Strategy Time....

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." - Confucius

Now that I’ve set my goals, (Short term goals anyway) I guess I should start outlining my strategy. To be honest with you, I don’t really have much of a strategy. I’m not the gung-ho type of person who would go all out to recruit my friends and family into the business. With all the skepticism out there and the bad experiences of people joining dodgy MLM programs, I’d probably lose a lot of friends that way (I don’t have that many friends to begin with).

So I’ve got to come up with something a bit more relaxed approach. Definitely not the hard sell approach. The good thing about the 4Life Research business, it’s a great product coupled with a wonderful rewards plan backed by a fast growing company. Shouldn’t be that difficult to sell then.

Actually it isn’t. I just have to have the right strategy. After a few weeks in the business, I think I’ve got my strategy. I’m still testing to see if it works so you’re going to have to bear with me for a few more weeks to know if my strategy works.

My strategy is split into 2. First is the direct approach or more like the face-to-face approach. The second is the internet marketing approach. We’ll start with the first one.

The face-to-face approach is probably the easier of the 2. But in using this approach, I have to be careful not to push too hard. First of all, I have to identify the people I’m going to talk to about the business and divide them into 2 groups, those who probably would be more interested in the products, and those who would be more interested in the business.

For those who are more interested in the products, I will talk to them about the products. The good thing about this strategy is that 4Life Research products are unique. They’re one of a kind and they can really help you stay healthy. I’ve got a few people who I’ve given samples of the product to and the response has been very favorable. Now all I have to decide is whether I’m going to talk to them about being customers or joining the business.

For those who are more interested in the business (Mainly those who have been in MLM before and know the potential of the business), I am going to talk to them about the Rewards Plan. Shouldn’t be that difficult to sell either since it is the best Rewards Plan in the industry.

Finally, the internet marketing approach. This takes time to build as most of the people I will talk to would probably be contacting me via email or instant messaging. Most of these will be people who are familiar with network marketing and all their advantages and pitfalls. So it could go either way, either it would be easy to get them to join, or it would be difficult/

Looking at it this way, it’s not really a difficult business to do. It just takes time. You have to be patient, ready to face rejection and ridicule and like any other business, you have to be ready to face the challenges.

Been through it all before....

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."
- Arthur C. Clarke

I know I’ve said before that there’s so much I feel like writing about the 4Life Research business opportunity, but somehow today, I’ve hit a brick wall. I can’t seem to think of any particular topic to write about. So be warned, this might end up to be just ramblings with no direction and no point made.

If I remember correctly, I did that once in another blog. I wrote a whole post without making any kind of point. I got smacked in the head for that. The post was pretty long and one of my friends read it. She read the whole post before finally realizing that I wasn’t actually saying anything or even trying to make a point. I’ll try not to do that here.

MLM Junkies

I think what I’m going to do in this post is to tell you about my previous experience in MLM and network marketing. There are some members of my family who are MLM junkies. They go from one MLM company to another every 6 months or so and make money by recruiting people. I don’t think they believe in the product or the company much. But they do make money recruiting people.

At first, my aunts and uncles, the MLM junkies couldn’t really figure out how to rope in my siblings and I into the MLM business. We were a bit sceptical about the whole thing. But then one day, one of them talked to my dad about their latest MLM program at that time, and he bought into it. So he joined and made a few of us, his kids join too.

The first MLM business I joined was a local company selling daily household products. Some of the products were quite good, so I thought since I was already in, might as well give it a try. So I did the business. I managed to recruit a few people, make some money on the side, all this while working a full time job. After a while, I was following my uncle all around the country on weekends on his recruiting talks. He was a pretty good speaker and he did quite well in the business.

Jumping From One Program To Another

But one of my aunties wasn’t very happy with the way things were going. She wasn’t earning much so she decided to move to another MLM program and she managed to convince her downlines, and some of ours to join her in the new program. I lost quite a considerable income. After she had done that, she convinced my dad to do the same, move over to the new MLM program and he brought us with him. So that’s when we started to move from one MLM to another.

I think in the space of 6 years, I probably joined and left more than 10 different MLM programs. Some of the programs I followed my dad (after the 3^rd program I was already very reluctant) and a couple of them I joined on my own (Amway, via Network 21 and Enrich). Some of the programs I joined were quite good.

Had Enough

In 2003, I had enough. I had been to probably a few hundred talks on MLM programs. I realized I wasn’t building a business of any kind. I was just earning from the recruitment. In fact, when I think back, probably more than half of the products weren’t any good. We just made money from recruiting. That’s when I decided to quit. I didn’t want to be a part of this industry anymore. I wanted to build a business, watch it grow, earn from the hard work and contribute back to the people and the society that helped me build my business.

So I guess you must be wondering why I decided to join 4Life Research after 5 years being out in the cold. I can’t really say why. I looked at the product, looked at the company and the rewards plan, and thought “Hey, this is something I can do.” I’ve done it before with crappy products, built networks selling junk, this should be much easier. It’s a superb product. The rewards plan is great and we’re partnering up with a company with lots of potential. I guess it was time for me to start building my business.

Making A Comeback

So here I am, back in the network marketing industry, a new program and a new product. I haven’t spoken to anyone from my old networks about it yet. Most of them have become sceptics and wouldn’t go anywhere near another MLM program. I will talk to some of them one of these days and explain to them the business, but only after I’ve proven to them that it could work. I know a couple of them are watching me, wanting to know how I progress. If I do well, then I know they will join me and bring their network with them.

As for now, before I can bring them in, I’ve got a lot of recruitment to do and a lot of translations too (Very inconvenient to have most of the literature and materials in English).

P/s: Sorry I haven't got any photos again. I'll try and find something and paste it her in the some other day

A very rewarding business...

My internet connection sucks. As of a week ago, I am 6 months overdue on my internet connection bill. Not that it’s too expensive or I couldn’t afford to pay or anything. Just that every time I’m about to pay, something else comes up. A burst pipe in the bathroom, a seized radiator fan and air-conditioning fan, a burst tyre, kids school fees, and a bunch of other problems keeps cropping up. I have to get around to settling my internet connection bill soon.

Since I haven’t got any broadband connection, I’ve got to rely on my GPRS connection (if anyone knows what that means, please enlighten me). All I know is that it is so slow and highly unreliable. I’ve been getting booted out too often recently. I definitely have to sort out my broadband connection bill soon.

The Rewards

At this moment, I am not connected to the internet. This post is being written in Microsoft Word and will be copied to my blog once I’ve got my connection back. In the mean time, I do what I have to do to keep this blog going. Today’s post is about the Rewards Plan for those who decide to join the 4Life Research business. I would love to do the explanation in one post, but then it would be too long and I would probably lose your attention half way through. So I’ll start with the first method in which you can earn income from this business and see how things go at the end.

Life Points (LP)

Before I go on, let me explain about LP. Every time you buy a product from 4Life Research, you earn LP. How much LP you earn depends on the product you buy. For example, buying 1 bottle of 4Life TF Plus Advanced Formula (which is what I first bought) earns you 50 LP. The same goes for 4Life TF RioVida, But if you were to buy 4Life TF Advanced Formula instead, you would only earn 35 LP. 4Life TF Renewall earns you 16 LP and other products would earn you different amounts of LP too.

Becoming a Distributor

In order to become a distributor, you need to purchase products which would earn you a minimum of 100LP together with the “Compass Kit” (I think I already explained what this is in a previous post. Not sure which one though). In order to attract more distributors, 4Life Research has offered different packages for potential distributors to buy which results in massive savings. For example, when I signed up, I bought a package which consisted of 3 bottles of 4Life TF Plus which is worth RM 696.00 and the “Compass Kit” all for a very low price of RM 615.00 (Mentioned this before too). This package earned me a total of 115 LP

There are other packages available. If you’re interested, feel free to send me an email and I can send you more information on the packages.

Rapid Rewards

Now that I’ve explained what LP is and how you can become a distributor, I guess I should move on to the rewards of being a distributor. Like any other Multilevel Marketing Program, you earn a commission every time you sign up a new distributor. I’m not sure about some of the other programs, but with 4Life Research, you earn 25% of the Leadership Points (LP) each time you sign up a new distributor.

As an example, I earned 115 LP when I signed up. So in recruiting me, my upline earned 25% of my LP which is equivalent to 28.75 LP. Each LP translates to USD 1.00. So my upline has earned USD 28.75 by recruiting me. The exchange rate used by 4Life Research in paying Malaysian distributors is RM 3.775 for every USD 1.00. Since I don’t have a calculator handy, and trying to calculate this amount using just brain power is so taxing, I’m just going to estimate the amount, It should be somewhere around RM 90.00 for each new distributor you sign up.

Continued in next post

Since this post has gone on a bit longer than I expected (mainly due to my rambling at the beginning), I’ll have to continue this in another post. In that post, I hope I can finish explaining to you about the next 2 methods you get to earn from this program which is Preferred Customer and Personal LP Payout.

Internet Marketing...

Internet Marketing or Network Marketing, took the concept of Multilevel Marketing one step further. Before the internet, the reach of multilevel marketing programs was limited to just your local area, or your state or in the case of a country as small as Malaysia, the entire country. Companies who wanted to venture on an international level would first have to establish an office in another country before recruiting their distributors.

Trying to make a sales or recruiting a new distributor involved a lot of hard work too. Distributors would have to do a lot of direct selling, door to door marketing and try to persuade the potential distributor to join the MLM program. That was the case when Amway started out back in the 70's. In fact, some of the direct selling practices are still being in use.


With the introduction of the internet MLM programs found it much easier to overcome the obstacles of direct selling. It became much easier to cross international borders. All these companies needed was a presence on the internet. Since venturing into internet marketing, a lot of distributors have found that they do not need to make direct sales. All they have to do is promote the product and the sales would be done through the internet.

Nowadays, to build a network marketing program is much easier. All that a company needs to launch a massive internet marketing campaign is to recruit some of the internets top network marketing specialists. These are people who are hugely successful in network marketing and have made millions from promoting other peoples product. Over the years, they have built huge networks consisiting of millions of people. Companies have found that this is the easiest and quickest way to promote a product on the internet.

So the biggest question here is can network marketing work for everyone? The simplest answer is it can. But it does involve a lot of work. Like any other merketing program, network marketing involves a lot of research, a lot of writing and also a lot of promoting. However, the beauty of network marketing is that you can do it from the comfort of your own home and at your own pace. You do not have to travel miles to get to an office at an unGodly hour. You do not have to sit idling in your car, while traveling at 5 mph through some of the worst traffic on the planet. And the most beautiful part of it, once everything is set up, it's all on autopilot. You don't have to do much work.

The MLM system...

I know I said I wasn't going to write anything until I joined the business. But then I thought since I already have this blog, I might as well write something. It might not even be related to the 4Life Transfer Factor business. It just might be my own personal thoughts.

Thus, that was what happened with the last post. I wrote that last week. I don't usually post anything that personal on any of my blogs. In fact, it took me a whole week before I decided to post that. I wasn't too sure if I wanted anyone to know my most intimate thoughts. But since I already had it written, and I didn't have anything else to say, I thought I'd just post it.

Now that that's over, I guess we can get back on track. By now you'd probably have guessed that I haven't joined the business yet. I have however attended one of their presentations. This presentation was by a group within the 4Life organisation called Platinum Networkers. They are mainly based in Malaysia but I think they will expand internationally pretty soon.

Platinum Networkers is led by Cheanu Chew, a veteran of network marketing. He's been with 4Life for about 3 years and and has been involved in network marketing for 7 years. He was formerly an accountant who just got sick of counting other people's money and making them rich. So he ventured into network marketing to make money for himself. I guess he's one of the top network marketers in Asia.

Most of the 4Life Transfer Factor business in Malaysia follows your standard multi level marketing model. This standard MLM model basically requires you to recruit people on your team. These people will then in turn recruit others to be under them, thus making your team a reverse christmas tree. Those who join the MLM progam, will be required to maintain a certain number of points every month. This is done by purchasing products from the company.

In order for you to earn commissions, you will have to recruit other people to join under you and these people will have to recruit more people under them. All these people who join under you will then have to maintain their points requirements and so will those who join under them. Only then will you earn commissions which is usually a percentage of the points accummulated by each team member (I'll explain in more detail when I explain the 4Life Transfer Factors business compensation plan).

This MLM system has made a lot of people a lot of money. The system works. The only problem most people have in this system is that they are required to do a lot of talking, they have to meet a lot of people, and in some cases, they even have to sell the products, i.e. direct selling, in order to succeed.

In my opnion, there are 3 important factors which make up a successful MLM system.

1. Any product can be sold using the MLM system, but having a good product is the biggest factor that will determine the success of the MLM system. People join MLM systems because of their potential earnings, but if the product promoted through the system does not meet their requirements, they will leave.
2. The compensation plan is also an important factor in determining the success of the system. People who join an MLM system would want a reasonable return within a specified time frame. If they do not get what they think is worth the effort they put into the system, then they will also leave the MLM system.
3. Finally, teamwork is also an important factor. In any MLM system, if people don't get the support they need to make the business work from their uplines or even their fellow teammates, they will leave the system too.

These 3 factors are very critical when it comes to deciding the fate of the MLM system. The success or failure of the MLM system rests on peoples opinion of the product, the compensation plan, and the support they receive from their upline, teammates and the company.

What Platinum Networkers has done is to take this system, and put it on the internet. So rather than the members having to do all the talking and the selling, the internet does it for them. This isn't a new development in the MLM industry. There are a lot of other products out there using the internet to promote their MLM system. But what's important is that this method works, and most of those who use this method doesn't really have to do much. Everything is automated. I'll explain how this works in another post.

As for now, suffice to say that the MLM system works. Millions of people out there are making a comfortable living through the MLM system. Most are earning a residual income from the system while holding on to a full time job. Some are earning from the MLM system from the comforts of their own home.

P/s: I hope Cheanu doesn't mind me using his photo. I hijacked it off his website www.cheanu.com