Each post must bear a title that demands a reader’s attention right away. The titles should be so chosen that they should captivate the reader’s interest and fulfil the vision by being potent in informative.

Your title should be eye‐popping, mouth‐watering, spine tingling, side‐splitting, heart‐warming, etc, etc. You get the point! However, your blog title should be relevant to your blog and should only welcome your reader into reading the blog.

Something short and witty is great as long as it still conveys the topic of the blog post, but long titles are usually most effective.

If your readers are expecting any problem to be solved by reading your blog, then your title should indicate that they have reached the right place to find the answer to their problems.

Here are some great examples for someone in the underwear home party plan business:

BAD BLOG POST TITLE
“Lace & Silk is Seduction & Romance”

It’s poetic so might make a nice song title, but what on earth is that post about?

GOOD BLOG POST TITLE
“Improve the Romance and Seduce Your Husband with the Latest Lace & Silk Underwear!”

Oooh much better – does that make you want to click to see the lingerie?
It’s a great title because it invites the reader in to find out more and even offers a solution to someone wanting to improve their relationship. And the more clicks you get to that post, the more visitors, and the more chances you have to finding customers and building your business.

You will also need to do some keyword research into good keywords words you can use it your titles. I’ve got some steps on how to do keyword research a little later on.

To build your business from your blog you first need to accomplish two things.

Firstly you need people to visit your blog, and secondly, you need to get them to take an action of some sort such as contacting you for more information, or clicking a link to your company website if you have one.

So how do you accomplish that?

Let’s first look at the content of your blog …

Obviously you should ensure that the posts on your business blog are related to your business and industry and are of interest to your customers and prospects.

A business blog enables you to self‐promote by demonstrating your leadership via writing creative articles on topics relevant to the products or services you promote. 80% of the business blog should be dedicated to sharing knowledge, and 20% on promotion.

It is the content and the keywords that consistently attract potential customers.

Any great blog content is about being original whether that’s for a business blog or a personal blog. You don’t need to write reviews on your products to build a customer base, as long as your posts are related and provide good information to people then you will attract people to your blog.

Speak your mind through the blog and whatever you wish to share, do so in a creative and fresh way. Most online readers scan content. Hence, visual cues alongside content will be a great way of ensuring focus on important points. You will have people coming back for more each time you update content, if you work on it

Great blog content offers information and insight into issues that the reader has not encountered before.

You should also endeavour to make your readers believe that you identify with their distinct wants and needs and that you are there to solve any issues they may have rather than just push your business plan or company products onto them.

Be ready to offer advice and solve problems that a reader may find overwhelming. This could establish your expertise and people seek experts out help them. They trust the products that experts recommend.

Don’t hesitate to throw in your opinions, create controversy and questioning and instigate participation. It is your blog post and you can use the space as you desire. Food for thought is better than a bored audience.

Here is an example of what I mean.

Let’s say your company is Tupperware. Right now in the news there is a lot of controversy over microwaving with plastic containers. This is a huge topic and you could potentially gain a lot of customers and attention to your blog by writing about this. Especially if you have a solution, or can allay any fears.

If it’s newsworthy and relates to your product ‐ blog about it.

So now you know how important the content of your blog is, time to get started writing.

Which blogging platform to choose?

The first step towards creating your own blog is to find a blogging provider. The majority of these sites offer you ready‐made templates and push‐button publishing for which you don’t have to be too tech savvy.

While there are hundreds of different providers out there, I recommend you start with either Blogger or WordPress. Blogger is very simple to use, especially for first time bloggers. WordPress (while it does have a free version, is best if you install on your own server) has its own advantages and offers a lot of features as compared to Blogger.

If you have never created a blog before then you should probably start with Blogger as WordPress is a little more complicated to install. As an added advantage Google owns Blogger so may give them a boost in the search engine rankings.

1. So first thing is to head over to Blogger and set up an account.
If you already have an account with Google (such as a gmail email account), then log in at the top, otherwise click the orange arrow that says ‘Create Your Blog Now’.

2. The second step is to choose a name for your blog. The name of your blog is going to be yourblogname.blogspot.com so try and think of a good domain name for your URL.

I think it’s a good idea to try and name your blog something that fits the theme of what you are going to write about. So if it’s scrapbooking you could name it thescrapqueen.blogspot.com or something. You can even choose your own name if you like. Of course there is nothing stopping you having more than one blog, so if you want a personal blog with your name, and a business blog with your topic that is absolutely fine!

Enter your Blog Title, your Blog web address, type in the word verification (this is there to make sure you are a real person signing up for a blog and not a computer program). And finally press continue.

3. The next step is to choose a look for your blog. Blogger has a few designs to choose from to begin with so pick one you like. You can always change this at a later date if you want so don’t worry too much if you can’t find the perfect design.

Press Continue and Voila! Your Blog has been created! Now it’s time to get posting.

Click the Start Blogging button and you will immediately be taken to a screen where you can start writing your first post.

WordPress is a little more advanced, but has many more benefits such as more control over how your blog looks, many more templates to choose from, the ability to add custom widgets, ancourse being able to place your blog on your own website so that you have full control over it.

Even though you can have a WordPress blog hosted by them, it is really recommended that if you are going to use WordPress that you download their blog files and place it on your own server.

If you want to try it, first you need some web space and you need to be able to create a database on that server. Most Internet Service Providers will allow you to do this, so check what their rules are.

It’s even better if you can have your blog listed on a top level domain with your own domain name, so instead of www.yourname.com/blog, have www.yourblog.com as the website address.

When attempting to set up your own online presence, first and foremost invest in a good web host. Choose a domain name that is relevant to the business you wish to transact online and register the domain name chosen by you with a registrar.

Once you have a place to put your blog, it’s just a matter of following the instructions that WordPress has on its site for installing it on your website.

Ok, so now that you have your blog set up. What are you going to write about?

Well obviously you can’t write directly about your company or products, but you can write about topics related to your products.

So if you are in the kids clothing business, you can mention things like which fabrics are the most durable, or what’s hot in kid’s fashion.

If you are a scrapbooking expert you can offer layouts and design ideas.

You get the idea.

Why Blog?

The blogging phenomenon has taken over the world. It seems that everyone from your high profile celebrity to your next door neighbour is jumping on the blogging bandwagon. So it makes sense to use this platform to your own advantage.

You already know that if you have your own party plan or direct sales business in order to be successful you need to market yourself to find customers and leads.

Unless you have a large group of friends and family that will help you get started, at some point it is likely that you are going to need to find more customers, more bookings and more prospects on your own.

Of course you could go the traditional way of talking to everyone you meet, putting up flyers and leaving your business card everywhere, but I think there is a much better way.

Using blogs to promote your business is sometimes easier, faster and cheaper than other mediums of marketing and is great at establishing yourself as a leader and expert in your field.

But before I start on why I think you should have a blog, let’s try and figure out just what exactly is a blog?

What is a blog?

Blog (from the term “Web Log”) is a style of website in which an individual can create comments and write opinions on a particular topic.

Blogging is basically a public platform to share with the world your own thoughts and feelings.

So why should you have one?

• Blogs are simple to set up – you don’t need any html skills.
• It’s the quickest and simplest way to have a voice on the web.
• Most of them are free.
• Search Engines love them because they usually contain unique content and are updated regularly.
• You can position yourself as an expert
• They are easy to make money from
• They are perfect for marketing yourself and your business.

“Um, wait up a minute. Sure they might be a great way to promote stuff by MY party plan company doesn’t let me advertise or sell my products online, and I’m pretty sure they don’t even allow me to mention them at all.”

Yes, you are probably correct. Most companies don’t let you advertise the company name or products online. But there is nothing stopping you advertising YOURSELF online.

“Huh, what do you mean, isn’t that the same thing?”

Well no. You see you can advertise yourself as a skin care consultant, a kitchen cupboard organiser or a scrapbook extraordinaire all you like. As long as you don’t mention the company name then you are free to do whatever you like to promote your business.

Pretty clever huh!

And that is what this blog is all about – how to use a simple blog to promote YOURSELF which in term will help you find more customers and grow your business.

But first we will have to get back to basics and talk about how to set up your blog (that’s for those beginners who need to know the bare bones steps) and then I’ll let you know how you can start building your party plan and direct sales business from your blog in as soon as a few days (sometimes even within a few hours!).

And I’ll even show you some tricks on how to make money with your blog while you are waiting for your customers to find you. Cool, huh!

Have you heard about an awesome book called Presentation for Profits by Christie Northrup?

If you’re into party plan or direct sales, and you want more home party bookings in your book, then this is the book you need!

Christie Northrup, The Lemon Aid Lady, has spent a lifetime perfecting the strategies and techniques for booking and holding home-party and direct-sales demonstrations. In Presentations for Profit$, you’ll learn dozens of methods on how to book more demonstrations and recruit more hostesses through creative
preparation, presentation, recognition, and follow-through.

Find out more …

Would you like to know how to get an avalanche of sales in your home party plan business?

Then I have some good news for you.

Patricia Makhulo (known as Party Plan Pat) has just spilled all her secrets of how to get:

- mega-profitable parties
- leads begging to join your team
- so many bookings you’ll have to send some away

And it’s all in her new book: Little Black Book of Home Party Plan Marketing secrets:

http://www.partymarketingsuccess.com/partyplanpat.php

You’ve seen those people at your team meetings that are making loads of money and now it’s your turn.

I have yet to come across a book as fabulous as this one about how to be a success in the party plan industry.

It’s full of humor, ideas that you can use, and her principles apply to any company that uses home demonstrations to promote sales/bookings.

Start building a successful business and watch the money flow into your bank account.

Go check it out at: http://www.partymarketingsuccess.com/partyplanpat.php

In the last post we talked about the importance of creating an online presence, but now we need to have people actually FIND us.

So how do you do this?

Let Google play matchmaker and put you together with your prospect!

Since we’ve been talking about creating a presence on the web, if you already have been using the internet you’ll know just how hard it is to get found when you are competing with millions of other websites.

When it comes to getting found you have two main options: Free & Paid

Free

I recommend you starting off with free traffic building techniques first since when you are starting out you probably don’t have a huge budget to work with and the best way to get traffic is through writing articles (which will again position you as an expert in your field).

My favorite article directory is ezinearticles.com so go and get an account with them and start writing articles. It’s a great way to get your name out there and will bring a lot of traffic to your blog or webpage.

You can write your article about anything you like related to your business. Again you won’t be able to mention your company name – but that’s really a good thing because if you ever change companies you won’t be associated with one name.

That means that you can say to your customers that now you recommend using products from A and when you change you now can recommend products from B – and because people will see you as an expert they are likely to follow your recommendations.

The downfall is that this traffic is likely to be from all over the world and not just in your local area.

Inexpensive Targetted traffic.

Have you ever done a letterbox drop or brochure toss in your neighborhood and didn’t get one response? I have – I once dropped over 400 postcards inviting people to host a party and didn’t get a single response. I nearly gave up then.

A much MUCH more effective method is to do a flyer campaign but instead of asking them for anything – give them something. A beauty tip, a free recipe, and then point them back to your website/blog for more tips.

This is especially effective for those that have products related to food – people seem to love getting free recipes. And while they are at your blog, why not encourage them to contact you for a free sample

Paid

Have you ever seen those ads on the right hand side of Google when you put in a search query? People pay a lot of money for getting these spots as they can be highly effective at generating lots of traffic fast.

I certainly don’t recommend using Google Adwords if you are inexperienced, but if you already have some experience online you may want to try this. Just keep your daily budget really low to begin with.

Well I hope my marketing methods have opened your eyes to a different and much more effective way, of running and being successful in your party plan business.

I want you to write down this statement as I’m about to make as it is the most effective piece of marketing advice that I can give you.

People who seek you out are far better prospects than people that you seek.

Did that make sense?

It doesn’t matter how many people a day you talk to, you will only truly start to have success in your business when you start attracting people who would be interested in your business opportunity to you.

Not only is that great news, it makes trying to recruit them a whole lot easier because they already want to join you.

So how do you attract these people?

No, I’m not talking about positive thinking or trying to ‘manifest’ them into your life ala ‘The Secret’. What I’m talking about is being able to be found when people are looking.

And when people are searching for business opportunities – where do they look? They same place you found me – online.

Ahh yes, the good old internet is one of the most effective tools you have at your disposal, and you need to learn to work it to your advantage.

Now you don’t need a website to start with, but you will need somewhere to live – I usually recommend to my recruits to start a blog because they are free and you don’t need any sort of special html skills to set one up.

Most of you who are thinking about getting into party plan or are already in it, will probably know that your company does not allow any form of online advertising.

This is a good thing – you want them to control their own brand as it makes it easier for you.

No instead you want to start to position yourself as an expert in your field. You shouldn’t even mention your company until someone contacts you (and all direct sales company encourage you to market via email).

So that means if you are with a Chocolate Lovers company then your blog will be about chocolate (how to cook with it, best chocolate for different occasions etc) and people will see you as an expert and start seeking you out. If you are with a Lingerie or underwear company then you could talk about lingerie – the best methods for washing it, which colours are best for what occasion, how not to get VPL (Visible Panty Line) and you will become an expert on underwear.

You will of course have your contact details on your website or blog so as people start to seek you out then you can start to build a list of contacts that have contact you.

One of the biggest problems with most party plan companies is their constant message that you need to sponsor or recuit people into the business to be a success.

Of course this is absolutely true, but their method of getting you to sponsor or recruit is extremely flawed.

 In many of my meetings I was told that I just need to talk to as many people as I could about the business opportunity.  When I was having trouble recruiting they told me that I just had to keep talking to more people – my hairdresser, the lady behind me at the check-out, the mother taking her kids for a walk in the pram – anyone who I came into contact with.

Being a shy person I wasn’t all that keen on talking to absolute strangers, but since I wanted to try and build my business I did attempt to do this.  I went to a busy shopping centre strip near where I live on a hectic Saturday afternoon and just starting talking to people about my business.

I lasted about 30 minutes before I gave up.  Not only where people not interested in what I had to say, most were downright rude and looked at me like I was a crazy person.  I’m sure you can guess that I didn’t even get one phone number let alone recruit anyone!

So I again went to my meeting and told them that the method was not working for me and what else did I need to do?  Their reply – “JUST TALK TO MORE PEOPLE”.

Arrrgghh!

Apparently the reason I wasn’t attracting people to my business was because my ‘WHY’ wasn’t important enough. 

If you’ve been in direct sales for any length of time you’ll know what I mean – every so often you get asked your ‘why’ as in ‘why you need to make money’ ‘why you chose this company etc.

Of course this is absolute rubbish – My WHY is just as important as the person sitting next to me, and your WHY will be just as important too.

‘WHY’ doesn’t get sponsors or sales.  Effective sales methods do.

Ok, so since I’ve talked about what doesn’t work – what does? 

Next post will be all about what DOES work.

Let’s start with something super simple and practical.

Nowadays it’s difficult to find someone without an email address, and email has become the number one form of contact for most people.

Adding a signature line to your email is one of the first (and easiest) things you can do to start getting your name out there.

Many of you probably already do this to some degree – am I right?

I bet you have something like this:

Jane Smith
Independent Tupperware Consultant

Had much luck? No I didn’t think so. This type of signature is boring and most people ignore it altogether.

You can do MUCH better than that.

Have a look at the following signature:

Jane Smith
Has your carrot got the droops? Tupperware FridgeMates will keep your food fresh for up to two weeks. Your carrot will remain as stiff (crisp) as when you bought it. 
Contact me for the latest Tupperware catalogue.

Was that better? It’s a bit humorous and definitely unexpected – but more importantly it creates interest. Do you think people will remember that?

Mini advertisements are really the key to building your sales (and remember you ARE in the sales business), so make sure you add your signature to every email you send out and start watching the orders creep in.

By doing something as simple as changing your signature you are not ASKING them to buy anything – you are giving them the OPTION of buying something – do you see the difference and how powerful that is.

When people think it’s their idea to buy something you don’t have to be a ‘salesperson’ at all. Then you just have to take the order