We really, really want you to be successful in developing your network marketing business, and that's why we've put together such an array of tools and resources for your benefit.

Although you'll find more and more here as you grow with us, the most important tools to begin with are:

• Your profile
• Classified advertisements
• Your blog/s
• Professional forums
• The article bank

The posts below this one pay attention to each of these in turn, helping you to make the very most of each one.  Please feel free to hit the "comment" button on each of these and share your thoughts or ask questions.

Especially while this community is new and still quite small, you'll find that a lot of people will go looking to see who else is a member.  This is the most important time for you to actually present yourself in a way that lets people understand you and engage with you.

No wonder we've made it compulsory for this to be completed before we will authorise anyone for access!  After all, who wants to talk with anyone if all they see when they visit is a bunch of faceless, empty member spaces?

So these are the things that you really should (and some things that you definitely shouldn't) do:

Have a photo

It's so easy to upload a photo.  Just go to "My Profile" and choose "Edit".  You'll see the box to upload a photo or photos from your computer.  I really encourage you to use a photo of yourself (casual or in business attire) but if you really don't want to do that, at least have your company logo, or a photo of your premises.

This may surprise you but most people won't click on a profile unless there's a photo.  So if you don't have a photo you're really not going to meet anyone and the whole thing is a waste of your time.

Fill out every possible field

Give people as much information as you possibly can, which you feel comfortable with.  We're not asking you to disclose that your grandmother was a bubble dancer (although feel free!), just wanting to get a much bigger "picture" of you from your words.

Fill out your personal, business, and social profiles, and take time to put at least something in the section describing whom you'd like to be introduced to and what your current challenges or foci are.

Your personal profile should never contain business information.  It is to give people an idea of the sort of person you are, your interests, hobbies and background.  Your business profile could be your official bio, or a description of the business you're currently involved in.  Your social profile might describe your social life, particularly how and where you network, or the types of family or social activities you enjoy.

DO NOT turn the profile section into an advertisement for your product or services.  To do that is akin to meeting someone for the very first time, not having a clue who they are, and immediately start spieling on with a sales pitch.  Pretty awful, eh?  Leave the advertising for the classifieds, event announcements, etc.  (More tips on writing classifieds next blog entry!)

Check your prose for grammar, spelling, typos

Because we're a business community, people expect to see a certain level of literacy.  If they don't see that, they make presumptions about competence that aren't very flattering. 

Your profile should be a little formal, but still inviting 

So the aim is to be warm and engaging, letting people really know what you're about, and at the same time maintaining professionalism.  Keep your informal writing for private messaging once you've got to know people. 

This is the same principle as face-to-face meetings.  At first when we meet new people, we're fairly formal in our attitude.  We don't generally get into back-slapping or joke-swapping within the first 30 seconds. 

Call to action

If you can, give people a reason to get in touch (definitely not "if you need a used car call me immediately because we've got the best used cars in town").  It's going to be something like "I really enjoy going to see the Eagles play a home match, so if you're a footy fan too, drop me a line" or "I'd like to have a chat to someone who's had this challenge and solved it, so if that's you and you've got experience you'd like to share, drop me a line", or "Last month we solved a staff retention problem that had been troubling us for a while.  We'd be happy to swap strategies so give me a call if you'd like to chat".

I hope these tips have been helpful, and welcome any questions about using any of the resources on MLMProfessionals.biz to get the results that you want.

Yes folks, we've got the billboard, and it's waiting for your ad :-)

The classifieds are certainly free for all our members to use, but in order for them to be interesting enough for people to actually want to look at, and in order to work for you, here are some tips that will certainly help:

1  If possible, use your classified advertisement to give something away.  This can easily be an informational product or report that while providing excellent value to readers, simultaneously demonstrates your expertise or knowledge.  This product can further offer subscription to your newsletter, or invite the person to make contact with you via a strong call to action.

2  Include a photograph, otherwise your product or service will look boring and will get little if any attention.

3  Absolutely avoid advertisements which sound like they are screaming or exhorting the reader to act.  These are a turnoff for most people, and especially on a quality site like MLMProfessionals.biz.

4  As with any advertising, your headline is the single most important part.  It should, in just seconds, alert any reader to exactly what the advertisement is about.

5  As with any advertising, ensure your ad builds interest as it proceeds, and culminate that interest in a strong call to action.  This does NOT mean that you "shout" your call to action.  Instead you simply tell the reader what action to take, and give them an excellent reason (containing logical and emotional components) to take that action right now.

6  Use the forums to share proposed classified advertisements with other members so that you can take advantage of group feedback and expertise to make it even more effective.  This has the added advantage of sort of "pre-launching" your advertisement so that people are anticipating it!

7  Feel free to use the classified section not only to help promote your business, but to buy or sell items that you have or seek, or even to request help or mentorship.

8  It should go without saying that all advertisements should meet the same standards as the rest of the site (as spelt out in our terms and conditions of service) and should therefore not contain bad language, profanity, or sexually explicit material.  Unless of course the advertiser wishes to be permanently banned from the site :-)

So enjoy using the classifieds - I hope you find them a very successful way to advertise your business.

Most people know that the word "blog" comes from "web log" or "weblog", which started out as a sort of on-line diary or log, but which has evolved to take all sorts of forms and serve all sorts of purposes.  It's only quite recently that businesses have begun to see the power of blogging for its ability to get information out quickly, and especially to form relationships of all kinds, building community spirit, developing customer loyalty, or simply as a way of opening up more authentic communication channels between groups of people.

So how will you use your blog?  (Or blogs!  Because you can have more than one.) You might use it as a way of working with your downline, just as I'm using this blog to work with our MLM community.  Bit by bit I'm building up a useful resource, and I'm interacting (or hoping to interact after you've read this) through people commenting on what I've written.

If you use your blog for that purpose, you may even like to set it on "private" so that visitors and other members can't view it, to maintain commercial-in-confidence. 

You might create a blog to attract potential recruits.  You could write a series of posts that inspire comment or feedback, demonstrating your credibility and expertise and building relationships with people who may well choose to join you.

You might create a blog that's aimed at encouraging other members, who perhaps aren't enjoying your level of success, to also join your downline.  One way to do that would be to put up a friendly challenge and keep us all up to date on how you're progressing.

Another way to use your blog is to make it educational around content related to your product.  For instance if your product is skin care or cleaning products, you could provide information on skin care or environmental issues around the home, and answer questions that arose as a result.  By encouraging your customers to join (or even by paying their joining fee) you've got a growing band of customers and potential customers flocking around you, the expert on the subject of your products and their uses.  If your posts are interesting enough, you'll find that people will actually email the link to friends or colleagues.

So think about the types of blogs that you could create, and if you like, feel free to ask for help in the forums - we're happy to provide input.  Then click on "Blogs" and then "Create Blog" and you'll shortly be on your way!

If you click on "Forums" above, you'll be taken to a powerful community resource for the development of your business.

Most forums you see are fairly unstructured and wander off topic so much that it's difficult to wean anything very useful out of them.  This forum is completely different, with set topics of discussion all aimed at helping you sell much more product, and recruit much more easily and effectively.  This is how you work smart instead of hard.  This is how to professionalise and reap the benefits.

Much of the forums are completely free to all members, but there is one section that is a paid section for people who have joined our one-on-one Advanced Sales Training Program.  This is not an MLM training program.  It is a bona fide professional sales training program which incorporates high-level communication/influence work with training in proven, evidence-based sales and marketing systematics.  This sales training program has been responsible for a 598% increase in sales in 90 days, and due to the efficiency of this method of delivery is available at the very low price of $US67, including the personalised support which is available on the forums for 6 months.  More information about the program is available in that section of the forums.

So have a look at the forums and see for yourself what's on offer.  Hop right in and introduce yourself to the group, and open conversation on any of the topics.  I look forward to getting to know you over the coming months.

Yes it really is important to read all the articles, which you can access by clicking "Articles" above.  This is an important resource which contains a great deal of information which you may not have received from your MLM company.

You'll see that there are some good articles for people who are new to MLM or even who are wondering what it's all about, as well as articles which will assist even the most experienced MLM professional.

The whole purpose of the articles is to put MLM or network marketing in the context of the wider corporate community, and to bring to MLM quality information and proven expertise in business development.

You'll see that each of the articles may be commented on, a facility that I hope will lead to wider discussion in our community.