Network Marketing = Fast Cash??

With the current economic times it seems more and more people are turning their interests to a home based business. Kudos! Taking charge of your own financial future is a powerful move, one that requires cultivation and patience.

So this trend got me thinking…

• Do people know what it takes to be their own boss?

• Does the majority understand the “work” involved with a home business?

• Do they want to “get rich quick?

By nature, we are a trust bunch. Which is a good trait, don’t get me wrong. But we believe what our eyes tell us (Isn’t that what Mom always said to do?) and although I too believe this to be a good rule-of-thumb, the rise of the Internet has certainly shifted the believability. We used to be able to rely on written word as having merit – rely that before the words were written the content was thoroughly researched and proven as viable. Of course, this was in a day and age (not that long ago) where written word was “published” and therefore verified. Now, with the Internet, anyone can write anything (just like I’m doing right now!) Does that make it believable? Probably. Does it make it viable? Possibly. Before, the burden was on the publisher to research and verify. Now, that burden is on us…the reader. So do yourself a favor, spend some time researching what you read – just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t make it fact. Due diligence will save you a lot of aggravation in the long run.

So, as I’m digging around in my garden I got to thinking that Network Marketing is a lot like planting flowers in the Spring or Fall. Especially if you are planting bulbs. We plant the bulbs because we want the flowers. Although we want the flowers NOW we have to have patience and wait. Cultivate, water and weed the garden so that it is a fertile ground for growth and blooms. Not all of the bulbs will grow and some will grow faster than others, but if we have patience soon we will be rewarded with a lush garden of beautiful, healthy flowers to enjoy.

Network marketing is a lot like a flower garden. Plant the seeds, cultivate, water and weed the garden so growth can happen. Have some patience, not all of your seeds will grow – but those that do will reward you with a healthy business.

Cheers! To your success,

Lori

Powerful Scents

Drive Traffic Cheaply!

I found this article and thought it would be good to share. There has been a buzz in my business about how to increase traffic economically. This article addresses exactly that!

What has been your experience with the methods illustrated below?

On a Budget? 3 Ways to Drive Traffic Quickly and Cheaply

Copyright 2003 (c) Rosalind Gardner, All Rights Reserved.

After working long and hard to get your new web site up and running, you probably have little patience left to wait months and months to start getting traffic to your site and start making sales!

But those search engine submissions are taking a lot of time to bring in traffic. You’ve also discovered that joining web rings, link trading, and posting free-for-all classifieds are time-consuming activities that produce just a trickle of traffic, IF you’re lucky.

Moreover, you don’t want to blow huge amounts of money on advertising just in case your site doesn’t convert visitors into buyers at a rate that nets a fair profit.

You want lots of traffic, you want it cheap, and you want it now!
So, what do you do?

Well, there are 3 ways to get traffic to your site quickly, even on a budget.

Write Articles – You wrote all those product endorsements for your site, and articles aren’t much different, or any more difficult to write. If your site is about beer, and promotes a variety of products related to home brewing, write an article called “10 Secrets to Your Best Batch Ever”. Include a resource box below your article that gives your name, a brief description of your site and its URL. (Use my resource box at the end of this article as an example.) Your next step is to go to Charlie Page’s ‘Directory of Ezines’ and buy an annual membership. Review the list of ezines in the Food/Wine category, and submit your article to each one that accepts articles. Some newsletters may have a circulation of just a few hundred, but others will have a few hundred THOUSAND subscribers.

Ezine Advertising – Your DOE (Directory of Ezines) membership will also help you locate ezines in which to advertise your site. The beauty of this type of advertising is that it is generally low-cost, sometimes as little as $8 per issue for 6 lines at 65 characters per line. But the best part is that you are putting your message in front of a highly targetted audience. There’s no point in trying to sell home brew kits to tea-totallers, now is there? http://rosalinds.com/doe

Pay Per Click Search Engines – The fastest way to get traffic to your site is to buy keywords and keyword phrases at PPC’s (pay per click search engines) such as Overture, Google and FindWhat. Google is definitely the fastest PPC account to set up. Simply write your title and description, choose your keywords, make a deposit and you’re up and running. Set a daily maximum budget, and check your income and expenses frequently until you ensure that the former consistently exceeds the latter. You will know within the week how well your site will convert visitors to buyers, which beats the heck out of waiting months for feedback!

For as little as a one or two hundred bucks, you can drive tons of highly targeted traffic to your site in a very short period of time . Calculate your conversion, ‘tweak’ your site, then re-invest your earnings to drive even more traffic and gain even more sales.

Stick with the plan, and in no time at all, you’ll get to sit back and enjoy one of those home brews while watching your sales numbers climb.

About the Author:

Rosalind Gardner is the best-selling author of The Super Affiliate Handbook:
“How I Made $436,797 Last Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online”. Her incredible
online success has been profiled in numerous popular publications including ‘Secrets
to Their Success’, ‘Small Business Opportunities, ‘Six Figure Income’ and ‘Revenue’
magazine. To learn how you too can grow your own lucrative eBusiness, please visit: http://RosalindGardner.com

Is a Home Business Right for YOU?

Wow. Have you ever asked yourself that question….seriously?

So many friends say to me “You are so lucky to work from home!” In fact, I used to say that myself. However, I never sat and contemplated whether or not working from home, owning my own business is REALLY right for me. In fact, I would venture to guess that not many folks have.

So how do you evaluate if working from home, and owning your own business, is the most appropriate choice for you?

If I was actually having this conversation with a friend (one that I really cared about) I would put forth a few nuggets to chew on.

1. What is the real reason you want to work from home with your own business? Many people think this is the best thing next to sliced bread simply because they think, “I have no boss” and “I get to work my own hours.” But is that all there is to it? Personally I have found that no longer am I accountable to a boss, but instead I am now accountable to myself…and my family. This can be a heavy responsibility if you’re not mentally prepared for it.
2. I will only have myself to blame for mistakes. This is true. Are you really ready for that? Ready for the research needed to make the most simple decisions?
3. Are you willing to work whatever hours needed to accommodate your customers? Even if we try to set particular hours and days of the week for work it doesn’t always play out the way we had planned.

These are just a few of the challenges we face as home business owners. Some of which we just simply don’t think about when we are considering a home business.

So, you might be asking…do I like working from home? Owning my own business?

The answer is a resounding YES! I love it!

As with any -J-O-B – there are drawbacks and benefits. Honestly, I can’t imagine going back into the “mainstream” and working for someone else… someone else who benefits greatly from my hard work.

I would love to hear what you think about the subject. If you currently own a home business, do you enjoy it? If you do not, what types of thoughts do you have about working from home?

All the best,

Lori

Blog Rush is HERE!

John Reese has officially launched BlogRush, a free blog widget that will promote your blog posts across the internet and increase your traffic considerably.

You will want to get in on this early. Its completely free, so be sure to register right away and start your traffic spike!

To learn more about it, and see a live example, go to:

BlogRush!

src=”http://widget.blogrush.com/show.js”>

Hello world!

Well hello all!

Welcome to my blog site. I started this blog with the express interest of helping those who are looking to begin a home based business.

I started my own home based business in 2004. Then, in 2006 I started a second business in network marketing. Here is my story:

My name is Lori Clark and I live in Colorado with my amazing husband Todd, our three cats and two dogs – Gonzo and Samantha. We moved to Colorado on April 1^st from Chandler, Arizona (the April fools joke on me was that it snowed four times between then and May 9^th.) We have moved all over the country for the past 10 years but this move was the toughest as we had built our house in Arizona and lived there for almost five years – the longest we’d ever stayed in any one location. Due to my husband’s job we moved to Colorado where I knew nobody. Not to mention the weather differences!

Both my husband and I worked in the aviation industry for many years, in fact for the same airline in
Arizona. I loved my job…truly. My job was managing the recruitment, hiring and placement of pilots with our airline. It was a dream job for me. My passion in life is helping others to achieve their goals and ambitions and this was an avenue which allowed me to do just that. I made people’s dream of becoming an airline pilot come true. But there were two distinct problems with my job: 1. The Company was ever-changing their deadlines or new ones were created with little or no notice which produced an over-the-top stressful environment. 2. The aviation industry, as we all know, had become extremely unstable in recent years. I began to worry about my family’s future and if the industry would continue to support both of our salaries. I started to dissect what exactly made me enjoy my job and I discovered that my gratification came from mentoring and helping others realize their dreams. So I quit my 9-5 job and started consulting pilots from my home. I would mentor young pilots on how to mold their careers and teach them how to present themselves in an interview situation. I found my niche. But there were, again, problems. I was still tied very closely to the industry and dependent upon airlines continuing to hire pilots. Phone calls for appointments came in but let’s just say there was a lot of time for me to watch T.V. as well. I hated that part – I was used to being busy and would actually prefer it that way. I thrive on having things on my plate to do. So I started looking into home based businesses that would allow me the flexibility to continue to mentor pilots yet not be dependent on the airline industry for income.

I looked at several different opportunities and found that many, if not all, had lots of quotas, minimums and “apprenticeship” time associated. This did not tickle my fancy as I wanted to find something that I could jump into with guns blazing. I decided to wait until we actually made the move to Colorado to start my new venture so I didn’t have to relocate a new business.

Now, I must confess – I have always been a “candle freak,” I’ll admit it. But unfortunately I was completely hooked on “another” candle because of its fragrance. (I didn’t even know that soy candles existed or that it was possible to NOT produce that ugly black soot that I’ve painted over so many times on my walls.) When we moved to Colorado I sought out the company that produces these “other” candles I loved so much and did in fact find a distributor in my area. However, I attempted to contact that person several times to no avail and finally gave up.

In the process of an Internet search for another distributor for “that” company I came across a new Gourmet Candle company. I looked further and read a lot of websites and materials and then found my sponsor. After reading her story I discovered that she also had been with the airlines I called to talk to her. After all, we both spoke “airline.” Originally, I was looking for a “candle source” but was intrigued with the business opportunity as well. She and I talked and talked and I was VERY skeptical. I had been raised around the old network marketing style and didn’t like it at all. We talked about the age of the Internet and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. This was IT! I love candles, I don’t have to sell to my family and friends and I can mentor folks toward achieving their goals and dreams. I knew I had hit on a winner for me and signed on the spot.

The biggest mistake I made after joining the team was that I felt like I needed to know it all before I really started my business rolling. Boy was I wrong! I wasted about six weeks – yes SIX WEEKS – of time by reading and absorbing as much as I could. I knew better, and I kick myself now, but I hope some of you will learn from my mistakes. Don’t wait – it doesn’t matter if you know it all or not. Folks are interested in the products and love them, but just as much as they buy the candles – they buy you! We have such a fantastic support network that if you don’t know the answer to a question there are many others who can help you discover it. And people will respect you more if you’re honest and tell them you don’t know, but you will find out.

I’ve read over and over that attitude is everything. So true. But it’s not just your outward attitude that counts. You have to truly believe in yourself to be successful. A friend of mine wrote “you aren’t what you eat, but what you think.” I’ve thought about that statement many times and it’s been very inspiring to me. I know that I will be successful with this business because I believe that I will be successful. Sure, there are highs and lows that crop up now and then but that’s just part of the every day grind. Take a step back from the everyday and look at yourself and your business as a whole. What have you achieved in the last week, month, six months? Pat yourself on the back for your accomplishments.

After I finally decided to jump in with both feet and had only really been working my business for about two months I achieved Diamond! I truly believe that when you set your mind to achieve your goals great things will happen. With such a wonderful network of professionals and friends to provide encouragement and support I know that I will not abandon this business, nor will I fail in my business because for me failure in not an option.

Cheers to all of our success….and I’ll see you all at the top!

And you’ll still find me in my home office….talking candles. Feel free to stop by anytime: http://www.powerfulscents.com

 

 

Live, Love and Laugh…always.

Lori Clark

Colorado