If you are in the Direct Sales or Multi-Level Marketing  and want to use the internet to get more customers  or recruits to build your business.  Here’s what you shouldn’t do.

1.  Do not pay high fees for a company replicated website.   Replicated website that are sadly expensive will not deliver you sales.  It will process the order – yes,  IF people are ready to buy.  But it will NOT market your business for you.

Here’s why:

• Company replicated website are not created for marketing purposes.  It never gives customers the benefits,  only features. Customers do not buy features but benefits.
• They may not appear on google with your name on it.   The corporate website will but without your name.  So why promote it?
• Replicated website DO NOT handle objections.   It is up to you to handle objections when you call them – if they leave their info.  If not, you just lost a sale.
• You have very little control on what goes on your replicated website.  It’s not flexible enough to market it.  Trust me, been there – done that.
• No matter how you try to “personalized” it – it’s not personal.   People are drawn to individuals with personal touch.
• Your replicated website seldom create a database for you.  That’s why people who move on to another direct sales business end up having to start creating prospect list all over again.

2.  Do not depend on your replicated website to send you prospects.  It will not happen. Instead, you should do the following actions to build your prospect list.

• Create a simple – easy to manage website or a blog with your business name.  I recommend using your name as a domain in case you change your business later on.
• Provide valuable information that can be used or shared on your site or blog.   Give it away for FREE as an incentive for people to leave their name and e-mail address.
• Promote your business online and direct the traffic to your website to capture people’s e-mail address. That way, you can build your data base of prospect.  You probably already know this – there is no business without a prospect list.

The World Wide Web can be an excellent resource for those involved in direct sales. Just as networking offline can be a great boost for business, networking online can be useful in gaining sales as well as new recruits for your business. So the next time that you are online, check out these great places to network online to further your direct sales business online.

Online Forums
Online forums are excellent places for people in direct sales to network while online. Wahm.com and internetbasedmoms.com are two wonderful places to start. You’ll meet and network with moms that are very successful with their businesses as well as moms that are looking for a business to start and lots of moms somewhere in between.

When networking on online forums please be mindful of the rules and regulations of each forum that you decide to visit. Not only with this save you from doing any unauthorized advertising, it will help you build a solid reputation as a business owner.

Ryze.com (oldest)
Ryze.com is another great place to network your business online. Business owners like you can create a homepage dedicated to networking your businesses. After you create your homepage you are all set to begin joining groups and networking with other business people on the web.

Squidoo.com
Squidoo.com is a fairly new social networking site that is gaining in popularity very rapidly. With Squidoo you can create lenses, which are basically short articles on any topic that you care to write about. This would be an excellent way to establish yourself as being very knowledgeable about the products or service that your business has to offer. Squidoo can be a useful tool in driving potential customers to your websites.

Email Groups
Email groups, like those offered by Yahoo, are another option for online networking. All you need to do is search for groups that would fit your business. “Work at Home Moms in Wisconsin”, or “Moms in Home Business” would just be a couple of examples of the types of groups that you should keep an eye out for when looking for email groups to join.

These are just a few of the great places online that you can utilize for networking. Look for ways to be a useful contributor and supportive friend wherever you choose to network and you will be well on your way to building your business in no time at all.

Social Networks

Social networks are becoming the place to be as far as online networking. The trick is to create a strategy and choose the right groups, and network for your purpose.  Don’t forget that these are “social” networks. It revolves around socializing.

Linkedin Group - if you want to build relationship with many influencial people, linkedin group is the answer.  It’s one of the best way to meet and engage with people in certain industry or business niche.  I am currently a member of the VA group as well as the Company of Women where I met many interesting people.

Facebook Group and Facebook Pages -  search an industry on facebook or a business and you are likely to find a group that interest you.   While linkedin is considered a business social network, facebook is the cocktail party – members of these networks acts and expect different.

The key thing to remember when networking online is to become a contributor instead of just going in and announcing your company products or service.  Hang out for a while and observe what others are doing.

Finding a great up line is one of the smartest moves that you can make when you decide to get into the direct sales industry. Most successful direct sales consultants that you speak with will tell you that they feel a quality sponsor played a large roll in the overall success of their direct sales business. So why is it important to stay in touch with your up line once you begin a direct sales business?

Training:
Your up line will be able to give you proper training. A very important reason that you should stay in touch with your up line is for the training that they can offer you, which is especially important if this is your first venture into the direct sales world. For example, your up line can answer any questions that you might have on how to navigate through your company’s online ordering system, or how to get your discount on personal orders.

Promotion:
Staying in touch with your up line can assist you in the marketing and promotion of your business. Your sponsor can let you know what kind of marketing materials and promotional tactics have worked well for their business and if you could use them successfully to advance your business. Your up line can also help you develop a plan of action so you can go out and book parties and make the income goals that you have set for yourself. Your up line will also help to fill you in on the rules and the regulations of marketing your business online.

Support:
One huge reason you should stay in touch with your up line is the moral support and encouragement that she can offer you. Many women that have decided to make the jump to start a career in direct sales feel extremely motivated to make their business a success when they feel that they have someone that believes in them and is just as excited for them as they are. Having a good relationship with your up line can help you to get through the hard times to build your business.

These are great reasons that you should stay in touch with your up line when you join a direct sales business. You want to make sure to find a sponsor that is actively working her business and is genuinely interested in signing you up so that you can be successful in meeting whatever goals you would like. This way the relationship will be beneficial for both of you.

Having a well-motivated sales team can be the cornerstone of a successful direct sales career. Building a strong sales team has the potential for great financial benefits for you as an up line. So now that you are on your way to building a good sized sales team how do you keep them motivated so that they will have fun with what they are doing and be able to build a successful direct selling business for themselves?

Team Newsletter or Ezine
One thing that you can do to keep up the motivation of your team is start a team newsletter. This can be done through the mail or by email whichever you think would work better for your group. You can include words of encouragement to get your team members excited about their business, offer tips like theme party ideas and maybe even let your team send in ideas that have worked for them.

Sending Cards
Another thing you can do to let your team members know that they are special to you is start sending cards on special occasions. Remembering things like wedding anniversaries, birthdays or even a consultant that has had an exceptional sales month will let your team members know that they are special to you and not simply a number that you recruited for your own personal gain.

Training and Incentives
Offer team training and incentives to your down line for motivation. Whether your new recruits are direct sales pros or delving into their first experience, training is always a good thing. You could hold conference calls; monthly or even weekly team meetings. Offer incentives for your team to help them reach their sales goals. Offer things like sales aides (order forms, catalogs, etc…) or products from your company if they meet goals like booking so many parties in a month, making so many sales phone calls, or meeting a certain amount of sales.

Support
The best thing that you can do is make yourself available to your team and let them know that they matter to you. Nothing is more motivating than knowing you have someone who is behind you and supports you all the way with your business.

Keep these tips in mind and you will have a sales team that really loves what they do, which means success for everyone.

Learning how to advertise your direct sales business online can mean a definite increase in sales for your business. The thing that you need to keep in mind, however, with direct sales is that there is often a different set of rules for online advertising. Here are some tips and tricks for advertising your direct sales business online through forums.

First of all you want to decide on your target market (or markets). Are you hoping to target stay at home moms? Maybe you are hoping to contact real estate companies in hopes of getting them to buy gift baskets that you have put together. Once you have determined who exactly you are trying to get to purchase your items for sale you will have a better idea of where online you are going to want to be advertising.

Forums can be a great place to advertise your business. You can participate in the forums –offering genuine support and advice when needed, which not only builds trust among the online community you are participating in, it is just simply fun to do. Then when someone is looking for a product that you may offer, you can casually mention that you are a rep for a company that carries what they need and the person will be encouraged to make a purchase from you since you have spent the time and have built that level of trust. Make sure to follow the rules and regulations of the forums that you would like to potentially advertise in. You do not want to be reprimanded for spamming.

If you are not allowed to post advertisements on online forums, then look into the possibilities of signature advertising. All you need to do is create a catchy tag line to encourage people to click on your link and hopefully make a purchase. You could also implement signature advertising in emails that you send too, that way each time you correspond with someone you are advertising your business.

These are just a couple of ideas that you can implement while advertising online. Just be aware of the rules whenever you are advertising so you do not end up spamming. This way you’ll be off to great sales in no time.

Direct Sales companies afford an excellent way to earn a great income with the added bonus of being able to make up your own schedule. Being able to work online opens up a huge market in which you can sell your products. Another avenue you should consider when marketing your products online is fundraising. Fundraising is an excellent feature to add to your online direct sales business for several reasons.

Fundraising assists groups that are in need of money. Some groups that regularly run fundraisers are schools, churches, daycares/preschools, scouts, and non-profits. You can help the group conduct their fundraiser offline, online or a combination of both. Since there are such a wide variety of a products being offered by direct sales companies, groups doing fundraisers have an excellent chance of being successful, as they will be offering something new and different. Most groups looking for a fundraiser are looking for fresh ideas in order to increase their chances of raising the cash they need. (All groups get tired of the same old fundraisers year after year. Offer them something different!)

You are sure to increase your income when you add fundraising to your online direct sales business. Some Direct Sales companies have a set amount of commission that a group can earn doing a fundraiser. Other companies allow the consultant to set how much commission the group will earn and how much commission you will be earning.

Adding fundraisers to your online direct sales business can help you to meet your sales goals. Say you need to make a certain sales quota each month, simply plan ahead to organize a least one fundraiser per month and you are sure to meet your monthly sales goals.

This will also work for long-term sales goals. For example if you are hoping to win a trip that your company is offering as an incentive, fundraisers can go a long way to help you meet that goal. Try to schedule at least one fundraiser each month, and see the difference in your overall sales.

So when you are looking for ways to better build your direct sales business, definitely consider the benefits of organizing fundraisers. Not only will they help you meet your own personal goals for yourself and your business, you will be helping very worthy groups get much needed funds to help run their programs.

When you are involved in direct sales, keeping in touch with your customers is an excellent way to ensure that they will book parties with you and purchase your products on an ongoing basis. The Internet provides those who run direct sales businesses very simple and convenient ways to stay in touch with their client base. So just what are some ways that you can use the technology of the Internet to keep in touch with your customers?

Blogs
You can start a blog to keep in touch with your customers. A blog is basically an online journal and a great place to inform people of your business. With your blog, you can include informative articles relating to whatever product you maybe selling, keep your customers informed of product specials that both your company and you personally are offering and allow them to make comments about your posts should they have any questions. Blogger.com is a popular place for many to start blogs.

Forums
You could start your own online forum to communicate with your customers. It is really quite simple to start your own message board. You can start different forums to deal with customer questions on specific products, customer complaint issues, product specials and even a forum where you can chat with your customers about any topic.

Yahoo Discussion Group
Starting an email discussion group like the ones available through yahoo is yet another way that you can keep in touch with your customers. You can make your group available for discussion or use it to release a monthly or even weekly newsletter to inform your customers about your business.

Mailing List
Starting a mailing list is yet another way that you can use the Internet to keep your customers informed about the goings on of your business. Just make sure that before you start sending out information about your business to your mailing list that you pay close attention to what would be considered spamming.

These are just some of the great ideas for using technology to keep your customers informed about your business. Utilizing the convenience offered by these tools is a smart way to build up your business.

When you are involved in a direct sales company, having a website can be a huge asset. Most direct sales companies offer their sales consultants websites where their customers can place orders. Some are free, and some are low cost. However, being able to sell your products outside your local area really opens up your chances to increase your income considerably.

A company-provided website can be a very convenient option for a direct seller. For a nominal fee you can have a website fully set up to begin taking orders. So if it is so simple to get a website set up through your company, why are consultants making additional websites to market their products?

While a company-made website is very easy to obtain there is really little customization that can occur with them. As many direct sales company consultants will tell you, personalized service is very important to being successful with your business. Because the only personal information a representative can add to a company-made site is usually their name and possibly an email address or phone number, consultants are making their own separate websites to sell their company’s products.

With a custom-made website you can really allow your customers the chance to get to know you and your enthusiasm for the products you sell. What better way to make a sale than to build trust among your client base and let them know that you care about their satisfaction and are thrilled to be offering them quality products.

A personalized website will allow you to better inform your customers about the products you sell. For example if you sell children’s toys you can post articles on how beneficial educational toys are for a child’s development. Or if you sell spa products, let your customers know the potential benefits for their skin if they try the products you have for sale. The more familiar that someone feels they are with a product the more likely they are to make a purchase.

So while using a company-provided website works just fine for many direct sales consultants, consider the added benefits of building a personalized website to use in tandem with it in order to further build your business.

Being able to recruit online has really opened the door for those in direct sales to build large sales teams. Since communicating through the world wide web is a lot different then communicating face to face, there are some things you should be doing as well as some things you should not be doing while recruiting for your direct sales business opportunity.

First of all be honest with your potential recruits. Don’t try and make it sound like the direct sales company that you represent is the only company out there that is profitable. Just let them know the honest facts about the income potential that they can have with your company and by all means share how excited you are about what you are selling.

Make sure to make yourself available to your online recruits whether it is through email, chat rooms, instant messages or phone. Nothing would be worse then to have wonderful conversations through email with a potential sponsor and then never hear from them again once you’ve signed up. If you cannot offer a certain level of supportiveness to online recruits, you are not likely to be successful building a team in this manner.

Another thing to remember while recruiting online is not to knock other companies. You want to present yourself in a professional manner and that is not going to happen if you’re making statements like “You won’t make any money at all with Company X” or “Company B has such lousy products and the commissions are horrible.”

Don’t be pushy. For instance, if someone is looking for a company that offers bath and body products, don’t push them into uncomfortable discussions about joining your children’s toy company. You also can run the risk of getting in trouble for spamming if you post recruiting ads without keeping in mind the rules and regulations of any and all online communities you join.

These are just a few things to keep in mind while you are trying to build your sales team online. Have a solid plan in place before you begin searching online for your future sales team and you are sure to be successful.

The world of direct sales is highly competitive, so it cannot be stressed enough that being able to drive traffic to your website is key to the success of your direct sales business. Article marketing has become a very popular way for direct sales consultants to accomplish this. So how can article marketing be helpful in driving traffic to your direct sales website?

Well first of all article marketing is free advertising and who would not appreciate that? Make sure to avoid making your article sound like a sales pitch and make sure to include a short bio about yourself and a link to your website at the end of your article. There are literally thousands of article directories just waiting for you to submit your finished work. Submitting your articles to article directories is a fantastic way to be able to reach large numbers of potential customers quickly and easily.

Distributing articles drives traffic to your direct sales website and helps you establish trust with your potential client base. By writing easy-to-read, informational articles related to the type of products that you sell you can establish yourself as being knowledgeable about your products. Customers are very likely to purchase products from a direct sales consultant that is familiar with their products and can honestly answer any questions that their customers may have.

Publishing your articles on your own direct sales website can help move your website up through the search engine rankings. Using well researched keywords can increase the likelihood of appearing in search engines for the search terms that fit best.

When your articles are picked up and published on other websites it increases your link popularity. Link popularity is a huge factor in how websites are ranked among the search engines. Your goal is to get your articles on as many websites as you can, and this is an easy way to start increasing the link popularity of your direct sales website.

Check out the internet for even more suggestions on how article marketing will be able to help you drive more traffic to your direct sales website.