Those of us marketing our home based businesses online often build up accounts at several social networking sites, traffic exchanges, article directories, and other sites commonly used to network with potential business leads.

It is quite easy to get distracted and and start wandering around in cyberspace.  Your time gets swallowed up without realizing it.  You also end up feeling fatigued and unfocused.

Social Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are notorious for taking up hours of time.

It is critical that you make a list of your daily marketing activities.

• List the site,
• Exactly what you will do on the site,
• How much time you will spend there,
• What time of the day or evening you will do it.

You have to stick to your list and not get distracted.

Once you are finished with your online marketing  activities, close your browser windows and walk away from the computer.

You may think you can surf the internet and find valuable content for your business.

Your time would be better spent contacting your customers, following up on your leads, and touching base with your team to brainstorm.

If you like to surf the net, schedule it into your activities and save it for after you have done more important things.

Last thing…always give yourself a day off!

You need one day a week to unplug from your business activities, turn off the computer and enjoy your family!

To be effective at building your Network Marketing business online, you have to keep yourself from getting lost in a virtual world.

Believe In Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

If you are writing as part of your online marketing strategy, you are eventually going to venture into ezinearticles.com territory.

The articles on Ezine Articles are often picked up by Google, provided the keywords and content are up to snuff, and appear on page one of searches.

You must be offering quality content to your MLM business colleagues.  Your article must not be one big pitch and you are not allowed to include links to your site in the body of the article.

Every article has an “author’s resource box” where you write a short blurb about yourself.  You should focus on how you can solve your reader’s problems AND you are allowed to put a link to your site there.

Once you submit your article, the editors will review it and send you a list of “problems” you will need to correct before your article can be published.

Once published, you can shout to the world about your accomplishment.

Digg, Tweet, & Stumble it, and by all means, announce it in your blog.

So here is my chance to Toot my own horn!

I recently had my first article published in Ezine Articles titled, “Beware!  The Dangers of Facebook!”

I invite you to visit my article and leave a comment there.

Don’t let time get away from you.  If you are writing for your blog, you most certainly have the skills for writing an ezine article.

At Mentoring For Free, we have an entire series on writing for ezinearticles by our resident expert, Richard Dennis.  It’s worth checking out…just ask and it’s yours.

Happy Writing!

Believe In Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

As you start reading the beginning of this post, you find yourself wondering… “What on earth is a Central Hub and Why should I care?”

If you are a professional Network Marketer, and are using the internet to promote your business, you need to know what a Central Hub is and how it can benefit your business.

Allow yourself to imagine the bustling scene of your family kitchen.  Most women would agree that their kitchen is the central hub of their homes.

This is where the family meals are prepared, children may be doing their homework at the table, you may be working on your home business there.  The kitchen is where all of the activities of your household and family’s lives come together to find cohesion and harmony.

In Network Marketing, we often start several marketing strategies with the goal in mind to attract potential prospects into our businesses.  But if we do not have a central hub, our marketing energies are not focused.

Secret # 1 

A Central Hub serves as the focal point of your marketing strategies.  It’s a home base so to speak.

All of your marketing strategies should point to your Central Hub.  If your other marketing strategies are ways to become introduced to people, then your Central Hub is a way to invite them in to get to know you better.

Secret # 2

If the term Central Hub sounds intimidating, don’t let it. 

Your Central Hub is generally a website, quite often a blog.  That’s easy enough isn’t it?

It’s important to remember that you should never use your company’s website or splash pages as your Central Hub.

Remember you’re inviting your new friends over to get to know YOU better, not throw your company or products at them.

Secret # 3

In using a blog, you will want to focus on content that adds value to your audience, or new friends.

Charles Heflin teaches that your content should entertain, educate and/or enlighten.

We should always be adding value to the network marketing community, especially to your niche.  This value needs to be interesting to your audience…so interesting that they will want to share your content with other people.

Secret # 4

Your Central Hub, or your blog, like in my case, needs a clean, crisp appearance. 

Avoid cluttering your sidebar with a lot of advertising.  The small amount of income you may make won’t compensate for detracting your visitor’s attention away from your content. 

It also makes it appear that you are desperate to make money.  So perhaps your primary business is not all that lucrative after all.  (Not a good impression.)

Your sidebar IS the place to offer a free ebook, newsletter, or other training information.  Do not be tempted to spam your audience with your opportunity.  You are still in the process of building your relationships.

Secret # 5

Once you have written your blog post, you will want to submit it to some social news websites like,

1. StumbleUpon
2. LinkInn
3. Digg
4. Reddit
5. HubSpot

Make sure you are visiting other’s sites and commenting and voting on their posts as well.

This gets you backlinks to your site and shows the news websites that you are not just submitting your own work. 

Get your wheels turning and generate your energies on making your central hub the focal point of your online marketing strategies. 

Wishing You the success of a Lifetime!
Karen Miller
k.j.miller.777@gmail.com

If you are writing as part of your online marketing campaign, creating a Squidoo lens is a must.

Following is a starter guide for an absolute newbie to Squidoo.

Quick FAQs

What is Squidoo?

• Squidoo is an online site that lets you create a one page website “article” called a Lens.

What is so special about a lens?

• A lens is a one page online article created for any topic you choose.
• A lens is made up of a variety of pre-formatted modules, tagwords, and other features that you, the Lensmaster, choose to include in your lens based on your topic and the content you want to have.
• Using a variety of modules helps keep the lens interesting and easy to read.

“LensMaster”? Are you kidding?

• The Squidoo Staff have created a fun, tongue-in-cheek, site with lots of goofy Squid- themed vocabulary. ENJOY!
• A LensMaster is the Author of the lens, or online article.

How important is the Profile Page?

• Every Lensmaster gets a Profile Page where you can post your photo, bio, websites (blog, Facebook, etc), your favorite lenses, and a list of all of your lenses.
• This can be a great resource for potential leads to learn about what you have to offer them and for continuing to brand yourself.

What makes a Squidoo Lens a useful advertising tool?

• A Squidoo Lens is as useful as you make it.
• Keep your content relevant, useful to your readers, fresh, and written with carefully chosen keywords.
• Avoid writing spam, junk pages, or overly promotional lenses…be original!
• Your lens(es) can brand you as a trustworthy expert.
• The best part is that Google loves Squidoo lenses.

I love creating Squidoo lenses…they’re fun and

encourage creativity.

Give it a try…sign up and they walk you right  through setting up your lens.  Squidoo.com

Wishing You the Success of a Lifetime!
Your Friend and Mentor,
Karen
karen@mlmnetworkingwomen
skype ID: karen.j.miller