Like a giddy schoolgirl, I ran to my mailbox, pulled out the priority mail envelope, and opened it.
Mike Dillard’s new book, Building on a Budget, was inside.
The long-awaited manual that claims to be able to generate 20 MLM leads per day in your email inbox had arrived, less than 48 hours after I ordered it. This book has been hyped for weeks and I finally had my copy in my hands.
I was so excited that I started reading it on the way back from the mailbox. But the more I read, the more disappointed I became.
The book was promoted as a beginner’s guide to building your network marketing team on a budget using the Internet. For less than $500, anyone could start using Mike’s 5 Proven Lead Generation Methods for Online MLM Success today.
Mike’s suggestions are insightful and potentially effective, but I would hardly classify them as beginner tactics.
When I think of a person just starting out, concepts like capture pages and video equipment are not the first things that come to mind. This does not mean that they are not effective. It’s just that, in my experience, most network marketers who are new to the internet are still trying to figure out how to set up a web page, let alone trying to figure out how to upload a video to YouTube.
So I wouldn’t recommend Mike’s book if you’re not familiar with terms like autoresponder, capture page, and split testing. Mike touts his other courses (Magnetic Sponsoring and MLM Traffic Formula) as sources of additional information. As of this writing, MLM Traffic Formula sells for over $500, putting that recommendation clearly out of reach for the beginner.
Building on a Budget seems to be more of a middle book for online network marketers. There are some basics you need to cover BEFORE you tear out the pages of Dillard’s new book.
First, you need your own website. This is not a company sponsored site, but your own site where you control the content.
Second, you should secure an autoresponder service (there are some free ones available; do your research) and create a landing page where you can capture your visitor’s name and email information.
If all this sounds like gibberish, there are free resources to help you build your MLM online. Once he has covered the basics, Mike’s book is a great source of information on “what’s next.” The private online resource page acts as a quick reference for the sources cited in the book.
My biggest disappointment, however, was the free sample edition of Mike’s new “Inner Circle” newsletter. Most of the content was pulled verbatim from the magnetic sponsorship community, so it was a repeat of information that was already freely available. At $29.95 per month, I was expecting more original content. That’s not to say the content wasn’t valuable, it just wasn’t original.
Warning: This trial edition comes with the Building on a Budget book and is a recurring billing item. You will be charged $29.95 each month for this subscription. It’s in the fine print on the order page. It’s a very clever way for Mike to promote his subscription-based product: just bundle it with a book he’s already interested in buying. However, it creates sticky headaches for the buyer on the back-end.
So let’s find out if Mike’s suggestions work. They should have some success, because I’ve seen several people in his company using these same techniques, but will they work for someone normal like me? Stay tuned for the next article in the series.
