One of the most important parts of your ability to succeed in a home based business is found in the way you present your opportunity to others. There are hundreds of different ways to market and promote your business online and offline, but what I have found is that one of the most effective ways is simply living your life on film. I can’t tell you how much success I have had because I choose to whip out my video camera every once in a while.

My wife and I have shot videos in some pretty crazy places and turned them into a 30 second commercial for our home based business. One of the craziest ones we have done was on the steps of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy singing, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” No matter where you are or what you’re doing, someone is going to relate to it, and probably even envy you for being there and doing what you’re doing because they’re stuck behind a desk at that very moment.

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When you work from home, sometimes you find yourself venturing into things online that are basically time fillers. You may think you’re keeping busy all day, but really, you only truly worked part of the day and messed around the rest of the time. Well, today was one of those days for me.

I was watching some of my old YouTube videos and found this one. Some times it’s hard for me to even watch myself because I’m such a dork. But to give you a background…back in high school, we had a fund raising beauty pageant. But this was a special beauty pageant. The guys were going to do this one, dressed up like girls….and I was part of it. They picked on all of us jocks! And of course, in a beauty pageant, you have to have a talent. So I partnered up with my buddy Danny Hawman and sang, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” We killed it. We didn’t win, but we rocked that auditorium!

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One of the biggest selling points of a home based business is the System! S-Y-S-T-E-M, Save Yourself Time, Energy and Money. It’s already in place to ensure your success, or at least make it a bit easier for you to succeed. It brings in the all too familiar term, “turnkey.” It’s all about duplication and making things easier for the newest person in the company to get into profit quickly, or duplicate their Enrollers results.

Parts of the system includes scripts, lead generation and pre-built websites, so that when somebody finds your turnkey website, pre-populated with content and pictures, they can submit their contact information. That information then goes into a lead management system that sends out pre-written auto-responders that drip bits and pieces of motivational information about their decision to start a home business.

MY SECOND BIGGEST MISTAKE…..I didn’t build my list and USE it properly.

For the first few years as a network marketer I used their turnkey websites and systems to generate my leads and I allowed those leads to go into their pre-built lead management systems. I took on the belief that once I called that lead and introduced the business to them, whether they got started with me or not, that their information was then useless. The lead was then dropped and I paid it no more attention, at least when it came to continued marketing.

I might as well have been throwing twenty dollar bills down the toilet!!

Although I made my profit from the sale, I missed out on continued, residual profits that can and will come from building your email list. I let tens of thousands of email addresses go to waste….Email addresses for people who were desperate for information on how to make money from home!

A huge part of creating an online presence(Part of my first mistake) is setting yourself up to win regardless. Having a contact form on your site that sends the information captured(email, phone number etc..) into an auto-responder system of YOUR OWN, is where it’s at. You wonder how people can make millions of dollars online with a blog and how network marketers can have continued success regardless of the opportunity they are part of. It’s because the real money, the real income comes from continually marketing to your list of subscribers….people that have opted into YOU and what you have to offer them. And if what you have to offer them is of value…..well….that equals income for you.

Right now, I use AWeber for building my list. In my opinion, it is the best one out there. I did a post a while back on starting an email marketing campaign comparing a few other services. Feel free to check it out.

And feel free to subscribe to my emails to see how I do things. You’ll find the form on the left side of this blog.

So I think my point was made. Do it right the first time. Build the list!

Did you know that more than 50% of small businesses don’t have a website? For me, it’s insane to think about running a business without one. Call me an internet nerd, but when I think of starting a business, the first thing I think of taking care of is snagging up a good domain name……not finding investors or establishing an LLC. If I can’t get a good domain name, FORGET ABOUT IT! The business won’t work! I know…I’m weird like that. But that’s how important I feel a website is to a business. Instead of asking for a business card, people often ask for a website. It’s a form of validation and tells your potential customers who you are and what you offer.

And I’m willing to bet that the number of businesses without websites is even higher, including within home based businesses. When I first entered the industry of network marketing, some of the top income earners in the industry were still using solely traditional marketing techniques to generate their customer base: Print ads, billboards and direct mailing. Only after noticing the gradual decline in their income and the gradual incline in those who had a web presence did they inherit an interest to learn. Think about it. How many home based businesses do you know of that depend on house parties and hotel meetings to promote their product or service? And how many of those business truly succeed on an individual basis?

Unless you consider an average of less than a thousand dollars a year a success, not many!

A business without a website is like milk without the cookies…..they’re just not as good by themselves.

I don’t know what keeps business owners from creating a site for their business. Maybe a lack of knowledge or an unnecessary additional expense. Whatever it is, if you’re a small business owner, it is worth the effort. Think about the pros and cons.

Marketing/Advertising Cost = $600/month for a billboard OR ten years for a domain and hosting (for you beginners….a website).

Reach = Potentially world-wide with the ability to be found in first page results, all over the world, for the key phrase of your choice.

Maintenance = Virtually none aside from an occasional blog post or product update. Again…it’s worth it. Give and you’ll get.

Traffic = The chances of someone building a freeway next to your billboard for a drastic traffic spike are slim. There is no limit to the amount of traffic you can receive to a site. And it’s extremely targeted! You’ll never see a billboard go viral like a helpful article online.

If done right, a website for your business can make a VERY significant difference in your results. It’s all about branding yourself and extending your reach. More visitors to your business is a good thing. That’s what a website does….it brings traffic….and traffic equals dollar signs where I come from.

If you are a business owner and need help getting started, let me know. I have assisted business owners create successful small business websites for their business over the last several years. Look at my website as an example. Centered around the Home Based Business industry, I rank first page for key phrases such as home based business and business opportunity, to name a few. To take the first step, Click HERE.

 

I can’t tell you how many times I have told friends of mine about my blog here on CreateFinancialWealth.com and have received a weird response. I know what goes through some of their minds. For the most part, they usually don’t say much about it because they don’t know much about it. Most people probably think that blogs are for girls….mothers that are looking to put up family information for the grandparents to look at and get all emotional over. I’m sure that some think that blogging is for geeks or computer nerds who don’t hunt, fish or do much of anything else in the world besides hang out in their whitey tighties in their mommas basement.

People used to think that way…until they learned the kind of income I generate through this blog.

The truth is….if you are someone that knows much of anything about anything, you can create a significant presence online blogging about it. Big deal right? A presence. What the heck is that? For a business with a good idea, people just have to know you exist. That’s presence. But rather than putting up a billboard, you put up a blog.

WHAT? Did I just say a blog is a business?

The more you search the Net the more you will start to realize that most of the sites in the top of the search engines have a blog built into them or are primarily a blog. Search engines will love you if you know anything about anything and are able to turn that knowledge into a blog. So yes, a blog is a business….and it means $$$ dollar signs, if you know how to manage it.

Through this blog, I have made hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you look around this site, there’s not a ton of ads everywhere. I’m not an e-commerce site like Ebay or Amazon. Google Adsense wasn’t my money maker. With the presence I have created with this blog, I can do anything. Literally anything….because I have the presence.

Now, the reason I am saying all of this is because I know the magnitude of where I am and where anyone could be. Including you! If you have a passion for something, think about starting a blog in your chosen niche and become the Guru that people find in the search engines. It’s A LOT easier than you think. Once you get the listings, the traffic and the presence, you’ll get the $$.

Still think blogging is for girls? Fill out the form on the contact us page to learn exactly how I did it.

Recently I have had many thoughts and conversations and what it truly takes to create success in a home based business. If we were to look at the statistics of successful home business owners versus unsuccessful ones, I am pretty sure the majority of the numbers would point towards those who have failed, given up or have not yet experienced the success they had expected. In fact, if we look at any business or industry, not singling out just network marketing, the statistics would be in favor of the unsuccessful.

It’s a sad thing, I know…..but in my industry, network marketing, there’s a significant difference between those who succeed and those who don’t. That difference is contained in the word “Expert!” That’s the secret. In order to truly succeed in your home business, you MUST become an expert in your field. There’s no way around it.

Now, I know there are success stories of people who have zero experience that come into a home business and make a ton of money really quickly…..but where’s the rest of the story? Someone can make a quarter million dollars with a good home business opportunity simply by pursuing their warm market….the people they know. But what happens when that warm market is all spent. They are stuck in the mud without  four wheel drive and the momentum they had once before because they have run out of people to talk to about their amazing home business. And guys, I’m not making this up! I have seen it happen over and over again. They come, they have an awesome first year, they halt in income, and they check out. This is one of the reasons you see people doing what we call “Opportunity Jumping.”

The secret to true, prolonged consistent success in a home business, is to become an Expert. And what I mean by that, is to become really, really good at whatever it is you do. To give you an example: You can obviously see my blog, since you are reading it at this very moment. I have some decent traffic coming into this site through the marketing I have done for it. I rank first page on Google, Yahoo and Bing for some of the most competitive keyphrases in my industry. I have a presence on the internet and have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars because of it. Now, a year and a half after starting this business, I had no clue about marketing. I was having someone else do it all for me and was paying them to do it. I distinctly remember not even knowing what a URL was or that it needed an http://. I was clueless.

But you know what happened? The paid marketing fell through and I was forced to learn it all. I studied, I Googled,  I did everything I needed to do to learn how to market. I became and expert in my field. I became really good at what I do and in order to create prolonged success, that’s what it takes. Sure, you may make money by paying someone else to do it all for you, but what happens when that falls through? What happens when your new distributor gets started and your marketing guy can’t take any more clients? Then what? You must become a marketing expert! It’s all about duplication…..and that is able to be duplicated.

When all the smoke and mirrors are gone, the excitement of starting that new business wears off and your warm market is exhausted, your success really teeters on how good you really are in your niche. If you are actively engaged in your self education, you’ll excel and create the success that you deserve…..and you’ll keep it going for a really long time. Become an expert marketer and success will follow you like it has never done before. I promise you that!