Online parties are quickly becoming the better alternative to the traditional “In Home Party”. Online parties can be more accommodating for the company rep and the hostess for various reasons. There’s no driving to another persons home, getting the snacks ready, loading and unloading all your products, cleaning your house and best of all no dressing up!

So many times I’ve heard the questions, “How do I have and online party?” “What do you do at an online party?” or the ever popular “What kind of games do I play?” Hopefully this article will answer some of the burning questions out there. The following are just a few ideas of things that can happen. Things may have to be altered depending on where the party is and rules that may be applied there. For example some places may require you to have a hostess and some places don’t require this allowing the reps to do the parties themselves. So, please take in all considerations and apply changes as needed.

First decide if you will be finding a hostess or doing the party yourself. If you decide that you do want a hostess then let everyone you know that you are now in business for yourself and what you do. Be sure to let them now that you have parties online and are always looking for hostesses. Friends and family are often your best start. Another idea is to find a rep from another company and set up to exchange parties. You agree to be a hostess for them and in return they hostess a party for you. Some email groups and discussion forums allow you to request hostesses.

Please be sure to follow all rules and regulations for these boards and don’t spam. If all else fails and you can’t find another hostess, mystery hostess parties are always a great option. Mystery hostess parties can put a unique twist on the entire party itself piquing the interest of your guests. Basically, the idea behind this is that there is no “official hostess” until the end of the party. Once the party is over, take the names of all the guests and randomly pick one guest to be the “Mystery Hostess” and they receive the hostess rewards.

What are hostess rewards? Hostess rewards are used to entice people to be a hostess. First thing you should give them is a free gift. This is just a small token of thanks for having the party to begin with. Always be sure to announce at the party what the free gift and other rewards are. This may help with getting other guests interested in becoming a hostess at a later party. Other ideas for hostess rewards can include a gift certificate, percentage of sales in free products and free products for a certain amount of sales made. Gift certificates make excellent rewards because the hostess can choose what they want.

Games are always important and bring a lot of fun to your online parties. How many games to play generally depends on the amount of time allotted for your party. I personally recommend two games. The games played don’t always have to be about your products or business. If you do opt for a game that is just for fun and not for the business I recommend that you play one that is and one that isn’t. The ideas for games can be endless and sometimes just needs a little imagination. It is a little more difficult to play some of the traditional games online but with a little thought put into it can be just as fun.

Next thing to think about would be invitations and announcing your online party. There a few things that you want to make sure you include on your invites. Make sure you have the business that you are having the party for and a brief description of the products that you carry. You may also consider listing the games, prizes, and specials if any. Make sure you list the date, time and a clickable link to the party room. Keeping in mind that guests may be coming from all over the country you may consider making a list of the different time zones. This helps void off any confusion right from the beginning. “Leaving the party open” for maybe an additional day might be a good idea for those guests that cannot make it to the party but, would like to “cash in” on party specials.

If you go for this option, make note in your invitations for alternative ordering information. For example, you may want them to email you their order. Invitations should be sent out a few days prior to the party and maybe send out reminders an hour or so before the start of the party. You can create invitations for free at Evite.com

Announcing your party should be done basically in the same procedure. You can either announce your party in free or paid advertising. Purchasing solo ads in ezines with your target guests in mind is an excellent idea too. Some discussion forums and email groups allow you to announce your party too. Once again keeping in mind the “rules and regulations” to each of these groups.

Some groups even have special days that you can advertise your online parties. Check out your groups to see if these days are available.

The following are some tips and ideas to help keep things flowing nicely at the party. First you want to show up a little early. You want to make sure you are there before the guests. Don’t start the party right away. Be sure to allow a little extra time for some guests that might be running a little late and gives a little time for some general chit-chat. Make sure you greet each guest as they arrive. Once you feel confident that most of the guests have arrived, give a short description about yourself, your business and thank everyone for coming.

Next you will want to announce your specials for the party and give them the URL to your website. If you have any “special ordering info” you may want to let guests know this. Give your guests a few moments to browse around your site and ask any questions that they may have. After guests have had sufficient amount of time to browse, let them know that you will be playing a game shortly. You may want to tell them a little about the game especially if it has to do with things found on your website. After a few moments you will want to start the game, making sure that all the guests are “still with you” and not looking over your site. After the first game allow a few more moments for general chit chat and questions about your site or products. Announce the next game and repeat the steps above. Guests will probably be leaving at different times. Be sure to thank each of them as they leave, hope they had a good time and ask them if they’d like to be added to a guest list for future parties.

Hopefully this article will help you become more comfortable about having an online party. No matter how much information you get from this article or any other source online, it’s still not as good as being there yourself. The best way to learn about online parties is to attend a few yourself. This will allow you to see the whole picture.

Article contributed by:
Anita DeFrank

NOTE:  Keep an eye out on the Sales MOMS Network.  We will be adding our Online Party Rooms back to our featured services in the upcoming months!

There are many ways to make money with a home party plan business. Spending gas money to go to multiple parties can be avoided. Online parties are a great way to save time and earn more money. Many consultants are hesitant to plan multiple parties due to the time constraints and commute involved. Here are some tips on holding an online party.

Party Plan Online Works – Many home party consultants are looking for flexible options in their direct sales careers. Working has been redefined with the invention of the internet. Having home internet access brings customers to any computer with online capabilities. Online parties are an easy way to have multiple opportunities to make consistent sales without leaving home.

An online party starts in much the same way as traditional parties that take place in someone’s home. Coaching the hostess to plan the party properly is important. Instead of sending out handwritten or printed invitations, invitations are sent by email. Reminder emails are sent 24 hours prior to the start of the party.
Live web conferences are a great tool to allow visitors to clearly see and hear the presentation. There are affordable web conference services available at less than $20 per month. If the current budget is low, consider having the online party with free online chat and voice services.

Check the webcam or laptop camera before the party starts. Always acknowledge all guests that are in attendance. Try to act naturally when doing the party online. Remember to ask for orders clearly and do not hesitate to ask for an upsell. This could be by purchasing an additional item at a discount if a certain dollar amount purchase is made. Ask each person in attendance if they would like to host a party. Briefly mention the benefits of being a hostess. Follow up with all party attendees to ensure they received their merchandise. Emails that are collected can be used in the future for marketing purposes.

Expanding a home party plan business always involves marketing by doing something new. Completing sales opportunities online is a great way to hold parties around the world, and branch out beyond the local community.

Consultants who use every opportunity to available to them to market their business using creative party plan techniques will have a consistent income from home. For More Information visit: www.CreateACashFlowShow.com

The holiday selling season can be the busiest for direct sales professionals. It can also be difficult to pin down a date with potential hosts. Your hosts may complain that everyone is travelling, or that it’s too difficult to get everyone in the same place at the same time to host a party.

One possible solution: hosting an online holiday shopping party.

Online parties are similar to offline parties, in that there’s a host, a presenting consultant, and guests. Beyond that, though, online parties can be very different – and maybe even a little complicated for a host or even a direct sales consultant to figure out. They can also be an incredibly lucrative source of additional sales from a party, so it is worth your time to learn more about online parties.

Here are a few tips for understanding and using online parties during the holidays:

1. Online parties still require a “location”. Chat rooms, webinar, and video streaming sites abound. Use a reliable provider as a central location to bring all your guests to one “location” for hosting the presentation. Prepare any slides, pictures or video content in advance of the party and test your equipment to make sure everything is functional before your event. Chat rooms are basic, text-based, and the most popular style of online party. Webinars and video are quickly gaining popularity because people can talk with and sometimes see each other, which helps in the rapport building process.

2. Understand the similarities. Like an offline party, your online party should have a start and end time, as well as an order of events. Begin with a welcome and introduction, just like you would an offline party. Before you end the party, be sure to plant your booking and recruiting seeds, and close with a strong call to action for placing online orders.

3. Understand the differences. Online parties will require multiple reminders – especially if they’re sent via email or social media. The good news is that you can use social media to attract impulse buyers to the party that may not have been part of the original invitation list. Another difference is that you can’t demo your products the same way you would at an offline event. It becomes even more important that you “romance” your products. I use that term to describe speaking about your products in a way that creates desire. Make sure any images you use in your presentation are very crisp and clear. There’s no point using an image so blurry or small that your clients can’t see it.

4. Follow-up is critical. The “know, like, and trust factor” of an online party is not as high as an in-person, offline event. As such, it’s even more important to follow-up after the party ends. Everyone that places an online order needs an immediate acknowledgement, and it’s important to contact everyone and thank them for participating in the event. The follow-up goes a long way to reassuring technologically fearful clients that they’ve made a great decision in doing business with you.

5. Book early and ship out on time. Be sure to host online parties in plenty of time to have products shipped out before the holidays. There’s nothing worse than using technology to close your show and then have to apologize when product isn’t delivered on time. If you don’t plan to close the party the day of the show, be sure to let clients know when to expect delivery of their products.

The next time a host complains that everyone is travelling, consider an online party. Understanding the basics to running your own online shopping party will help you not just during the holidays, but throughout the year. These basic tips take the guesswork out of navigating your next (or first) online party.

Lisa Robbin Young offers direct sales coaching and training to direct sales professionals looking to grow their business like a real business instead of an expensive hobby. Sign up for her free weekly ezine at http://www.homepartysolution.com.

We know once you have a room full of guests at your online party, getting them to play games is the easy part. While hunting for answers to your game, a guest has the chance to see some products they simply cannot do without, thus making you sales!

We also know from experience that getting the visitors to the party in the first place is like pulling teeth. We have given some ideas to increase your party and really being able to talk with your future customers in a chat room is the best. However, for those that you’ll never see in the chat room here is a way to increase some party-like sales without having to hold an actual party.

After you build your list of potential customers (and if you don’t have one – stop right here and do that FIRST. YOUR list of potential customers is your most valuable asset in business!), play a game with them via email. Announce on a Monday or even Friday (and you can test which days get the best responses) the start of a contest by email. Focus on a specific type of products like you would at your party, and set up some type of questions that can be emailed to you. Be sure to cover some good points about your products in a casual way (you know your subscribers want to get down to the contest part of this, so don’t overload them with ads!). You can set this up in any way you wish really, just as long as it’s something interactive you can do with them.

At the end of the week, send out another email with the answers (this might grab a few that didn’t participate before, or maybe got stumped and you never got an entry from). Give the details again of the products, which the answers were related to, and also be sure to announce the winner. You can possibly even give a special incentive to buy the products you featured in the contest, since many of your subscribers have been eyeing these products all week – a special might just give them the extra push to buy.

You can do variations of this, such as having weekly-featured products and instead of giving away prizes each week having a monthly drawing where those that win the weekly contests are entered in. Just as long as you are doing something other than just “weekly sales” you will stand out of the crowd and increase your sales!

Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank, owners of DirectSalesHelpers.com strive to help women succeed in direct sales. For additional help with your direct sales business, visit http://www.directsaleshelpers.com/newsletter.html

We have a few vendor spots still available.  Please visit our website at: http://www.directsalesparty.com/VendorSignUpPayment.html to sign up today.

After Labor Day Party
Thursday, September 9th
9pm – 11pm Eastern Standard Time

t’s An Autumn Online Party!
Tuesday, September 21st
9pm – 11pm Eastern Standard Time

Business Opportunity Online Party
Thursday, September 30th
9pm – 11pm Eastern Standard Time

Direct Sales Party has exciting online parties scheduled through April!  Please visit our website at

http://www.directsalesparty.com/OnlineEventRoomDirectSalesParty.html 

to register as a guest!  It’s ALWAYS FREE to attend as a guest and our vendors are always sharing EXCEPTIONAL deals.  We hope you will join us.

Intimate Expressions Romance Party
Sunday, March 21st
Online Party Times

• 12:30 pm EST
• 7:30 pm EST
•  9:00 pm EST

Business Opportunity Online Party
Tuesday, March 30th
8pm – 10pm EST

• Zamzuu
• AtHome America
• Simply Said
• Earth’s Elements

Spring Into Spring Online Party
Tuesday, April 13th
8pm – 10pm EST

• DOVE Chocolate Discoveries
• Scentsy
• Mary Kay
• Simply Said

Earth Day Online Party
Thursday , April 22nd
8pm – 10pm EST

• Partylite
• Southern Living at Home
• Scentsy Wickless Candles
• Simply Said

Business Opportunity Online Party
Tuesday, April 27th
8pm – 10pm EST

• Scentsy
• DOVE Chocolate Discoveries
• Southern Living at Home
• Simply Said