Team Online Parties

Keeping your team motivated can be a difficult task sometimes, but
oh-so-very important. Looking for a new and unique way to give your
team that boost it needs? Read on ...

Instead of a traditional online party or a team meeting, how about
combining the two? Hold a Team Online Party. By doing this you'll
accomplish quite a few things:

• First and foremost, you'll motivate your team with a fun and
  unique atmosphere.


• Teach your team more about your products and review important
  information such as company policies, procedures etc.


• Teach members recruiting and sales techniques.


• Help your team obtain business building supplies.

The first thing you'll want to do is choose an online party room. We
highly recommends MomChats.com.

Next you'll want to choose a couple of dates and times that you have
available and contact your team members to vote on a day and time
that works for them. You'll want to try to satisfy as many members
as possible, but remember that there's a good chance that you won't
satisfy everyone.

Once you've picked a date, chosen your room, booked your party and
invited your team members, you'll want to start planning your party
games.

Again, you can choose traditional online party games with a twist.
If your policies and procedures are not listed online, you might
want to request your team members to "bring" them along to the
party. Here are a couple game ideas to get you started:

Trivia
- One of your games could be as simple as simply asking questions
directly from your manual about company policies, procedures etc and
have your members answer them. The team member who answers the most
correctly wins.

Scavenger Hunt
- Another idea would be to help your team become more familiar with
your catalogs or your company websites by holding a scavenger hunt
for products. Have them tell you what page such and such is located
or how much a certain product costs. Again, the member with the most
correct wins.

For the prizes, you'll want to take this opportunity to let them win
business building items such as information products (Ex. ebooks),
business cards and other items needed for their business such as
samples. You can get very nice looking and very inexpensive business
cards from Vista Print as well as many other items such as
promotional magnets, calendars and stationary. Buy samples by the
bulk from your company and break them down into smaller quantities
for prizes. Ebooks with information about home businesses make a
wonderful and very inexpensive prize that will continue to give back
to you. Remember, the more successful your team members are, the
more successful you are too.

You'll also want to take this time to congratulate team members for
any accomplishments. Don't forget to congratulate for even the
smallest accomplishments. This is a perfect time for a little slap
on the back and celebrate.

Just remember to be creative. The more creative you are, the more
fun it will be. The more fun you make it, the more successful it
will be. You'll want to put in as much to planning this as you would
a traditional online party.

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Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank, owners of DirectSalesHelpers.com strive
to help women succeed in direct sales. For additional help with your
next team online party such as more game and prize ideas, visit
http://www.directsaleshelpers.com/team-online-party.html

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The Customer is Sometimes Rude

Business is not all fun and games. If you are running your own business, you absolutely must have a thick skin. Being easily hurt or upset isn't going to get you anywhere.

Imagine for a moment you holding a home party. As the guests are looking at catalogs, one says "Look at this lamp, it's so UGLY!". You note which one they are looking at, and realize you have one just like it in your own home.

You have two options here. Either you get rude right back at her, or you offer to help her find something more her taste. While the second option is obviously the better way to go, sometimes we tend to react on instincts first.

The same is true while networking and being active in business communities online. While these places shouldn't be the main source of customers, know you WILL sell to other business owners. If you react rude to another WAHM, you are going to lose sales pretty fast. Not only are you going to lose out on a possible sale from the person you offended, but also others reading it too.

Customers and business owners are going to have opinions. No matter if it's on your website, your products, or your method of marketing. Some comments may be constructive critisism, others may be down right rude. Regardless, fighting back is NEVER going to look good on your part.

Granted there are always going to be those who will never buy, but that still doesn't mean you should be rude back to them. Word travels regardless of who they are, and your business is going to be hurt. Always keep in mind that bad news travels at least twice as fast as good news.

Bottom line - the next time you feel someone is being rude, grit your teeth and smile. Getting down to their level never helps. Besides, don't forget, you never know who's watching. You're a business owner and your reputation is on the line.

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Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank, owners of DirectSalesHelpers.com strive
to help women succeed in direct sales. For additional help with your direct sales business, visit http://www.directsaleshelpers.com.

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Find Your Marketing Strength - Part 2

In part one we talked about why focus in marketing is so important. This part goes into more detail about various forms of marketing, and why it's so important they be focused on.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Possible one form of marketing that requires the most focus. Just throwing in a few keywords or doing link exchanges without a purposes will get you nowhere in the search engines. SEO must be learned, practiced, and studied. A site is not optimized, a page is. So you need to work on optimizing one page at a time.

Is it worth the time? Absolutely! If this is something which interests you, and you enjoy writing content. If not, you might do better with another form of marketing.

2. Blogs
You may have been told blogs are a great way to pull in traffic. This is true. But it's another form of marketing which requires dedication. Setting up a blog and putting up a few posts a year isn't going to help much. If you use blogging as a marketing tool, be ready to post to your blog at LEAST once a week (more if you want the blog to really help your business).

Blogs make great "search engine food" because they are pure content and updated on a regular basis. This form of marketing works well if you enjoy SEO as well, since they can be easily focused on together. Just like SEO though, if you don't enjoy writing content this isn't for you.

3. Article Marketing
If for some reason a blog is out of the question, article marketing may be a form of marketing for you. Similar to blogging, you need to be able to write. Not quite as much as blogging, but still several articles a month are required for this form of marketing to work.

Basically what you'll do is write articles related to your business. Pick out a few of the top article directories on the net and submit your article. If done on a regular basis, you will soon have a steady flow of traffic to your site. This form works especially well for those attempting to gain subscribers to a newsletter.

4. Forum Marketing
A newer concept in online marketing, but still one which can have a huge impact on your business. In part one we mentioned one of the "basics" of business was some involvement in communities (meaning you are a member of 2 or 3 message boards or groups, and offer advice at least once a week). Forum Marketing (or "network marketing") takes that a step further.

Instead of just stopping in occasionally, this is one of the only tasks you do. You aren't just a member of a few communities, but rather 10 or more. For those who have been told "don't spend all your time at groups and boards", well you will love that we've just given you permission to do just that. If of course you love to help people, share ideas, and spend all your day chatting. Yes this really IS a form of marketing!

The idea behind this is your are making a name for yourself at any given community. You aren't spamming them, but rather becoming a respected member. Although for it to be absolutely beneficial, you must be involved with a community that's also your target market. If you have trouble finding a community, start one. Either a message board or yahoo group works just fine. Actively chatting with your target market is a fantastic form of marketing!

5. Paid Advertising
While some may shy away from this form of marketing just because of the cost, others have built an entire business with nothing but paid ads. Those who enjoy math will flock to this form, since it requires figuring out your return on investment (ROI). The goal is to spend less than you make.......and use money to make money.

It too requires focus, despite what some may think. The rewards can be huge if you unlock this form of marketing though. Testing is required to see which ads pull in the most money for you. You also need to search for various types of paid advertising which will earn you the most ROI.

There are many, many more forms of marketing online and offline as well. We've only just scratched the surface! As we've mentioned in both parts of these articles, focus is required for ANY form of marketing.

However, it is acceptable to focus on more than one IF they are enjoyable and successful for you. As long as you are keeping a focus on what works, your business will succeed.

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Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank, owners of DirectSalesHelpers.com strive
to help women succeed in direct sales. For additional help with your direct sales business, visit http://www.directsaleshelpers.com.

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