I have been an employee all of my adult life, pretty much. I’ve been a team member, a customer center representative, a supervisor, a manager, a project manager, and independent designer. You name it in the corporate world, and I have been there. And with those, I have had varying degrees of enjoyment. I loved being a manager and being able to really make a difference in people’s careers; helping them find a way to pursue further education, other options, learning new skills, etc…Maybe that’s why network marketing was so appealing to me!

When I looked into my own business, specifically my web design business, it was a very different world. I had no one to really report to, other than myself. However, I kept looking for direction, a reason to do something about a deadline, some kind of an incentive. There wasn’t one coming from anyone else other than from my own intrinsic emotion to create that.

Along the way, network marketing came along. Now network marketing is a very similar concept to owning your own business, except for that there are OTHER people involved. Those people range from the corporate team that provides at least some guidelines to how everyone should adhere to policies in an effort to protect the brand, and also your sponsor team. Here is where most people fail to recognize what type of ‘mentality’ really takes to be in network marketing.

You see, most of us (me included for a while), have very much an “employee mentality” when we come into network marketing. We can’t help it. It’s all we’ve been faced with our whole lives. We EXPECT to be guided, trained, told what to do and followed up on. We look for incentives and encouragement from individuals “above us” so we can get motivated to make things happen. And in some cases, we plain flat out GIVE UP AND QUIT if we have no contact from our so called “upline”. Now, in all sincerity, I DO believe there needs to be some type of structure that educates new team members on how to do things. Granted. However, in network marketing YOU ARE YOU OWN BOSS. You ARE your own MOTIVATOR. You are your own INCENTIVE SYSTEM. The person who enrolled you is a person JUST LIKE YOU. They may or may not have management experience, but they do NOT have any right over YOU or YOUR BUSINESS. Nor should you assume so. Most people who join have NO CLUE how to be “leaders” and guide others. That is ok and also the reason WHY you should have a different type of mentality when coming into the business.

See, my point here is that your career in network marketing should never ever ever depend on someone else’s management style, involvement, rank or connection to you. Mentally, you should come in assuming full responsibility for training yourself, motivating yourself and PROMOTING yourself. It is THIS type of ‘mentality’ that ultimately has the most success in network marketing. Because clearly, when you rely on yourself, any help is a BONUS to your business. You won’t be let down by those who bring you in then take off. You won’t be affected by lack of management skills because you don’t need to be managed. You are an independent business owner who doesn’t “need” to be treated like an employee. That’s the ‘mentality’ that gets you ahead in this industry.

All that said, clearly, we as humans (with many of us as trainers, mentors, managers and with other skills) always come forth to offer what we can to help others succeed in the industry. We form teams, trainings, calls, incentives and build tools above and beyond those provided by the company to help people understand things better or move faster along the way. I am not saying these are to be ignored and/or taken for granted. They do help and sometimes make a difference in the teams you decide to join.

What I am saying is that if YOUR expectation and mentality is set right and not “dependent” on what others can do for YOU, but what YOU can do for yourself, that’s when you will see the light in this industry. So, stand up, stand strong, go forth and CREATE your own vision. Wait for no one to tell you what to do. Who cares if your upline doesn’t call you anymore. Find another mentor in the company if you need one. Or better yet, become a mentor yourself. That’s what it means to not have an employee mentality. It means to take responsibility for everything that happens to you without EXPECTING or even waiting for someone else to tell you what to do! Go BE your own boss. That’s why you opted not to work in the corporate world to begin with, right?

Someone with an “employee mentality” waits for someone to tell them what to do, they look for a “reason” outside themselves to perform a task, they only do what feels good and won’t do what’s not so great to advance themselves, they blame uplines for lack of communication, or blame others for their failures. STOP the employee mentality wheel and start thinking about YOUR contributions, how to advance YOUR business, how to take things by the reins, how to educate YOURSELF better, motivate YOURSELF, reward YOURSELF, and then and only then will you find all the other “extras” a bonus in your business that you will appreciate a lot more than if you were expecting them all along.

Watch Kate Buck on BraveHeartWomen.TV with Ellie Drake. She goes over what is the best up and coming career on the internet. Can you guess what it is??

Check out Kate Buck’s course here

Here is another video by Kate that aims more to the business owner who may NEED a social media expert

Check out Kate Buck’s course here

Just released today! My 3 Steps to developing your brand online so you can more easily attract people to your business! All you have to do is opt in to the form on the right here on my blog and start watching! 30 minutes of solid content you can use! Hope you like it! ENJOY! –>>

I wanted to share this marketing system that I use online that I think will be of huge value to you if you are looking to market online and you don’t already have something like this. This one is free to use and I put together a presentation to tell you more about it, show you my back office and how it works and how you can get started and have your own marketing system for free in less than 15 minutes.

BETTER WEB BUILDER

This is a fantastic video by Eric Worre about where the Network Marketing industry (MLM) models have been like and where (in his opinion) would make a more long term sustainable model in the future. Makes a lot of sense. Coincidentally these are some of the points I made on my post from yesterday (12 Success Factors in Choosing a Network Marketing Company) and it just feels AWESOME to hear someone like Eric Worre mention so many of the same points well. (I am also SUPER glad that my post was yesterday and his video posted today LOL).

We’ve been doing this from the get-go, this is the way to have a long term sustainable business…check out Eric’s video post on his blog. Enjoy!

http://networkmarketingpro.com/2011/06/09/the-next-evolution-in-mlm-nmpro-528/

Oh man, how many TIMES have I heard people say “if you are with the right team, using the right tools, and saying the right stuff, then the product you are promoting doesn’t really matter”. WHAT??? Do people seriously believe that? That totally means that you could be selling “JUNK” but if you are doing all the right things then it is ok??  I find that ridiculous.

I absolutely believe that product choice is one of the MOST important elements of consideration when deciding on a business you are going to promote. Including IT’S PRICE!  I know that a lot of folks who sell high ticket items disagree and will say things like “takes the same amount of time and effort to sell a low ticket than a high ticket and mine requires less sales”. Again. Ridiculous. Logically, I would agree that it does take less sales to make higher profits with a high ticket item, however, are you considering what that high ticket item even is??? Is it worth it?  If that item is say $500 and the commission to the rep is $200… HELLO??? You are totally taking advantage of people. You are making the average person PAY the cost of distribution and A LOT MORE than they should pay (in my opinion). This, by the way, seems to be how a lot of the newer MLM models work. Let’s up the price so the reps are happier cuz they are making more!

Now not all network marketing companies are totally out of whack in that respect, although I would say many are. And I do get the concept of the network marketing model and why items are priced such that a % goes to the distributor for his/her effort. I agree there should be a reasonable compensation for the model to work. However, in general, many models simply abuse the system, get greedy, and hide behind this “we are paying the reps instead of advertising companies” pretense.

Generally speaking, I do find that network marketing products tend of be of higher quality than stuff you find at stores. I get that. So I am not against higher prices, when those prices are reasonable. Just keep in mind that for the network marketing model to work, you don’t need higher priced items. All it takes for the model to work is the proper amount of leverage.

Network marketing is a very simple model: Many people doing a little bit of work each, supporting each other, and teaching others to repeat that effort.

Now if that “leverage needed” is truly endurable, everyone is required to do at least the minimum regardless of when you enrolled, people are not stuck with inventory and high out of pocket monthly fees, then everybody wins! And if anyone in the team chooses they want to earn more, then they simply increase his/her leverage. Now that is balanced and fair!

Many companies actually include bonus incentives in their pay and even make it a requirement for personal advancement to encourage them to help their people make money. That is fantastic! Instead of a “pyramid”, it is more like a “circle”! (let’s not start putting down circles now ok?).

Consider getting paid for something you would have to do every day! Or something that comes easy to you and that you LOVE! Or maybe even that leverage comes from you just simply buying milk every month (or whatever is in your fridge) at a NORMAL price. And getting paid for it! Consider THAT!

So the moral of this post is: If you care about how your business will improve or affect the lives of others, then PRODUCT MATTERS. Is it easy to use, drink, take, affordable, comparable, effective (and legal)? Is your product something that will add value to people’s lives on a regular basis?  (Hint: this is where residuals come from). Do you BELIEVE in the product and honestly think it is priced well and serves a positive purpose? If you have doubts, figure that out, because without BELIEVE you might get into a bit of a bind over your own thoughts about you own business .

Til the next post!

In this video I share my top 10 free Worpdress plugins I recommend (and use). Do you have a favorite plugin you’d like to share? Feel free to add the name of the plugin in the comments and what it is useful for. Cheers!

Webinar Series: May 2011
Host: Aymee Buckhannon
Guest: Scott Ewart

Our webinar with Scott covered the topic of personal branding and what that means to you as an independent business owner online. He goes thru 10 simples steps to help you focus on the right path to begin drafting your personal brand. Scott was also kind enough to offer our guests a free consultation! Watch the webinar to learn how to take advantage of that very generous offerand enjoy the content:

Visit Scott Ewart at http://www.MeetScottEwart.com

As you may already know, all web pages, including blog pages, are assigned what is called a “page rank” by Google. In a nutshell, a page rank is a rating system. All things equal, if you are competing for a particular keyword with another blog, your page rank will determine which blog is served up higher as a relevant result on the search engines.

I say “all things equal” because your paticular post about a subject could rank higher on Google against a better ranked blog if your article happens to have better optimization (aka keywords used in the right areas, proportionately and relevant to the article). But this post is not about ranking or how to rank higher. I mention ranking because it goes with the lesson in this post, which is to show you “One simple way to easily increase your blog’s visibility”.

That simple way is: VALUE ADDED COMMENTING ON OTHER RELEVANT BLOGS.

Before you run for the hills to comment like crazy on other blogs, please read these few lines first as they will save you some grief and possibly hours of non-relevant work. (Not that commenting is ever a waste as it does increase the blogger’s ranking you are commenting on…. but this lesson is for YOU, the commenter, even though you are likely also a blogger, so learn from both sides here… :-)).

First know that there are two types of blog atttributes that affect a blog’s comments and their value to its user base (the commenters). Interstingly enough, most people have no idea if their own blog is either one of these. So, note to self… CHECK! You will see why below.

These types of blogs are: Nofollow and Dofollow blogs. Briefly stated,these are attributes that refer to the comments left of the blog. Nofollow blogs do not allow search engines to recognize any links external to the blog. This means that if you are looking at commenting as an opportunity to also create a high quality backlink (backlink= a link back to YOUR website or blog), then N0follow blogs will NOT help you.

Your link may be readable and even clickable by other visitors reading your comment and it may very well increase visitors to your blog, however, for the purpose of that being a high quality link, nofollow blogs don’t provide that. The positive impact that relevant and high quality links can do for your blog rank and visibility of your own blog content to the search engines to should not be ignored. It is crucial to know if you want to encourage commenting.

Tip: It doesn’t matter how many “backlinks” you create back to your blog from other blogs as far as ranking is concerned. What matters is how “relevant” to your content those backlinks are (meaning from a cooking blog to a cookie recipe blog), and also how high the blog rhank is of the blog you are linking from. So don’t go nutty backlinking or paying for backlinks mindlessly. They must be relevant and they must come from a well ranked blog. Anything above a Rank 2 makes a difference, although personally, I don’t pay a lot of attention to a blog’s rank when I am going to comment. I pay attention to content relevancy and audience.

Now back to benefits of commenting. My tip above is only for reference. The fact is that at some point we were all brand new in this business of online marketing, and completely ignoring commenting on blogs just because they have a low rank is just kind of silly. The very essence of your commenting on that blog could very well increase their rank! The same goes for YOUR blog. 

What I would focus on instead is that THEIR content is valuable and relevant to YOU, and that YOUR commenting also ads value to their post (rather than writing “cool”, or “good stuff” just to get a link back). In addition, never ever offer up a self promoting link to your business on someone else’s blog (without permission). Not only will it not be approved but you could get banned, and believe me when I tell you that other bloggers will not like to see it there either. Social media is all about Etiquette. You can spot a self serving comment instantly!

Ok, so the SECOND type of blog  is the one that uses the Dofollow attribute. As you can now guess, dofollow blogs are the opposite of nofollow blogs. These blogs recognize where you are linking to and search enginges count it. Bonus!

You may be wondering what links I mean if I just mentioned you shouldn’t link to your business? The links that I am referring to are either those requested by the blogger as optional links when you attempt to comment on their blog (such as asking for your website URL, even if it doesn’t show up), and also any links that link directly back to your blog automatically because of a plug in installed in that blog (such as commentluv).

Have you ever notice that under some people’s comments there is a link back to “their” last post on their blog? This, by the way, is an EXCELLENT way to engage your readers and promote commenting. You comment on my blog, I will show a link back to YOUR latest post . You can actually see this feature on MY blog below in the comment section so go ahead and comment to see it in action! (You must provide your blog URL, of course).

A couple of things happen when you comment on other blogs:

1- When commenting on Dofollow blogs, you are increasing the value of your own web page or blog to the search engines by providing a backlink from a relevant website back to yours

2- You are providing value to the blogger with your comment content as well as with the comment itself! Search engines assume people commenting on blogs means the subject has value and relevancy so it increases its visibility

3- You are visibly creating a link back to your blog that other visitors of the blog you are commenting on may want to check out. Again, if your comment is valuable and interesting, the more other people will want to know more about you!

What YOU can do with this information:

1- Check if your own blog is Dofollow or not. If it is not, then MAKE IT a Dofollow blog so others will feel more compelled to participate and comment. Go read my good friend (and amazing) Marketing Strategist Scott Ewart’s video tutorial on his blog on how to make your blog a dofollow blog 

2- Make sure your comments on other blogs are value-add and relevant, and do NOT use commenting content to self serve

3- You could install the CommentLuv plug in so others will be even more encouraged to add a comment since that will provide a link back to their posts. It’s a win-win solution and it’s completely free. Google it

4- You can check if a blog is nofollow blog. There are different ways to do this from different web browsers. Here is a link to an article I found on Google on how to find out if a blog is do-follow or not.

In general if you are hosting your own blog and you have NOT physically installed a plug in to disable the nofollow attribute (as it was in MY case… yikes), then your blog is most likely a nofollow blog. There is nothing “wrong” with this by the way. It really only affects the commenting and how that creates value for others. However, consider the possibility that creating win-win solutions also generates more participation.

All that said, I encourage you to go follow the steps above to take care of your blog first (myself included), and then go find relevant blogs to comment on. Also feel free to comment below and leave me your feedback .

PS: Last time I checked my blog here was a Rank 4 blog, so that’s a pretty good high quality backlink opportunity for you. Make sure you include your blog in the URL field provided. 

I hope this was new to you and helpful to your online marketing efforts.

I’ve recorded several webinars on blogging in the past for various groups and have decided to do two things with these:

1- I am making them available thru my new Resource Center for everyone to take advantage of. These video based courses will give you a good start at setting up a free blog on wordpress, create and edit content so you can start sharing your knowledge online and begin building your brand. You can always transfer content later to a self hosted blog.

2- I am also going to re-capture this information in a more advanced and comprehensive course format that will be downloadable and available as a downloadable eLearning course later this fall. This course will address self hosting rather than the free version and will also cover all aspects of blogging, from set up, to design, to social media syndication, as well as maintenance. If you are a subscriber you will receive a pre-release notice and discount. It will also be available to you as an affiliate opportunity to share with your lists if you wish. More details to come later.

I welcome you to visit the Resource Center here and please send me any feedback or ideas you would like to see me cover. Blogging is my first series of training.