Ok, Honestly, You Won't Make Money...

So, I'm out building my business (aka prospecting). I get leads from all types of places now-a-days, but no matter where I get them or who they are, I always get the same question from them:

"Am I going to make any money from this?"

When I joined my first MLM a year and some change ago, my recruiter told me "Sure! Heck, I make about a million!" I thought she was just talking out of the side of her neck, trying to get me to sign up with her. I found out that she was, in fact, telling the truth. She and her husband were (and most likely still are) one of the highest paid people in that business. That wasn't the first time that the big earners tried to recruit me, either.

Anyway, back to the point of this post.  MLMers and Internet Marketers are always trying to quote the statistics of people who don't make money online or make money in their programs; e.g "Did you know that only 92% if people actually make money?!" and "Be apart of that 8% that are actually successful online," and so on... Well, did you know that Abraham Lincoln said that "67% of all quoted statistics are actually made up". Yea, think about.

When it comes to any think in the "Make Money Online" arena, one must first do a little bit of research. Most MLM companies will provide a chart that outlines how much of their promoters make. Here's a chart from my old company: http://www.teambeachbody.com/incomechart.pdf

If you notice that the average earnings are about $3,000 a year. Out of all the coaches, that figure maybe includes those who use the bizopp to get discounts on products (According to the PDF, fewer than 15% actually use it as a bizopp).  Of those who actually run it ask a business, we got from the lowly $7 to a very lofty $1.5 million. What a jump!

Ok, now to answer that question. YES!  You can make money. It says so in black and white.  Now, you may not as much as the gurus say you can. But, who wants to make $7 measly bucks!  MLM, Network Marketing or whatever you choose to call it is like every other business. You have to work at it. Call folks, hold parties, advertise and more. Business isn't just going to fall in your lap. If it did, everyone would be rich!

What I think about TimTech (part 1)

Yea, I said it!

If you are familiar at all with FarmVille, CityVille and a host of other Facebook games, you will know what I'm talking about.  I have a love/hate relationship (I'm starting to think that I have one of those with almost everything!) with Zynga and their freaking addictive games. So, me comparing Timtech to FarmVille and the rest of its ilk, is actually a good thing.

So, what do you look for in a traffic exchange?  When I used to think of traffic exchanges, I think sitting in front of my computer, looking at the same ads over and over again, just so I can earn credits to show my ad over to some other person who was doing the same thing. The only difference is that person may see my ad more since I passed out from boredom about 200 or so pages ago.

I like that the Timtech crew (from here on out in this post and in the ones that follow, they will be referred to collectively as the Nerds), are switching it up and making it fun.  Chat, collecting badges and surf brackets all make surfing tolerable  I have the attention span of a fly, so getting me to sit and do something non-game related at this computer for more that 15 minutes is an accomplishment and should possibly earn the Nerds their own badge.

Because I go off on a tangent, I'll go ahead and summarize now:

fun = more people stick around and surf = more people see your page = ??? = More MONEY! 

Actually, I'm quite fond of my FarmVille Pony collection.

I can easily swap out  FarmVille and Pony with Tim Tech and Badges.

There are a few other exchanges that offer interesting features. I'll be reviewing those shortly. I have a few bookmarked and need to revisit them soon. 

Also, this blog is a segway into a  new and pretty cool feature that I have planned: The Tim Tech TE Challenge. Oooooh...its so awesome, that I had to bold and capitalize it! I'll be posting more tomorrow along with an explanatory video!

Stay tuned :)

Sweeva - Revisited

So, I ranted and raved about Sweeva a few months ago. Back then I was super busy and super stressed out. Now, that I have been focusing on building my business, I'm actually doing alot better.

Also, thanks to CTP and my new obsession with collecting badges, I've been able to get on a advertising schedule of sorts. I've also found that surfing is actually fun, as I mentioned in an earlier post.

Right now, I've been going 13 days straight because surfing Sweeva is the first thing I do each day. (Literally! I before bed at midnight, :D) Then, I surf my other exchanges. Then I go through my other advertising activities: facebook, free classifieds, etc.

Also, once you get in your late level 50s, it seems that it doesn't take so many points to level up. (I think.) It took me about 900 points to level up the other day, and I did so twice. Not, bad I guess. So, I'll see what this round of sweeving brings me.

Get Social and Get Serious

"Getting Social Doesn't Work"

Actually, it does!

I love to talk and I love to network. That may be the biggest reason why I enjoy all of the social enhancements at the TEs these days. Honestly, at first I thought this social scene thing was just some gimmick that the TE owners came up with to sell their latest programs, but then I embraced the idea and found it to be right!

I like chatting and talking to folks so why not use this gift of gab to my advantage. As a big example, I've been friending people and talking to them on various TEs and I actually made a few contacts, two of which may be working with me on my next project!

Also as a result of coming out of my shell, I've received more hits to my blog, friends requests to my twitter and likes on my facebook page as well as my list. I followed the steps that I will outline below. If I noticed this increase just from adding my photo and using a few free services, just imagine what will happen once I put add some video into the mix.

Eboni Guide to Getting Social:

• Friend interesting people and interact with them. No Stalking! Just interact with them! Respond on twitter or like their statuses on facebook.
• Visit their blogs, read and respond. 
• Don't be afraid to link to other's blog. Share the link love and they may return the favor someday!

There may be more, so I'll add them as I think of them.

I want to like Sweeva, I really do!

I love the idea of Sweeva.  At it's purest, it is a social traffic exchange.  You move up  the Sweeva food chain by being social: rating sites, chatting, etc.  I like surfing because I like to read what everyone is chatting about.  I love how creative some of these squeeze pages have gotten.  I may have just entered this industry, but I think that Sweeva has helped change how surfers design squeeze pages - which is great because I hate seeing the same old, same old time after time. Another good thing about Sweeva, is that its a very responsive TE. I always get a decent amount of click through when I use it.