If you’ve been trying to building your network marketing business on the internet for any length of time, you’ve probably discovered you have the same problem as your off-line counterparts do — how do you generate leads? You burned through your warm market of friends, family and acquaintances ages ago. In fact, you probably did that on your last business opportunity, or maybe even the one before that.

Like most of us, you probably tried buying leads, only to be cursed at, yelled at, threatened and hung up on. So much for “highly responsive” leads! Or maybe you bought email lists and after sending thousands of emails out to this “laser-targeted” group, the only responses you received were from the mail service saying your email couldn’t be delivered. Not a single person was interested in your internet network marketing business.

Next, you probably tried advertising. Maybe you heard about ezine and newsletter advertising and decided to give it a try. After all, the readers are people who are already interested in network marketing via the internet. You tried regular ads, and solo ads. You probably even tried a pay per click campaign, highly praised for being an advertising method that you only pay for those who actually read your ad, not for the entire circulation of potential readers. You carefully charted your click-through rate and were pleased with your success, until you realized you didn’t have a single conversion for your efforts after six months.

Does any of this sound familiar? Am I talking to the right crowd? It’s enough to make the faint of heart quit. In fact, I’m sure you know the statistics. Approximately 97% of all those who enter network marketing fail — most of them within a few months. I wouldn’t be surprised if that percentage is even higher for internet network marketing. So, what’s the answer? Is there an answer?

Yes, Virginia, there is a way to dramatically increase your internet network marketing leads in 7 days — for FREE! And I have the secret. Do you want to know what it is?

The answer is article marketing, and here’s why:

We are emotional creatures. As much as we would like to say that we are logical and think things through before acting, the truth is, our responses are usually dictated by our emotions. In order to write effective sales copy, you have to be a bit of a psychologist. You need to determine who your market is, and what they desire.

If you are selling weight loss products, for instance, you know that your target audience consists of those who feel they need to lose weight. You could stop right there and write your sales copy with that one idea in mind, but you might miss out on a lot of potential clients. Notice I didn’t say people who need to lose weight, but people who feel they need to lose weight. Oftentimes someone we think has achieved their perfect weight is looking to lose just a few more pounds. On the other hand, people we think need to lose weight may be perfectly happy with themselves just the way they are.

The next question to ask yourself is “why?” Why does a person want to lose weight? Do they just want to be skinny? Probably not. You see, the weight itself isn’t the issue. It’s what not having the weight will do for them. There are several reasons people may want to lose weight. A few that come immediately to mind are: Health benefits, increased popularity and improved appearance.

Still, these aren’t necessarily emotional trigger points. Again, ask the question “why?” Why would someone want greater health, increased popularity or improved appearance? Look at this as a problem/benefit equation.

Problem: Fatigue and health issues.

Benefit: Increased energy, stamina and strength, and reduced obesity-connected aches, pains and illnesses.

Problem: Low self-esteem, feeling unloved and unpopular.

Benefit: Increased confidence, popularity and friends.

Problem: Feeling unattractive, lonely, lack of social interaction.

Benefit: Improved physical appearance, more attractive to others, fulfilling social life.

Once you have established the problem, and stated the benefit, your potential customer is ready to hear about the solution — your product.

The biggest emotional desire is the avoidance of pain. If you can find the pain in the problem you are trying to solve and write about that, you can write effective sales copy in network marketing.

1. Your Headline

You want this to be big and bold. This is where you have to make an outrageous claim that will grab the attention of your prospect. Don’t lie, just clearly state the best possible outcome of your service, opportunity or product. At the bottom of your webpage, you can always add a disclaimer that results are highly individual.

2. Testimonials

Now that you’ve made an outrageous claim, you need to back it up. Granted, this may be difficult to do if you are new and don’t have a lot of customers yet who will vouch for your integrity and that of your product. But, don’t despair. When an author writes a book, he sends the manuscript out to a variety of people hoping that they will read and write a brief review which then gets printed on the book cover. You can do the same thing. If you are selling your services, provide free services for a few people in exchange for their testimonial. If you are selling products, provide some free samples to people and ask them to write a brief testimonial. If you are trying to recruit people into your business opportunity, have your upline or crossline write a testimonial for your website. If you can’t manage to get a testimonial, then it just might be because you truly don’t have anything worthwhile to sell!

3. Problem/Story

Here is where you want to set the stage and draw on your prospect’s emotions. You can either tell your own personal story or someone else’s — even someone you don’t know personally. But, use a story to illustrate the problem that your service, opportunity or product will solve. Stories humanize your sales pitch.

4. Solution/Benefits

In this section, you want to explain how what you have to offer will solve the problems you just talked about. You want to go heavy on the benefits. If you are offering a money-making opportunity, don’t just talk about the money, talk about the benefits of having the money. What will extra money give you? If you are selling a health product, don’t just talk about health, but talk about the benefits of being healthy.

5. Call to action

Now that you have made an outrageous claim, backed it up with testimonials, drawn on the prospects’ emotions, and told them the benefits of what you have to offer, you have to ask them to take some sort of action. This is where you give them the opportunity to provide their contact information, or purchase the product. Two additional items to consider in this step are any freebies or discounts you may have to offer, and setting a deadline for action. Maybe you are only looking for five associates, or you have only 100 items available for purchase, or you will offer a 25% discount on your services if they respond by midnight. Make your prospect have a reason to respond now, not later. It’s a known fact in sales, if you don’t get the sale before they walk out of your store (or click off of your website), you probably never will. “Be backs” rarely come back.

6. Guarantee

Because we live in an age of skepticism, it’s helpful to offer a guarantee on your services or products. Make sure you set a specific time limit (30 days, 60 days, 90 days) — and make sure you hold to your guarantee. If you aren’t convinced your product is so good you won’t end up refunding every dollar you earn, then don’t offer a guarantee. But, you should also rethink your product. If you can’t guarantee it, then work on improving it until you can.

7. Summarize

First you tell them what you are going to tell them (headline). Then you tell them. Now, you want to sum it up by telling them what you told them. Punch your biggest benefit and the time limit in the summary section, and end with another call to action, emphasizing that they need to act before it’s too late.

Try this with your website, and see if your conversion rate doesn’t improve.

Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines branding as to mark with a brand or to impress indelibly; but, I think the Thesaurus gives us an even better definition: a device (as a word) identifying the maker of a piece. You see, you don’t want to brand your product, or your merchandise, or your company, or your opportunity. What you really want to brand in network marketing, is you.

You may have the most sought after products in the world, and the best compensation plan around. You may represent the most established and most successful company out there. But, what it boils down to is, do your prospects want to work with you?

How do you present yourself to your prospects so that they want to work with you? You can have your prospects literally chase you down to ask you about your opportunity, what you did to become successful, and how they can follow in your footsteps.

One of the most important things you can do to place yourself as an expert in your field is to continue to learn. How much money do you spend on self-improvement every year? Stephen Covey calls this “Sharpening the Saw.” You never want to stop learning. If you stop learning, you become stagnant. Yesterday’s new wave of technology is tomorrow’s ancient relic. If you don’t subscribe to newsletters, blogs, and magazines that have to do with your specific industry, I can guarantee you that you will be left in the dust. You need to spend some time every day listening to other experts, reading books or magazines, and learning from the leaders in your field.

This one thing will set you above the vast majority of the other people in network marketing who are “giving it a try.” In fact, if you are just going to try this business, take my advice and get out now. If you are going to succeed, you have to want this with every fiber of your being. You have to eat, walk, talk, sleep and dream network marketing. Otherwise you’ll be one of the 90% that fail.

Zig Ziglar once said, “The best way to reach the top is to help someone else get there.” In other words, the best way for you to be successful is to help others be successful. You’ll never see me talk about “blowing away” your competition. You see, I believe there is a big enough market for everyone to have their share, and I honestly, sincerely want to help you get your piece of the pie.

There is a reason this industry is called “network marketing.” You should have a network – not just of people in your own opportunity – but people in other opportunities as well. This is where the knowledge you gained in the last step will really come in handy. With your knowledge and experience, you’ll be able to help those who are new to the business build a firm foundation so that they too can succeed. They may not be interested in your particular opportunity, and that’s okay. What you will gain, is a friend, an ally, a potential partner in the future for a joint venture project, and good PR in the form of word of mouth. Your new friend may very well tell someone (or several others) about you who will be interested in your opportunity.

So, how do you network? Join some on-line communities. Subscribe to and participate in blogs. Attend network marketing seminars. Introduce yourself to everyone you come into contact with. Exchange emails. Be sure to have a business card on hand at all times.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when entering this industry is thinking that they will be an overnight success. I know you’ve seen the ads promising riches beyond your wildest dreams in 30 days. The truth is, for most people, it takes longer than 30 days to build up a network of people. But, the good news is, while it may start out slowly, your efforts will gradually pick up steam and have a snowball effect that will begin to create the wealth and lifestyle you long for.