Affiliate and Network Marketing Support Center

This area is intended primarily for my affiliate downlines in my favorite network marketing / MLM opportunities listed below, but it is open to all. Many of the ideas and resources here can be used to promote any Affiliate Program, but the focus of the content here is support of my own downlines in Network Marketing Programs.

You may also want to visit my MLM support site at www.MlmSuccessTeam.com

Since this area of the site just started in June, the content may be a little sparse at first, but over time, I will be posting various articles, tips, and pointers to help out my affiliates and downlines. I'll also have a list of recommended resources, for those interested in things like high quality leads, autoresponders, and various forms of advertising that can be used to promote Network Marketing opportunities.

If you're brand new to the whole concept of affiliate marketing and online business, get started with my affiliate marketing FAQ page.

• AGEL is a new MLM business opportunity that promises to revolutionize the industry. First, they have a totally new product. As if that weren't enough, their compensation plan is innovative and original. Finally, the team that I've joined provides a complete marketing system that eliminates most of the guesswork, as well as the need to rely on promoting to family and friends. I am very excited about Agel -- this is my number 1 choice among home business opportunities!



• SFI combines an Affiliate Program with an MLM opportunity, and is the largest program of its kind on the net. Among my favorite programs, and absolutely first rate! Many consider it the best program on the net, especially for "newbies". It combines features of both affiliate marketing and network marketing, and has a newly-revamped compensation plan that is designed to maximize the income potential of all participants. They now have over 600 diverse products that you can represent as an affiliate and earn commissions. Become an Executive Affiliate to unleash the profit potential of the "T-Net"!



• Success University is nothing short of awesome. This unique company provides mentoring from over 50 experts in such diverse fields as personal relationships, internet marketing, networking marketing, and personal growth, as well as providing you a potentially very lucrative compensation plan. This program is super-hot. Their website is among the most-visited on the internet. Don't miss out on this awesome program!



• Traffic Oasis is a super high quality source for leads, which are the lifeblood of any MLM. It also gives you a built-in profit opportunity with it's own MLM compensation plan. The program was designed by several people who have been highly successful in network marketing offline, so they know what you need. Join as a free affiliate, or upgrade to paid member to enjoy the full benefits.

Affiliate and Network Marketing Articles, Tips, and Pointers

A few of these articles have been posted in my newsletter, but most are original to this area of the site. I continue to add articles and resource links regularly, so check back often. Each of the links below opens a new page.

• Affiliate Marketing FAQ.   Start here if you're a raw beginner.



• Autoresponder Basics.   E-mail marketing on autopilot!



• Building Your Team.   The money is in your downline.



• Duplication is Your Goal.   Clone yourself in your downline.



• Ezine Advertising.   Get seen by thousands of opportunity seekers.



• Finding Quality Leads.   Market to people who have expressed interest.



• Following Up is Critical !   The first week can make or break a new recruit.



• Invest in Yourself.   One of the secrets to success.



• Is the Online Business Market Saturated?   Not likely.



• Patience Will Be Rewarded   It takes time to build any business.



• The Net and MLM : An Ideal Match   The Net puts MLM on steroids!



• Your Mindset For Success.   Things you should consider in any business.



• What to Look For in MLM   How to choose that next great opportunity.

Recommended Affiliate and Network Marketing Resources

You need not buy any of this stuff.   How you run and promote your business is entirely up to you.   However, for those interested in a particular approach, consider the following resources, many of which I personally use:

• Advertise with a "Plug-In Profit Site" - I have one of these mini-sites that promotes five different residual income streams from affiliate programs. It's a great way to promote your favorite affiliate programs and earn some residual income. I use "doorway pages" and links from my other sites to pull traffic, and I've had excellent results with the purchased leads which are available at additional cost. You can also advertise the URL on Pay Per Click Search Engines and/or Traffic Exchanges (see below), and you can buy subscribers to the built-in newsletter that comes as part of the site package. This is currently my favorite passive advertising and recruiting method. Your site also comes with an extensive training and support system. This is a great deal, regardless of your level of experience!




• Advertise with Lead Capture Pages and automated recruiting system
  I just recently came across a program that gives you a free Lead Capture Page to promote, which can be used either to direct traffic to your favorite opportunity, in addition to advertising a very inexpensive MLM that will cost you a whopping ten bucks a month, and give you your own domain name and/or website. Just redirect the URL to your favorite opportunity, or develop a "feeder" mini-site for your favorite(s). I just started using this, but so far I'm very favorably impressed -- and you can't beat the price - free to join and use - or $20 per month if you want the whole enchilada.




• Advertising Co-Ops - If you're a member of SFI, there are several well-known ad co-ops that are run by senior SFI members.   These co-ops are not affiliated with SFI, but produce leads and sign ups. Beware, though SFI has exploded in popularity, and it can take several months before you eventually see the new signups that you paid for. I've also found that a high percentage of the leads I got from this never even completed the double opt-in process.
  
  You typically pay around $50 per "share", which will give you between 10 and 50 new, opted-in, free affiliates.   It's then up to you to follow up with these people, and develop them into productive members of your team.
  
  If you can afford the expense, this can be a great way to bring in a significant number of new affiliates.   After all, affiliate marketing and network marketing are a numbers game.   Only a small percentage will remain active and become active recruiters and sellers themselves.   At least the hard part (finding them) is already done for you by the co-op.




• Autoresponders - The two most often recommended are Get Response, which involves a subscription and is entirely web-based, and the highly regarded AutoresponsePlus, which is a program you buy an annual license for, and then install on and run from your own server. I have used GetResponse in the past, and been happy with it. Recently, however, I started offering my own autoresponder and shopping cart service.
  
  You may not need an autoresponder right away, or you can use one of the many free services that are available (free, yes, but all of your messages will contain other people's advertising, which is why I have always shied away from these). Eventually, though, as your team grows, or you build up a mailing list, an autoresponder will become a necessity. Selling or promoting anything requires repeat contact with your prospects. Statistics show that it can take up to seven contacts before most people will take you up on your offer, and very few will respond to the first or second contact.




• Blogging - This is THE hot new trend of 2004-2005. I currently maintain several blogs related to internet marketing.
  
  If you're brand new to the world of blogs and RSS, check out my recently released (early 2005) blogging guide. It will give you a thorough basic introduction to how to use blogs and RSS for internet marketing. There's also a "members only" site that comes with the book, and gives you the latest updates, plus links to the newest resources I've found.
  
  In particular, check out the "instructional blog" that I maintain at Blogging Bonanza. It's an educational blog, but is also intended to promote my new e-book about internet marketing with blogs. Starting your own blog is the simplest way that I know to start an internet business or gain links and traffic to your website or affiliate URLs.
  
  Another I think you'll find useful is my general e-marketing blog. Start your own blog, and use it to subtly promote various affiliate programs. Don't make it a blatant sales page. Give out some good information and links, and sprinkle in some recommendations of affiliate programs. It works!




• Bulk Email Programs - Three are several out there, but among the most highly regarded is Mail Loop. This is a standalone program that allows you to send bulk email, manage your list, and publish a newsletter. You'll probably need something like this when you have a large downline to communicate with, or want to publish a newsletter, but it's really not necessary if you just want to buy leads and do e-mail marketing, in which case what you really need is an autoresponder.




• Buy Guaranteed Signups - This is something that I've recently discovered and started using myself, so I can't give you any solid feedback on how well it works yet, but the concept is simple enough. You pay a modest fee to an affiliate recruiting service that "guarantees" they will produce the agreed-upon number of new Free Affiliates for your free-to-join program. It works much the same as the advertising co-ops described above, but instead of getting a "share" of the monthly allotment of new leads, they keep sending them to you until they have fulfilled their obligation in terms of the number of new signups you purchased.




• Buy Traffic - You have to be careful who you deal with, but buying traffic by way of "popunders" can be a good deal, if you can create a compelling "splash page". A splash page is a quick-loading page similar to what you would use at traffic exchanges (see below). The idea is to try to capture someone's attention quickly, and get them to click through to your main site, or give you their email address in exchange for a free report, or a subscription to a newsletter. Have a look at one of the most respected traffic vendors in the business, and see if this is for you.




• Doorway Pages - This method requires that you know a fair amount about search engine optimization, and I doubt it could be done effectively without owning some search engine optimization software. Basically what you do is created highly optimized pages for key words you believe people looking for your business opportunity or product would use to search for relevant web sites. If you can get these doorway pages highly ranked in the search engine results, you can get a fair amount of free traffic. The page tells a bit about your program or product and contains links to it. In the long run, you can cut way down on your pay-per-click advertising budget by doing this. Personally, I spend a lot of time coming up with more and more doorway pages, and it pays off for me, especially in product sales.




• Email Marketing - This is the old standby for "super affiliates" but you need to learn what you're doing, or you'll bomb out, and/or get yourself in trouble with the "spam police". Check out my new targeted direct email marketing ebook to see if this method might be for you. To do it right, however, you'll need an autoresponder, and you need to have some method of gathering leads. You can use lead capture pages, post a form on your own website, or buy leads. In addition to the ebook mentioned above, I also recently started an email marketing strategies blog which you might find helpful.




• Ezine Advertising - can be a good way to promote your opportunity, and get your ad in front of thousands of subscribers who are "opportunity seekers". Directory of Ezines is a terrific ezine advertising directory that keeps you up to date on the number of subscribers and advertising rates of many of the net's most widely read ezines.   For the budget-minded, here's another great ezine advertising directory.   Be sure to test your ads inexpensively first, before you spend a ton on advertising of any kind ! My results thus far have not been great with ezine ads.




• High Quality Leads - Consider joining a high quality leads co-op that also provides you with an autoresponder to immediately communicate with leads. If you don't want to commit to a monthly membership to a leads co-op, consider a lead source from whom you can buy leads on an "as needed" basis.   If you have experience with email marketing, and know (or want to learn) how to work a "co-registration list", consider my own Nitro List Builder. I hesitate to recommend the service to "newbies", however, as I sell fresh opt-in email leads in very large quantities and my clientele usually runs huge mailing lists.




• Pay Per Click Advertising - Many people swear by PPCs, but you have to be a little careful, or your costs can get out of control. The best known among such programs are Google Ad Words, and the king-of-the-hill, Overture (which recently became Yahoo Search).   Less well known and smaller, but still quite effective, are FindWhat, and Kanoodle.
  
  Several of the PPCs mentioned above offer a special discount or some free ads if you sign up through my links.
  
  For "how to" ideas, check out the suggestions on site at the various PPCs, and / or these guides to PPC advertising. The methods described work on any Pay Per Click search engine. Make sure you read the documentation for each PPC carefully, though, or your expenses can go haywire.
  
  There is also extensive free advice on optimizing your ad campaigns and advertising budget at Google and also at Overture.
  
  I use only highly targeted "phrase matched" ads and turn off both "content matching" and "broad matching". My philosophy is that I only want people who are truly searching for what I have to offer, so I'm only willing to pay for clicks from highly targeted ads. Others swear by a "shotgun" approach, that brings in lots of less targeted traffic, but that is too expensive for my taste. Some people prefer quantity traffic, but I prefer quality.
  
  If you're going to invest in Pay-Per-Click Advertising, I would very definitely strongly advise that you activate the "conversion tracking" feature at the PPC you are using. For more sophisticated and comprehensive tracking, I'd suggest you invest in a third part click tracking service, which is also very useful for tracking ezine ads, banner ads, results from doorway pages, and even the clicks you get from publishing your articles on the web. If a web surfer has to click it, this service can track it.
  
  Tracking clicks and conversions will pay for itself many times over, *guaranteed*.   I hate to admit how much money I wasted on useless PPC ads before I figured out what I was doing!   Do not repeat my mistake!




• Recommended E-Books - I have my own online ebook and software store, which carries only those resources I consider to be the very best.   Check out the best ebooks about affiliate marketing.   There are also numerous other ebooks and software tools related to learning internet marketing, affiliate marketing, and network marketing. If it's worth having, you'll find it there. I continually add new software tools and ebooks as I find them.




• Traffic Exchanges -   I've never thought a whole lot of these, but there are two that are worth looking into.   Both are free to join, or you can buy "click credits". 123 Clicks is kind of interesting, because you can eventually earn back much of the money you spend on advertising.   You can also remain a *free* member.   Traffic Swarm is the other one that I like, partly because many people consider it "best of breed", and in part because you can earn as many as five click credits for every site that you, yourself, visit from their "surf page".   Both programs encourage you to build a downline.   If you do, then you eventually earn traffic credits without having to surf yourself. Check them out and decide if this might be for you.


If you do use Traffic Exchanges, you might want to think about developing some "splash pages" or "landing pages" to use with them. These are small, quick-loading pages that tell surfers a bit about your product or opportunity, and entice them to click through the links to learn more. They are desireable for use with click exchanges because they load quickly and are easy to read. Many people who surf the click exchanges only glance briefly at your page as they surf, so you often do better with pages that are eye-catching and quick to load. You have about 20 seconds to capture their interest or lose them.



• Viral E-mail Advertising -   This is an interesting twist on "safelists", which generally do not work very well, and can fill your inbox with spam.   When you sign up for a free account at Opportunity.Com you earn the right to send out advertising emails once per week to an ever-growing number of people.   In exchange, you agree to receive a maximum of twenty e-mails per week.   This is a great way to do some free, targeted advertising and recruiting without being inundated with offers yourself. Still, you probably should do this with a "throwaway" email address, rather than your primary address or one routed through a website that you operate. If you decide to quit, or get inundated with spam, you can just shut down and "throw away" that email address.

Well, there you have it. I try my best to support my affiliates in all of the various programs and opportunities that I promote. As I discover new methods, I pass them along to you here. Good luck in your endeavors!

If you're brand new to this, don't forget to read the affiliate marketing FAQ. I also maintain several educational sites that you might want to take a look at.

Start Internet Business Today is, as the title suggests, an introductory site about starting an online business. My other site is a more general e-marketing education site. Emarketingman.com is will help you learn internet marketing.

You can also sign up for a marketing tips newsletter and check out the promotional methods I use at my work from home business resource site.