How to use others to grow your network marketing business

I read the book “Think and Grow Rich” about a year ago or so and one of the things that I came away with was the concept of a Mastermind Group.  I was intrigued with the idea of getting together with others that were like me but with different skills and working with them towards a common goal – network marketing success. 

How a mastermind group can benefit your network marketing business

I have to tell you that the benefits of being a part of a mastermind group are huge.  Not only do you have people that help to support your business building efforts but you also get to help them.  So, I would have to say that the number one benefit (for me at least) is the feeling of being needed and appreciated.  Another benefit that’s really nice is having the perspectives of different people and everyone in the group also brings recourses and skills that you may not have.  

How to create a mastermind group

It was easy for me form my very first mastermind group.  I just contacted a couple of my friends that were also in business for themselves and asked if they would like to be a part of something bigger.  They were willing and so the group was formed.  There was only one problem.  We were all in different businesses and so there wasn’t a common goal that we could work together on.  It was a bust in just a few short weeks.

It was back to the drawing board for me. I don’t give up easily and I really wanted to be a part of something like what I had read from Napoleon Hill.   This time I went in search of people that were in the same network marketing program as I and I also had a few other requirements as well.  Things like; they had to be active in their business (not just hoping for something to happen), they had to have different skills than I had as well (it seems kind of silly to have more than one computer genius on the team), and they had to be team players. 

Armed with these requirements, I was able to find two people to work with.  None of us live in the same state so our meetings happen on the telephone.  We get together once a week to make sure that everyone stays focused on their business (it can be difficult to stay focused when you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck).  The best part is that when we get together we are able to work on projects together.

For example; since we are all in the same network marketing industry, we worked on an entire marketing campaign together.  We were able to write our prospecting scripts, presentation, and closing scripts in record time.  When the telephone campaign was completed, we worked on an Internet campaign together.

Some rules that you should know about forming a mastermind group 

1. Keep it small – having a group of more than five people can cause issues.  I recommend that mastermind group have between 3-5 people.
2. Look for different skills – if you are having trouble with a certain skill, look for someone that is strong in that area. 
3. Team player – it’s best to work with team players.  If you see that someone keeps bringing the focus of the meeting back to themselves, you may want to ask them to leave the group.
4. Brainstorm – come together to brainstorm from time to time.  This is where the magic happens.

Forming a mastermind group creates a win-win situation for everyone involved.  Everyone’s network marketing business will benefit because of the support and encouragement of the group.  If you are feeling alone in your business, I highly recommend that you become a part of a mastermind group.

A couple of weeks ago I was conducting a class on how a blog can help your network marketing business.  I made a recording of the class and I am now making it available to you to listen to.  It was a pretty intense class where I gave up a lot of MLM secrets that I hadn’t planned on sharing when I was preparing my training materials but as you know, I don’t hold anything back.

If you have been thinking about setting up a website for your network marketing business but aren’t sure just how to get started, you may want to consider blogging.  It’s a great platform to share your expertise and it’s pretty easy to set up and maintain.  Listen to the audio above and discover:

• How to set up a blog for your network marketing business for FREE
• How to find the right keywords to use in your blog posts to get more traffic to your site
• What 3 things your blog should have to make the search engines happy (ie. Google)
• How to monetize your blog easily
• What to write about so that you become the “go to” person for information about your MLM product
• What to put on your blog to attract more traffic

It really was an intense hour of training about blogging.  I was asked some very good questions and was all to happy to answer them.  Check it out for yourself and if you come up with some additional questions, I would be happy to answer yours as well.  Just leave a comment with your question and I will respond.

Note: On the audio there were a few sites that I mentioned and here are the links to those sites so you don’t have do the typing:

Test Blog for OSM – This is a blog that I set up so that the folks on the call could follow along.

Aweber- an autoresponder service that I use to create the data capture boxes on my blogs so that I can build a list of people that are interested in what I have.  An autoresponder is a must have for anyone that is using the Internet to market their network marketing business.  If you need an autoresponder, you can get a free trial by clicking on the link that I created for you.

Easy DIY Home Security - This is one of my other blogs that I did and it has a static home page.  Meaning the main page always looks the same.  Most blogs have the latest post on the main page that is always changing. 

Wordpress – Blogging service that I use to create my blogs.  It is pretty easy to use and has a lot of cool features.  They even have a free version that you can try out.

Wordpress Themes/Plugins - Different themes and plugins were discussed during the class and you can look at those here.

Blogger – Another free blogging platform that you can use that is easy.

• You don’t have to spend a dime on
• You don’t have to be a technical genius or even know what html is

 This MLM Secret Business Tool is Called – Blogging

 I guess the first thing I should do is tell you what a BLOG is.  A blog is a type of website where you can add regular entries.  Blogs started as a form of online diaries where people would keep track of their personal lives.  A friend of mine used a blog to track his weight loss journey.  It took him over a year to lose all of the weight he wanted and he kept track of his progress on his blog.  He posted weekly pictures of himself, how often he worked out, what exercises he was doing, what food he was eating, his struggles and his successes.

Today, blogs can be used for just about anything that you want.  You can use it as a place to put down the interesting things that your kids are doing so that out of state family members can stay up to date with what is going on or you can use a blog as a business tool for your network marketing business.

With a blog, you can share your network marketing product, your business building systems and/or your expertise.  Let’s say that you have a background in home security like I do.  You could build a blog where you share your expertise and help people with their security issues.  Here is the link to my other blog http://www.EasyDIYHomeSecurity.com.  It’s not in your traditional blog format so you may get an idea of how you can make your blog look like a regular website.

Benefits of Using a Blog for Your Network Marketing Business

There are a few benefits to using a blog for your network marketing business some of these benefits are:

• Search engines love content and they love websites that change often.  Blogging gives you a simple way to add content to your site.  The more content that you have the more the search engines will like you.
• Blogs are easy to build.  Really, you don’t have to be a computer geek to do it.  You don’t have to have any special software or know html or anything like that.   If you are a computer geek, then you can do some really cool things with your site but it’s not necessary to have a great website.
• Blogs give you a simple platform to share your passion, your expertise, and your network marketing product.
• You can make money with a blog.  There are a lot of ways that you can monetize your blog so that you can make money.  You can put Google Adsense on your site, sell advertizing space, sell affiliate products, etc.

I’m sure that there are more benefits to blogging than the ones that I have listed but you get the idea.  I happen to love blogs because they are so easy to build.  For example this site that you are on is a blog.  I used Wordpress to build it.  Now this site is one that I host myself and there are benefits to hosting your blog but it’s not mandatory.  If you are in the market for a good website hosting service, then I recommend Bluehost.  They are the service that I use to host all of my websites and they are very cheap (yes, I am an affiliate and that is one way that I monetize my site).

But if you are looking to have a free blog website then I would recommend that you use either www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com they both provide a great service and you can do a lot with a free blog.  There are some drawbacks to using a free service however.  Such as; your domain name will have an extension after it.  For example: http://howtobeonstage.blogspot.com/ , and you may be limited as far as the features that you site has but all in all they do a good job.

Well that’s it for today.  I hope you can see how having a blog can help your network marketing business.  It’s a great way to share your ideas, tips, and information about your network marketing product.  Stay tuned for more information about blogging because I will be sharing some things that your blog must have.

Schedule Time To Work Your MLM

Life has a tendency to get in the way at times.  Let’s face it; you really can’t expect your network marketing business to grow all by itself.  That’s why it’s essential to have a plan, to create a schedule if you want to succeed at selling your network marketing product and create a MLM income.  So, let’s talk about how to schedule time for you to grow your network marketing program.

What to Use to Schedule Your Time

When it comes to creating a schedule, you have quite a few options.  Here a just a few options that you can use to create your schedule for your day-to-day activities.

• Microsoft Outlook-most computers have a program similar to Microsoft outlook.  If you are good at using your computer, you may want to consider using it to make up your schedule.  You can even have your computer give you reminders so that you don’t forget anything.  This was my personal favorite at one time.
• Cell Phone Calendar-I use my cell phone a lot so it only makes sense to make sure that I keep important dates, appointments, and such in it.  I even set the alarm to go off before I’m scheduled to do something.  I can’t tell you how many times my cell phone alarm has gone off and kept me from missing an important appointment.
• Plain Old Piece of Paper-you don’t have to spend a bunch of money on any fancy network marketing tools to make up a schedule.  Just a regular piece of paper with some lines drawn on it to represent the days of the week and the hours of the day will do a nice job.  Of course, I haven’t figured out how to make paper tap me on the shoulder to give me a reminder.
• Day Planner-nothing says that you mean business like a day planner.  This is my personal favorite and it has worked well for me.  I can plan out my day so that I make sure that I schedule enough time to complete a task and if I don’t complete that task, I can reschedule it.  I prefer this method because I get a visual of what my week looks like at a glance.

That should be enough to give you an idea on what you can use to schedule your time with.  Really, there are some other options such as; a Word document, or a spreadsheet but you get the idea.

How to Schedule Your Time

How to schedule your time is more important that what you use to schedule your time with.  For some people this will be the toughest part of working their network marketing business.  There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to devote the necessary time to working a MLM business and get all of the other things done too.

Let me give you a little secret to how to work your network marketing program part-time.  Sit down with whatever you are going to use for your schedule and the first thing I want you to write down are the things that can’t be moved or put off.  These are things that only you can do and they have to be done at a certain time.  For instance, if you have a job that you go to, put it in your schedule.  If you have a doctor’s appointment or you have to pick up the kids from school, put it in your schedule.

After you put in your schedule all of the things that YOU have to do and the TIME you have to do it, then it’s time to schedule all of the other things that you want to do.  Keep in mind how important it is to you to grow your network marketing business.  If it’s important that you succeed at your home based business, then schedule it appropriately.  If spending time with your friends and family is more important, then make that have priority in your scheduling. This is where having a strong “WHY” is important.

Benefits of Scheduling Your Day

Creating a schedule will help to keep you on track, focused, and it will increase your productivity.  The key is not to overdo it.  Make sure that you leave a little room for you to do some of the things that help you to relax.  For me that means meditation and reading.  I make sure that I schedule a few minutes everyday so that I can meditate.  In fact, I put that in my schedule before I put down when I am going to work on my network marketing leads.

If your schedule is already full, take a look at the things that you have listed.  Can any of those things be done by another member of the family?  Do they have to be done at all?  Do you have to clean the house or can you put it off so that you can work your network marketing business?

In order to succeed with your network marketing program it’s not only important to know what to do but it’s important to make the time to do it.  If you don’t make the time to work on growing your home based business, then it won’t grow.

Making a schedule is not only important to growing a home based business, it’s also important for a lot of other things too.  I have made a commitment to run a half marathon this December, it fact it is scheduled for the day after my birthday, and in order to insure that I cross the finish line, I have to train.  In order to train properly, I have to keep a training schedule. 

One last word on scheduling, DO YOUR BEST and FORGET THE REST.  If you don’t get something done for whatever reason, don’t beat yourself up about it.  Make a note on why you didn’t accomplish the task, if it’s something that you can plan for next time then do so.  IF NOT, LET IT GO!