Here is a perfect example of why most people fail miserably when marketing their business online.  I recently wrote a post where I was comparing my initial viewpoint of two new affiliate marketing companies that both offer the same type of products.  This post showed up in the search engine results within 7 minutes of writing it.  A rep of one of the companies found my post in the search engine results.  She made a comment on it.  I replied to her comment and asked her for more information as well as issued a challenge (to ANY members of Empower and/or Level One, including her) which may have proven her point…who knows.

I gave her my email address and told her I wanted more information.  It is now over 10 days later and she has not replied to my comment in any way.

FOLLOW THROUGH!!!  FOLLOW UP!!!

Those are the most important words any online marketer can remember.  You can be out there all day long posting in different places on the internet, but if you don’t follow up on those posts, you are dead in the water.  You will just keep struggling and struggling and continue to get nowhere.  The goal for any online marketer should be to get more users of your product or service and/or get more business partners.  If you aren’t following up with those who ask you for information, you are on the losing end.

I recently looked into the basic packages of both Empower and Level One networks so I could evaluate their material and see which company (if either) is in line with what I teach and beneficial to my readers/subscribers.

I have chosen one over the other.  There are a few very simple reasons why.

1.  I like Empower’s blogging platform better than Level One’s.  I feel it will be easier for the people I recommend it to.

2.  The residual (monthly commission) potential is greater with Empower than Level One.

3.  The training for Empower is more simplified than the Level One training.  My tribe is used to simple because it’s how I teach.

4.  When I was looking online for comparisons between the two, the majority of what I found was Level One affiliates bashing Empower.

5.  I love that Empower gives you information right up front (during signup) regarding the compensation plan and the legalities of your business.

I’ve been approached by reps of both Empower Network and Level One Network recently.  I see a lot of Empower and Level One reps posting on facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc…

I decided to take a glance at both companies.  They both claim to have a blogging system that gets indexed into the search engines quickly and easily.  So…me being me…I tested that theory.  I went to Level One Network’s home page and picked a couple of the bloggers on page one to test with.  I also went to Empower Network’s facebook page and couple of the more interactive people there and went to their blogs.

So, at this point, I’m using two random blogs from Level One and two random blogs from Empower.  This should be a fair test.  I looked for posts on each blog where the titles had nothing to do with either company.  I know that when I write a post, I can generally google the title within hours and have it show up on page one of the results.  When searching for the titles of these four blogs, I found something very interesting.

NEITHER the Empower blogs nor the Level One blogs were showing up on page one of the results.  What I did find is a bunch of Level One reps bashing Empower and a bunch of Empower reps bashing Level One on their blogs and on social spaces.  I also found that every blog from each company looks just like the other.  I always say “Brand YOURSELF…not some company”.  With these companies, however, in order to take advantage of their search engine positioning (if they really have any) you must have your blog be TheirCompayURL.yourusername.com  You are not really branding yourself, you are branding THEM.

What is looks like to me is the reps from each company are competing with other reps from that company for the search engine results when people search for the company name.  However, posts about something OTHER than the companies aren’t even on the radar.  Maybe later down the road I will be able to do more research and have something concrete to report for those of you who want a blogging company like this that works.  SEO is not a “set it and forget it” thing.  It takes work to get your blog to page one of the search engine results.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  Whether you are using a blog from one of these companies or your own blog, you need to do the work.  Just like I taught in my blogging courses, there are a number of things you need to do to get listed in the search engines and maintain those listings.

Maybe one of these companies can make it a bit easier, but I don’t see it at this time.  I was actually hoping that I could promote one or the other of these systems to my readers who don’t want to start from scratch.

The opinions here are MINE.  They are opinions and my personal conclusions.  I did not do an in depth study, just took a cursory look based on the claims of both companies.

I will review more when I have more time.

UPDATE – 7 minutes later, MY blog post (THIS ONE) was listed first on page two of a google search.  Very interesting.  Page 2 of about 5,530,000 results. (Click the image below to see full size.)

Today seems to be “MLM SPAM day” on social spaces.  I did a couple screen shots to share my “favorite” SPAM with you.  These showed up in my newsfeed today among MANY others.

HHMMM…you thought the ENTIRE GROUP would be perfect for the 2 – 5 people you supposedly could invite??  Interesting…

EVERYBODY gets paid and NO ONE is left out?  WOW…sounds like one of “those things” that will attract the people who want to sign up, do nothing and get paid.  ( I know for a fact that the person who posted this one is having NO success because they contacted me saying “social space marketing doesn’t work”.  It doesn’t work for THEM because they are doing it wrong.)

The same status was posted by two DIFFERENT people at the exact same time via HootSuite.  These people never even visit the group so they have no idea that their scripted SPAM is found out.  One of these two is also wondering why they are struggling so hard to build their business using social spaces.

And…the honorable mention goes to this next one!  This one goes one better than sign up, do nothing and get paid.  They are going to PAY YOU and you never have to spend a dime!!  Let me ask you…if no one ever spends a dime…WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM????

This is only a very small fraction of the spammy status updates that came through my newsfeed today.  Are you marketing like this?

STOP RIGHT NOW!!  Go listen to my Social Space Marketing Call or sign up for my upcoming Social Space Marketing 4 Week Course.   Learn how to market your business without being a spammer.

Many times when building a business, we get stuck in a rut.  We keep doing the things that our upline or the trainers we listen to tell us work.  But…it’s just not working.  People aren’t buying.  They aren’t signing up.

It’s a viscous cycle that so many entrepreneurs are stuck in.

Listen to upline or trainer calls  ==> Do What They Say & Have Minimal Success ==> Listen to more upline or trainer calls ==> Repeat

Are you stuck in a cycle like this?

When we get stuck in life, it’s important to interrupt the pattern.  Break out of it.  Break free.

Go back to basics.

What do I mean by that?

Sometimes we just need to wipe the slate clean.  Forget about everything we’ve learned so far and go back to the basics.  Many times, we THINK we are implementing what we learned, but in reality, we’ve put our own twists and spins on it over time.  I can’t tell you how many times someone has come to me after going through one of my trainings and said “I’m doing everything you said and it’s not working”  I go to their social space profiles and they are doing one or two things I said, but everything else is going totally against what I teach.

You can’t do it half assed.

If what you are doing isn’t working…go back to basics and start over.   When someone takes my training I tell them to forget everything they have learned so far and everything they have been doing.  Once we have a clean slate, we can move forward properly.

Are you ready to go back to basics?

Some of my readers have emailed telling me the 4 course Social Space Marketing is just too much info.  It seems the general consensus is that you want just the Facebook module for now.

You asked…I delivered!  After checking out the course, CLICK HERE to order JUST the facebook module.  I’ll also include the beginning of week 2 where I answer questions from week 1.  This is a LIMITED TIME offer.  If the link is gone, I’m sorry.

ENJOY!

My 46th birthday is on Saturday.  About a month ago, I realized I was turning 46 and not 45 like I had thought.  Somehow I skipped a year.  LOL…  I’m actually excited to be turning 46.  I started over at 40 so I’m really going to be 6 years old. 

Some awesome things are happening in my business.  I’m doing what I’ve always loved.  I’m teaching and helping others have success.  That is the most fulfilling feeling in the world!

I feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m just selling courses or coaching and people aren’t implementing what they are taught.  The majority of people I’ve worked with recently are implementing and having great success!  I love it!!

Have you been wanting to take a class or two of mine?  Now is your chance.  I’ve got some great new things coming up in the next month, so I’ve decided to discount the majority of my programs through Sunday (the end of my birthday weekend).  Check them out here.  Low investments will be reflected when you check out.  Enjoy!!

Well…back in upstate NY and back to spring colds.  Every time the weather makes a drastic change, I get sick.  This didn’t happen when we lived in KY because they don’t have the drastic temperature changes down there that we have up here.  It can be 80 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next.   And I get sick in that kind of weather.  Generally it’s not really sick, sick.  Most times it’s just a cold and laryngitis.  Laryngitis is always present.

In the past, when I did most of my prospecting offline and by calling leads, etc…  my business suffered.  This past week, my business hasn’t suffered.  Why?  Because I don’t need to speak or feel well to do social marketing.  I have had to reschedule a couple appointments that were to take place on the phone, but I’m still selling products, I’m still building my business.  If I’m feeling tired, I go sleep for a while.  Then, I social network when I wake up.  There is always someone online.

What about you?  If you couldn’t speak for a week or so, would your business suffer?  Or would you still be bringing in customers, clients, or business partners?  If you found yourself ill and didn’t feel well, would you still be able to work and prospect?

Learn how to properly market your business using social spaces today!