All About My First List

The race for supremacy in the internet based businesses has been really heating up and many sites have been put up to help others to get ahead for a small fee. But there are also ways in which you don’t have to pay so much to make yourself a good list of loyal followers. Having a satisfied web traffic and visitors allows you to put up a foundation wherein you can build an opt-in list and make it grow from there.

An opt-in list allows you to provide newsletters to your subscribers with their consent. When people sign up, they know that they will be receiving updates and news from your site and the industry your represent via an e-mail. But that doesn’t mean that all of those who subscribe read them at all.  Many lists have been built due to an attachment with free software or for a promotional discount and such. Some are not really interested in receiving e-mails from companies and just treat them as waste of cyberspace and delete or trash them without so mush as opening the e-mail and scanning them.

You can change all that. While forwarding an email message is relatively after producing your newsletter. Getting people to open them is not as easy. You don’t want to waste all the time and effort used in making the newsletters, you want people to read them and have their interests piqued. Interested enough to go to your website and look around and most especially purchased and acquire your products or services.

One of the numerous ways you can tempt or persuade your subscriber is by providing a well thought out and well written subject. The subject of an email is what is often referred to when a person or a recipient of an email decides whether he or she wants to open or read an e-mail. The subject could easily be regarded as one of the most important aspect of your  promotional e-mail.

Your subject must be short and concise. They should provide a summary for the content of the e-mail so that the recipient will have basic knowledge of the content. This is really vital in grabbing the attention of your readers and subscribers. You want your subject to instantly grab the attention of your subscriber and get them to be intrigued to open up your mail. Remember, it is not necessarily true that a subscriber opens up subscribed mails.

A good subject must always be tickling the curiosity of your recipient. It must literally force the recipient to open the mail. A certain emotion must be ignited and get them to open the mail. It is essential to use specific words to get the reaction you need. Keep in mind that the recipient or subscribers spends only a few seconds looking over each subject of the e-mails he receives. You must grab your reader’s attention right away.

There are many forms you can use for your subject. You can provide a subject that says your e-mail contains content that teaches them tips and methods on certain topics. An example of this is using keywords and keyword phrases such as, “How to” , “tips”, “Guides to”, Methods in and others like that.

You can also put your subject in a question form. These may include questions like, “Are you sick and tired of your job?” Or “Is your boss always on your case?” Try to stay on the topic that pertains to your site so that you’ll know that your subscribers have signed up because they are interested in that topic.  This form of subject is very effective because they reach out to your recipients emotions. When they have read the question on your subject, their mind starts answering the question already.

You can also use a subject that commands your reader. Statements such as “Act now and get this once in a lifetime opportunity”, or “Double, triple and even quadruple what you are earning in one year”. This type of subject deals with the benefits  your company provides with your product and services.

You may also use breaking news as your subject to intrigue your subscriber. For example, if you deal with car engine parts you can write in your subject, “Announcing the new engine that uses no gasoline, It runs on water”. This creates curiosity with the reader and will lead them to open the mail and read on.

Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective ways to advertise online. It is also one of the easiest ways for anyone with a website to make a profit online. Affiliate Marketing is an agreement between a merchant and a website owner. The website owner, or the affiliate, allows the use of their site for the promotion of the merchant’s products by linking to the merchant’s website. In exchange, the merchant pays a commission to the affiliate on all sales generated by the affiliate. Every time someone clicks on the link on the affiliate website and proceeds to make a purchase, the affiliate gets a commission. The merchant will pay the affiliate only when a customer clicks on the product link and makes a purchase.

Affiliate marketing programs are described as a win-win situation for both the merchant and the affiliate because of the pay-for-performance scheme. Both the merchant and the affiliate enjoy some benefits in affiliate marketing. There are many benefits on the merchant’s side. It gives the merchant a wider market in which to advertise a product or service. Affiliate marketing will give the product or service the maximum exposure that it may not get with other traditional advertising techniques. The more affiliate sites a merchant has, the higher the traffic, which can convert to sales. Affiliate marketing is the equivalent of having an army of sales people who will do the advertising and will only get a commission if a customer purchases.

Meanwhile, since an affiliate marketing relationship is a win-win situation, the affiliate also enjoys many benefits. Foremost among these is the easy way to make a profit. The affiliate can earn by having an ad or link to the merchant’s website, which prospective customers will hopefully click and proceed to make a purchase. As soon as the customer clicks on the ad on the affiliate’s site, is redirected to the merchant’s website and goes on to buy that particular product, the affiliate earns a commission. The more referrals there are the more profit for the affiliate.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn money while at home. There are virtually no production costs. The product is already developed and proven by the merchant, and all you have to do to find, as many prospects as you can that will bring in the profit for both the merchant and the affiliate. Affiliate programs are usually free to join, so affiliates do not have to worry about start-up costs. There are thousands of products and services you can choose from. You can find affiliate programs for every product under the sun. Surely, there is a product or service out there that is relevant to your website.

When it comes to making a sell using your autoresponder, follow up messages are very important. Most website visitors won’t buy something on the first visit; it normally takes more than 6 or 7 visits before they decide to make a purchase. To keep them interested and eventually make the sale, you’ll need to come up with some innovative yet captivating follow up messages.

When you start writing your message, you’ll need to come up with compelling headlines. Compelling headlines will draw attention from readers, making them feel excited to read the rest of your message. If you send a message with a shoddy headline, chances are that your readers will just glance over the email and not pay much attention to it at all.

You can also grab attention from your readers by sending them personalized messages with their names and other details. There are several autoresponders that personalize messages through the insertion of codes. When you send a message out, the code is replaced with the personal information of the subscriber. When receiving the email, the reader will see his or her personal information instead of the code.

The first message that you send out is normally an introduction message. This message should be geared towards giving readers what to expect from your messages. You can also mention information about your company and your products as well. Your introduction message is very important, as it sets the pace for the messages that follow.

When you send out your second message, you should inform readers about your products and services. Make sure that you explain what your products do and how your readers can benefit from using them. Then, in the messages that follow, you should put added emphasis on your services and products. You should be trying to convince readers that they simply must have your products and that your products are a cut above the rest.

To ensure that you get a sale, you should include comparisons between what you offer and what competitors offer. This way, you’ll show potential customers that you are indeed the best, with the best features and the best prices. Once you have a few satisfied customers, you’ll start to build up your credibility. If a customer is satisfied, he will let you and others know. Once a customer has praised your products, you can add it to a testimonial and send it out in a future follow up message.

When you end a message, make sure that you leave a teaser for the next message. This way, your customers will look forward to receiving your next message. You should also carefully weave in messages regarding your contact and order information as well, so readers can place an order without any problems. If you put some time and thought into your follow up messages – you’ll start racking up customers and sales in no time at all.

Affiliate programs will enable a business to generate a lot of traffic and therefore boost sales through promotion by third party sales or sites.  It’s also a cost effective way to advertise your products and services as you pay only for the efforts that
actually turn into sales.

Setting up your own affiliate system can be either easy or overwhelming, all depending on how many affiliates you want to recruit, as well as your payment policy and the type of product that you are offering.

As for your affiliate systems, there are two options for your business – outsource the entire system or run your own affiliate system through your own web host.  Each one boasts its own advantages as well as disadvantages.

If you have a small amount of affiliates, then you can run your own affiliate software.  If you plan  to recruit a large number of affiliates, then you  will probably need to outsource.  The reason for  this, is because you’ll find it easy to deal with a large number of sign ups, track payments, monitor clicks, etc.

Types of affiliates
There are numerous types of affiliates out there to choose from.  There’s the pay per sale, there an individual is paid only if a sale is generated from the affiliate’s link.  It’s the least attractive to people, unless the product is in high demand  and the most profitable for business.

Another type is the pay per lead, where you pay only for traffic.  With this type, the affiliate is paid only if a visitor is generated from the site of the affiliate.  It’s attractive to affiliates although costly to web site owners due to the possibility of non sale visits.

Considerations
When setting up an affiliate, something to consider is whether or not you’ll approve affiliates manually or automatically.  It’s normally recommended to start affiliate programs with your established
customer sites then progress to new ones.

If you are dealing with pay per clicks, you may have to control the affiliates as the quality of visitors will be a huge factor when it comes to the generation of sales.  By manually reviewing, you’ll
also be able to judge the website or individual affiliates to see if it’s in the best interest of your company.

If you decide to use your own affiliate system, one of your biggest challenges will be how to pay affiliates a percentage of what you end up receiving from customers.  To do this, you can rely on software such as Affiliate shop to help you track and manage commissions.

You finally realize that you need a good opt-in list. After reading countless articles and sought expert advices and have read many success stories of people creating a small fortune with opt-in lists you finally decide to have one of your own. Then it happens, you think you have known everything there is to know about opt-in lists and have followed their advices to the T and you still weren’t able to make a profit.

In fact, you may be losing money. You maybe hiring writers to help you out, or there are some expenses incurred, even if you have a big list, but only a very small percentage actually buys from you, your still losing profit. You’ll realize that after a few months when you see your statistics and sales figures.

So what could have gone wrong? Why have others succeeded where you have failed? The most common mistake is that you dived straight right in. You chose a topic where you think could be quite popular and would earn you money. This just not the case. Just because you wrote people from the list doesn’t mean they are going to buy instantly.

Here I will offer more advice, for those who have started an opt-in list and have failed, you can rejuvenate your failed venture. For those who are starting, here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list.
1) Get your customers to trust you and your products first. Just launching your opt-in list would not make you an expert and a believable seller. Put many articles first before you start an opt-in list. Write about the topic you know and have started and used for your site. Try to put forums first to gain knowledge about your customers about their wants and needs and target those wants and needs.

Join forums from other sites as well. Provide expert advices and recommendations. When you feel that people trust you already, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Friends are always good customers. Put up a link to your site so that they may be able to see what you’re business is all about.

The certain truth is, the money will only come in when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that could be a good exchange for their money. People are not going to buy something out of your recommendation if they don’t know you.

2) Find a product or service that people want and need. Although it may not be your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can carry it on forward. Invest your time, effort and money that you could sell as well as the buyers or subscribers of your opt-in list can use.

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, there are not many people who have the same interest as you if you decide to sell something that is not entirely popular or profitable. Do your research well and you would see the profits come in. Also provide your subscribers with promotional material that they could actually use and spread around.

3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is basically beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in this venture and experience is still the best teacher. While there are many articles available for you in the internet to use, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust.

Experienced opt-in list users will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful. There are many things to avoid and these people will be able to tell you which ones.

Building a profitable opt-in list don’t just happen overnight. There are many preparations and effort to do. Opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you.

Every successful online marketer knows the importance of using squeeze pages! Whether you are marketing your own products, services, affiliate programs or an ezine, you need a squeeze page.

Squeeze pages can be used in many different ways!

The main purpose of having a squeeze page is not only to show your prospect the benefits of what you are offering, but to help you build your opt-in list. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying…the money is in your list!

You build your list by creating an opt-in web-form on your squeeze page or as some call it a landing page asking for their name and email address in return for something of value to them.

If your offer is enticing enough they will then enter their information and end up on your sales page. They may not buy right then, but now you have their information where you can follow up with them later, either by direct email from you or through your autoresponder program.

It’s a known fact that most customers do not buy the first time, it may take 5, 7 or more contacts from you before they do buy what you’re offering. First you need to gain their trust and build confidence with them.

This is the cheapest way to lower your advertising costs! Build a large list of opt-in subscribers/customers who trust you. It’s like money in the bank! One can never deny the fact that a squeeze page is very essential and crucial in this business; and that 98 of the marketers only ask for first name and email address. This of course depends on what you might need the other info for.

3. Squeeze pages can drive traffic to your site. To drive traffic to your site first you should flatter your visitors with perks and bonuses that are related to your product and their interests. Just make sure that the cost of your giveaways can fit in your budget and they must be a quality, deliverable product or service that your lead can use and benefit from.

4. A squeeze page is more likely to produce a 20 opt-in rate of the total number of net surfers who visit your site. You must provide a strong and juicy headline and show your visitors what’s in it for them to tempt your visitor to leave their name and email address so that they can’t wait to get to your website.

5. By creating a squeeze page, you can optimize your email marketing campaign. It has been proven that almost all visitors to your website won’t drag out their credit cards on their first visit. You’ll be able to follow up with your list of subscribers and gain their confidence in you and trust you. Then you can sell them other products (yours or affiliate) and services. If they trust you, they will be more likely to buy what you recommend.

6. With a good squeeze page program you can do split-testing with your headlines, offers and products to find out what is the most effective to bring in customers. If you do split test, then you can logically make more with the same amount of traffic and the same product. What you have to do is to continuously keep testing and to continuously run two versions so that you keep making your site better and better. With the right squeeze page program, it will automatically do the testing for you or there are several tracking products on the market that you can purchase.

7. As with most websites you can add video, images, audio and other media at the push of a button. Again, this will depending on what you use to make squeeze pages as to whether you can add media. It’s been proven that by adding media to your squeeze page, you will get better conversions. I hope by now you can see the importance of squeeze pages in your internet business. They’re simple, easy to make with the right program and they will help you build your list and achieve your peak in online marketing.

“Mike Van Bergen, CEO of 5Star-iNetMarketing.com