because dialogue is always better). Simply ask, “Would you please share your feedback with me as to how I can improve for next time? I’m committed to understanding where I went wrong.”

This is not being feeble or weak. It’s being humble. This invites the truth.

6. Don't try to “close” a sale.

If your intuition tells you that the sales process isn’t going in the direction it should be going (which is always toward greater trust and truth), then trust those feelings.

Make it safe for prospects to tell you where they stand. It’s simple. All you have to say is, “Where do you think we should go from here?” But be prepared because you might not want to hear the truth of how they’re feeling. You can cope with this by keeping your larger goal in mind, which is always to establish that the two of you have a “fit.”

7. Give yourself the last word.

Eliminate the anxiety of waiting for the final call that will tell you whether the sale is going to happen. Instead, schedule a time for getting back to each other during your conversation. This eliminates chasing. Simply suggest, “Can we plan to get back to each other on a day and at a time that works for you? Not to close the sale, but simply to bring closure, regardless of what you decide. I’m okay either way, and that’ll save us from having to chase each other.”

You'll find that these suggestions make selling much less painful because you stay focused on the truth instead of the sale. The truth is, the more we release the idea of needing to make the sale, the more sales we will likely see.

Ari Galper is the founder of Unlock The Game™, the only selling program that completely eliminates pressure from the selling process. His Unlock The Game™ Sales Program has helped thousands of entrepenuers and sales professionals worldwide.

Visit Cold Calling Made Painless to take a Free Test Drive!