Interestingly enough BusinessWeek  recently ran an article:

“Social Media Will Change Your Business… Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later.”

Of course, blogs were only one of six different social marketing methods we went over on the Webinar.  Each of the Social Marketing methods we talked about, blogs and the rest of it, are going to revolutionize business, whether that’s a networking business or a traditional business.

How a Blog helps you grow your business:

- Gets people to your website

- Gets people to your lead capture pages

- Positions you  as the expert

- Pre Sells your prospects

- Builds Prospects list continously

- Increases Monetization (cash-flow)

- Brings People into your business

We’ll start with the basics.

What is a blog? I’ll give you a few definitions from Google.

• Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the website.
• A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis.
• A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links.
• An online journal.

Obviously a blogger is someone who owns or operates a blog and blogging is considered updating or writing posts on your blog.

When you set up a blog for yourself you’re instantly adding to the professionalism of you and your business. Establishing yourself as an expert and authoritative figure is crucial to success in any industry. Having your own online presence with your own customized website that you have control over will help accomplish this.

Just ask yourself: What professional business doesn’t have their own website or blog? It’s hard to imagine any without one. Even supermarkets and gas stations have websites these days.

A major benefit of having your own blog that you cannot get with just an affiliate url is the free “organic” or “natural” search engine traffic that you’ll receive.

Just so you don’t get the wrong impression though, this isn’t something that happens overnight after your blog is built. You have to put some work into optimizing it so the search engines can easily find you. And also know that the search engine optimization process is never really over – there are things that can be done on a daily basis to improve your position or rankings in the search engines. But for now, just realize that if you have a blog you open yourself up to another (free) traffic opportunity that normally wouldn’t be available to you.

Step-by-step ‘Build Your Blog’ class  

If you were able to attend Renegade University’s Webinar last night about how “Blogs Bring Prospects” you already know about our first step-by-step ‘Build Your Blog’ class on Friday February 29/08 (live).

It is recorded and available at the Renegade Professional back-office.

If you are not yet at the Renegade Professional level, now is a very good time to put our training course to the test…

Since the Blog Service is free the first two weeks, and it’s only $1 to Upgrade to the Professional level for 7 days, it’s a perfect chance for you to check out everything Renegade Professional offers, while learning what this Blogging Gig is all about.

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For those looking for a more aggressive approach to blogging Click Here!

Evaluation of History

In the early 1950’s, there were no network marketing companies worth talking about. It was not until the late 1950’s that companies like, Shaklee, Neolife, and Amway were developed The unemployment rate was low in the first half (in fact in 1953 it was an all time low of 2.9%). In the last half of the 1950’s, the unemployment rate was highest since the Great Depression in 1958 it was at 6.8%.

The early 1960’s saw all networking continuing to flourish with advent of Mary Kay in 1963, and Avon, Tupperware, and Fuller Brush all achieving momentum. Again the late ‘60’s saw a great softening in the industry with no new companies coming on of any significance. Here we see the same scenario: unemployment high in the first half of the decade; over 2½ million workers were back to work in the second half.

1980’s: again we saw the network marketing industry really flourish in the first half; while in the second half of the decade, it softened and many network marketing “fiascos” occurred. When networking is soft, people and companies take more risks. There were twice as many lawsuits in the second half of the 1980’s as were in the first half. In the first half the unemployment rate reached its highest level in 40 years at 9.7%. While at the end of the ‘80s there were almost ½ the number out of work as there were in the early ‘80’s.

In the1990’s the trend continued. In the early 1990’s (1990- 1994) huge momentum in the industry, in fact “there was more wealth created in by way of MLM from 1990 to 1994 than any other time in history.” (Network Marketing Lifestyles May 2000). From 1996-1999, we had a network marketing recession. In the early 1990’s, the unemployment rate was very high and then in the later years in the 1990’s it hit a 30 year low of 4.2%.

Why were the 1970’s an exception? They really were not but they played out differently. It was an exceptional decade…the first half of the ‘70’s saw unemployment rates jump. The attention to network marketing took off. However, with all the heightened attention, five times as many lawsuits were filed from 1970-1974 than all of those filed in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, and the big one, Amway, which challenged the very existence of network marketing, lasted until finally beomg settled in 1979. This legal dispute of course dampened what otherwise would have been a greater boom in network marketing in the second half of the decade. In the first half, recession of ‘73-’75, many MLM companies’ growth took off.

Where are we headed in 2008? All major indicators suggest recession: stock market, credit card debt, mortgage foreclosures, fall of the dollar against foreign currencies, company earnings reports across all sectors, manufacturing sector, employment figures, etc.

How do we take advantage of this opportunity?

Do we market products? This does not solve the average person’s perceived need/want. Health and many other items can not be a major priority in this time. During times of recession peoples attention turns to a “just trying to get by” mentality. What we should be doing is making a shift to support people in building residual streams of income to empower them to withstand any kind of economic downturn. “Recession causes people to open their minds to gaining alternative sources of income.” Lou Clements, Marketwave Inc.

What are the selling points of a network marketing business?

(a) Security (not found in a recession)

(b) Financial freedom

 (c) Time freedom

(d) Self-development

(e) Self-employed; no boss so no sacrifice of your own values; Creating your own standard for the ethics in your business

(f) Time freedom

(g) Purpose driven: helping others with focus on them

(h) Unlimited income: no one telling you what you are worth

(i) Residual income

(j) Dream again

(k) Great relationships

(l) Reduce stress

(m) Great incentives to get opportunities to travel the world

(n) No employees

(o) Tax benefits are terrific.

I am finding that The Renegade System and University fit within this model perfectly as an approach to support people in gaining streams of residual income.

Use this as an answer to the upcoming recession.

Need…fulfillment; we must learn how to promote the business and do it well. Those who do will surely be overwhelmingly successful in the next year.

SO, STRAP YOURSELF IN AND GET READY FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE!!