So you've got your lead capture page all built and squared away and are ready to start generating your own company specific MLM leads.

Where do you start to advertise and how?

Well let me put it to you this way... As a network marketer you should be very familiar with the phrase "Multiple Streams Of Income" am I right? As a home based business person it's important to develop multiple streams of income so that when one stream dries up you'll have another to fall back on. The same applies to MLM lead generation but instead of multiple streams of income we want to create multiple streams of traffic to our lead capture page. The more traffic you have the more leads you will be able to generate.

So where do you find traffic and how do you know if it's going to be any good?

First let's talk about some of the traffic scams to avoid.

#1. Guaranteed Visitors - This is usually garbage traffic and not worth your investment. Guaranteed visitors are usually delivered to you in the form of popups or popunder advertising. With the web browsers we have today and their built in popup blockers these ads are rarely seen by most web surfers. This is probably one of the biggest pitfalls to avoid when spending money to market online. It will deliver very little response.

#2. SEO Optimization - Search Engine Optimization is an excellent source of quality traffic. The only problem is that there are so many snake oil salesman out there trying to sell SEO services that the market has become incredibly diluted not to mention competitive. Lead capture pages provide little more then self promotional content and are extremely difficult to rank in search engines. This is coming from someone who holds several #1 positions for keywords in Google so I am not new to the game. I've seen plenty of Network Marketers get taken by some of these shady firms.

#3. Email Blasts - This is yet another pitfall you'll want to avoid. There are literally thousands of companies offering email blasts to marketers. They will usually offer to mail your ad to a specified number of opportunity seekers. The major problem you'll encounter is SPAM complaints. It doesn't take very many of these for a company to terminate your distributorship. You don't like receiving junk mail so what makes you think others do? There are better ways to market then email blasting.

Side Note: If a company contacts you because they have found one of your online advertisements and they are pitching their own campaigns back to you how well do you think their marketing works if they have to chase clients?

Now let's talk about some of the traffic methods you should consider for your lead generation campaign.

#1. Pay-Per-Click Marketing - With this type of advertising you can bid on a particular keyword and your advertisement will display in the search results whenever somebody searches for your keyword. When a visitor clicks on your ad it will cost you money (you'll set the amount of your bid). This type of marketing is extremely targeted as you are dealing with search traffic. Pay-Per-Click marketing is very attractive to marketers promoting some of the direct sales opportunities that pay large commissions of $1000 or more as the ROI can be very high. If you had to spend $300 in pay-per-click to make a $1000 sale I would do that all day long. People are catching on though and the market is getting competitive. Expect to pay upwards of $1.00 per click to be on some of the more desirable keywords. When promoting on PPC search engines having top notch lead capture pages targeted to your keywords is a must if you want the absolute maximum response.

Some great PPC Networks are Google Adwords, Overture/Yahoo Search Marketing, BidClix, Miva & Enhance. There are several others but the aforementioned is where I would start my research.

#2. Newspaper/Magazine Advertising - This is a form of tried and true advertising perfect for the purpose of lead generation. Print ad's have been around for decades and were being used even before the Internet if you can believe it! In this day and age to many home business entrepreneurs get caught up in all of the hype surrounding the Internet they often leave some of the best advertising honey holes untouched. I would find it extremely hard to believe if your county, city or town did not have one or several smaller local publications put out by various groups in the community. These are excellent sources of advertising. They are inexpensive, you can reach a wide spectrum of readers and they are going to be local to the area you advertise in. A small simple ad in the paper directing potential prospects to your lead capture page is all that is needed.

Think with a little creativity as well and don't be afraid to think outside of the box when it comes to newspaper advertising. Everybody who tries it goes straight for the obvious and wants to run their ad in the "business opportunities" section. Don't get me wrong it's a great place but here is an example of thinking outside the box when it comes to classifieds.

Let's say you are promoting a higher ticket direct sales product. The commission per sale is $1000+ in your pocket... Who do you think reading the paper would be interested in putting $1000+ in their pocket too?

I could be wrong but I would say anybody looking for a home may want to earn a little extra money or what about someone looking to buy an expensive car they could probably use some extra cash. Most importantly we are advertising to people that have money! If they are looking at $500,000 homes and luxury cars they obviously have a bit of cash in the bank and could be excellent candidates for your business.

How can you reach them with a classified ad?

Well if you wanted to write a classified ad that would reach someone looking for a home and possibly interest them in your opportunity you could place your ad in the real estate section of the paper. Your ad could say.

Need Extra Cash For A Down Payment? Simple, very lucrative business opportunity. Earn the money to buy your dream home! www.website.com

You're not going to get a 1000 leads or anything from a small, lower circulation ad like this but you will generate of leads and break some fresh ground in your business. Consistency is key when you are using print advertising and once you start to see a return it's time to start spending more and finding fresh sources. There are so many smaller local publications you can advertise in that there should never be a problem sourcing any. Keep your eyes open as you travel about your town. Some good places to find these publications are local newsstands, restaurants, airports, rec centers, sports groups and local organizations.

#3. Article Writing And Syndication. - One of the questions I am honestly asked almost every single day is "Carl, How do I get my lead capture page to the #1 spot in Google, Yahoo or any major search engine?" The answer is always the same. You Can't! Lead capture pages are just simple one page websites and in the search engines eyes, provide very little valuable content. Getting one's lead capture page actually naturally ranked in the search engines is going to be an extremely tough go and I won't get into it with this article.

But what if I told you there was a way for you to get anyone of the top 10 spots in Google or Yahoo for a keyword directly related to your business within one week. That's right I said One Week. Would you be interested in that? Write an article about your business or products and submit to the major article and content directories. Webmasters are constantly looking for fresh new content they can put up on their websites for visitors to view. If they decide to publish your work you will get to link back to your lead capture page from your authors box in the article.

By submitting your articles to some of the major content directories you'll also be able to see your articles possibly picked up by the big search engines within one week. In fact I've submitted articles that were picked up on the first page of Google for their keywords within just a few days. It can work great for you in the short term if you write a really good article that is picked up by hundreds or thousands of sites. Personally I think article writing is something that should be looked at as a long-term strategy. If you just wrote 1 article a week about your business or products you would have 52 in a year. That can equate to major leverage in the search engines and 1 article a week is being extremely lazy.

#4. Write A Press Release - Did your company create something revolutionary or newsworthy. Let the world know by writing a press release or even having one written for you about the event, product or discovery. Press releases when done correctly can be an excellent source of traffic for a lead generation campaign. Personally I wouldn't try writing one myself I would go to the professionals at prweb.com or somewhere similar and have one or two written for you. Press releases also have a knack for getting picked up and syndicated in the search engines. It's another great marketing strategy to definitely look into.

Generating your own leads doesn't have to be a chore. It's a fun process and extremely exciting when you start to see an advertising campaign delivering fresh leads to your inbox daily. Hopefully this article helped to shed a little more light on the topic.

Carl Sorensen