DiRoberts.com

If you come from Texas, as I do, the thought of branding brings up visions of red hot metal being pressed right onto the flesh. So everyone will know who you belong to. Ouch!!!

Or, if you’re a regular consumer, there are certain brand names you like and some you don’t. In either case, you probably don’t think you should be so easily put into some branded category. I’m not a Pepsi and I’m definitely not a Coke.

So what are we talking about here? It’s just a matter of expressing your own personality. That doesn’t mean you have to have movie star charisma. You don’t have to have “star” quality. It means being the person you are so you can speak to the many, many folks out there who want to hear from a person like you.

If you are hiding behind the company lead capture page, nobody knows who YOU are. So you may not attract the kinds of folks you want to work with in your business.

For example, if your corporate lead capture page features lots of flashing lights and loud music and pretty/handsome young folks who talk very fast, and you are a retiree trying to build a business for retirement income, do you think the folks who are attracted to that site are going to want to see you as their leader? Do you really even want to deal with them? On the other hand you may. You may have the cross-generational mindset and skills that would be prefect for bringin out the best in folks of any age.

On the other hand, if you are a smart young 20-something, wouldn’t you want the people who responded to your offer to join your team to also be quick and smart and able to follow your suggestions instantaneously? No old fuddy-duddys to slow thing down.

But maybe you have that knack. The knack of being able to learn and apply what you learn from people of all ages, levels of education, ethnic background, and so forth. And help them to be really good in your business. Then, my friend, I think you have earned the title of network marketer. But I digress.

That’s what branding, in the internet marketing world, means. It’s about establishing who you are, your online persona, and in the network marketing arena, who you would welcome on your team in the best of all possible worlds. Sometimes, they call this attraction marketing, but I always felt there was a possibility of fakery in trying to “attract” certain types, as opposed to others. The haves versus the haves-not-quite-enough.

I hava a mini-course on branding that you can have for the mere price of giving me your actual name and email address. Just fill in the form here on my blog. Please be careful when you write in your email address because that is where the min-course will be sent.

Live well and prosper!!

Di

If you have something you’d like to introduce to the world, then it’s usually better not to just drop it on folks.  There is just so much stuff out there, some good, some bad, some outright scams, that people are reluctant to buy new ideas, products, services, or whatever, from strangers.  Better to let them get to know you a bit first so they can see whether you’re their kind of guy or gal and basically what they can expect from you. You need to connect with a lot of people to find the ones who are simpatico, right? And then you need to build up a relationship with them through frequent communication.

Fortunately, the internet provides exactly that capability. You can establish an internet presence that will help you connect with many, many people and then stay in contact with them. Then, when the time is right, you can introduce them to your honest recommendations for products to buy, programs to join, business opportunities, and so on that it would benefit them to take advantage of.

Probably you’ve seen how the big gurus do it. They have these inviting lead capture pages. You sign up and they send you  something and then you’re on their email list. Sometimes they invite you to go look at a video they made or they invite you to an online webinar. They have a blog where they tell you what’s on their minds. Sometimes they give you advice and training and sometimes they tell you about the latest product they want you to buy. But all the while they are making more connections and deepening the relationship they have with the people on their list.

Sounds very cool, huh, but don’t you have to know a lot and have a lot of money to be able to do all that?

Until recently, I would have said yes to that. You needed major expertise and funds for all that. Now, however, we have GVO (Global Virtual Opportunities). They refer to themselves as a hosting company and they are, but with a lot more to offer than other hosting companies, all for one low monthly fee .

Yes, they will host unlimited domains for you on their redundant servers with the latest web hosting technology and most advanced cPanel features , like installing a WordPress blog for you in under a minute.They include a downtime tracking utility so you always know what’s going on with your sites.

You also get an autoresponder service so you can send out emails to unlimited numbers of subscribers on unlimited numbers of lists. They even give you templates for lead capture pages to collect subscribers.

You have your very own video conferencing room so you, too, can conduct webinars for training, prospecting, promoting, or just getting together to brainstorm or visit. You can show slides, videos, or your desktop while you are talking about them. You can allow your users to chat. There are so many possibilities for this!

The Easy Video Producer in GVO lets you record your own videos that you can upload anywhere or embed them in a lead capture page (more templates provided) or a website or your blog. You can directly email your videos if you would like, too. So easy to use!

Each of the various utilities in the GVO suite has its own set of instructional videos so you can follow along and get things up to speed. There is 24-hour support if you need help. Once when I was stuck, I went to the help desk and the guy on duty fixed my problem for me right then and there. He was nice about it, too. There is also the GVO Academy with ongoing live and recorded webinars on further techniques and strategies you can use to advance your business. GVO Academy uses the same web conferencing facility that you have for your own use so you can see its possibilities. You can even do 3D web conferences if you have the camera and your attendees have the glasses.

Anyway, I think this is a pretty impressive collection of the online connection-making tools that could make a huge difference in your business.  I encourage you to go check it out for yourself at http://diroberts.gogvo.com/

Di

When I first tried to make a go of a network marketing business, I was told to make a list of relatives/friends/acquaintances and call them up to talk about my new business. I was even told to make a “chicken list” of the movers and shakers I was afraid to talk to and go after them first. Since virtually none of these folks were interested in having their own network marketing business, I might as well have been trying to sell scuba gear in the desert.

Then, I was assured that the lead company recommended by my upline would provide lists of people who would be delighted to talk with me about the business and would be jumping at the chance to join up. I only needed to send them an email or two and call them up and they would join immediately. Well, thousands of dollars went towards contact info on people who didn’t answer the phone, forgot they signed up, didn’t want anything to do with network marketing, or were indignant that I had the rudeness to even call them. The few who were receptive were not at all prepared for going through what I had gone through to find those few who would be interested in joining. So they ran out of money and masochism and my team numbers didn’t increase. In fact, it was a constant battle just to stay even.

So where would the nascent network marketers be? One place, said my upline, was in traffic exchanges. All I had to do was click, click, click to earn credits so my company recruiting website could be shown. I even sort of enjoyed seeing all the other websites as I clicked away.  After all, the traffic exchanges were full of people who wanted to have a business and so some would surely see the merits of our company and, at least, request more information, if they didn’t sign up right on the traffic exchange page.  Well, there were a lot of identical pages on the exchanges and so my company got a lot of exposure but the law of averages didn’t favor me. Besides, the other clickers soon got got bored with seeing the same company page and so it didn’t even register any more. That was not the way to go about bringing others into your downline.

I also spent a lot of time and effort on safelists, again with modest success.  Most people have a special email account for safelist emails that gets regularly purged without anybody actually seeing any of the emails. If you send out the same blaring subject line about how your deal is absolutely the best, you will get absolutely no clicks. But I didn’t know that for quite a while.

I don’t even want to talk about the time I spent in the hot Texas sun putting little slips of paper in the gap of the driver’s side window of many, many, many cars. The drivers who called were mostly not very happy with having stuff put on their car without their permission and they were not particularly impressed by a potential business partner who was using such tactics. Again, there was no attempt to find out who might actually be interested in having this kind of business before hand.

Then there was the time I tried leaving my little slips of paper near public phones, like in the airport. The calls from those were expecting professionals but in a very different kind of business.

So, now you know some of my sad secrets. Glad to say, though, that there are entirely different ways to appraoch this business so you can reach out to the people who really want to get started and are receptive to you, personally.  And what a difference that makes!

Di

This is beginning of the chronicle of a journey from the scientific laboratory to the real world of internet commerce. And so far, it seems to be quite a journey. Like to a whole different universe.

Please don’t think of scientists as ostriches with our heads stuck in the sand. If we are really scientific, we are always trying to learn how things really are, how they work, and what might happen next. But I have found the world of the internet marketer to be so different from the one I was used to that I have been seriously looking for training resources and teachers who actually know how to do well to help me. I will be sharing some of the advice they give me with you, Dear Reader, from time to time.

One of them told me that the overall plan is like this:

First thing is to figure out what you want to accomplish.

Second thing is to figure out what path you will need to follow to get there. You may need some advice there.

Third thing is to figure out what tools you will need to get the job done. You may need some recommendations for that.

Fourth thing is to get to work and use the tools for the process you have worked out.

Fifth thing is not to quit until you get to the end of your map.

Sixth thing is to refine/rework/revise your plan and maybe update your tools until you get where you wanted to go.

Seventh thing is not to give up EVER until you get there.

So, is anybody ready to start this journey with me?

Di