Sometimes I am a pumpkin eater, as in the old saying, “cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater”! I confess! I don’t cheat a Monopoly or on my taxes, but sometimes I cheat my online MLM business when it comes to the number of hours I say I’m going to spend on the business … and the number of hours I actually spend.
How I’m a Pumpkin Eater
Actually, I don’t like pumpkins at all as a form of food, but sometimes I eat pumpkin a lot when it comes to marketing my online MLM business. How? Well, here are a few examples:
1. Spending 3 hours filing “stuff” and calling it work
2. Reviewing my genealogy and counting it as marketing (hah!)
3. Taking myself to breakfast and calling it brainstorming (more like “gut bomb”)
4. Chatting with my upline casually and calling it training
5. Staring at a blank screen wishing I could write … and saying I’m cogitating
I’ve been marketing online MLM for about a decade or so … and it’s quite embarrassing to admit that I have to eat pumpkin pie, pumpkin stew, and pumpkin and crow sometimes. Yeah, I tracked the number of hours I actually spend “marketing” my online MLM biz for a couple of weeks and I have to say that I ate some pumpkin, and maybe my pants were on fire a couple of times (as in “liar, liar”!). Yup, I put in “filler” stuff instead of real MLM marketing effort on some of those days.
Does it Matter That I am a Pumpkin Eater?
I know as well as the next MLM marketer that the number of hours I put into the biz isn’t the “end all, be all” of success in this business. There’s quality as well as quantity when it comes working the business. At the same time, I have to admit that the number of hours I spend in actually marketing my online MLM business is a good gauge of how active I am in my business, and how fast my business will continue to grow.
Which brings me to the question: “What actually constitutes marketing in an online MLM business?” That’s a good question. I’m sure every online marketer has a different definition, but here’s a short list of what I consider to be actually marketing effort:
- writing online content for my blog or website
- participating in online forums and social media platforms (Twitter, etc.)
- adding thoughtful comments to other people’s blogs
- promoting my online content to media outposts like EzineArticles
- answering emails from prospects
- sending out specific pieces of online content to specific prospects
In other words, “miscellaneous” activities like filing, chatting, gulping coffee, and training don’t count as marketing. These are all necessary activities to any small business, but they don’t actually fall under the category of online MLM marketing. Notice that the acronym MLM stands for “Multi Level Marketing,” not “Multi Level Filing” or “Multi Level Chatting.” Hmmm …
Are You a Pumpkin Eater, Too?
It actually doesn’t matter how many hours you spend marketing your online MLM business … only that you are consistent in your efforts. Running “hot and cold” is one of the worst offenses for an online MLM marketer because building a positive online presence takes consistent effort.
If you consistently put in 5 hours per week in online marketing, then your business will grow faster than if you put in 2 hours one week, 10 hours the next, and none the next. This is especially true if you participate in social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, where people expect to see you participating in conversations on a regular basis.
If your schedule only permits you to consistently put in 3 hours per week in online marketing for your MLM business, then do that for 52 weeks. Three hours, every week, is way better than a varying number of hours throughout the year.
Having said all of that, there’s nothing wrong with being a pumpkin eater, especially if you like pumpkins! If you’re in the business for the social aspects of it, then by all means you can count filing and other activities as “marketing.” Just don’t expect exponential growth out of that kind of marketing effort. Call a spade a spade … or a pumpkin a pumpkin, if you get my drift!
Do you agree … or am I just full of pumpkin?
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