e-downline.net

My background

Thank you for being willing to participate in the launch of e-downline.net. Most of our beta testers are familiar with my other projects, including www.healing-oils.com and www.oil-testimonials.com. When my wife joined Young Living, we were so excited to share the oils with others. Our little family has several of our own testimonials, proving that the oils really do work. Instead of approaching non-interested family and friends, I decided to build a website that would bring people to us, people who already knew about essential oils.

Soon I had healing-oils.com up and running. I did some online advertising that was a huge success. When people came to our website, they could fill out the form to request a free copy of the Missing Link CD. Once they clicked the submit button, their name was stored in an online database. My wife and I were busy the first few weeks hand writing shipping lablels and trying to stay somewhat organized. Unfortunately, what started as a fun adventure quickly grew to a tiring task. I had my regular full time job, and then had to fill up to 20 orders per night for the Missing Link CDs. Who knew that writing a simple address on an envelope could be so time consuming? Being the father of a very busy household, and wanting to keep my side business balanced, I knew something had to change.

I started to design some web-based tools to help me keep track of everything. Then I bought a Dymo label printer (www.dymo.com) and programmed it to work directly with these tools. I designed it so that with a click of a link in the web browser, a shipping label would be printed for a given contact! I was loving life! No more hand writing 20+ labels per night. I developed online reports that would tell me who needs to be called, who is no longer interested, etc. As the weeks went by I had the idea that others could benefit from what I created. Surely there are others who are frustrated with trying to stay organized. Even though Young Living handles commissions and shipping product, there is still lots to be done as far as keeping track of contacts and leads.

Why a web-based contact manager

One day I decided to call some distributors who registered at our oil-testimonials.com website. I wanted some feedback and figured they would be a good place to start. What I learned astonished me. Several of them were still using 3x5 notecards to keep track of their contacts. I asked them how they keep track of email and phone conversations. How did they knew when a contact needed a follow-up phone call. Their answer? They didn't know, that is, without going through their stack of cards looking at notes. Hmmmmm. It was time to act.

Within a short time I secured a new domain name, e-downline.net I then started the process of tweaking all of my website code. I had to change it from a format that supported me as the only user, to a format that allowed many people to login and keep track of their own contacts securely. It took some tinkering, but for the most part, I think it's ready to be beta tested.

What will this amazing thing do?

A better question is what won't this web based contact manager do. e-downline.net will not keep track of PV for any person in your organization. There are other programs out there that do this, and Young Living has even launched some new tools that cover this part of the spectrum. What e-downline.net will do, however, is help you stay organized as you deal with your contacts, leads, distributors and customers. You can say goodbye to 3x5 cards, notebooks, binders, manilla folders and every other form of paper record keeping. Not only that, but because the tool is web-based, you can have access to all of your information wherever you go. All you need is internet access. Here are some of the slick features you will have access to as a beta tester.

Store the contact information for every lead, contact, distributor or customer
Keep a copy of any email that you send or receive
Save notes from phone conversations
Print a mailing label for those waiting for a Missing Link CD
Print a mailing label for a group of contacts based on city, state, zip, etc.
Print a mailing label for a contact requesting a product catalog or price sheet
Add code to your personal website that will allow users to request a Missing Link CD. Once the user clicks the submit button, the contact will be added to your database on e-downline.net
Search for contacts based on ID, email, name, phone, etc.
Show all distributors, customers or both
Show contacts who have not signed up yet
Show contacts outside of the US
Show those needing contact NOW, SOON, or those who are SIMMERING
Show all who are available on weekends, business hours or evenings
Show those who have never been contacted by phone
Show all those with an incorrect phone number
Show all that have interest of High, Medium, Low or None
Show all who have never signed up for your email egroup
Show all records that been modified today
Import contacts from an Excel spreadsheet (coming soon)

To access these features and more, you need to first create an account. This only takes two minutes. Be sure to enter all of your information carefully as this information will be used in emails you initiate to your leads and contacts. After your have created your account, feel free to login and look around. If you prefer, you can login with the demo account to see what it's like with a populated database. Contact me when you are ready to have some leads added to your account and I will also email you a Microsoft Word document containing more detailed instructions.

Because this is a beta test, we will expect comments, questions, feedback or new ideas from each of our testers. Once the test is over, and the website turns into a fee based service, beta testers will get a substantial discount on the monthly fee for their efforts.