Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

SFI can be overwhelming for some people, especially if they're new to online marketing and affiliate marketing. Fortunately I wasn't overwhelmed with the site or the process, so it was easy for me to set up a schedule of how to navigate through the site.

As I did that, I took notes and bookmarked different sections so I could go back to them.

Once I finished each section of SFI - The Basics, the LaunchPad and the Affiliate Center, I went back and made tutorial videos to share with anyone I signed up.

Now the first thing I do for new PSAs is direct them to the videos I've made that take them one step at a time through each of the main sections of SFI. I explain to them not to click on every link they see or they could get confused and overwhelmed really easily.

I remind them that this is a business and their Affiliate Center is their office with a "map" - meaning the tabs - that guide them through the different main sections.

I also remind my team that I'm always here to help them, and if they do start getting overwhelmed, to just sign out of SFI and do something else for a while. Take a breath, and come back in later on, and send me an email if they need help with anything.
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SFI can be overwhelming for some people, especially if they're new to online marketing and affiliate marketing. Fortunately I wasn't overwhelmed with the site or the process, so it was easy for me to set up a schedule of how to navigate through the site.

As I did that, I took notes and bookmarked different sections so I could go back to them.

Once I finished each section of SFI - The Basics, the LaunchPad and the Affiliate Center, I went back and made tutorial videos to share
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

That's an excellent question!

Personally, I wouldn't feel right sending anyone on my team non-active PSAs just to get the VPs for reassigning them. If I'm going to reassign anyone, I want my active members to have a shot at actually benefiting from them.

But if your sponsor is only reassigning PSAs to get his/her points, you can try and look at it as practice in sending team mail and maybe even a challenge for you to see if you can get them active again.

1. As soon as they're reassigned, shoot them a team mailer right away so they know who you are and that you're there to help them in any way you can.

2. If you have a fairly regular schedule that you follow each day, share that with your newly assigned PSAs. That might help them with getting back into the swing of things.

3. Encourage them to think about why they signed up with SFI. And if SFI isn't what they expected, ask them to share with you what they were looking for when they signed up, or what they were expecting. You might be able to point them in the right direction inside of SFI and get them excited about it again.

Hope this helps!

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That's an excellent question!

Personally, I wouldn't feel right sending anyone on my team non-active PSAs just to get the VPs for reassigning them. If I'm going to reassign anyone, I want my active members to have a shot at actually benefiting from them.

But if your sponsor is only reassigning PSAs to get his/her points, you can try and look at it as practice in sending team mail and maybe even a challenge for you to see if you can get them active again.

1. As
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

Hi Ernst - great question, and one that I asked myself last year when I signed up with SFI. I've since written a couple of blog posts about different ways I've used my blog to promote SFI, so I'll put a few quips from those below.

First, think of your blog as your "Ground Zero," the platform you'll use to reach out to other networking and social media sites. So once you write something about SFI and post it to your blog, add relevant photos that you can use on Pinterest.

Since you're using the blog to promote SFI, you can use images from SFI's marketing tools, images from products in TripleClicks or even create your own images. Then make sure each image links back to the appropriate section or product of SFI.

You can also take your blog post and create a video from it. Upload that video to YouTube and add the link back to your blog post in the video description, and embed the video into your blog post.

Once your blog post has some good images and a video, then you share that blog post to some high traffic social bookmarking sites.

The key thing to remember when you're starting a new blog and promoting your business at the same time is that you're looking to solve people's problems. Essentially, your blog is your tool to providing answers to people's questions and showing them products and services that will help to answer those questions.

And some of the best ways to find out what questions people are asking and the problems they need solved is to go to question and answer sites, like Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com

When you answer their questions, you can provide a link back to your blog that goes into more detail about how you and SFI can solve their problems, either by helping them learn how to make more money or showing them products from TripleClicks that will help them.

Then be sure to share your blog with your downline so they can duplicate what you do with their own blogs.

When you use blog this way, you're actually creating a fantastic tool to (1) solve people's problems; (2) promote SFI as the answer; (3) recruit new affiliates to your downline; (4) teach your downline how to do the same things you do.

I hope this helps!
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Hi Ernst - great question, and one that I asked myself last year when I signed up with SFI. I've since written a couple of blog posts about different ways I've used my blog to promote SFI, so I'll put a few quips from those below.

First, think of your blog as your "Ground Zero," the platform you'll use to reach out to other networking and social media sites. So once you write something about SFI and post it to your blog, add relevant photos that you can use on Pinterest.

Since
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

I honestly don't think there is any 'one' best method to attract possible affiliates. I think it takes a combination of methods; at least that's been my most successful approach.

The best primary method I've found so far is simply blogging, and then sharing the blog posts by way of social bookmarking, networking sites and video.

Online networking sites hold tremendous amount of opportunity seekers, especially since I'm seeing that more and more people are involved in multiple marketing programs today so they're not relying on just one way to earn revenue from home.

I've gotten a couple of my best PSAs just through networking sites and sharing blog posts on them.

As far as 'convincing' people, I don't think you really need to try to convince anyone. If they're curious, they'll ask about the opportunity and you can point out the positive aspects. But trying to 'convince' people - to me anyway - sounds like a pushy salesperson's way of recruiting. If someone balks at wanting to join SFI, move on and speak to other people.

I guess I just prefer a more subtle approach. I blog, share the blog posts, talk about what I do, and then people either email me or they simply click on the referral link and sign up.
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I honestly don't think there is any 'one' best method to attract possible affiliates. I think it takes a combination of methods; at least that's been my most successful approach.

The best primary method I've found so far is simply blogging, and then sharing the blog posts by way of social bookmarking, networking sites and video.

Online networking sites hold tremendous amount of opportunity seekers, especially since I'm seeing that more and more people are involved in multiple
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

I would say the best way to learn more about Internet advertising is to first visit the SFI Forum and browse around for what others are doing. Not all advertising outlets are a one-size-fits-all, so you need to concentrate on the online advertising sites that are good for network marketing and affiliate marketing.

I would also go through the a2a section of SFI and contact people who are at least an EA2 to see if they can give you some tips on how and where to advertise and what sites are providing the best results.

One of the best ways to advertise is to set up your own blog. YouTube is an excellent site to learn just about anything you need to learn about blogging. There are also some experienced bloggers on YouTube who can give you tips on the best places to advertise online as well.

But I'd say the first place to learn is with SFI's resources. That way you know you'll be advertising in the right places.
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I would say the best way to learn more about Internet advertising is to first visit the SFI Forum and browse around for what others are doing. Not all advertising outlets are a one-size-fits-all, so you need to concentrate on the online advertising sites that are good for network marketing and affiliate marketing.

I would also go through the a2a section of SFI and contact people who are at least an EA2 to see if they can give you some tips on how and where to advertise and what sites
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

For me personally, it was easier for me to motivate my team when they saw I'd achieved EA2 status and stayed there. I believe you have to show your team that you are working the program, every day, and then share that excitement. It'll rub off on those who are serious about building a long-term business.

Another thing I do is stress a "sharing and caring" attitude. I do this by:
1. Sending out weekly team mailers
2. Creating video tutorials to help brand new affiliates - you really get to show your enthusiasm for SFI in a video!
3. Making sure each member has the link to my business blog, especially the link directly to the SFI section of the blog.

I also find it easy to encourage and motivate people who aren't able to invest any cash to set up a standing order right away because I didn't either. I've been with SFI for about 9 months and only this month did I set up my SO using my commissions.

Obviously, it takes a little longer to work the program this way, but at the same time, I'm learning new things all the time and sharing everything I learn.

Those that are serious about starting a solid Internet business will be motivated and encouraged by you - if you are serious about your own business. You enthusiasm will show through your team mails, personal emails, your Leadership page, forum posts, etc.

If your team sees how active you are inside of SFI, they'll see you're on the path to success and they'll want to follow you.
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For me personally, it was easier for me to motivate my team when they saw I'd achieved EA2 status and stayed there. I believe you have to show your team that you are working the program, every day, and then share that excitement. It'll rub off on those who are serious about building a long-term business.

Another thing I do is stress a "sharing and caring" attitude. I do this by:
1. Sending out weekly team mailers
2. Creating video tutorials to help brand new affiliates
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

The best advice I've received from my upline is to take things one at a time to keep from getting overwhelmed. Also, my co-sponsor gave me some tips on how to use TripleClicks to earn the VPs I need to maintain my EA status until I was in the position to set up my Standing Order.

My immediate sponsor, co-sponsor and another upline sponsor have all been fantastic in demonstrating the importance of keeping the lines of communication open to answer questions.

So I would have to say ultimately, the best advice has been to take things a step at a time and stay in contact with your sponsors. I've been very fortunate to have a pretty awesome upline to help me duplicate what they do so I can in turn help my downline.
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The best advice I've received from my upline is to take things one at a time to keep from getting overwhelmed. Also, my co-sponsor gave me some tips on how to use TripleClicks to earn the VPs I need to maintain my EA status until I was in the position to set up my Standing Order.

My immediate sponsor, co-sponsor and another upline sponsor have all been fantastic in demonstrating the importance of keeping the lines of communication open to answer questions.

So I would have to
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

Great question! Honestly, I've not used any type of video chat myself with my SFI team, but I've been on a few video chats hosted by others for things like learning Facebook, chatting about blogging systems, etc.

I would have to say, as long as you and your team are comfortable with being on camera, and you can all coordinate to have a half hour or an hour free at the same time, absolutely it will be effective.

What video chat has done is taken the "old" way of networking; i.e., driving to weekly meetings at some hotel conference room, hooking up over coffee at a local restaurant, etc., and brought the whole network marketing conferences to your home, regardless of where you live.

It's especially effective if you have something new you want to share or if you want opinions from your team on a new advertising method or new ways to recruit affiliates and sign up ECAs.

What might be good is to send out a team mailer to get topics to discuss and get a feel for the interest level of your team members. Then have them submit questions and topics for discussion at the chat. Your team members can share their ideas and what's working for them with the other members too.

So I would say go for it if you're thinking about setting something up. You can even have the chat session streamed live from a Google Hangout onto YouTube so other team members can access the replay later if they weren't able to attend the live session.

And once you do venture into it, be sure to share the experience in the forums!
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Great question! Honestly, I've not used any type of video chat myself with my SFI team, but I've been on a few video chats hosted by others for things like learning Facebook, chatting about blogging systems, etc.

I would have to say, as long as you and your team are comfortable with being on camera, and you can all coordinate to have a half hour or an hour free at the same time, absolutely it will be effective.

What video chat has done is taken the "old" way of networking;
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

I think the lesson about Communication was the part that was the most interesting and meaningful, even before getting an affiliates signed up under me. That's why I started a blog about SFI and started doing training videos - to start on my communication efforts for prospects, so they could see I really cared about my business and I cared about making it easier for them to understand.

SFI can be a touch confusing to people who aren't familiar with marketing online. And with so many links inside of the LaunchPad to click on, you can get lost in the maze if you're not careful.

So it was important to me to learn how to use the PSA and CSA Mailer and to do videos to communicate to my new team members how to navigate through the LaunchPad without getting lost.

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I think the lesson about Communication was the part that was the most interesting and meaningful, even before getting an affiliates signed up under me. That's why I started a blog about SFI and started doing training videos - to start on my communication efforts for prospects, so they could see I really cared about my business and I cared about making it easier for them to understand.

SFI can be a touch confusing to people who aren't familiar with marketing online. And with so many links
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

Our local newspaper runs a special every year called the Business & Service Directory. It lists all of the local businesses by category/type of business, and then on the inside pages, there are mini business card advertisements. If your area provides a listing like this, you can start sending out flyers and/or postcard mailers to different types of businesses.

You can also look at the business' websites to get a feel for the type of company they are and if they promote things that could be sold online.

Another good place to find businesses in your area is to look on your local Chamber of Commerce website for their member listings - if they're accessible.

You can also do a search on superpages.com by your local zip code and type of business to find more possible ECAs in your area.

These are just a couple of suggestions for doing direct advertising.

To target some companies so they'll come to you, you can possibly run an ad in a couple of local newspapers in the Garaqe Sales section; those who hold garage and yard sales or set up at flea markets, and those who go to them should be great prospects to approach about joining as an ECA.

And on that note, whenever you go to flea markets, garage and yard sales, take flyers and business cards with you and leave them with people.
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Our local newspaper runs a special every year called the Business & Service Directory. It lists all of the local businesses by category/type of business, and then on the inside pages, there are mini business card advertisements. If your area provides a listing like this, you can start sending out flyers and/or postcard mailers to different types of businesses.

You can also look at the business' websites to get a feel for the type of company they are and if they promote things that
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