The best way to obtain contacts is by generating them yourself. This way you know, or have at least a good idea, on where they came from and what it is they responded to. Create your own list by marketing with:

* Safe lists

* Safeadlists

* FFA resources

* Groups

* Link, classified and message boards

* Pixel or Word Links pages

* Traffic Exchanges

* Blogs

* Many other resources found in your Toolbox

You can also use your affiliate sites to contact those who signed up for your program. Most affiliate sites have an Information Capture system in place for people who are interested in your product or program to contact you.

If your affiliate program does not have an information capture feature, you can obtain your own Contacts Management System. Xtream Global List Manager is a complete turnkey system with onboard mailer, list management, newsletter creation, auto responder and a forms generator to embed a capture form in your own personal website. Available Spring 2007.

Build your own marketing website for your business with a capture page or form. A good way to generate interest in your programs is by offering people something free in return for adding their information to your list.

Build or obtain your own landing or splash page for your business that has the capture page feature. Then upload the page to your hosted domain.

Obtain your own membership site and build a list - or following - with that. Many venues like Pixel or Word Link pages, safelists, safeadlists, classified ad sites and ffa boards make excellent list building resources. You offer people a valuable service which then attracts them to join your program. The membership is then part of your overall list.

You can purchase contacts or leads from 3rd party sources, but that is not recommended. Many venues offering leads obtain the through questionable resources or means. Some use bots to harvest email addresses from ip addresses. Some collect and harvest email addresses from FFA sites for reuse. Using leads from 3rd party providers with unknown sources can be dangerous and could result in spam complaints which you and your email host would have to answer for.

We cannot stress this point enough. Once you purchase that lead it is yours. The good, the bad and the ugly. If it turns out that lead came from a spam source...guess who ends up holding the bag? If you can show you purchased that illegal lead from some program - great. For the first complaint...and great if that source is even around anymore to take accountability. Many put disclaimers in their service that any complaints that arrise from the USE of their leads fall on you, the buyer.

Many times lead providers obtain the leads they sell YOU from sources which you can easily access for free. Some use venues like Craig's list, or other Classified Ad Networks which are free. You simply need to spend time using the classified venues yourself.

Other sources use generic lead generation means like sweepstakes, give aways, credit card offers, discount cards or clubs. These contacts are basically useless for what it is you are doing. You are contacting and qualifying people who RESPONDED to your ad about your product or business. You need targeted contacts with whom you can then guide to a specific business.

Buyer Beware applies to buying Leads. Your best bet is to develop your contacts yourself. You then know the sources you used, know where those contacts came from, know what people are responding to and can then answer any spam complaints you may get in full confidence. In other words, use the system safely and responsibly and protect yourself for the long haul.

However it is you obtain your leads, they are just that. You need to then followup, work with your people and qualify them into your business or program.

Once you obtain a Contact, you want to then follow up with emails to introduce yourself, your programs, and initiate contact. This process is called Contact and Qualify. Remember you are that person's GUIDE. On the internet you have many exciting, dynamic and effective ways to interact with your contacts.

You can email a person as long as they permit you to. You always want to attach a disclaimer with every email so that person knows you are contacting them because they gave you permission to by either requesting more information from you or they joined an opt-in program. In the case of a program, you will want to ensure you identify WHAT specific program they joined and that you are contacting them relative to that program. Some example disclaimers are shown below on this page.

Telephone contact is an excellent way to establish a relationship with a person. If not in your area, use VoIP or a skype type program. Malcolm Peter's has developed several very effective Scripts to use when contacting your prospects via telephone. Remember, you are in the People Business - you depend on the relationships you build with people in order to have a successful Network Marketing business.

Internet Conferencing is one of the most dynamic and exciting ways to build a relationship with your prospect. In a room you both can speak to one another plus show your audience what you are actually talking about! You don't have to tell people to write a website down and then go to it after the call. You can show it to them right then and there. People can then easily copy links for themselves. They can also save the text transcript to a document file. Many rooms have a recording feature as well.

Use Conferencing for your meetings, to set up traditional 3-way calls between yourself, your prospect and your Upline Sponsor support. Send your prospects and then down line affiliates to the Rooms for product training, seminars and marketing sessions.