Moving Out of the Stone Age

By Liz Monte

Can you imagine soldiers, equipped with nothing but sticks and stones, attempting to fight against a modern army?

If it weren't for the fact that people would be dying, it would be almost comical.

This is kind of what "traditional" network marketing has become in the 21st Century – primitive.  And people may not be literally dying, but their hopes and dreams sure are.   

Let's summarize:

In Lesson #1, we talked about the importance of investing in your prospects before they invest in you – by giving them free valuable information that helps them solve their problems.

In Lesson #2, we focused in on our ideal target market – frustrated network marketers who are "between opportunities," or people who have a problem that our products or services can help with.

In summary, we need an effective system to reach those hungry folks, and provide them with information that can help them get what they want.

Are these folks out there? Absolutely! Remember – 95% of individuals who enroll in network marketing throw in the towel in the first few months, or their companies fold. And that's just the business builders. Add in the ones who need your product, and that's a lot of hungry people.

What's the 21st Century way to reach them?

Well, the sticks and stones way is to put an ad in a magazine or newspaper and hope the appropriate people happen to open that page and notice it and then hope they're not thinking about something else at that moment. Of course, it's going to cost a bundle for any publication with a reasonably big circulation. There will also be a fairly long turn-around time, which means it could be weeks or months before you find out if your ad is working. And if it isn't – too bad. You have to pay for it anyway.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to place your message right in front of the right people, just at the right time when they are actively looking for solutions, and know right away if your campaign was effective? And wouldn't it be totally awesome if you only had to pay when someone responded? Or if your advertising was completely FREE?

A complete fantasy, you say? Well…

Welcome to internet marketing.

Now I know some of you are probably thinking that you may as well quit reading right now because there's no way you're going to be able do anything on the internet. I want to reassure you that I'm over 50, too, and if I can do it, so can you. It'll take some time and patience, but it's going to be so worth it! And you get to benefit from my experience, as I lead you through it step-by-step. So hang in there – you'll be glad you did.

Before I get into the nuts and bolts stuff, I'd like to spend a little more time singing the praises of the internet – just so you know beyond a doubt that this is where you need to be.

When I was in college (a while back, but who's counting?), I had two ways to communicate with the folks back home – I could write them a letter and drop it in the mailbox and wait two weeks to hear back from them. And if I wanted to send the same information to someone else, I had to write the whole thing out by hand again. (The library did have Xerox machines, but they produced smelly, gray copies that rolled up – hardly what you'd call letter quality!)

Or on the weekend I could collect a bunch of loose change and then stand in line to use the one and only pay phone in my dormitory – during the week it was way too expensive.

My friends and I took all this for granted.

Look at what we take for granted now. Being able to send a letter to someone on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds. Sending the identical document to hundreds of people at the same time with just a few mouse clicks. Retrieving data on any subject imaginable while sitting in our desk chairs. Sharing home videos and music instantly with almost anyone, anywhere. Interfacing with potentially millions of people on a daily basis.

And search engines! Every corner of the internet getting thoroughly indexed on an ongoing basis by Google and its buddies. This means that not only can you find very specific information at your fingertips, it also means that you can very easily connect with other people who are looking for that same information.

By comparison, my college communication experience was like the Stone Age.

And if you're still marketing your opportunity and products with a 20-year-old system handed down to you by your company and your upline, you might as well be in the Stone Age, too.

The internet is the most powerful communication tool that's ever been seen on this planet. If you want to reach lots of people, and especially a targeted market, this is the way to do it.

Let me make one thing clear, though. There is no way that you can successfully run a network marketing business completely online. The Web is an outstanding way to advertise and sift and sort and pre-qualify prospects, but eventually, you have to talk to the person. Without real human-to-human interaction where trust develops and bonding takes place, your organization will be built on sand.

With that said, let's all take a deep breath… and proceed.

What do you need to start promoting your business on the internet using the principles of Attraction Marketing?

1. An educational website. 

These days, this is not as hard as it sounds. I built the website you are currently looking at in just a couple of weeks, all by myself. I'm continually tweaking and refining it, and adding new material – all of which I will probably continue doing indefinitely.  It's fun!

I'm not a computer programmer or website builder. I don't know html or any other languages. But the server that hosts my site, SiteBuildIt!, is so user friendly that I don't need to.   Here are some of the features included in their package:

• They have several dozen attractive pre-set templates (site designs) to choose from.



• They have a tutorial that steps you through the whole process of web building from deciding what you want your site to do all the way through to the finished product, and their whole system is totally in synch with the principles you're learning here.



• They are very much into getting your site noticed by the search engines and have several tools to help make that happen automatically.



• They have a pile of other features that will make it easier for you to get the results you're looking for.



• They have a forum for site owners so that you can share ideas and advice with other SBIers.
  

(See my review of SiteBuildIt! and get a link to their site by clicking here.)

SiteBuildIt! requires an annual contract, which of course means a bigger initial outlay than you would have with a month-to-month service provider. However, it averages out to less than a dollar a day -- not even the cost of a cup of coffee.

I truly believe SiteBuildIt! is THE best way to go if you want to see your business start to fly. The more I work with their system, the more convinced I am of that.

2. A domain name.

This is the personalized part of your web address  – the stuff that comes after "www."  

If you set up an account with SiteBuildIt!, a domain name is included in the package, and they will handle getting it registered for you.  In fact, their tutorial will lead you through a step-by-step process of picking the optimal domain name for your site.

You may have a reason for wanting to register more than one domain name.  There are several services that will do this for you. I use one called GoDaddy. I have been very impressed with GoDaddy's customer service. You can actually get a live person to help you when you need it! I have never had to wait on hold, either.

Once you have your website set up, you're going to want to start adding stuff to it. This leads us right into our next topic:

LESSON #4 will be about adding content to your website.

IN THE MEANTIME, HERE'S YOUR ACTION ASSIGNMENT FOR THIS LESSON:

Sign up for SiteBuildIt! and go through the first several days of the tutorial, including selecting your domain name.

And by the way, when you arrive at the SiteBuildIt! website, be sure to scroll down and take their 30-minute video tour.