On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutters Mill, near San Francisco California. Within a year the Gold Rush was on, and San Francisco became a boom town. Many people became rich.

But it's interesting to note that the very first millionaire wasn't a miner. The first millionaire from the California Gold Rush was a man by the name of Samuel Brannan. Mr. Brannan set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies, and within a year had revenue of $150,000 a month. And in 1850 $150,000 was a LOT of money!

In other words, the wealth wasn't just in the gold, it was in the shovels, picks and gold pans that the miners needed. Since then, marketers have adopted this as an analogy, and we still talk about selling "shovels to miners", but how can that help YOU build an online network marketing business?

The best way I know of to take advantage of this powerful marketing strategy is through a Funded Proposal. Simply put, a funded proposal is a method of selling an inexpensive item to people in your target market. When they buy the product, you then know that you have a very serious prospect, who is not only interested in your niche, but is willing to invest in their own business.

One way I do this is by marketing an e-book that has something they want- in my case a powerful e-book about how to stop chasing people and start ATTRACTING them into their business. This is information network marketers crave. So they go to my capture page, enter their info, and about 5% buy the book. So for every thousand leads I sell five books at $37, a total of $1850.

But the money isn't the best part, the free leads is what's important. As a matter of fact, I actually don't plan on getting rich selling shovels. My passion is for online network marketing, and my goal is to build a team of 100,000 people. So the best part of the equation for me isn't the money (although that's nice!), it's the fact that I am generating extremely high quality, targeted leads of people who are experienced network marketers, and now I have a chance to get to know them and eventually show them my business.

Rookies to online network marketing wonder why they should use a Funded Proposal system to market their business. They can't understand why they shouldn't just market their business to people directly. The answer lies in the shovel story. What I'm doing is called double dipping. I not only sell shovels to the miners, but I also have a mine. I sell them a book that teaches them something they need: how to attract people into their network marketing business. But I know that many of them have a lousy mine. So then I get a chance to say, "Hey, I sold you a great shovel, but are you digging in a profitable mine?" If the answer is no, I can show them my business.

So the funded proposal is powerful for a variety of reasons:

1. It is a source of extra cash flow.

2. It gets me qualified leads of people in my niche. (Online Network Marketing)

3. It builds my credibility with people. They perceive me as an expert.

4. It allows me to market in places where others aren't successful. For example, social networking sites like Direct Matches are crammed with people marketing their opportunity to each other, with very little success, because they're all pushing their own companies on each other. But I market something they can ALL use, no matter what business they are in.

5. The funded proposal gets me the highest quality, real time leads available. Let's face it, when you buy leads from a broker you are buying low quality, used goods. But when you generate your own real time lead that aren't shared with anybody else, it's worth its weight in gold (no pun intended!)

The bottom line is this: if you are in online network marketing and you aren't using a funded proposal system, you're working too hard!