If I could start over again with the knowledge I have now, I would do a lot of things differently. I guess part of being new is the learning process, and hopefully we can pass some of these ideas down to our new affiliates and help them progress faster.
First of all, I would wait on a lot of my "one-time" action points. It is so easy to earn EA status your first month with all the VP you can earn from these points. I always advise my new affiliates to stop earning those points when they reach EA for the first time. If you save them for the next month, it is so much easier to reach EA2 status.
Second, I would treat SFI as a business. Even if you only have half an hour a day to spend, you can make this work for you. I would spend my time more wisely, learning as much as I could and making sure to log in every day and earn my daily VP. I would make sure to read all of the new forum threads as well. There is so much information in the forum, and that's where I found most of my answers. The forum was far more helpful to me in the beginning than anyone in my upline.
I would seek out leaders from the forum and the a2a network. My sponsors did not help me much in the beginning. It would have been nice to find people who could help me and answer my questions when I was still learning the basics.
I would have joined the S-Builder Co-op in the beginning, and waited another month or two for my subscription to IAHBE. There is enough to learn on the SFI site to keep you busy for your first month. Because the S-Builder takes a few weeks to see results, I would have bought some affiliates from the TC store. This would give me the opportunity to learn how to use the genealogy mailers and give me an opportunity to start building my team right away.
I would invest in getting a custom domain. You can buy them in the TC store, but I won mine in a PriceBender auction. It makes a real big difference when you are advertising your link. Many people won't even check out a link to an affiliate site, because so many of them are junk. This gives you a big advantage when getting people to your site.
This brings me to my last point. I wish I had realized the power of PriceBender auctions when I first started. You can win so many different things to grow your business. Sometimes, people get a hundred CSAs for less than a dollar. Gift cards, IAHBE subscriptions, custom domains. And they go for pennies on the dollar! These are all things that will make your business grow. Granted, you have to watch the auctions and learn how to be smart, but it is a very powerful avenue to explore for expanding your business.
Hopefully, I can convey some of these ideas to my downline, and make it easier for them. :)
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If I could start over again with the knowledge I have now, I would do a lot of things differently. I guess part of being new is the learning process, and hopefully we can pass some of these ideas down to our new affiliates and help them progress faster.
First of all, I would wait on a lot of my "one-time" action points. It is so easy to earn EA status your first month with all the VP you can earn from these points. I always advise my new affiliates to stop earning those points
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