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.

So, here's the deal…

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…

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?

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!

It's pretty rare that I get excited right off the bat about a new business venture. There are a lot of great ideas, but most of them have been done before. So it's a matter of trying to position yourself to beat the "other guys".

Just before the weekend I heard from a new marketing buddy about an opportunity that I've actually thought about developing myself: combining two of my big interests – gaming and marketing. Finally, it's being done!

The number of people playing games online is growing four times faster than the number of new people getting on the internet. This is a huge market in fun industry and we have a golden window of opportunity get in front of it.

Browsing the sites of other bloggers I occasionally come across a good point that should get emphasized. In this case, it has to do with "leadership". What kind of leader are you for your group?

Do you keep in touch with both your upline and downline? Are you willing to explore new marketing methods and share them with your group? Do you keep an open channel of communication?

As a leader, you will a lot of things that maybe others in your group aren't ready to do yet, but by doing them yourself you show that it can be done. But what makes others willing to follow what you do?

I have to admit it: I'm an internet marketing junkie.

When a sales letter comes across my desk or into my email, I study it to see what techniques the author (copywriter) uses. When new marketing methods and techniques roll out, I keep an eye on them to see if they provide true value. It takes experience and a keen eye to see the true diamonds out there.

This weekend I started looking at a system that I have special access to through one of my coaching programs.

It looks pretty darn cool.

Too many people think that having their own business that they can do from home is going to be "easy". They fall into the trap of believing the hype put out by scam artists that they "build your downline" or "do the work for you" or some other such nonsense.

So it should be pretty obvious to anyone that something that's worth having is going to take time and effort to achieve. It's not going to be easy.

But is it going to be difficult?

Let's explore some of the things that are "difficult" in life.

Here's an interesting idea:

Take the concept of the chain letter and apply it to blogging. How does this work? Simply take a list like this:

1. I love MLM Blog
2. Fax Marketing
3. Jack Squatro
4. DidYouSmellThat
5. TurboRecruiting
6. RyanShamus
7. Martial Arts Supplies
8. The Renegade Network Marketer
9. Murphs On.com
10. MLM Training

…and remove the top entry. Move everyone else up the list by one position and put your link at the (now blank) #10 position.

Why do this? The idea is to help your blog to get more easily found on the internet.

Is it ethical?