Should be simple enough right? Picking a great network marketing company.

If you search around the internet you will find ‘scam’ sites everywhere. ‘This company ripped me off’ or ‘that company is a scam’. Pages and pages of people proclaiming they were ripped-off by a company or person who sponsored them.

Is it possible these people were actually fleeced out of their money? Yes, it’s possible but very unlikely. I’ve purchased thousands of dollars worth of training courses and products online and can only recall a few where I felt I had really gotten taken or the product was worthless.

The cause of all this unhappiness is simply that we sometimes let our emotions get the best of us. We see the ‘money’ and join up, then wait for it to come rolling in. When it doesn’t, we feel taken advantage of and feel ripped-off. Some people do this over and over again. Every time blaming someone else for their lack of results.

Don’t follow or chase the money when looking for a business. Find a business that fits what you want in a business.

Decide what kind of business you want first, then go out and find it. A few questions you will want to ask yourself on the type of business you are looking for is:

1) How do you want to recruit

Do you want to work primarily online or off? If it’s online find a business or team that focuses on building the business that way. It’s much easier than trying to do everything on your own from scratch. Know how you want to grow your business before you start.

2) How fast do you want to profit from your business

Getting a nice recurring monthly residual check takes some time to build in a network marketing company. If you are seeking faster results you may want to consider a direct sales type of company with a higher priced product.

A funded proposal also works well for creating some up-front cash while building your MLM business. Mike Dillard’s ‘Magnetic sponsoring’ and Daegan Smith’s  free ‘Recruit like crazy’ cd’s are two of my favorites due to the huge value they provide.

If you were around the network marketing industry in the 90’s you probably still remember your mailbox being filled weekly with letters and postcards on almost every bizz-op and mlm company in existence.

Those were the days.

Lately I’ve been getting a few postcards in the mail promoting a few different opportunities. I’ve gotten both network marketing companies and direct sales programs. I’ve also seen more and more people online touting the ‘wide open opportunity’ a direct mail postcard system provides.

Back in the mid 90’s before the internet really came into it’s own as the dominant tool for reaching prospects about your network marketing business there was direct mail. If memory serves me correctly you could mail a postcard for 10-15 cents. At that time people were just learning how to use the internet so direct mail systems were the dominate way to contact your prospects.

Many people were able to build large groups using this method. Well, at least in the beginning of their postcard system. Like anything else, once you see it enough times you become immune to the sales message. The people who came in later down the road ended up spending their money on lists and postcards with little or no return on their investment.

Once a system has been around for awhile the numbers just don’t work in your favor. At that time it still cost you a few hundred dollars per thousand postcards including the opportunity seekers lists. With a .5 – 2% response to your mailing it just doesn’t create enough sales to pay for your costs. This is regardless even if you can close half of your responses.

In the beginning of a postcard system the responses are generally higher enabling you to make money and the people you bring in to also make money. The problem is they just don’t last, and neither will your downline.

The numbers are even worse today with the cost of the postcards, mailing, and leads lists. You are talking 4-600$ per thousand. Promoting a higher ticket program can get you in the black a little easier but that’s a big nut to crack each time you do a mailing.

A quick example…

A 1000 postcard mailing with a 1% response equals 10 responses. A $100 program with a fast start bonus of 50% would equal $500 if all 10 joined which isn’t going to happen. It’s $250 at a 50% closing ratio which is a phenomenal rate. So if you spent as little as $400 to do that mailing you are out money even if you are a master at closing.

The numbers get worse for lower priced programs. You also need to keep in mind once you earn the fast start bonus most companies today are only paying 4-5% commissions on your downline’s volume the next month. You will see a lot of money going out long before you have a large enough group to compensate for your expenses.

It still holds true today. The owners of the system and list brokers along with the people who get in early in these postcard systems are the ones who are going to make the majority of the money. Everyone else will just be helping to keep the post office in business.

My advice is regardless of how simple and exciting these systems sound is to keep your money in the bank. The numbers just don’t work. Learning how to use the internet is far more valuable and cost effective.

The NewRich report is another funded proposal system from Joel Broughton. He has produced a few funded proposals with one becoming quite successful that he co-founded with Paul Birdsall.

Regardless of what you may read about Joel on various sites around the internet he does know how to build a business online-and fast.

I received the link from a marketer whose list I am on a few months ago. I decided to take a look since he would be actively promoting it. It was just the beginning so when I went into the member’s area it was very bleak. Almost no information or training available.

The information contained in ‘The New Rich Report’ itself was very basic information. Nothing new or controversial like you would see from Ann Seig. After experiencing something very similar with Mr. Broughton in the past I decided I would pass on this new funded proposal system.

With this blog I will be reviewing programs, companies, systems, and gurus and intended to do a review of the NewRich report since I was familiar with it. My member login info still worked so I thought I should take another look to refresh my memory.

I have to say the member’s area is much better. Lot’s of training and ‘how to’ information. I’m not a big fan of some of the methods he teaches but it’s definitely a better product than his last funded proposal and much improved from the launching of the NewRich report.

Pros

Free to use

Training available to members

Cons

No total control over your prospects. You are using his auto responders. You are building his list as well regardless of what he says in the member’s area.

It’s a replicated site so hundreds or thousands of members will be using the same site which dilutes the response to it very quickly.

Lot’s of talk about spillover and guaranteed downlines. You will be lucky to have one person fall under you due to the large amount of members he is promising the same thing to.

I won’t be using Joel’s system due to the three cons listed above and also a prior experience working with him on another one of his systems. But I will give credit where it is due. He will sign up hundreds initially into the two or three businesses he is promoting thru the NewRich report. You probably won’t do the same thing with it.

That’s good for him and also very smart. It shows the true power of creating your own funded proposal system.

The easiest thing to do is lose your focus and get off track in your journey to building a successful network marketing business.

If you aren’t talking to or contacting enough people daily about your business the guilt becomes less and less each day. The excuses become easier to make as to why you didn’t do this or that in your business today.

When this starts to happen we tend to become more susceptible to getting pulled in different directions and even start looking at the greener grass on the other side of the fence.

Time to step back and take a deep breath and regroup.

It’s important in these times to remember why you wanted to start a business in the first place. Why you made a decision to work with the people or group you chose. Your reasons are still the same now as they were when you started.

You’ve just allowed stuff to creep in and divide your focus. That’s all. Now what you need to do is make the decision to not allow it any longer and get yourself back on track. Re-focus and re-dedicate yourself.

Your internet network marketing business depends on it.

Don’t let the absence of your own personal website keep you from generating targeted leads for your network marketing business. You don’t have to have one before you can start building your list of contacts.

Here is what you do.

You use one of the most effective free ways online to drive traffic to your business. Article marketing. All you need to do is write some articles on subjects or keywords your prospects are looking for information on.

You don’t need to be an expert before you write these articles. Just do some research and write about the information you find online in your own words. You can also outsource the writing to people more experienced if you wish.

At the end of every article you have what is called the resource box. Here you can put information about you and your business. Any time that article is read or published, people see your information in the resource box.

Most of the time a link to a website is placed in the resource box and traffic is driven to the site. There is no rule that it has to be a website link. You can add an email link to your auto responder in the resource box instead and capture your prospects information right there before they leave. Very effective strategy not used often.

You offer more information on the subject you just wrote about or offer a free report like ‘Ten Steps to a Better MLM Business’. Once they click on the the link an email is sent to your auto responder and they are added to your list which you continually contact and build a relationship with over time.

The only cost is an auto responder. There are a few good ones out there. My favorite after testing quite a few has been Aweber. It’s just simple to use and a great deliverability rate.

So don’t let the issue of you not having a website yet be an excuse not to start building your network marketing business.

This blog is something I have been planning to do for a long time. internet based network marketing has long been a passion of mine. There is just so much information out there that it’s hard to know which end is up sometimes.

I will be posting my thoughts, internet marketing tips, techniques, and reviews of companies, tools, and systems on this blog as well as a few interviews with other network marketers so check back often.

I will also include a few posts from time to time that will  have very little to do with internet network marketing and more with everyday life. It’s important to have balance in your life and not spend all your time in front of the computer screen. Make sure you enjoy time with family and friends.

Some quick advice. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. I used to think I needed to wait until I had everything just right or knew everything about a product or technique before I would make my move. After tweaking this and that time after time, I ended up never making that move. Once I learned to just get moving and not worry about having everything perfect, good things began to happen.

I am looking forward to providing the best information I can along with some interesting viewpoints on internet based network marketing.  I hope you enjoy it and can find something useful here for your online network marketing business.