Overcoming Objections - Free Is Not The Same As Impartial

USwitch - An Unbiased Reference?
Every now and again someone who has been looking at changing to T+ tells me that they went onto Uswitch - or one of the other comparison sites - and that they couldn't find T+ there. Obviously they want to know why this is.

I usually explain this by pointing out that they weren't charged a fee for this comparison, that the website owners have to make their money somehow and that the way they do this is by getting a commission fee from the energy company whenever they change their supplier.

I politely point out that, despite the popular perception, most of the comparison services available cannot be described as unbiased. Yes they are free but, since they are gaining commission whenever someone switches, they can hardly be considered to be impartial.

Because I've been involved in telephony and energy for over 25 years now, most people will accept my reasoning here. If they still seem a little doubtful I suggest that they test my logic by entering Telecom plus as their current supplier and seeing if the comparison website can find anyone cheaper. That usually does the trick.

However, now it's even easier as The Telegraph have published a nice article which not only blows away the "independent" perception of the comparison sites but specifically names T+ as the most likely cheapest source for standard users - the majority of your potential customers in other words.

If you haven't already seen this then the link is below. The next time somebody plays the USwitch card you'll know where to send them.

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2005/09/13/pjeff13.xml&sSheet=/property/2005/09/17/ixpright12.html

Traffic Exchanges
If any of you are using traffic exchanges for advertising on the internet, I've put a new page on one of my websites which advises on how to do this effectively. You can see it here:


http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk/hit_exchanges.html


Best Regards,

Hamish

http://www.utilityvalue.co.uk
http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk

Summer's Over - Time To Get Busy!

Summer's Over
That's it guys - it's September and summer's over. The kids are either back at school, or just about to go back, and everyone is settling down secure in the knowledge that their tan will be gone long before their credit card is paid off. The only item of unfinished business is beating the Australians at cricket - then we can get our winter woolies out.

On the plus side - and it's a big plus - this is a time of year when business, after a few quiet weeks, traditionally picks up - with a vengeance. So think about making a bit of extra effort to get a few more customers in the next couple of months.

• Get referals. If you've already asked then ask again and get some more.
  
• Do you have any energy only customers? Ask them if they want to save on their phone, mobile, internet also. They're already sold on the UWDC so you'll be pushing on an open door.
  
• What about businesses? Have you been on the training course yet? Businesses are always keen to save money and, because they tend to have a higher usage, they can give you a really nice boost to your CVC each month.

Dates and Venues For COE4 - Business Training
Just in case you haven't seen this already, here's a list of upcoming dates and venues for COE4. It only costs £10 and you'll get a pack of marketing materials worth well over that. This could really make a difference to your business - I recommend you attend as soon as you can.

To book call Executive Services on 020-8955-5111. Places are limited so book your seat as early as you can.

7th Sept - Milton Keynes
8th Sept - London
8th Sept - Worthing
8th Sept - Preston
Sunday 11th Sept - So'ton
13th Sept - Surrey
14th Sept - Stoke
14th Sept - North Wales
15th Sept - Dartford
15th Sept - Chesterfield
Saturday 17th Sept - Liverpool - NEW DATE!!!!
19th Sept - Cardiff
20th Sept - Swindon
22nd Sept - Cambridge
22nd Sept - Taunton
Saturday 24th Sept - Birmingham
Sunday 25th Sept - South Mimms
Sunday 25th Sept - Ashford
Sunday 25th Sept - Darlington
Sunday 25th Sept - Halifax
26th Sept - Edinburgh
29th Sept - London

Getting Distributors
The other "nice" thing about this time of year is that a lot of people will be going back to work having had a couple of weeks of freedom. It's an event which can really make them think about studying their alternatives - so you should be able to get a few interested prospects for distributor positions. Remember - if you don't ask you don't get.


That's all folks. If you're lucky enough to have a few days holiday left - enjoy!

Best Regards,

Hamish
http://www.selfstarters.co.uk
http://www.perfectsysem.co.uk

Business Club Training

Business Club
I attended the business club training (COE4) in Edinburgh yesterday. Rhod Grub and Chris Weir were the trainers and they were very good. I certainly learned a few things and, because business people can be a bit more critical, it's important to lean the correct techniques before you dive in and start collecting customers.

There's no doubt that this is a huge opportunity for us all to expand into a new, and very lucrative, market - but there are one or two pitfalls to watch out for which don't exist in the residential market. These were explained very clearly during the training and it's well worth attending if you haven't managed to do so already.

The course costs £10 and lasts for about 3 to 3.5 hours - depending upon the number of questions. You get £10 worth of marketing materials specific to the business club, and these brochures really are very good. They exceeded my expectations and I'm sure the punters will be suitably impressed.

It was interesting for me to note that there were some people who had travelled to Edinburgh from as far afield as York. It seems that the course is in extremely high demand - hardly surprising when you think about the possible increase in your commission each month. So get your name down for a course near you as soon as you can, otherwise you might miss out.

Congratulations
The skies of Britain seem to be crammed full of happy flying piggies these days. Jonathan Mead & Natasha Bellingham recently made it into the flying club by collecting their 12th customer. Well done both of you.

Best Regards to All

Hamish
http://www.selfstarters.co.uk
http://www.utilityvalue.co.uk
http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk

Business Club

Business Club
I'm delighted to see that the new business club has been launched. It should give a big boost toyour earnings. Not only do you have a new market segment to target but the average spend should be higher - more commission for you.

Get yourself booked onto the training course as soon as you can, otherwise you'll miss out. I'm booked onto the Edinburgh training a week on Monday - I'll let you know what it's like.

Autoresponder Messages
I found out that some of my autoresponder messages had been reformatted due to a change in my autoresponder host's software (GetResponse). This made them difficult to read and I felt that my prospects might not have got the message I was trying to get across.

Anyway - I put up a site which has all the messages collected in one area. Some people ask me for the facility to read all the messages at once anyway - so I felt that this was a good idea. You can see the site at the link below:

http://www.messages.selfstarters.co.uk/

I'm directing the prospects to this site with a "P.S." at the end of message three. I'm also making anyone who asks for more information aware of the site.

If you're using an autoresponder to recruit - especially if it's GetResponse - it's worth checking your messages from time to time.

If you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about then have a look at the recruiting method I use. It's very successful and you can find details here:

http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk/recruiting.html


Best Regards,

Hamish
http://www.selfstarters.co.uk
http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk

Pigs Will Fly
Sometimes recruiting on the internet is like looking for a diamond in a mountain of coal. It can be frustrating but every now and then you will strike it rich. So I just love it when I see someone doing really well and the latest star is Steve Williams who just made it into the Flying Club.

Steve has built up slowly and has done absolutely everything right. He recruits distributors and gathers customers both online and in the "real" world. Put it another way, he uses all the tools at his disposal to grow his business. He takes a long term view and clearly has a very good relationship with his team members - a team which, thanks to Steve's consistent effort, is building very nicely by the way.

Congratulations Steve - you're a diamond - it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

£50 Free Voucher for Google Adwords
In case any of you missed the last offer, a free £50 voucher for Google adwords is still available. If you join Lycos Partnershop as an affiliate, they will send you a free voucher in the mail - along with some other goodies. It takes a week to 10 days to arrive.

There is no fee to join the Lycos Partnershop and they won't fill your inbox with rubbish every week. In fact they have some surprisingly good offers so if you need a new domain name get it at your own shop and you'll get commission on your own spending!

The offer is open to both new adwords users and those with an existing account - so if you haven't already done so click on the link below for your free voucher (click on the "resellers" tab when you get to the site). £50 buys you a lot of targetted traffic you know!

Click here to get your free £50 voucher.

New Articles
I hope those of you who have visited my new site at http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk have found it useful. If you haven't checked it out yet have a look, there are some new articles posted which might be of interest.

The system that I use for recruiting distributors is described there and it can now be downloaded as an e-book.

Till next time.

Best Regards,

Hamish
http://www.selfstarters.co.uk
http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk

Congratulations, Press Releases and Articles

Congratulations
Huge congratulations to Mick Draper who has just been promoted to Senior Executive. Mick has worked very hard to build both his customer numbers and his team and is now beginning to reap the rewards.

As always in these cases, Mick's promotion and his success are thanks to both his own efforts and also the efforts of his team members. So if you're lucky enough to be in Mick's team give yourself a pat on the back and then see if you can be next to SE. Well done Mick - to you and your team.

Press Releases
If you want some free publicity why not issue a press release? Okay - maybe it's not the first thing you would have thought of, or maybe you think that your business is too small to merit this. Go to Google and type in "Scottish Energy Consumers" (with or without the quotation marks - it doesn't matter) and you'll probably find one of my press releases on the first page. Its full title is Scottish Energy Consumers Benefit from Increased Competition just so you know where to find it.

The last time I looked it was in both second and third slots on the first page. People pay a lot of money to get on the first page of Google you know - but you can do it for free. I've had quite a few of my press releases on the front page of Google for selected terms - it's pretty easy.

The link below will take you to PRLeap and you can signup to issue your press releases for free. There is a paid upgrade but you won't need that. Just choose a good headline, with the keywords in it (near the start of the sentence for preference) and issue the release. Hey presto - free publicity and free traffic to your T+ website (or any other website that you like for that matter).

http://www.prleap.com/index.html

Just put an "information" link to your website at the bottom of each press release and you'll get some visitors. In addition to direct visitors, the fact that you have a live link will boost your search engine ratings - so it's a double whammy for you!

More Free Publicity
If that's not enough free publicity for you then think about writing some articles and posting them on the internet. Webmasters are always looking for free content that they can use on their websites and in their ezines.

This is a great method for you to gain credibility, boost your link popularity and get traffic. The benefits are enormous and, since the articles only have to be between 500 and 1000 words long you should be able to knock a few out in no time. Always sign the article with your real name, not a pen name or "username" - it's supposed to be giving you publicity after all - and always include a link to your website(s).

You can join the article bank below for free. After your first article is accepted they will give you "expert" status. After you've submitted 10 articles then you get upgraded to "platinum" status (also free) and get quicker article approval and wider distribution.

http://ezinearticles.com/

There are many other article banks around but the one above should be enough to get you started. If anyone wants a longer list of good article banks then drop me an email.

Don't think for a minute that you can't do this - I've seen your emails, websites and adverts so I already know that many of you "have a way with words". At least visit the site and have a look at some of the articles - you never know, they might inspire you.

You can also see some of the articles "wot I wrote myself" here:

http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk/articles.html

I make absolutely no claims to any particular skill or ability - but I have seen extra traffic to my sites because of these articles. I'm sure you could do better!

Best Regards,

Hamish
http://www.selfstarters.co.uk
http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk
http://www.utilityvalue.co.uk

Congratulations, Google Adwords and New Website

Congratulations
Huge congratulations to Hussein Hassanali for entering the 50+ club. Hussein seems to be a one man sales cyclone - he just keeps picking up customers and now he's secured his commission month after month after month. Well done Hussein, keep going for the Porsche!

And congratulations to Alison Wagstaff who got her sixth customer to reach QE just recently. Alison also has the makings of her own team forming so things are looking good. Well done Alison, keep it up.


Google Adwords
For anyone who missed the opportunity to get £50 worth of free advertising on google Adwords here is another chance. Unfortunately this is one is for £20 and is limited to those who don't have an account with Google at the moment - but that will still apply to some of you I guess.

The link below will take you to the appropriate website:

http://services.google.com/marketing/links/UK-OA-NTMAG-HOME


New Website
I've put up a new website at http://www.perfectsystem.co.uk (am I too modest?). It contains a lot of information - some of which has appeared on this blog in the past. You may find it useful and the information is presented in a more readable manner than is sometimes possible with a blog. The "Recruiting" section can be directly applied to your T+ business. Have a look and see what you think - I hope you find it helpful.

Apologies
This is the first update for a while - please accept my apologies. I have been travelling extensively and have had some internet connectivity problems also. I will try to be good in future!

Best Regards,

Hamish

CANI Seminar

CANI Training Seminar - Extra Seats Available

The text below is an email from Wes Linden. I think it's self explanatory.




Hi Hamish

I am writing personally to you regarding the CANI seminar for two reasons:

a) I have just had sight of the booking sheet
b) The venue have suggested a way we can get an extra row in which means we can have an extra row of about 15 more seats so we now have 29 tickets available.

This was a final reminder for you to encourage as many of yuor team as possible to get a place at the seminar. It is the closest thing we have to Express Day, and with key-note speeches from the new Executive Service Director, the new Customer Services Director, and the UWDC for Business Club Manager, there will be a heavy company input as well as having some of the Top Distributors in the Company sharing some of their success tips.

Steve has promised me he will hold back from sending out any more reminder to his Leader until Thursday this week, so you have a first-mover advantage!! I suspect they'll all be gone by Thursday, or Saturday at the very latest, so please order now to avoid disappointment! You can order direct from www.surreyplus.com either online or you can download a booking form and send a cheque for the tickets. I really look forward to seeing you and your distributors there - here's a reminder of what to expect from the day:

CANI (Constant And Never-Ending Improvement) seminar

Sunday 12th June.

This will take place at:
THE BLUE MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE CENTRE, BINFIELD, BERKSHIRE. RG42 4EX
Time: 10:30am - 5:30pm

Approx 450 distributors will be there! This is the closest thing to Express Day!

The seminar will be hosted by Steve Critchley and Wes Linden with our very top Leaders running sections of the day sharing the secrets of their success. When we say the very top, we mean the very top – the movers and shakers and the people getting consistently stunning results including:

Rob Barras - Marketing Director and 200plus club member - the King of 'Guess and Win'!
Stephan Longworth - Marketing Director and nearly 15000 group customer - Steph doesn't get south much, so see him whilst you can!
Lisa Ware - supermum averaging 20 to 30 customers per month - gets referrals for fun
Jimmy Chapman - Marketing Director and 200plus club member - leading one of the fastest growing businesses in the entire network, which began with no upline support
Steve Critchley - National Marketing Director and Company Top Earner
Wes Linden - Marketing Director and 200plus club member - semi-retired and living a lifestlye of choice at 27
Stuart Thornton - reached Marketing Director in less than 2 years
Robin Brooks - Marketing Director and 200plus club member and with a group of over 15000 customers!

*LEARN HOW TO GET FANTASTIC RESULTS FROM GUESS AND WIN SHOWS
*HEAR HOW TO GET MORE REFERRALS THAN YOU NEED!!
*LEARN THE SECRETS OF SPONSORING PEOPLE WHO ARE ALWAYS MOTIVATED
*LEARN HOW TO RECRUIT YOUR CUSTOMERS AS DISTRIBUTORS
*UNDERSTAND THE 3FT RULE AND HOW IT CAN GET YOU TO MD
*LEARN THE MAGIC OF BEING PART-TIME
*HEAR FROM THE COMPANY DIRECTOR AND MANAGEMENT

COME AND MEET THE DIRECTORS AND SENIOR MANAGEMENT – we are delighted to announce that Executive Services Director Andy McWilliams is flying back from his holiday to be here; Human Resources Director Malcolm Wolpert will be there; Business Development Director Wayne Coupland will be there; and Marketing Manager Jonny Wolf will be there! Plus we are expecting confirmation from at least two more Directors that they will be in attendance too!

LAUGH AND LEARN FROM OUR SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER LARRY BROOKS – A POLISHED SPEAKER, TRAINER AND TOP UK NETWORKER. HIS INSPIRATIONAL IDEAS AND PRACTICAL NO-NONSENSE APPROACH TO BUILDING THIS KIND OF BUSINESS WILL HAVE YOU BUZZING WITH NEW IDEAS!

TO ORDER YOUR TICKETS ONLINE OR DOWNLOAD AN APPLICATION FORM VISIT http://www.surreyplus.com/NextCANI/NextCANI.htm TICKETS NOW!!! ORDER NOW.
PRICE - £20.00 INCLUDING TEAS/COFFEES AND A LIGHT LUNCH

I look forward to seeing you!

Kind regardsWes

Adwords, Marketing and New QE's

Google Adwords Offer
I recently posted details on how to get £50 worth of free advertising with Google adwords. If you signed up for this then well done, you've probably received your voucher by now and entered the promotional code to get the credit on Google.

Of course, an offer this good won't be around for ever and this particular one expires on 31/05/05. So if you haven't done this yet then click on the link below, signup as a partnershop member, and get your £50 voucher. There is absolutely no catch with this and your voucher will be with you in a week to 10 days.

http://www.partnershop.co.uk/

If you haven't already got an Adwords account then set one up using the voucher. This is free money guys!

Free Marketing Advice
I recently came across an audio CD by a very well known American marketing guru. It contained a lot of good information and ideas, but sadly the message was a bit lost due to the fact that it was delivered in the style of a rabid dog - a bit like a TV evangelist delivering an infomercial on steroids if you know what I mean.

Suffice it to say that, despite the fact that some of the ideas were valid and worthy of consideration, I would now pay good money to avoid being in the same room (or even the same town) as this guy. He was just plain scarey!

For those of you who are, like myself, more gentle souls, Chris Cardell is a UK business consultant who offers free hints and tips on marketing and advertising. He has a resource packed website at http://www.cardellmedia.co.uk/ and at the moment you can listen to a free audio broadcast by clicking the link below:

http://www.CardellMedia.co.uk/FreeSeminar.htm

I really like Chris's stuff - it's well thought out and delivered in a very professional manner. Try it and see what you think, you never know it might just give you some ideas of your own.

Congratulations
Big congratulations to Maurits and Jameela van Eijck who recently got their sixth customer and qualified for CVC. They also have the makings of a good team of distributors building up. Well done guys - enjoy the commission.

Gateway Page Update

Update To Gateway Page
Over the last couple of weekends I have been struggling with HTML, FTP and all that jazz. I took the plunge and got hold of a new webhosting site some time ago but simply haven't had time to work my way through the intricacies of it all until now.

Suffice it to say that I have updated my little recruiting site and you can see the fruits of my labour by clicking below:

http://www.utilityteam.co.uk

The update is fairly cosmetic - the only real addition is the inclusion of some testimonials. I'm never sure about these - I don't think they work on me when I see them on other websites (unless it's at some subliminal level). Nevertheless the gurus all swear by them and I doubt if they'll do any harm.

What is probably a more important change is the inclusion of a "tell a friend" facility on my thank you page. You can see this here:

http://www.utilityteam.co.uk/untitled1.html

I'm hoping to get some additional signups to the autoresponder this way. I have seen figures of +20% signups being bandied about by people who use this technique. Again, I don't know if this will work or not but it can't do any harm.

The final addition is the inclusion of some Google adsense ads on the "Thank You" page. I certainly wouldn't include these, or any other form of advertising, on my main recruitment page. They just provide an alternative exit route for the punters and I certainly don't want that. However, on the Thank You page I don't really care how they leave - and I make enough money out of people clicking on my adsense banners to pay for my autoresponder every month - so I think it makes sense.

Anyway - what do you think? Is it an improvement on the old site or is it too cluttered?

I still have some work to do before I can fully understand some of the finer points of the webhosting package but, once this is done, I hope to be able to offer new websites - free of ads - to all my distributors. Let me know if you're interested - I will be giving priority to those who already have one of the old sites and I expect there to be about a 3 week turnaround.


Get Well Soon
Many of you have enquired after David Baker-Townsley who recently went into hospital for a major operation.

I'm delighted to advise that, after a pretty lousy fortnight in hospital, David has been released into the wild again and is now back in his natural habitat. He will have some convalescing to do but is hopefully on the mend.

Take it easy David and get well soon.

£50 Voucher for Google Adwords

Free Advertising
Okay - this is good. Click on this link and join LYCOS Partnershop http://www.partnershop.co.uk/ . Fill out the form and enter your details. They will then send you a voucher for £50 worth of free advertising on Google adwords (along with some other goodies).

That's a lot of free clicks! The voucher will be sent to you in the Royal Mail and will take a week or so to arrive - so if you don't already have a Google adwords account you have plenty time to set one up while you're waiting. Go to https://adwords.google.com/ and set up your account.

This will deliver targeted visitors to yoursite - who have already displayed their interest in what you're marketing by performing a related search on Google. It doesn't get much better than that - except when the visitors are free of course!

Get Well Soon
Best wishes to David Baker-Townsley who recently went in to hospital for a major operation. Get well soon David.

Are You Sitting On A Hidden Goldmine?

Keep In Touch
I'm a great believer in keeping in touch with customers, potential customers and potential distributors. Repeated contact hugely increases your chances of making a sale or recruiting a distributor - it's one of the reasons why I use an autoresponder as a key part in my distributor recruitment system, it boosts my return rate and is semi-automatic.

However more traditional methods of communication, such as the phone or a well written letter, can also yield excellent results and you should use these also. They can be especially effective when used on two often overlooked groups:

1. Your existing customers.
2. People who have had a look and said no (for now).

Existing Customers
Your existing customers are a hidden goldmine. They have already demonstrated that they are receptive to the discount club concept and keen to save money. They might very well take another service and increase your CVC each month. On the other hand, they might be happy with what they've got - but they may give you a referral.

In fact, if you think about it, you may be more likely to get referrals this way. You should certainly ask for referrals every time you sign up a new customer - but don't be too surprised if some customers are a bit reticent to provide these. They may need to actually go through the process of changing over their supplier and trying the service out before they are 100% happy to refer their friends and family to you.

However, once they have made the changeover and seen that the savings are real and significant, they will be much more comfortable to either provide you with referrals or to recommend T+ to their personal contacts.

People Who Have Said No
You will hear and read the phrase "no for now" a lot in T+ - and it's true, many people who say no really do mean "no for now". But, in order to change them from a "no for now" into a "yes" you may need to provide them with a little help.

The best way to do this is to ask them again. Do this in an appropriate manner at the correct time and you won't annoy them. They may need just one more reason to make the change - if you can provide this then you might just get a new customer.

When To Communicate?
That's an easy question to answer - when you have something to say. Ideally when you have something new to offer them, but it could be at a particular time of year or after they've been a customer for a while.

1. When a new product or service is introduced.
2. When they've been a customer for a while.
3. At a particular time of year.

New products and services are great. They give you the ideal opportunity to communicate. Don't phone or write every time a new mobile handset is introduced (unless you know that your customer is mad to get that particular one of course) - but do keep your customers aware of any major new enhancements. Send them a new brochure and tariff booklet. They might throw it in the bin - but they might just as well pass it on to someone else. And always ask them for referrals - even if they have already given you some. At the very worst, an existing customer is much more likely to read through anything you send them than someone who doesn't know you from Adam.

For those who have looked at the UWDC and decided against it, then new products and services are great. Just give them a call or drop them a line and advise them that there is something that could offer them even greater savings than they had previously expected. It's a very genuine reason to communicate and few pople will be offended.

When you've had a new customer signed up for 3 or 4 months send them a letter to tell them that you hope they're enjoying their savings with the UWDC. If your local utility has recently raised their prices then mention that and congratulate them on their wise decison and overall sagacity. Ask them for referrals again - even if they already gave you some. Include a multi service booklet and an up to date tariff leaflet - it's possible that even if they don't give you a referral they may pass these on. Give them every opportunity to be a good salesperson for you.

Being Scottish, I tend to send out a few "Happy New Year" letters to my customers. It's very common here and, because the weather is invariably lousy and the gas and electricity suppliers have obligingly hiked their prices around this time of year, it gives me an opportunity to remind them of how clever they were to choose to join the UWDC.

If you are in a part of the country where you need to sober up before mid-February then don't worry - you could send them a letter on their birthday. The customer's date of birth is on their application form. You might also drop them a line if there are headlines on the news or in the papers about price rises. You should always be looking for (legitimate) reasons to communicate.


Something to Think About

HPLR is a major enhancement. Send your existing customers and your "no for nows" an update on the new HPLR service. It's a major change and T+ are unique in being able to provide line rental. The convenience of a single bill is a huge benfit to many customers - some of them even see this as the main advantage with the savings being an extra bonus.

Do you have any "energy only" customers? Update them on HPLR.

Send them a brochure so they can read it and then pass it on. Ask them for referrals.

Once you've done that look for the next opportunity to communicate and do it all again.

Domain Names, Website Design & Traffic Exchanges

Domain Names For Free
Mark Graves is my immediate upline. He introduced me to Telecom plus and showed me the benefits of residual income - thanks Mark. As if that wasn't enough he has now very kindly offered to provide a free domain name for any of you who are using the web to either promote the T+ services or to recruit distributors.

The URL's would be www.anyname.perfectopportunity.info (for your distributor recruiting site) and www.anyname.smallbills.info (for your T+ services site).

You can find details and request your domain on an easy to complete online form at http://www.downlineplus.com/freedomains.htm

Website Design
I've noticed a few of you advertising the opportunity on some of the traffic exchanges I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. That's great, I hope you do well.

Let me give you one small tip on website design - it's especially relevant when you're displaying your site on the exchanges. Try to arrange it so that your visitors can see, and therefore complete, your autoresponder form without the need to scroll down the page. Surfers are very lazy and it's up to you to make life easy for them.

Get your message across in a few bullet points. and have the form (the call to action) where it can be clearly seen.

Don't try to cram loads in by using a smaller font. Just get all your key points in and put the form where it can be clearly seen. If you have further information that you really want to get across then put it below the form. This will definitely get you more signups.

Traffic Exchanges
A couple of weeks ago I put up a list of five traffic exchanges. This was just intended to get you started. There are plenty more and you should be surfing more than five if you want to get good results.

However, I don't want to put up any more because I would like some of you to tell me what your favourite exchanges are and send me your referral links. Then I'll put them up and not only will we all benefit but you might get some referrals (after all why should I have all the fun). So email me your favourite exchange and your referral link and I'll put it up in a future blog (or leave it in a comment if you like). You have two weeks from today.

Setting Up A Website

Introduction
I'm not going to talk about the ins and outs of website design or adertising on the web in this post. This is purely a mechanical step-by-step guide to setting up your own website so that you can use it in a website-autoresponder system.

If you don't like the website here then you can always change it later - it's simple enough once the initial setup is complete. In all honesty though, I wouldn't waste too much time on this. Keep the design simple and quick to load and you can't go too far wrong.

I'm using www.myweboffice.com to set up the site. It has a nice HTML editor with a WYSIWIG option and is free. After you've set up the site you can move it anywhere you like simply by cutting and pasting the code. Always keep a copy of the code on your hard disc - you never know when you might need it.

There are plenty of options for hosting a website, either free or low cost. Most of the free ones cover their costs by putting adverts at the top or the bottom of your webpage and that can put some people off. However, you can get a single page with an email address for £10 a year ad free. Don't forget, your ISP will probably provide some inclusive webspace and that will be ad free as well - and it won't cost a penny over and above your normal fee.

I've had some problems detailing the code for the website. Unfortunately I can't just paste it in here as blogger recognises it as HTML and then reproduces the webpage! So please go to www.utilityteam.co.uk , right click anywhere on the page and then click on "view source". The code will appear and you can copy it wherever you like. Alternatively just drop me an email and I'll send the code to you. In fact, if you tell me the name of your autoresponder I'll even personalise it for you!

Seting up Your Site

1. Go to www.myweboffice.com
2. Click on "Get started FREE Build Website"
3. Complete the form and choose a username and password.
4. Check your email. Login using the activation link and enter your username and password,
5. Click on "site wide design"
6. Select "Plain" for website design and "without buttons" for "Website Design Color". Click "Save and Continue"
7. Leave website title blank, ignore the other two options and click on"Save and Continue".
8. Ignore the "Add Theme/Logo Image" (unless you really want one that is) and click on "Save and Continue"
9. Ignore all items on the next screen. Click "Save and Continue".
10. Initial setup is now complete. Click on the "Manage Pages" tab at the top of the page.
11. Click on the "HTML" radio button. Select all the text you see and delete it.
12. Copy and paste the HTML source text from www.utilityteam.co.uk (see above) into the now blank HTML editing screen. When the text is loaded scroll down to near the bottom of the screen and you will find a line that says INPUT type = hidden value=hamishhayward. Replace hamishhayward with the name you chose for your GetResponse autoresponder (just the bit before the @ sign).
13. Click on "Save Changes".
14. Click on "Preview and Publish" and view the website. If you're happy with it then click on the "Publish Web Site" button at the top.
15. If you don't like something then you can go back and edit it in the "design mode". You don't need to use the HTML editor anymore if you don't want to.

And that's it. You can now decide whether to stick with Myweboffice or whether to transfer the HTML code that you have generated elsewhere. There are plenty of options available and I'll talk about some of them later.

Getting Traffic To Your Website

Traffic Exchanges
Some of you may already be using traffic exchanges - also known as hit exchanges, start page exchanges, click exchanges... - to advertise your T+ business. If you don't know what a traffic exchange is then it's simply a club that you join and, in return for viewing other people's websites, your website will be visited. The logisitics vary from one exchange to another but the fundamental concept remains the same.

Traffic exchanges are free to join, so the traffic that you generate to your website is free. Of course, you will need to spend time clicking to view other peoples sites so that you can accumulate credits and have them view yours.

There are many who say that traffic exchanges don't work - and if you're new to the concept then you may find it hard to see the logic behind it. However, I can categorically state that they do work - certainly they may work more slowly than paid advertising but some of my best distributors (you know who you are) have joined T+ after having visited one of my sites on the traffic exchanges.

Normally I surf five or six traffic exchanges at once. This is a lot easier if you use a tabbed browser such as Avant browser (there are other tabbed browsers available - just pick one that you like). Have a look at Avant browser by clicking the link below:
http://www.avantbrowser.com/

For those of you who are new to traffic exchanges I have listed a few of my favourites below. If you're already using traffic exchanges but haven't joined some of these then you should definitely check them out - as I said earlier, I have recruited distributors using these.

Traffic Swarm
This is the best, and most visited, traffic exchange on the planet and you will get results if you use it. Based on my results it has a reasonable number of UK users. Hits are delivered very quickly and you can set a limit on how many credits you use every day.

I always pause my account at the weekend and allow my credits to build up. I turn it back on on Monday evening and I find this gets the best results. I also pause my account for a few weeks from time to time and allow my credits to build up before releasing them in a splurge (a campaign if you prefer) - you get a higher priority if you have a large number of credits and this can be a very effective tactic.
Click here to visit Traffic Swarm


StartXchange
I like this exchange as it rewards you for surfing by giving you referral credits even if you don't have referrals. Basically you get a proportion of the credits of those who are surfing just a little bit less than you. As you surf you can see your "rank" in the message bar. it can be quite addictive trying to get up the rankings. Hits are delivered fairly quickly.
Click here to visit StartXchange


Mystical Maze
This exchange rewards you for completing a maze which is shown every 10 surf pages. It stops you getting bored.
Click here to visit Mystical Maze


HitsUK
The clue is in the name here - it's a UK based exchange, although it does show international sites. You will probably see a few other T+ websites if you surf here.
Click here to visit HitsUK

HitAli
This exchange is run by Harry Wood a T+ distributor in our team. It delivers a steady flow of hits to your site and is nice to surf if you like an Irish theme. As you surf you will find that you regularly win random prizes and these soon mount up.

Harry also has a number of other sites that could be used to advertise your T+ business. You can investigate these once you visit HitAli.
Click here to visit HitAli

Other Traffic Exchanges
There are plenty other good traffic exchanges on the net, but the ones above should get you started. If you have a particular favourite that I've left out then just email me the details along with your referral link and I'll publish it in a future post - or leave a comment below if you prefer.

Superstars and Flying Pigs

Congratulations

Have you seen the latest Hot News? If so, you will have noticed that David Baker-Townsley had his name in lights not once but twice. Firstly for his promotion to Senior Executive and secondly as his team were in fifth place in the Senior Executive Top Team section! That's amazing!

And of course, it was a team effort - so it's no surprise to learn that Mick Draper, one of David's star performers, recently made it into the Flying Club. Watch out for him winging through the skies if you're in Southend-on-Sea! Huge congratulations to both Mick and David.

Who's going to be next I wonder?

Setting Up An Autoresponder

Introduction
If you haven't read the previous article "Internet Advertising - A System That Works" then I suggest that you do this before you read this article on setting up an autoresponder. If you have read the article then today's missive describes the first step towards getting your own system - which is setting up the autoresponder. Don't worry, this isn't a lengthy process - the email messages are already written so it should take an hour or two at most. If you don't like the messages then you can always edit them later - it's still better than starting from scratch!

An autoresponder is simply a piece of software which sends out prewritten emails at specified intervals to correspondents who have given you their email addresses. If you go to Google and type in "autoresponder" or "free autoresponder" you will find a large number of hits - there are plenty to choose from.

For the purposes of this exercise we will be looking at the free version of GetResponse, which is generally acknowledged to be one of the two best autoresponders available on the web. The other good one is AWeber and I think you will do well using either of these. If you want to change to another reponder later, or upgrade to a pro version that's fine - it'll be very easy once you have loaded the messages.

But in the first instance try this, especially if you haven't used an autoresponder before. It's free, the messages are preloaded for you and there are some good tutorials available to get you into the swing of things. Definitely sign up for the seven day email course on autoresponders, it will teach you most of what you need to know.

On with the show:


Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Go to www.getresponse.com.
2. Click on the "Sign Up For Free" tab (second from the left at the top).
3. Input your name, your email address, your country and your GetResponse "name". Your autoresponder address will then be name@getresponse.com - so if you select tplus for example, your autoresponder address will be tplus@getresponse.com.
4. In the "OPTIONAL" field enter jameela. This will load prewritten messages relating to Telecom plus into your autoresponder.
5. Check that everything is okay and click "submit" at the bottom of the page. Do this only once.
6. You will then be asked "Are you sure you want to sign up for Smart Responder FREE?". Scroll down and click on the lower of the two buttons "Click for Smartresponder FREE".
7. You should now be looking at a page entitled "Congratulations". Check your email to pick up your account information. You should have a message with the title "Welcome to GetResponse.com".
8. Open the email and check your login information. Click on the Member Site link and login using your name and password as supplied.
9. OPTIONAL - Position the mouse pointer over the "Account" tab and click on "Edit Settings". Then click on "Change your password" and change the 5 digit autogenerated password to something more memorable for you.
10. Position the mouse pointer over the "Messages" tab and then click on "Edit Messages". You should see a total of 9 messages numbered from 0 to 8.
11. For each message in turn click on "Edit" and amend the message to suit. Click "Save" when you're finished editing. For most messages all you will need to do is change the signature at the bottom to include your name, your email address and your freephone number. You should also check the delivery interval is suitable. However, pay close attention to the following two necessary changes:
12. Message 1 - Insert your six digit ID ref at the end of the storeplus web address http://www.storeplus.co.uk?exref=XXXXXX - replace XXXXXX with your ID number.
13. Message 8 - Insert your email address into the second paragraph.
14. Your autoresponder is now set up. Place the cursor over the "Messages" tab and click on "Test Messages". Type in the email address where you want the test messages sent to. Select "All messages" in the "choose message" field if this is not already selected and click on "Send Test Message".
15. Check your email and make sure that all the messages have been delivered. This may take a few minutes. Don't worry if they're not in strict numerical order. Make sure that you're happy with the look and content of all messages. If there are any errors, or if you just want to change any of the content, go back to step 10 and amend.
16. That's all folks!

Coming soon: Step-by-step instructions on how to set up a gateway page in order to load leads into your autoresponder.

Web Signups, Broadband & Browser

Signups From The New Recruiting Website
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the method in which I was using the new recruiting website. The experiment is going well and I managed to sign up another two new distributors using the new site last weekend.

I'm very pleased with the way it's going. It's saving me a lot of money on postage and, more importantly, reducing the time it takes to go through the process.

However, for those of you who are also using the site in a similar manner, be aware that you can only sign up IDs using this method. There is no option to sign up as a CGA. Anyone who tries will be automatically designated as an ID and you will then have to contact Exec Services in order to get them made a CGA.

Broadband Problems
I was interested to read Wes Linden's article on the Extranet - the one about everyone wishing they had started when he did and his attitude to teething problems. I know that some of you have had problems with the new broadband services and David Baker Townsley recently contacted Wes to discuss some of the broadband related problems that three distributors in his team had experienced.

I was very impressed by the swift action that Wes put in motion - contacting Exec Services directly and getting something done. I don't suppose we've seen the last of these problems - and there will probably be a few others to come with some of the other services - but it is gratifying to know that someone as senior as Wes is prepared to muck in and sort things out when problems arise.

Alternative Browser
Some of you may already be surfing traffic exchanges to advertise either T+ or other websites that you have. I normally surf 5 or 6 exchanges at once and I use a "tabbed browser" for this. It has several advantages over Internet Explorer and you can download one free by clicking on the link below:

http://www.avantbrowser.com/

This browser is more stable than IE, has its own pop-up stopper, can block flash animations (if you want it to) and will automatically reopen all surf windows when you restart (again only if you want it to). Give it a try you might like it!

General Update

Update on This Blog
The main reason I'm writing this blog is to share my experience, and the experience of others, with distributors in our team. I certainly don't profess to be an expert in network marketing, website design, direct selling etc. - but it is possible that some of my experiences could be helpful to others, even if it only helps them to avoid making the mistakes I did when starting out.

Most of the feedback I've received has been very positive - thank you all very much - but because I'm so greedy I would like even more. What I would really appreciate very much is if you could leave your comments telling everyone what your experience is.

It may be different from mine, you may agree or disagree with what I've said, you may think I've taken leave of my senses. Great! Take a couple of minutes and enter a comment to tell the rest of the team what your experience and/or opinion is - you could be doing us all a BIG favour.

Congratulations
Congratulations to Abdul Al-Mudhhafar who has just got his sixth customer and achieved QE status only a few short weeks after joining - some of which was the Christmas holidays. Enjoy the CVC Abdul, next stop SE!

Referrals
You know that I like marketing on the net, but it's not the be all and end all in this type of business. Last week I got a phone call from a nice retired gentleman in Dorchester who was interested in saving money on his gas and electricity.

Now I've never been to Dorchester and I don't know anyone who lives there. I had to look up a map of England so I could check who the gentleman's "local" provider was for electricity. After getting his details I asked how he had come to contact me - I wanted to know if it was Google, MSN, Yahoo etc.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he had been personally referred by one of my customers in Edinburgh. My Edinburgh customer signed up 18 months ago and she and the gent from Dorchester speak on the phone once a year around Christmas. It was cold when he phoned and, as they are both senior citizens, they were having a good moan about the cost of heating their houses. She told him how to save money and gave him my details. Serendipity or what?

Or what actually. I keep records of my customer's addresses and, whenever there's an especially good new service released I send them letters with a new brochure describing it. I had sent my Edinburgh customer a brochure describing the new More Talk options in October, telling her how she could get free calls to people she knows.

Of course, I do this whenever a customer signs up but I also keep customers updated with new developments. So T+ was (fairly) fresh in her mind and my details were to hand. Now I have a new customer.

It's also worth noting that my new customer in Dorchester was originally interested in gas and electricity only as he had "a great deal" from Sky for his phone. I mentioned that T+ were bringing out their new line rental deal in February and that, since he was signing up anyway, wouldn't he like the convenience of one bill paid by direct debit for all his utilities?

It was enough to make him look at the phone service and it turned out he could save another £5 a month. Not a huge amount to be sure but, coupled with the single bill, it was enough to make him go for the phone.

I also made sure that he was aware that his friend in Edinburgh would shortly receive a gift voucher for Boots as a small token of my appreciation for referring him. Additionally, I advised that I only offer this for senior citizens - because the only thing better than getting something for free is getting something for free that isn't available to all and sundry.

Finally I advised him to make sure that anyone he referred to me mentioned his name. I hope I don't have to wait 18 months for my first referral from Dorchester - but if I do then that's okay too, I can be patient when I need to be.

So think about this:

• Always ask your customers for referrals. Even if you don't get them immediately you might get them later.
• Keep in touch with your customers if you have their contact details. Don't pester them, but let them know about any new services that become available from time to time. Even if they don't want them themselves they may know someone else who does and they will have your contact details to hand if any of their friends are complaining about their bills.
• Never underestimate the attraction of a single bill for utilities. Some people will go for it just for the convenience, even before you start talking about savings.

Now think about this:

Some of you have signed up energy only customers since Express Day. Annoying isn't it? Well why not send them details of the new T+ line rental option when it comes out next month? You'll double your CVC and effectively get a new customer in your Genie.

Internet Advertising - The New T+ Recruiting Website

The New Distributor Recruitment Website
Have you had a look at your new Telecom plus recruiting website? If you have qualified then you will find it at the address below – just replace the last 6 digits with your own ID number. If you haven’t qualified yet then have a look at mine by clicking the link below.

http://www.telecomplus.org.uk/688609

I think this site is great – we’ve been crying out for something like this for ages. There’s a lot of information here that anyone interested in becoming a distributor will find extremely useful, and the ability to signup on line is great.

What's The Best Way To Use The New Website ?
Having said that, I won’t be using this website as my first point of contact with potential distributors. The things that make it so good for use at the back end of the prospecting process are, in my opinion, exactly the same things that would make it less effective at the front end of the cycle. It has too much information, and too much going on in general, for use where the need to get your message across quickly is essential.

Of course, once the potential distributor has established that he/she is interested, then you know that they will be prepared to take a little time digesting the wealth of information available and the new site is perfect for this type of visitor.

So for the moment at least, I’ll be sticking with my old, very simple gateway page, collecting email addresses, putting them through the autoresponder emails and then directing the interested parties to the new website somewhere at the back end of the process.

Where exactly in the process the prospect should be directed to the site I’m not 100% sure just yet. I’d be interested to know what others are trying and what success is resulting from different methods.

A Little Experiment
Last week I experimented a little. Whenever I got an email request for an information pack I responded by sending them a link to the new website. I made it clear to everyone that the website was quite new (just in case there were any teething problems) and I also told them that, if they preferred, I would send them out a “traditional “ information pack by post.

I think the results were very encouraging. I had two people come back to me and ask for an information pack to be sent out by post after they had viewed the website, one person who didn’t understand the opportunity having viewed the website and one person who has now signed up online as a distributor.

Benefits For Everyone
The whole process was much faster and cheaper than mailing out a lot of packs as I normally do. I received questions and feedback by email much more quickly. The new distributor who signed up online appeared in my Genie within 48 hours – and I am hoping that they will also receive their pack earlier than normal, allowing them to get started as soon as possible. Overall, I feel this process is much more efficient and beneficial to everyone involved :

• Information is sent to all interested parties much more quickly.
• You will save money on postage and get rapid feedback - which will help you focus
  your efforts where you’ll get the best return.
• Anyone who is interested can signup online and get their new business up and running more quickly.

All things considered – everyone’s a winner. This is going to be an invaluable aid to recruiting new distributors on the internet. And it’s free!

Internet Advertising - A System That Works

My System For Recruiting Distributors
This is a long post but it's an important topic. I have tried to provide a reasonable overview and I will return to some subtopics in more depth in future posts. Try to understand this concept - if you want to recruit distributors on the internet it's important.

Some of you will already be familiar with the system I use to recruit distributors on the internet as many of you have joined Telecom plus having been through this. There are a number of component parts - all of which are important - but I do think of it as a system and I definitely try to take a holistic approach when I consider any modifications.

Although it looks very simple, I have developed this system over a period of time, testing different variations and trying out different tweaks here and there. I suppose it took me about 6 months to get it firing on all cylinders - and I'm sure it can be improved further (feel free to make suggestions or tell me if there were any bits you really didn't like).

The main component parts are as below:

1. A very simple website which gives brief details of the Telecom plus opportunity and invites interested parties to enter their email address so that they can receive a series of emails describing the opportunity.
2. An autoresponder which contains a series of 9 emails. The autoresponder sends these out to registered recipients at predefined intervals.
3. Me. I answer emails and phone calls from people who have been through the email series and who find themselves sufficiently interested to ask for further details. I send out information packs when requested and distributor signup forms as required.
4. Traffic generation. It is necessary to drive traffic to the website in order for the system to work. There are many ways to do this, some are free, some cost money.

It would be possible to write a book on any of the topics above - some people already have. I will discuss each item in greater detail in further posts, but for the moment I'm just going to give a very brief description of each.

The Website
You can find my recruiting website at http://www.utilityteam.co.uk. This is a very simple, one page website and you will often hear this type of site referred to as a "splash page" or a "gateway page". It is specifically designed to load very quickly and to have all the important information on one screen with no requirement for the viewer to scroll up and down or left/right in order to view the information.

The information itself is pretty minimal - just enough to intrigue the viewer so that they enter their email address so they can find out more.

The Autoresponder (or the email messages if you prefer)
If you don't know what an autoresponder is it is simply a program which sends out preloaded emails to people at predefined times. You load your messages into the autoresponder and specify the time lag - message1 goes immediately, message 2 goes one day after that, message 3 goes one day after that ... - and then you just sit back and monitor the number of sign ups you get.

You need to establish a relationship with people before they will "buy" and these automated follow up messages will do that for you. There are many studies which suggest that you need to make contact seven times to maximise your chances of converting. Many of these studies are made by autoresponder owners of course - but there is plenty of independent evidence to suggest that follow up is absolutely essential.

Manual Follow Up
At some point you will be asked to provide further information. The prospect may phone you for a chat but an email asking for information to be sent in the mail is more common. Always respond to the email request, thank them for the enquiry and let them know that it's being dealt with. Ideally, tell them when you will mail the pack out to them so that they know it's on the way and when it will arrive.

By doing this you let them know that they're dealing with a real person, and of course you should treat them like a real person also. Whilst people are receiving my autoresponder series I think of them as "prospects". The minute I have a request from them they become "interested persons".

I always try to personalise the letter that accompanies the info pack as much as possible. If you know their title, Mr., Mrs., Miss etc. - use it. For the address I always use their title and highlight their name in bold, whilst in the body of the text I am less formal and use "Dear FIRSTNAME" as a greeting.

I have a fairly standard letter which lists the contents of the pack and contains a few pleasantries. If the interested person has given me any information about themselves I will try to use it if it's appropriate. For example, if they have an address within an hours drive of one of my existing distributors I might mention that I have an experienced distributor in their area who would be ready to help them get started. If they have told me their profession then I might mention it especially if I know of successful distributors in the same line of work. But don't force it or overdo it - people can always sense these things I think.

Driving Traffic to Your Site
This is an enormous subject, there are huge amounts of information on this on the internet. I will certainly return to this again (and again) - but for the moment here's a very brief summary of the two main methods I use.

TRAFFIC EXCHANGES
If you don't know what these are then you could consider them to be like a club. Everybody in the club has a website and they agree to look at other club member's sites in exchange for return viewings of their own site. Most exchanges these days will send one visitor to your site for every two sites you view, but there are others that operate on a one to one ratio.

Most traffic exchanges are free, though many offer a "pro" upgrade where you can get a better viewing ratio, inclusive visits without surfing etc. There is a strong north American bias to the exchanges and you will see lots of affiliate programs.

Some people will tell you they don't work but I can tell you that some of my best distributors have joined up through traffic exchanges.

PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC) ADVERTISING
Go to Google and do a search on something - any old thing it doesn't matter. Now look down the right hand side of the page and you will see lots of small boxes containing "classified ads" which relate to the search term you entered. If, instead of clicking on one of the sites in the main body of the page, you click on one of those boxes, you will be taken to a related site - usually commercial, where the site owner is selling something or offering a service related to your search term.

The site owner has paid for your click to get to that site. There is no fee to display the ad, you only pay for the clickthroughs to the site - hence "pay per click".

Some people will balk at paying for a click to their site - but it's a very effective technique. Think about it. The visitor has already indicated that they are interested because they entered an appropriate search term. To use T+ parlance they have "qualified" themselves in advance. Personally speaking, I would rather pay 25p to get one visitor to my site who is definitely interested in what I'm promoting than put 25 fliers that cost 1p each through the doors of people who haven't asked for them.

It's A Two Way Street
When you're in the early stages of your T+ business cycle you will, quite naturally, be keen to get as many new distributors as you can. Be aware that the above system is doing two things. It is presenting information to your prospects so that they can make a decision of course, but it is also sorting out the wheat from the chaff from your viewpoint.

Certainly you should put your best foot forward when presenting the information, but if you are honest and truthful about the opportunity then you will soon get rid of the timewasters and get rich quick brigade. There's nothing guaranteed to eat into your own limited time than a disgruntled distributor in your downline so be honest with your prospects, in your email messages, your telephone conversations and any other communications you may have.

What you want are motivated, self starters in your team. Ambitious people with targets, goals and big ideas are great. Daydreamers who think the world owes them a living because they just got broadband installed will drain your energy and swallow up your time before you know it.

What you really want is another half dozen people below you who share your vision and who will work the business to get what they want out of life. Use the system above and you just might find them.

More To Come
I will expand on some of the topics above in future posts - but that's more than enough for now. Thanks for reading this far.

Internet Advertising - Some First Thoughts

Internet Advertising
Advertising on the internet is incredibly easy. You can quite literally be up and running in a matter of minutes. There are lots of adverts which can be downloaded from the T+ Extranet, banners, text ads etc. and you can use these anywhere you want as they are pre-approved.

However, there is one fundamental concept that you need to understand before you use the internet to advertise for either customers or distributors - nobody ever buys anything the first time they visit a website. It doesn't matter how good your website is, how compelling your offer is or how good your prose is - they will not buy on the first visit. Think about it, and try to recall your own online experience.

Some years ago, on the recommendation of a friend, I visited Amazon for the first time. I had heard a lot of good things about it from my friends and colleagues and I was intrigued. I was certainly impressed by what I saw, the site was well laid out, information was clear and the prices were good. I didn't buy anything though - not on that visit. Later on I went back to the site and made my first purchase and I am now a regular customer.

So I went to one of the best websites on the planet, I was already interested and I had plenty of first hand recommendations from satisfied users who were personally known to me - but I didn't buy anything. Why is that? Simple - it's perfectly normal behaviour that's why, in fact had I bought anything on that first visit I would have been flying in the face of conventional behaviour - on the internet or in the real world.

It's the equivalent of window shopping, or you could consider it as research if you like. Just be aware that this is the way the vast majority of people surf and view websites - and plan accordingly.

The only way that you're going to make a sale is if the visitor returns, or if you have further contact by some other means. there are a number of ways to do this, two of the best methods are as follows:

1. Make the content of the website so interesting and compelling that your visitor will want to return.
2. You take the initiative and keep in touch by sending your visitor information by email.

Both of these methods work very well, and should be used together if possible.

The slight problem with the first method is that you need to have control of the website content - which is not the case for your T+ hosted website. You also need to know that they will return to your website. If they haven't got a link to your site then they might just go to Google and type in "telecom plus" as a search term. The chances that they would find their way back to your site by this method are vanishingly small.

The second method requires that you persuade the customer to give you their email address and their permission to send them emails. I use this method to recruit distributors.

I have a very simple "gateway page" which I advertise and where interested parties enter their name, email address and city. The email address is fed into an autoresponder which automatically sends a number of follow up emails containing preloaded messages to the prospect.

It sounds complex but it's not really. The advantage of this is that, once it's all set up, it's pretty much automatic. All I have to do is drive traffic to the website, answer the questions and queries which come from the prospects and sign them up when they confirm that they want to go ahead.

It's very effective - I have had over 1500 people sign up for my email messages since 01/06/04. I now have a team of over 40 distributors, most of whom have been recruited in this manner.

You can view my gateway page below:

http://utilityteam.co.uk


I think that's enough - but more on internet advertising later.