Gone are the days where a network marketer has to scramble for business cards and search for network marketing prospects in the real world. If you want to increase the number of downlines for your network marketing business, you simply learn the art of online prospecting. Internet is a gold mine only for those who know how to harvest its vast resources.

In general, there are two ways to get prospects on the Internet – The free ways and the paid ways. Both ways are equally effective, it is usually dependent on how fast you want to see results, and your budget to determine which approach you are more comfortable with.

Free prospecting techniques usually consist of forum posting, organic search results, article directory submission, blogging, viral marketing, free press release and more.

Paid techniques on the other hand usually consists of Pay Per Click (PPC), CPA advertising, paid banner advertising, sponsored reviews, paid press releases, Co-registration lists, outsourcing and more.

Most people tends to start with free online prospecting or traffic generation techniques because they are testing it out and do not have the stomach for monetary risk. For a start, you can register for a free blog and drive traffic there using the free techniques. However, you should at least invest in your own domain name for branding purpose. Using blog is also a great way to get exposed on the search engines just for posting about your network marketing product or to showcase yourself as an expert in the industry – especially for longer tailed keywords with lesser competition. You can even get additional traffic by submitting your blog articles to article directories, participate in forum and also commenting on other people’s blogs.

When you have made some money using the free techniques, you can start investing in paid traffic. One of the biggest advantages of paid online prospecting techniques is that you can get as much traffic as you want. With Google AdWords for example, you can get traffic in as quickly as 15-minutes to half an hour.  You can also invest in banner advertising on other people’s blogs or websites. You can even sponsor bloggers to write a product review for you.

When you have the traffic going to your blog, you must be sure to capture their names and email addresses in exchange for free e-book or special report that is highly related to your network marketing product. You can then send them a series of follow up emails to pre-sell your business opportunity, and when the time is right, they will in turn become your long term partners.

With all the people in network marketing businesses around the world, you’ve got to be good to survive. To be in that group at the top of the game, you have to be prepared to do more than just, ‘the best that you can’. It has to be all or nothing. You have to do whatever it takes to achieve network marketing success. You have to be certain that failure isn’t an option and that anything less than success is a waste of time.

Many people are in network marketing game for the wrong reasons. They give it a try because they thought they wouldn’t have to sell anything. After all, the advertisement they responded to said,’ No selling’.

No selling doesn’t mean you just sit at home and watch television, though. It should, but is doesn’t…sadly. Life is about selling something to someone else. It doesn’t matter what game you’re in. You will have to close a sale. You could even be at home and have to sell; whether it’s a case of asking a neighbor to come over for dinner, phoning your boss to ask if you can take a vacation or even one of the kids crying because they want an iPhone like everyone else has. Everybody is trying to sell the result they want.

You’re selling an idea when you ask that special person on a date, or when you go to a job interview and want to convince the recruitment officer that you fit the essential criteria for that dream career you’ve always wanted. You’re even selling when you suggest a movie to friend. Humans are born to communicate and negotiate. We’re born to sell. It’s just that you need to understand the different ways it’s done.

Learning to sell the correct way isn’t rocket science. However, you still need to be prepared to put some work into it.

It’s all a matter of continuous improvement; you have to be ready to sell, you have to be prepared to learn and you have to be willing to teach. When you have that done, maybe you can get the kid’s those iPhones.

First things first, you need a great concept or a killer angle. You network marketing business can work no matter what it is you are selling. However, if it’s a great product, life can be so much easier.

Selling a business brand to someone can be challenging and is not helped by some low-brow selling techniques employed by unscrupulous marketers. You don’t need to try and build pressure to sell something. People will buy from you because they like you, not because you’ve managed to back them into a corner.

Once you’ve created an honest and compelling picture of your brand and yourself, you’ll find it easier to convert prospects into sales. Don’t allow yourself to believe that people don’t like to buy things. It’s the opposite that is true; people love to be sold to. It’s just that they want to deal with someone they can trust.

After you’ve converted a prospect, you need to teach them the same things that you’ve learned. This will motivate them. Developing sales techniques and helping them all to learn from their experiences is part of developing teams in your network marketing business. Then, when you have created a sales powerhouse, you need to maintain it. From there, network marketing success will be at your fingertip with sales figures blossoming and your team will be a force to be reckoned with. Oh, and iPhones for everybody!