About 5-6 years ago online parties were the “in” thing with direct sales consultants and these parties were held in a variety of online chat rooms on various direct selling web sites. The online party also known as an “online vendor fair” was an popular way for online direct sales consultants to make a little extra money without leaving their homes.

That trend lasted for 2-3 years and now has “died” off and the reason that it has “died” off is because consultants still had to go out and do all of the marketing and advertising for the online party or vendor event. The majority of time with these “type” of online parties it ended up being consultant buying from consultant or vendor buying from vendor so they really were not a profitable way to market your business online.

There are a few web sites still “touting” the online party or vendor fair but my personal opinion is that your time is better spent elsewhere doing something else to promote your business.

When it comes to online parties you really should advertise the online party option that is connected with most consultant’s company sites and not go out on your own to “pay” money to join in on a direct sales online vendor fair…like I said, 90% of the time it is just other consultants with other companies in the chat room and you might get 1-2 orders from them but they also expect you to buy from THEM!

If your company has an online party option connected to your consultant web site then you should advertise and market that to both of your online and offline customers. This would be a BETTER option than running around participating in online vendor fairs which don’t pay off.

Trust me consultants…been there, done that and used to participate in those and it got me no where! So the truth of the matter is….

Your time is better spent marketing your business in a different way than shelling out money to participate in an online event for several where you “might” get one or two small orders. Time is money and your time is better spent with an in-home party.

Many consultants who are with Direct Sales companies are turning to online party bookings as a way to help bring in additional bookings and income with their home businesses. A lot of these Direct Sales companies even have online party options that are connected to the consultants “company provided rep site” that a consultant can utilize with their business.

However…many consultants are telling me that they don’t know how to promote an online party…online! Today I am going to give you a few tips. The first thing I do want to say is that if you have a party host…it is HER JOB to promote her own online party and not yours! With that said, if you are trying to get people to book online parties from you and you want to target people online for those bookings here is a few things you can do.

1. Take out an advertisement over on Facebook.com. These ads vary in price but can be effective when you use the right wording and marketing strategy when purchasing them. Facebook has millions of users so you only want your ADs to target those who are in your area or at the very least…in the same country as you. So, don’t waste your advertising dollars by targeting everyone, everywhere, around the world.

2. Utilize Twitter.com as part of your marketing strategy. You will need to spend time on Twitter conversing with your followers, finding new followers, etc. You can NOT just open up a Twitter account and spam your business ads at people 24/7. No one does business with someone who sits there and spams or does self-promoting all day long. You need to network & converse with followers & others on Twitter for it to be effective.

3. Join a few of the work at home mom and/or stay at home mom online forum boards. Again, you can’t just join and spam ads in their business folders. You will need to introduce yourself, converse with members in that community and make yourself a valuable member of that community before folks will do business with you. When posting ads about your online party options you need to make sure you ONLY post them in the designated advertisement folders on those forums.

4. Write some Direct Sales articles on online parties, offline parties or even just general DS business topics. (these can’t be ads, they must be articles & be informative). You can then submit these to various online Direct Sales web sites, DS Blogs and to article directory sites. Make sure your Author’s Resource Box includes a little bit about your biz, online party option, your link, etc. These articles can then be used all over the internet to drive some traffic to your site.

5. Take out some classified ads online that are specifically for your area (online local newspapers, magazines, directory sites, etc.) where you can advertise your online party booking option to those who are local to you & in your area. Often times these little classified online ads are free or extremely low-cost.

6. This next tip is done offline…you want to tell everyone you meet, come into contact with at your home parties, etc. That you have an online party option for those who are too busy for a home show booking. Don’t just assume that people you come into contact with…know this information, many do not! Your offline contacts can be a fabulous source to book online parties from you!

I hope these 6 tips will help you broaden your horizons and help you promote your online Direct Sales business party options.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out that site!

Online Parties – The Latest Trend in Direct Sales

By Stefanie Fauquet

Online “Home” Parties have become the latest trend in direct sales. Simply put, an online party is structured like an actual direct sales home party, but thrown in the privacy of your own home, over the internet. Online Parties are hosted in chat rooms, which gives you much more flexibility on who can be invited, and attend.

Here are some basic ideas to make your online party a success:

1. Find a site that offers free online party chat rooms – Doing a little Google search should give you a few different options to choose from.

2. Email out personal invitations to friends – There are quite a few sites that offer this service for free. Check out evite.com

3. Post your online party date on a few of your favorite message boards – You never know who might want to attend.

4. Consider your guests time zones and schedule accordingly. You will want to find a time that could accommodate everyone from the east and west coasts.

5. Make sure to mention that there will be a prize or drawing for those that attend.

6. Give incentives – Offer a discount on products or shipping when ordering during the party.

7. Come up with a clever game that can be played online – Scavenger hunt (give questions, let guests find answers online)

8. Make sure to introduce yourself and your company. Briefly tell about your products. Let everyone know of benefits, etc.

9. Have question and answer time for your guests – Find out what they want to know about your company and products.

10. HAVE FUN!!

Stefanie Fauquet is the owner of top Direct Sales Resource site designed to help Work at Home Moms build a profitable Direct Sales Business, while being able to stay home with their kids. Visit http://www.workathomemomonline.com today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stefanie_Fauquet
http://EzineArticles.com/?Online-Parties—The-Latest-Trend-in-Direct-Sales&id=77720

For the past few weeks I have been giving you an brief overview about online Direct Sales Vendor Events. Today, I will finish up by telling you how to find a good DS Vendor Fair to participate in.

To find online vendor fairs, you need to visit various work at home mom (wahm) forum boards and/or web sites, work at home web sites or Direct Sales web sites. You can also find some by doing a web search on google for the keyword Direct Sales Vendor Fair.

Most vendor fair hosts do charge you a small amount of money to participate, usually $3.00 to $20.00 to help cover the costs of the chat room and advertising of the event. However, you will find a few free ones if you look for them.

When it comes to signing up and participating in an online vendor fair, there are a few things you need to look for.

1. How is the event being advertised? If the host site is charging you to particpate, they are equally responsible for helping to advertise the event.

Look online or ask them directly how they are advertising the event? Is this advertising online and/or offline? Text Ads, Banner Ads, Social Network Ads or forum ads?

Once you have that information, INVESTIGATE and make sure you are seeing those advertisements. Why? In my 5 years of doing online vendor events, way too often I have seen host sites take your money and then never advertise the event, they are clearly doing this for profit. If they are charging you…you have the RIGHT to expect that they are advertising the event. (and not just ads on their site).

2. Are the times posted for the Vendor Fair Time Slots, convenient? What I mean is this, are the time slots great ones that can be utilized by all time zones?

Example: a 9am to 12 noon EST time are NOT good time slots because West Coast Shoppers are still in bed or busy that early in the morning.

3. Fair Spots should run 30-60 minutes in length. Anything under 30 minutes is a joke in my opinion. I once attended a fair that the vendors had 10 minute spots, are you kidding me? By the time they got done with their intro, they cut them off and moved onto the next vendor. Anything over 60 minutes loses the customers attention.

4. Is there a variety of companies being represented? If you sell jewelry, you don’t want to present your items on the same day that 8 other jewelry consultants present their products. There needs to be a variety of vendors with a variety of products.

I once attended a vendor fair online and in a 6 hour period of time, there were 5 candle company consultants…this was candle company over-kill.

5. Reputation and Word Of Mouth. You should always ask other consultants online if they have ever heard of XYZ site and if anyone has ever participated in one of their vendor events. Why? Reputation! Over time, a good vendor site will build a strong following that produces the results that you seek. A newer site will not have the same results as an established one. So, you should ask other consultants who do business online for their recommendations and experience.

In a nut shell, particpating in online vendor events can prove to be a great extension of your business to garner in some additional product sales. However, you need to participate with vendor sites who know what they are doing.

Important Reminder: Just as its important for the host site to advertise and promote the event, its equally IMPORTANT that you help to advertise the event too. A vendor event can ONLY be successful if both the host site and ALL of the vendors help to promote the event.

Shelly

Last week I gave a brief overview on what an online Direct Sales Vendor Fair was. This week, I am going to go more in depth and tell you how your home business can benefit by participating in an online vendor fair.

When you participate in a vendor fair, you are exposing your home business to customers and other vendors who you normally wouldn’t have contact with which means you are building a relationship with them during the event.

This relationship can yield you some additional product sales or generate recruit leads for you. However, those product sales and leads might not immediately come for that particular vendor fair. Let me explain…

A few months ago I had a woman contact me via email to ask me about a certain product that I sell. She had crossed paths with me 15 months ago at a online vendor fair and she kept my information for future reference. At the time, she didn’t have the funds available to purchase the $55 item that she wanted and I was happy to give her my information for a future purchase. I haven’t heard from her since and never expected for her to contact me again. However…15 months later, she was now in the position to make the purchase and not only that, she had an additional $85 in items that she wanted. I was more than happy to process her order. About 14 days after processing her order, I got another email from her…this time it was for $45 in items that her mother wanted.

The reason I am sharing this scenerio with you is that often times Direct Sales Consultants get discouraged when they don’t walk away from an online vendor fair with a slew of orders in hand. Building up an online customer base takes a lot of hard work and patience.

Product sales from online vendor fairs for the majority…are a lot less than the average home party sales. However, if you keep exposing your business and keep participating in vendor fairs, you can build a reputation for yourself and your business which will yield product orders when you least expect them.

Another benefit of participating in online vendor fairs is that it gives you practice for when you are doing offline events. Some consultants get very nervous when they stand up and speak in front of a group of people. One way to get comfortable with presenting products and information to others is by doing virtual parties aka vendor fairs.

Furthermore, Participating in online vendor events is a great way to fill-in the open dates on your booking calendar. (your home parties and offline vendor events get top priority, but there is nothing wrong with filling-in the other dates with online virtual parties).

With my personal experience, I didn’t get any orders or leads with the first 2 or 3 online events that I participated in several years ago when I first started. However, as time went on and I got more experienced and online party go’ers and vendor hosts got to know me, they felt more comfortable in doing business with me.

Is it worth your time? In my opinion…it is. With that said, you need to look for the ‘right’ online vendor events to participate in.

Next week I will give you several tips on how to find good online Direct Sales events to participate in.

Happy Selling,

Shelly

If you have been networking your Direct Sales business online, I am sure you have heard the coined phrase “Online Vendor Fair”…but, do you know what they are?

Online Vendor Fairs are online multi-vendor hosted parties. They are held in an online chat room and hosted by a web site or a group of Direct Sales consultants.

As a vendor, you reserve a spot during the vendor fair for your business presentation. This presentation can consist of product specials and/or your business opportunity. These presentations are usually 30 to 60 minutes in length and on some web sites, they can include visual and audio features or just held in a regular what you see, what you get type of chat room.

You will find some free admission vendor fairs and some will charge you a small fee to participate. As a vendor, it is your responsibility to help advertise the event to your customer base and/or by posting advertisements on social media outlets or online forum boards.

The best way to prepare for your presentation is by pre-typing up your speech and spell-checking it for any errors. Then when it comes time to do your presentation, all you have to do is copy and paste.

A good presentation goes something like this:

Introduction (personal and business)
Ordering Process (how they should place their orders with you)
3 to 4 product specials (where you specifically talk about a few products)
Question and Answer Segment
Play a quick party game (optional)
Your closing

All of the above should fit within the specified time that you are given.

If you are looking to participate in some online vendor party events, you can usually find them listed on work at home mom or direct sales types of web sites and forum boards. You can do a keyword search for “Online Vendor Fairs” through a search engine of your choice.

My blog post next week will take an in depth look at Vendor Fairs and how they can help to promote your business online.

Shelly

Online parties are really popular these days and are much like a home party. If you are looking for some fun online party games, I have 5 game ideas to share with you.

1. Guest Scavenger Hunt – Before the party begins, pick 5-7 items from your website to use for your Scavenger Hunt Game. Write them down and come up with 2-3 clues about the product and its location on your site. When you begin the game during your party, let the guests know that you will give them a few clues about a particular product and they have to find that product on your website. The first person to find it, gets a point. The one with the most points, wins the game.

2. Word Scramble – Before the party begins, come up with a list of 10 of your products and scramble up the letters. During the game, copy and paste in the scrambled word and have the guests unscramble the letters to form the correct word. Award 1 point to the person who correctly types in the word the fastest. The person with the most points, wins the game.

3. Power Word – Before the party begins, decide on which word that you would like to use for the Power Word. I am with Tupperware so I like to use the power word ROCKS! Let your party guests know that every time you use your company name during the presentation, that the first person to type in the power word gets a point. Example: Tupperware has lunch products to…first person to type in ROCKS! gets the point. At the end of the party, the person with the most points wins a prize. This game is great as it holds the attention of all party guests during the entire length of the party.

4. Trivia Game – Before the party begins, decide on a few trivia questions that pertain to your niche. Example: If you sell kitchenware, make your trivia questions related to food and cooking. If you sell jewelry, have your trivia questions related to jewelry. I like to use 7-10 questions for this game. The person who gets the most correct answers, wins the game.

5. Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader – Before this party game begins, decide on what type of questions you would like to ask (similar to trivia questions but from a variety of topics). I like to use 10 questions. Have each party guest type their answer into the chat room. If they answered correctly, they get a point. If they type in the incorrect answer, they lose 1 point. If they don’t type in any answer, they lose 2 points. Give them a time limit of 20 seconds per question that you ask. The person who has the highest amount of points, wins the game.

Wrap a little gift before the party. Once at the party, give it to the party host to hold. Start the game by calling out the list.

Pass the present to The Person Who Arrived First
Pass the present to The Person Who Has The Most Children
Pass the present to The Tallest Person At The Party
Pass the present to The Person Who Has Been Married The Longest
Pass the present to The Person With The Most Grandchildren
Pass the present to The Person Who Needs To Buy 2 Gifts Tonight
Pass the present to The Person Who Has The Youngest Child
Pass the present to The Person Who Would Like To Earn FREE Products
Pass the present to The Person Who Is Wearing The Most Jewelry
Pass the present to The Person Who Needs To Earn Extra Money
Pass the present to The Person Who Arrvied To The Party Last
Pass the present to The Person On The Right
Pass the present to The Person Who Is Sitting 3 Spots Away From Your Left Side. Congrats, That person has just won the gift!

____________________________________________________

How Well Do You Know The Party Host Game

Ask the hostess to fill out a quiz before the party begins. Give every guest a piece of paper to write their answers down.

1 – What is the hosts favorite color?____________________
2 – What color are his/her eyes? _______________________
3 – What is the hosts favorite dessert? _________________
4 – Will the free merchandise items he/she chooses be just for herself, herself and others or all for others? ___________
5 – What is his/her favorite restaurant? ___________________
6 – If he/she could go on a vacation with money being no object – where
would he/she go? ____________________
7 – Would she over pack , pack just enough, or under pack and forget
something? _______________
8 – If he/she has 3 bookings from her party would she choose the 3 party booking gift or more in Free Merchandise of her choice? _______________
9 – How old is your party host? _____________
10 – If he/she had to pick a number what number between 1 and 10 do you think he/she would pick? _____________

Let’s check your answers against your party hosts!
Give yourself 1 point for every matching answer. Most points wins!!!
If there is a tie, then have hostess pick a number from 1-25 and the closest person will win.

If you are in Direct Sales, you are probably pretty familiar with conducting home parties. If you are looking to increase your party business, consider adding online parties, to your party line-up.

Online parties are much like their home party counterparts. In fact, I find a lot of hostesses these days, are preferring an online party.

Here is an overview on how to conduct an online party.

Time Involved: 45-60 minutes in an online chat room

Introduction (5 minutes)

Introduce yourself to the party guests. (recruiting message) Give a brief speech about the company you are representing.

(break the ice) Ask all of the guests to type in their first names, along with their location.

Benefits Of Hosting A Party (5 minutes)

Thank your host for booking her _________ party. (dating message) Spend a few brief minutes discussing the benefits of hosting a party. Point out any current hostess specials that are being offered by your company.

Have the attendees open another browser window. Post the link to your online website or catalog.

Product Specials (5-10 minutes)

Announce what the product specials are for this party. What’s currently on sale, what’s a hot ‘must have’ and any purchase with purchase specials.

Q&A Break (3-5 minutes)

Ask party guests if they have any questions about the specials, that you just discussed.

Featured Products: (10 minutes)

Pick 3-5 specific products that you would like to focus on and talk about them.
Allow party guests to ask you any questions they may have, about your featured products.

Game Time/Fun Time (5 minutes)

If you choose to play a game with the party guests, this would be a great time to do it. You could do a Trivia Game about the Host Specials and Featured Products that you just discussed. Award the winner a prize or a discount, on their personal order.

Open Discussion (5-10 minutes)

You can use this time to help customers/party guests find specific products on your website.

Hostess Appreciation (3-5 minutes)

Thank your party host for booking the party. Briefly remind guests about the benefits of hosting their own _______ Party. (dating message)

Business Opportunity (3-5 minutes)

Let guests know about the current _________ business start-up specials, along with information on how they can start their own business with __________.(recruiting message)

Finalize Party (3-5 minutes)

Give guests your contact information. Ask the attendees for their email addresses, so that you can email each guest a summary of the party specials. Let the attendees know when you will be closing the party.

Thank your party hosts and guests for attending the party.

This article is copyright 2008 by Shelly Hill, All Rights Reserved.

Online vendor parties are a lot of fun and can be a great tool to expose your home business to non-local customers.

Here is a brief overview of how to conduct an online party during an Online Vendor Show.

Vendor Introduction ~ Let the guests and fellow vendors know who you are, what company or business you are with and a brief overview of your business. During this introduction, make sure you post the web site address to your web site.

Vendor Business Policy ~ Let the guests know what forms of payment you accept, how they are place to their orders (web site, private message or via email), and about your shipping policy. Let them know up front when you will be submitting orders, when will payment be due and how long it will take for them to receive their orders.

Vendor Presentation ~ Depending on the length of time of your vendor fair spot, you will want to talk about 5-12 products. These can be your best sellers, your favorite products or products that you have on sale right now. Try to offer a variety of price points. I have noticed that most guests like to hear about products that cost less than $50.00 so keep that in mind during your presentation. Direct the guests to view the products on your web site while you are talking to them about the products by opening up a new browser window. You will also find that the majority of vendors will play a game during their vendor presentation to keep the presentation fun and active for the chat room guests, as a prize you could offer a $5.00 gift certificate or an inexpensive prize. Vendors are responsible for shipping costs of the prize to the prize winner (in most cases).

Vendor Q& A Time ~ Allow a few minutes for guests to ask you questions about the products and your business.

Vendor Closing Time ~ This is when you will repost your web site link, ordering instructions and your contact information. Make sure you thank the guests for attending your Vendor Fair Spot!

As you can see, its a great interactive way to expose your business to others online. Just think of it as a mini home party but held online!

This article and blog post is copyright 2009 by Shelly Hill, All Rights Reserved.