Finding new customers for your party plan business can be frustrating if you don’t know many people, and your home party sales will suffer if you can only rely on a few friends and family.

You have a few options to help boost your sales, and that includes advertising through flyers, talking to everyone you meet about your business, handing out business cards and having a table or stall at shows and exhibitions.

If you are time poor then another thing to consider is starting a blog to help market yourself and your business.

Why use a blog?

Blogs are becoming much more mainstream for businesses to market themselves because they are cost effective, an efficient means of reaching large numbers of potential customers and they are simple to set up.

Customers like them too because they usually contain unique information and helpful advice on topics that they are interested in.

You can also start a blog to help boost your home party sales. By doing so you can create a blog people want to visit when they need to know something about your industry therefore setting yourself up as an expert in your field.

Many party plan and direct sales companies don’t allow mentioning their company name directly but you can still talk generally about your products and services.

For example you may be in a perfume direct sales company so your blog could be about choosing the right fragrance for every occasion, or what the difference between top notes and base notes are.

Then when people want to know more they can contact you for more information, and when they do you can either send them to your company website (if you have one) or email them your recommendations on which is the best fragrance to buy – including any special deals that your business offers.

Starting a blog can be a very effective way to build your business and boost your home party sales.

If you are in the home party business then you know that the key to success is finding as many customers as possible. No customers means no bookings, which means you are not earning any money.

And if you are not earning any money – you are not going to be a home party consultant for too long.

To get more customers you need to go where the people are, and where are millions and millions of potential customers hanging out these days? That’s right – online!

But why a blog?

Blogs are the easiest and simplest ways to get started online because you don’t need any special skills, most of them are free and people love reading them.

Search engines seem to like them too, because they usually updated quite often and because people write with their own words the content is unique.

The trick to building your business is to post helpful and interesting articles, but doing so in a very general way. By doing that without mentioning your company name (which most party plan companies won’t allow anyway) you can start to build yourself as an expert in your field.

So if you are a home party consultant that sells cooking gadgets and bake ware, you could have recipes on your blog and cooking tips to create the perfect meal.

And if people contact you for more information, which products do you think you’d recommend? I think you already know the answer!

So how do you get people to contact you?

The simplest way is to make it very easy for them by making sure that your contact details are visible from every page. You could say something like, “for more information on the best cookware to use for this recipe please email me at …”

That way you are not breaking any rules by using your company name, but if the customer contacts you first then you are free to recommend them your products.

It has been estimated that around 95% of people who get into the party plan business quit within three months.

With such staggering failure rates can it be any wonder that the methods that many party plan companies are teaching are now outdated and simple do not work.

When you are newly signed up and enthusiastic and excited about your new business opportunity, listening to other more successful consultants within the company talk about how they built their business can be motivating and inspire you to do the same.

So you do what your company tells you to do and your talk to people in the hopes to get them to either join your team or book a party with you.

But suddenly you are faced with people who are not as enthusiastic as you and they say no.

You go back to your upline frustrated and what does she tell you? “Just talk to more people”, or my favorite “Make a list of names of 10 people you know …”

Pretty soon your friends and family are avoiding you and you are still no closer to building a successful party plan business.

It’s time to stop listening to the lies that your upline tells you. Everyone you meet is not your prospect – and nor should they be!

Can you imagine if every business ran like this? Imagine a hairdresser outside her salon asking people “Would you like a haircut, come in” and if they said no, “But hypothetically if you did want a haircut, what style would it be ..”. I’m sure she would be told to get lost in not so polite terms!

The real trick to building a successful party plan business is to stop chasing people down and start letting interested people come to you.

Now that doesn’t mean you just sit at home and wait for the phone to ring, you will need to do marketing so they can find you – but by allowing people who are interested to approach you then you will be able to build a much more successful business and be seen as a professional businesswoman – not a pushy salesperson.

If your home party business is struggling then you are probably frustrated that you can’t seem to get things going. You’ve gone to your company sales meetings so you know that it’s possible but for some reason your home party sales are still struggling.

That was me before I starting blogging. I couldn’t get a customer to save myself. I’d ask my upline for advice and all she would say was to ‘see more people’. In fact I started to think I would never be successful in my party plan business.

That’s when I decided to take my business online and start a blog. After all – so many people are online these days, I could see as many people as I wanted – as long as they visited my blog that is.

Why Start A Blog?

Businesses are finding that blogging is becoming one the key ways to market their products and services because it’s effective and inexpensive, so if it’s good enough for the big businesses then it should be good enough for you too.

But I’m Not Allowed To Be Online?

Ahh yes that is probably true. Most home party companies forbid their consultants for using their name and products online in case they breach copyright or trademark rules, but if you talk about your products and services generally then you can still be online without breaking any rules.

For example, if you are with a candle party plan then your blog could be about the most effective ways to light a room, the difference between wax and soy based candles and so on.

By being general about your topic, you will be seen as an expert in your area and people will start asking you for recommendations. And which candles would you recommend in this case? Your companies of course!

Once a customer contacts you, you are free to promote anything you like to them.

If you are a party plan consultant who wants more bookings, up until now your only options were to talk to more people, ask friends and family to hold a party for you, or advertise by creating flyers or putting ads in local newspapers.

While all these methods can help build your business, recently I discovered another method that exploded the amount of party bookings I got.

And the secret? I started a blog. Yes a blog!

My original intention was just to keep track of everything I was learning at my team meetings so I started writing posts on tips such as ‘how to reduce puffy eyes’ and ‘choosing the best eye-shadow for your skin type’. But then customers started contacting me, wanting to know which products I recommended and my business started to grow very quickly.

So how can you do the same?

You can start a simple blog. I recommend Blogger.com for beginners. Then start writing about the benefits of your product range. If you are with Tupperware, write about the best way to keep food fresh, or how-to tips on organizing your pantry. If you are with Party Lite, write about the best candles to use for every occasion.

Most of the time you won’t be able to mention your company name due to trademark rules, but that’s ok because your blog should primarily be about offering tips and benefits to potential customers. Make sure it’s easy for people to contact you for more information too by leaving your details somewhere so it’s easy for them to get hold of you. You can set up a special email just for this purpose so it doesn’t get mixed up in your regular emails.

If you want more party bookings, give the benefits of having a party from the point of view of the customer, or write about parties that you have already done and what happened at them.

Entering into the world of party plan may seem like a dream job; just head over to your hostesses home, talk about a product that you believe in and enjoy yourself for an hour or two. Then just collect the orders and it’s the easiest money you’ve made in a long time! Or is it?

While starting a home party plan business is becoming more and more popular, especially with stay at home moms, there are a few things to consider before embarking on your new career.

Which company to join

There are many different types of party plan companies to choose from starting with the ever popular Tupperware down to smaller companies specialising in skincare, jewellery, scrapbooking or even children’s clothing.

There are even companies that sell adult products and lingerie for someone looking for a business that’s a little different that the normal party.

The most important thing to consider when choosing a company is to choose one with products that you yourself use and love as this will make it easier when selling the items to other people.

Joining kit

Most companies require you to purchase a kit full of sample or demonstration products to begin with. Often these kits will contain a selection of the most popular or best selling range of products along with brochures, training materials, order forms and flyers to help you start your business. These kits can range in price from $20 all the way up to $1000, so make sure you know the price of the kit upfront so you are not caught unaware.

Many companies also require that you hold a certain amount of parties to help offset the cost of joining, although others, don’t require it and you are able to just purchase the kit for yourself to get an account with the company and buy your products direct at a discount if you choose to.

Catalogue Selling vs Parties

Many consultants have great success just selling from the company brochures rather than holding parties, and this method of direct sales is even encouraged with companies such as Avon which is known more for its catalogue selling method.

How much money can you make?

Which each party plan business is different, it is not unusual to find some of the bigger names offering great commission rates and incentives such as holidays, cars and cash bonuses for their successful consultants. In fact it can be easier and faster to get to the top levels of a party plan company and get a company car and all expenses paid holiday than it is to climb the corporate ladder in the real world.

The main benefit of having your own party plan business is that you are in control and can choose your own hours and methods of running your business – which is why it is such a popular career choice for many women – especially those choosing to stay home to look after their families.

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!