I recently got a hilarious self-portrait from one of my online MLM marketing buddies: it was a picture her holding two fistfuls of hair–her own hair that is! She took this picture of herself to show me what she looked like after she had attempted to complete the weekly task list she had put together for her MLM business. In a word? Impossible!
While my buddy is quite computer literate, she’s a novice in online marketing, but learning fast. She is in the same boat as most people just learning how to promote their MLMs online.
Why Ongoing Education Helps with Online MLM
My buddy’s frustration is quite typical of newbies to the world of doing MLM online. I find that what helps these people the most is education. “Education is power” is one of my upline sponsor’s mottos, and it applies very much to a person who wants to successfully promote online. In case you missed the other four, here are the recent posts about each of them:
- Don’t hit on people.
- Do not close people.
- Be realistic. Do not make pie-in-the-sky claims.
- Do not pitch–answer questions instead.
The four previous principles are very important, but I think this fifth one about education may be the most important of all when it comes to online marketing. While the MLM industry as a whole has become more credible and solid over the last few decades, the basic offline promotional techniques have remained the same. It’s important to be educated in these offline techniques, but they don’t change much so once you master them you’re in fat city.
The online world is completely different. It’s fast-paced, constantly changing, and demands constant learning. Even web marketing leaders like Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, and Seth Godin are continually revamping their ideas of what’s possible, practical, and people-friendly for the average Joe when it comes to online marketing. In a world that moves this fast, ongoing education is a “have to” activity, not a “want to” kind of thing.
How to Educate Yourself in Online MLM Marketing
If you are like my buddy, you’re probably scratching your head (if not actively trying to tear out your hair) trying to figure out how you’re going to fit yet one more task-ongoing education-into your already impossible online MLM marketing plan. You’re probably blogging, article marketing, forum marketing, and doing SEO. Or maybe you’re just blogging and having a hard time keeping up with just that.
How in the world are you going to fit in education about online marketing? By making as many online marketing activities as possible serve double duty as learning experiences. Here are two examples of how your online activities can serve double duty.
1. Comment and Learn
To increase your online visibility, it’s always a good idea to read other people’s blogs and add insightful comments to their posts. Depending on whose blogs you read, the time you spend adding comments can also serve as classroom hours for your online marketing education. Choose to comment only on the blogs of thought leaders who are in line with your style of online marketing. This helps you in two ways: first, commenting on highly-ranked blogs will increase your online presence; second, you have to read the post before you can comment, and you are bound to learn something in the process.
When you comment on a blog post, really read the post first and think about what the author is trying to teach you. That way you actually learn something, and you can leave a comment that actually means something. Comments like “Great post. I liked it!” don’t really enhance your online presence. If you’re going to comment, learn something from the post, and then leave a comment that will add some benefit to the conversational thread. Leaving a good comment tells readers as much about your online marketing expertise as writing a good blog post. To see some really good comments, visit Chris Brogan’s blog or Copyblogger.
2. Article Marketing: Post and Research
If you are doing article marketing right, then you are taking the time to research strong, long-tail keywords that will drive traffic to your articles and your blogs/websites. Here’s a nifty trick. As you submit your article to one or two major directories do a search on your keywords and see what your competition is writing. You’ll learn something–whether it’s good, bad, or ugly. You’ll see some really great writing that you may want to emulate. You’ll see some really bad writing that will remind you not to be a slacker and write sloppy copy. And you’ll see some intriguing ideas that would never otherwise cross your mind. Taking just a few minutes to do a quick scan in the article directory after you submit your own articles will give you a quick but jam-packed education. It’s short and sweet.
I hope these help you tap into the free education that the online thought leaders are providing just about every single day of the week. “Learn while doing” is my motto when it comes to education in online MLM marketing.
What do you think? What works for you when it comes to educating yourself about online marketing in general, and online MLM specifically?
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Great picture, lol… And a strong point about making a point of learning more and more as you go.
BTW, I like you’re approach–it’s nice to see someone who isn’t advocating pie-in-the-sky, hard-sell recruitment strategies. And I’m willing to bet your way is as effective as heck.
It’s true that online MLM education is a great power. There must be a lot of knowledge waiting us to develop. Thank you for your sharing.
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