General

This website is intended as a useful resource for anyone interested in starting their own small business, or for anyone who already has their own business and who wants to review the marketing tools and methods available on the internet.

Best Days for Advertising

Tip #1 Best Day for Placing Ads [Advertising] is Tuesday and Wednesday. This is when the heaviest influx of leads will come in.

Tip #2 Another great day for promotions is the 1st and the 15th of each month. This is when many people get paid.

Tip #3 Best day for sending Broadcasts according to Aweber is Sunday 8:00 AM Est.

Tip #4 The Best Way To Succeed Is Pray To God For Help, He Will Supply All Your Needs... Not Necessarily Your Wants. The Way I 'Cheat' Is To Pray At All Times For Everyone And Then God Has To Take Care Of Us! Right?

Starting A Home Based Business?

Thank you for visiting The Perfect System website. This website is an extremely powerful resource if you are thinking of starting a home based business - online or offline in order to earn residual income. The methods detailed here can be applied generically to almost any startup business, so have a look around and investigate the simple but powerful principles detailed here.

Nothing you will see is beyond you - anyone can put these ideas into action. The results will surprise you - perfectly simple actions will soon lead to a simply perfect business.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Current figures indicate that, in America alone, 25,000,000 people presently run a home based business of some sort. It is also estimated that over 5,000,000 of these businesses are producing annual gross revenues of between $100,000 and $500,000. That’s incredible!

And you will find the same pattern in other countries around the world. It seems that more and more people are rejecting “conventional” working patterns and seeking an alternative.  Almost certainly some of the people who are involved in these home businesses have a strong desire to become millionaires - but there are many other reasons why people might want to run their own business rather than settle for the traditional 40 year long corporate slog.

Presumably, since you’re reading this, you have at least considered the possibilities, attractions and benefits of running your own business. no doubt you have your own reasons for this interest - and these may be wildly different, but no less valid, than the reasons others may have.

Have a quick look at the list below. Is your reason (or reasons) there?

Potential Reasons For Starting a Home Based Business

1. Becoming (very) wealthy.
2. Earning a second, part time income
3. Exercising more control over your working life and environment.
4. Spending more time with your family and friends.
5. A lack of security in your conventional work position.
6. A lack of recognition in the conventional work environment.
7. Increased self esteem and sense of achievement.
8. Pension worries.
9. Something to fill your time - a hobby almost.

A World Wide Web Of Opportunity

One thing’s for sure - whatever your reason for considering starting a home based business, there are countless opportunities available on the web. You see them all the time when you’re surfing and your inbox is flooded with messages from people who want to make you a millionaire by the end of the month.

It seems impossible to avoid them and sometimes it must seem like you’re the only person not making out like a bandit thanks to the incredible power of the internet. All you need to do is sign up for this program, or buy that ebook to learn the incredible secret to making a fortune and your future wealth and happiness will be assured.

There are phenomenally wealthy gurus out there who are just bursting with excitement at the thought of mentoring you and helping you succeed. Just send them a few dollars and you’ll be on your way.

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that most of the opportunities you will see are nonsense - and some of them are out and out scams. Nevertheless, there are some genuine opportunities out there and you can make money and build a nice business for yourself - if you know what to look for.

Don’t just signup for an opportunity because it’s got a nice website. Apply some very basic search criteria, bolt on a few readily available tools and you can do very well indeed.

How To Evaluate Business Opportunities

As you surf the web you will be bombarded with adverts, websites, banners and popups trying to persuade you to sign up for a wide variety of business opportunities. Most of them are unmitigated rubbish, many of them will produce earnings for only a few lucky people at the top who got in early - but there are some good ones and if you know what to look for you will succeed.

Some of these websites are full of testimonials, projected income plans, fancy graphics and - inevitably - pictures of happy, smiling, successful people enjoying the fruits of their labor (a bit like the beautiful people in the top left corner of this page). The implication of course is that you too can enjoy this millionaire lifestyle. All you have to do is get your credit card out and sign up for their program - then sit back, relax and count your money.

Guess what - some, but not many, of those opportunities really could change your lifestyle. Others among them, although perfectly valid business models which will work well for others, will not be right for you personally. You need to forget about the nice website, the happy, smiling, beautiful people and the gushing testimonials and apply very specific criteria when you evaluate each opportunity. Then you might just find the one that’s right for you.

Have a look at the list below:

Key Criteria For The Perfect Business

1. Low start up costs - affordable for you.
2. A good pay plan - that offers you genuine residual income.
3. A genuine product or service, which will be in demand repeatedly.
4. A good company who you can work with and trust.
5. A low administrative burden - minimal paperwork and cash handling.
6. A method of achieving sales and recruitment that you are comfortable with.
7. Your own personal criteria #1.
8. Your own personal criteria #2.
9. Your own personal criteria #3.

   The last 3 are there for you to complete, everybody has their own special requirements. You might want to know that you can succeed without the use of a car, without a computer or you might want to be sure that you are involved in something that is very ethical and produces benefits for those less fortunate than you (such opportunities do exist you know).

   However, items 1 to 6 are critical. Evaluate these dispassionately, achieve positive answers and you might just have found your ideal opportunity. But let’s examine all the criteria individually so that the importance of each one is clearly understood.

   Cost

   Any business, whether online or traditional, will have costs associated with it. Initially there will be start up costs and there will also be ongoing operational costs. One of the major advantages of network marketing is that both startup and running costs can be kept to a very low level.

   Most people who decide to get involved in network marketing work from home (for many this is their goal) so, as a general rule, there will be no additional cost incurred for business premises, employee salaries, telephone and electricity supply etc.

   However, there is normally some cost associated with starting your network marketing business. This is perfectly acceptable provided that you get something of value in return. Some of the things that you might expect to receive are listed below.

   Startup Pack Contents
    

   • A website to advertise either the products, the business opportunity or both.
   • Marketing materials, brochures, catalogues, downloadable banners, posters etc.
   • Training resources - audio tapes and/or CDs, written material, dedicated training events.
   • Any paperwork required to take orders.
   • Product samples, demonstration items (if appropriate).
   • A money back guarantee.

   Make sure that you know what you'll be getting for your money and try to work out a rough cost for comparison. Don't worry if the two sums don't balance exactly - perceived value will vary from one person to another. Just make sure that you're getting something of genuine value in return for your cash.

   You should also be covered by an unconditional money back guarantee for at least the first 90 days. Regardless of how committed you are and how certain you are that you have found the right opportunity for you, it is still possible that something in your circumstances could change which would make it unfeasible for you to continue.

   If you're happy with what is provided in your startup package, then take a moment to consider any other items that you might need and which aren't included. You might need to buy business cards, order stationary, obtain additional web hosting or buy your own unique URL.

   All of these costs can mount up and may surprise you if you're not careful. Of course, these are discretionary items and you can control them. Do your best to keep the cost low by spending only on items which will provide you with genuine benefits in terms of new sales or recruits.

   Don't forget to make some assessment, however approximate, of your likely ongoing operating costs. You may have repeating monthly costs, website hosting, autoresponders etc. and these should be budgeted for. If you use brochures and catalogues then these will almost certainly need to be replenished at some point. Even if you don't run out of them, product lines will be revised, prices will change etc.

   You should also allow yourself some advertising budget, however small. There are many ways to get free advertising on the web but these often require a significant investment of your time - time which cannot then be spent on growing your new business by different methods.

   Finally, don't forget that many of your costs will be tax deductible. Keep receipts of all your expenses as you will need these to support any claim you make.

Getting Paid - Residual Income

There are many different reasons why people choose to get involved in network marketing. Although it may not be the primary reason for many people, getting paid will be rank high on most people's list.

So it makes sense that, when you are deciding which of the many available network marketing opportunities to get involved in, that part of your evaluation process will consider the payment, or commission scheme in place.

At this point things can get a bit complex. Unsurprisingly, almost every network marketing company in business today will claim to have the best pay plan available. They probably genuinely believe this (and they might be right) and will usually devote several sheets of paper or screens to show this to you in all its glory. Expect to see the word "revolutionary" used at least once.

Some of these schemes can appear a bit complex to say the least. There will almost certainly be a matrix of some kind involved and there will probably be some kind of "ladder of success" where you earn new ranks and titles as you progress in the business.

It can seem a bit daunting, trying to work out how long it will take you to get from Space Cadet to Star Fleet Commander and what it all means in terms of money - but focus on a few simple questions and you can cut through the mumbo-jumbo.

1. What will you get paid for?
2. How much will you get paid?
3. When will you get paid?
4. How will you get paid?

What will you get paid for?
Surprisingly enough, this is a (slightly) more important question than "how much?" - for one simple reason. If your main, or only, source of income results from recruiting other people into the business, then there's a very high possibility that you may be involved in a pyramid scheme.

Your main income should arise when you sell a product or service to a customer, not when you recruit someone. There's absolutely nothing wrong with profiting whenever someone who you have introduced to the business makes a sale - but you shouldn't be making significant income just for recruiting them.

You should also check if there is a "qualifying" level of sales that you need to make each month in order to get your commission. It can be very frustrating if, having built a large customer base and a healthy downline team, you miss out on your monthly cheque due to an insufficient amount of personal sales.

How much will you get paid?
Having satisfied yourself that you're getting paid for moving a genuine product or service, you can now focus on how much you'll be earning. Obviously you want to make as much as you can - but how much is enough will depend upon the type of product you're going to be marketing.

If you're selling relatively high price items and getting paid for the sale alone, then you will want a fairly high percentage as commission. A minimum of 25% would be reasonable and 50% is not out of the question for some types of product.

If, on the other hand, you're promoting something which will bring you a genuine residual income month after month then you might be happier to settle for a reasonable signup bonus followed by a relatively small percentage of the monthly fee thereafter. If you're confident that you offer a good value product that people will continue to use month after month, year in, year out, then you can accept a much lower percentage of the takings. In the long run you will make more money per customer and you may also find it easier to get customers who have to shell out a relatively small amount of money up front followed by ongoing monthly rental or leasing fees.

When you start in your network marketing business, most of your earnings will be as a result of your own efforts. However, later on, as you build your team, your personal earnings will be outstripped by the income you will make from your team's sales. So you should also make sure that you know how much profit you will be able to make from the efforts of your downline members. What percentage of their sales will you make and how deep (how many levels down) will this be paid out on?

When will you get paid?
You should get paid pretty quickly after the customer has paid the company you're working with. Payment processing on the internet is very rapid and you should be paid once a month, no more than a month in arrears. After all, the idea is to supplement or replace your monthly salary - isn't it?

How will you get paid?
In an ideal world, you should receive your monthly commission directly into your bank account (via PayPal perhaps), paid in your local currency. If this isn't possible, payment in dollars is the next best thing.

Products

You need to have a genuine product or service to sell, it’s the only way to bring money in. But that shouldn’t really be a problem - any product or service which can be sold using traditional methods can be marketed and sold using referral marketing techniques, and the internet is an ideal medium for this.

If you are the artistic, creative type then maybe you have something which you have made yourself that you might like to market. If not, then simply pick somebody else’s product to sell - that’s what many traditional businesses have been doing for centuries after all.

However you find your product, the first thing you need to know is whether or not there is a market for it. A reasonable test is simply to ask yourself “Would I buy this myself?”. If the answer is no then ask yourself “Who else would buy this?” - in fact you should always ask this question even if you would buy it yourself.

If, like many people interested in working for themselves, you want to eventually replace your job - or even if you just want to have a continuous second income - you need to think in terms of residual income. What this means is that you get paid over and over again for the same sale. That means that you need to select your product/service very carefully.

For example, let’s suppose that you are a very gifted artist and you sell your work on the internet. Maybe you command very good prices - but is this residual income? No - because once your customer has paid you for your artwork they don’t have to give you any more money month after month. They don’t need to pay every time they want to look at it do they?

Now consider the case if we were selling electricity, for example. If we persuaded a customer to sign up with us once we might expect them to use their electricity every day, month after month. Therefore, assuming we’ve got a good pay plan that pays out on a percentage of their monthly bill, we expect to earn money month after month based on their usage - residual income.

Think about some other products that might earn you residual income. There’s plenty of them. Here’s a short list - it’s not complete but it should be enough to get you thinking:

Residual Income Opportunities

• Telephone calls and line rental
• Mobile phone supply, line rental and calls.
• Electricity supply
• Gas supply
• Web hosting supply.
• Autoresponder supply (monthly rental)
• Any software which is supplied based on a rental basis.
• Property rental.
• Virtually any product or service which is leased or rented rather than sold.

Residual income is great - but it’s not the only consideration. Remember that one of our other criteria was low start up cost. Property rental would certainly provide residual income but it’s quite likely that the entry cost for such a venture would be prohibitively high for many people. Nevertheless, you can find plenty low cost products and services which would provide residual income.

When selecting the product or service you should also consider the amount of ongoing effort required to supply it in the first instance and then to keep providing it month after month.

Here are some more things to think about when selecting your perfect product:

Key Attributes of The Perfect Product or Service

• It is disposable or reusable - providing residual income.
• There is a high demand for the product or service.
• It is easy to deliver - ideally you don’t even have to touch it.
• Once it is delivered you don’t have any maintenance to perform.
• There is a very low return rate. Any returns are not at your cost.

 

Finding The Right Company To Work With

Choosing the right company to work with is essential. Get involved with the wrong outfit and you will be doomed to failure from the off.

As an absolute minimum you need to be sure that the company you decide to work with is financially sound. If not how will they pay your bonuses and commission? And since you want them to pay you, and then keep on paying you, you will want to have some confidence that they will be around for a good long while.

You will also want to avoid being scammed or ripped off in any way. This is easier to do than you might think - but there is a downside.

Risk and Opportunity

Current figures indicate that, in America alone, 25,000,000 people presently before they get caught. Often they will reappear a short time later with a new scam or with the same scam under a different name.

And the same thing is true for operations which are financially unsound. They tend not to be around for very long - but for different reasons.

One of the best things you can do when choosing which company to get involved with is to select an operation which has been going for some time. It’s not a guarantee of success by any manner of means - but it does mean you are much less likely to lose your money through illegal activity or incompetence on the part of the company.

It’s a simple enough strategy which if followed will protect you - there’s just one small problem of course. In many cases the best profits to be had will be with new, innovative companies who have no track record. At one time companies like Microsoft, Amazon, etc. were upstart startups with no history but plenty new ideas. It would have been good to get in on the ground floor with one of them - right?

Of course, for every fledgling mega star out there, there are probably a few thousand flops doomed to failure. Going by the numbers it probably makes more sense to avoid organizations without some pedigree - but risk and opportunity are two sides of the same coin. If your personality is such that you are prepared to take a little more risk then you may be rewarded - just don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.

If you do decide to get involved with a relatively new company, in the hope of gaining higher profits, then do a little research to try to minimize your risk exposure. Something as simple as an advanced search on Google with the company name and “scam” as the search terms can yield results. It’s also worth checking out the various forums that exist to help you avoid being scammed.

Support Structure

You will definitely want to know that the company you are getting involved with has a good support structure in place. This is especially important if you are new to home business and this is your first venture into the market.

Make sure there is a dedicated support line and email address for distributors/affiliates and also check out what training is made available. Even if you have years of experience in other business ventures you will still need help with some of the fine details in the early stages.

Do a little investigation into not only the amount but the type of training you will be able to access. Basic training should be included in your startup cost - any serious company knows the importance of training and will expect you to go through at least the basics. However, you should beware of any company that tries to charge you extra each month for training - it could be that training fees form a significant part of the company’s income stream. since we want to be involved with companies that have genuine products then this should ring alarm bells.

Administration

Simply put, the only activities which will make you money are selling and recruiting. If you’re not doing one or other of those then you’re not making money and you’re involved in administration.

In order to maximize your earnings, and to grow your business as rapidly as possible, you need to minimize the amount of time you spend on non-value adding activities and focus on the important aspects of your business.

Low Admin For Sales

1. Accept orders on the net.
2. A simple method for accepting orders offline
3. No need to get involved with the delivery process.
4. No need to handle cash.
5. No involvement in returns.

Sales

The selling process should be simplicity itself. You should have a website provided which allows your customers to place orders online. Depending upon the product or service that you provide, there should also be a suitable way to take orders off-line - a free phone order hotline number or, at worst, a simple single page order form which can be mailed to HQ or the dispatch warehouse.

The product or service should be supplied directly to the customer. There should be absolutely no need for the product to be delivered to you and then shipped or hand delivered to the customer. Think about it - do you really want your spare bedroom full to the rafters with crates and boxes? Being involved in the delivery process might also tend to limit you to a geographical area - and why would you want that?

The same goes for returns. Obviously you want to have a good product which will have a low return rate - but a small percentage is inevitable. These should be returned directly to the company, not via you. After all, what value does handling returns add?

Handling cash is another big no-no. It’s a real time waster and full of problems. Will you have the correct change? Is it safe to walk around with that much money? What if you get robbed or burgled - will your insurance cover the loss? No - the only cash you want to be handling is your commission cheque at the end of the month

Low Admin For Recruiting

1. A good recruiting website which will capture leads for you.
2. A good recruiting website which will provide more details to your prospects.
3. An autoresponder to deliver information automatically.

Sales - You Can Do It

Sales are essential for any business to survive. That’s no stunning revelation - everybody knows this. However, even although most people are well aware of this, many of them profess an almost pathological dislike for selling and the sales process.

Face facts - if you want to work for yourself, you will have to sell - somehow or another. And that’s the key - somehow or another.

A lot of people who fear selling have an image of trudging around from door to door carrying a battered suitcase in their hand. Knocking on doors, disturbing people and getting those doors slammed in their faces. Or maybe they’re just afraid that someone will laugh at them and belittle their efforts.

Rejection. Nobody likes it - many people are afraid of it, that’s just human nature. If you share this viewpoint there’s nothing wrong with you -you’re only human. More importantly, it certainly doesn’t mean that you aren’t suited to running your own business.

There are many different ways to sell - some of them are automatic and others minimize contact with the prospects to what most people would consider an acceptable level. Make sure that the opportunity you’re evaluating is suitable for use with at least one or two sales techniques that you feel comfortable with.

Also check on what sales and marketing materials are available. If you don’t like those which are provided then be sure that you are allowed to produce your own (possibly subject to approval).

Here are some possible sales techniques that you could employ:

Potential Sales Techniques

• Selling on the internet
• Selling over the phone
• Selling door to door
• Putting fliers through doors
• Advertising in the press
• Handing out leaflets in shopping centers
• Approaching your family and friends
• Setting up a stall at local events
• Attending car boot sales
• Party evenings

There are others of course. Could you do one or two of these? Maybe you wouldn’t especially enjoy the process - but would the results be worth some slight discomfort if they took you nearer your goal?

If you really can’t envisage yourself engaging in some sort of selling activity then all is not lost. You could consider partnering with someone who would be more adapted to the selling side of a business (maybe this could be your spouse).

Certainly, before you give up on your  business dream because of a distaste for selling, you should investigate the possibilities for selling and recruiting using the internet. You might be surprised at just how easy this can be and the extremely high level of automation that can be achieved if you use the right system.

Building Your Team

One of the cornerstones of network marketing is that you build a team of distributors/affiliates and, in return for helping them to understand about the business, you profit from their efforts as well as your own.

This is an area which some people struggle with - many find it slightly embarrassing and feel self conscious - and that’s hardly surprising given the outdated methods that some companies still teach. Many companies are still advocating making a “pitch” in someone’s living room. Even those that do provide tools for recruiting on the web often miss the point completely and supply their business partners with crude and ineffective tools.

Have a look at the stunningly simple system below. This is extremely effective and, when you think about it, so obvious that it’s almost trite. And yet you can pay a lot of money to learn about such systems or to get your hands on the components. However, if you know how, you can set up a system like this for no, or very little cost.

The Website

The website has only one function - to capture the email address of your prospects and load this into an autoresponder. It’s best if this is just a very simple single page website which has just enough information - a few bullet points are usually enough - to whet the prospect’s appetite and make them want to learn more about your business opportunity. There are plenty free HTML editors available these days and these are very simple to use - you don’t need to know about HTML or any other software writing to be able to use these. If you can use a simple word processor like Word then you’ll be able to knock up a simple web page very easily.

The Autoresponder

An autoresponder is simply a piece of software which stores pre-loaded email messages and then sends them out to people who have supplied their email address. The important thing is that the emails are going out only to people who have given their permission for emails to be sent to them. they are, to use the network marketing parlance, qualified prospects. they have visited your website, read a short summary of your business opportunity and shown their interest by completing the form and supplying their email address.

Team Members

Most people will go through your series of informational emails and then stop. There will be something about your business opportunity which they don’t feel is right for them. However, some will read through your emails an then sign up for the opportunity. This will be a relatively small percentage but that’s okay. Due to the ability to reach a massive audience on the internet you will be able to have a high number of prospects look at your opportunity - even with a relatively low hit rate you will still be building your business at a very impressive rate.

Your Input

Once you have built your simple one page website and loaded a few email messages into your autoresponder the hard work is done. Then your main tasks are simply to drive traffic to your website and to answer any queries hat interested prospects may make as they get towards the end of your series of emails. The biggest part of the system is automated.

Your potential team members may choose to contact you by phone or by email, and this will be a concern for some people - especially for those who have an inherent dislike of selling. However, there is no reason to worry about this because of the way the system is set up. Anyone who makes contact with you is already interested and you’re not involved in a hard sell. Remember - all you’re doing is providing them with more information so that they can make a decision for themselves.

Simple But Effective

This system is so simple and effective that anyone can do it. Use it and you will soon be recruiting team members just for fun!

Why This System Works So Well:

1. There is a high degree of automation.
2. Subscribers have already indicated their interest by providing their email address.
3. The autoresponder messages do the hard “sales” work for you.
4. The system is ideal for use on the internet allowing a high number of prospects to be reached.

Website

The function of the website, as used in the automated recruiting system, is simply to capture the email address of anyone interested in receiving more information on whatever business opportunity you are promoting. With that in mind, you don’t need to agonies too much over the design of the website. Keep it simple and uncluttered so that your message won’t be obscured.

The key elements you need are as below:

1. An attention grabbing headline.
2. A few bullet points outlining the main benefits of your opportunity.
3. A signup form to collect email addresses and feed them into your autoresponder.
4. A statement guaranteeing that you will not disclose anyone’s contact details and that they may unsubscribe at any time.
5. A few testimonials if you have them.

And that really is all you need. You don’t need any animations, fancy graphics and, most important of all, you certainly don’t want to tell them absolutely everything there is to know about your opportunity at this stage. Just enough information to raise the curiosity of your visitors, no more.

Have a look at this very simple site. It’s an example of cutting edge web design - but thousands of people have submitted their email address using the form on this page - and many of these have then gone on to join the opportunity.

 Building and Hosting Your Website

There are many different tools available for building your website and then hosting it. Some options are listed in the website section of the resources area, and some of these are free. Web hosting is very cheap and you should certainly design a website which is free of ads - but if you haven’t done any website work before then why not play around with the HTML editor in one of the free facilities to begin with? Once you see how easy it is you can consider either upgrading to a pro version or using some different fee based software.

Most hosting packages will have some design software included these days. Another option would be to use one of the many free HTML editors and then upload the site you produce by this method to the free hosting space provided by your ISP. This might be good enough to start you off - especially if all your producing is a single page site for advertising your opportunity. You can always upgrade to a more feature laden package later if you feel the need.

Check out the web tools in the resources area for some more information on what’s available.

Autoresponder

An autoresponder is simply a software program which stores email messages and then sends them out to email addresses stored in a database. the order in which the messages are sent out is defined and the delay between messages can also be predefined.

For example, message 1 may be sent immediately, message 2 may go a day later, message 3 a further day after that etc. You load your messages into the responder once and then just let it do the follow up for you.

Email addresses can be input manually, via a form on a website, or by sending a blank email to the autoresponder address. If you put email addresses in manually then it is absolutely essential that you have the recipient’s permission - otherwise you are spamming.

Apart from the fact that this is completely unacceptable, spamming will quickly get you into trouble with your ISP and your autoresponder provider.

Apart from the fact that this is completely unacceptable, spamming will quickly get you into trouble with your ISP and your autoresponder provider.

The Awesome Power of Follow Up

Okay - an autoresponder sends out a series of messages for you. Great - big deal. What’s all the fuss about?

Simply put, an autoresponder allows you to follow up your prospects as often as you like during the sales/recruitment process - and that is an immensely powerful facility. In order to illustrate this concept let me give you a short example from my own experience:

Some years ago, on the recommendation of a friend, I visited Amazon.com for the first time. My friend was someone whose judgment I trusted - and I had heard good things about it from other friends and colleagues. I was certainly impressed with what I saw when I got to the site, it was well laid out, information was clear, prices were good and there was a great range to choose from. But I didn’t buy anything - not on that visit. Later on I went back to the site and I am now a regular customer.

So what’s the moral of the story? I went to one of the best websites on the planet, I was already interested and I had plenty of first hand recommendations from people who I knew and trusted - but I didn’t buy anything. Why not? Simple - it's perfectly normal behavior that's why, in fact had I bought anything on that first visit I would have been flying in the face of conventional behavior - on the internet or in the real world.

It's the equivalent of window shopping, or you could consider it as research if you like. Just be aware that this is the way the vast majority of people surf and view websites - get used to it and plan accordingly

The only way that you're going to make a sale is if the visitor returns, or if you have further contact by some other means. there are a number of ways to do this, two of the best methods are as follows:

1. Make the content of the website so interesting and compelling that your visitor will want to return.
2. You take the initiative and keep in touch by sending your visitor information by email.

Both of these methods work very well, and should be used together if possible. Use an autoresponder to follow up automatically for you. It will help you form a relationship with your customers and/or potential team members and increase your profits more than almost any other tool.

Check out some good free and pro autoresponders in the resources area.

Getting Traffic To Your Website

All you have to do, once you’ve set up your simple one page website and autoresponder system, is drive traffic to your website and then reap the benefits as you recruit new distributors into your team. You could think of it as putting petrol in a car if you like.

However, if you have been involved in any internet marketing at all, you will know that getting traffic is not just as simple as you might think. There are millions of websites on the net today - how will anyone find yours?

Even if you haven’t been involved in internet marketing before you will probably have come across adverts for the many and varied different services that exist to deliver traffic to websites.

Different Types of Traffic

A number of different methods exist for driving traffic to your website. The holy grail of traffic is so called “targeted visitors” - and this type of visitor usually finds their way to your site as the result of a search or click - i.e. they have taken some positive action to find you. As this type of visitor is so highly prized you might expect to pay more for this type of traffic.

At the other end of the scale is untargeted traffic, and this normally consists of visitors who have found their way to your site by chance - or perhaps have viewed your site, or an advert for it, in a pop-up or pop-under window. Because this traffic is less targeted, it is less likely to get you recruits or customers and it costs less.

Different Methods of Getting Traffic

There are many different ways to get traffic to your website. There have been a lot of ebooks written on the subject and it’s too diverse to explore fully here, this can only be a very basic introduction. What it is possible to say here is that you should not rely on one method alone, no matter how well it seems to work. The internet is constantly changing and evolving - you may find the surefire hit that worked so well yesterday turns into a damp squib today. always have a backup plan.

Listed below are just a few methods which you could consider:

1. Traffic exchanges.
2. Writing articles.
3. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
4. Search engine traffic - Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
5. Exchanging links.
6. Buying traffic.

Traffic Exchanges

Being in a traffic exchange is like being in a club. You surf, using a specially designed “surf bar” unique to the traffic exchange in question, and view the other member’s websites. Every time you view a website you get a credit, or a point, and these are exchanged for visitors who view your website. Normally there is a “ratio” involved and - for free members - it is usually one return visitor for every two websites that you view.

Most exchanges are free to join but many have a “pro upgrade” option where you can get a better view/return view ratio (say 1:1) for a monthly fee, typically a few dollars a month.

Traffic exchanges are a perfectly reasonable way to get traffic to your website, especially when you’re just starting out. Certainly, you couldn’t describe this as high quality or targeted traffic - but it is free and it allows you to test new websites and promotion strategies at no, or very low, cost before you decide whether or not you want to invest money in a paid campaign.

Despite what many people will tell you, traffic exchanges do work. they may work more slowly or more sporadically than other traffic generation methods, but they will provide you with signups and customers if you have a little patience.

There are many traffic exchanges on the internet today and the quality of these varies wildly. Just a few of some of the best ones are listed in the resources area. One of the very best exchanges on the net is Traffic Swarm and you should certainly consider joining this. For some reason, it seems to have a higher conversion rate than the other exchanges.

Learn more about traffic exchanges...

Writing Articles

One of the best ways to get no cost traffic is by writing and submitting articles to “article banks”. Just pick a subject that you know something about and write a brief article between 500 to 2000 words and then submit it to one of the specialist sites on the internet. You allow the users of the site to read your article for free and some of them may even choose to use your article on their website or in their ezine.

You benefit from this because it gives you credibility and, in time and with the production of suitably high quality articles, you may become established as an “expert” in whatever field you choose to publish. You also include a brief biography (it’s an advert really) in your signature file along with a link to your website(s).

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

When you do a search on Google, you will see some small boxes containing adverts down the right hand side of the results page. These normally contain adverts which are directly related to the search performed and are pay-per-click adverts. The advertisers have an account set up with Google and they pay only when someone clicks on their adverts.

This is a very effective form of advertising as the visitors have already indicated that they are interested by typing in a related search term - they are “pre-qualified”. They show even more interest by clicking on the advert so, by the time they arrive at the website in question, they should probably be more receptive to the sales message being delivered.

The best know PPC system is Google adwords. Using this you can place ads on Google and whenever someone searches for a related term then they may see your ad. Google is the most popular search engine on the net so you have the potential to reach many prospective customers. However, you definitely shouldn’t overlook Yahoo! Search Marketing - formerly know as Overture. This service positions your ads on a number of different search engines, including Yahoo (of course), MSN and Alta Vista.

Search Engine Traffic

Traffic from search engines is often considered to be the very best you can get - simply because of the fact that it is targeted due to the visitor searching on a related term. However, getting to the top of the search engines - search engine optimization (SEO) is no simple task. You may need to spend a lot of time optimizing your site (and that will only be a fraction of the time you spend learning exactly how to do this) or you may need to pay a professional to do this for you.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, then the search engines change their “ranking algorithms” periodically and you may find out that your previously high ranking site disappears of their radar overnight. PPC can be a good - and more economical - solution if you want quick results.

Exchanging Links

Exchanging links is a good method to improve your search engine ranking. It is currently a major factor in how important search engines consider a site to be and this is likely to continue for some time. However, and more importantly, even if there is a change in the search engine algorithms exchanging links is still a good idea as you will receive some traffic directly from the sites you link to regardless of the search engine’s perspective on things.

This relies upon the fact that you link only to sites which are in some way related to the basic subject matter of your site. Don’t get links just for the sake of it and don’t use “link farms”.

Buying Traffic

There are sites which will sell you traffic. You will see adverts on the internet offering 10,000 visitors for $20. Do not use these under any circumstances. Some of these sites will just take your money and either, deliver no hits or deliver fraudulent hits - hits generated by software programs.

The majority of these traffic vendors are honest of course and will deliver you some hits. However, you will probably receive hits from visitors who were looking for something completely unrelated to your site - and this can sometimes be adult related themes. Even if you do get lucky and get a few interested visitors out of the thousands that you pay for, they will probably be seeing your site in an annoying pop-up window which they certainly didn’t go looking for. What do you think when that happens during your surfing sessions - does it put you in the right frame of mind to buy?

Don’t waste your money.

Avoiding Being Scammed

Just like any other business arena, most of the companies and people you will come across on the internet are honest and trustworthy. However, like any other area, there are always a minority who prefer to profit by dishonest means.

A healthy dose of skepticism is a useful weapon in your armory - just as long as it doesn’t paralyze you into inaction. If you have applied the key business criteria then you will already have weeded out many of the “unsuitable” businesses of course.

However, it’s only common sense to take whatever precautions you can to avoid being scammed. Knowledge is power and there are plenty sources available to help you.

For example, just do an advanced search on Google with the name of your potential business opportunity and SCAM as the search terms. See what turns up, you might be surprised.

There are also several websites and forums which exist purely to highlight scams. You can find some of them in the useful resource centre.

One of the biggest concerns many people have is that they might be caught up in a pyramid scheme. Unfortunately most people don’t fully understand what a pyramid scheme is so they don’t know what the tell tale signs are. You can find out by clicking here.

Avoid Scams by:

1. Applying the key criteria for business selection. Most scams will fail at least two of these.
2. Using specialist websites that highlight scams.
3. Doing an advanced search on Google using the name of the business plus supplementary terms like “scam”, “fraud” etc.

 

Top Ten Consumer Scams

In 2005 the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) launched a campaign in order to raise awareness of the most common ways in which people are conned. The OFT identified the top ten scams targeted at UK consumers.

These are listed below and, if you look through them, you will see some patterns emerging. It should help you avoid being scammed - online or offline.

These top ten "hall of shame" scams are outlined here in fairly broad brushstrokes. Nevertheless, hopefully you should quickly see some common patterns which will help you to avoid being scammed in future.

Watch out for them.

WORK-AT-HOME SCAMS
Advertisements for paid work-from-home schemes and business opportunities are often scams. Would be home workers who apply are asked for money up-front to pay for materials. After payment no more is heard from the parent company.

Another variation on this is where the company does actually send out some materials for assembly. These materials are usually very inexpensive. When the assembled products are submitted they are invariably rejected as they "do not meet the necessary quality standards". This method also gives the scammers a second bite at the cherry as they often sell a further kit with instructions for the necessary quality improvements to ensure acceptance in future. Regardless of how good the quality is, the assembled items will never be accepted.

TELEPHONE LOTTERY SCAMS
Scammers impersonate representatives from a genuine lottery, such as the Irish Lottery or the Canadian Lottery. They make unsolicited telephone calls to their victims and advise them that they are going to be entered in a draw.

A few days later the victim receives another call to advise them that they have won a substantial amount of money. However, before they can receive their prize the victim must pay a fee for administration and taxes. The prize, of course, does not exist.

MATRIX SCHEMES
Often promoted online these schemes mainly involve websites which offering high cost electrical and electronic devices as free gifts in return for buying a relatively cheap product - for example a mobile phone charger. Consumers who buy the cheap product (take the bait) are then put onto a waiting list to receive their free gift.

The person at the top of the list receives their gift only after a predetermined number of new buyers sign up. The victims are usually encourage to hasten he process along by introducing their friends and family to the scheme. The large majority of people on the list never receive the prize.

PRIZE DRAW MAILINGS
The victim receives a notification by post that they have won a prize such as a holiday or a sweepstake draw. In order to receive the prize an administration fee or registration fee must be paid in advance. Once this is paid the prize will fail to materialize.

PROPERTY INVESTMENT SCHEMES
Potential investors attend a free presentation, the purpose of which is to persuade them to pay large amounts of money to enroll on a course which promises to make them a successful property dealer.

Some schemes involve the offer of buying as yet unbuilt properties at a discount. Others involve a buy-to-let scheme where the scammers offer to source, renovate and manage existing properties which they claim will provide good returns from rental income. The properties are often derelict and the tenants do not exist.

PREMIUM RATE TELEPHONE NUMBER SCAMS
The victim receives a notification in the post that they have won a prize - a holiday or a sweepstake. In order to claim the prize they need to call a premium rate number - usually beginning with 090 - which will incur high charges. Often there is a long recorded message and the prize simply does not exist.

INVESTMENT-RELATED SCAMS
The victim receives an unsolicited telephone call which offers the opportunity to invest in rare commodities such as diamonds, fine wines or shares. These investments are usually in areas which carry a high risk and where a high level of training, skill and experience is normally required.

The shares are not quoted on any conventional stock exchange. The diamonds, if they exist and are actually supplied, will be low grade and worth considerably less than the amount invested.

NIGERIAN ADVANCE FEE FRAUDS
This form of fraud has been around for many years. Many of the earlier scams originated from Nigeria, hence the name, but today similar variations can be seen from Iraq, Asia, Africa etc. The main requirement seems to be that the area should have recently had a war or some major political upheaval.

Today this type of fraud is mainly perpetrated via e-mail, but some traditionalist scammers may still use letters by post. The victim receives offer to share a large sum of money in return for using the recipient's bank account to transfer of the money out of the country. If bank account details are provided, the scammers may empty the victim's account.

Alternatively, the scammers may ask for money up front - usually for bribing corrupt officials in order to get the money out of the country. See examples of Nigerian fraud e-mails here ...........

CREDIT SCAMS Another advance fee fraud, which often originates in Canada. Adverts are placed in local newspapers offering quick loans, even if the applicant has poor credit history. Applicants are told that their loans have been approved but they must pay an insurance fee prior to release. After the fee is paid, the victim will never hear from the scammers again and the loan amount will never be advanced.

PYRAMID SCHEMES
Pyramid schemes, sometimes called Ponzi schemes, offer a return on a financial investment which is based upon the scheme continuing to grow as new members join the scheme. The money from new investors is used to pay earlier investors - robbing Peter to pay Paul.

After a while the pyramid will collapse as it reaches the point where there are not enough new victims entering to pay off the earlier investors.

 

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