How do you find your leads?

[Thomas Trotts]

Please give your opinion on the best method for finding good SFI Leads and Affiliates.

Also, I'm really interested in opinions on getting solid, responsive affiliates for $50 or less a month.

Thanks for all your thoughts and opinions...

Have an Incredible Day!

Thomas Trotts
EA with PTL ambition!

[John M]

I'm sure lots of people use a combination of these, but you can only pick one. :notso:

[Thomas Trotts]

moderator..can we change the option for the poll to accept more than one answer?

I hope this will address the previous post.

Thank You

Thomas

[Elmarc]

Polls don't allow changing to or from multiple choices once started. We also can't remove questions, but we can add some.

Elmarc

[Thomas Trotts]

just a heads up for everyone: DO NOT USE Gauranteed Sign-ups!

They are a violation of the SFI Rules and it is my understanding that use of these services can cost you your SFI Member status.


Have An Outstanding Day!

Thomas

[omeomi]

re: guaranteed signups

Where did you read they are against SFI policy?

Guaranteed sign-ups are simply people sent to your site who do sign-up and confirm as affiliates.

I don't use them...but don't believe the ethical ones violate any SFI rules.

[Thomas Trotts]

My previous post was a mistake...sorry

Guaranteed sign-ups are NOT againts the rules, they are regarded as "unapproved co-ops" by SFI.

regards, and sorry for the mistake...

Thomas

[Ray Richardson]

There seems to be some confusion about the permissability about using Guaranteed Sign ups sources. That is very understandable. It would all depend on how theese leeds were registered with SFI.

If the person went to a page that was put in place by the service and registered for SFI on their own and then confirmed on their own, this would most likely be permitted by SFI.

If this service is placing pages out there and filling out a form where the sign up service in turn inputs their information, this would definitely not be permitted by SFI.

Therefore, I do not see how one of these services could exist and register the affiliates properly unless it is being run by or affiliated with a member of SFI if they are to track it properly. They would probably have to even be a team leader or above to do it. If they are registering prospects, they would be able to do it with a tracking image on the registration page without being affiliates themselves

Use these services at your own risk.

Ray

[Thomas Trotts]

Thank you Ray for clearing that up.

Sorry for any confusion...

Thomas

[Fire2004]

Simple really: Follow this and you will get leads!

Step One: Signup for a domain and point it to any gateway you want to promote.

Step Two: GO to article directories and find articles on what you are promoting. Take the main points of a few and mix the points up write them in your own words. After you finish writing one article, add a signature to the end of the article with a link to the domain your signed up earlier.

Next go to isnare.com and publish your articles.

That's it folks.... write, submit and write and submit.

Stone Evans for one writes a lots of articles and you can find his articles everywhere online. People read them and signup under him.

Hope that helps !!

This is One of the best ways to promote out there....

You can even get people to ghost write for you for USD $5 an article.

Some internet marketers have several hundred articles written for them. They then publish these out and wallah.... they have promoted one website and go onto the next new website of their choosing.

Cool eh?

[Thomas Trotts]

This is exactly what I'm doing now..and yes it works! You can also submit to ArticleMarketer.com. Both iSnare and ArticleMarketer are great places! Additionally, you can get some really great (original) articles written at JustArticles.com

I submitted an article to ArticleMarketer on Friday, I'm already getting hits!

TIP: after you submit your article, wait a couple days. Then do a search on the search engines for your article title in quotes: example: "Why SFI is the greatest biz in the World"

You will start seeing the number of "results returned" grow... then do the search again after a week goes by..you will be amazed at the number of links your domain gets. It's amazing really

It's the same system I teach my affiliates. It's easily duplicable, highly effective, and very, very, very..did I mention very inexpensive!

Have fun!

Thomas

[Thomas Trotts]

Moderator, sorry for another edit request..but this is just to obvious to leave out.

Can we change the "Newsletter/Affiliate Training ONLY" option, to an "I use Articles" option?

Regards,

Thomas

[Robert Thompson]

Originally Posted by Fire2004

Simple really: Follow this and you will get leads!

Step One: Signup for a domain and point it to any gateway you want to promote.

Step Two: GO to article directories and find articles on what you are promoting. Take the main points of a few and mix the points up write them in your own words. After you finish writing one article, add a signature to the end of the article with a link to the domain your signed up earlier.

Next go to isnare.com and publish your articles.

That's it folks.... write, submit and write and submit.

Stone Evans for one writes a lots of articles and you can find his articles everywhere online. People read them and signup under him.

Hope that helps !!

This is One of the best ways to promote out there....

You can even get people to ghost write for you for USD $5 an article.

Some internet marketers have several hundred articles written for them. They then publish these out and wallah.... they have promoted one website and go onto the next new website of their choosing.

Cool eh?

Writing articles is a terrific way to learn about a subject, share your knowledge, and build traffic to your gateways, but be careful!!

It is not a good idea to copy the ideas of other authors, put it in your own words, and regurgitate the results as your own work! This practice borders on plagurism, and is dishonest.

A much better approach is to search for a subject where someone is asking a question, and you know the answer. Then, write about that subject. That way, the ideas expressed are your own, and not someone elses.

If you must include someone else's thoughts and ideas in your article, give them the proper credit in the way of a quote or a footnote. This will greatly increase your credibility with your readers, and other authors.

Bob :joe: Schtill Schmokin!!

[Fire2004]

Plagerism is whole sale copying.

If you read copyright law, it protects the expression and not the ideas..


But that said I understand where you are coming from....



Joel

[winningratings]

Writing articles is a good idea - but its actually best to do it via a blog linked to your own site - not a free site or anything like that

The trick is actually very simple

1) You get signed up with MyYahoo and list the RSS Feed of your Blog on MyYahoo
2) On your blog you put only a brief synopsis of your article - not the full text, just a line or two
3) On your blog you put a link in the article back to your site
4) On your site you leave the full text of the article
5) You ping the blog to lots of blog search engines

This procedure is an excellent way to force the search engines to list your article and of course its always there - you are not at the mercy of Articles where the site they are posted on can change them at will, without your permission - although technically you gave your permission when you submitten your article - its in the small print

WARNING!!
Under no circumstances should you take someone elses article and just swap the paragraph around - this is most definately copywright theft!!

However there is a fine line here
You can read several articles and make notes from them - just like you did in college!! - and then restate these notes IN YOUR OWN WORDS, but without using the same text as the person/ people that wrote the original articles

If any part of a sentence is repeated exactly then it MUST be in "speech marks".

This is actually a good trick for writing your own Ebooks
Take a look at all the FREE ebooks/ articles there are out there
Make notes from several and then restate the ideas in your own words into your own Ebook and bingo you have your own product to sell online

The best way when writing articles is make them short and punchy
Try and concentrate on what is called "niche info marketing"
So for example suppose you wrote an article on tracking your advertising
you could talk generally about the importance of tracking but then you can slip in that as an EA SFI give you tracking of your advertising free by means of the 3 digit code after your membership number
You see how it is "niched" to just one small part of the SFI program
You've still got plenty of other things to talk about in other articles geered to SFI

[winningratings]

The best way to find leads is to generate them yourself
Lead Capture Pages - which invite someone to send you their name/email for further information is a good approach - and of course such leads cost you nothing

If you are going to buy leads you need to be very careful where you get the leads from
And bear in mind to that most people will be disappointed at the response from leads given the price they have paid

My approach is I have several Lead Capture Pages which provide me with direct leads
I also purchase leads from sources I have tested and which have given good results - but most lead companies are BOGUS!!

I like to think of advertising as like a machine - you have to plug lots of different bits into it to make it work
So I use Traffic Exchanges, Safelists, Classified Ads Sites, FFA Sites (much less frequently)
As I run several of my own Safelists this gives me the change to send several thousand "contact solo" email every day
And as I run my own Traffic Exchange and banner rotators I can get the SFI banners up all over the place e.g. on Safelists members area, front pages, login pages etc

For the novice - Traffic Exchanges and Safelists are the most effective FREE advertising methods - plus Lead Capture and developing your list so you have several thousand people to send your emails to every week, however it takes quite a long time to develop a list as big as this

[Tomoe Michieru]

So, basically, I could post an SFI-related article, in say, my MySpace blog as one example of finding potential leads?

[winningratings]

Yes you could do it that way
But I wouldnt expect a huge response from blog articles on their own
Just remember to ping the blog to the blog search engines
Also remember search engines tend to pick up the headline/title of your blog article as the most important
So thats why I also say "niche" the content to some small aspect of SFI and put that in the title/headline
Be very careful if you are mixing the blog with all sorts of other stuff unconnected to business opportunities etc i.e. if the blog was just about some hobby unconnected with SFI or business online - because search engines will look at the title and description of the blog as well as the article

I really would recommend you get your own site - you can get hosting now from $3 or $4 a month which is peanuts
You are going to really struggle with SFI without your own site

If you are keen on using blogs - this is the way they work for me:

1) Find out the URL for the RSS Feed on the blog (it will be something .XML- and list it in Your MyYahoo page as additional content
2) Put just a summary of the article on the blog but with a link to the URL on your site where the full article is. Its best to do this in a "resources box" at the end of the blog article e.g. This article by Joe Blogs, Internet Entrepreneur, www.yoursite.com/article_1.html or something
3) Then put the full article on your site

I would recommend you start a new blog and save it just for SFI content
If you became a member even if only for 1 month with the IAHBE - there is a stack load of FREE content on there - you can even download all the last several months content for FREE
You could then use some of that stuff on your blog as the basis for your articles - obviosly dont copy just restate it in your own words into short puncy articles - and put direct links to all kinds of SFI pages down the LF or RH column of the blog


I would then suggest you start promoting your blog with some of the blog specific traffic exchanges. Some of them have a section where you can ping your blog in one go to loads of blog search engines

[clypol]

This might sound stupid but What's a Gateway?

[tstephen]

a gateway is the doorways (web pages) that SFI have available to us to use for promotion.

[Shiela]

:dazed:
Gee! I don't know, every one here seem so knowledgeable.I find it hard to follow.

How do you point a website to a gateway? I thought that you would link a gateway to your website, and or put them on a traffic exchange for example.

It also seems that it could be easy to perhaps break the the rules with out
realizing it as well.

shiela.

[Elmarc]

Originally Posted by Shiela

:dazed:
Gee! I don't know, every one here seem so knowledgeable.I find it hard to follow.

We didn't start out knowing very much, but got to where we are one step at a time. You will get there, too.

How do you point a website to a gateway? I thought that you would link a gateway to your website, and or put them on a traffic exchange for example.

Ordinarily, we speak of links going from where we are to where we go next. So we say that a gateway is linked from a web site. Find the gateway of interest in the list of your gateways in the SFI Affiliate Resource Center and copy it, then put it in an anchor tag (link) on the web site of interest, which must be one that you own or are authorized to change.

Here's web site building advice I wrote elsewhere. Similarly, read this post for help in using banners.

It also seems that it could be easy to perhaps break the the rules with out
realizing it as well.

shiela.

It's not all that hard. The rules can be summarized like this:

1) Do not advertise untruthfully
2) Do advertise in a professional manner
3) Do not link to vulgar or indiscrete websites
4) Do promote Strong Future International
5) Do not make statements that insinuate a guarantee of income
6) Do use only SFI issued or approved ads (headlines are exempt)

Elmarc

[Prabhakaran]

I have started SFI three years back but didn't anything, because I do not
have money or acquitance. Who can help me ?

[Elmarc]

Prabhakaran,

Welcome to our DBoard!

This is a particularly great time to begin your success with SFI. We have more products that are available internationally than ever before.

Do not think that you must have aquaintances or money to succeed! Both can help, but neither is necessary.

We have the ability to sell to anyone, anywhere in the world through the internet. The boundaries of neighborhoods, cities and countries do not matter.

To sell on the internet, read through the many posts on the DBoard about advertising by using free methods.

Get to know the NiceOffers.com system and see how to get local merchants to sign up. Just the places you already shop are a good start. You have the advantage with them over the rest of us, because those merchants already know you!

To find the posts that describe what you need, use the search function of the DBoard.

Elmarc

[Mike VanWyk]

I too originally got involved over two years ago, and was simply content with staying EA qualified for the IAHBE membership. I have always found the information usefull. Then a funny thing happened... Without much effort (if any...) on my part... I started getting checks in the mail. I already made as much in the first two months of this year as I did all of last year. All of this has been through my upline sponsoring others into SFI. So I decided to look a little closer and noticed that out of 82 people that have come into my downline in recent months... 74 of them have been through the Eagle Co-op. This also means that there are more earnings available to me if only I got with the program and gave even a little effort. Needless to say this former "stagnant" EA now has the fire and desire to spread the word about this company. I purchased 2 units of Eagle C0-op today myself! PTL... Here I come!!!

Thank you SFI... Loving the new compensation plan.

Mike VanWyk

[John Wilson]

Why not setup the entire Blog on your website so you have entire control?

WordPress is a popular, open-source blog program.

download it at: http://wordpress.org/download/

The latest version (as of 4-1-06) is 2.0.2

If you have CPanel hosting, check if the have it in the autoinstall section or if they have Fantastico, see if Fantastico has autoinstall of WordPress.

I have several hosting services, but have noticed that the CPanel sites I have only have Version 1.5. You can upgrade after an older version is installed.

ThirdSphere had an autoinstall of 2.0.2.

The autoistall only requires that you input a haf-dozen pieces of info and you are up and running.

There is lots of support to help you get a more unique look for you blog.

A blog seems to be getting the Search Engines attention, these days.

John Wilson

[robinc1117]

Originally Posted by winningratings

Writing articles is a good idea - but its actually best to do it via a blog linked to your own site - not a free site or anything like that

Nice post! Also, there are some very good places to put articles in for free. I did one on business cards not long ago and it is now running on a couple of different business blogs now. :koolaid:

=- Robin

[Doven]

Can anyone tell me if the "FREE" gateway is still considered to be the most-effective? I know there is mention of this on the regular "view gateway" page, but was wondering how recent the stats were.

Also, are we allowed to advertise the Eagle Co-op in emails to prospects and/or new affiliates without linking to any SFI pages, just to explain how it works?

Thanks.

Corb

[Elmarc]

Originally Posted by Doven

*snip*
are we allowed to advertise the Eagle Co-op in emails to prospects and/or new affiliates without linking to any SFI pages, just to explain how it works?

Thanks.

Corb

Yes!

Elmarc

[Tau'ri]

It seems that there should be one more category to this poll. That would be a category for Traffic Exchanges. I have received several leads via this medium as well as the free classified ads sites.

Jeff Hansen - EA
:sword: CHARGE :sword:

[bralland]

Originally Posted by Tau'ri

It seems that there should be one more category to this poll. That would be a category for Traffic Exchanges. I have received several leads via this medium as well as the free classified ads sites.

Jeff Hansen - EA
:sword: CHARGE :sword:

OK - Added Traffic Exchanges with your vote for it.

[leslie30]

I was wondering if I could be a moderator? thank-you
Leslie

[Tau'ri]

Originally Posted by bralland

OK - Added Traffic Exchanges with your vote for it.

Thank you bralland for adding that. :Super: I really didn't expect that to be added. :greenie: :Pinkie: :greenie:
I was just trying to state that traffic exchanges are one more source for obtaining new affiliates.

Jeff Hansen (TeamJH) - EA (BTL - 12/18/2006)
:sword: CHARGE :sword:

[sandwalker]

I noticed 8 responses in the PPC lead source. I'm curious as to how well those eight are doing in terms of recruiting people. Google PPC is powerful and can begin to direct thousands of visitors to your gateway page or other info page. Is anyone currently contributing to this forum recruiting with PPC?
If so, how are you doing it? and How is it working for you?
Thanks,

Bruce :repuke:

[Toastie]

Hi,

I tried google adwords and thought it was poor value for money.

I have also tried many ppc search engines with similar results. I have found that (for me) the best results come from text ads and banners. I am no heavy hitter, money is a constraint, but i invest around $40 a month and this normally generates around 2 EA's a month. Which i feel is very good.

Thanks
Richard

[shl]

Originally Posted by Toastie

Hi,

I tried google adwords and thought it was poor value for money.

I have also tried many ppc search engines with similar results. I have found that (for me) the best results come from text ads and banners. I am no heavy hitter, money is a constraint, but i invest around $40 a month and this normally generates around 2 EA's a month. Which i feel is very good.

Thanks
Richard

What did you mean by text ads? adwords is also a type text ads, ppc is text ad. So in which field you spent $40 a month? classified ad, ezine solo ad, mail marketing or what?

[timmyster]

I started my Adwords ad 2 days ago and finally got my first click yesterday and they signed up. How cool is that! :laugh:

[Tau'ri]

Originally Posted by shl

What did you mean by text ads? Adwords is a type text ads. PPC is text ad. So in which field did you spend $40 a month? Classified ads, ezine solo ads, mail marketing, or what?

It is very easy for an advertising budget to mount up to $40 and more a month. It could be that Richard is paying for premium results at the places that are "free" when an individual signs up on that site.

As Oddball(Donald Sutherland) states in the movie 'Kelly's Heroes', "Always with the negative waves, stop with the negative waves."

Jeff Hansen (TeamJH) - EA - TL
:sword: CHARGE :sword:

[jehugraphics]

I have a web site of my own, but I still seem so green at this blogg thing. I want to promote SFI strong. I understand links, but don't know how to make a blogg or where. Is their a cost to it etc. Any help in this area will be grat
Thanks Jehu

[Gery Carson]

Originally Posted by jehugraphics

I have a web site of my own, but I still seem so green at this blogg thing. I want to promote SFI strong. I understand links, but don't know how to make a blogg or where. Is their a cost to it etc. Any help in this area will be grat
Thanks Jehu

Here's a cool new blogging platform recently recommended by one of my favorite marketing gurus, Seth Godin. And, yes, it's FREE!

http://www.terapad.com/

[jehugraphics]

Thanks Gery, signed up on blog site and submitted to 2 different article sites. Got 2 affiliates. Not sure if they came from the blogs.
How about saflist companys. Is this also a good way to advertise?
Thanks Tony :greenie:

[jehugraphics]

Thanks for the info Gery
Signed up on blog site and submitted article.
Got two affiliates, not sure if they came from the blogs. But I'm glad they came.
What about safelist companys? Are they good advertising?
Thanks Tony

[Elmarc]

jehugraphics,

Safelist companies are a mixed bag. There are good ones out there that deliver great results. There are many more that deliver weak to adequate results. There are too many (one would be too many) that don't deliver at all.

Search for posts here about safelists and ask your upline about their experiences and do any further reseach you can before putting any money into a safelist.

Often, but with no certainty, the price and results go together.

Elmarc

[jayber]

Thanks Gery for the info.
I signed up for the blog site, it looks awesome with all the tools that it has. I will have to get back to it later to develop it. 2007 does look like an awesome year for SFI and it’s affiliates. I’m looking forward to it. :C)
Thanks again,
James

[sade110]

So far my best method is http://www.oppseekingleads.biz
This site has phone, survey and autoresponder leads.
Also, this site http://www.leadoverage.com
has leads for 9.95 for 100 qualified leads.

Both of these site will help a lot. Mary

[ removed personal affiliation from URL addresses per SFI DBoard Policy - moderator ]

[workfromhome13]

Without much effort (if any...) on my part... I started getting checks in the mail. I already made as much in the first two months of this year as I did all of last year. All of this has been through my upline sponsoring others into SFI. So I decided to look a little closer and noticed that out of 82 people that have come into my downline in recent months... 74 of them have been through the Eagle Co-op.
Thank you SFI... Loving the new compensation plan.
Mike VanWyk[/quote]

What is Eagle Co-op and how can I get into it? (If it's still available!)

[Elmarc]

Eagle Co-op has been replaced with the EyeEarn co-op, which now uses the same keycode (1100).

Elmarc

[thecashaccount]

Originally Posted by Gery Carson

Here's a cool new blogging platform recently recommended by one of my favorite marketing gurus, Seth Godin. And, yes, it's FREE!

http://www.terapad.com/

Gery, does this blog host allow affiliate links and advertising? Wordpress doesn't. They (Wordpress) closed down all my blogs including my SFI team support blogs which had, obviously, no affiliate links. I've been browsing the site you recommend here, and I can see they appear "marketer" friendly. Well, I certainly hope there are no surprises.

[sue]

Hi, only joined for the past week, read everything, doing everything and in return getting a big fat zero. Ads online doing that, unable to do a great deal off line as the scripts are not in French, and as I live in France that's a little difficult, but I knew that.
So anyone got any tips?

[cj0911]

I'll put my tips in list form for you!

1) Don't give up!

2) Make a list of everyone you know (who read English if must be). Then
offer the business and/or products to them.

3) Have you added a signature to your outgoing emails? This works well!

4) You do not have to concentrate on France, widen your search!

5) There are sites online where you can make a free website if you cannot
afford to pay for a .com, .net, etc... Create a free site and adveritise it!
Post a link to your SFI Gateway Page(s) on your free website!

There are many different ways of advertising this business to a broad spectrum of potential affiliates. Be creative, and you will find your niche!
Once you find what works, stick with it and watch your income grow!

Here's to Success,
Chris