Okay, there are some variables in this internet or network marketing world. If I am meeting people face-to=face, it helps to have brushed my teeth, to have bathed, to have put on some decent looking clothes, etc. If I neglect these things, my sales WILL suffer to some extent. Online, if my website has links that don't work, or if it looks like it was designed by my 10 year-old son, my sales might suffer. I think, however, that most of us understand that side of the equation.

I think that MOST people (not all, I am sure) realize that presenting most products or services to untargeted audiences can also lower successes.

However, I am going to talk about some generalities here, and I am going to assume that I am trying to sell something that has SOME value to SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE. To tell the truth, I could be talking about trying to sell a rock from my backyard. Got to be careful there. My neighbor's horses get into the pasture from time to time, and I would have to make sure I actually had a rock! Come to think of it, there IS a market for horse manure. See, you CAN sell almost anything.

Anyway, see if you can get this concept.

I have something of value to sell, and I offer it to one person. Then I go home and assess my success. How do you think I did? Did I sell it?

That's right. Probably not.

Okay, so now I go out and offer it to two people and then go home. How did I do this time?

Hard to say, but you can see that I had a slightly better chance.

Let's try this one.

I buy a billboard ad on a major interstate, and 80,000 people a day see my ad. What are my chances now?

Things are looking up, right? I actually have a chance of making a few sales.

Leaving aside the variables, such as how good the sign was, did the people in the cars have a chance to read the sign, etc., what was the key factor in improving my success?

That's right! It was the number of people who had a chance to see my ad.

So now I have this great web site with a fantastic product or business opportunity. What am I looking for?

That's right. I want traffic! Lots of traffic. In fact, leaving out the variables again, the more people I can get to visit my web site, the better my chances of making sales.

Years ago, a major financial services provider conducted an in-depth study of their most successful sales people. Their findings are not surprising. The most successful sales people, the people who earned the highest amount of commissions, simply talked to the most people.

Many people who join internet marketing or network marketing ventures are looking for the great "get rich quick" plan that is going to make them millions. Note the use of the words "make them millions". They are often of the opinion that the program is going to make the money for them. After a few swings at making sales, they give up and quit, thinking that network marketing, and these days, internet marketing, is a bunch of...well, you know...what my neighbor's horses leave in my pasture. They go their ways convinced that they've been had, taken for a ride. In their minds, all marketers...network, internet, or both...are con artists.

Two perfectly honest friends of mine who became millionaires in different network marketing companies used a very simple technique to achieve success. They each handed out brochures over a couple of years to everyone they met until one day the dam broke, so to speak.

When I started marketing on the internet, I had no clue what I was doing, or how to get traffic, but I knew I had a product that a lot of people would be interested in. I figured out that with my lack of skill and knowledge I could only hope to make a few sales from any web site I could come up with. In fact, I only used free hosting services.

My tactic was simple. If I could only get a few sales from any website, I would make a lot of web sites that each made a few sales. A couple of years later, I was making over $20,000 a year on the internet, using these dinky little free sites for the most part. In the meantime, I had learned a few more advanced techniques, and as I began to improve my websites and get my own domains (financed by my free sites), my income grew to over $100,000 a year and continues to grow.

Even with the new domains, the free sites continue to bring in traffic and income, and the simple equation remains. The more people that I can put my sites in front of, the more money I make.

That's why I say, "1, 2, 3, the numbers are the key".