Reserve Your Cup from Reserve Your Cup on Vimeo.

To learn more about JavaNomics and Reserve Your Cup, Click Here!

Scott Rogers over at Vi-Tell Wireless and his team have done something pretty remarkable. Instead of offering a Car Bonus, in a down economy when folks might not qualify for a new BMW or Cadillac, they put together a cool program where distributors can have the Car Payment paid for a year! Free Car Payments! Check it out!

Formerly Ethos Environmental has launched a new All Natural Male Enhancement Product! My concerns with this product is the website doesn’t list any of the ingredients in the product.

Plus, “All Natural” doesn’t mean “Organic”, which means there could still be chemicals or a mixture of herbs which can cause the end user issues. What good is it to have the ability to make love, if you die of high blood pressure, or low blood pressure for that matter?

If you’re using social networking communities (such as Facebook) to meet people and connect with potential business partners, it’s very important to go the extra mile and strive to create the best profile you can. Oddly enough, many network marketing and MLM entrepreneurs don’t take time to do a good job with this. Often, they fill out their profile with just a bare minimum of information that doesn’t really leave much of an impression on visitors.

Why Creating Your Best Social Profile is So Important

Many people are out there looking for a way to make money from home. They are looking not only for a good opportunity, but for someone they feel comfortable working with. When they like a post or some other content you’ve created, or read details about your home business, they are likely to click on your profile to learn more about you.

Don’t you sometime do this yourself when you are looking at message boards or browsing discussions in various social communities? When you see someone make an interesting comment or observation, you probably get curious and click on their profile to learn more about them. This is why having a complete profile is so important – you want to come across as “real” and give people more reason to get in touch with you.

Creating Your Best Profile

The first thing you want to do is upload a quality photo of yourself. Since you are in these communities hoping to make business connections, it’s important to have a nice photo that presents you well. A professional portrait isn’t necessary, in fact a nice snapshot with your camera is fine, so long as it presents you in a positive way. I think a head shot for your main profile picture looks the best. Remember that this picture is often the first thing that people see, and making a good first impression is important.

Always be aware of your privacy and don’t put information in your public profiles that you don’t want the world to see. Otherwise, include as much as you like about your personal interests, hobbies, passions, whatever you want to share. Always keep everything in good taste. Many potential new contacts may find you from searches they do on their own interests, in an effort to find like minded friends.

When you’re done, look at your public profile through the eyes of a potential prospect or friend. Is it professional, and does it show a glimpse of “who you are” apart from your business?

Always include a link in your profile to details about your MLM or network marketing business, or whatever venture you are involved with. The key is letting your business information blend in with everything else as part of the total “you”. Some networkers create profiles that go way overboard with hype and promotion of their opportunity. Serious prospects will be turned away by this – they are looking for more.

Check out Eldon’s Home Business Success Blog !!

thatMLMbeat Editor’s Note -

What a difference a year and a half makes. I met George Fourie in November of 2009 when he was just wrapping up the “Top 50 MLM Blogs of 2009″ competition. Who knew that a couple of casual e-mails back and forth would lead to a dynamic professional relationship and a great friendship that spans the globe from New York City to Australia and all the way back.

George’s heart for serving  people with honor and integrity and his total passion for all things blogging totally captivated me from the first moment I had the opportunity to speak with him. As we got to know one another better and started developing some real trust in our relationship, he shared his amazing vision for thatMLMbeat.com with me -  the internet’s  Top MLM Blog and Social Network  ethically serving the Network Marketing and Home Based Business industry. VERY ambitious indeed and in complete harmony with my own vision and values !!

It struck me as being really odd when George told me that he was encountering alot of “that’s not how things are done” and “this will never work” resistance to his plans for thatMLMbeat. How totally weird  that radical leaders in  MLM and network marketing, honest to goodness  raving evangelists of the “create your own economy” in the  New Economy, would say something like that! (Isn’t that the kind of old school Alpha, “my way or the highway”, corporate mindset that everyone detests and is trying to escape from anyway? No offense intended to any of the old school MLM Big Dogs   Rock on and do your thing! )

thatMLMbeat – MLM Blogging And Social Networking Gone Wild

I have watched this community here grow to well over 1,600 members and thatMLMbeat’s  Alexa ranking ( currently 52,000) drop like a lead filled balloon. I am constantly amazed by the professionalism that so many of the members demonstrate in their interactions within the network marketing community and through the exceptionally high caliber of information they are producing for their blogs.

Each month there are more new members, more new ideas, more terrific blog posts, more relationships being formed and strengthened. I am filled with joy to see George’s vision taking shape right before my eyes. What an honor and privilege for me to be involved with such an incredible group of  highly motivated, enthusiastic, ethical business people.

Right now we have a team of highly skilled bloggers who write weekly guest posts for thatMLMbeat’s main blog. By the way, guest blogging is a great way to increase any blogger’s exposure in the market place. Want some terrific Guest Posting Secrets?  Heather Stephens just finished up a blog post for us that is full of clever ideas for guest blogging.

George has also dared to do something that noone else has ever done. He has created a perfect opportunity for the right network marketing bloggers to get MASSIVE exposure and generate tons of new business by becoming  Partner Bloggers with thatMLMbeat.com. Just imagine all of the possibilities and potential that open up to someone  being the VOICE in the MARKETPLACE  for their company !! Currently George is accepting no more than 3 people per company and you must apply for a Partner Blogger position. Positions are filling fast, and this is a real, high profile opportunity that is simply too good not to check out.

And, in order to make sure thatMLMbeat stays true to it’s mission of always delivering excellent content and to assist with the massive activity happening with our MLM Company Partner Bloggers, George decided to appoint an official editor - that would be me !!

My goal and responsibilities here are very simple -  to serve this community with the utmost of integrity and diligence. I am open to any suggestions or input that community members have so that together, as a team, WE can help deliver George’s vision for thatMLMbeat.com to the world and proudly say “thatMLMbeat.com is the internet’s  Top MLM Blog and Social Network and we are proud to ethically serve the Network Marketing and Home Based Business industry!

Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions below! Would love to hear your input on how I can serve you best! If you have any questions or need assistance with anything here or with your blog, let me know and I will be glad to help out. If there is a particular topic that you would like to see blogged about, let me know. Over the coming weeks, I will be introducing all of our team bloggers and Partner Bloggers so that you get a great feel for who they are, what their passions are and the companies they represent. This truly is network marketing done right in 2011!

If we are not friends here yet, please let me know and let’s connect! I am totally looking forward to getting to know you!

Until next week !!

Blog with PASSION!

Check out Rose’s  Attraction Marketing Training Kitchen Blog

If you have set up your online “home base”, preferably a WordPress blog that highlights YOU as a leader, you’ve probably read some things about SEO (search engine optimization) and how it can help you get found in Google when people are searching for a business or product like yours.

The point of SEO is making your blog content more likely to pop up in a Google search when someone is looking for whatever you are selling or promoting. The traditional approach to SEO falls into two basic categories:

• on page optimization, which means writing good titles and descriptions as well as paying attention to other factors that make your blog more search engine friendly and your posts more likely to be found in searches

• off page optimization, which involves getting links back to your blog content from a variety of sources – this can be links you place yourself in message board signatures, articles, and so forth or links that other people put on their sites because they like your content and want to share it with their readers

Both of these approaches are still critical to your success in being found in Google searches, but “social factors” are now coming more and more into play. It’s been observed over the last couple of years that Google has been paying attention to social proof.

For example:

• Facebook likes

• tweets

• bookmarks and votes on content in sites such as Digg

• social communities where people have commented on or highlighted your content

While the exact amount of influence this activity has on rankings is not clear, what is clear is that Google is relying more and more on social proof to influence ranking. After all, their job is to deliver good content to searchers, and content that has “social buzz” would at least appear to be more relevant and valuable in a given search.

Google has just introduced their new +1 social feature, which lets searchers give a thumbs up or positive recommendation to content they find valuable. The +1 button is a way for Google searchers to say “this is pretty cool” or “you should check this out.” Interesting. It just shows how social proof can and will influence ranking more and more as time goes on.

The bottom line – to increase your chances of being found in searches, be active and consistent in using social media. Get links back to your blog and your posts. Becoming an active member of the major social communities has always been good advice for online network marketers and MLM’ers, but now it’s more important than ever.

Traditional SEO + smart participation in social communities (like Facebook) = far better odds that YOUR best prospects will find you!

Welcome to webinars without the worry!

You don’t have to suffer through the technical terrors or embarrassing webinar disasters that plague marketers everywhere!

I’m going to save you the agony in today’s post by sharing what I’ve learned so far about hosting successful webinars. I’m also going to share with you clever marketing tips for using webinars to grow your MLM business, and finally I have a free gift for you at the end of your post to make your webinars worry free!

But first, am I a webinar expert? Nope, not by a long shot, but as with most things we try in our business, when we stretch our comfort zone and skin our knees a few times, we learn quickly and webinars are no exception to that rule for me.

I’ve been using webinars for my network marketing business for a while, but the webinar service I was comfortable with, closed their doors last year and I was left “homeless” so to speak. I resorted to the old standby of conference calls, but I missed the ability to show and tell as I trained my team or presented my opportunity.

The webinar alternatives that I knew about were expensive and seemed complicated for my guests because they had to download software in order to make it work. It felt to me, like inviting someone over for a dinner party and asking them to set the table. Some close friends/prospects wouldn’t mind, but others would be reluctant or even offended.

So I’ve been on a mission to find a solution and testing and trying out several different companies and in my search, I’ve compiled a resource with the features they each offer, the monthly costs, free trials, etc.

But first…

Here are 5 ways should you be using webinars in your business!

1. To train your network marketing team
2. To grow your opt in email list
3. To introduce your products and/or company to potential clients and business builders
4. To teach others in your niche (positioning yourself as a leader)
5. To sell your marketing funnel, information products or affiliate products

The benefits of webinars:

• Meet with anyone, anywhere, anytime
• No travel costs or travel time
• No child care costs
• Attend in your pajamas if you’d like
• Present one on one or one to many

What to look for when choosing a service for your webinars:

Cost:
Webinar services vary from free to thousands of dollars to use depending on how many people you’re inviting and what options they provide. Average for our use as network marketers should fall somewhere around $50 a month.

Features:

• Do you want your webinar service to record your webinars for you?
• Do you want an unlimited number of people to be able to join in?
• Do you want people to be able to call in or listen via their computers?
• Do you want your participants to be able to communicate with you, or with each other?
• Do you want to be able to share your screen, or just a powerpoint presentation?
• Do you need to be able to draw on your screen like a white board?
• Do you want your participants to be able to see you or just your screen?

As I promised, earlier, here is your free clever marketer webinar secrets cheat sheet for you to download in exchange for a tweet! It includes the various webinar services I’ve tried, their features and costs, plus a checklist for you to make sure your webinars go smoothly! Enjoy!

Check out Heather’s Clever Marketer Blog!

Check out Heather’s That MLM Beat Store!

Last time, we talked about the importance of creating your “home base” for promoting yourself and establishing your own distinctive brand online.

Once you’ve created a WordPress blog as your “home base”, it’s time to begin adding fresh content. This is where many people stumble and draw a blank. It can be challenging to come up with things to write about, especially if you are fairly new to blogging. You understand the concept of promoting yourself as a leader, not just pitching your network marketing opportunity, but what do you blog about to accomplish this?

Don’t feel bad if you struggle at first to come up with topics for content. I believe that just about everyone doing this will occasionally experience times when they just don’t really know what they should write about.

As home business builders and MLM network marketing leaders, we want to provide value and insight to our readers so that they have reason to keep coming back for more. Bear in mind that some visitors to your blog will be serious opportunity seekers, and many will visit a few times and review your content before they feel comfortable contacting you. Thus, you really want to put some thought and effort into this.

Here are a few ideas about what you can write about, which will work well for home business builders and network marketers. You have to use some imagination and integrate these ideas with your own personal experiences, but they can help you get started.

Think about your experiences in building your business and how you’ve overcome obstacles, and write about them. Talk about how and why you got started, and things you’ve learned along the way.

Many of your prospects will ask the same questions over and over – take these “frequently asked questions” and talk about how you answer them. Some common questions might be:

How much money can I make in network marketing?

How much time do I have to put into it?

Can I do this if I have a very tight budget?

Can I really build a business if I work a full-time job?

And so forth…you can build an entire post or article around questions like these.

Read a book or good article about MLM, home business, social networking, or self development.  Pick out parts that resonate with you, and write about them from your own experience and perspective.

Share and comment on a video (from YouTube or elsewhere) that you’ve seen that encouraged you or gave  you insight that helped you in your business.

When you read something online that inspires you, perhaps a business building tip or something that motivates you to action, create a post that relates it to your own personal experience. Don’t just copy it.

Create a “how to do something” post. This can be about anything you’ve learned to do for your business. For example: “How to Set Up an Autoresponder Follow-Up System” or “How to Notify Your Warm Market About Your New Network Marketing Business“.

Go to Google and search for keywords like “MLM message boards” or “network marketing forums”. Visit these boards and scan the topics. Look for questions and problems that networkers are asking about, and write posts for your blog with comments and answers.

Create list type posts. These tend to draw interest and attention, but don’t overdo them. For example: “Top 5 Things to Look For in an MLM Product” or “Ten Top Questions to Ask About a Network Marketing Opportunity“.

These are just a few ideas you can use to get your creative juices flowing. An important thing to keep in mind – just relax and be yourself. Write from your own perspective and experience, and don’t worry about being perfect. You’re not trying to be a professional writer, but rather a communicator. Prospects visiting your blog are interested in learning more about you and who you really are. Be yourself.

In my previous post, I shared the basics of blog SEO so that you can drive free and unlimited traffic to your blog.  As promised, today I’m going to go over the actual steps or actions that you need to take to ensure that you have a fully search engine optimized blog.

Without further ado, let’s jump right into it, shall we?

Let Your Blog Be Visible

That’s right. You’d be surprised how some people miss this important aspect. Unfortunately, WordPress sites are set to block search engines and that explains why this can be overlooked.

So, you need to check your Privacy settings to make sure that search engines know that your blog exists and make it visible.

In your admin area, go to Settings >> Privacy and check the first option:

Title, Description and Keywords

You need to have a title, description and meta tags for your blog. Before you start wondering what these are and where do you add them, I’ll show you how to get this done.

First off, you’d need to install the All in One SEO Pack plugin if you haven’t done so already and then add your title, description and keywords.

You can also watch this video to help you with configuring the settings in your admin panel.

1. Title

This is the title of your home page and it’s important that it has your keyword in the beginning as search engine bots read from left to right.

A long title does not entice your readers to click on the link, so you should go for about 65 characters, just to give people an idea of what your blog is about.

2. Description

It speaks for itself. This is where you write a few words about what people can expect to find and learn from your blog. Again, you don’t need to write an essay to achieve this – a maximum of 170 characters will do. Your keyword should be used right at the beginning for the same reason cited above.

3. Keywords

In order to attract the right people to your blog, you need to add some keywords that are related to your blog. Word of caution: don’t display your money keywords as your competitors would easily discover them by just viewing your source page. Use generic but relevant keywords.

Permalink Settings

Your blog’s permalinks need to show the keywords so that you can improve your search rankings and help your content to be found online easily.

This is much better than using URLs that include question marks and numbers, e.g. http://YourBlog.com/?=p235/. This means nothing to search engine bots.

The good news is that you can change this default setting in your admin area, so that you can use the relevant keywords.

Warning: Now, before you drop everything to go and make the changes, you need to install a plugin called, Redirection 2.1.27 by John Godley so you don’t break your existing links.

Now, go to Settings > Permalinks > Custom Structure

In addition, before publishing your posts, you need to remove the extra words such as to, is, the, how, what and so forth. They have no significance and will not improve your search rankings.

You can remove them manually (if you’ll always remember to) or install a plugin called, SEO Slugs 1.0 by Andrei Mikrukov which can do a job for you automatically. I use this plugin, but I still double-check before hitting the “publish” button.

URL Canonicalization

What on earth is that? Don’t fret! This is just a fancy word with a simple meaning. You could unknowingly behaving different versions of your blog URL, all going to the same destination:

• http://www.YourBlog.com
• http://YourBlog.com
• http://www.YourBlog.com/index.html
• http://YourBlog.com/index.html

Trouble is, different URLs for the same blog, mean different blogs in Google’s eyes and this could hurt your blog SEO in a big way.

Here’s how to fix this problem:

1. Choose the version that you want to go for and use the same one all the time. In your admin area, go to Settings >> General and type in your chosen URL version.

2. Let Google know your preferred version by logging into your Google Webmasters Tool account (you do have one, right?).

Now, if people are using any version of the same URL, they will be redirected to your preferred one. And Google will recognize your chosen URL as well.

There you have it, these are the initial blog SEO actions that you need to take to make sure that you increase your search engine rankings and attract lots of traffic to your blog.

Be on the look out for my next post as I will be sharing more blog SEO tips.

Was this post helpful? Please let me know below. I would also be grateful if you can share this with your friends and followers.

P.S. Please help me win the blogging contest by commenting and sharing my incredible post ==>How to Beat Changes to Organic Traffic Generation Rules.

Checkout Mavis’ Blog

Checkout Mavis’ Store

MLM News Report: Direct Selling Billion Dollar Markets

You can read the full report at Direct Selling News!

1. United States—$28.3 billion

2. Japan—$22.4 billion

3. Brazil—$13.5 billion

4. China—$10.9 billion

5. South Korea—$7.84 billion

6. Mexico—$4.83 billion

Financial News:

Pre-Paid Legal Agrees to Buy-out

Amway Parent Grows to $9.2 Billion in 2010

Len Clements Market Wave Alerts

Barry Minkow Charged With Securities Fraud – Again

Len Clements MARKETWAVE ALERT 173: Barry Minkow Charged With Security Fraud – Again

Len Clements Reports On Glen Jensen and Agel

Glen Jensen Sues Agel Seems $1 Million-Plus in Damages and Agel’s Dissolution

Hello MLM Moms!

It has been awhile since I have had the pleasure of writing to you here on That MLM Beat and I am very excited to be back!

This week we are talking about Online Communities for MLM Moms. As women, we find great strength in teamwork, support and community. Women are the best net-workers! So it is no wonder that we enjoy and thrive in a community atmosphere. Because of this, i have decided to put together the Top Five Communities for MLM Moms. These are places where we can find great tips and advice, connect with other women and mommies, and most of all – feel supported in our business and our mission!

When we work from home, especially when the bulk of our business is based on-line, we can feel very alone. We can at times feel like we are the only person for miles that doesn’t think we are crazy for believing in network marketing and the freedom it brings. So, my Fellow MLM Moms, stop going it alone and check out these Top Five Support Communities…

1. The MLM Moms Forum Here on That MLM Beat: You don’t have to go far! Come hang out and converse with me and lots of other Amazing Mommas right here on our site. Ask questions, share your own tips and make some great connections.
2. Networking Women Today Group on Facebook: There are thousands of ladies in this group and they are constantly posting new valuable content. I have seen a few spammers here and there abusing the group, but if you can ignore them(and hopefully the admins will nix their posts) there are great articles and trainings posted frequently. Plus, connect with some of the valuable women in the group!
3. Network of Women Page on Facebook: The Network of Women is supposed to become a large membership community for mlm women, for now they are just sharing their message through their facebook page. They post daily inspirational quotes and tips as well as host weekly blog talk radio shows on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Tuesdays are for interviewing great women in the industry and Thursdays are a segment they call ‘Passionate Profits’. Again, great women and great content!
4. Women of Network Marketing Page on Facebook: This is one of the best communities I found. It is very professional and well put together. They themselves are constantly sharing content in addition to members posting. Spamming isn’t an issue because they manage the page very well. There are thousands of great women here to connect with and lots of great content to keep you inspired and moving.
5. MLM Woman.com: This site is an informational site with a small forum attached. It’s always great when you can get sme answers and help by viewing past conversations and starting some of your own. What I like best about this site is the monthly newsletter they put out. You can sign up to receive it for free, and you can view past editions in their forum. I really love the content in the newsletters.

So MLM Moms, get out there and start connecting, sharing and building relationships! Not only will you learn a ton and feel very inspired, but you will make a lot of connections and see your business grow! What could be better than that? It’s a win-win no mater how you look at it.

Just an FYI, I am not personally promoting nor am I personally attached to any of these communities. These are just places where I find great information, inspiration and relationships. Of course I wanted to share them with my fellow Mommas!

Please comment and let us know your thoughts on these communities. Also, please share with us your favorite communities. The more the merrier!

With Lots of  Love,

Danielle Zack

Checkout Danielle’s Blog: http://www.daniellezack.com

Last week I wrote about how you typically don’t want to use your company web site when marketing your MLM or your product.

This week I want to talk about a similar topic.

You MUST have a personal domain name if you want to be taken seriously online.

I’m going to mention an issue with Facebook in a few seconds…

But let’s start with a more immediate concern.

These are all fake email addresses. I don’t know who owns these, or if they are even real. I’m just using these as an example.

Let’s say that you are looking to join a nutrition company. You’ve got a choice of 3 people. Which one of these 3 would you contact?

• hotmomluv@cox.net
• the.diet.gal@gmail.com
• gail@thedietgal.com

I don’t know about you but I personally am going to reach out to Gail at the Diet Gal first. Right? Wouldn’t that be what you do? This is someone who has their act together. That is someone who looks like they’re taking their business seriously.  Not someone doing it as a hobby.

But let’s talk about some other reasons why you don’t want to use your cable company, your internet provider, or even a free email service like gmail. What if you change your email? I’m going to give you a hint. You NEVER want to change your email address or phone number EVER.

What?

Yep. You never know when someone is going to reach out to you from your past.  A prospect you had dealt with years ago tries to get in touch with you but now you’ve moved. You canceled your cable service.  Now you’re on satellite TV service. You no longer have your cox.net email address.  The email bounces back and you miss out on the prospect.

Same thing with phone numbers. Long distance is basically free. Most of us now get unlimited long distance. Right? If you move, keep that phone number and take it with you! This is also a reason why you might want to get a toll-free number. You can point your toll-free number to any local number.  That way you can move, and change your number and move your calls with you. (BTW I got two calls in the past few weeks from people I hadn’t talked to in years… one of whom was a top prospect of mine back in the day and now he’s ready to get going!)

If you own your own domain name…. You control your email. You can still read your email at Google. You can still use Gmail to check your email at thedietgal.com.  But owning your own domain allows you to point your dietgal.com mail where ever you want.  You can change email providers but your email address will still work and your prospects will still be able to find you.

You can find internet marketing tools and resources for things like finding which keywords to use in the That MLM Beat store.

Finally I mentioned a Facebook tip at the top of this post. Facebook is a huge phenomenon these days.

Did you know that when you post your referral link on Facebook it usually posts 2 links.  One keeps your referral link and one drops it off!?!  BUT you can get around this if you use your own domain name!

Here is a picture of a link I posted on Facebook.

The way around this is to have your own domain name. If you have your own domain name then you don’t have to worry about Facebook dropping your referrer link off.

BTW I think Facebook should be sued over this. It is a REALLY BIG DEAL. Most people just don’t realize that Facebook is causing them to lose business.  Even if it only happens 10% of the time, are you ok with losing 10% of the clicks on your links?

Having a personalized domain name is going to make you look more professional. It is also going to allow you to control your email address permanently. Finally it is going to help you avoid the dreaded Facebook dropping off your referral link! Any one of those 3 reasons should be reason enough to get your own domain!

Checkout Ben Fitts Blog.
Checkout Ben Fitts Store.