How To Avoid The Slaughter On-Line
by Joe Schroeder
If the little guys don't watch out, they will nevergraduate. There is a "code of conduct" that the full-timersare using and the part-timers need to be aware of it. Orthey will churn.
It's called Affiliate Continuity: It's subtle and it's alsoa leading indicator of the internet Cowboys who are quietlytaking over.
Is it ever "quiet" on-line? Probably not.
Okay, that was the preamble. Here's the skinny.
Amateurs look for cash. They look for one-time LOW COSThits. Make it cheap and promise them income and they willflock to you like little weeble Boy Scouts standing in lineat a Saturday a.m. bring your dad all you can eat pancakefree for all.
The "oh poor me I never made a penny" crowd is alwayslooking for the hot-new program.
Not a team.
Not a business model.
Nothing significant, just money.
Mention continuity and you'd thinkYou had just shoved a lemon in their mouth.
Ask that crowd what business book they are currently readingto prepare themselves for their new found MLM wealth andthey would probably look back at you like, "huh?"
They line up and ask, "what is your system" and almost liketrained chimps with a script they second that with, "what doI need to do?"
Task questions. It's almost LABOR and never any questionsabout bigger BUSINESS.
Because they come into MLM as employees. They have the wageearner mind and that includes a knee-jerk compulsion tocreate a to-do list.
The better question however, is this, "what should it looklike when I am doing it right?"
Another one could be, "what will it look like when I amdone?" I bet Walt Disney and Jack Walsh asked thosequestions.
Pardon me (though) if this sounds like training. God forgiveme. Forget the expertise and heavens to bitsy if we actuallyspeak in business models!
However my friend, that's where the money is. Because moretimes than not, predictable effects that reflect clearlydefined causes, not just throwing mud up against the wall,is where the money is.
Affiliate Continuity is about marketing a seamless thread ofproducts and services that are tightly woven together, toproduce a predictable commitment, from the consumer to orderyour MLM products every month.
But the little guy doesn't have that continuity. He justbaits his hook with a little of that and a little from overthere.
What he is missing is the continuity that makes it allpredictable in the first place.
For instance, no matter where you meet with Corey Rudl on-line, he will always show you his various software packages.
You can hop into his ezine, climb into his little $17members site, you can order his training video's and henever sharp turns away from the fact that what he is reallytrying to do, is to collect as many paid subscribers to hissoftware packages as he humanly can.
Meanwhile, Corey is making RETAIL cash from numerousproducts he sells, in other words, he is making money everyminute of every day, but he is always predictably back-ending his subscription based software.
And that's continuity.
Look at Tony Robbins. No matter what he sells you and Lordknows he has a library of cool products, he never forgetsto ask you to become a subscriber to either his monthly CDsubscription or his monthly consultation/motivationcoaching.
And then there is "Jerry Joe Buckwheat" or better known asthe "average Joe" of MLM.
He doesn't have any predictability in what he does. No clearobjective. He just takes one of those, maybe one of thesefrom over there, and if that doesn't work, within a monthhe will quit both and start all over again in a few otherbrand new pre-launches!
Here is a tip. Okay, forget the tip.
Here is a wack-up side the head. YOU will either find amarketing camp and sell their entire line, front ends andback-ends included, and you will stick with it this time oryou will wish you had listened to me in an year wheneverything falls apart.
Here is another example of perfection, take Jimmy Vigilanteas a case study. Okay, so he has three member sites and hehas a few really neat affiliate programs and he may lookoff-the-cuff, but look carefully at this Giant.
EVERYTHING he touches he invariably points you to hisnutrition MLM. That's affiliate continuity. That's where youmay have multiple retail affiliate programs, but the"funnel" is always snapping the eyes of your prospects backto the ultimate back-end.
A leads to B and B leads to C. That is continuity.
I call it affiliate-Continuity.
And here's a fine point: Even though he may have a lead dealand an MLM training site he promotes, Gawd this is so hush-hush-----
Drum roll please:
ITS ALL RUN and SECRETLY OWNED by the same people!
Because to infect his people with "out side" voices is longterm death!
In other words, eventually, all LEAD programs will addnutrition items and take your nutrition downline away fromyou and into theirs.
And eventually, that GENERIC MLM trainer you point yourdownline to? Guess what?
He will eventually join an MLM and steal your downline fromyou.
Guess what? BIG AL just started his own MLM and that phonedeal iTi just unveiled a nutrition line.
Isn't that some reality and also a prediction of things tocome!
And I say, good for them. Go for it. I also say, you betterkeep it in the family.
Corey does. Jimmy does. Tony does. I do. Oprah Winfrey does,heck, even Tom Hanks knows this and that's why his ownproduction company makes his movies for him.
POINT your people away and outside of your "family" and youwill live to regret it. Ignore the law of AffiliateContinuity and you will sabotage your efforts.
The game is to PICK YOUR TEAM.
The game is to be in the game in ten years.
It's about being "the last man standing."
It's about walking with teams that take over MLM categoriesand territories these days much more than it is aboutproducts and pay plans.
In the old days, as a community of Networkers we stoodbehind products. What will be fashionable in 2004 and 2005will be to take a stand and to stand behind the echo of onespecific TEAM.
Not two. Pick one. PICK A TEAM!
What is sold on-line most successfully today, is community.Not products.
Products are born through the marching of the members atEbay, Ebiz, DCW and PowerMoney.
America On-line is a community where you attach yourself toeveryone you know via instant messaging.
Time-Warner owns AOL, so they get to earn money off youwhether you are coming or going. AS IT SHOULD be and ascontinuity dictates.
What you do is you set people up and you prepare them to buyfrom you over and over again, through various service andproduct offers.
But you don't have that advantage as a Networker, if youwork and promote outside of the predictable funnels thatbreed these rotating income generators.
A: Find a team that inspires you.
B: Find a team that is speaking your language. Talks to yourgut.
C: Is their message old or is it ahead of it's time?
D: is what is being sold an also-ran or fresh and new?
E: JOIN all of their programs.
F: Set-up and qualify to earn on all of their incomestreams.
G: Put on your Armor and beat your chest!
People who DO NOT take a stand >>> stand for nothing.
It pays to lock-down.
It pays to stand up for something.
It pays to be an original.
It pays to work in business models, instead of theory.
It worked for William Gates III.
It worked for Ted Turner.
It worked for a Muhammad Ali.
It works for me, it can work for you.
Take a closer look at Lpod and you will find what you havebeen looking for.
Teams that chant and who spend more time "being a team"rather than performing as a team, ultimately fizzle out.
You can't build a downline if you don't know how a team isbuilt.
You perform as a team to exercise more momentum as a unitand to capture more shares of your category.
However, you fail as a team if your goal is to "be a team."
If you liked Amway, you liked the team atmosphere. It feltgood.
However, if you want to make money you work and perform as ateam.
It's about affiliate continuity.
For me, team building is really about performance art andabout expressing myself through other people.
MLM done at that level of the game is such a beautifulthing.
Have a good one, see you soon,
Joe Schroederhttp://MLMBigFish.com
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