When it comes down to it, network marketing success is about not just recruiting people onto your teams, but keeping them there, and then encouraging them to duplicate. Its a sad fact, however that most of the people we sponsor onto our network marketing teams will end up quitting.

One of the most important things important things we can do for our teams is to be available for them, and let them know were available. For a newcomer to network marketing, knowing someone is there to answer questions and encourage them can be the difference between persevering and calling it quits. If youre willing to be that person, you can make that difference for your team.

Once upon a time, your options for being available were limited. You either called team members, had them call you, or all got together for a meeting somewhere. Of course, times have changed since then. Now, most network marketing organisations are international, if not global. Most of our teams are spread over many, many different countries, so getting together for meetings just isnt practical. Even calling team members can be problematic, between the cost of toll calls and the differences in time zones.

Luckily, the Internet has brought with it a whole range of options for keeping in touch that increase your availability. Some are simple, some more complex; some take place in real-time, others dont but the good news is, if youre reading this article today, you probably already have all the tools you need to be available to your downline wherever they are. In the remainder of Part 1, well look at the two simplest methods e-mail and instant messaging; and then in Part 2, well look at some of the more complex ones like blogging, forums and online conference/chat rooms.

E-MAIL

The most obvious tool you have available is e-mail. For many people, this is the preferred way of staying in long-distance contact, as its cheap, easy to use, and non-intrusive (i.e. it can be responded to out of real-time, when its convenient for you).

If youre running a business, youll probably already have your own domain name with its own e-mail address (this looks far more professional than a free e-mail address). Even if you dont, however, providers like Yahoo, Gmail, and hundreds of others are only too happy to provide you with e-mail accounts free of charge. Make a point of getting e-mail addresses for all your team members (and ensuring they know yours) the moment they join up.

Use those addresses to create a team mailing group, and then use it!

Aim to contact your team as a whole a minimum of once per week ideally two or three times that. When you contact them, make sure you provide them with something of value a tip, an article youve found useful, a question for them to think about anything that will help them build their business. Make sure you state clearly in every e-mail you send that youre happy for them to contact you with any questions. Then, ensure you answer any e-mails from your team within a reasonable timeframe 24-48 hours at the most.

INSTANT MESSAGING

Instant messaging (IM) is like a combination of talking on the phone and e-mailing, giving you the best of both worlds. It lets you talk in real-time to another person, but, like e-mail its free of charge. Its ideal for those times when team members have urgent questions they need answers for; or for when they need to talk through an issue thats either related to, or impacting their business. Its more personal than e-mail, and its a chance for you to show you really mean it when you say youre available for your team.

While most IM programs (e.g. MSN, Yahoo!IM, Skype, etc) require you to type your conversations, many are also now offering voice capability (although youll need a computer with speakers, and a microphone to take advantage of this). Many of your team members will probably already be using IM in their personal lives, although some may still be unfamiliar with it.

If youre not already using IM yourself, find out which of your team members do, and which programs they use. Download the most popular of the programs, and set up an identity for yourself in each, then ensure your team knows it so they can contact you. Be aware that you may need to set some rules with your team about when you will and wont be available for them to contact through IM (just as you would with phone calls) otherwise you may find yourself getting interrupted in times youd set aside for other work, especially as your team grows larger.

If you make good use of these two simple tools, youll have a way to stay in touch with your team and make it that much more likely that theyll stay with you until theyre able to stand on their own. In Part 2 of this article, we look at three of the more complex tools for keeping in contact.