Forever lost are the days of having to sift through business cards, fliers, handouts and countless network marketing prospects. The Internet has paved the way for millions of people to tap into vast resources of harvested gold mines. Learning the methods of Online Prospecting, significantly increases the numbers of your Network Marketing downlines.

Two ways to increase Internet Traffic and generate prospects are:

- Free Traffic

- Paid Traffic

Although highly effective, determining which approach to utilize usually depends on your budget.

Most people starting out in Network Marketing usually use "Free Traffic" to generate prospects. This usually consists of Blogging, Free Press Releases, Organic search results, Forum postings, Article Directory submissions and Viral Marketing. For example, you can create Blogs to appear on different search engines primarily to generate traffic to your Network Marketing product(s) or write articles and post them to various directories such as Ezinearticles or GoArticles.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. Getting your feet wet by "Free Traffic" allows you test your risk limits while overcoming the learning curves of Network Marketing.

When you've started to generate some income from "Free Traffic", investing in "Paid Traffic" would be your next approach. Because paid Online Prospecting generates as much traffic as you want, this produces the biggest advantages for you.

Pay-Per-Click methods like Google AdWords can generate traffic for you in as little as 15-30 minutes. Another example would be, Paid Banner Advertising and posting them on people's Blogs, Websites or Social Bookmarkings (Myspace, Friendster, etc.). The list goes on. You can also invest in Sponsored reviews, CPA(Cost-Per-Action) Advertising, Co-Registration Lists, or if you have the money and want more time to focus on other major aspects of your Network Marketing business, outsourcing the above mentioned might be best for you.

Once you have mastered the Online Prospecting techniques through "Free Traffic or Paid Traffic", remember to link to your "Lead Capture page" giving your prospect a free E-Book or Special Report primarily about your Network Marketing product in return for your online prospects Name & Email address. This allows you to send email updates or follow ups regarding you Network Marketing business opportunity and thus, paving the way to a Long-Term Partnership.