I can't believe I did this.

One of my mentors, Ed Dale, announced this year's "30 Day Challenge" a few days ago. At first I was just going to "watch from afar" as Ed took people through this course.

But then one of the people I had invited to the challenge asked if I had set up a team and if she could join it.

This got me thinking. Which usually ends with me taking some sort of action.

I went back to the "30DC" site and looked over everything Ed is offering. I was actually a bit surprised at how much material they're going to cover! He's even going to show how to use an online tool called "Twitter" to keep in touch with your team.

Ah, now there's a connection to network marketing I can get behind and add this to my list of "what I can do to help people in business".

Plus, I just love Ed's teaching style. Can't get enough, really. Especially when it doesn't cost anything.

So, here's the deal…

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Do you know people that seem to just be waiting for the next big payoff? Do they seem to jump from MLM business to another hoping to cash in on some great new plan?

Unfortunately that is really common in our industry and I'm sure contributes to a high level of "failure" that critics (and some supporters) of network marketing seem to quote so often. There's a pattern that emerges as a few success stories get out that go along the lines of "all I had to do was…" at which point they go into a greatly simplified version of their path to glory.

While it's great that they're happy for their own success (and hopefully for the success of their downline), by glossing over the hard parts they do a disservice. Inexperience marketers new to the industry, and even some veterans, get pulled in by the hype and forget that it takes work to build a real business.

So how does it really go? Let's take a look at that…

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The web site took forever to load. When it did load, it looked awful. The revenue model appeared incomprehensible.

This was my first impression of MySpace.

Now MySpace is one of the most visted web sites on the internet.

I still think the site looks awful. But now at least I see how they make money.

Do you think that maybe "MySpace" had some growth issues when they got started? Did they have everything tweaked just perfectly on the first to maximize their popularity and revenue?

Of course not.

They had to work on it and get the bugs out. As network marketer (or "affiliate with leverage" as I like to think of it) you will likely run into problems you have little direct control over. Things like what the company's web site looks like or how fast it loads.

In this situation you can do two things: quit and miss out on a great opportunity; or work through the inevitable kinks and make the most effective business you can.

So, which is it?

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Creating a compelling headline for your article, email, or even your sales page can be a frustrating and futile practice.  You need the headline to contain your keywords, often difficult to imagine in a real sentence.  Truly, it can be a hair pulling experience.  Researching the keyword 'headline', one of the largest searches was 'headlines today top'.  How on earth can that logically fit into a sentence?  Fortunately, with this tip, you don't have to worry about it.

In addition to search engine optimization, the other task that your headline has is, of course, to gain attention.  Your headline needs to encourage people to open your email and to read your article or web page.

Here's how to accomplish both:

Step 1.  Using the keyword 'headline writing,' place it in your headline like so:  Headline Writing -

Step 2.  Now consider what your article or email is about.  Can you use one of these popular headline starters?

•  Learn How
• How To
• __ Tips
• __ Secrets

Step 3.  Put it all together. 

• Headline Writing - Learn How to Write Attention Grabbing Headlines in Less than 60 Seconds.
• Headline Writing - 3 Secrets That Will Get Your Email Opened Immediately.

or even

• Headlines Top Today - Tips From The Experts to Stay On Top of the Day's Biggest News.

Step 4.  Once your headline is written, you can focus on the body copy.  Write your article first and then go back and place your keywords where they fit.  This will ensure that your article is informative and interesting, rather than jam packed with keywords that interrupt the flow of the copy.

If you can, try to work your main keyword into your first and last paragraph.  Also, if you're using a 'tips' type article you can use your main keyword or keyword phrase with each tip.

                            ex. Headline Writing Tip #1

                                 Headline Writing Step #1

 

It's quite simple really and while it doesn't work for every type of headline writing, it works quite well for articles and web pages.  By adding your keywords to your headline and separating them with a hyphen from the rest of your headline, your headline is both optimized and compelling to your reader. 

 

[Editor's Note (from Roger)]:

Annette offers email marketing and copywriting services on her site at AMB-Creative.com. I have used her services and she is truly a delight to work with. She provides terrific work, is always on time, and very prompt with any changes that you suggest. She gets my highest recommendation!

There comes a time in most online businesses where you will want to get your web site to rank well in search engines. A common tactic for getting that job done is through submitting articles to article directories in the hopes that they will get picked up by a webmaster and placed into a site that has good traffic and PageRank.

But what's the most efficient and most effective way to do that? Here ya go! A video that explains it:

 

 (You may need to click on the "play" button while the player still shows "Loading…")

 

The video presupposes that you can either write good articles on your own, or that you have a well qualified person to write them for you. If you don't have either of those I would recommend Annette over at AMB Creative. She has a great article writing service and has done fantastic work for me.

And of course if your looking for that extra edge in your business, check out my MLM training page. That will lead you to the system that I've plugged into and support. And by support, I do things like explain more advanced topics that the course touches on as well as making special videos like the one above.

Have fun, and leave your comments!

 

Just recently a man swam across the North Pole. It took him just over 18 minutes. The water was about 29 degrees Fahrenheit. He said it was the longest swim of his life.

Now, what do you do in your daily business that could be as difficult to overcome as that?

The most interesting part to me was that he had a "mind coach" with him as part of his team to get him through the event. Why? Because that was the hardest part - getting over the mental hurdle. The physical body is relatively easy to train. It's the mind that needs the most training focus.

More on It's All In Your Head: Overcoming Adversity

A few weeks ago I mentioned my son had his first birthday. Because of everyone's schedule's, we weren't able to have a party right away.

We finally had that party this last weekend and it was a lot of fun!

All the kids pile in for presents!

Nathan got to open a lot of cool presents and I got to fire up the grill and cook for all the guests. There were quite a few adults, a bunch of kids, and much merry making!

In other news, Project eVo also launched this weekend and the official name is uVme ("you versus me", get it?). The new sites are up and running, and it's still a bit rough around the edges. But there is a huge potential here.

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Not so much of a recap this week, as a reminder for progress in your business. As long as you follow a process that you know produces the results you want, then the real secret is to keep working the process, even though some days it feels like you're not making progress.

How do you know if a process works? You need to trust your business coach, your upline, or whoever has developed the process you're following. This may even be yourself.

This video does not go into a lot of specifics, as it's really just an overview. There are a lot of things that we could drill further into, so let me know what you want more of! Just leave a comment on the blog and that will guide future video content. Have fun!

 

As a member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), I like to keep up with their publication IEEE Spectrum. They've been increasing their online presence over the last year or so and have been incorporating more interactive features on their site, like blogs.

I'm a big fan of the print magazine because they provide great stories on interesting technical topics. Now I'm an even bigger fan of the online publication. Why? They have a blog called "The Sandbox" dedicated to "the latest in gaming". And it's not just about the latest whiz-bang creation. They actually take a big picture approach.

One one recent post they bring up a sort of hypocrasy in mental health. There's discussion in the mential health professions of considering video gaming as an addiction, you know, like alcholism. But is gaming anti-social like alchoholism, or more anti-social like avid book reading?

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Regardless of what company you are with or what product or service you promote, the relationships you build with your customers and business partners will be vital for your long term success. Even though lately I have been very excited about promoting the business for online gamers, the long term strategy still involves relationship building.

It has be relatively easy to get new people to take a look at this business since it has so many upsides. But I also realize that it's not about just sheer numbers of people. Always remember that it's not just a list of names; the people you have invited are a lot like you. They want to do something different with their lives and are looking for some partners to help them. They probably even like helping out other people.

Really, it's all about team building. And not just within your own group. You would be amazed at the amount of growth you can see by teaming up with people who may be completely unrelated to your business. Let's use the example of a nutritional product since that's what so many people market these days.

More on MLM Training: Relationships Rule!