Most MLM emers seem to end up to end up with excess products that they can't sell at a profit because the products are overpriced in the first place. You only have to look on E bay and you will see what I mean. Some companies even ban members from selling except from approved sites online.
I have found a company who is different and not only do they have a good weight loss product but it sells at a competitive price so that Independent Representatives can still make a profit even when selling at auctions.
Now some people face challenges when it comes to marketing, partly due to the price of the product as mentioned above and sometimes because the do not know where to start. Now I have teamed up with a company called MarketHive which is making a special offer to all people who join Valentus at the $500 (Ruby) level. Now $499 is a lot of money, however you starter pack product if sold online will recover this cost and put you in profit.
MarketHive special incentive is an upgrade in MarketHive to the Alpha Entrepreneur membership level. This is an amazing deal as it normally costs $5000 and includes One time deposit of $10,000 in Ad credits and contributes $300 in Ad credits per month so long as the member maintains their Ruby level, if you drop below ruby level month credits will be suspended until you return ruby level.
Within MarketHive you will find a new type of entrepreneur, groups of people who will go the extra mile to ensure you can build this business, teaching you how to extend your reach in social media. We currently have Valentus groups in the UK, Europe, and the USA, so you will not be alone, we all help one another, no matter which group you are part of.
All the tools you will ever need, blogs, auto-responders, rotators, combined with active social media media, messaging and conference rooms.
Many people join an MLM company as a distributor, only to find, that their so called sponsor, offers little help or advise, because he or she earns from sponsoring you and is in reality in competition with you about building his business. You can be left with draws or cupboards full of product which you are unable to sell to friends or family. Does this sound familiar with you.
People tend to recruit distributors, who in reality are little more than customers as they do not recruit many in any customers. Customers are the key to building a success business, so you need to carry out some preparatory work in the area of marketing to start making contact with potential customers.
One thing I have learnt in the years I have been working online is it is easier to to become successful if you are supplying customers with some thing that suits their need, rather than trying to persuade a potential distributor to part with money to set up a business.
One problem a distributor faces is that they become a one man band who has to do everything, however, I have found an answer thanks to the foresight of Tom Prendergast, and his development team who have created a social media and marketing site, where budding entrepreneurs, gather and discuss and help one another to build each others business. It does not matter who you are, what you know or where you live, you will be helped along the road to success.
One example is the promotion of a company who has realised that customers are at the centre of success for their independent business owners. The resources of MarketHive are used by interested groups who work together blogging and sharing information, on social media ,within not only their own sphere of influence but also those of other members involved. The result is you communication can reach millions of people at the push of a button.
It is a mind boggling concept that is starting to stir the industry, if you would like to learn more about swarm marketing, I would like to invite you to contact me
Improving Conversion by Building Business Relationships
Trying to sell a visitor on a first visit is like asking someone to marry you the first time you meet. To improve your chances of closing the sale, first seek to build a business relationship with the prospect. Building rapport can be done in the following ways.
1) Educating
Explain a process or concept. Give step-by-step instructions and advice.
2) Problem solving
If there is a common problem your prospects face, develop a creative solution. Provide a simple, quick, and easy way to fix it.
3) Adding value
Provide something of value to your prospects. Ideally, use digital products and systems so that once the product is created, it does not cost you any extra to distribute it to 1,000 or 1,000,000.
Practically, these methods of business relationship building are conducted through the following ways:
4) Articles
Writing articles about your area of expertise can allow you to dramatically increase your influence. By submitting articles you have written to relevant directories, you could get republished to dozens of publications and reach thousands of prospects. You will be positioned as an expert to these people, and they will come to you looking for answers.
5) Blogging
The benefits of building and maintaining a blog are similar to those of publishing articles. Posting new, interesting content will help you market yourself by educating others. It attracts inbound links from other websites, and can often boost your website traffic.
6) E-course
An email e-course can be built by taking 3-5 of your articles and setting up a newsletter publishing tool to send 1 article per day to each person that signs up. You will get the benefits of marketing through education, and the repetition of one article per day will further market yourself.
Since the recipients have chosen to receive this from you, you can also include a message at the end of each email promoting your product or service.
7) Free tools & downloads
Building free tools that help your potential customers in some way is a powerful strategy to building traffic and relationships. Examples include calculators, generators, eBooks, and plugins. Often, these do not cost much time or effort to create, but provide a lot of value to your target audience.
Build relationships by sharing knowledge and giving away value before you try to close the sale. Doing so will not only improve your sales conversion rate, but will win you loyal customers and clients.
MarketHive Inbound Marketing Tools for Entrepreneurs
MarketHive is a social networking site designed for entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, MarketHive isn't only a social networking website, in addition, it includes a blogging platform, plus some very effective online marketing tools to allow entrepreneurs to be successful marketing their Internet business, services and products.
Below you will find some of the marketing tools you will receive once you sign up for Markethive:
Autoresponders
E-mail Broadcasting
Blogging Platform
Capture Pages
One Click Lead Generation System
Conference Room and a whole lot more
You might be curious about how much actually does MarketHive charge for these amazing online marketing tools, well the answer really is these Internet marketing tools are totally free of charge for life, no strings attached. Basically these online marketing tools would cost you hundreds of dollars per month, not at MarketHive. This is the good news for the beginner as well as the veteran Internet marketer.
For most small businesses marketing is either a huge expense or a huge burden. If you are trying to run a small business, or if you are an entrepreneur trying to navigate your way online, the word marketing is kind of a scary one.
You envision yourself or your team spending hours and hours blogging, or creating content on social networks with no guarantee that your time investment will pay off. Or you pay someone through the nose to handle your marketing, not really sure if that investment will work out any better than doing it in-house.
This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but unfortunately, it is the reality that far too many start-ups and existing small businesses face. Here are some excellent tools that you probably have not heard of, that can help ease your burden. Do not worry, relief is on the way.
Markethive – this is a totally free social network for entrepreneurs and small businesses. This network can help you, even if you don't have your own website. If you do have your own website, it can work hand in hand for even better results.
It would take an entire blog post to describe everything that Markethive can do for you, but let's just start with their blogging platform. Simply put I get 10X the post views on Markethive compared to the views I get on LinkedIn Pulse.
Markethive is an engaged social network. This is quite a surprising comparison, despite the fact that I have 10k 1st level connections on LinkedIn, and only 500 friends in Markethive. As they say, go figure!
Simple Lead Generator for Facebook and Twitter. Without listing all of the features and benefits, (see the video link for details), this powerful software lets you search for and find groups automatically by keyword search.
You can post automatically to groups, and also to your friends on Facebook. You can also auto-follow on Twitter and auto-like tweets in order to encourage people to follow you back. This can save hours and hours of your time if you are active on either Facebook or Twitter.
The above-mentioned automated software systems allow you the access that you need in order to market effectively on these major social networking platforms. You can save yourself hours and hours of manual labor using these systems.
Please connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/leadsonline or call 973-259-6055 for more information.
For most small businesses marketing is either a huge expense or a huge burden. If you are trying to run a small business, or if you are an entrepreneur trying to navigate your way online, the word marketing is kind of a scary one.
You envision yourself or your team spending hours and hours blogging, or creating content on social networks with no guarantee that your time investment will pay off. Or you pay someone through the nose to handle your marketing, not really sure if that investment will work out any better than doing it in-house.
This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but unfortunately, it is the reality that far too many start-ups and existing small businesses face. Here are some excellent tools that you probably have not heard of, that can help ease your burden. Do not worry, relief is on the way.
Markethive – this is a totally free social network for entrepreneurs and small businesses. This network can help you, even if you don't have your own website. If you do have your own website, it can work hand in hand for even better results.
It would take an entire blog post to describe everything that Markethive can do for you, but let's just start with their blogging platform. Simply put I get 10X the post views on Markethive compared to the views I get on LinkedIn Pulse.
Markethive is an engaged social network. This is quite a surprising comparison, despite the fact that I have 10k 1st level connections on LinkedIn, and only 500 friends in Markethive. As they say, go figure!
LeadOutcome – you may or may not be aware that LinkedIn is one of the few social networks that allows the export of names and email addresses. Your entire database of 1st level connections on LinkedIn whether you have 500, 2500, or 25,000 1st level connections, can be exported and sent email using automated marketing methods. This is obviously extremely significant for marketers.
I am not a big fan of autoresponders, or email blasters, as I like to call them. Aside from telling you the open rates and clickthrough rates of email, they really do little else.
No autoresponder I know of can tell you who is "hot", and who is not. There are a number of specialized features that CRM software systems like LeadOutcome offer, but the fact that each action a lead takes is "scored" makes a huge difference.
You now know who is "hot", and who is not. There are a number of additional features of LeadOutcome that make it highly desirable, but given that it's monthly cost is less than most autoresponders makes it a relative no-brainer.
Simple Lead Generator for Facebook and Twitter. Without listing all of the features and benefits, (see the video link for details), this powerful software lets you search for and find groups automatically by keyword search.
You can post automatically to groups, and also to your friends on Facebook. You can also auto-follow on Twitter and auto-like tweets in order to encourage people to follow you back. This can save hours and hours of your time if you are active on either Facebook or Twitter.
Group Messenger for LinkedIn. (see the video link for details) This software allows you to market automatically on LinkedIn. No need for manual messages one by one anymore.
You can auto-invite based on keyword searches and auto-invite group members for groups of which you are a member. You can email open networkers over and above the LinkedIn limits for invitations.
Of course, you will find quite a large number of rather expensive systems for inbound marketing that will schedule and organize your content, etc. etc. Despite the advantages of these systems, you will find most of what they do in Markethive at no charge.
An essential component of any inbound marketing strategy, or what I like to call automated marketing is about how to gain access to prospects. There are always restrictions on the manual methods social networks offer to contact, message, and connect with friends and potential prospects.
The above-mentioned automated software systems allow you the access that you need in order to market effectively on these major social networking platforms. You can save yourself hours and hours of manual labor using these systems.
You will not find a more powerful or lower-cost suite of tools for inbound marketing on any other list on the Internet that is current for 2016 than this one.
Please connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/leadsonline or call 973-259-6055 for more information.
Solid Advice to Build Profits through Mobile Marketing
If you are completely new to the world of mobile marketing, then you are probably thinking that some tips on mobile marketing could help you immensely, so that you can begin your own career in this field. Listed below are some tips to get you started with your mobile marketing endeavors.
When creating a mobile marketing message which is going directly to a recipient, use their name! When someone sees a message with their name in the subject it's immediately personalized in their mind, making it seem like you have a relationship with the reader. This will lead them to be more likely to read everything you have to say.
The most visible mobile marketing is in social networking. The growth of social networking is phenomenal and continues to grow. Making your company viable in the social net realm is of utmost importance. It doesn't matter what your market segment is, you will find them on social networks every day of the week. Target these sites and build your business.
Make it very easy for your customers to unsubscribe from receiving your text messages. Many times having the option to reply with the word 'stop' will be the easiest way. This will lower any frustration if a customer no longer wants to receive texts. Remember that just because they don't want a text does not mean they do not want to be a customer.
Research ways to offer one-touch purchasing options for your products and services. Your mobile marketing messages should provide an option to store payment information that can be easily recalled and presented at the touch of a button, which will ultimately increase sales and create a reputation for ease of use and efficiency.
Negative impressions of your brand can spread like wildfire over the internet, so you want to attempt to jump out in front of negative buzz with a positive spin. Mobile marketing reaches a lot of people, and things can become popular or unpopular in a hurry. If something's becoming unpopular, fix it before it catches on.
Try conducting a usability test prior to actually launching your mobile ad campaign to make sure it goes smoothly! Send the ad in a small test circle to include yourself and trusted friends or family. Ask for the honest input of everyone and ask yourself if you like the ad and would be persuaded by it!
Even though you're marketing in the mobile world, you still have to make sure that you keep improving your efforts outside of this realm. Allowing other areas of marketing to lapse and putting too much focus on mobile marketing will hurt your business, no matter how well your mobile marketing is doing. Use your calendar and task list to allot regular times for each kind of marketing campaign.
As you can see from the above list of tips, mobile marketing can be very useful in giving your products and services, the exposure that they need and deserve. After following these tips, you will no longer be new to mobile marketing, and you will soon become a mobile marketing expert.
MarketHive Inbound Marketing Tools for Entrepreneurs
MarketHive is a social networking site designed for entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, MarketHive isn't only a social networking website, in addition, it includes a blogging platform, plus some very effective online marketing tools to allow entrepreneurs to be successful marketing their Internet business, services and products.
Below you will find some of the marketing tools you will receive once you sign up for Markethive:
Autoresponders
E-mail Broadcasting
Blogging Platform
Capture Pages
One Click Lead Generation System
Conference Room and a whole lot more
You might be curious about how much actually does MarketHive charge for these amazing online marketing tools, well the answer really is these Internet marketing tools are totally free of charge for life, no strings attached. Basically these online marketing tools would cost you hundreds of dollars per month, not at MarketHive. This is the good news for the beginner as well as the veteran Internet marketer.
Who doesn't want inexpensive Internet marketing tools? In this day and age when advertising your business online is the way to go, it's a must that you get Internet marketing tools at the lowest cost possible.
How can you get them? How can you make the most out of these low cost Internet marketing tools?
These low cost Internet marketing tools aim to better your website and promote them thoroughly. Read on to know more about them:
1. Software
There is software specializing in internet marketing. These programs are affordable Internet marketing tools. They attract traffic, communicate your site to anyone online, harness and trim down your keywords, track your site visitors and create links to other sites. Of course, the phrase "low cost" emphasizes that you must not spend exorbitantly. Watch out for Internet marketing tools that do nothing but suck your budget.
2. Website packages
Take note of low cost Internet marketing tools that do the following: hosting and designing your site, getting your domain, offering technical support, configure and upload your files, campaigning for your traffic.
These are available in website packages that you can get anytime. Choose a package caters to your site's needs.
3. Mailing lists
Notice that when you visit the Bulk Mail folder of your email, you read nothing but website promotions. This is email marketing? It boosts your business like no other. But be concerned about spamming. There is such a thing as "safe lists" that make your email spam-free.
4. Data Submitters
This is a money-saving internet marketing tool that works like magic. Have a data submitter of your own and amass tremendously huge hits!
5. E-books
Integrate an e-book in your site for people to download. At such a cheap price, you keep people clamoring for more and visiting your site in the process. That's one affordable internet marketing tool for you.
6. SEO tools
Internet marketing is not complete without the standard SEO tools. Search engines remain as the major powerhouse in marketing so never leave this part out. Generate traffic through this effective low cost Internet marketing tool!
7. The MarketHive for Entrepreneurs
MarketHive is a social networking site designed for entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, MarketHive isn't only a social networking website, in addition, it includes a blogging platform, plus some very effective online marketing tools to allow entrepreneurs to be successful marketing their Internet business, services and products.
Below you will find some of the marketing tools you will receive once you sign up for Markethive:
Autoresponders
E-mail Broadcasting
Blogging Platform
Capture Pages
One Click Lead Generation System
Conference Room and a whole lot more
You might be curious about how much actually does MarketHive charge for these amazing online marketing tools, well the answer really is these Internet marketing tools are totally free of charge for life, no strings attached. Basically these online marketing tools would cost you hundreds of dollars per month, not at MarketHive. This is the good news for the beginner as well as the veteran Internet marketer.
To Join MarketHive Click The Banner Below:
Here's a reminder: when you see the low cost internet marketing tools banners online, never get persuaded easily. Study the package deals; analyze the contents and benefits before deciding if you want one.
Ida Mae Boyd
Markethive Inbound Marketing Specialist
It has been my agenda for nearly 20 years to reform an industry that is for the most part built upon a shifting and unreliable foundation that has always been broken and is heading for total annihilation. If you have attempted to build a business in MLM Network Marketing) you will relate to what I am addressing.
For over a decade this vision has grown in urgency and definition to help direct a broken industry towards developing a customer based centered direct sales model. All of this was originally inspired by a maverick move towards customer acquisition by a company called Trivita. In 2001 I was introduced to this new direction in MLM by the simple statement, just buy your customers. I had already been engaged in the MLM industry for nearly 10 years at that time. My first exposure to MLM was in 1992 with the first to market a consumer (customer) based ISP, nationwide dialup Internet access for $20 per month.
I have been an entrepreneur my whole adult life and a good portion of my teen years as well, with my first business started at the age of 14. Prior to my exposure to MLM, I was and still am a traditional business entrepreneur. Therefore to say, I found the MLM model of exclusive distribution to and consumption by distributors and only motivated to this action by pursuing profit; "alien, illogical and disturbing".
Let me explain:
My introduction and very successful sojourn with Trivita helped me discover the stark contrast between the artificial economies of a distributor based sales company in contrast to a customer based sales company. I studied this comparison for many years and it became painfully clear, the reason traditional MLM fails, regardless of the compensation plan, regardless of the motivational speakers, regardless of the training to sell the “Hope and Dreams” as that is the only way to promote when the products and or services are frankly, always overpriced and usually underwhelmingly ineffective. There are very few exceptions. So the glaring difference I found in Trivita was the fact that for every distributor I recruited, I averaged 100 customers. Then the fact, I did not have to sell Hope and Dreams and instead, the pitch was just buy customers. The reaction from the potential distributor was always extremely positive and the close rate of a distributor was very high. When you factor in that every distributor usually meant 100 customers, the potential success was superior to anything else like it.
This was just a company that offered co-op acquisition of the leads and customers Trivita acquired via their infomercials and not much else. Even Trivita’s products lacked true demonstrability and the pricing was not competitive. The only viable benefit regarding being customer centric was the fact you could just buy customers, that for the most part, only about 20% stayed a viable reorder over the years.
Because of this one aspect with Trivita, I have enjoyed a significant income for over 10 years with little attention, a true residual income. Over the years as a vendor to the MLM industry, occasionally getting involved with a few companies because I was promised they were going to offer customer centric solutions. None of them ever did and in my opinion, the super majority of MLMs are run by greedy sociopathic owners, that understand the game and that being the 3 month rule. They build their businesses to inspire, motivate and separate their new distributors from as much money and contacts they can. They know their business model only attracts distributors seeking some semblance of financial success therefore they lay their snares with grand claims of Hopes and Dreams. I consider it borderline criminal. Now we finally arrive to the meat of this article, that being what is a true Customer Centric direct sales company look like. Being that there really isn’t any yet, we have to go to the imagination and vision that to some part is guided by good business principles and look at some of the true customer centric businesses on the scene today.
Amazon could easily be the epitome of customer centric.
Wow. “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.”
That is big, it’s bold, and it’s risky for a brand to make the promise to fulfill on that 24/7 every week of the year.
Service recovery design pays off
Of course the shopping and purchasing experience on Amazon has been exceptional for years. But what if a customer has a post-purchase problem? A big part of customer experience design is a focus on “service recovery,” or designing and refining the process when something goes wrong for the customer. Beloved brands like Zipcar know this is a critical opportunity for delivering moments of delight.
The latest results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals Amazon.com as the reigning and undisputed champ in both Internet retailing and across the entire department in overall customer satisfaction. Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos perhaps more than any business leader has taken the philosophy of truly caring for the customer and ushered it into the digital era. Bezos has built a company from the ground up purely based off of the unbending, unyielding philosophy of serving the customer across all departments. With a 164 million Amazon customers, few would argue Bezos as the key architect of building an authentic, customer-centric company.
1. Don’t Just Listen to Your Customers, Understand Them
Everyone has to be able to work in a call center.”
2. Serve the Needs of the Customer
“We’re not competitor obsessed, we’re customer obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.”
3. The Empty Chair
The Most Important Person in the Room “Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient.”
4. Never Settle for 99%
“We’re not satisfied until it’s 100%.”
5. Respect Today’s Customer
“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet,
they can each tell 6,000.”
6. Strive to Create a Customer-Centric Company
“If we can arrange things in such a way that our interests are aligned “with our customers, then in the long term that will work out really
“well for customers and it will work out really well for Amazon.”
7. Don’t Be Afraid to Apologize
“We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.”
Over the past two decades, Amazon has held a steady pace of positive press due to their industry-altering company and great customer service. However back in 2009, the foundations of the online book mogul were shook when they remotely deleted copies of the books “1984” and “Animal Farm” from users’ Kindles. The incident prompted an outcry of Internet users to see the dark, “Big Brother” side of Amazon – one that Bezos had worked hard to steer clear of. Amazon quickly made an apology with the usual dry and inhuman statement from the press team. But what really turned people back towards Amazon, was an informal and heartfelt apology from Jeff Bezos:
From “MLM” aka “Network Marketing”,
to a sustainable Coop Customer based Marketing Platform!
Now the vision for a better kinder direct sale company
I have run MLM companies, built them, serviced them as a vendor and engaged with them as a distributor for more than 20 years. I have touched and serviced and influenced over 100 million associates over this period of time. The following is my agenda to change this industry to service the little guy and gal, offering a real solution to build a middle class sustainable income for everyone, not just the elite few, we know as “leaders” in their respective company.
1. A Viable and Competitive Product
First and foremost, the “company” must offer a viable product and or service that does what it says and better than any of their competitors and better yet, have a product or service that has no legitimate competition. I could go into great detail here about the MLM industry and their underwhelming and over priced products with many making spurious claims to eventually be shut down by the FDA, etc.
2. The Virtual Warehouse
This may be putting cart before the horse. Inspired by Amazon’s virtual warehousing for their merchants selling in Amazon, it is time the MLM industry moves forward with a similar solution. Storing and paying additional shipping, your monthly product commitment in your spare bedroom, garages or den has been the standard fro decades. With today’s technology and database management abilities, there is no excuse to not move toward a virtual solution for distributors. This can be done in house by the company, or, use Amazon’s virtual warehousing that is available on a global scale.
This one upgrade to this industry will make reselling, shipping and distribution automated and easy for every distributor, regardless of location or available storage abilities. Bottom line is a doubling or greater movement of product.
3. Customer and Lead co-op acquisition
This is where the company marketing people run ads, driving vertically targeted prospects to an 800 number or website, acquiring quality pre enrolled prospects or customers who have purchased or best have enrolled into auto ship. The distributor’s contribution enhances the company’s budget and the “partnership” enhances the customer’s retention. The company also makes available to the distributor mailing lists to their “enrolled leads and customers” to assist in the continued purchases etc. It is a win win situation and is a proven technique as proven by Trivita.
4. Becoming an E Retailer (automated back office shipping)
Now that the distributors have their inventory, products and samples (if applicable), online, in an offsite virtual warehouse, the process to send product or samples becomes effective and easy. As simple as logging into the back office of their respective MLM company, entering the product (pulling from existing inventory and/or purchasing additional inventory), quantity, and drop ship address, with a simple click, the product or sample is easily on the way, while the distributor is still talking to their prospective client, prospect or distributor on the phone. This seamless process makes the potential growth of the company and distributor 100 times greater than the typical cumbersome processes today.
5. 800 telemarketing service platform
Today’s technologies not only make this proposed service affordable, but extremely effective. Typically, new distributors are assigned an ID# number. The number resides within the servers database to track sales, commissions, etc. of the distributor. Thus the hardest part is already done for an 800 sales number. [A little explanation of current tech] 800 number technology software interfaces display the originating number, or forwarded number. IE: If the distributor develops a radio commercial with a phone number (toll free or not) then forwards that number to the company 800 number, all he or she needs to do is register that number (via the back office) or calling it in. This way the telemarking operators receiving the incoming calls, or the technology, know who originated the call and the orders are taken and assigned appropriately to the distributor.
It can be as simple as the distributor takes a call from an ad, the prospects decides to buy the product. The distributor can easily 3 way into the 800 platform and assist the sale. It can be as easy as an ad running offering a product with the company main toll free number offering free shipping and handling with the special pin number. It can be very easy to build.
Imagine the projected results with the distributors taking the initiative, no more need for mentors, no more need for narcissistic leadership, no more need for motivational events, because the motivation is found in the system and the results. Imagine!
6. API (Application Programming Interface).
Distributor selling on Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba, etc.
Basically, the MLM company has an API developed that interfaces with Amazon, Ebay, etc for the distributor. This allows the distributor to develop an online store on Ebay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc, drive and support the prospects and customers, but the sale interfaces through the company. Thereby the company controls the pricing, collects the money (connected to the distributor) and ships the product. All the collecting, shipping, tracking and commissions paid out is done by the company.
API: In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types.
Basically allows the company to remotely control pricing,
merchant collection, shipping and communication via the
Traditional MLM companies give a distributor a self-replicated web site that is upfront and focused on selling the Hopes and Dreams of the opportunity, the money, the comp plan, the hype and flash of it all, designed to recruit more distributors. This is death to a retail customer. Very few MLM companies even consider a dedicated self-replicated retail sales only site for their various products. I have yet to even hear of any companies making a simple widget that allows the distributor to have the retail site hosted via the widget on their own domains, much less the ability to add any customization to it. Below is one of the first and rare MLM retail sites I am aware of. It sells the coffee, the coffee benefits offers one off sale and free shipping with autoship.
Marketers, merchants, etc. need a portfolio of tools, to get the message out, to build awareness, to build a sphere of influence and to build a customer and distributor centered loyalty program. Very few people, even entrepreneurs have all the skill sets to achieve this. However, automated marketing, email auto responders, social broadcasters, coop advertising, blogging platforms, materials and videos are necessary tools for the entrepreneur. When you do not supply these types of tools in a controlled environment, the message being broadcasted may not meet the criteria of the company nor abide by regulations.
There are solutions and Markethive is one of the best options. Markethive supplies all of these tools and more, integrated and easily configured and controlled within the communities vertical structures built for DSA companies like yours. It is called the company Directories and within a company portal in Markethive, your distributors will find all they need; Broadcasting platforms, self-replicating personalized PDF documents, Coop advertising systems, blogging platforms, email auto responders, everything needed for marketing, in one place.
9. Training and videos
I do not mean motivational speakers and cheer leading. I mean, real world training how to build the businesses. Daily classes offered by competent experienced teachers, so the distributors develop a strong understanding, expanding their customer territory and acquisition and operate like a real business.
Summary;
With the accelerated market place awash in innovation and technology, technology that puts the human element right into the center of the equation, you can understand why you see the MLM industry sluggish and many companies dying on the vine and others falling flat on their faces with their much heralded launches. Entrepreneurs (distributors) that once upon a time, a flashy video, a charming pitch man, and a compelling comp plan, worked to explode the next greatest MLM launch.
Not today.
It is only a matter of time a young bold, innovative entrepreneur launches the first true customer centric MLM similar to the framework I have discussed here. And when they do, the world will quake, the swamps will empty and the first multi trillion MLM enterprise will rise to srtand head to toe with the great innovations today like Facebook Google, PayPal etc.
Written by:
Thomas Prendergast
CMO: Markethive
Since this article was written a new comany Valentus is looking to build on this model in conjuction with MarketHive
How can you outrun your competition on Social Media Networks?
Post sponsored by Markethive – The Entrepreneur's Social Network
How much do you share on Social Media? I am of the firm belief that you should share more than you create original content on Social Networks. Why do I think that this is a correct strategy? If the purpose of social networks is to engage your audience and gain likes, shares and follows, the indicators of engagement, then both methods of sharing and original content creation should definitely be used. The reasons for this are two-fold.
No one is, or can be an expert in everything. Every marketer has their own area(s) of expertise. No matter how much experience and knowledge you think you may have accumulated, there will probably always be someone more knowledgeable than you are. This is just a fact of life. It is important to acknowledge those "experts" and your blog will gain additional legitimacy and authority from their informed point of view.
There is never one and one only solution to marketing and promotion problems. If there were a single solution that worked for everyone all the time, every company would be doing the same thing and gaining similar results. Marketing problems usually take a multi-faceted solution and gain from a multi-pronged strategy. This takes a diversity of viewpoints that merge into a cohesive solution
If there is a diversity of viewpoints and recommendations, on your social media networks, this can greatly benefit your readers and help them to consider the widest possible array of solutions to their particular problems. It is naive to think that a single magic bullet will solve all of your marketing problems, so an openness to creative problem solving is very helpful in the process.
It is also impossible to provide a simple ratio of shared content to original content that will work for everyone. It depends on the goals of your social media marketing campaign as well as your particular niche. I see far too many companies that have much too much original content relative to sharing on the social networks.
In most cases, the goals of their campaigns would be better served by reversing the ratio of original content creation and shared content. If your current ratio of shared content is currently 70% original content and 30% shared, I would turn that ratio upside down, and try 70% shared content and 30% original content.
Not only will it likely be more effective, it could also result in significant savings of time and money. It takes only a fraction of the amount of time to find effective content to share as it does to create original content. Shared content also is something that could possibly be automated. Where possible, this could results in very substantial savings of time and money.
It is difficult if not nearly impossible to automate original content creation. Most attempts to generate content automatically are at risk for Google penalties. Techniques such as content spinning and other creation manipulation methods should be avoided at all cost, and should be considered "black hat", Google unapproved methods.
Content sharing, or content syndication as it is sometimes called, is an approved method on social networks, and can reduce savings of time and money anywhere from 50-90%. This is a strategy that is long overdue at most companies using social networking in their marketing and promotion methods.
Here is a list of 30 of the most popular blogs on entrepreneurship that offer a rich cornucopia of posts and recent news on entrepreneurship. They are listed in order of highest traffic to lowest traffic. (lowest Alexa ranking – lower Alexa ranking number means more traffic)
Post sponsored by Markethive – The Entrepreneur's Social Network
Internet affiliate marketing is a relatively recent concept, but internet affiliate marketing has often worked out quite well for many different business owners who have given affiliate marketing a try. Internet affiliate marketing often brings to mind ideas of affiliate marketing banners posted on one’s website, and although there are other ways of utilizing affiliate marketing, this is probably the most common.
If you are looking for affiliate marketing banners to place on your website, it is important that you try to pick the correct affiliate marketing banners.
Some affiliate marketing banners are very colorful and full of graphics aimed at targeting your customers, who may be interested in your products or services. However, these involved affiliate marketing banners often do not produce very good results.
One of the reasons for this is because the affiliate marketing banner that is so full of color, fancy text, pictures, etc. can take too long to load on many computers, thus defeating the whole idea behind your marketing strategy. It may be worth your time and money to find affiliate marketing banners that are based around text.
Many business owners who have used affiliate marketing have discovered that these text based affiliate marketing banners do not have any less of a click rate than other affiliate marketing banners.
These text affiliate marketing links and banners are also probably less bothersome to your customers. It is also recommended that you be careful with the flashing affiliate marketing banners and blinking affiliate marketing banners. Although these marketing tools can sometimes cause more clicks from your target audience, these marketing tools are also quite bothersome.
If there are affiliate marketing graphic ads that you decide to use as part of marketing strategies on your website, it will be wise to try to make sure that the marketing advertisement fits in with the theme colors and ideas of your site as much as possible.
Affiliate marketing banners and affiliate marketing text links are definitely helpful for those interested in affiliate marketing.
Ida Mae Boyd
Markethive Inbound Marketing Specialist
Most MLM emers seem to end up to end up with excess products that they can't sell at a profit because the products are overpriced in the first place. You only have to look on E bay and you will see what I mean. Some companies even ban members from selling except from approved sites online.
Many people join an MLM company as a distributor, only to find, that their so called sponsor, offers little help or advise, because he or she earns from sponsoring you and is in reality in competition with you about building his business. You can be left with draws or cupboards full of product which you are unable to sell to friends or family. Does this sound familiar with you.
