CHANGES IN RECRUITING PRACTICES FOR NETWORK MARKETERS...

© Copyright 2004-05 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved

Three conditions now exist which will change the way we solicit and recruit new MLM downlines forever...
ONE: The CanSpam Act will bring mass email based recruiting efforts to a screaming halt. The risk, frankly, of being accused of sending spam is just too great. Violators of the Act can be subject to stiff criminal penalties, which include fines and up to five years in prison. Civil damages can amount to as much as $250 per spam e-mail. Aggravated violations can cause civil damages to be tripled The days
when we could buy a list of thousands of "opt-in"
business opportunity seekers, plug them into an
autoresponder follow-up system, and wait for the system
to do its magic are drying up fast.

If you are currently using a system of buying bulk business opportunity leads from anyone... and loading them to your autoresponder system... you are playing a game of Russian Roulette. The only way to insulate yourself from the very real risk of being charged under the Can-Spam Act is to generate your own double opt-in leads. There are too many unscrupulous lead vendors who will promise you that the leads they sell are "opt-in" or "double opt-in"... when in fact they are neither. You have no way of knowing... so why risk bankruptcy or jail.

Some of the major lead generation companies are already leaving the business. Those who remain, are forced to
restructure how they generate and qualify those leads.
Most are necessarily turning to a telephone
verification system...which drives the price of the
lead much higher.

TWO: The growing aggressiveness on the part of ISP's to use very restrictive filtering systems that toss out huge amounts of legitimate mail. Messages, which do not pass some arbitrary screening process for words and phrases, are summarily discarded or thrown into some "bulk mail" file. Time Magazine estimates between 40% to 70% of all email is dumped (filtered) BEFORE anyone receives it. 27% of all permission- based email never arrives in the recipient's mail box. The undelivered rate of email today is staggering...and getting worse.

Even legitimate newsletter publishers, with sophisticated "double opt-in" subscription systems, are complaining about non-delivered mail that is filtered out by a third party (ISP's). They are paying for a service that they are not getting (email delivery), and I fully expect some lawsuits to be filed
on this issue soon.

THREE: Plummeting "open" rates. Tons of email that is
delivered is simply discarded by the person receiving
it because they are getting so much mail that it is
overwhelming them. The very real fear of computer viruses
also has played a major role in reducing the "open" rate. According to eMarketer.com and Opt-in News the 2003 open rate for ezines in the business-to-consumer category was a shocking 31%. This means that 69% did NOT open something that they opted-in to receive.
The result... effectiveness of email marketing systems...
measured by sales, profits, and conversions, are dropping like a rock.


"This is not about divorcing ourselves from technology, and all the benefits it has to offer... it is about building a comprehensive and synergistic approach to recruiting and downline building which recognizes, and uses, the proven methods of multi-media direct-response advertising."

What's the answer???

Well, one solution, in addition to refining our web based recruiting efforts, is a return to the old "tried & proven" offline methods, that many of us have gotten away from for the past few years,to generate our own lead base...
NOTE: All of these methods can be either "stand-alone"
recruiting systems... or involve driving qualified traffic
to a presentation website which has a lead capture mechanism built-in. This allows for an interested prospect to educate and identify themselves and request information and follow-up.

DIRECT MAIL

Targeted Direct Mail especially, is a
wonderful tool for MLM distributors to both sell
product and recruit and train new team members.

A common complaint, among those who are interested in
using direct mail, is the learning curve involved in
creating effective copy and offers, list selection, etc. In other words... direct mail requires some expertise to be
effective.

It's amazing that, whenever a problem or a need
exists... someone comes along to fill that need. Such
is the case with producing high quality, MLM focused,
direct mail...

Here is a claim made by a new downloadable product
which promises: "Now, in only 3