If you were to start over with SFI, what would you do differently, knowing what you do now about this business?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
4/6/2015 4:37 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
Hi Ritu,
This is an excellent question, and is one that I am sure we all have asked ourselves from time to time.
So, having the knowledge that I have acquired about SFI and running an online business in general, what would I do differently if I could start over again?
First,I would have maintained a daily activity regiment, ensuring that I always logged in and did my daily tasks. I also would have set up a standing order right from day one, even though I know that SFI never requires any of its affiliates to pay anything, ever. Having a standing order is the best and most sure way to ensure that you are able to at least maintain EA each and every month. By not having to worry about doing a wide variety of time-consuming tasks to earn your 1500 VP per month, your time is freed up to spend on advertising efforts, which brings me to the next thing I would have done differently.
I would have set up an advertising schedule to ensure that I was posting a minimum of 5 ads per day. Three of these would be targeted to building my SFI team, 1 for recruiting new TripleClicks members, and 1 for recruiting new ECAs.
I would have also established a study schedule to set aside a certain amount of time, either daily or weekly where I would choose a new SFI topic to learn about or review one that I had already studied. It is important for us to go back from time to time and review what we have learned from such areas as SFI Basics and the SFI LaunchPad series.
And finally, I would have set up my own site for SFI right away, knowing how much Google and other major search engines don't like affiliate sites.
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Hi Ritu,
This is an excellent question, and is one that I am sure we all have asked ourselves from time to time.
So, having the knowledge that I have acquired about SFI and running an online business in general, what would I do differently if I could start over again?
First,I would have maintained a daily activity regiment, ensuring that I always logged in and did my daily tasks. I also would have set up a standing order right from day one, even though I know that
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more
Is there such a thing as helping your affiliates TOO much?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
12/14/2014 2:06 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
Yes and no.
As sponsors and mentors, we have an obligation to teach and coach those who join SFI as part of our team. Teach them how to navigate the SFI site. Teach them the importance of logging in daily and completing their to-do list. Teach them how to find sites to advertise on. In this sense, no, we are not helping them too much.
It only becomes a problem when you start doing things for them. That carries the strong risk of them becoming dependent upon you, wherein they will come to expect that they can just sit back and let you take care of everything for them.
If you really want to DO something for them, set up a free coop so that they can benefit from your advertising efforts. But even this comes with a word of caution. Make sure that you set specific parameters for your coop so that you don't get taken advantage of and there is no risk of them becoming dependent on the coop. An example could be they will get a free placement in your coop for the following month provided they bring in at least X number of new PSAs themselves in the current month.
Hope this helps.
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Yes and no.
As sponsors and mentors, we have an obligation to teach and coach those who join SFI as part of our team. Teach them how to navigate the SFI site. Teach them the importance of logging in daily and completing their to-do list. Teach them how to find sites to advertise on. In this sense, no, we are not helping them too much.
It only becomes a problem when you start doing things for them. That carries the strong risk of them becoming dependent upon you, wherein they
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What's the biggest turn-off that I should avoid talking about to prospects for SFI?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
12/14/2014 1:56 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
Honestly, and this is based solely upon my experience, I feel the biggest turn-off is to overly emphasize the fact that SFI is free to join and free forever, and then start talking about things like standing orders and such.
Most prospects will view this as highly contradictory and your "window of trust" have be shattered as they are sitting there thinking "He just told me SFI is free to join and comes without any obligation, but now he has just told me that to really be successful, I need to pay for a monthly standing order."
It is important to give your prospects enough information so that they are able to make the decision to join, but not so much that it leaves them overwhelmed and confused.
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Honestly, and this is based solely upon my experience, I feel the biggest turn-off is to overly emphasize the fact that SFI is free to join and free forever, and then start talking about things like standing orders and such.
Most prospects will view this as highly contradictory and your "window of trust" have be shattered as they are sitting there thinking "He just told me SFI is free to join and comes without any obligation, but now he has just told me that to really be
...
more
What are the best ways to track my ads to know which are providing the best results?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
12/14/2014 2:18 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
The best way by far is SFI's own keycode tracker. This great tool is available to every member who generates at least 1000 Versapoints in any given month.
It is important to set up some method of tracking your keycodes so you have an easy reference to know what code is being used where. This can be a notebook, a spreadsheet, a database... whatever works best for you.
There are also several URL shortening services that offer analytics. These includes sites like bit.ly, tinyurl, goo.gl, awe.sm, ls.gd, cli.gs and ow.ly
Hope this helps.
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The best way by far is SFI's own keycode tracker. This great tool is available to every member who generates at least 1000 Versapoints in any given month.
It is important to set up some method of tracking your keycodes so you have an easy reference to know what code is being used where. This can be a notebook, a spreadsheet, a database... whatever works best for you.
There are also several URL shortening services that offer analytics. These includes sites like bit.ly, tinyurl,
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Apart from the 125 TCredits pack, what other Standing Order product with 1500 VP would you suggest to replace IAHBE?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
7/18/2014 11:55 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
Honestly, I would stay with the 125 TCredit pack, or do a combination of the 100 TCredit pack along with either a share in the S-Builder coop or a PSA to Go 10 pack.
Combining the 100 TCredit pack with the S-Builder coop will net you a total of 1480 versapoints. The remaining 20 versapoints are easily accumulated through doing your daily tasks. The cost for this option is roughly $51 USD per month.
The 100 TCredit pack combined with the PSAs to Go 10 pack will net in at 1655 versapoints, automatically satisfying your EA requirement, at a cost of roughly $68 USD per month.
I have read many answers that suggest the Veriuni Advanced Liquid Nutrition as an option. While this might appear at first glance to be a good and viable option, if you live outside the United States, then your cost, including shipping is going to start at around $55 USD per month.
In short, when considering the costs of all considered options, the 125 TCredit pack is the best and most viable option at a monthly cost of $36.25 USD. Unless, of course, you were a member of IAHBE before it was discontinued. The you would have automatically been switched to receive the 105 TCredit pack at a monthly cost of $29.95 USD.
Hope this helps.
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Honestly, I would stay with the 125 TCredit pack, or do a combination of the 100 TCredit pack along with either a share in the S-Builder coop or a PSA to Go 10 pack.
Combining the 100 TCredit pack with the S-Builder coop will net you a total of 1480 versapoints. The remaining 20 versapoints are easily accumulated through doing your daily tasks. The cost for this option is roughly $51 USD per month.
The 100 TCredit pack combined with the PSAs to Go 10 pack will net in at 1655
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What is the most effective way to communicate with your team?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
12/14/2014 2:12 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
While it can be a little more time consuming, I have found it best to ask my team how they want to be communicated with. The reason why it is more time consuming is that you will have those who like the SFI mailer, others who want direct email contact, some who will want to connect via FB or some other social media platform, and there will be those who prefer VOIP communications using platforms like skype and viber.
By communicating with each member of your team via their desired method, you will stand a much greater chance of them engaging with you.
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While it can be a little more time consuming, I have found it best to ask my team how they want to be communicated with. The reason why it is more time consuming is that you will have those who like the SFI mailer, others who want direct email contact, some who will want to connect via FB or some other social media platform, and there will be those who prefer VOIP communications using platforms like skype and viber.
By communicating with each member of your team via their desired method,
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What are the best ways to recruit good, new affiliates?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
4/14/2013 9:20 am
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
This is an excellent question, but one that has no simple, straightforward answer.
There are numerous sponsoring methods that SFI provides us with at https://www.sfimg.com/Resources/Marketing/StandardSponsoringMethods. All of these methods are good and useless at the same time. Why would I say that they are useless? Because if you are not targeting your marketing efforts, then no matter how good or compelling your advertising is, you are wasting your time.
How good do you think your results would be if you place an ad on a site that caters to people looking to buy performance automobile parts? You might get maybe 1 in 10000 visitors to that site that would sign up out of simple curiosity, but they would not be quality sign ups given the fact that they were not specifically looking for a business opportunity.
The same also applies when doing any kind of offline marketing.
So the first key to recruiting good affiliates is by targeting your marketing efforts to sites or places that cater to people looking to start their own home-based business. But once you start getting those affiliates, what then?
Every affiliate has the potential to be a good affiliate. Read here at https://www.sfimg.com/Training/AwesomeSponsor for an excellent guide on what to do when you get affiliates signing up.
Of course, even after you have done everything to the best of your abilities, both in marketing to get new affiliates and in coaching once those affiliates sign up, it is important to keep SFI’s Rule of Success #19 in mind… Some will, some won’t. So what?! Someone’s waiting! Next!
I hope this helps.
To your success!
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This is an excellent question, but one that has no simple, straightforward answer.
There are numerous sponsoring methods that SFI provides us with at https://www.sfimg.com/Resources/Marketing/StandardSponsoringMethods. All of these methods are good and useless at the same time. Why would I say that they are useless? Because if you are not targeting your marketing efforts, then no matter how good or compelling your advertising is, you are wasting your time.
How good do you think
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Who is the better demographic to target in my ads? Retired persons...or homemakers?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
6/24/2014 4:30 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
This is an excellent question. To get the best results from your advertising, it is good practice to cater your advertising to specific groups or people... in your case, deciding between catering to home-makers or retirees.
Between these two, each has their advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I feel that it would be too limiting to cater only to one.
Both home-makers and retirees share the advantage of being "homebodies" and also share the potential disadvantage of not having a great deal of investment finances which they can use to invest in a business opportunity, which is why SFI is such a great opportunity for them in that it costs nothing to join and their is no obligation to buy anything.
The one aspect that sets these two groups apart is time. Retirees generally have more time to spare whereas home-makers would need to schedule their time.
My best advice that I can give on this is to make an advertising calendar. Each month, you would dedicate all your advertising efforts towards a specific demographic. Research organizations that cater to each demographic to see about being able to advertise with them or through them. Research websites for each demographic to see about advertising on such sites. If you enjoy writing, set up blogs that cater to each demographic. And so forth.
I hope this helps and all the best for your success.
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This is an excellent question. To get the best results from your advertising, it is good practice to cater your advertising to specific groups or people... in your case, deciding between catering to home-makers or retirees.
Between these two, each has their advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I feel that it would be too limiting to cater only to one.
Both home-makers and retirees share the advantage of being "homebodies" and also share the potential disadvantage
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How to advertise successfully on Facebook and other social media?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
6/24/2014 4:46 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
Thank you for your question.
Social media advertising has both the potential to be a little on the tricky side, but also the potential to reap some of the best results.
The reason why it can be tricky is due to perceived spam. You see, SFI is such a large global enterprise with countless numbers of active affiliates that if we were all to submit our links to Facebook, Twitter, etc., their anti-spam filters trigger only on the domain. Indeed, that is precisely what happened and is why we are blocked from advertising our gateway links on such sites.
There are, of course, legal, legitimate and ethical ways to get around these blockades. The most common, and, I feel, the best way is to establish your own blog. You need to ensure that you are providing unique, quality content on your blog. You could also cater it to a specific affiliate marketing or network marketing niche. You could then post on Facebook, Twitter and others about your new blog and then each time you post on your blog, let your social media friends know about it.
Hope this helps.
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Thank you for your question.
Social media advertising has both the potential to be a little on the tricky side, but also the potential to reap some of the best results.
The reason why it can be tricky is due to perceived spam. You see, SFI is such a large global enterprise with countless numbers of active affiliates that if we were all to submit our links to Facebook, Twitter, etc., their anti-spam filters trigger only on the domain. Indeed, that is precisely what happened and
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more
I am interested in utilizing webinars in my marketing and training my downline. How should I go about this?
Raymond Weber, Aff (British columbia, CA)
6/24/2014 5:22 pm
Affiliate since: 03/04/2013, Power Rank: 99999999
Webinars are an excellent platform for training, though not as common for recruiting. What makes webinars so powerful is the fact that they are personable, meaning that your attendees get to both see and hear you. They can see and hear your passion and desire to help them succeed. No more are you just a name that they read on their screen.
So, how do you go about hosting your own webinars? You would want to start by researching webinar hosting platforms. You will find that there are many to choose from, some free, but most will have some kind of fee, usually based on the number of attendees.
Once you have decided on a hosting platform, you will, of course, need the proper equipment. This can be as simple as just a computer with a webcam if you are hosting live webinars, which is likely to be the case when hosting for training your downline, but the options are slightly more broad when producing recorded webinars which you will use for marketing purposes. You can still just use a computer with a webcam, or you could go with a camcorder or more professional video recorder, along with video editing software and such, depending on how professional you want your published video to be.
If doing these from home, you will want to set up a room in your house to use as your recording studio, regardless of whether doing live or pre-recorded webinars. This room should be free of unnecessary distractions and you should have a sign for the door to indicate that you are recording so as to avoid interruptions, especially when recording for marketing purposes.
Hope this helps and wish you the best in your success.
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Webinars are an excellent platform for training, though not as common for recruiting. What makes webinars so powerful is the fact that they are personable, meaning that your attendees get to both see and hear you. They can see and hear your passion and desire to help them succeed. No more are you just a name that they read on their screen.
So, how do you go about hosting your own webinars? You would want to start by researching webinar hosting platforms. You will find that there are many
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4/6/2015 4:37 pm