Archive for the ‘List Building’ Category
Autoresponder Messages-Is Your List Responsive?
June 17th, 2010 | 
Author: 
I realize I have written about autoresponders on one or two occasions before but I thought I would give you an update on my own personal experience and what I have learned that has made a difference to me.
First off, if you do not know, one of the best ways to build up a steady income is by building a list of loyal subscribers who are open to receiving emails from you. There are many autoresponder services you can use ranging from free to very expensive but I, and many other internet marketers have had much success using Aweber. It is affordable at $19 a month and you can have unlimited lists running(I have 7 now) and you also get a month free so you can give it a test drive, watch all the setup videos and tips they provide to help you get the best campaign running.
I used to just sign up fro affiliate programs and then copy and paste the emails from the programs blindly into my autoresponder. I would never talk to my subscribers on a personal level, never give them anything that I had personally written, created or had access to to offer them for free. Because of this, I found that even if half my list did not necessarily unsubscribe, they simply just deleted my emails never opening them at all.
For awhile I gave up on building a list. But then I read a good book by another successful internet marketer who talked about how you apply a certain procedure to your campaign.
1. You send a freebie out first
2. Then you send them a link to a blog post they may find useful that you just wrote up.
3. Then you could tell them about a new resource that you found that is free to use or download that will help them get organized or add value to their business.
4. Then you send them a recommendation to a PAID product that they may find useful. Make sure that you only endorse your own products or those you have personally used and benefited from. If you do want to use an email from the product/program itself, reword it or add an opening and closing to it of your own words so that your subscribers can still get to know the real you and trust what you are saying. Plus it is often more convincing if they can read just how the product helped you.
You then rinse and repeat that process. In this way, you are staying in touch with them but not always seeming like you want them for their money. Which after all this is not the bottom line. You hope that you will make some money, but you really need to build up a solid trusting relationship with your subscribers in order to get anything out of your time and efforts.
This is what I have learned and applied in the last 6 months. And although I still only have a list of a couple hundred people, I have more open rates happening, a few people have emailed me with questions and comments and I feel I am very close to making some sales in the near future if I keep this up. I feel better about myself and not feel like I am a failure or a greedy monger.
If you haven’t started your list yet, you need to get on over to Aweber and sign up. They have a ton of new opt in templates that are really cool looking, and even some new email templates for those that want to add that personal or professional touch to their emails(I have my logo and photo on one of mine). While it may take time to build up a solid list that will start to take your advice and buy the products you recommend, once you have established a good relationship with your subscribers, you could see your income doubling, tripling or even quadrupling in no time. If you are serious about building a profitable business online and finally stop working for someone else, you need to get on board with growing a list!
Safelist Usage: Is it worth your time?
There is much controversy about using safelists and other such types of services. Many swear that these services enabled them to build up large lists while not having one of their own yet. Others say that they are a waste of time.
I find that regardless of what marketing method you choose to use for your own business, they all may have the potential to work depending on the person who uses them as well as the type of business you are trying to market. Much like traffic exchanges. If you are trying to sell shoes and accessories, trying to get anything going for your business in traffic exchanges or safelists, would not be a wise way to spend your time. The only people/businesses who benefit from these types of services are those who are promoting list building tools/services, and those who are promoting traffic related items.
I find that some of the safe lists that are out there are pretty good. I have only maybe tried 5 or 6 out of the possible hundred or more around, but I was just testing the waters. I found some of them though just sent way to much email for you to read to be able to submit your email ads every 3 days or 5 days or even 7 and 10 days.
I am going to tell you about one such service though. It may not be one of the big ones other marketers are pushing, but you can mail to your choice of 4 different lists, all which have ranging from 4000-24000 members. Although with the free membership your email only gets sent to 500 people a day. But if you think about it, sending out to 500 every day with that much of a choice, can really add up.
It also has a pretty good affiliate program. You get paid $10 for everyone who joins and upgrades to a pro(which is worth it if you find you have gotten some response from your testing) And the best part for me is that although you do have to read 10 emails a day in order to send your own ad, you only do it from their site once you log into your account. No clogging up your email inbox(I already have enough coming in, don’t you?)
If you want to do a test run, you can find your favorite affiliate program that is offering residual income(you know the kind that you only have to make one sale and you get paid something every month), find the email ad that they offer(you may want to add a little to it to personalize it, or change it up a little for more success), create an account from the site with the link I leave below, and then read your 10 emails required, and blast your ad away.
If you do this day in and day out(takes like 20 mins if that, from your day) to test it with all 4 of the lists there, for say 3-6 months, you will be able to see what kind of results you get. If you like the results, you can try a different affiliate promotion to see if you get the same type of results.
Be sure to track your results from all campaigns you run for your business. Hits Connect is one of the best programs I find out there to do that. It is free to join, there are tons of tools to help you out, and you can even have access to other programs you can make money with. It is worth the look and is a must have tool for every business owner as far as I see it.
O.k. so, today you were given a reason to try out a safelist that does not clog up your inbox with other people’s ads, and you can send out an email to 500 people each and every day. I think this should work regardless of whatever niche you are in, it just may have better results for make money/traffic and listbuilding businesses. I am going to be trying it out with my weightloss site next so I will keep you posted to let you know which of my campaigns are doing better.
Now, the next step is up to you. Go and sign up at Trade-A-List and Hits Connect and get started setting up your campaigns. It may take you a little while today to get it all set up, but once it is running, it will only take you 15-20 mins a day to add this extra income stream possibility into your marketing strategies.
You never know if something will work for you unless you try it. And then give it a good enough go like the 3-6 months. If you still have not made a sale in that time, try another campaign or move on, it will be your choice.
Here’s to your success! Be sure to come back on here and comment if you are having success with these programs or even if they did not work for you. Others can benefit from hearing our experiences.
KXGRZUAZMEA6
Product Review: Traffic Annihilator
Traffic Annihilator is a new site that says it guarantees more CONVERTING web visitors and online advertising with very little effort or cost. So I decided to put it to the test…
My first impression was the site looks professional and clean, with an attractive look and feel. It is easy to read and understand. Joining the site was easy and painless–they do offer 2 upgrade options but they are not required to gain the benefits.
The Members Area is very well laid out and intuitive–I could figure out what to do after only a few minutes and was able to get up and running in less than 5 minutes. Inside the site, you create links and ads–the links you simply enter any URL links you use into the generator and it transforms them into “Traffic Annihilator” links. You create ads for anything you want to promote using the Traffic Annihilator Ad Generator, which is very easy to use. You can create as many links and as many ads as you like. And they are organized in a logical way–links are displayed in the order you create them but also your 5 most recent links appear on the main page for quick reference. Also, since the link generator is the tool you’ll use most, it is also right at the top of the main page when you login. Very smart!
After you’ve created at least 1 link and 1 ad you can start to generate traffic. Just use and promote the new Traffic Annihilator link instead of the original source link you had. Every time the Traffic Annihilator link is clicked, the page loads followed by a cool slide-up ad window at the bottom. It displays an ad PLUS an image with your affiliate link that goes back to Traffic Annihilator. So if anyone clicks the Traffic Annihilator image they see the site, and if they signup they become your referral. It’s a great viral feature because you can build referrals without even trying to just by using the site.
Now every time the ad window displays (your Traffic Annihilator links get clicked) you earn credits that get YOUR ad displayed in the ad windows when other members’ links get clicked. So the more clicks, the more times your ads get displayed.
And this works virally–meaning as you make referrals into Traffic Annihilator (either by promoting it or just using it and visitors click the Traffic Annihilator image on the ad window to join) you also earn ad credits on THEIR link clicks. And this works up to 5 levels deep. So you can create a massive amount of free ad views and web traffic by referring others to Traffic Annihilator also.
I didn’t get to test the full effect of a big downline yet (I just got the tool) but I can tell you the rest of the site works exactly as stated–my links got clicked, I earned credits, and my ads got displayed. Traffic Annihilator even tracked my results so I know how many clicks and how many ad displays. That was an impressive unadvertised extra feature.
There is one more benefit and feature which might be the best of them all–downline emailing. You can email your downline with offers, promotions, or whatever you like, and here is where Traffic Annihilator really shines. They took time to make the emailing often enough that it’s valuable as a user, but no so often that it’s a burden to your downline. But the best part about this feature (and actually the credit earning too) is that it tells you exactly how long until you can mail again. Now THAT’s cool.
Overall I have to say I am impressed with Traffic Annihilator. It is simple yet powerful, and delivers on its promises. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to increase traffic and advertising.
See it and join here:
List Building – Why Is It So Important?
Are you successful with your Internet business?
Better yet, do you think you are successful with your online
business?
When most online entrepreneurs are asked with these questions,
they often brush it off. This is because most of them, who have
not yet realized the right way to succeed in Internet Marketing,
continue to believe that the mere fact that they have a website
is already enough to succeed on the Internet.
The truth is, they all end up very upset because they fail to
realize the secret behind the success in Internet Marketing.
Having a website is not a guarantee that your online business
will succeed. How will you succeed if people will not realize
that your business exist online? The key to Internet Marketing
is to get your business noticed.
An effective way to do this is to build an opt-in list. In fact,
most of the people who are already experts in Internet Marketing
will tell you that building a highly targeted opt-in list is the
most effective and important tool in Internet Marketing.
Basically, an opt-in list is a list of email addresses of people
who have agreed to obtain any kind of information from online
businesses like you. The term “opt-in” means that you have their
permission to send to them whatever newsletters, brochures, or
promotions that you have in your online business.
It is extremely important that you have their permission first
before you send them information because unsolicited emails will
be regarded as spamming, which is an illegal activity on the web.
Because of the feasibility of building an opt-in list on Internet
Marketing, most of the online entrepreneurs consider it as the
most treasured tool online. They need this list in order to get
the consumer’s attention and sustain interest.
By creating an opt-in list, you will be able to maintain solid
contact with your previous buyers at the same time boost your
sales because of the fact that you have a sure target market
always ready to purchase items from you.
An opt-in list is considered to be the most important item for
any Internet Marketer. In fact, if in case something bad happens
like emergencies and catastrophes and they could only save one
item, it would be their opt-in list saved on a backup disk.
Just imagine how Internet Marketers value their opt-in list…
If this is the case, then it must be really something, right?
So, for people who are not yet aware of the importance of building
a highly targeted opt-in list and would like to know how to build
them, here are some tips that could be very useful.
1. Decide on your niche market or your target market.
It is extremely important to know your target market in order
to focus on something. It would be really confusing and time
consuming if you will build an opt-in list with no particular
market in mind.
Moreover, having a niche market would bring more focus on your
marketing campaigns and would derive better results because you
have directed your emails to people who would most likely be
interested in them.
2. Be sure that your selected target market is available on the
Internet.
The mere acquisition of a niche market is not a guarantee that
you can already start building your opt-in list. Since, the
concept of opt-in list is specifically generated to aid in the
growth of the Internet Market of a particular entrepreneur, it
is important to have a niche market that is available through
the Internet.
The concept is basically simple, how can you promote your online
business if your niche market is not available in the Internet?
Hence, it is extremely important to verify if your target market
is available online.
3. Verify if your chosen target market is an income-generating
market.
Building a highly targeted opt-in list will just go to waste if
your niche market is not generating any income at all.
Try to verify their income-generating potential through the search
engines, wherein you will find some paid ads related to the keywords
you have searched. This would only mean that if somebody is willing
to pay to advertise focusing on the same target market that you have
in mind, chances are, you will be able to reap positive results on
your target market.
4. Generate solutions to the problems of your target market by using
Internet forums.
Using forums will help you determine the underlying solutions that
will answer to most of your target market’s problems.
Through their posts and threads, you will be able to identify your
target market’s problems and will be able to come up with great
solutions. That, will also come very handy when you start building
your opt-in list.
Indeed, the success of an online business or your Internet Marketing
efforts greatly depend on your opt-in list.
As they say, the money is in the list, that’s why most businesses
consider their opt-in list as gold.
Click below for more information and instructions on how to get started.
Optin Page Generator
12 Month Millionaire: Audio Coaching Sessions With Vincent James
A program called 12 month millionaire was recently released by Russell Brunson, which is a 6 part audio interview with direct mail marketer. This program is based on Vince James now out of print book 12 Month Millionaire.
Vince James is a former convicted criminal, who makes more money per year than most CEOs of very large companies; He reportedly has made 100 million dollars by doing direct mail marketing which is an offline type of marketing. He has taught internet marketers ways to make money in his book. Russell Brunson decided to interview him to see how it could help his own internet marketing business improve.
Russell Brunson himself has made millions of dollars by applying the techniques learned from Vince James, and he is now also called upon to deliver lectures around the world on internet marketing.
Much of the information provided in this program would be extremely useful if you really want to take your online business offline and that is the point of this interview. Vince talks about advertising in print media, radio and TV and you could easily adapt these techniques to grow an online business. However an average internet marketer may not get most of the points in this interview but a smart marketer is probably going to pick useful points and apply them to expand his marketing business.
The topics covered in different sessions of this interview are:
Session 1:
This session is about how Vincent James, a 21 years boy gets started in his million dollars business and what is his niche and how he achieved success in it. Vincent will also talk about how he set up his membership site and sold 65,000 memberships within the 12 month period.
Session 2:
It’s about information product creation and information publisher. Vincent shared his secret on how he sold more information products through direct mailing and direct marketing.
Session 3:
This interview session is about list building and maintaining the latest information of customers and prospects. You will learn Vincent’s techniques on how he handles his list and maintains the latest contact information of his list. This session also teaches about the life time value of a customer and how you can turn these customers to be your continuous streams of income.
Session 4:
This session focuses on the advertising techniques used by Vincent that made his million dollar business a success. This is an important session on how to drive your business and convert these traffics to sales.
Session 5:
This session continues from session 4 on advertising techniques. You will see how Vincent generates his leads from commercial ads such as TV and radio advertisement.
Session 6:
This session focuses on how Vincent handles the potential problems that rise throughout his $1 million money making path. You will also learn on what actions to be taken if you find your product being cloned by unauthorized people.
This program in going to give you valuable tips on how to earn through offline marketing whether you already have some marketing experience or you are a newbie.
Click here to learn more:
12 Month Millionaire
All About Auto Responders
Throughout the Internet, autoresponders make for an excellent promotional tool. Although the technical name is an autoresponder, other known names include auto email, mailbot, and email responder. An autoresponder is a great way to save time, as it responds to any message with an automatic response.
Autoresponders can vary from messages that go through email to scripts that are programed to run on servers. All types of autoresponders work the same, as they will automatically send a message out when a message is received. Depending on the message they receive, they will send out the correct return message. This can be determined by the script or the email address.
Although they are great for promotional reasons, they are also widely abused all across the Internet. Autoresponders are great to use for your daily tasks, as they will basically do all of the work for you. On the other hand, they can also be quite disastrous on those who happen to come in contact with them.
When you submit your website to search engines, directories, or classifieds, you should never attempt to use an autoresponder address. Most of these website types use autoresponders themselves, when they send out their messages. If their autoresponder happens to send a message out to your autoresponder, they will continue responding – which can be very annoying.
When you decide to subscribe to an email or ezine you should always use your valid email address and never use the address for your autoresponder. If you use your autoresponder to subscribe, chances are you’ll have your subscription revoked. It can be very annoying if a group sends out emails, only to find that your autoresponder keeps sending return messages. For that very reason, you should never use your autoresponder address to subscribe to anything.
Autoresponders can be great to use, although they can also be a hazard as well. Often times, with subscription groups or ezines, it can be very hard to locate someone who is using an autoresponder. In most cases, those who use an autoresponder don’t have the same reply or from address as they did when they signed up. In cases such as this it can take quite a lot of time and effort to locate the address.
If you take care of your autoresponder and don’t use it to annoy others or sign up for email subscriptions, it should treat you well. An autoresponder can do a world of good for your business, saving you a lot of time and effort. Autoresponders are easy to set up and easy to use, which is great news for anyone who isn’t technical with the Internet. For the price they cost and how easy they are to operate – autoresponders can make your Internet business easier than ever before.
If you are looking for a free trial, Aweber has a 30 day trial. Aweber has been rated one of the best autoresponders to use. The customer support is outstanding. There are free videos and assorted articles for the new beginner to get going setting up their autoresponder series so they can start building a list in no time.
Why not check it out for yourself?
AWeber’s email marketing software makes it easy.
Learn how they can do it for you, too.
Take A Free Test Drive Today!
Giveaway Event Again! Need your Help!
Hey all.
I want to tell you about another great giveaway event. If you are looking for private label content you can use for your business, or traffic secrets, or any other reports and software you could use to start or run your business online, you will want to sign up for this free giveaway.
If you are looking to be a contributor and build up your list of subscribers, you will want to get in earlier, like NOW before the door open to the public and you won’t be able to submit a gift for people to sign up for.
I am going to make this quick because I am sure I have posted previous comments about these giveaways since I love them and get involved whenever I have the time. If you are new and just starting out building a list, you may want to invest in the upgrade just because it will help you build up faster and get twice as many subscribers as a free member. But even if you don’t have the cash, we are all strapped at one time or another, entering as a free member will still land you enough to add to your list. Since it is free, you can’t really knock any that you get.
Remember you will need a nice digital item to give away that will add value to your list and make them want to sign up and stay with you. If you have any problems thinking up anything but would still like to get involved, give me a shout on here and I will get back to you to work with you until you have something.
So here are the links:
Click on the link if you want to be a contributor, and the banner pic if you want to just sign up and get free goodies.
Merry Christmas Contributor Sign up
Time to Build your List!
It’s Giveaway time again!!! The Giveaway events are really flooding my inbox. I spent the entire day yesterday signing up to every event I could and submitting my free gift.
If you still have not created your own information product yet, you can still join these giveaways as a contributor and build your list. All you need to do is submit a resale rights product. You can get some from many membership sites. These sites can be expensive sometimes, although there are affordable ones that aren’t skimpy.
I have a VIP memership at a site called Resell it for Profit. I am a reseller as well.For those of you looking to get involved with list building but are in need of a product to giveaway, I am going to give you a free Gold membership that is worth $67 a year and provides you with 426 products to choose from and sell as you own. Most of these products also come with their own website files you only need to upload to your own hosting server.
You can then choose to upgrade and get access to another 250 products, you will be able to sell ebooks, software, templates, videos, and more for numerous niche markets.
Click on my link below to get your free Gold membership now.
http://resellitforprofit.com/reseller_manager/rep1/kdbbiz/Gold.html
Now click on the following links and sign up for these giveaway events before they launch and you lose out. You could receive hundreds of subscribers to your list in a month the more events you sign up for.
Multiple Sclerosis Giveaway and Fundraiser
There’s a huge 1000USD referral contest, so join and start promoting the event!
Friday the 13th Giveaway
The Scotsmans Birthday Giveaway Bash
Peter Cottontail Easter Giveaway
Even if you do not have a list of your own at all, you can upgrade and be guaranteed that you will have your gift seen and be building your list faster. I know sometimes it is not affordable to upgrade for every event but look for the cheap ones. There are a few that you can upgrade for as low as $9.97 where others the upgrade is as high as $67. Even upgrading at one event could give you a list of over 100 for you to start with for the next set of events. Once you have a list you do not need to upgrade if you don’t want(unless you want to add more than one gift to the event or want the chance to have your gift on one of the first pages seen)
Trust me, it is worth all the work and the few dollars. Getting involved with these giveaways is sooo addicting once you get started, and the feeling you get when your inbox fills up with new subscriber mentions. They say that every subscriber on your list is worth $1 so the more you have the richer you become.
p.s. just in case you do not have an aweber autoresponder account you can get one here through my link. It is the best $20 a month I invest into my business and most internet marketers will agree. You can try it out for free with these giveaways and see for yourself. Aweber will also send you an ecourse to help you setup and get your first campaign running.
Can You Have More Sales, Too?
Helping over 51,000 businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber’s opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.
Free Traffic Sources
Well I decided to do some testing for my blog and website http://mclarenbooksandmore.com I would like to share with you some of what I found out over the last few days.
First, I was wondering about Safelists, Traffic Exchanges, and free classifieds.
Safelists:
I joined only one called AdTactics. There are 7690 members. What you do is agree to recieve emails from other members. When you read the email and click on the link for thier website you will receive 50 credits per site. I spent the day receiving emails. I must have received a hundred or more over 24 hours. I spent approximately 2 or 3 hours clicking and gathering up as many credits as I could. At the end I cashed in and had 1000 credits. I emailed to 1000 members and waited to see how it would reflect on my traffic stats.
End result? Nothing! Not one single link was clicked from that site! That means that of the 1000 people I emailed, they didn’t even bother to either read my email or click through to get their 50 credits. Which means what? I am thinking that there are more than the few who are paid upgrades who do not have to read other emails to have their messages read. When you upgrade, you still get to have your messages sent to the members but can free up your time and email box. I cancelled my account. I am not wasting time with all of those emails, and not getting anything. Obviously if this marketing does work, it only works for those who pay.
Traffic Exchanges:
First off, there are tons of traffic exchanges out there! I went with Traffic Splash. I also like Traffic Swarm but found Traffic Splash to be a little more friendly and visually appealing. They have contests and surf rewards for so many clicks. So, I set about making up my text ad, banner ad, and SPLASH page to connect for the site. The SPLASH page was added to the rotation of other sites, and the text ad and banner ad waited until I rounded up enough credits to get them into rotation as well. I surfed for about 3 hours and earned about 4000 credits. I also won 1500 free banner ads, and 500 text ads. The next day I checked my stats and 94 visitors had clicked to my site and I added one new sign up to my optin list. Now this may not be a huge success, but to me, it showed me that there might be something to this I could work with. So, I am going to keep on surfing to see how it goes over more time.
Free Classifieds:
I used Kijiji and Craigslist for my city. I promoted a new course I was planning on teaching. I had a pretty good, detailed ad setup. This I checked to see how many views I received. I only received 11 views in Kijiji and 20 in Craigslist.
I received no emails to sign up. Within the 24 hours, my ad went to the bottom of the first page. Once it leaves the front page, I can expect no more views. I was not impressed with this method and once again, unless you pay for a premium listing to keep your ad on the front page, you will most likely not get much of a response.
The next venture I am going into is JV Giveaways. I have signed up as a contributor and now that I have my SPLASH page created with my optin form included, I am set to go. I have my free product ready to be downloaded in the first of my autoresponder emails, and look forward to getting many more optins and hopefully customers happening. Since I only have a small email list so far, I need to pay for the upgrade which will enable me to participate still. If I had a big enough list, I would not have to upgrade, I would just have to send a broadcast email to my list to get them all signing up for free gifts from all the other marketers who joined. I am hoping by the end of the year to have a list big enough to not have to upgrade for the next spring giveaway. There are giveaway events all year long. If you entered into enough of them all year, you could have a good list happening and get your email marketing aspect of your business off to a great start for automation.
If you would like to help me out and also land yourself a ton of free gifts, click on the banner below and get signed up for the IM Dream Team Giveaway launching on the 15th.
I am getting excited with the possibilities of it all! You should really join in these fun marketing techniques. You will be glad you did!
Building a List
We all want to be successful online. Some of us prefer to promote affiliate products due to not having any of our own yet, or just because we enjoy being able to promote so much of a variety of products. Whichever choice works best for you, amassing a targeted list of potential buyers is something we should all be setting our sights on. Although there is tons of free information online of how to create a list, it all boils down to having the traffic to build up this subscriber base.
Once you start to build up your list, regardless of how small or long it may take you, you need to treat your subscribers well. Offer freebies now and again, don’t harass with too many emails, and talk to your customers/subscribers like they matter and are not just a means to dollars in your bank. Relationships take a long time to develop and grow. You want your customers to trust you. This will take time. If you come right off and start pushing sales without offering freebies, or useful information, you will soon find yourself alone without a list after everyone has opted out.
It may be harder now to get optins due to the fact everyone is trying to accomplish the same thing but it is not impossible with a lot of persistence and dedication. So go get that Aweber.com account for $20 a month, create your optin form, throw it up on your website or blog, and set up your first 5-10 emails with your freebie promos, offers, and introductions. Be patient as it may take some time to start getting people signing up but they will. The first signup is the hardest.
Feel free to post any comments here if you would like to give other readers some tips or encouragement on how you are doing with your list building and if your list helps make you additional money every month.
