Too Good To Be True?

In response to my last post, I received a lot of enthusiastic responses. Even phone calls!

But there were a couple people who expressed skepticism. "It sounds too good to be true."

The world is full of skeptics. And no wonder.

We're inundated with marketing hype all day and night. Therefore many people take a generally skeptical posture as a defense mechanism.

That's not always a bad thing. There is such as thing as a "healthy skepticism" after all.

Just don't let it prevent you from seeing genuinely exciting opportunities when they arrive. The world is a wonder-filled place and there are many good things to be enjoyed.

When it comes to lead generation (the topic of the last post), it's wise to be generally skeptical.

But once in a while something spectacular comes along, and when it does, you don't want to be late to the party, because it can transform your business overnight.

Was I right when I said in the last post that it's possible to get top quality leads for free?

Absolutely.

Is it easy?

It's not really hard, but it does take effort.

In marketing you have to make an investment of either time, money or some combination of the two.

The strategies that I provide in the Special Report "How To Generate Your Own Top-Quality Leads For Free" are used successfully by professional marketers every day.

However, since they're free, it will take an investment of your time. They're great for people that have more time than money.

If you have more money than time, you would want to use forms of paid advertising.

If you can't make an investment of time OR money ... well, then you're out of business!

MLM Lead Scandal, Part 4

The Conclusion.

So what is the best source for leads?

The warm market is warm in that they know you, but "cold" with regard to their interest in your product or business. Also it's numbers are limited, so you'll eventually have to find another source of leads anyway.

Advertising allows you to reach the masses, and it also allows you to prequalify prospects so they're "warm" before you talk with them. But advertising is very expensive and risky. You may run an ad for $500 that only generates 5 leads. It requires skill, knowledge and a big budget.

Buying leads from a professional lead company allows you to lock in a low and set cost per lead. But the quality of these leads is typically very poor.

There is one more alternative: Learn how to generate your own leads on the Internet ... for FREE!

There's a small learning curve to this, but it's very much worth the effort.

You'll need a simple web site. Nothing too fancy and definitely not your company's site or a standard replicating web site.

2 objections I hear often about this approach are:

1. ISN'T THAT JUST ANOTHER FORM OF ADVERTISING? True, it is a form of advertising, but I put this approach in a separate category because we're going after FREE traffic to your site, so it eliminates the problem associated with traditional advertising.
2. GETTING FREE LEADS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. It's not. Every Internet marketer who knows anything, is aware that it's possible to drive "organic" or "natural" traffic to your site for free through search engines.
   

Sure, you can buy traffic online as well (and I personally do), but the irony is that the free traffic is of better quality than the paid traffic!

This is because the traffic the comes to your site without being "pushed" there was searching for you ... they're the most motivated and genuinely interested in what you offer.

S.E.O. "Search Engine Optimization" is an big topic. So big that there are people who do it as a career. The topic is too big to teach in a Blog post, but I encourage you to learn all you can about it. I can tell you from personal experience that IT WORKS!

If you want a short-cut to learning how to do it, get my Special Report: "How To Generate Your Own Top-Quality Leads For Free." It's only $7 and will teach you all you need to get started.

MLM Lead Scandal, Part 3

In the last post we explored the issue of advertising and how risky and expensive it can be.

One solution to those problems is to turn your advertising over to the pros and to buy leads generated by their advertising.

There are several advantages:

1. You tap into people who are skilled in the area of advertising more than you are.
2. You pay a set cost per lead so you don't have to worry about getting slammed with a $500 lead from a failed ad.
3. Your cost per lead is less than it would be from your own advertising campaign because these companies sell their leads to more than one person and pass some of the savings to you.

That last one may sound like a disadvantage, but believe me, it's a total advantage to you. The idea of getting "exclusive" leads is elusive at best. People that respond to your own advertising have usually responded to many other ads as well, so they're far from exclusive ... but you're paying "exclusive" prices.

In addition, the other people who placed the ads your prospects respond to will generally not follow-up with their leads (most people simply don't), so you'll easily stand head-and-shoulders above your competition by simply following up in a professional and skillful manner.

Okay, sounds great. So what's the downside?

Only ONE.

Yep, just one simple downside.

One isn't much is it?

In this case it is HUGE!

The downside is that the leads are almost always of TERRIBLE quality! And I do mean HORRIBLE!

Why are they usually so terribly bad?

I used to own a lead generation company, so I've been around the block in that business and I know who really runs things behind the scenes.

No matter what they tell you ... most companies do NOT run their own ads. The vast majority of them have other companies doing the actual advertising for them ... and there aren't many different ones doing it.

Bottom line - much of what occurs is a bit shady.

Thankfully this is not true of all companies that sell leads. There are certainly good reputable ones. But most people's experience in buying leads is far less than favorable.

So what do we do?

There's one last choice. And it is the best solution. And I'll share it in my next post.

MLM Lead Scandal, Part 2

In the last post we explored the advantages and disadvantages of using the so-called "warm market" as your exclusive lead source.

Although it's a very viable approach, many people find it limiting or undesirable, so they turn to what's typically called the "cold market" and do some type of advertising.

Placing ads in newspapers, magazines, online, on radio or TV is exciting because you get prospects coming to you. Of course the downside is that unlike the "warm market," these leads are not free.

The cost of advertising is prohibitive to many new distributors.

It's not just that the ads themselves are expensive. What drives the cost of advertising up is the fact that advertising is a trial-and-error process.

I'm a marketing professional and have created some incredibly responsive ads and direct mail pieces. But even at this point in my marketing career, I often have to go through 9 ad campaigns before I hit one that pulls really well.

That means placing 9 ads ... and PAYING for 9 ads that fail.

Lost money.

Negative cash flow.

... but oh, when you hit that one super-successful campaign, it more than makes up for the 9 losers!

The question is: "Do you have the financial resources to weather 9 losing campaigns?" For most people the answer is clear.

But wait there's more!

I get a great result from 10% of my campaigns. But you (if you're not educated in marketing) probably won't do that well.

Most people in MLM do one of 3 things:

1. Create an ad off the top of their head (disastrous)
2. Look at other ads in newspapers/magazines and create something similar (disastrous)
3. Use a "proven" ad from their company or upline (disastrous).

Wow! This is gonna be harder than you thought!

Yep, it is. And that's why people who are masters at writing ad copy make big bucks. I mean they make HUGE bucks (the really good ones). They can get away with charging tens of thousands of dollars because they're truly worth it ... and they're a rare commodity.

Are you that good?

If not, you can get the "pros" to advertise for you for pennies on the dollar. That will be our next topic in Part 3.