Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

A tool is only as good as the person using it!

Just because I can hold a paintbrush, it doesn't mean I can create a masterpiece, or even paint a simple cat! ;)

SFI itself is packed with many really useful tools. I don't want to list them all because I could list everything on the entire site, but if you look around, at the Marketing section, at the Power Tools - at everything - they all add up to a complete useful package of tools. The key is in learning how to use them.

Social media marketing is a great tool, but we all know how ineffective it becomes when people use it incorrectly - our links get blocked. The way around this is to build your own website or blog, but you still need to learn how to do this and how to use social media marketing effectively.

There are many experts out there who have youtube videos or host free webinars to show you how to do all sorts of things to help your business, like how to build a website, how to use social media marketing effectively, how to create a marketing funnel, etc. Yes, they will generally be promoting something themselves and you will have to give them your email address to gain access to their webinar, but I have still gained many 'golden nuggets' from listening to them, and it's easy enough to unsubscribe from their list afterwards if you wish.

What I would suggest is that you make a list of topics, e.g.:

Within SFI:
- how to use the Marketing tools
- how to place banners
- how to use genealogy
- how to use the Power Tools
etc...

Outside of SFI:
- how to build a website
- how to use social media marketing
- how to build a list
- how to write and design classified ads
- how to create training videos and post on youtube (get a program called screencast-o-matic for this by the way, it's free and easy to use)
etc...

and then commit to learning about each topic on your list. Perhaps devote a week to each one, taking notes, keeping a list of useful websites and tools, with your login details for any you join.

Integrate all your learning into a schedule of tasks you can do regularly.

The tools are all there, and are all useful in their own way. The only tool that can make them work together is YOU!

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A tool is only as good as the person using it!

Just because I can hold a paintbrush, it doesn't mean I can create a masterpiece, or even paint a simple cat! ;)

SFI itself is packed with many really useful tools. I don't want to list them all because I could list everything on the entire site, but if you look around, at the Marketing section, at the Power Tools - at everything - they all add up to a complete useful package of tools. The key is in learning how to use them.

Social
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

Hi Olusola

You should approach business forums with the right INTENTION, which should be to learn, help and network, rather than seeing it just as a place to post your links.

When a forum is just full of people posting their links, it devalues the forum. People will stop reading, or leave.

Look at our SFI forum, posting of links is against the rules. This is great, because it means that most of the content in our forum is genuine advice and help. The really helpful posts are not drowned in a sea of self-promotional spamming of links.

Find a good-quality business forum. Google something that would be helpful to your business, like 'how to build a business website' and add 'forum' to the search, so 'how to build a business website forum'. Or use a search on something in business which you are really good and experienced with, and add 'forum' to the search.

With Facebook, join legitimate business focus groups, not just those groups which are full of links. People are not in those groups to help, they are only there to post their links and not read other posts. These are often a sure-fire way of getting sent to 'Facebook Jail'!

Join good business groups and forums and read the posts. Be genuinely interested. Find something that you can reply to, intend to add your own value to the discussion.

Don't even mention your own business!

In the forums, you will have your own profile, and you will be able to add a 'signature'. In your profile, write something about yourself, your background, your life, how and why you decided to have your own home business. In the signature, you can add a link to your gateway or, preferably, a link to your own website or blog.

When you add to a discussion in the forum, the link to your profile and your signature will be visible to other users. If what you are contributing is useful to other members, they will be interested in you and will click on your profile or your signature.

There is a concept in network marketing known as KLT - Know, Like, Trust - also known as 'attraction marketing'. When people get to know, like and trust you, they will be attracted to you and what you have to offer. Don't try and get them interested in SFI, aim to get them interested in YOU!

Think about our own Forum Guru program here in the SFI Forum. What does it take to become a Forum Guru? Providing useful, clear posts that help other users. Whether you are beginning a new thread, or replying to somebody else's, the intention should be 'How can I help you?' rather than 'What's in it for me?'. Aim to become a Forum Guru in your home business forums.

Participate in the forum as if you are helping your own team, colleagues and peers. When what you provide is of value, members will 'follow' you.

They will not join your business immediately. They will need time to KLT you. So you will need to be a regular and consistent visitor and contributor to the forum.

Don't focus on money or income or signups. Focus on the knowledge you can give and receive, the relationships and connections you are building. Show genuine interest in your fellow forum members. Look for posts that will help you, and thank that forum member for their help. Get others to notice you for your contribution, remember your profile and signature is visible on every post.

I hope this is helpful to you and others. To your success!
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Hi Olusola

You should approach business forums with the right INTENTION, which should be to learn, help and network, rather than seeing it just as a place to post your links.

When a forum is just full of people posting their links, it devalues the forum. People will stop reading, or leave.

Look at our SFI forum, posting of links is against the rules. This is great, because it means that most of the content in our forum is genuine advice and help. The really helpful
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

Absolutely!

That is what teamwork and team leadership is.

A team leader will continue to motivate, provide acknowledgement and recognition, support wherever possible.

You succeed only when your team succeeds. If you have someone on your team who is highly driven, motivated and enthusiastic, you need to keep feeding and encouraging that.

If they have moved quickly up the Team Leader ranks in their first month or two, don't confuse this with advancement just yet, it may be that they have collected all their training VPs and made a financial investment. The test will be whether they can sustain that in following months. They may not have team-building and sponsoring skills yet, which you need to teach and encourage.

There will always be something you can help your team members with, regardless of the stage or level they are at. Perhaps they have done well recruiting their own team, and are ready to explore another aspect of SFI, such as opening their own ECA store, and maybe you have experience with the ECA program. Or maybe they want to build their own website, and you can help with that.

Let their success drive you forward too, aim to be the person they choose to come to for advice, by advancing your own knowledge and skills, building on your working relationship and keeping channels of communication open.

Allow their progress to motivate you - their success, and your earnings from that success, may afford you the ability to offer more team incentives, rewards, contests, etc. Try out new things yourself, and if they work for you, let all your team members know your ideas and how they work.

There may be times when your 'star' team member hits a 'plateau' or may even drop back a little. This is when you may need to use your experience of being a more long-standing member of SFI to encourage them that many of us go through a phase like that and that they need to persevere and not give up.

You may be able to learn from each other, and maybe even pool your resources to work on a joint project for the benefit of both of your downlines, e.g. a training website, a youtube channel, or a social media group.

Be as excited about their success as if it were your own - because it is!
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Absolutely!

That is what teamwork and team leadership is.

A team leader will continue to motivate, provide acknowledgement and recognition, support wherever possible.

You succeed only when your team succeeds. If you have someone on your team who is highly driven, motivated and enthusiastic, you need to keep feeding and encouraging that.

If they have moved quickly up the Team Leader ranks in their first month or two, don't confuse this with advancement just
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

Hi Gilbert,

SFI has published a solutions page about the CSA Exchange here:
What is the CSA Exchange? How does it work?
https://www.sfimg.com/Support/Solution?id=211449

There are a few FAQs in there which address your question directly so I´ll pull them out for you:

Q: Will exchanged CSAs know they’ve been assigned a new co-sponsor?
Yes, immediately upon reassignment, we send each person an e-mail letting them know they have a new co-sponsor from their own country. This notice includes the full name and e-mail address of the new co-sponsor and invites them to make contact.

Q: How can I identify the new CSAs I've received through the CSA Exchange...so I can introduce myself?
The easiest method is through your Genealogy report. Use the "CSA Assign Date" for your first filter, then "CSA Source = CSA Exchange" for your second filter to pull up your new exchanged CSAs by date. You can then use the Genealogy's group messaging tool to send them your message.

Q: What should I say in my introduction message?
It’s up to you, but here’s a suggestion:
Subject: I’m your new co-sponsor in SFI!

Hi,

I’ve just received the great news that I’ve been assigned as your new co-sponsor in SFI!

Like yourself, I live in <COUNTRY> and I would love to work with you to help you build a successful business. SFI is a powerful and proven business platform, and I would be honored, as your new co-sponsor in <COUNTRY>, to help you in any way I can.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Your Name
Your email address

--------------

So SFI has made the initial introduction for you.

I would advise the use of an ecard to send their welcome message. It´s more personal and I think ecards tend to get a better response rate than standard text mailers.

You can add to the suggested message by asking them how they have found SFI so far, and what you could do to help them progress further.

If they have not yet made a real start, you can point out that it will be easier for them to do so now as language will not be a barrier.

Best wishes

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Hi Gilbert,

SFI has published a solutions page about the CSA Exchange here:
What is the CSA Exchange? How does it work?
https://www.sfimg.com/Support/Solution?id=211449

There are a few FAQs in there which address your question directly so I´ll pull them out for you:

Q: Will exchanged CSAs know they’ve been assigned a new co-sponsor?
Yes, immediately upon reassignment, we send each person an e-mail letting them know they have a new co-sponsor from
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

There is little financial return from you becoming a TL, until your have a team to lead.

You will earn from your Gen 1 PSAs and your CSAs as an EA2 yourself, so that is sufficient until your PSAs start building their own teams and begin seeing some activity. Then it is worth you becoming TL so you can earn Matching VPs from at least 6 levels of your downline.

Having said that, there are a couple of extra benefits, both tangible and intangible, from becoming TL earlier. These are:
- you will feel more confident when you have at least a BTL rank and badge. You may feel this will look more professional on your profile to help you in your team-building activities and drive you forward.
- you will receive Second Home CSAs every month when you are TL. You may feel the benefit of these are worth making an investment, especially if the margin to move up from EA to BTL is a narrow one, and worth the small cost.

If you are earning enough in commissions to cover that cost, then my opinion is that it is worth progressing to BTL. From then on, allow your team sponsoring activity points to drive you further up the TL ranks.
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There is little financial return from you becoming a TL, until your have a team to lead.

You will earn from your Gen 1 PSAs and your CSAs as an EA2 yourself, so that is sufficient until your PSAs start building their own teams and begin seeing some activity. Then it is worth you becoming TL so you can earn Matching VPs from at least 6 levels of your downline.

Having said that, there are a couple of extra benefits, both tangible and intangible, from becoming TL earlier. These
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

Einstein said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

If you are not satisfied with your results, take action to change something.
Some ideas are:

- Advertise more! Maybe you're just not advertising enough.

- Re-word your adverts. Don't speak ABOUT the business, speak TO the person. Appeal to an emotion, such as "How would it feel if you could choose your own hours so you never had to miss another important event in your child's life?", "Are you worried your pension won't be enough to live on when you retire?"

- Make adverts more attractive, perhaps by using eye-catching images.

- Advertise in different places.

-Track your adverts using Key Codes and the Hit Tracking tool so you can see which adverts work better than others. Use the results to target your advertising better.

- Advertise on social media at different times of the day.

A 'golden nugget' I picked up at a business seminar several years ago is "If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got".
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Einstein said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

If you are not satisfied with your results, take action to change something.
Some ideas are:

- Advertise more! Maybe you're just not advertising enough.

- Re-word your adverts. Don't speak ABOUT the business, speak TO the person. Appeal to an emotion, such as "How would it feel if you could choose your own hours so you never had to
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

Hi Rafeed

I do not believe this is an either/or question. Why not do both? They are not mutually exclusive, they are both independent income streams here at SFI.

In fact, being an ECA yourself will help you to refer more ECAs as you will have a better understanding of the ECA program, and increased knowledge and experience. You can position yourself as an expert, an authority on helping people to open their own e-commerce store.

If you have products to sell yourself, here are the benefits of opening your own ECA store:

* Go global! Reach millions of shoppers worldwide on one of the fastest growing, international e-commerce sites on the Web.

* No listing fees and no risk. Simply sign up, upload your products, and start taking orders. TripleClicks retains a nominal amount only when you make a sale.

* Put the marketing muscle of over one million SFI affiliates to work for you, promoting and selling your products in over 20,000 cities in over 190 countries!

* TripleClicks further facilitates sales growth by providing you with your own customized "TConnect" Website, a multitude of payment options for your customers and much more!

* When TripleClicks customers 'Connect' with your ECA, you have ongoing opportunities to promote your products and services to them, through the newsletters you can send them on a regular basis.

When you refer ECAs, you will earn commissions on all of their sales, for life!
You will also earn 100VP when they make their first $10 in sales.

SFI provides a comprehensive guide to referring ECAs here:
https://www.sfimg.com/Training/ECAStrategies
showing you the methods and techniques to grow your team of ECAs.

SFI also answers just about all the questions you may have about the ECA program here:
https://www.sfimg.com/Support/index?category=26444&folder=42424

No question about it, if you can, do both!

Hope this helps.
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Hi Rafeed

I do not believe this is an either/or question. Why not do both? They are not mutually exclusive, they are both independent income streams here at SFI.

In fact, being an ECA yourself will help you to refer more ECAs as you will have a better understanding of the ECA program, and increased knowledge and experience. You can position yourself as an expert, an authority on helping people to open their own e-commerce store.

If you have products to sell yourself,
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

Your own website or blog will be one of your greatest advantages in being successful with SFI.

In the online world, there are over 2 billion potential customers. To increase your visibility to them, you need more online presence. It's the difference between having a store on the High Street or down a dark alleyway.

Also, your own website or blog shows you as a real person, not a faceless opportunity like many the internet is swamped with. You can show how unique you are with your own experience with SFI.

Many social media platforms do not allow the SFI & TripleClicks gateways, so a way to overcome this is by writing your own blog about SFI and posting your articles to social media.

Best wishes
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Your own website or blog will be one of your greatest advantages in being successful with SFI.

In the online world, there are over 2 billion potential customers. To increase your visibility to them, you need more online presence. It's the difference between having a store on the High Street or down a dark alleyway.

Also, your own website or blog shows you as a real person, not a faceless opportunity like many the internet is swamped with. You can show how unique you are with
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

It´s not like you really have to choose one or the other Allison.

You can do both.

ECAs are sellers. PRMs are customers. In any market, you can´t have one without the other. Therefore, they both have equal potential. It will only depend on which one you are more comfortable with, or which one you focus on more.

If I said one was more profitable than the other, would that mean you would give more attention to one and forget about the other? Then, you would be missing an opportunity.

Whichever one you refer, you also have no idea how active they will be, i.e. how much a PRM may spend or how much an ECA may sell.

If you are lucky, you may know potential ECAs personally and be able to help them set up their store, and help them promote it to increase their sales, and thus your commissions. If the product range appeals to other affiliates, they will also promote them, and you will earn commissions from those sales too.

You may have a niche market for PRMs and be able to promote certain products, e.g. you could have a health-related blog and be able to promote the health supplements sold by TC, then when they join to buy those you could benefit from commissions from those and any other purchases the PRM makes.

But really, it´s like asking if you prefer apples or pears.
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It´s not like you really have to choose one or the other Allison.

You can do both.

ECAs are sellers. PRMs are customers. In any market, you can´t have one without the other. Therefore, they both have equal potential. It will only depend on which one you are more comfortable with, or which one you focus on more.

If I said one was more profitable than the other, would that mean you would give more attention to one and forget about the other? Then, you would be missing
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Affiliate since: 04/14/2014, Power Rank: 99999999

There is so much to do other than the daily To Do List.

But let´s pay some attention to the daily To Do list first, because I feel it is often undervalued. It is sometimes very clear, especially from forum posts, that some affiliates click through the red tabs simply to collect the VPs, but are not really reading and absorbing the information provided on them.

It is very easy to say your daily tasks take only 15-20 minutes, but if that is all the time you devote to them, you will not see much progression and success will take you longer, if at all. You should let the daily tabs guide you through further learning and activity in growing your business, which is what you need to be doing besides collecting VPs.

Most of the tabs include links to resources elsewhere within the site, all of which will add value to your business, but only if you research and use them. For example:

Tips tab - read the Power Tip. How can you use this? Click the link for more Power Tips and see if you can use more of them. Ask SC Answer of the Day - do you find this useful? Click on the title of the question to read more answers on the subject. Do you like the answer given by that particular affiliate? Click on the link given to read more answers from that affiliate.

TC tab - lots of links here for you to browse newly listed products. Look for products that fit your niche or that you can promote to friends/family/social media. Don´t know how to? Then click on the links to training in the ´Grow your SFI income selling TripleClicks products´ section at the bottom.

The same applies to the ECA, EZ and PB tabs. They all have more information and links to show you how to promote them.

Ask SC tab - just jam-packed full of help for you to succeed! Do not underestimate the value of this tab.

I am not going to go through them all, but you should get the picture. Don´t just click through the tabs to collect the VPs, really take the time to STUDY and find new ways to move forward and succeed.

Your daily tasks should not take you 15-20 minutes if you really want to succeed. They should take you at least one hour, especially if you are new to SFI.

Now, after this, you should have more ideas and a plan for what more you can do, in that day and beyond.

You will also be better prepared to help your downline, which is a priority task. Make it one of your first daily activities to help any of your team who have contacted you for help.

Did you learn something new, from the tabs or from your own experience, that you can use to teach your downline? Has there been any new developments within the business? Use this to create a newsletter, or to write up a new blog post on your website.

If you update your website, spend some time promoting your article on social media. Or promote some of your previously written articles.

If you don´t have a website, or you don´t have an email list of prospects, spending some time learning how to do these things. Anybody looking to create a steady and sustainable online business for the long-term future really needs to develop in this area. Don´t expect to see immediate results, it will take some time before you do, but if you don´t start this, your long-term success will be significantly hindered.

Spend some time using classified ads, traffic exchanges and email advertisers to promote your gateway, or better still, to drive traffic to your website and improve your search engine ranking.

If you don´t think you are very creative or very good at creating adverts or website content, then study the ones you see on the traffic exchanges. Which ones attract your attention? Take tips from them to create your own.

These are all things I do regularly. I was completely new to this kind of business when I began and still have a way to go, but working on these things is all heading towards success.

I hope it gives you some helpful ideas.

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There is so much to do other than the daily To Do List.

But let´s pay some attention to the daily To Do list first, because I feel it is often undervalued. It is sometimes very clear, especially from forum posts, that some affiliates click through the red tabs simply to collect the VPs, but are not really reading and absorbing the information provided on them.

It is very easy to say your daily tasks take only 15-20 minutes, but if that is all the time you devote to them,
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