Automated Signups- Illusion and Reality

The buzzword in online Network Marketing right now is "Automated signups". To old fashioned Network Marketers that toil, sweat and bleed to drag new distributors into their businesses they either think automated signups are an illusion, or, once introduced to the concept, they can't sleep until they figure out how to do it.

So, are automated signups a crock, or the real deal? Well, yes, both. Automated signups are absolutely possible in online Network Marketing, but most of the hype you see about them is simply misrepresentation. For example, I know of several marketers in free programs, or $2 trial signups for example, that have plenty of automated signups. And it sounds great on a web-site:

"Through my super duper ultra secret methods I recruited 3,200 people in less than a year!"Sounds great right? But here's the question: how much does the "guru" with 3,200 free (or real cheap) signups make? Probably very close to nothing. They usually have a "Wizard of Oz" business- looks great but has no substance. They hope that a few of those cheap signups will actually up-grade to a monthly autoship of product, but very few do, the prospects were just lottery players joining free programs hoping to strike it rich without doing anything.

Or have you seen any ads like this one: "I'LL BUILD YOUR DOWNLINE FOR YOU!" These ads are usually posted by somebody that has figured out the key to automated signups. The problem is they haven't figured out how to build a real, solid, duplicating business. No good downline has ever been built by one super marketer building the whole thing by themselves. It's a house of cards business. Successful online Network Marketing businesses MUST have the following elements:

1. Products that people want, and will pay for with or without an opportunity attached.

2. Great prospecting systems.

3. Duplication. Everybody in the business can do what you do, and teach the simple methods to their recruits.

Network Marketing is about building a large organization of independent associates. Not a large organization of lazy day dreamers.

So how do you get automated signups? There's two ways. The hypy, promise the world, beg them into your business strategy, or this real strategy that actually works AND builds a solid, duplicating downline. But before I reveal the strategy, there are a few things you have to have in order first:

1. You must be in a company with low start up expenses.

2. Your product must have sizzle, and be easily demonstrated on a web-site.

3. Your product must be affordable, so that people would buy it with or without an opportunity attached.

You may be wondering why I focus so much on product here. It's important to understand that in network marketing there are two ways to make money, one way is basically a glorified pyramid scheme, the method of making commissions on exorbitant entry fees. I don't like this method and personally I think it's unethical. The second way is to get a large group of people buying products on an autoship basis, and to recruit an army of customers and customer getters. This makes much more sense to me, and I sleep better at night knowing my income comes from providing goods to the marketplace, rather than doing aggressive marketing designed to get large amounts of money out of people up front.

So here's the components you need to get automated signups:

1. A great web-site. It has to be STRONG. Ideally, it should include a professional look and feel, a flash presentation, a way of capturing a prospects information, and a fear of loss element, such as listing all the people that have joined your business recently.

2. A single product focus. Nobody is going to automatically join a company because of a catalog of great products. But they will sign up for one outstanding, revolutionary product. You can introduce your catalog later if you have one.

3. A small range of start up options, ideally under $100.

4. An autoresponder system to follow up with your prospects.

Once you have these elements in place, your job is to invite as many people to your web-site as possible. Our experience has been 3-5% of visitors will sign up on an automated basis, but that number goes up to 10% if we call web-site visitors on the phone.

And the beautiful thing is we attract great people using this method. They're not lottery players; they are real people who appreciate a good opportunity when they see one. And they appreciate the automated system, and want to know how THEY can do it, not how I can do it for them!