Low cost lead generation is a desperate need amongst MLM Network Marketers.

Being able to “stuff your sales funnel” full of targeted MLM leads at LOW COST is the name of the game.

Those who do it (and are able to convert them) win.

Those who don’t learn the art, never make it.

Its as simple as that.

This is the first article in a Series of low Cost Lead Generation Methods.

This one deals with Squidoo as the first of our low cost lead generation methods.

I’ve called it low cost, because although its FREE to use, there is a cost involved:

You will have to pay with your Time- both to learn and to implement.

Squidoo is a powerful social site that is free to join.

Low cost lead generation with Squidoo is a powerful strategy Network Marketers can use.

Here’s why:

Anybody can write and post articles there about literally any topic.

In fact, it is one of the few sites that encourages you to shamelessly promote yourself and your business.

Most social sites have elaborate rules about how many links to your site you are allowed and ban
you if you are overly promotional. Not Squidoo.

An article is known as a “lens”, and because Squidoo is a very highly ranked site on Google, lenses that feature on Squidoo often come up high on the search engine rankings easily and quickly.

Of course, the thing to do, as always, is to choose your keywords first and then write some unique, interesting content!

Don’t be discouraged if your lens is not immediatley given the green light (published).

It sometimes takes a couple of days to be accepted.

Squidoo Modules

Lenses are made up of different content pieces known as modules.

Generally speaking, the more modules -including pictures, writing, video, links lists, RSS feeds etc that you have on a lens, the quicker your lens gets accepted.

Squidoo Drives Traffic to Your Site

You can use Squidoo to encourage your reader to visit your business site or blog.

This will increase traffic.

Your individual lens on Squidoo can actually “pull” your business site up the rankings and generate traffic.

Google loves squidoo lenses and often you’ll find your Squidoo lens will rank higher than your blog
or site.

You can create as many of these keyword-targeted lenses as you want!

So try to dominate as many keywords as you can (each lens focuses on one keyword)

by creating links to the different pages on your site.

Squidoo is also a Social Networking Site

Squidoo is a site where there is a social side to it.

It has features that allow you to become a fan of another lensmaster, send emails (promoting your new lens) to your fan club, rate lenses, offer comments on lenses and generally build an audience.

People can click on your bio and find out more about you or be taken to your site. (Its a good idea to have your blog in your profile!)

There are great traffic and tracking tools (click on dashboard>> my lenses>> tracking>> choose a lens and a time period,>>choose traffic)

Learn from Other LensMasters

A new feature I learned about recently is to do with tagging.

I learned it from Lewis Smile, who has loads of squidoo fans!

He has a giant Squid icon and a star under his name, so I think he must be a hot shot Squidoo lensmaster!

Anyway, I found his lens very helpful.

It’s all about how to get more traffic and increase your search engine ranking using only tags.

You can check to see what keywords were typed in on the search engines that brought up your page.

If you haven’t included those keywords into your tags section, you can include them with one easy click- making your chances even better of getting more hits.

Squidoo Tagging

Here’s how: (Thank you Lewis Smile)

* Go to your Squidoo Lens Dashboard.

* Click ‘Stats’ to the right of one of your lenses.

* Now click the ‘Traffic’ tab under the title of your lens.

And now you will see a list of words or phrases that Google surfers typed in to get to your lens.

* The ones with the crosses next to them are the terms you DO NOT have as tags on your lens.

* Its easy to get the word or phrase added to your lens tags. Just click on the cross (+)

This should strengthen your search engine ranking for that word or phrase.

Just remember to republish the lens afterwards!

Here is a great squidoo lens that explains everything about tags and tagging on Squidoo.

Squidoo Lens Promotion

If you want to know how to generate traffic from outside your Squidoo lens, this lens tells all.

Click here for more on Squidoo lens promotion.

Be prepared- it will take some work, but it’s a goldmine of information!

Low Cost Lead Generation: Squidoo Training Course

I have found an excellent resource on EVERYTHING you need to know about doing Squidoo Lenses.

It’s called “Squidoo Secrets” by Bob the Teacher.

Its part of his Internet Marketing Success Library Membership Site.

You can sign up at his site for free here, but if you want the real training you need to upgrade from inside the site.

Its one of the best resources I have come across online.

Check it out FREE here.

Enjoy!

Low Cost lead Generation: Possible in MLM?

Absolutely!! Especially now that we have the internet and social media marketing available to us! But don’t forget about offline lead generation either….Here are Ten (10) Low Cost Lead Generation techniques or ways to collect Leads For Your MLM Home Business!

We all know that your business’s bottom line depends on a steady flow of leads- in fact you need tons of leads.

Most people’s problem is they don’t have enough people to talk to, let alone convert into sales and sign ups.

Trouble is, you don’t want to pay out a lot (or any!) money to get those leads.

Here are a few low or no cost ways to attract customers and sign ups to your Network Marketing (MLM) business.

Here goes- 10 ways to collect leads, save money and up your profits.

Low Cost lead Generation Method 1. Flyers.

We all know this, but did you know you need to distribute about 1000 a day for 90 days before you get any results? Put them on toilet doors in the shopping mall. Drop them into post boxes. Go to bulletin boards and post them there.

Remember you need a catchy headline, that enters into the conversation your prospect is already having inside their heads!

Here’s an example of a flyer I used with GREAT success!

Low Cost lead Generation Method 2. Buying and Calling leads.

Make sure they are somewhat targeted (e.g weight loss leads, or home based business opportunity leads). Check how “fresh” they are- anything older than a month is not really a hot lead anymore. Make sure you get replacements if the leads are “bad” (incorrect numbers/contact details)

Use 3 forms of follow up (postcard, phone and email.) On the phone, don’t prospect them immediately. First ask whether they’d like more information on whatever it is they’ve opted in for.

Then send an info pack.

Low Cost lead Generation Method3. Newspaper and Magazine Classified and Normal adverts.

Here you need good hard hitting copy writing skills. Also it’s best to choose a niche magazine or industry publication. Works well if you have small hometown newspapers and local magazines.

Do it for at least 3 months before assessing results (even better if you can commit to a year).

Low Cost lead Generation Method 4. The Dreaded List of 100.

Yes, make your names list- but for goodness sake DON’T pitch them on your Network Marketing deal.

Rather let them know what you’re doing- you can ask them if you could email the info to them (so that they are “in the know” about your new business and ask them to support you by keeping you in mind in case they come across anyone interested.

See them as a resource – connections who can refer people to you that might need your products or business opportunity.

If they are knowledgeable in a certain area (e.g printing, copywriting, hosting/events, advertising, presenting, web design etc), ask them to help you and enlist their support on your project.

That way they’ll know exactly what you’re doing and will ask you if they are interested (or at least refer people to you).

Low Cost lead Generation Method 5. Trade Shows are another good way to collect leads.

Make sure you know what kind of marketing has been done to advertise the show and what kind of traffic was achieved in past shows. Talk to other traders and get a feel of the return on investment of time and money you can expect. Work out before hand what you need to sell to cover your costs of the booth/stand.

Targeted shows like “Home Business Opportunities” or “Health and Wellness Shows” (if that’s your target market) are obviously better than more general ones.

Low Cost lead Generation Method 6. Video Marketing:

There are hundreds of sites online where you can upload your video, and have links back to your website. Now with the new free LinkedTube website that your video can be hosted on, clickable links can be placed in the video itself – (before it was only in the description box).

This makes it very convenient for your prospect to click, be taken to your blog/capture page- and there they can fill out a form and become a lead. Youtube, Metacafe, Zoopy, MyVideo, Vidder are good business video uploading sites.

Read How To Add Marketing links To Your Video Clips

Low Cost lead Generation Method 7. FaceBook.

This is huge! Social Media Marketing is the hottest thing on the internet (growing 10x faster than any other internet usage. You can join groups related to your niche, post events, write notes, add videos and photo’s and make friends.

It’s the most viral website today, so the potential for getting your message across to many many people is huge. There is an art and a skill- so don’t just go in there pitching your deal- you’ll destroy the power of social media marketing for yourself. Learn first how to do it. (See below for training details).

Low Cost lead Generation Method 8. Twitter.

This is a huge very fast growing micro blogging site that is great for building relationships and driving traffic to your site. Most “tweets” are 140 or less in length and contain a URL. Once again, there’s an art to it. What a fantastic way to build your list.

Free Twitter Training Videos Here

Low Cost lead Generation Method 9. Blogging.

Blogs can be used to communicate with your audience- it’s great because you get customer buy in and they become part of the process. If your blogs are optimized correctly for the search engines, they can rank high for certain keywords you are bidding on, and this can be a powerful pool from which to collect leads. (SEO)

Make sure you write well and authentically, drawing your reader in. Also you’ll need to have a form for them to opt into to receive your propaganda! (And so you can capture their details)

Blogging is actually very easy. My clients have their blogs up and running within a weekend-when they go through my click by click video tutorials showing them EXACTLY how.

Low Cost lead Generation Method 10. Content Submission/Article Marketing.

Cool places are Ezine Articles, Squidoo and Hub Pages and eHow.com

You write about a topic of interest to your target market, optimize for those key words and get traffic from the sites themselves (people typing in the words they’re looking for), as well as the search engines.

Squidoo and Ezine articles rank very highly with Google, so your pages on these content submission sites have a good chance of being highly ranked with Google.

Also there’s a social aspect to it. People leave comments, become your friends/fans and get emailed whenever you post a new article! How’s that for exposure.

You get to leave an author’s bio and can link from inside your article to your blog/website or lead capture page too.

Here are some more Low Cost lead Generation Methods

· Car Wraps (Printing on your car)

· Direct Mail and Bounce backs

· Road Signs on Poles (watch out for the Law!)

· Pull Downs/Tear Offs

· Knock and drops

· Free Online Ads

· Ezine Advertising

· PPC/Google AdWords (By search or by content i.e. on a site) (Costs money and there’s a learning curve, but its VERY powerful)

· Link Exchanges

· U-stream.TV (your own TV show for free)

· Blog Talk Radio (your own radio show for free)

· Niche Social Networking sites (www.ning.com)

· Webinars/Conference Calls/Podcasts

Each method is an art form in and of itself. Don’t try and do all of them. Choose 3-5 methods that you know how to do well and that YOU LIKE doing. Do it every day for 90 days. Then do another 2 x 90 days of lead collection.

Watch your business GROW!

PS  Want to know how to join the Savvy MLMers in Training Club?

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