Yes, folks, this is a true story, and it serves to illustrate my point very nicely. Everyone SAYS they want to be in their own business and make a ton of money. But what separates the successes from the failures – the Big Dogs from the puppies – is the ability to invest time on a consistent basis. "Internet marketing is the EASIEST business in the world if you work it HARD! But it’s the HARDEST business in the world if you work it EASY!" Fortunately (and this is one of the many things that make Internet marketing so great), the time you invest can be very flexible. In all probability, you’ll be working from your home, perhaps in a spare room, or a corner of your bedroom, and this gives you a LOT of flexibility in WHEN you want to work. But I will tell you this: You must be prepared to invest an honest and sincere one to two hours a day, five or six days a week in your business. Internet marketing is done on a daily basis. If you are committing to one hour a day, that MEANS one hour a day, not a few hours every other Friday night. (That’s having a "hobby," not running a business!) Think of it this way. Brushing your teeth takes just three minutes. Instead of doing it for six minutes every day, try brushing your teeth for 30 minutes JUST on Friday night..... It’s just not the same thing, is it!? You need to develop the HABIT of success by doing just a little job every day, rather than trying to do a big job once a week. When that one special day comes along, it’s just too doggone easy to find an excuse to put off your duties until "tomorrow." Well, in many cases, that never-never land of "tomorrow" never comes, and soon you find yourself "tomorrowed" out of business! "It’s hard by the yard, but a cinch by the inch." There is yet another reason to steel yourself to do your Internet marketing on a daily basis. Always keep in mind that anything on the Internet is VERY ephemeral – at the end of the day, it’s GONE for good. It doesn’t work that way in the "dirt world." Two YEARS after having run ads in various offline magazines, I STILL get activity from them! People let magazines lay around for a long, long time; they may cut out an interesting ad, or write down the details of it and put it in a file, or on that "pile of interesting stuff" on their desks. Not so with the Internet! If an ad doesn’t catch their attention right then and there – FORGET ABOUT IT! It’s gone into cyberspace forever! Now, as important as it is to commit to investing an hour a day with your Internet business, it is just as important to know when to get OFF the Internet! We all know how addictive the Internet can be. There’s just so doggone MUCH "stuff" on there to see. There is no limit to the amount of time one can waste in surfing from this website to that website, in investigating this program or that program. I can easily define why so many Internet marketers fail. They don’t know when to START working, and they don’t know when to STOP. Stick to your schedule – do the work you need to do – then get OFF the computer! You’ll be a much better adjusted human being if you know when to QUIT! "Successful Internet marketing requires an investment of TIME. Commit to investing one to two hours EACH day in your online business."
SECRET NUMBER 3: "The Big Dogs aren’t bothered by change." If the thought of change makes you cringe and break out in to a cold sweat, the Internet is not for you! Unlike the dirt world, change happens on the Internet in milliseconds. Marketing techniques and tools that work terrific today may be antiquated in three months…or three DAYS. The Big Dogs inherently know this, understand this, and, most importantly, ACCEPT this. But the human animal inherently HATES change. Change fills us with anxiety and frustration. We want things to stay the way they are; we crave stability. But stability ain’t what the Internet world is all about, sports fans! "Change – RAPID change – is a fact of Internet marketing. Understand this and accept this."
SECRET NUMBER 4: "The
Big Dogs know it takes money Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You’ve heard all this hype about how you can get on the Internet, and with zero money, make a fortune. Well, my friends, I’m here to tell you it simply doesn’t work that way. The old adage that "it takes money to make money" is JUST as true on the Internet as it is in the dirt world. That’s the bad news. The GOOD news is that it takes a whole lot LESS money to develop a thriving, profitable Internet business. You have no office rent, or employee expenses, no telephone, postage, or printing expenses. So that cuts down on your financial investment substantially, to say the least. But it does take SOME money! Now, I am quite aware of the fact that the Internet is absolutely riddled with "free" this and "free" that – COUNTLESS programs and so-called business opportunities that are absolutely free. Did you know, though, that you can join just about ANY program on the Internet in two ways – as a FREE member or as a PAID (or "Pro") member? Why is that? Do you think that all the folks who own these companies are just being nice guys to offer a free version of their program? Nope! That’s not the case at all. It all has to do with the law. You see, Federal Trade Commission regulations make it illegal for a business offering it’s services in the United States to charge for the opportunity to sell it’s products. Now this is a GOOD law, and it came about because of the extreme abuses of the network marketing community in the early ‘70’s. Back in those days, many companies were requiring prospective distributors to purchase HUGE amounts (sometimes thousands of dollars worth!) of soap, or dried foods, or vitamins, or motivational tapes in order to be "qualified" to earn a commission. A whole lot of this stuff just ended up filling up the poor distributor’s garage. This is how the derogatory term "garage qualified" came about in network marketing. This law is, of course, still in effect both OFFline as well as ONline. It stipulates that although a company CAN charge for it’s products or services, it can NOT charge just for the privilege of SELLING it’s products and services. Thus, any legitimate online company adheres to this law, and makes available what is called a "free reseller opportunity," or a "free affiliate opportunity." As a Free Member you don’t get to USE that company’s products or services (after all, you’re not PAYING for anything). You simply have the authority to SELL the company’s products or services and earn a commission. FREE membership in a company generally offers NO benefits of the company’s product or service, or at most a much watered down version of them. Now the Big Dogs know all this. They know that the "free" version of any online program is there simply to fulfill the letter of the law. The Big Dogs pretty much make a joke about the "free" programs, and certainly don’t take them seriously. They know that if a program or service is worthwhile at all, the only way any real value is derived from it is by PAYING for the privilege. I’m here to tell you that "free members" NEVER get around to doing anything! Now if YOU happen to be a free member in a number of programs, I am not trying to "step on your toes." The fact is, my friend, that IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT! Like so many thousands of others you have been mislead by the "join this program for free, do nothing, and make a million dollars" hype that is still so prevalent on the Internet. Think about it like this: How effective can a person be in SELLING any product or service if they haven’t at least TRIED that particular product or service themselves!? Do YOU think you’d make a great car salesman if you had never driven an automobile? Also, there is unfortunately an entire level of Internet society that has the attitude of, "This is the Internet. I expect and DEMAND something for nothing." These folks spend HOURS a day doing nothing more than hopping from website to website, joining the free portion of program after program. They think that if they join ENOUGH free programs, that eventually they’ll make their Internet fortunes – all without having to do any real work. And if YOU don’t ration your time when dealing with these people, you can end up spending most of it "playing" with free members, virtually NONE of whom will contribute to your wallet. Let me give you a couple brief examples of what I mean, by sharing with you just a few of the countless emails I've received from Free Members of various programs I was involved in. (Note: I have kept the spelling and grammatical errors intact.)
Understand, now, friends, that I am NOT trying to put down or make fun of those genuinely sincere folks who, through their inexperience, really believe that joining as a free member in any program is going to make them money. It’s certainly not THEIR fault if they believe the incredible amount of Internet hype that is out there. If they have true grit, however, they soon learn the truth and become productive members of the online community. But I have NO sympathy for the people who expect and DEMAND a free ride, and have neither the desire, the ability, or even two nickels to rub together to build a REAL online business. Here’s the bottom line (and again, folks, I apologize if this sounds brutal, but I’m here to try and tell you the TRUTH, not a bunch of lies that you’ve already heard a hundred times): If a person doesn’t have a couple of dollars they can throw at a business for a few months to see if it works for them, and NOT have their lifestyle affected if it doesn’t - well, then, they should seriously consider a different form of enterprise - like a JOB! Now, then...just how MUCH money should one look to invest in their online business? First and foremost, your pocketbook is always the deciding factor in any business venture. NEVER get in over your head financially for more money than you are absolutely comfortable with. But remember that we are talking about starting a business, NOT a "hobby." In my last year of running an OFFline business, I was spending around $8,000.00 each month on advertising alone. Now, my friends, I had a relatively small "dirt world" type of business, and $8,000.00 per month is NOT a whole lot of money to spend in offline promotion. Just ask any of your friends who own traditional businesses. One of the many nice features about ONline marketing, however, is that you can get the same bang for a much smaller buck! Just what would a typical financial commitment be? A monthly commitment of between $300.00 and $500.00 is very reasonable, and, compared to OFFLINE ventures, is laughably small. Can you start off smaller? You betcha! But, like any business, the smaller you start out, the longer it will take to achieve your ultimate goals. Here is a very good general formula for calculating the amount of money you should spend on a business venture...
Not what you wanted to hear, is it? Yep, I realize that this is an ultra-ULTRA-conservative way of looking at starting a business. And it's sure not what you're used to hearing from a lot of other websites on the Internet that "absolutely, positively guarantee" you'll make a fortune in the time in takes to reboot your computer. But I want YOU to do things differently. I want YOU to approach the exciting world of the self-employed with your eyes wide open and with realistic expectations. "Successful Internet marketing requires an investment of MONEY. Be prepared to make SOME type of REASONABLE financial commitment."
SECRET NUMBER 5: "The
Big Dogs don’t dig for gold. Huh!? Now, what the heck does THAT mean!? Well, lemme give ya a little history lesson... In 1848 gold was discovered in Sutter’s Mill in California. Within two years, over 40,000 eager entrepreneurs seeking their fortunes made their way to this little town in the middle of nowhere. Of those 40,000 adventurous souls, around 5% managed to barely make a living mining gold – less than 1% ever became wealthy. Sounds almost like the Internet, doesn’t it!? BUT!…another group of people virtually ALL became wealthy in the gold fields of California... ...the shopkeepers! These enterprising individuals instinctively knew that striking it rich mining for gold was a crap shoot at best. But what they DID know was that the miners couldn’t mine unless they had tools, clothing, and food. The shopkeepers made their fortunes "selling the shovels." Whether or not a miner struck it rich or whether he never found a single nugget was just plain irrelevant – he STILL needed the shovel. And the shopkeepers were there to sell them! Gold or no gold, the guys who sold the shovels made money! Now, what does all this have to do with the Internet? Well, you don’t have to be on the Internet very long to find out that you can have the best product in the universe and the flashiest website in the world, but IF NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT YOU’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE A NICKEL. There’s an old tongue-in-cheek adage in the real estate business that the most important three features of any piece of property are location, location, location. Well, that adage can be made to fit the Internet by saying that... ...the three most important
features for any website are What we’re talking about here, folks is "advertising," plain and simple. You and every other netpreneur must get every piece of traffic you can to view your website. In the words of Henry Ford, "If I had 14 cents to spend on a shoelace business, I would spend 1 cent on shoe laces, and 13 cents on advertising." If you’ve been on the Internet for even a few days, you’ll already have noticed that it seems like every other email you receive is telling you about this new program that will "send your hit counter to it’s knees," or that new program which will enable you to "put your ad on 2,000,000 websites." Maybe you’ve tried ‘em, maybe you haven’t, but the truth is, that 9 out of 10 of these programs just plain don’t work. (Later on in this book, by the way, we’ll see just WHY they don’t work.) It doesn’t take very long for some budding Internet marketer to have his website up and running, and find out that that website is nothing more than some digital code residing on a host computer somewhere, and isn’t going to make him nickel ONE until he gets some traffic to that site.
So doesn’t it just make logical sense for you to supply these "gold diggers" with their "shovels?" Doesn’t it make sense for you to specialize your efforts in marketing programs that are designed to drive traffic to a person’s website? Think about it! If you concentrate your efforts on programs that are designed to generate traffic, it AUTOMATICALLY gives you a DOUBLE whammy!.....
"Don’t dig for gold. Sell the shovels! Concentrate on programs designed to generate website traffic."
SECRET NUMBER 6: "The
Big Dogs concentrate on programs that Oh, there are THOUSANDS of very good programs and products available for you to sell on the web. Many are very good and you can earn a substantial commission from selling them. BUT…what would you rather have – a $20.00 profit ONE time, or a $10.00 profit, over and over again, for an indefinite period of time? Silly question, isn’t it? If you concentrate your marketing efforts on "one shot deals," you may very well make some nice money.....THIS month. But, then, NEXT month you have to start all over again – in effect you are starting out your business from scratch. Do you actually want to do this month, after month, after month?
If you concentrate on programs or services that require that the purchaser commit to a regular monthly purchase, you only have to make ONE sale and you get paid over and over again! Beautiful! Over a period of time you can build a truly nice RESIDUAL, CONTINUING INCOME that comes to you over and over again, long after you made that initial sale. And believe me, my friend, it’s nice to wake up on the first morning of a new month KNOWING that you are going to get "X" amount of dollars that month. It’s almost like being semi-retired and receiving a monthly annuity check! "Concentrate your marketing efforts on programs that you sell just ONCE, but that CONTINUE to give you an ONGOING income."
SECRET NUMBER 7: "The
Big Dogs concentrate on programs that Oooh! Now THERE’S a "bad" word – MULTI LEVEL MARKETING! In the "dirt" world, a lot of people automatically associate multi-level marketing with phrases like "scam" or "pyramid scheme" or "money game." I have noticed, however, that the online marketing community is a lot more open minded to multi-level (or network) marketing. Regardless of how YOU feel, however, let’s take a moment to clear the air. ALL BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS, WHETHER THEY ARE ONLINE OR OFFLINE, AND REGARDLESS OF WHAT PRODUCT OR SERVICE THEY SELL…ARE MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS!!! Now you may think that is a pretty bold statement, but let’s analyze it. Ever hear of a "little" electronics company by the name of IBM? IBM has national sales managers. Below them are the IBM regional sales managers, who are responsible for the state sales managers. The state managers supervise the district representatives, who oversee a group of local sales reps. You see, there are several levels of responsibility, and that certainly sounds "multi-level" to ME! Virtually ALL types of organizations, from sales organizations, to the military, to athletic teams, to the federal government itself are inherently "multi-level." They HAVE to be in order to preserve a chain of command and a smooth flow of duties and responsibilities. Thus, there is absolutely NOTHING inherently "wrong" with a legitimately run network marketing company that markets a product of value at a reasonable price. But just why do we say to concentrate your efforts on companies that are multi-level? It’s pretty simple, really..... Do you want to have to do ALL the work yourself!? A friend of mine has owned a very successful pizza shop here in town for a number of years, and makes a very good living from it. But he certainly isn’t getting RICH from it, and he’s in that shop supervising his employees and flipping pizza dough seven days a week. You know who DID get rich though? The guy who formed Domino’s Pizza. He created a "multi-level," nationwide organization of pizza shops. And I’d be willing to BET he never flipped a hunk of pizza dough himself! Ever hear of Henry Ford? Did you know he never sold a single car? In fact, Henry considered himself a LOUSY salesman. But he was a terrific ORGANIZER – he built a world-wide network of dealerships who did the actual selling. J. Paul Getty, America’s first billionaire, once said, "I would rather have 1% of the efforts of a thousand people than 100% of the efforts of myself." "Concentrate on programs that are multi-level in nature."
SECRET NUMBER 8: "The
Big Dogs concentrate on programs Now that statement sounds like a real "gimme," doesn’t it!? Of COURSE you should only become involved in programs that work – that’s just common sense, now, isn’t it? But how do you KNOW what works and what doesn’t – what is pure, overpriced garbage and what is genuinely worthwhile and should be included in your "arsenal" of marketing tools? Well, that’s simple… You can spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time in testing program after program – after all, they all SOUND like the greatest thing since sliced bread – the people that sell them MAKE them sound that way. Or… You can follow the directions contained in this book. We’ve done the legwork FOR you. We’ve already spent the thousands of dollars to purchase these programs. We’ve spent the hundreds of hours testing and re-testing them (And believe me, nine out of ten of ‘em we tested WERE next to worthless!) The purpose of this book is not simply to tell you what’s wrong with Internet marketing – ANYONE can be a critic. With the Ten "Secrets of the Big Dogs" we give you a point-by-point strategy, and then, with the C.H.I.P. we give you the weapons to wage a successful war against mediocrity! "Market programs that give a genuine value – programs that actually WORK!"
SECRET NUMBER 9: "The
Big Dogs diversify their business by being There are four reasons why experienced and successful netpreneurs establish a diverse portfolio of business interests: I. Diversification guarantees you stability, safety, and security. Let’s get this one out of the way REAL quick! I know it sounds like "cyber-heresy" to say that Internet companies can go out of business, but they are no more immune to financial troubles than their dirt world counterparts. In fact, because conditions change so rapidly on the Internet, companies that don’t continuously evolve in response to changes can easily find themselves king of the world one day and cleaning toilets the next. This same thing (although at a slower pace) can happen to dirt world companies, of course, and this is why the mutual fund came into existence. A mutual fund takes investors’ money and puts it, not just into one stock, the value of which may rise and fall, but into dozens or hundreds of DIFFERENT stocks to "spread the risk." If one or two companies experience financial downturns or even go out of business, other companies in the portfolio compensate for it. Think of the C.H.I.P. as a "mutual fund of the Internet." While C.H.I.P. has nothing to do with stock market investing, the principal of "diversification of risk" still applies. GREAT pains have been taken to choose established, solid companies – companies that offer a real value. After all, we, ourselves have an investment of time and money in these programs – THEY ARE THE COMPANIES AND PROGRAMS WE USE OURSELVES! All "due diligence" that can be done, HAS been done But, then again, one learns to take NOTHING on the Internet for granted. II. DIVERSIFICATION GUARANTEES YOU A "BEST-OF-ALL-WORLDS" COMPENSATION PLAN! Compensation plans (also called "pay" plans or just "comp" plans) are quite simply, "how you get paid." Now, in the OFFline world, the dirt world, there are a near-infinite variety of multi-level compensation plans. Some are so complex that it takes hours of study to fully understand "how you get paid." We in the ONline world, however, are lucky. The comp plans used by online network marketing companies are considerably less complex. They HAVE to be because if you don’t understand how a particular comp plan works, you don’t have a live human being by your elbow to explain it to you. And if you DON’T understand it, and understand it quickly, you’re GONE – to another website! The typical company pays out around 60% of it’s income out in commissions; the other 40% goes to pay the company’s overhead and to give their owners a profit. That’s only fair, and that’s what allows the companies to continue in business. HOW A ONE LEVEL COMPENSATION PLAN WORKS. So, let’s say that a company has a monthly fee of $20.00 (which is fairly typical of Internet companies). Sixty percent of $20.00 is $12.00. Thus, $12.00 is what they can afford to pay out in commissions. If Company "A" has a one-level comp plan they would pay out that whole $12.00 to you for everyone you personally referred to the company who became a paying member (a "ProMember"). So if you referred one person, you would receive $12.00 each and every month that that person remains an "active" (i.e. paying) ProMember. Got it? Understand how a "one-level" compensation plan works? HOW A TWO LEVEL COMPENSATION PLAN WORKS. If Company "B, " on the other hand, decides it wants to use a two-level comp plan, they, of course, STILL only have a TOTAL of $12.00 to pay out in commissions per member. That means they would have to pay out less PER LEVEL, because they now have to divide that $12.00 over TWO levels. If the company split that $12.00 evenly between levels, that would mean they would pay you $6.00 for every person you personally referred (your Level 1 people), and $6.00 for each person your level 1 people referred (your Level 2 people). you’re saying. "why would I want more than a one-level comp plan? After all, with just one level, I make $12.00, but with two levels, when I personally refer someone I make only $6.00. That’s cutting my commission in HALF!" Well, that’s true, as far as it goes, but now enters the "power of duplication," which gives network marketing it’s true POWER. Let’s say, for example, that you are capable of sponsoring 10 new members a month. With a one-level comp plan that means that after one month, you would earn 10 times $12.00, or $120.00. With a two-level comp plan that pays out $6.00 on each level, if you again sponsored 10 people, at the end of the month you would have earned 10 times $6.00, or $60.00 – that’s HALF of what you would earn with a one-level comp plan! But WAIT! Let’s assume that each of those 10 ProMembers you personally referred ALSO referred 10 ProMembers of THEIR own. At the end of the month, in addition to your 10 Level 1 members you would now have 10 times 10 or ONE HUNDRED Level 2 members, on each of whom you would earn $6.00, as well. Now let’s add it up. $6.00 times 10 Level 1 people gives you $60.00. But NOW we add $6.00 times 100 Level 2 members, or $600.00. That gives you a TOTAL of $660.00 that you would now be earning each month, with a TWO-level comp plan, as opposed to just $120.00 per month with a ONE-level comp plan! Starting to get the picture? Rather than having to do all the work yourself, you share a portion of the commission in exchange for more people doing a bigger TOTAL job. It’s this power of duplication that gives such incredible earning power to multi-level marketing. For those of you who may not be totally familiar with the "power of duplication" aspect of network marketing, let’s take a look at a hypothetical comp plan. This comp plan pays out just $1.00 per member on each level for twelve levels. Let’s see what happens when you refer just TWO people AND YOU NEVER DO ANYTHING ELSE. Let’s further assume that every person you sponsor does just this same small job – that is, they refer just two people of THEIR own, and NEVER do another thing. Over a period of time you would have:
Understand that this is just a "perfect world scenario" to illustrate how network marketing comp plans work. But theoretically, you would have a total of 8,190 people in your organization – AND YOU PERSONALLY REFERRED JUST TWO OF THEM! This, then is the power of duplication, and where the "magic" of multi-level, or network, marketing lies. If you received just $1.00 on each of these people, that would give you a MONTHLY, CONTINUING INCOME OF OVER EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH!!! See how it works? Now, VERY few companies pay out the commission equally on each level. It just depends on the philosophy of the owners of the company. Some companies pay out their highest percentage on the first level. For example, a company with a two level comp plan may pay out $10.00 for your level 1 members and $2.00 on your Level 2 members. Their philosophy is to give you your highest payout for members that you PERSONALLY refer. On the other hand, another company, also with a two level comp plan, may do the exact opposite. They may pay out $2.00 for your Level 1 members and $10.00 for your Level 2 members. THEIR philosophy is that, since you would theoretically have more level 2 than Level 1 people, you’ll make more money if the commission on Level 2 people is higher. Which philosophy is correct? Which comp plan is better? The answer is neither. There are strong and weak points about BOTH comp plan philosophies that we have given examples of so far. There are additional comp plan variations, as well. There are comp plans that pay "shallow," (on just one or two levels), like the two we just looked at. These types of comp plans are also referred to as "compressed" comp plans. Compressed comp plans are nice in that they pay out a LOT very quickly. HOW A "DEEP" COMPENSATION PLAN WORKS. However, there are also comp plans that pay "deep," meaning they pay you a commission on people BELOW your Level 2. Naturally, comp plans that pay "deep" must further decrease the amount they pay out on each level. What is the benefit of deep comp plans, then? Let’s use an example of a basic two-level, compressed type of comp plan. Say you refer Joe, onto your Level 1. Joe just happens to know a real "heavy hitter" (we’ll call the heavy hitter Mary) who has the ability to refer a whole LOT of people. Naturally, Mary would be on Joe’s Level 1, BUT SHE WOULD BE ON YOUR LEVEL 2! Since Mary is on your Level 2, your lowest level, you would not earn any commission on anyone Mary refers (even if she sponsored a thousand people!). This is what’s known in network marketing circles as "dropping off the bottom." Thus, with a two level comp plan, you wouldn’t earn a nickel from those thousand people Mary referred! Ah, but a "deep-paying" comp plan that pays down 3 or 4 or 5 levels allows you to be paid on potentially a LOT more people. Remember, though, that a "deep-paying" comp plan must divide that $12.00 over more levels, decreasing the amount you get paid per member. To show you what we mean, let’s take a ridiculously extreme example. Assume that a company decided to use a comp plan with 1,200 levels. (We TOLD you this was a ridiculous example!) That means they can only pay out an average of just one-cent per person per level! You’d need a downline organization of one thousand people just to make ten bucks! Obviously, that’s why very few comp plans pay on more than 4 to 6 levels. Do you now see the huge benefit in diversifying your programs to include BOTH types of comp plans? "Compressed" plans (those that pay out on just one or two levels) will give you a larger commission more quickly, while the "deep" plans (those that pay out on three or more levels) will give you less money per level, but many, MANY more people in your organization that you will be paid on. Thus, no SINGLE compensation plan can be the best - the ultimate. Every comp plan ever designed has both it's strengths and weaknesses. This is why the Big Dogs DIVERSIFY their attentions among a number of different companies. By COMBINING the effects of several DIFFERENT types of comp plans you can have the best of ALL worlds! There is just one other comp plan variation that we would like to talk about. This type is called the "matrix" type of comp plan... HOW "MATRIX" COMPENSATION PLANS WORK. The plans that we have looked at so far, whether they are "shallow" or "deep," have one thing in common; there is no limit to the number of people who can be on any one level. You could have ten people on your Level 1, or 10,000 people. "Matrix plans," on the other hand, limit the number of people you can have on your first Level. Depending on the company, this limit can be placed at just two people or as many as five, six, or more. What is the benefit to a "matrix" type comp plan? It has to do with something called "spillover." Let’s say that a particular company has what’s called a "3 X 6 matrix" comp plan. This means that the plan pays down six levels, and you can have three and ONLY three people on your Level 1. What happens if you refer MORE than three people - if you sponsor four, or ten, or a hundred? Well, any people you would refer over three would "spillover" onto your second level. In a 3 X 6 matrix, since each person can have three, and ONLY three people on their FIRST level, each of your three Level 1 people would have three people on THEIR level 1. Their Level 1 is YOUR Level 2, so you could have a maximum of 9 people on your Level 2. So…if you were to personally sponsor 12 people, 3 would be automatically placed on your level 1, filling it. The other 9 would automatically "spillover" onto your Level 2, filling IT. This process continues until the bottom level is reached. It’s pretty plain to see just WHY so many network marketing people like matrix-type comp plans. Let’s get back to your buddy Joe, who you personally referred and who is on your level 1. If you are a "heavy hitter" and capable of referring a whole lot of people, that’s great for Joe, isn’t it, because without Joe lifting a finger, spillover from YOUR efforts will gradually and automatically place people under HIM! Let’s take this one step further. Let’s say that YOU are lucky enough to be directly under a real heavy hitter. The same spillover effect could happen to you. If your sponsor brings in, say, several hundred people, you could end up making a LOT of money without lifting a finger! In addition to joining multiple programs simultaneously in an effort to "meld" several different types of comp plans into one "ultimate" comp plan, there is yet another important reason to diversify your portfolio….. III. DIVERSIFICATION GUARANTEES YOU MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME! Quite frankly, the vast majority of programs on the Internet are geared toward people with little disposable income to invest in a business. The typical monthly commitment for virtually all programs on the Net is around $20.00 to $25.00. Now I don’t care HOW good a particular comp plan is or how MUCH it pays out percentage-wise – even a 100% (and THAT’S not even possible) payout on a $20.00 per month program is pretty slim. Remember what we pointed out in a previous chapter – there are just NOT that many qualified opportunity seekers on the Internet. Forget these claims you hear of 100,000 member downlines! The only members that put money in your pocket are the PAYING members, and THE AVERAGE INTERNET COMPANY HAS LESS THAN 10% OF IT’S MEMBERSHIP AS PAYING MEMBERS! That’s less than 10%, my friend! You see, most members in almost ANY program are of the FREE variety. What’s worse is that a lot of these free members are signed up, in some cases, a dozen times in just ONE program! So when you hear one of these Internet Big Dogs bragging about having a downline of 10,000 members, assume that the number of PAYING members is around 500 to 1,000. What counts – what puts money in your bank account are the PAYING members! Now you can, over a period of time, build a downline organization of a few hundred or even a thousand or so PAYING members. Those are realistic and achievable numbers. If you have a downline organization of 1,000 PAYING members in any one program, you may consider yourself a success. Now, then, let me ask you this. What would you rather have – one thousand $20.00 per month paying members, or one thousand $200.00 per month paying members? Silly question, isn’t it?
Are you starting to get the idea of C.H.I.P? Now, if you are like most folks on the Net, you are used to the concept of $20.00 per month, or $25.00 per month programs. The idea of getting people to commit to $200.00 or more per month may sound like an impossible task. But it is NOT as hard to do as it may sound to you at first. Why? Statistics show that the typical marketer who is in ONE program as a paid member is ALSO in 6.2 OTHER programs as a paid member. In other words, most serious netpreneurs are ALREADY using and/or promoting multiple programs, but they are in those 6.2 programs under 6.2 DIFFERENT sponsors. Wouldn’t it be GREAT if, somehow, you could be that person’s sponsor in ALL of those programs!!!??? Are you starting to see where we are heading with this?
Note: For a moment, let’s say there WAS a good $200.00 per month program on the Net. That would still go against Principal # 1 (diversification to establish security), Principal # 2 (diversification to take advantage of multiple comp plan types.), and Principal # 4… IV. DIVERSIFICATION GUARANTEES YOU MULTIPLE TRAFFIC SOURCES. Any one source of traffic can generate only a FINITE amount of traffic for you. No source or program, no matter how comprehensive, can give you UNLIMITED traffic. Advertising on the Internet is a pure numbers game and the Big Dogs know they need as many DIFFERENT sources as possible
SECRET NUMBER 10: "The Big Dogs know they are not alone." Now just what does THAT mean!? Folks, I’m here to tell you that, taken seriously and worked like a genuine business, there is just NO business like Internet marketing! It’s great. It’s wonderful! It’s terrific. There are dozens of positive factors about being a "netpreneur." But unlike every other form of marketing that came before it, nothing gives you the feeling of utter "ALONENESS" and FRUSTRATION that the Internet does. A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found that a person’s feelings of loneliness and depression INCREASED in direct proportion to the amount of time they spent on the Internet. And it’s REAL easy to see why this is so. Despite the fact that the Internet gives us almost instantaneous access to other people via email, it’s just not the same as interacting with living, breathing human beings. When you’re an Internet marketer you are "on your own" like no other business in the world. As much as we like the idea of having our own business and not having a boss breathing down our throats, the Internet takes this to the extreme - to the point where we have NO social contact. There’s no water cooler down the hall where we can meet with co-workers. There’s no coffee shop down the block where we can gather with friends and talk over the events of the day, complain about the boss, or maybe talk over ideas with other warm bodies. What’s worse is that we NEVER "get away from the office," do we? Most of us have our office right in our homes. Even if we’re taking a break from the old computer and TRYING to watch a TV show, there’s always that feeling in the back of your mind that you SHOULD be doing something else with your online business. Have a problem? Who are you going to talk to about it? Your spouse? (who, in all probability, thinks that this "Internet stuff" is silly and a waste of time anyway) Your kids? (who see the computer only as a different kind of video game). And we ALL know how tough it is to get through to a company whose "never-fail, user-friendly" software just isn’t as simple as you thought it was going to be. The learning curve on the Internet can be a long one. It takes time before you really understand what you’re doing. My friend, take heart! We ALL go through it. I hate to tell you how many times, at three o’clock in the morning, after HOURS of trying to figure out a new piece of software, or a new program, how many times I found myself wanting to just curl up into a little ball in a corner. Or take an ax to my computer. Does that surprise you? Folks it’s something we ALL go through – every single one of us. But take heart! One day, as if by magic, everything just seems to snap into place. The clouds part, the sun shines through, and tasks that just days before, that perhaps took you hours of intensive, frustrating labor to perform – why, all of a sudden you can do them in minutes, while whistling a happy tune! What makes it so doggone difficult is that WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS ALONE! If it’s any consolation, though, understand that you’re NOT alone. Every single successful netpreneur has gone through this same thing. It’s what separates the Big Dogs from the little dogs – from those who persevere to become successful Internet marketers and those who throw their hands up and just walk away.
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