Did you know you can create a business from nothing with LinkedIn?

It’s true.

In fact, I tried to see if I could create a business from scratch using just a LinkedIn group so see if I could generate enough sales to consider it a respectable business.  I officially launched the “paid” part of that business model about 9 months ago and the results have been pretty cool.

Here’s what I did:

Step 1- Created a LinkedIn Group Around the Sports Industry.

I decided early on that I wanted to start a LinkedIn group in order to connect with others that worked in the sports industry.  (hint, most people try to create a group around their company, and this doesn’t work well unless you are a massive company.  Instead, create a group around a topic, niche, or idea you can build a tribe around).

Step 2: Created a Sports Marketing Blog Outside of the Group.

With this blog I posted daily content providing sports business tips, advice, “how to’s”, live networking events, webinars, and other ways for members to advance their career and goals in the sports industry.

Step 3: Delivered a Weekly Newsletter:

Some may not think this is important, but for me “top of mind awareness” is huge.  The more I stay in front of my audience with great content, the more willing they are to take action with an offer.  I created a simple newsletter template that featured the top articles of the week, a featured sports professional or “All-Star” of the week, and a brief recap of my thoughts on the week.  Collecting emails was a huge part of my success with the paid model, so the newsletter gave me a reason to capture emails.

Step 4:  Launched Partner Site and Paid Association:

I knew there was a big need for advanced education and training in the sports industry, and I didn’t think “normal” universities were doing the best job possible, nor did I believe you should pay that much for a piece of paper.  So I launched the Sports Executives Association where I feature interviews with some of the biggest names in sports (Bill Rasmussen, founder of ESPN for example) and members get inside insights, networking, and resources they can’t teach in school.

Creating a Business With LinkedIn

The results have been fun.

I now have close to 350 paying members from 15 different countries, and the membership continues to grow on a monthly basis.

This isn’t thousands of members yet, but it’s a good start to something I do part time on the side from my other business.

At this point, you may have a number of questions or some concerns (cough… excuses).

Lewis.  I see the power of your LinkedIn group, but my industry wouldn’t work the same as yours and they don’t have any money to spend.

Well you were only able to do this because you have a group with 33,000 members, and I don’t know how to grow a group that large.

Doesn’t this take a lot of time to manage a group?

How do I create a site like yours in the first place?

All of your questions about this can be answered (and if you have any, please post them in the comments section).  For the moment, however, let me share with you the system or flow of my process for generating leads on LinkedIn, driving traffic to my site, and getting members to sign up.

(Note- there are a number of things you need to do before this process, and I talk about them in both of my LinkedIn marketing books, so make sure you do them first before you jump right in)

The LinkedIn Group – To Profit Flow

• New member joins your LinkedIn group
• Member gets auto welcome message instantly to their email from you (the group)
• Member is asked to join your newsletter
• Member goes to your site, joins newsletter, browses articles
• Member receives 1 newsletter per week with more free content
• Paid site is mentioned in newsletter and on site, but no “hard pitch” yet
• Member receives 1 groups message per week with a download, or different content
• Member continues to read content often, and joins daily email RSS feed
• Member begins to share your content on her social networks- driving traffic back to your site
• Member gets 1 email per month with info on the paid model “Content of the Month” and is intrigued
• Member checks out paid model site, and joins.
• (If member does not join, she repeats the process, mixed with live events, free webinars and more until she finally joins)

That’s the main system (in a simplified nutshell).

It’s pretty simple when you think about it, and the hardest part is growing your group and creating the content.

Good thing for you is that LinkedIn is so viral that when a member join your group they automatically promote it to their entire network as it shows up on their home wall feed.

The content was hard for me to create at first until I saw how Brian Clark was growing his massive site with CopyBlogger by letting other experts guest post to the point where he was a minority blogger on his own site.

I realized if I wanted my site to grow and if I wanted to keep up with the content I needed to expose more of my members and let them share their expertise.

That turned out to be the right decision for all parties involved.  Here is a brief video that breaks down what I’ve been talking about above, and how I turned my group into a profitable business.

I know some of you may want to get more out of LinkedIn.  Right?  Well, a LinkedIn group is just one way to help you start or grow your business, but there are many other advanced LinkedIn tips and strategies to help you get more leads, traffic, and sales.

I’ll be posting more ways to build your business using LinkedIn here on my site, but I’m also coming out with a new course that covers this, and everything you could possibly want to help you achieve your business goals, all by using LinkedIn.

I’ll have more info on that soon, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear your feedback on this post.  Did you get a lot out of it?  Can you see yourself creating your own profitable business from a LinkedIn group?  Or do you think it’s not possible in your line of business?

Let me know by posting in the comments below.  Thanks.

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If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to sign up to my RSS feed via email HERE to get these types of articles sent directly to your inbox when they come out.  Also, I’ve got four detailed LinkedIn marketing videos I offer for free, go ahead and sign up on the top right hand corner of this blog, and you will have instant access.

LinkedIn groups are by far the most powerful aspect of LinkedIn.  Hands down.

I have seen people build their entire business, market a number of products and services, sell out their paid events, and become thought leaders in their niche all around a single LinkedIn group.

Most people who have created groups on LinkedIn know the benefits. However, for those who have not created one yet, or don’t think it is valuable to do so, here are my top 10 reasons that you must start one today (before someone else beats you to it).

1.  Builds Thought Leadership

I have several LinkedIn groups.  One has more than 20,000 members, and around five of them have 5,000+ members.  Each group has (one of) my websites as the featured site for the group.  This is one of the first things people see when they join the group.  My name is also featured as the owner of the group.  Based off of perception alone, the owner is a thought leader for that groups niche (until proven otherwise).  The more you back this up with quality content, and positive group management, your community will support you and anoint you a leader in that niche.

2.  Connects A Thriving Community

People love to belong to a community, or a Tribe as Seth Godin puts it.  The more you are able to connect like-minded people together, the more they will appreciate you for doing so.  Create an opportunity for passionate people to come together because the leader that does this *usually* reaps the benefits.

3.  Drives Traffic To Your Site

Looking to drive traffic to your blog or company website?  Look no further, a LinkedIn group is a great way to do this.  Here are a few ways you can drive traffic to your site from your group:

• Put your website link in the group profile
• Add the site RSS feed to the News Section
• Send a weekly message to you group, and include a niche related article from your site
• Add your site in the group welcome message (more on this below)
• Create a discussion and include your link

4.  Builds Personal Network

I get roughly 15-20 new invites to connect (as a 1st degree connection) every day.  Most of them come from my groups.  Why?  People love to connect with the community leader.  Since I run a number of “communities” within my LinkedIn groups, I am looked at as someone to connect with.  This is almost true for all group owners, they seem to rack up bonus points from starting the group, therefore having more connections than the average LinkedIn user.

5.  Sending Weekly Messages

This may be the most powerful feature within the groups.  A great example is Robert Flemming, who runs the eMarketing Association group on LinkedIn.  It has almost 200,000 members.  Instead of having to spend thousands of dollars each year on email marketing you could simply create a group, and send them a weekly message for free.

The downside to this is you can’t brand your emails they way you could from a custom email marketing provider (affiliate link), but you can still do some damage in terms of getting your message out there to your members.

The upside, Robert has events with ticket prices of over $1,000 and he sells a ton of them because of his group.  His LinkedIn group helps him achieve his event marketing goals, and it doesn’t cost a dime.  Tough sell, eh?

6.  Create Auto-Responder Email

This is a no-brainer.  Who wants to send a message one-by-one to someone every time they join a group?  Not me, that would take hours of management time every week.  LinkedIn was wise enough to make this easy for the group managers by enabling a welcome message.  Every time someone joins, you can send your own automatic message that delivers to their email account (not their LinkedIn account, but their actual email provider).

This means that you can create a decent sales funnel by first welcoming people to the group, telling them a little about how the group can benefit them and where they can go to get more information.  Hopefully you have them sign up for your newsletter, or connect with you on other social networking sites.  This will help you generate sales in the long run… if you set it up correctly.

7.  Lead Generator

The more you give, the more you will receive.  Dr. Robert Cialdini talks to us about the proven power of reciprocity in his best selling book Influence, and it holds true within a LinkedIn group as well (on LinkedIn, or any other social networking site for that matter).

Connecting people, providing job leads, referrals, valuable content to help them achieve their goals: these are things that you can give to people, and by doing so they will give you an abundance of leads (or whatever it is you need in your business) in return.  It has happened to me, and a number of other group owners who are “doing it right”, and it will also happen for you.

8.  Creating Sub Groups

Want to target people in various locations around the world, or sub niches within a niche?  LinkedIn allows you to create up to 10 subgroups.  It’s a great way to throw events all around the country and only have to send a message out to the subgroup, as opposed to the entire group about a regional event.  Make sure you take advantage of this feature (in an ethical manner of course).

9.  Managing Content

If people are posting MLM type content, or someone is using foul language or attacking others in an unproductive way, you have the ability to remove individuals or delete inappropriate content.  Simple as that.  If it isn’t helping the community, you have the power to make it better.

10.  Helping Others

Ultimately, every good leader helps his team or community rise to the top.  I’m sure 99% of group owners have their own agenda when creating a group, but the more they focus on helping it’s members achieve their goals, that group owner will achieve their goals as well.  It feels good to have the opportunity to help others.  LinkedIn helps us everyday by letting us see how we are connected to one another, and allows us to build stronger, more meaningful relationships.  Let’s face it, business (and life) is about all about the relationships we have, right?

In closing, LinkedIn is a powerful platform to help you achieve your business goals, and the groups aspect is a vital part to helping you achieve those goals faster and in a more meaningful way.  Be willing to take some time to better understand them, as you may find a new way to help yourself, or others, by using them each day.

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Image by LinkedIn Blog