Work Yourself Up!

4 Quick Tips for Growing Your Mailing List

There is no excuse not to have a mailing list. In fact, you don't even need your own product or service before starting a targeted list. All you need is an autoresponder and an opt-in box on your website.

Once you do create your own product or service, you’ll be happy that you already have your list in place. By then, you’ll already have readers who are interested in what you have to say. In fact, it will make it easier to sell those things when the time comes because a relationship will already be developed.

The Key = If you can get a targeted list of people who trust you, love your products and see you as an expert in your field your chances of reaching success have just skyrocketed above everyone else.

Quick Tip #1: Get Them to Opt-In

You should always offer quality content for free on your site so that when you do create an offer your readers are already confident that what you’re offering is worth their time & money.

Here are some ideas to entice your visitors to sign up for your list:

•    A Special Report – 7-10 pages in length

•    A Short eCourse – 5 to 7 days that will give you a chance to provide great information along with the ability to follow up in the future.

•    Informative Audio or Video – Make it one that can’t be found already on your site. Be sure to include transcripts for those who want them.

Make sure your free item of such great quality that your visitor could picture themselves paying for it instead of receiving it free.

Remember, not everyone on your list will be interested in buying your stuff immediately. Some just want to get your free information. That’s ok – the day may come when they need something you’ve got and they’ll know where to go. Plus, if you’ve built a relationship with them, they’re more likely to recommend you to others – growing your list even more.

Bonus Tip: Here’s a trick to help you separate the buyers from the freebie seekers.

Create a short report for your list. Offer your readers the report at a low price (no more than $5 or 10 dollars). Those who see the value in what you’re offering will gladly spend a few dollars. Have the customers opt-in for lifetime updates.

If you can, purge the new customers from your leads list. If not, don't worry about it. However, the great value in this method is that you’ll end up with a list of people who aren’t afraid to spend money -- and that's where the real money is.

Quick Tip #2: Make it Easy

Your opt-in box gives you the opportunity to convert one time visitors into long term relationships through follow-up emails. Make sure you place your opt-in form on every page of your website so your readers have the opportunity to sign up without having to search for it.

Where can you put your opt-in form?

•    Pop-up or Pop-over forms hovering over your site.

•    In-line forms near the top. These allow for easy access and are seen “above the fold” so visitors can sign up once they’ve read a bit of your content and find out they love you.

•    Links. Place a link in the footer of every page of your site that directs visitors to an opt-in page.

They all have their own benefits so you should test them to see which one converts best for you.

Don’t forget to create a strong call to action in the opt-in box text – tell them what to expect, and what to do next. Detailed instructions on how to check their email and click on the enclosed link to make sure they receive their freebie is always a good idea.

Quick Tip #3: Drive Targeted Traffic

You have an opt-in form, you have an offer and now you need traffic. The best offer means nothing if no one is visiting your site to see it.

There are many different ways to drive people to your site and using a variety of them will help you achieve the best results. A few to get you started:

•    Article Marketing – Share your articles on article directories. Make sure your author bio includes a strong call to action and a link to your site. Use keywords in your articles to make them easier to find by the search engines.

•    Leveraging Social Networks – Did you know there are over 600 bookmarking and social networking sites on the Internet right now? Twitter and Facebook might be the most popular, but don’t count out sites like StumbleUpon or Digg.

The point is you should be creating relationships through these sites so don’t go in with your sales spiel guns shooting your links all over the place. Build relationships, create your bio and occasionally share a link or special offer to your site.

•    Blog Posts – If your website doesn’t have a blog create one and share quality information or recommendations in your posts.

•    Blog Comments – Make meaningful, relevant comments that provide good information (not just links to your site) on other blogs. Don’t comment just for the sake of commenting and don’t be afraid to comment on the blogs of your competitors. Competition is good and most realize the power of working together so while you’re helping with comments, you’ll build a relationship with them too.

•    Giveaways & Contests –Create traffic by hosting a giveaway or contest. Each has its own merits and you can work with other website owners to create traffic for everyone. For example, get 3 or 4 site owners with services or products they’re willing to donate. Those site owners each get to give away the “package” of 3 - 4 items. You can have your readers participate (which is always good) by visiting all of the sites and leaving comments or whatever you’d like them to do. Be creative but make it fun and easy.

•    Link Love Posts – Write a “round-up” post where you travel the Internet looking for great articles on your topic. Provide links to the articles on your site. Don’t forget to add your commentary and make it more valuable for your readers. Share the link to your post with the people you’ve linked to as a courtesy.

•    Guest Posts – Offer to write guest posts on complementary sites. Everyone is looking for fresh content. Especially, if it’s good quality and they don’t have to write it. You can find places that accept guest posts by doing a search or you can simply email your friends and competing site owners and make the offer to write a post. What do you get in return for your hard work?  A short bio/author resource box at the end of your post with your keywords and links back to your site.

•    Interviews – Find places to share your information via teleseminars, podcasts or email interviews. Often, these will provide you with the ability to get your name and URL out to many people, not already on your list, at one time.

•    Contributors – Look for people to contribute guest posts on your blog for fresh content with an eye to providing quality information to your readers. People are often willing to write a guest post for you as long as they can link back to their own site or product.

•    Brandable Reports – Look for products you can recommend (or create your own) that have brandable reports as a marketing tool. You can give away these special reports that include your own affiliate links making the benefits two-fold. You have content for your readers and the possibility of making money through affiliate sales. (Look at BrandableStuff.com for ideas.)

The Key = Find out what your target market’s intent is when searching for information in your niche. What, exactly, are they searching for? Give it to them.

Quick Tip #4: Test

No matter what you use to drive traffic to your site, you must test to see which offers convert and which are wasting your time. You want to turn visitors into list members AND you want to convert members of your list into buyers. But, the only way you’ll know what action is working best for you is to test them all.

You just need to start at the beginning and just get it done! Get your stuff out there and then test the heck out of it! Tweak & test again.

Now that you have the steps necessary to get your list started, growing your list should be a little bit easier for you. Just focus your efforts on designing a great offer, making your opt-in form easy to find and getting targeted traffic to your site so that your reader’s eyeballs see that opt-in box. Then, choose a few of the strategies to get traffic and see which ones work best for you. Remember to test and tweak your efforts until you get the best possible results.

Autoresponder – Your Electronic Personal Assistant

The best outcome of your first online marketing campaign is a big response.  The worst outcome is being overwhelmed by thousands of responses awaiting your response. Online buyers expect instant response to their information requests.

So not only will you frustrate your potential clients, but you’ll wear yourself out trying to handle this alone. That’s where you hire the inexhaustible personal assistant, the autoresponder. Just set up your autoresponder to perform all of the tasks you need, and then you’re free to move on to the next campaign.

The autoresponder catches those email requests and in a split second sends information back.  You can set the autoresponder to actually sound personal by sending the friendly, welcoming note that you wrote.

The autoresponder also captures the email information of prospects or buyers. That’s absolute gold for building your email list. Smart Internet marketers use this list to stay in touch on a regular basis.

No, you don’t have to irritate with daily emails. But you do want to give them a “sneak preview” and pre-sale buying opportunity for your new product along with many free tips. Another great use of the autoresponder is to send regular newsletters.

Offering a free niche market newsletter helps you get those valuable email opt-ins.  Some prospects want to learn more about your product before buying. The newsletter is a tool for developing trust with potential buyers. 

The fact is that buyers would rather choose products from trusted sources than take a chance on the unknown, so keep the relationship solid with regular, meaningful communication. Your autoresponder can handle multiple lists and different messages.

That gives you a way to tailor the email to prospects for each product. One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is failing to target the message for each product prospect. They get lazy, write one message and one thank you note and then move on.

The autoresponder is capable of so much more work for you. Give each list a distinct name that relates to the product so that you can easily identify the list.    If the autoresponder tool seems daunting, take time to view the tutorials.

Even if you have an active list under management, scan the tutorials to see if there are new tricks you can learn for maximizing the effectiveness of your autoresponder emails.  Keep your electronic personal assistant busy and you’ll make more money online with less effort.

Email Marketing – Make It Personal

The technical options that you have make possible personalized emails from your autoresponder that can seem like the real thing.  Not every buyer knows about autoresponders, so give them the sense that you created an email just for each reader.

When you write each response, start with the name of a trusted friend and write as if the message was just for that friend. Then edit out the friend’s name and set up the message so that your autoresponder takes over and inserts the prospect’s name.

Personalization isn’t just for emails - use it as an intro to your ezine, too: “Hi, Susan, here’s some great new ideas for using the XZY Information system that I know you’ll appreciate.” Use the name that the prospect gives in the information gathering form.

Add the name naturally as it would occur in conversation. Internet marketers can make the mistake of over-using the name just because it’s easy to insert electronically. Read the message aloud.

Would you use the name that many times or does it sound phony?  Yes, people love the sound of their own names, but when it’s over used, the reaction is that you’re being a fake and that send the buyer fleeing.

Don’t let spell check defeat you. First, be extremely careful when you type a name into the autoresponder list. If the name was automatically added to a list, don’t change it. Some names are spelled differently on purpose.

There is an ongoing dispute between Teresa and Theresa as to which is the accurate spelling of the name. Answer: the way she wants it!  Also, be careful that the name isn’t changed in the final spell check.

Avoid the marital status question. Don’t add Ms, Miss or Mrs to any correspondence. For one thing, email isn’t that formal. You don’t need to guess on this one or you’ll surely be wrong more often than right.

While the generic “Dear Friend” or “Dear Internet Marketing Colleague” seems impersonal, at least it doesn’t make obvious mistakes that are humorous to some people and blatantly offensive to others.

Use the name when you ask for the order. Remember to be personal when you make the final pitch.  What’s more appealing to you: “Everyone needs this marketing package to increase sales” or “ I want to see you enjoy the kind of success I’ve had with this product - so, Stan, are you ready to make serious money online? If you are then click here. . . .but wait, Stan, I’ve got one more bonus that’s just what you need!”

That’s a personal close using the name and showing interest in the prospect’s success. So keep it real, keep it personal and keep making contact with your list so that the first sale isn’t the last one.

The Key Factors In Choosing A Good Autoresponder Software

If you are serious about doing Internet marketing and doing it well by taking your profits to the maximum level possible then it is very important that you work on building your list from the very outset of starting your campaigns. By building your list you can take a one time visit and turn them into a multiple time visitor and hopefully continual customer! In order to build a list you have to use a piece of software called an autoresponder and the choice of what autoresponder to use and purchase is a very important one and will affect the growth of your business significantly over the following years.

Free Autoresponders v Paid Autoresponders

The question of whether should use a free autoresponder or go with a free one is one that is frequently asked on many of the most popular Internet marketing forums and there is really only one correct answer : a quality paid Autoresponder is miles better. If you ask any experienced Internet marketer they will tell you that if at all possible you should go with a paid autoresponder from the very beginning of your Internet Marketing campaigns because if you don't then it will present you with a bottleneck when in the future you decide that you want to expand you business and take it to the next level.

Which One Should I Go For?

Okay now we have established without any shadow of doubt that the best solution is to go for a paid autoresponder the next big question is which one should you go for. The first big choice to make is whether to make a one time purchase or pay a monthly subscription to a service. The best decision in this case is to go for a monthly subscription because they constantly stay on top of the problems that crop up with email marketing and do their best to ensure that the deliver-ability rates stay high.

Of these services the main 3 offerings come in the form of Aweber, Get Response, and Email Aces. Of these 3 Aweber and Get Response are definitely the most popular and of those two most marketers seem to prefer the Aweber service for its exceptional delivery rates although Get Response is also a pretty good choice. Both are about the same price so it would be a good idea to check them both out before making the final decision for yourself.

Using Co-Registration to Build Massive Email Lists

If you're a keen follower of the internet marketing industry, you would have noticed that there has been a lot of interest in co-registration services lately. A lot of people are asking if this was a new technology or concept.

People have been starting and responding to related threads in the Internet marketing forums. Everyone wants to know what the noise is all about.

Co-registration is just a simple way of building opt in email lists.  Co-registration is not a new concept. It's a list building system the early internet marketers like Terry Dean . Co-registration involves having your subscription offer listed alongside other publications' offers, so that when someone signs up to the other newsletters, he or she is given the option of signing up for yours as well without needing to re-enter his or her personal information.

Let me explain better.

If you sign up for free stuffs online, you must have come across a situation where you're asked if you're interested in similar free offers. You'll be asked to check the offer you're interested in. Once you check them and hit submit, you're automatically subscribed to multiple offers, usually newsletters.

I love co-registration services because I don't have to go out to look for traffic. I just set up my account and the co-reg services direct people to my autoresponder. I pay a one time fee and my subscribers will be delivered to me. Cost per subscribers is
usually around $0.20 to $1.

So your job is cut out:

1. Pick a co-registration service
2. Write your co-reg ads
3) Open an autoresponder account
4) Run your campaign.

That's it. Do the above and you'll start building your list in a couple of hours. Guaranteed!