It has recently come to our attention that there is a virus spreading around Facebook that impersonates your friends and encourage you to order “HGC Ultra” weightloss product.

The facebook virus then takes you to a website located outside of the United States and then allows you to order. Unfortunately, the product and website are a scam, and the product will not be delivered.

In addition, this company will send you an email confirmation with the email address “[email protected]” as their email address. This company is illegally using one of our domain names as their “reply to” address. Since they are located outside of the USA (we’ve heard conflicting reports, but they are either hosted in Russia or China), it’s almost impossible to get them to stop.

Unfortunately “herbal-nutrition.com” is a domain name that we own, and people who search for that domain wind up on the website of The Herbal Nutrition Network and assume that somehow we are the ones who scammed them.  HNN is a directory of Herbalife distributors and does not sell HGC Ultra, and we certainly don’t scam anyone!

Been scammed by HGC Ultra? Here’s what to do:

  1. Stay calm. It’s relatively easy to get your credit card to refund the money.
  2. Please don’t spread misinformation about Herbal-Nutrition.Net – We are not the company who scammed you.
  3. Personally, I’d break off all communication with the scammers. The less of your personal info you give them, the better.
  4. Contact your credit card company and request to file a “chargeback”. Keep in mind that the company name on your statement and the amount charged may be different than what you asssume it will be.
  5. Have your credit card company reissue you a new card with a different number. This is kind of a pain, but will make sure your card isn’t charged again without your authorization.
  6. Stay vigilant. Since the scammers have your email address, it’s very likely they will try to scam you again.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be writing a series of posts about local marketing, and the importance of submitting your site to free local directories.

These are important to get your information in front of as many prospective customers as possible. Today, I listed The Herbal Nutrition Network with Merchant Circle. It’s not obvious how to get a free listing, as they direct you to the paid service as soon as your submit your information. However, by following the verification link in the email provided you can complete your profile without signing up for a monthly fee.

==>If your Herbalife distributorship isn’t getting the business you deserve, check out this Google local training

 

I’ve been meaning to do a video tutorial over blogging and to explain one of the new aspects of the HNN blog – the featured distributor blogs on the HNN homepage. Until I get that done, this info may help you explain how the “featured blogs” work, and now you can maximize your chances of getting listed there.

As most of you already know, HNN now has a built-in blog for distributors. This allows you to add fresh content to your HNN website for your friends, family, and visitors. If you don’t currently blog, you should. It’s one of the easiest ways to encourage repeat visitors and promote your site to the world.

You may have noticed that some of the distributor blog posts are being featured on the HNN homepage. This gives you several benefits. First of all, your post could potentially be seen by hundreds of visitors to the HNN homepage. These visitors will be directed directly to your HNN website for more information about you and Herbalife products.

Additionally, a featured slot on our homepage will also mean that your blog post may be picked up by the search engines more quickly. This may result in additional traffic directly to your blog post from the various search engines.

Ready to get your post on the HNN homepage? Here are some ideas and tips to help you get started.

The first thing to realize is that any distributor’s post could potentially be featured on the homepage. All you need to do is start writing quality content from the “Blog” tab of the HNN back office. We regularly review all new posts and look for ones that will benefit our visitors. My first word of advice is to blog early and blog often. Once or twice a week at a minimum.

Also, you need to realize that we’re looking for relevant, original content. If you’re simply copying and pasting content from another website, we won’t feature those on the homepage. We analyze all blog posts and try to make sure that the content is fresh and original. If it’s not, we immediately reject it from the homepage.

Another thing to realize is that we are also looking for content that our visitors will find useful and beneficial. If your post is entirely self-serving, it probably won’t be featured on the homepage. Let me give you an example of some topics that visitors would find helpful, and some examples of some posts that are simply self-serving:

Sample “Helpful Posts”:

  • How to Make the Perfect Herbalife Shake
  • The 7 Elements of Successful and Lasting Weight Loss
  • We Found Your Motivation (Tips for Staying Motivated)
  • Shake Recipes of Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix
  • What is the Herbalife Weight Loss Challenge?

As you can see, the above topics help answer questions. If you’re looking for more ideas, browse the Google keyword suggestion tool or Yahoo answers and see what kind of topics people are searching for. By meeting the need of other people, you demonstrate that you are knowledgeable and willing to help others.

Here are some sample posts that are simply self-serving, and won’t’ be featured:

“I am now selling Herbalife products, please email me at [email protected] or call me at 555-555-5555”

“These products are great. Call or email me to get started”

Notice how these posts are very general, and don’t really provide value to our website visitors? Internet searchers are looking for well-written content that helps them answer questions or solve problems. By meeting these needs, you can begin to build relationships with your website visitors.

Here are a couple of more tips to increase the likelihood that your post will be selected for the HNN homepage.

1) Make sure your post is long enough (250-300 words MINIMUM)
2) Make sure your post “excerpt” is descriptive and will engage our visitors
3) Avoid unusual formatting (colored fonts, large fonts, all caps, etc.)
4) Spell-check your posts and use proper punctuation

The featured blog posts on the HNN homepage can be a great way to get some free exposure for your Herbalife business. Just remember to keep blogging. Every post you publish on your site will be reviewed and considered for inclusion on the HNN homepage!

Questions? Contact us here.