Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

The first tip always is to let them know they need 500 VP in order to get the Fast Track bonus. Just confirming registration, whitelisting SFI, completing your profile, uploading a photo, entering a new affiliate greeting, registering as an A2A member and sending your commitment to your sponsor will almost give you those - and that first 500 points in 24 hours is worth 200 bonus points! I tell them to do that first, even if it is confusing, and then I will help them to learn what it all means.

I also try to translate my email replies to affiliates who indicate that English is not their first language. Even if the translation is not very good, I want them to know that I am trying to communicate with them and that I want them to understand how the program works.

One of the best tips is to get people joining A2A as soon as possible. That way, even if they don't have a team, they can still send a stream post to their A2A friends. New affiliates especially miss out on the first week or two of stream posts and "sending a message to your team" since they don't have a team. Many people click on each page to do the daily VP, but miss the weekly VP that might mean the difference between getting to the next rank or not. In the month of May, you could have had up to 15 stream posts (3 per week)- that 15 points could be the ones you are missing to get to the next level!


less

The first tip always is to let them know they need 500 VP in order to get the Fast Track bonus. Just confirming registration, whitelisting SFI, completing your profile, uploading a photo, entering a new affiliate greeting, registering as an A2A member and sending your commitment to your sponsor will almost give you those - and that first 500 points in 24 hours is worth 200 bonus points! I tell them to do that first, even if it is confusing, and then I will help them to learn what it all means.

I
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

I find the best way to be paid commissions in the US is by direct deposit. For someone in another country the Payoneer Master Card is probably the best bet, but for me there are just too many fees associated with the Master Card when I can have my commissions direct deposited for free, and I can access them instantly with my checking account's debit card.

The only drawback is that payment does not occur until a day or two after the 15th of each month. But once you start making money, you can plan around that commission timetable. SFI has never, ever missed a payment since I joined in July of 2001. That kind of stability is worth the wait.
less

I find the best way to be paid commissions in the US is by direct deposit. For someone in another country the Payoneer Master Card is probably the best bet, but for me there are just too many fees associated with the Master Card when I can have my commissions direct deposited for free, and I can access them instantly with my checking account's debit card.

The only drawback is that payment does not occur until a day or two after the 15th of each month. But once you start making money, you
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

Great question. Here are five things I would do differently.

First, I would join one of the fine coops that offer PSAs monthly, whether through SFI directly or one of the TripleClicks ECAs offering them, or even one of the fine independent coops out there offered by SFI affiliates. While it is true that you can get started for free, and even make money without ever investing any money yourself, if you really want to make money with SFI you must make it a priority to find the money to invest in your business. Otherwise, it will just take way too long to make too little money, and you will get discouraged and quit.

Second, I would not waste my time or money leaving SFI EVER for other expensive programs that promise better compensation but are very expensive to join, and have an expensive autoship of product I do not really want or need. Had I spent on SFI exclusively all the energy and money I spent on other programs for the last twelve years, I am certain I would truly have a six figure residual income.

Third, I would become EA immediately, and then make sure to NEVER, EVER lose my EA status, even for one month. I have lost some great benefits over the years for the sake of $29 I didn't want to spend one month. If it is a priority for you, you can find the money.

Fourth, I would have fully supported my PSAs AND CSAs all these years. It can be very discouraging when they do not do anything, but you never know when someone will become active - it could be next month, or next year, or five years from now. The CSAs you are awarded each month are the backbone of your team until you can recruit your own, if you do not have money to participate in a coop. Many times they are more active than your own PSAs.

Fifth, I would have spent even more time developing international affiliates. I always focused a lot of energy on my international affiliates, but I didn't have the translation tools that are available today. Back in the day, most of the growth of this business was in the United States. But today, most network marketing growth is everywhere else. Oftentimes, people in the US are so skeptical of any money making program and think everything is a scam, but people overseas recognize opportunity and are willing to work for it.



less

Great question. Here are five things I would do differently.

First, I would join one of the fine coops that offer PSAs monthly, whether through SFI directly or one of the TripleClicks ECAs offering them, or even one of the fine independent coops out there offered by SFI affiliates. While it is true that you can get started for free, and even make money without ever investing any money yourself, if you really want to make money with SFI you must make it a priority to find the money to invest
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

Every time I log in at the affiliate center I check on my genealogy page to see who is online. If I see that the yellow button is next to their name I will send them a quick instant message just to let them know I am available if they need anything. When I am logged in, I keep an eye out for new SFIM messages coming in. You will see a flashing yellow message just to the right of your profile photo when you have a new SFIM message. (Don't have one? shame on you. Upload your photo now!!)

Most of my affiliate team is not in the US, so one problem I have is being able to be online at the same time that they are. I can log in at any time of the day or night and find people online, but I have to sleep sometimes! To be able to leave them a message using the IM system is helpful, because sometimes people do not read the messages in their SFI inbox for a long time. PSAs can also see the yellow button next to my name on their home page when I am available.

Sometimes I will quickly send them an IM to let them know that I have another team site with a live chat room where they can find me at certain hours. I also make my Skype ID available and encourage my team to friend me on Facebook. But I try to log in to the affiliate center several times a day to see if anyone is there.

My own sponsor must keep his affiliate center open in a browser at all times, because his yellow button is almost always there when I log in to the affiliate center. Even though I don't bother him, it is nice to know that he is available, and I will use that as a signal that he is working on his SFI business and I might be able to reach him by email. I hope that my affiliates will do the same.
less

Every time I log in at the affiliate center I check on my genealogy page to see who is online. If I see that the yellow button is next to their name I will send them a quick instant message just to let them know I am available if they need anything. When I am logged in, I keep an eye out for new SFIM messages coming in. You will see a flashing yellow message just to the right of your profile photo when you have a new SFIM message. (Don't have one? shame on you. Upload your photo now!!)

Most
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

I think a TripleClicks card would be a great insert in a brochure you give to a prospective ECA, whether you mail it or speak to them in person. It provides an way for them to test drive the experience their customers would have buying something at TripleClicks.

You could also visit local stores with a small number of cards - say 10-15 - and ask them if they would be interested in giving away a Triple Clicks card with a purchase of a certain item, or dollar amount. Provide a flyer for them to put in the store with the details of the offer (SFI already has these pre-made for you). Tell them you will come back in a few days and see if they had any additional sales because of the cards. If they did, they will probably want more of them, and even be open to signing up as an ECA or an affiliate. And even if they do not, the cards they give away will be coded to you and you will get new TC members and sales. The cards are very attractive, and it is doubtful that those customers would throw away something that is valued at $12 even if they don't use it right away.
less

I think a TripleClicks card would be a great insert in a brochure you give to a prospective ECA, whether you mail it or speak to them in person. It provides an way for them to test drive the experience their customers would have buying something at TripleClicks.

You could also visit local stores with a small number of cards - say 10-15 - and ask them if they would be interested in giving away a Triple Clicks card with a purchase of a certain item, or dollar amount. Provide a flyer for
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

Autoresponders can help your business by automating the replies to questions you get all the time, but they can hurt your business if the people receiving the messages feel that you don't care about them because you are sending them canned messages, or overwhlemed by the volume of email. SFI Corporate sends enough messages to new affiliates without you adding more for them to read!

If you have your own website to help your team understand SFI, you can use an autoresponder to send them a series of messages that help to simplify the program for them. But even then, you have to be careful because your team members will have different levels of proficiency in English and may not understand what you have written.

One way to "automate" letters is to write personal responses to letters but when you are writing, if you come up with a really great answer to a question, save it in a file. Then the next time someone asks you about entering the Daily Grand, you can find a great reply already written in your file called "daily-grand.txt." Write them a personal letter, based on whatever else they say to you, but also copy and paste that info into your letter. It is the best of both worlds!
less

Autoresponders can help your business by automating the replies to questions you get all the time, but they can hurt your business if the people receiving the messages feel that you don't care about them because you are sending them canned messages, or overwhlemed by the volume of email. SFI Corporate sends enough messages to new affiliates without you adding more for them to read!

If you have your own website to help your team understand SFI, you can use an autoresponder to send them
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

You can obtain the HTML code for SFI banners here: https://www.sfimg.com/Resources/Marketing/StandardSponsoringAids

Both self-hosted Wordpress blogs and Blogger have widget areas where you can copy and paste that HTML code.

Wordpress.com has regulations about commercial use, so you may want to check and see if you are allowed to post banners there.

On Blogger you can click on the "Layout" tab, and on Wordpress you go to "appearance" and then "widgets." Paste your banner HTML into a text box that allows HTML. Be sure you select a banner that fits in the area you are working with. One of the skyscraper banners or box banners works well for your blog sidebar, and the 468x80 banners can go in those areas that are sized to allow them. If your banner is too big for the space, it will look bad and reflect badly on both you and SFI, so make sure it fits!
less

You can obtain the HTML code for SFI banners here: https://www.sfimg.com/Resources/Marketing/StandardSponsoringAids

Both self-hosted Wordpress blogs and Blogger have widget areas where you can copy and paste that HTML code.

Wordpress.com has regulations about commercial use, so you may want to check and see if you are allowed to post banners there.

On Blogger you can click on the "Layout" tab, and on Wordpress you go to "appearance" and then
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

In addition to SFI, my "real" business is helping small businesses use social media properly. One of the first things I tell my clients is that people are not on Facebook to be sold something.

So my first, best advice is to anyone who wants to promote a product or service - or SFI - on Facebook or Twitter is to FIRST build relationships. Watch what your friends post and figure out where your interests intersect with theirs, and then give them what they like! Be so winsome that people fall in love with you and want be involved in whatever you are doing! Trust me, THEY will ask you about your business - you won't have to chase them.

Create a fan page where you talk about SFI and include great info about the products, and you can gently direct your friends to check it out after they are already hanging on your every word!

It is true that there are many entrepreneurs' groups that you can join that allow promotion, and you will want to check those out. But if they are open groups, your posts in those groups will show up in your news feed where your friends can see them, and there is nothing like constant promoting that turns off everyone ELSE on your friend's list! You don't want to be reported for spam, which reflects badly on you and on SFI.

And by the way, I wouldn't bother with LinkedIn for SFI. Network Marketing just doesn't work all that well there and your time is better spent elsewhere.
less

In addition to SFI, my "real" business is helping small businesses use social media properly. One of the first things I tell my clients is that people are not on Facebook to be sold something.

So my first, best advice is to anyone who wants to promote a product or service - or SFI - on Facebook or Twitter is to FIRST build relationships. Watch what your friends post and figure out where your interests intersect with theirs, and then give them what they like! Be so winsome that
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

I laughed when you said WEEKS. I have two BTLs in my group - one since 2001 who has been active the whole time, and one since 2003, who was dormant for so long he was downgraded to a Triple Clicks member! Recently he became active again and immediately got involved and got back to EA, and then to BTL. So just because someone has not been active for a while doesn't mean they will never be active again. People leave SFI and try other programs, only to find out that they are not what they were expecting, and they come back because SFI is the real deal and pays reliably and is not a get-rich-quick scheme.
less

I laughed when you said WEEKS. I have two BTLs in my group - one since 2001 who has been active the whole time, and one since 2003, who was dormant for so long he was downgraded to a Triple Clicks member! Recently he became active again and immediately got involved and got back to EA, and then to BTL. So just because someone has not been active for a while doesn't mean they will never be active again. People leave SFI and try other programs, only to find out that they are not what they were expecting,
...more

Affiliate since: 07/14/2001, Power Rank: 99999999

Don't underestimate the value of your time!! Surfing exchanges is a time suck, and isn't something that you should spend hours and hours doing. Do you have a job? How much do you make per hour? If you If they have a good paid program, it might be worth $7 to $10 a month for the ad credits you get.

While it is true that traffic exchanges are populated by people who are looking for advertising and views for THEIR site and may be mindlessly surfing and clicking without checking out SFI, there are far fewer ads for SFI and legitimate businesses than there are for other traffic exchanges, FOREX trading and scammy programs.

Many who use them are looking for the "easy money" programs that are often advertised on these exchanges. Some who who come to SFI from the exchanges do not want to work that hard, and so they do not become active. But if they are short on cash and are actually surfing the sites instead of paid members using ad credits who never see any sites, eventually they will wonder about the programs they are seeing out there over and over and be willing to check SFI out for free.

There are SFI affiliates who expect instant results, and when they do not see immediate results they get tired of using traffic exchanges and remove their gateway. That is to your advantage too! From time to time, if you have stuck it out you will have an extended period where your site is a novelty and people will click on it because it is completely different.

I have been getting results from traffic exchanges for years with varying results. Recently I have discovered that there are only a relatively few SFI affiliates out there on the exchanges I use, and I am getting a decent amount of signups from traffic exchanges.

There are a lot of these exchanges and they have many hundreds of thousands of members with new people signing up all the time. Find one that has a lot of junk programs and not a lot of SFI affiliates and see what happens!

less

Don't underestimate the value of your time!! Surfing exchanges is a time suck, and isn't something that you should spend hours and hours doing. Do you have a job? How much do you make per hour? If you If they have a good paid program, it might be worth $7 to $10 a month for the ad credits you get.

While it is true that traffic exchanges are populated by people who are looking for advertising and views for THEIR site and may be mindlessly surfing and clicking without checking out SFI, there
...more