This page was updated on January 29, 2001
The Downline Online 21-day
SFI Promotion Course
DAY 17
This may be a silly time to bring this up, but I was thinking about it today, so here
it is.
Your affiliation with SFI is a BUSINESS.
Does that sound obvious?
If it doesn't, I'll explain in a moment.
If it does, are you treating it like a business?
What does it mean that "this is a business?"
To me it mean a few things.
1) It means it's going to take some time for it to get going.
When I started my software company, it took 3.5 years to develop the product and
another 1.5 years until a noticable number of people were actually using it! 5 years just
to get STARTED!
This business won't take that long, for sure. Frankly, I expect that after 6 months,
you will be THRILLED and SHOCKED at how fast this has moved!
2) It means it's going to take some money to get it going.
Again, when I started my software company I went almost $250,000 in debt before I had a
product to sell. And after the product began shipping, it was another 2 years until I took
a salary.
Obviously this business is NOTHING like that! But, you should plan on spending some
money. How much? Depends on you.
If you get Affiliates by doing the FREE techniques I've taught, you could spend nothing
but $29.95/month for your SFI membership. (You'll get a guaranteed $9-11/monthly
commission, so you're really only spending about $21...WAY better than the THOUSANDS I
spent getting my software company started!). And think of all the money you're saving by
not mailing ads, product samples, driving to meetings, etc.
If you use the FEE techniques, you'll spend more... but if they bring in Affiliates,
you'll be spending money to make MORE money! Your "investment" in advertising
will give you a serious return.
And some of the FEE choices (like the WildFire Co-op and Prostep) are self-funding --
get them going and they're FREE.
3) It means I have to work, regularly.
Don't even get me started on the number of hours I put into starting my software
company.
Here, you should be able to find techniques that take practically ZERO time (putting up
an FFA page, or running an ad in an ezine, for example), or techniques that take 20-30
minutes a day (like contacting people via AOL Instant Messaging).
Either way, consistent, persistent action is what wins in this business. Keep it up!
4) It means I'll make mistakes.
Man, if I had $1 for every $1,000 I wasted on a bad ad, a dumb consultant or a useless
software tool, I'd be a rich man.
Same thing here. Expect to run an ad that doesn't work, or try a new technique that
delivers a poor response.
The mark of success is NOT lack of failure, but what you do with your failures.
LEARN from them! Figure out what didn't work, and why. Ask other people for their
opinions.
Once you know, try something else until you find something that DOES work!
5) It means that you always keep your goals in mind!
If it weren't for remembering my goals, I would have bailed out of the software biz
dozens of times. But I knew that if I could make it through the occassional tough time,
I'd be closer and closer to what I truly wanted (and it worked).
Sometimes things won't go the way you hoped. That's the way the world works (he says,
paraphrasing the Buddha).
Don't let minor setbacks, or plateaus distract you from your goal, FREEDOM!
I'll tell you, there's no other business I know that offers the chance for true Time
Freedom and Financial Freedom in 2-5 years.
Remember to write down your Freedom goals and share them with others. If you get down,
email one of the Support people at http://downlineonline.com/members/contacts.htm and
they'll remind you why you're here!
##### Today's Lesson - Gateway Pages #####
When somebody puts up a web page, they often think, "I have a web page, what more
do I need?"
How about "more web pages."
Why should you bother putting up more web pages?
Because the more pages you have that point to your SFI site, the better.
Multiple pages pointing to a single page are called 'gateway pages.'
Then, when you submit these gateway pages to search engines and directories, you have a
better chance that one of them will rank higher, be seen by somebody, and get them to your
SFI site.
You don't want them to be the same, though.
If you know how to build web pages, great. If you don't, don't worry. There are a
couple of shortcuts I'll show you in a second.
So, how do you make the pages different? You want variations on a theme. Different
titles, different text, different keywords and descriptions in the "meta tags."
These are the themes I use:
1) Home business words: home business, stay at home, soho, work at home, part-time
business, etc.
2) Network marketing words: mlm, network marketing, multi-level marketing, multilevel
marketing, referral marketing, wave 3, wave 4, downline, upline, etc.
3) Money words: money, make money, money making, earn money fast, instant cash, etc.
4) Names of MLM companies -- big ones, small ones, well known ones obscure ones.
5) Names of people famous for helping people make money (including infomercial
personalities) -- for a while, if anyone searched for Don Lapre (the infomercial guy),
they found MY sites first!
6) Names of successful network marketers -- go to your bookstore and look for MLM book
authors if you don't know any.
7) Misspellings -- in ALL of those themes I include misspelled words, too! There was a
chiropractor who accidentally spelled his profession "chiropracter" and got
EVERY HIT from people who made the same mistake!
So, again, I make pages where the titles, text, and meta-tags are full of words for
each theme. I'll often make 2-6 pages per theme. In some pages, I'll use the keywords A
LOT. In others, I use them just a few times.
Each search engine works differently, so I build different pages.
After I've built the pages, I put them on my website and submit them to the directories
and search engines.
Remember -- Search engines and directories take TIME. If you submit today, it may take
WEEKS to get listed. So don't expect miracles overnight with this technique (even though
I've seen them happen).
I told you that I'd give you a shortcut if you don't know how to build web pages. Here
it is: Web Promotion Spider (Traffic Builder) has a feature where you type in the
keywords, title and some text and it builds gateway pages for you!
And then it'll submit your new pages to HUNDREDS of search engines and directories!
Submitmaster has a service that does a similar thing.
Details about both of these in a moment.
##### Today's ACTION Plan - FREE #####
*** STEP 1 ***
Build the pages as I just described.
*** STEP 2 ***
Upload them to your FREE website (a list of free sites is at the DO site).
*** STEP 3 ***
Submit them to search engines as we've described before.
##### Today's ACTION Plan - FEE #####
*** STEP 1 ***
If you don't already have a website, get one from virtualave.net
*** OPTION 1 ***
Get a copy of Web Promotion Spider (Traffic Builder) at http://www.trafficbuilder.com
and use it to build your gateway pages.
*** OPTION 2 ***
Go to http://www.submitmaster.net/join.cgi?sa4473100 and join Submit Master to use
their gateway page builder
*** STEP 2 ***
Upload the pages to your web host (follow their instructions to do so).
*** STEP 3 ***
Submit your pages to search engines and directories with Traffic Builder.
##### What's up for tomorrow #####
1) Becoming an expert.
Be well,
Steven Sashen
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