List Building: One Thing That Most Internet Marketing Gurus Agree On

The list is the lifeblood of any online business. This is something that most experts in Internet marketing can agree on. List building is therefore something which they place a lot of emphasis on.

So what is a list and what do you mean by building a list? A list is essentially the information of people who have signed up to receive an information product from your online business.

At its most basic, this information should contain the email address of the person who signed up because that's the easiest way you can maintain contact with him or her. Other information like the name and address may be included but that is optional.

Building a list essentially means adding more people to your list. To build a list, there are certain tools which all Internet marketers will use. The first is a squeeze page which is used to capture the detail of any visitors. The design and complexity of each squeeze page varies according to the guru's preference but the aim is the same: to get people to opt in to your list.

Usually, there will be words that are used to attract people to sign up. Some squeeze pages use videos as well. But what is common to all squeeze pages is an opt-in form for visitors to fill in their details.

A free gift is included as well to entice people to opt in. This can be a free ebook, ecourse, software, audio or video. Whatever the form you choose, it should be something that is sufficiently attractive to get people to sign up for it.

Another must-have tool is an email autoresponder. An autoresponder is a software system that helps you to manage your emails to your list. You can use it to schedule your emails to be send out on autopilot. A critical thing especially if your list is growing.

With an autoresponder, it'll be easier for you to build your relationship with your list and even market products to them over the long term. So you'll be able to ramp up your income whenever you want if you have a list. That is why most Internet marketing gurus swear by list building.

There are a number of autoresponders in the market. The more popular ones are GetResponse and Aweber.

Another essential component of list building is traffic generation, which means getting people to visit your squeeze page. Some traffic generation methods include article marketing, pay-per-click advertising, blogging and video marketing.

Different Internet marketing gurus favour different methods. But all agree on the importance of generating traffic. You can give each a try and see which one works best for you.

If you want to learn more about Internet marketing and how to make major moolah online, make sure you check out the author's resource box below and click the link on it.

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The Benefits of Building and Using a List

Big enterprises and companies hire people to create email lists of their own in order to keep track of their clients. These firms do this so as to alert the said clients when they launch new products/services and even keep these clients updated with news from the firm.

Why Build and Use a List?

Now if you had taken down their email and that of another, then you will increase a likelihood of profiting from the same customer once again by emailing them an advert carrying your new product or even a discount offer that you are having.

In doing so (Building a list) you shall be benefiting your business from the following

: Reaching a wider audience on social networking sites such as: Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Increased Sales: Getting an expert to help you build your list of potential clients will help you generate more sales. This simply means that when someone joins your mailing list, you now have the opportunity to market your products to them for quite sometime (week, month, years).

Repeat Customers: With a mailing list, you will have the advantage and privilege of getting repeat buyers and this will only happen if you are respectable and extend the said clients some courtesy. Any great list builder knows that repeat customers form the backbone of a business for they will generate sales time and again.

Additional Traffic: When you publish your online store, most visitors only peruse for a few minutes and they move on to the next. By getting these people to enroll in your list, you'll be in the best position to do some follow-up marketing as you will be getting these people to visit your site more often thus increasing traffic to your site.

Wider Niche: It's a known fact that when someone joins your mailing list, is a person that is more than interested in your products or services. This translates into a target niche to a wider and more appropriate clientele.

Support and Team Work: In the days that we are living in, you need to think outside the box and treat your list more as a community not just mere prospects or numbers. Ensure that you build a great relationship with your subscribers; this will help create a sense of team work where both the customer and you can benefit for the long haul.

Gathering Info: List building helps you accrue valuable information from your list in the form of feedback and surveys. Get this you can use your list to try new products allowing you the platform to test your web content.

NB: If you have a website or are thinking of owning one, you should consider building a list. This is an awesome marketing strategy that will see you overtime automatically growing your contacts as well as increasing clients that will help you reap great benefits. Try it and you will never have a reason to regret!

For a proven way to build a targeted and responsive list, go here Cosmus Lewis is an internet marketer who is very passionate about helping those who are new to online marketing, helping them to achieve the earliest possible long term success.

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List Building Tips - Social Sites

In this installment of List Building Tips, I'm going to discuss social sites. Unless you've been living in a cave, you've become a member of at least one of these. After reading this article, you're going to know how to take advantage of them in order to build your list WITHOUT getting people all ticked off.

I hope you paid careful attention to that last line because it's very important. When you're dealing with social sites like Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube, you're getting into an area where you have direct contact with the people using that same media. Well, as direct as possible online. Certainly it's more personal than putting up a squeeze page that some random prospect lands on.

With social media, you have to be VERY careful. You're building a more intimate relationship. At least I hope you are. So let's begin with that.

Unlike that squeeze pages where you're just trying to get some targeted traffic to sign up with your list, with social media you're looking to build actual relationships even BEFORE these people get onto your list.

For example, let's say your interest is music. You're going to invite people to your Facebook or Twitter page who are interested in music. You're then going to discuss the topic at hand. The conversations are going to be casual and friendly. In essence, you're making friends. It is important that you understand this.

After the relationship has solidified itself somewhat, you can then start to "recommend" things to these friends. Maybe you'll recommend a video for them to watch or a CD to purchase. It doesn't have to be anything that is personally yours. In fact, at the beginning, it's a good idea to recommend OTHER people's things. This way you don't come off as a salesperson.

As the relationship grows, you can start recommending things that are more your own, including your list. Let's say you have a list that notifies people of the latest music releases. You can let your Facebook followers know about it. Anybody interested in what you have to share will probably join your list. After all, you've already earned their trust by being a good friend.

From there, as long as you are professional about it and make it clear up front that you could be recommending musical related items that they could purchase, you can send little promotions to your list. Maybe you really liked the latest CD by XYZ band. You can send them your review of it with an Amazon link at the end of it.

The key to making this whole process work is to build a relationship FIRST. Let these people get to know you. Let them see that you're not just trying to sell them stuff. Remember, this is a relationship FIRST and an opportunity to build a list SECOND.

If you do that, building a list off of social media can be very rewarding and profitable at the same time.

And who knows? You just might make some really neat friends in the process.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at Profit Plan VI and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

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List Building - Why Do I Need To Build My Own List?

Do you know that it is very much harder to sell to a new customer than to an existing customer? This point alone is enough for you to stop reading and get started with building your own email database. Having said that, I do not mean that you need to hard sell more and more products to them because your subscribers may feel annoyed. But, do you know that an email list can do much more than that?

Global Branding

With an email list, you are in full control of your subscribers. You can establish a meaningful relationship with them by consistently providing them with useful guides and information in their area of interest. After some time, you will be perceived as an expert or professional in the niche. What your subscribers will do when they come across someone who is having problem in your area of expertise? That is the power of branding.

Source of Information

You can continue learning with your lists. Through the use of survey forms or blogs, you can interact with your subscribers to collect feedbacks regarding the latest traffic software or generate ideas for your new products, just to name a few. As internet marketing is a constantly evolving, we need to continue learning in order to stay competitive in the market.

For instance, you have an idea in your mind and you decided to make a product out of it. You can always ask your existing subscribers for their comments on whether they need such a product, what are the features that can be added to make the product more marketable or is it user friendly.

Additional Revenue

Not all the visitors to your website will subscribe. Similarly, not all your subscribers will buy products from you the first time. Therefore, if you can keep their contact information, primarily emails, you can slowly turn more of them into your loyal customers by promoting different products later on. As I've mentioned at the beginning of this article, it is much easier to sell to your existing list of subscribers than it is to new prospects as they have recognized you as an expert.

Not only that, if your list is of high quality, targeted subscribers who are willing to pay to learn more, you can generate more profits by selling solo ads to others. With an email list, you can also perform adswaps with others for free which may generate you even more subscribers and more sales.

Your list will be the most important asset in your whole internet marketing business. Invest more in building your own list and they will be your ATM in the future.

Knowing that J.O.B. is NOT going to fulfill my dreams financially, I started attending workshops and have finally COMPLETED a cash flow system that automatically RESTORES my bank account no matter how many times I withdraw my money.

This idiot-proof Inbox Auto-Restoring ATM system is written such that you have NO CHANCE to miss any step and it WILL deliver its promise as long as you have faith in it.

Warning: I do not intend to reveal the system to too many people for free. Hopefully the system will still be up for grab by the time you visit http://www.cashflow2dream.com/

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5 Reasons to Use Solo Ads - Your Bullet Train Ride to Explosive List Building

I notice a similarity in all the successful internet marketers I've met. Of course, they made millions and millions of dollars entirely online and the money just keep pouring in. What do they have in common? Each one of them has a list, and it's not just any list but a targeted list. That is the point! You need to have a list to build a successful internet business that generates money for you over and over again.

As all of you should have known, you need an attractive squeeze page plus freebies to capture the names and emails of your visitors. That may be easily done by paying someone to do it for you, no fuss about it. The most important task now is to drive traffic. While there are a lot of free and paid methods out there to drive traffic, I would like to specifically discuss about solo ads.

What is a solo ad?

Basically, you pay someone who has a list to promote your squeeze page. On your side, you will have to make the payment and draft your own email to be sent to your new prospects. On your partner's side, he will carry out his duty to send your emails to his lists as agreed.

Why uses solo ads?

It builds your list extremely fast. From as low as $30 you can send thousands of unique visitors to your website almost immediately! With a high conversion squeeze page, you are literally exploding your list with a lot of new leads.It is suitable for beginners. Buying solo ads is by far the easiest, fastest and most cost effective way to build a huge list from scratch. Unless you are patient enough to wait for your articles and videos to start sending you some visitors, you will definitely want to learn more about solo ads.It can be budgeted according to your available resources. You can start by investing $30 first and gradually increase your investment to drive more traffic.It increases sales. By including a special offer immediately after they sign up, you can possibly increase your sales and compensate your advertising costs. Then, a good follow up session can easily boost your sales and generate profit in the long run.It can be experimented. Purchase solo ads from different sellers and keep track on their performance; quality of the list and number of clicks. After a few trials you will be able to figure out which seller performs better and you can then increase your investment with the seller to explode your list again.

Knowing that J.O.B. is NOT going to fulfill my dreams financially, I started attending workshops and have finally COMPLETED a cash flow system that automatically RESTORES my bank account no matter how many times I withdraw my money.

This idiot-proof Inbox Auto-Restoring ATM system is written such that you have NO CHANCE to miss any step and it WILL deliver its promise as long as you have faith in it.

Warning: I do not intend to reveal the system to too many people for free. Hopefully the system will still be up for grab by the time you visit http://www.cashflow2dream.com/

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List Building Tips - Personal Blogs

In this installment of List Building Tips, I want to discuss how to use your own personal blog to build your list. I'll go over what to do as well as what NOT to do. I think you'll find this interesting reading.

If you've been following this series for a while now, you know that I went over how to build a list using forum blogs. The process is somewhat similar except there are some big differences.

With a forum blog, the forum owner has complete control over the blog itself. They can refuse to allow certain content to be published. Also, the format of the blog itself is out of your control. With your own blog, these things aren't an issue.

When a prospect comes to your blog, the first thing you need to be concerned with is the first impression that your blog makes. What exactly do you want them to see? What kind of layout will they be expecting?

One thing I've discovered, mostly from my own experience with going to other marketers' blogs, is that people don't want to be aimlessly searching for things. They want a navigation system that is easy to follow. That's why, on my own blog, I make sure that there is a clear menu across the top of the blog right below the header.

Once the prospect sees that navigating around the blog is going to be easy, they're more likely to browse the contents. This is where you need to make sure that one of FIRST things they see, preferably on the right hand side just below the header or navigation system, is your opt in box with a brief description of what they're opting in for.

Make it attractive enough, both through design and through your offer, for them to want to be on your list. A simple "Enter your name and email below to be informed of future blog updates" may or may not be enough incentive for them to join. A lot will depend on the actual content of your blog.

Ah... but they won't know how good the content is until they actually READ it. This is where you place your second line of attack. At the end of each article, subtly inform the reader that he can join your list to be informed of any future blog posts or whatever it is you want them to know.

For example, my blog posts are mostly about how to market online. My article closings usually involve telling the reader that if they want more info on how to market online that I have a newsletter that they can subscribe to and then I give them the link. Between this link and the opt in box on the side bar of your blog, you have multiple chances to get the reader onto your list. This is something that you may not be able to do with a forum blog.

If you have multiple blog pages, you want the reader to be able to access the list opt in from any of those pages if the platform allows it. Some blog platforms don't have this capability. So you want to check before you set something up.

You'd be surprised how many people WILL opt into your list IF they like what they see on your blog. But if you don't give them a way to do this, how can they?

Take advantage of every opportunity to build your list.

Your personal blog is just one of those ways.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at Profit Plan VI and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

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3 Criteria To Choose The Best Solo Advertisement For Your List Building

I had been buying solo ads for quite some time and I can attest to this: Best rated solo ads sellers are not necessarily the best and vice versa. There are several criteria that you should consider before getting the solo advertisement of your choice.

Before you go for buying spree, you should have these to stand by:

a) A proven to work opt-in or squeeze page - Your webpage should be good enough to entice someone to subscribe to you. This will be entirely a new article to discuss about

b) The correct website link for the advertisement seller to forward their contacts to - sounds trivial but if you gave the wrong link, the seller is not responsible for your loss

c) Traffic checker and analyzer to make sure that the seller delivers the goods to your website (this is also useful to check whether the solo ads are of good quality or not)

Without further ado, check out these criteria to choose the best solo ad:

1) Quality of the website that trades solo advertisements

This is the easiest to consider. All you have to do is to conduct searches on Google or on internet marketing forums to determine which websites or forums are the best to trade solo ads. Personally, I would recommend websites that purely trades solo advertisements and also advertisement swapping with active members.

2) Review of each member who trades these advertisements

As trading advertisements are based on mutual trust, it is not so easy to determine outright who is honest and who is crooked. Preferably, I love to buy solo advertisements from websites that provide rating systems for members who trade advertisements.

Before you buy, sell and swap with a member, consider by looking at their trading profile first. Information like how long have they joined the website, ratings from other members who had traded with, how active they are and how big is their subscriber list are important considerations to form your decision to trade with them.

3) Ask the seller what kind of niche their subscribers are in

This is one of the more important questions buyers often forgot to ask. Whichever niche you are in to, you should ask the seller what niche their list is focused on before you plunk down the cash.

It is never silly to ask more questions before you consider buying a solo advertisement because once you accidentally paid it, most likely you will end up getting the wrong kind of advertisement and your money will not be refunded.

Joseph Ng is your average guy-next-door internet marketer who just discovered insider secrets from a guru. One of the method he has learnt and used successfully is by sending out 5 emails without a list or product, he has created $8,478 just by using a weird and effortless tip.

For more of these earth-shattering methods, head on to http://www.wealthacquirer.com/ and only 500 copies are given out before it is too late.

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How to Earn From Building a List

The thing is that to make money on the internet you need information. Right? So where are you going to get this information. On the internet, of course.

You do not need to go too far to find plenty of schemes to help you on your journey to achieve wealth. But, which ones will work for you and which ones won't? Perhaps you will buy the schemes that seem most plausible to you.

After trying a few, spending your money and not making any significant income, you may, like many others, think that there has to be a better way.

Well, instead of searching and hoping that you will hit pay dirt you could go on a different tack. Every self-help book that you have ever read has it writ large. It says that if you want what the successful guy has, you have to do what the successful guy does. It's pretty obvious. Right?

So what does the successful guy do? Well first of all he doesn't go buying up all the products that he can find on the internet. Instead he has his own product that he sells on the internet. Although you may not have your own product initially, you must still have something to offer. In the first instance it may not be unique. Perhaps you can make an offer as an affiliate for someone else. It doesn't matter. You must move from being a consumer to being a provider.

You will need a website to make an offer. A good move is to create a dynamic report that has lots of good content and offer it for free. You can place a sign-up form on your site; customers fill it out, and click send. Or, have a pop-up appear when a person enters you site, they just complete the form. Your auto responder sends a thank you at once and you have a name and address added to your mailing list.

The mailing list is now your prospect list and you can let them know of any and all products or affiliate offers that have or can find. You may wish to use some software that can temporarily remove purchasers from your list whilst you resend for any particular offer.

You may be a one man band but you must do exactly what the big boys do. You must be sending good quality stuff, because you want your customers to trust you! Build relationships with those valuable people on your mailing list. Send updates on projects that you are doing; include customers in special incentives, and offers. The people on your list will come to value you and the products or services that you recommend.

List Building is a science, not an art. You can learn it with a little help. Follow me and quickly get to where you want to be. Bob stallard. http://www.popularlistbuilder.com/

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Fine Dining Technique - How to Utilize Your Ethical Bribe for Maximum Conversion in List Building

Every marketer knows that you need to give free offers in exchange for emails. However, it is fatal to think that any free offer will work like charm in converting your visitors to subscribers. Your free offer must be so good that your visitors cannot even resist their desire to grab it! So, the question is how to utilize this ethical bribe to maximize your conversion rate and ultimately making loads of sales? By the way, what does list building has got to do with fine dining? Enjoy the article to find out.

Starter

Create your ethical bribe with the end in mind. The happy ending that all marketers crave for is making sales. Therefore, your free offer must be the introduction of solutions to your visitors' problems which is the first stage of your product funnel. In other words, it is the starter. Well, just like a starter helps to fill part of your stomach, your free offer must also be able to solve at least one of the common problems that your visitors might encounter.

Do not ever think that giving them solutions for free is going to reduce your sales potential. Think from the subscribers' point of view. I opt-in to your squeeze page, I got your free offer and one of my problems is solved! By now your subscribers must be thinking, "Gosh, this person is amazing! What else this person has got to offer?!"? Bravo! You've just positioned yourself as a very dependable expert in your niche, even if you just started.

Appetizer and Main Course

Now is the time to go for the kill. Nonetheless, you must be wary that this is not the step for you to hard sell whatever products you have in mind. Just like a fine dining meal, after starter we will have appetizer followed by main course and lastly dessert. Pushing for sales is also a delicate and well-structured process. Your subsequent product should serves to help them with some of the problems they might be facing next. For instance, after the squeeze page has been set up together with an ethical bribe, the next big obstacle is most probably driving traffic.

Therefore, every step taken to introduce your products must be carefully planned so that it fits to your subscribers' needs. This is undoubtedly a win-win-win situation as it not only helps your subscribers in an orderly manner, it also shows them your expertise in the subject matter and more importantly, it sells.

Dessert

Last but not least, show them your gratitude by giving them another freebie which can help them to achieve better results in your area of expertise. At this point, most of the hard work had been completed and it is time for you to enjoy your dessert too.

Knowing that J.O.B. is NOT going to fulfill my dreams financially, I started attending workshops and have finally COMPLETED a cash flow system that automatically RESTORES my bank account no matter how many times I withdraw my money.

This idiot-proof Inbox Auto-Restoring ATM system is written such that you have NO CHANCE to miss any step and it WILL deliver its promise as long as you have faith in it.

Warning: I do not intend to reveal the system to too many people for free. Hopefully the system will still be up for grab by the time you visit http://www.cashflow2dream.com/

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Why Should I Focus On Quality Before Quantity In List Building?

In any type of internet marketing, your list is the key factor that determines your success. A lot of people have a wrong perception that huge email lists equal success. Unless your lists are highly targeted and willing to buy from you, you are wasting your time, effort and most importantly money. Let's discuss the three main reasons why list quality is more important than list quantity.

1. Protect your investment

Part of your investment in internet marketing includes buying domain, hosting services, autoresponder, PLRs, sales page, ghostwriters and designer to name a few. Among all these, autoresponder will be your most expensive investment if you have huge lists. All the freebie seeker emails sitting on your lists doing nothing can easily deplete your investment in autoresponder alone by more than 50%!

And you, hoping to earn a couple of bucks from them, continue to send emails that they hardly open. So, do not waste time and money sending emails to people who will not buy products from you.

2. Generate higher returns

Which one would you prefer; a list of 100,000 emails generating $100,000 or a list of 50,000 emails generating $100,000? The former generates a return of $1 per subscriber, which is pretty decent but the latter is generating $2 per subscriber. This can only be achieved if your lists contain quality leads and well-built relationship. A quality list needs time to build and nurture to become loyal customers.

Although it takes time to build a high quality and targeted list, it is easier to sell to these people again and again rather than focusing on building a huge list and selling to new prospects.

3. Leverage your credibility

There may be times where people would want to joint venture with you to sell some new products. If you send emails to high quality lists promoting the products and you performed beyond the expectation of your partners, you will have more leverage. They will look at you as a person who can be trusted to do a joint venture. Nothing spreads faster than word of mouth. Your name will be well known as a person who is dependable to start a joint venture with.

With the leverage and your quality list combined, you can generate a higher amount of sales and eventually generating more income online. In a nutshell, your main focus in list building should always be quantity of quality leads.

Knowing that J.O.B. is NOT going to fulfill my dreams, I started attending workshops and have finally COMPLETED a cash flow system that automatically RESTORES my bank account regardless of the number of withdrawals.

This idiot-proof Inbox Auto-Restoring ATM system is written such that you have NO CHANCE to miss any step and it WILL deliver its promise as long as you have faith in it.

Warning: I do not intend to reveal the system to too many people for free. Hopefully the system will still be up for grab by the time you visit http://www.cashflow2dream.com/

View the original article here

Your Mailing List: Building Trust

I'll bet you've heard that you need to build a list of your own in order to succeed countless times.

Well, it's true. In order to have long-term success, you really do need a mailing list.

But having a mailing list is only part of it.

It's what you do with mailing the list that really matters.

The real earning power is in the relationship you have with the people on your list.

You do this in:

The messages you send.The products you choose to promote, and when you promote them.The information you provide and how you respond.

No one talks about that. That changes today.

Here's a question: If I gave you a list of 50,000 real people and told you it was now your mailing list... what would you do?

How would you create sales from that list?What would you say first, second, third?How often would you email them and what would you promote?

To answer these questions, I give you my TRUST formula.

Without trust, your mailing list will not respond how you want them too. Ever.

In the real world, people must get to know you before they can like you; they must like you before they can trust you. Once you have earned that trust -- some very good things can happen.

Yes, it takes work. But believe me, it's worth it. Building a mailing list and gaining their trust is THE key to experiencing freedom.

Here's the formula:

T - Teach

R - Reward

U - Uncover needs

S - Sell solutions

T - Trigger actions

TEACH

Many people worry about his word. They do not consider themselves to be expert enough to teach, because they have not yet experienced success.

Thing is, you don't have to be THE expert to teach; you just teach from a place of experience or investigation.

While you shouldn't wait to share until you know everything on a subject, don't write about things you know nothing about either.

REWARD

A vital, often overlooked part, of developing trust with the people on your mailing list is rewarding their continued readership.

The person who joins and stays on your list, consistently opens and reads your messages is more than just a customer. They're a friend.

To reward them, you don't need to spend a lot of money. Use the Private Label Rights products you have on your hard drive, share (with permission) the strategies and ideas you receive in your personal email from the products you buy.

It's always best to give your list something of real value from which you can't profit. This is a sincere gesture that will be remembered when it comes time to buy.

UNCOVER NEEDS

I'm talking about really knowing what your audience needs.

How? By asking! Simple, but true!

To really be effective, you must have pure motives to do this -- it's not a marketing tactic.

Here are three ideas:

Read your blog comments and look for patterns.Ask your list what they need with no ulterior motive.Set up a "reply" email for your list so people can hit "reply" and ask a question.

SELL SOLUTIONS

This goes back to the features vs. benefits discussion.

Once you know what your list members need, it's time to find and offer the right solution.

Make a recommendation based on experience and research, not the latest and greatest trends.

Selling solutions is what it's about. Sell what the product will do for the buyer, not just what the product can do.

TRIGGER ACTIONS

After the hard work of gaining trust, it's time to suggest products that might help your readers.

Based on my own experience, here are a few suggestions:

Only promote what you know works and you do yourself.Be very specific about why you are making a recommendation to take action.Tell your reader the specific action they should take. This could be subscribing to a new list or downloading a free trial.

The most profitable and rewarding thing I've done online is getting to know the people on my list, serving them and having them reward me when I make suggestions.

If you are one of them, and I suspect you are, thank you. I consider you not only a subscriber but a friend.

And friendship is perhaps the most beautiful thing indeed!

Charlie Page owns the Directory of Ezines and is the author of 10 books about Internet marketing. Through his membership sites and personal consulting, Charlie helps people achieve their goal of independence in record time. Can Charlie help you? Find out at http://www.charliepage.com/

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List Building Tips - Using Your Affiliates To The Fullest

In this first in a series of list building tips, I want to start off with one of the sneakiest ways to not only build your list but possibly make affiliate sales in the process.

List building, while not the only way, is one of the best ways of generating a full time income. The reason is simple. By building a responsive list (and responsive is the key) you give yourself the chance to have a number of prospects and/or potential customers that will buy products from you on a regular basis.

Granted, if you only have one product to sell, then building a list for this purpose is probably sub optimal. Still, you're going to want to build it for no other reason than to be able to follow up with those who haven't yet purchased that one product.

Not everybody purchases on first sight of a sales page. Some people need to think it over. By getting them onto your list, you give them something to think about with each follow up. A very simple way is by making each follow up an issue that outlines or details certain features and benefits of the product. The more benefits you give them, the more likely they are to purchase.

Okay, but what does any of this have to do with your affiliates? Well, if you have affiliates, you certainly want them to promote your product, right? What's one way of getting them to do this? Well, what if you were to run some sort of random script that sent a prospect to a particular affiliate's page rather than directly to your sales page?

This gives them more of an opportunity to make a sale without them having to do any additional work on their own. What affiliate wouldn't like that?

Great, but how does this build your list? What you do is you offer the person going to the affiliate site a special bonus IF they sign up for your newsletter.

Here is where this gets interesting.

Let's say you had an affiliate who was promoting one product of yours but you wanted to build a list for another product that was related. By offering this incentive, you have the possibility of making the sale from the one product that you're directly sending the prospect to (the affiliate page) while giving yourself the opportunity to make a sale off of the related product.

And even if you only have the one product, by getting them to sign up to your list through your ethical bribe, you give yourself the chance to follow up with the prospect in case they haven't purchased yet. This gives you more opportunity to close the sale AND the affiliate still gets credit.

Think your affiliates won't love you for that?

This is just one of many ways to drive traffic to your opt in page, build your list and make more sales.

Want more great list building tips? Check my signature.

See you soon with more.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/internet-marketing/review-of-paul-myers-profit-plan-vi.html and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

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Internet Marketing Subscriber Building Checklist

I know that there are a lot of ways you can choose to grow your subscribers list. Probably some of you already know what items you need before you drive traffic to your list. For those who are new and do not know what items you need to prepare, I have come up with a few items for each marketing strategy you will be using.

Have you noticed in websites that are giving out freebies, there will usually be a box which requires you to key in your name and your email address? You would probably write you details in the box to obtain the freebie which is stated in that site. Who does not like free gifts?

Well the reality is there is no free lunch so in exchange for the freebie you have to provide your details which ultimately increase the subscriber list of the website. This shows how powerful a freebie can be to entice prospects to increase your list of subscribers so the top of your checklist is a free irresistible offer.

You may decide to increase your credibility by interviewing experts in your field. Advices from experts are not easy to come by. You may have compiled a list of questions to ask from your subscribers or forums which will boost the value of the interview since you will be providing solutions and answers. By associating yourself with experts, you will be considered one as well.

As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together". The tool that you require is just a high quality USB headphone and programs like Free Conference Call, Go To Meeting and Instant Teleseminar. USB headphones tend to have better sound quality which is why I recommend it.

To create a good quality video for viewers to see, you should have a good webcam or even better a screen capture program. Screen capture program is program which enables you to record on-screen activity, amend and improve your content for your viewers. Examples of programs which provide such features are Camtasia, Camstudio and Jing.

When you prepare a step-by-step guide through your computer, you can show your viewers as though they are sitting right beside you looking at every step. This experience is very valuable as your viewers can pause and replay certain parts if they feel left out. The more videos which you uploaded for your viewers, the most they will trust you as your teachings really work.

Knowing that J.O.B. is NOT going to fulfill my dreams financially, I started attending workshops and have finally COMPLETED a cash flow system that automatically RESTORES my bank account no matter how many times I withdraw my money.

This idiot-proof Inbox Auto-Restoring ATM system is written such that you have NO CHANCE to miss any step and it WILL deliver its promise so long you have faith in it.

Warning: I do not intend to reveal the system to too many people for free. Hopefully the system will still be up for grab by the time you visit http://www.cashflow2dream.com/

View the original article here

List Building Overview

With so much information out there it's easy to think that everyone (except you) is busy building their list and making money. You struggle to sell things online, when you don't need to.

The good news is that you really can begin building your own mailing list, today, by taking some specific actions.

So, why would you want a mailing list of your own?

In the history of the Internet it has been observed that a full 99% of people who succeed online long-term have a list of their own. Now that's not scientific but it's true.When you have a list of your own you completely eliminate advertising costs. I mean completely. With your own list you can promote anything you want any time you want and as often as you want... for zero cost.

To gain a little understanding, let's look at the who, what, when, where, why and how of list building.

WHO SHOULD BUILD A LIST?

There is an easy answer to this question. The answer is... anyone who is serious about building an online business or making money online.

If you are marketing online as a short-term thing and you aren't really committed to succeeding online, then list building is probably not right for you.

The reason is simple - once you have a list you need to stay in touch with them and let them get to know you a bit so they can like you, trust you and buy from you.

Please notice that order because it's important. They need to like you before they can trust you. And they need to trust you before they will buy from you!

WHAT IS NEEDED TO BUILD A LIST?

A squeeze page. You can use a blog (or other page), but squeeze pages work best.An auto-responder to capture leads and send follow-up messages.Something of value to get people to join your list. People care about WIIFM (what's in it for me) and providing a high-value "subscriber magnet" works well. Video series and downloadable PDF reports work especially well.Email messages you can send automatically to the people who sign up for your list.Great products to promote to your list. The goal is to make sales, so provide helpful articles about a specific problem and then offer to solve that problem for your reader by suggesting a product. Don't push the product, the sales letter of the product will do that. You just sell the click by creating curiosity.Targeted traffic. Simple, yet important. Once you have your system in place you want to market to people who you KNOW need what you are offering. It's called target marketing and it is the most important skill online.

If you have, or can learn to get, these six things you will have all you need to build a real and lasting online business.

WHEN IS IT SMART TO BUILD A LIST?

If you are not building a list now, it's time to get started.

If you see the logic of needing a list, commit to doing something every day toward building your own list.

I have spoken with literally thousands of people and can tell you that they ALL wish they had begun building their list when they started working online.

Most lost huge amounts of time trying this system and falling for this other hyped-up deal. We've all been there.

All we have is today. And today is the PERFECT time to get started building your list.

WHERE CAN I START BUILDING A LIST?

The best place to get started in my view is Aweber. Aweber is not only the best auto-responder, but they have an incredible free series of videos to teach you the steps you need.

WHY WOULD I WANT TO BUILD A LIST?

Easy: to make money by selling things. That might mean affiliate marketing or selling your own product or something else.

But if you are online to make money then list building matters... a lot.

Here's another reason - when you have a list, you become a sought-after joint venture partner. You might not believe me right now but trust me when I say that if you build a powerful list the top marketers online will come a knockin' on your door. They will want to reach YOUR audience. How cool would that be?

HOW CAN I START BUILDING A MAILING LIST?

The first step is to see the big picture. I hope this article helped you do that.

Take a moment to review the six points in the "What is needed" section above. Use it as your list-building blueprint if you like.

I will tell you that having a mailing list of my own, and knowing what to do with it and how to develop trust and relationship, has been the most profitable thing I've ever done online.

About twice a year I'm asked "what would you do if you lost everything - how would you start over?"

My answer probably won't surprise you -- I would focus 100% of my efforts on building a list and giving the people on that list incredible value.

Once you do that selling takes care of itself and becomes automatic.

And having an automated selling system (or 12 of them) is a beautiful thing indeed!

Charlie Page owns the Directory of Ezines and is the author of 10 books about Internet marketing. Through his membership sites and personal consulting, Charlie helps people achieve their goal of independence in record time. Can Charlie help you? Find out at http://www.charliepage.com/

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List Building Tips - Novelty Pages

In this installment of List Building Tips, I want to discuss novelty pages. I know this isn't something that a lot of marketers think about, but believe it or not, novelty pages can actually build you quite a nice list if done correctly.

Okay, so what exactly is a novelty page? Well, it can be just about anything that isn't made strictly for the business of, um, doing business.

For example, you could put up a page of nothing but jokes but related to the niche that you're in. Then, at the bottom of the page, you could have a little message that reads something like this.

"Want to get some more great jokes about (fill in the niche) delivered straight to your email box? Fill in your name and email below and I'll send them to you along with some great offers that I think you'll be interested in."

Make it clear to the prospect that they may be receiving emails promoting products that you feel will be of benefit to them. You don't want to be accused of sending information that the prospect didn't ask for. As long as you're up front with everything, there should be no problems.

Another thing you can do is setup a page where the prospects go on a treasure hunt. They click on various links in order to find their way to the prize. Yes, this does take a bit of work to setup but it's a lot of fun and can really go viral, especially if you make the prize something worth going after.

Then, what you do, in order to get people to sign up to your list, is let them know that by doing so, they'll get important hints delivered directly to their email that will help them find the treasure. Of course, also let them know that you might also be sending them an occasional sales pitch. And of course if you want to sweeten the deal, let them know that they'll also get some kind of free e-course or e-book. Use your imagination.

Why do these novelty pages work? It's really very simple. They're not all about work. They're a break from the daily grind of having to run a business or worry about whatever ailment is bothering you. In short, they're entertainment. And people LOVE to be entertained. If it's done in an interesting way AND you actually give them something to shoot for, not only can these pages get lots of opt ins, but they can also go viral like mad if done correctly.

You want to make sure that you map everything out FIRST before you put up one page. If the system isn't complete BEFORE you put it online for the public, your prospects are going to be disappointed by the experience and they WON'T come back. This isn't like building a web site that you can do a piece at a time. Everything has to be in place right from the start. In the case of the treasure hunt game, this is absolutely critical.

Other ideas include puzzles, surveys, video pages and so on. Anything that's not the usual opt in or sales page and is more entertainment than business will work.

Try one. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at Profit Plan VI and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

View the original article here

List Building Tips - Drive By Linking

In this installment of list building tips, I want to discuss what I call "Drive By Linking" and how you can use it to actual build your links. If you write any kind of content at all that is published online, you might want to pay attention to this one.

I'm convinced that if you gave an Internet marketer a sledgehammer to do a job that could be done by a wooden mallet, he's still use the sledgehammer. Why? Because Internet marketers really like to drive the point home. Don't get me wrong. Driving the point home can work very well in many cases. But sometimes you really want to use a more subtle approach.

A lot of content writers are fixated with one idea. Give the content as quickly as possible and then when you're all done with it, drive that sales pitch home... just like a sledgehammer doing the job of that small wooden mallet.

The problem with that approach is twofold.

For one thing, sometimes it's just overkill. You've hit them over the head with that sledgehammer so hard that you've figuratively left your prospect dead by the roadside. They're "hyped" to the point of a marketing seizure.

I hope you have lots of smelling salts and possibly a crash cart ready.

The other problem with that approach is sometimes, because you're using the wrong approach, you simply miss the target altogether. You've slanted the pitch in a way that doesn't quite correspond with the message of your content. The disconnect causes your prospect to zone out and you've lost them.

They're not dead. They're just no interested because you started off with point A and ended with point B and the gap between the two is as wide as the Grand Canyon.

However, if in the process of writing your article, within the context of the article itself, you happen to drop a drive by link, as long as it's relevant, you're quite likely to get your reader to click on it and check out what's on the other side.

Probably the best way to illustrate this is with an example. What follows is a fictional excerpt from a fictional article on Magic the Gathering, a card game. I'm sure you'll get the idea.

"Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the latest powerhouse to hit the standard scene. It's a blue 4 drop planes walker that has not one, but FOUR relevant abilities from drawing a card to literally removing the opponent's library from the game. If you're playing standard, you really want to pick up a play set of this guy. By the way, if you want to be informed of the latest new cards in standard, check out Joe's Magic Card Newsletter at (insert link here) and sign up so you can be kept up to date on the latest."

Notice how subtly I drop that in there? It doesn't come off like a sales pitch but more like a "Oh, by the way, you might find this interesting" kind of thing.

Does it work? If you use it within the context of the content itself and it fits, it can work very well. Somebody who is interested in getting news on the latest standard Magic cards and wants to know what the good cards are, WILL sign up for that newsletter.

Could this have worked within the confines of a signature? Sure, but in that context, it comes off as more sales oriented because it's outside the confines of the article itself. It's not as natural. That doesn't mean it can't work. But it also doesn't mean that drive by linking should be ignored, because it can be VERY effective.

Try it sometime. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at Profit Plan VI and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

View the original article here

List Building Tips - Referrals

In this third installment of my series on list building, I want to discuss referrals. Admittedly, this is not something I do a lot of and shame on me for it because when I actually DO it, it works. Why does it work and why should YOU consider it for your list building efforts? Keep reading and you'll find out.

Let's start with the premise of our list in the first place. Why are we building it? Well, there could be several reasons actually. But one of the most common is to get a whole bunch of people in one virtual place so that you can send them your message all at once in the hope that MAYBE they'll take some kind of action on that message itself, whether it be checking out an article, watching a video or buying a product. Unless you just like sending out emails for no reason, I'm going to assume that your list has a purpose similar to that in mind.

Now, given the purpose of your list, the one thing you'd like to have above all else is a subscriber who DOES take action. In other words, they read your message and do what you want them to do. And the reason they do it (and this is the key) is because they trust you and trust what you have to say. Somewhere along the line, you've earned that trust through the content that you've sent to them. The bottom line, however, is that you HAVE that trust.

So, let me ask you a question. If you were write to somebody you know who ALREADY trusts you and gets value out of being on your list, and asked them to refer your newsletter to others with similar interests, don't you think that they would gladly tell those in their immediate circle that your newsletter is probably something that they would want to read?

If your skeptical about this, let's take an example from real life that maybe you can relate to a little better.

Your at a bar with your best friend. He's just seen the latest, oh let's say, Batman movie and he says to you, "Man, I just saw that new Batman movie. It was FANTASTIC. You have GOT to see it."

Now think about this. He's your best friend. You value his opinion probably more than anybody else on the subject of movies because throughout your lives together you've always seemed to have the same taste. Don't you think you're going to go see that movie the first chance you get? Conversely, if he said it was horrible, you'd probably skip it.

Referrals are powerful coming from a third party with no divested interest. Of course we could throw a monkey wrench into the works to completely change this (offer a free e-course in exchange for that referral) but let's keep this simple for now. Just ask people who already trust you to recommend your newsletter to others.

If each person on your list who already trusts you and responds to your offer (let's say it's 100 people) gets just ONE person to sign up, that's 100 more people who are likely to end up trusting you as well if for no other reason than the referral that came from somebody who they ALREADY trust.

It's such an underused tactic. I myself don't use it as much as I should. But trust me, when you do use it and use it correctly (and adding incentives just makes it explode) it can really turn your list into a monster.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at Profit Plan VI and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

View the original article here

List Building Tips - Thank You Pages

In this installment of List Building Tips, I want to discuss a tactic that a lot of people never even think about.

Thank you pages.

Don't scratch your head. I haven't gone daft or anything like that. I know it seems like we're putting the apple cart in front of the horse. After all, don't you get then on your list and THEN sell them your product? Well, in a lot of cases, yes. And if that's your model solely, then this probably isn't for you.

However, some businesses actually sell multiple products and their initial contact with their prospects isn't through any kind of a list. They're sent directly to a sales page and from there, they make their purchase and that's it. You probably never hear from them again.

But what if you had multiple products related to the one that was just purchased? Wouldn't you like to be able to legitimately follow up with these customers to let them know that you in fact DO have other products that they might be interested in?

Well, thank you pages are a great way to do this.

After the purchase goes through, on your thank you page in addition to actually thanking them for purchasing the product, you let them know that you have a newsletter that will give them information about your product (maybe how to best use it) plus information on other related products that they might be interested in. As long as there is a close enough relation to the other products, there is a very good chance that your customers WILL sign up for your list.

The key to making this work is design. Remember, the main focus of the thank you page is to thank them for their purchase and give them the link to download their product. You don't want to do ANYTHING that will interfere with that process.

At the top of that list is NEVER forcing them to sign up for your list in order to get their product. You're going to get quite a few complaints unless you make it perfectly clear on your sales letter that they will have to sign up to a list in order to receive their product. And if you do this, it's probably a great way to kill conversions.

You also don't want to start pitching your list BEFORE you actually thank them and give them their download link. The pitch comes AFTER all that. You make it an invite and you make sure that you let them know that it is completely optional and that they will still get their product even if they don't sign up.

So what you want to do is entice them to sign up. There are plenty of ways to do this.

One way is to offer them a freebie that compliments the product that they just bought. You can call it an unadvertised bonus JUST for signing up for your list.

Another way is to maybe give them a coupon code that will give them a discount on the next product of yours that they purchase, again, all for just signing up for your list.

You can offer 3 days of training in order to use your product correctly. Or you can offer them lifetime updates of your product just for signing up for your list.

These are all ethical "bribes" and can work very well in building your list.

And the best part of this list is that it's one that already has people who have bought from you. If they bought from you once and were satisfied with their purchase, don't you think it's likely they'll buy from you again?

So don't neglect your thank you page.

It can bring you more list members than you realize if done properly.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at Profit Plan VI and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

View the original article here

List Building Tips - 404 Pages

In this next installment of list building tips, I'm going to cover an area that almost nobody takes advantage of - 404 pages. For those of you who don't know what they are, I'll explain them. For those of you who do and might be wondering how you could ever build a list off of a 404 page, you might just want to keep reading. I promise you that it WILL be a real eye opener.

Let's start off with exactly what a 404 page is for those of you who don't know. A 404 page is one that a visitor will see when they don't get the page of your domain that they're looking for. Now, there can be a number of reasons why this could happen, such as you deleting it without realizing it. Maybe you changed the permalink structure of a site. I could go on for days about what causes 404 errors but the bottom line is this. A visitor tried to access a page on your site, couldn't, and was greeted by an ugly "page could not be found" error which causes them to just move on to something else.

That's a GREAT way to lose prospects.

Okay, so what CAN we do about 404 pages? Well, we can't completely avoid them popping up. Even if we've done nothing wrong and the visitor simply typed in the wrong URL of the page they were looking for (yes, it happens) they're still going to get those errors. However, what we CAN do is customize our 404 pages so that when a visitor DOES get one to pop up, they have the chance to do more than just go away.

How do we do this?

A simple message that says, "Sorry, the page you're looking for doesn't seem to be here. Maybe you'd like to sign up for my free newsletter below... " just might get somebody who would have normally just moved on to do something else, to sign up for your newsletter. It certainly can't hurt to try and what does it cost you? A few minutes of your time to design a page?

Yes, you SHOULD try to make the 404 page as eye catching as possible. Make it humorous even. After all, the visitor isn't finding what he's looking for and is therefore probably at least a little annoyed. A cute little graphic of maybe some guy scratching his head wondering where the page went to just might get a chuckle or two.

For those of you who don't know how to create and setup your hosting to handle a 404 page, it's really very simple.

Step One - Create the page and save it with an obvious name. Something like 404.html will do fine.

Step Two - Edit your,htaccess file by adding the following line:

ErrorDocument 404 /404.html

And that's it. That's all there is to it.

This way, if a visitor to your site doesn't get the page they're looking for, they at least get a page that might have some meaning to them and JUST might get you another list member.

Try it. You might JUST be surprised by the results.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at Profit Plan VI and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

View the original article here

List Building Tips - Syndication

In this installment of List Building Tips, I want to discuss syndication; what it is and how to properly go about getting it. I think you will find this interesting reading.

I actually need to start this article off by dispelling a myth that has been going around for a long time. Many marketers feel that having an article appear in more than one place is duplicate content and will thus be penalized as such. So let me clear this myth up before we go any farther.

Duplicate content is when you take the same article and have it appear more than once on the SAME domain. The only actual penalty for that is the article will only be listed in the SERPs ONE time. But you will NOT be penalized for doing this. Your site ranking won't go down. You won't get thrown out of the SERPs. There is no benefit, but there is also no real penalty.

For proof of this, go and look up a current news story and see how many sites are running the EXACT same news story written by the same exact agency, usually AP or UPI. This is called syndication and it's a wonderful thing.

Ultimately, what you DO want is to write an article that is SO good that many authority sites in your niche pick it up and publish it on THEIR site. And if you think this is of no benefit to them because (1) they didn't write the article and (2) because the article is all over the place, think again.

There are sites out there that literally make their living off of publishing syndicated articles. They haven't got one piece of original content on their site and it doesn't make a darn bit of difference. Again, the proof is out there. Just go digging through some of the top niches and you'll find them.

The trick, for YOU, is to write articles GOOD enough to be syndicated. For some folks, that's a mountain and a half to climb.

For starters, they can't write. Their words are like those out of a 3rd grader at best. Add to that the length of some of the articles that people write (a few paragraphs in many cases) and it's no wonder that nobody wants to publish them on their site.

In order to get your articles syndicated, you must write very well, have a beginning a middle and an end, stay on topic, and have your articles be a decent length. A minimum of 500 words to get any decent site to consider publishing you and as many as 1,000 to 1,500 words or more to get the top sites to even look at your articles.

I don't write all my articles for syndication. In fact, this very one is something I wrote simply because I felt it was a message that needed to be sent to article writers today. The years of 300 word pieces of dog meat that used to pull in tons of traffic are over.

Now, there are two ways to get your articles syndicated. One is direct and one is indirect.

The indirect way to get your articles syndicated is to submit them to article directories and hope that a top site sees them, likes them, and publishes them.

The direct way is simply to contact the top sites yourself and ask them if they'll publish your articles. Don't laugh. If you have a top product, you'll get many to say yes.

Ultimately, with syndication, you write one article, submit it one time, and end up with hopefully dozens of sites publishing it because it's THAT good.

I've lost track of how many of my articles have been published elsewhere.

One last word. Don't depend on article directories for direct traffic to your site from the directory itself. You are using them for what they are intended to be used for, and that's to get OTHER sites to pick up the articles FROM the directories and publish them on THEIR sites.

The more times your article gets published, with a link back to your list opt in, the more chances you have to build your list.

Once you understand that, you'll understand just how powerful syndication is to list building.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want more great list building tips? Check out my review of Paul Myers' Profit Plan VI at Profit Plan VI and pick up 162 ways to build a large and responsive list.

View the original article here