A Squeeze Page is Critical to Your Online Success

A squeeze page or a landing page is a powerful Internet marketing tool. Why? Because it builds your mailing list in whatever online niche you happen to be in. You know what they say, “The money is in the list.”

What is a squeeze page?

It is a single web page whose only purpose is to collect the visitor’s name and email address. Usually this is done by offering a giveaway report, eBook or multi-part course. This is very different from a sales letter or mini-site where the marketer is selling something. On a squeeze page, there is only value exchange, your freebie in exchange for their name and email address.

Why is a squeeze page critical to your online success?

Let’s face a harsh reality right now, most first-time site visitors are not going to buy from you. So you need a way to capture their contact information with explicit permission to send them future emails. In other words, a way to continue to market to them long after their first visit to your site.

If you give away your report or eBook on their very first visit, they’ll probably read it and forget about you after that. You don’t want to lose that visitor forever after having done all the hard work to get them to your site in the first place. [Read more]

Have You Heard of L.I.S.T. D. A.V.E.?

I’ll explain what my list building acronym, L.I.S. T. D.A.V.E stands for in a minute but first let me tell you how it can help you.

You are probably well aware of the fact that to be really successful online, you need to build your list. I like to take it a step further; a large list by itself will do you no good. You want to build a responsive list instead.

Most new or even some intermediate Internet marketers lack list-building skills.

Let’s face a harsh reality here, most site visitors are not going to buy from you on their first visit (unless you have an ecommerce site). You primary objective then should be to capture names and email addresses (subscribers) to build your list. Build a trusting relationship with them with future marketing (drip marketing). Only then will they trust your recommendations and/or open their wallets.

I don’t want you to reinvent the wheel here. So, let’s concentrate on finding the best list building service that will help you automate this critical task.

That’s where L.I.S.T. D.A.V.E. comes handy in evaluating your list building options and service providers. It stands for:
[Read more]

Why “Wait for Me” is a Good List Marketing Strategy

A common affliction with list marketing is when your subscribers do nothing. They don’t open your emails nor do they click on any links. There is a complete lack of interaction on their end.

As a marketer, what can you do to remedy the situation? One option is to wait. That may seem odd because you continue doing the same things and hope for different results. Most marketing experts will tell you that’s a foolish strategy.

But wait, there is some method to that madness. I read a very interesting post by Dela Quist where he suggests exactly that, wait for your list.

In his post “Inactive or Unemotionally Subscribed?” he writes about subscribers being “unemotionally subscribed.” His reasoning is simple, about 35% of the people on your list will NOT take any action for up to 6 months and a good 55% will not interact for a year.

Why? Simply because they don’t need you or your products right now.

Don’t hit the panic button and start bombarding your list with pushy emails. They may still not buy and you risk a large number of unsubscribes. Instead, Dela suggests that you just wait for them.
[Read more]

29 List Building Secrets Revealed

The money is in the list, the money is in the list… how many times have you heard every marketing guru on the planet say that? Hundreds, thousands? There is a good reason for that, the money is in the list! And in this report I’m going to show you how to add thousands of quality subscribers to your list without spending a fortune in the process.

 

What you’ll learn from this 24-page report:

• Making Your Content Relevant to Your Audience, page 7
• How to Add More Subscribers with Viral eBooks and giveaways, page 8
• How to Capture Leads with Pop Up Windows, page 9
• Do You Know What Secret Name Squeeze Pages are? page 10
• The Benefits of Archiving your Newsletters, page 11
• How To Write an Article Recommendation, page 13
• Buying Solo and Ezine Sponsorship Ads, page 14
• Press Releases: Not Dead, Just Evolved, page 16
• Giving Your Newsletter Personality, page 18
• Using Free E-Courses and Autoresponders, page 20
• Giving Others Permission To Reprint/Republish Your Newsletter, page 22
• Getting Other Newsletter Publishers To Mention You Constantly, page 23

Learn more about 29 List Building Secrets Revealed »

4 Tips on Building Rapport with Your Subscribers

Developing a strong personal rapport with your subscribers is probably the best way for building a long-tern relationship with them. Here are a four ways to achieve that:

1. Keep in touch. Don’t just mail them only when you need to promote a product or sell them something. Offer them valuable and useful information that doesn’t cost anything. For every sales oriented email, send them at least two that are non-sales related. For example, send them an article you’ve written or direct them to one of your new blog posts.
2. Do a survey. Asking your readers about their needs and concerns is a great way to show that you care. Many email marketing service providers offer online survey creating tools. Take a look at SurveyMonkey, they have an option to set up a free account. Use questionnaires and get your subscribers involved. Ask them what they want you to provide for them to help them with their Internet marketing problems.
3. Send gifts. Reward the loyalty shown by your subscribers by offering them gifts from time to time. This could be in the form of a free eBook, report or even a deep discount to one of your paid products. Blog templates, graphics or even free membership access are also popular gift items.
4. Be personal. Don’t be afraid to show your personal side. Write in a tone that comes across as “from me to you” rather than being formal all the time. Don’t go overboard on being casual right off the bat. Take a clue from how your subscribers comment on your blogs and/or respond to your emails. Then find your own voice to communicate with them accordingly.

Build an Opt-in List from Your Blog

Your business blog is a great source for building your opt-in list. For those who are new to Internet marketing, an opt-in list is a list of people who have subscribed or registered to receive future emails from you in the form of a newsletter or promotional emails. As they say, “the money is in the LIST.”

When you set up your business blog, you should have a sign up form on the front page for readers to subscribe to your mailing list. Here’s a screenshot of the form on my Home page and in the right hand column on all inside pages.

You build your list one person, one email at a time. Even if you only have one subscriber to your newsletter, begin sending emails to them that will benefit them in some way. Avoid the temptation to start selling from the get-go. Build a trusting relationship with them first. The best way to forming that bond is with useful content and not a sales pitch.

To persuade your site visitors to sign up, offer them something free. This could be an eBook or a special report or an eCourse (series of emails delivered at pre-determined intervals.)

You can choose from several different service providers that are out there to manage your list and email marketing. The one I use is Aweber. It is not very expensive, about $20 a month that will get you a great suite of products for building lists and managing your ongoing email marketing.

Aweber (or most other services) will provide you simple JavaScript of HTML codes that you can plug right into your blog to create a sign up form.

If you want to get sophisticated with your list building techniques, try an unblockable exit pop up like the one I have on my blog. You’ll see it if you try to exit this page and are not already on my list. Since a majority of site visitors leave without taking any action, you need to capture those leads. I use a great product called Action PopUp by Robert Plank.

Once you have subscribers, you need to keep in constant communication with them. Regular emails (once or twice a week) will also keep your name in front of them. Marketers like to refer to this as “top of mind awareness.”

If you already have a business blog established but don’t utilize an email management system, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to reach more people and retain the readers you already have. Don’t wait any longer. Boost your online business instantly by setting up a sign up form and using an email management program now.

Using JV Giveaways for List Building

Internet marketers are truly on the cutting edge when it comes to marketing. Take for example the concept of a Joint Venture (JV) Giveaway Event.

What is a JV Giveaway Event? This is when a group of publishers or website owners agrees to promote to each other’s list an event, usually to download valuable information products for free.

What’s the catch? Subscribers from your list must sign up for each publisher’s list to get access to their products. You gain new subscribers from other site owners when their visitors want to download your gift. It’s a win-win situation because everyone participating in the event gets new subscribers and grows their lists.

Can you imagine a similar marketing technique working in the brick and mortar world? It’s highly unlikely that Macy’s will agree to give something away free to customers of J.C. Penney unless they want to steal each other’s customers.

Usually a JV Giveaway is limited to a specific number of partners. Each partner offers a gift, which is usually digital and downloaded from his or her website. These gifts are usually E-Books, special reports or scripts that are valuable in some way.

How do you put together one of these successful events? Here are the basic steps.

1)     Find 4 or 5 publishers in your market

2)     Contact them and tell them of your idea and that you are willing to do all the work. All they need to do is give you their signup information and something to offer for the event

3)     Setup a domain name and website/sales letter that tells people how to enter and all the information needed

4)     Write an email letter that each publisher can use to promote the event.

5)     Set a firm date for promoting the contest and how often they must run the campaign

6)     Run the event and add new subscribers to your list. Check for duplicate email addresses so you don’t add people already on your list

The answer to finding one to join is simple. You just do a search for ‘Joint Venture giveaway’ using your favorite search engine and you will find more than a few. Choosing the right one to join can be a little tougher.

What happens if you don’t have a list? It is difficult if you don’t have a list to begin with because these events are run by scripts that will automatically remove you if you don’t send a pre-set minimum number of referrals.

However, you can find other ways of promoting an event to drive traffic and thereby overcoming the problem of list size. You just have to work a little harder and think outside the box.

Internet marketers are always looking for new and innovative ways to build their lists and market themselves. The JV Giveaway is probably one of the most successful ways that I have found.

Write Persuasive Copy for List Building

Let’s say you’ve used all the right marketing techniques and have a decent amount of traffic coming to your site. Now comes the hard part, converting a good portion of them into subscribers and/or paying customers. In other words, you need to build your mailing list.

If you carefully study some of the successful Internet marketers, you’ll notice they all use persuasive text with clear and explicit calls to action. We all like to think that we make logical decisions and not irrational ones, unless it is an impulsive buy. I call this “emotional reasoning.”

I am not referring to an over-hyped, sales letter here. Persuasive copy will appeal to you at some level, draw you into the details and logically take you to the call to action where you feel little to no resistance in signing up or buying the product.

Ace direct-response copywriter and my mentor, Bob Bly says, “Virtually all persuasive copy contains eight elements.”  They are:

1. Gain attention
2. Focus on the customer
3. Stress benefits
4. Differentiate you from the competition
5. Prove its case
6. Establish credibility
7. Build value
8. Close with a call to action

Of course, not every piece of copy that you write will have equal doses of all eight elements. Use this list as a framework whenever you start writing new copy.

My “Words to Profits” was created to teach you how to get inside the head of the reader and to write words that plug directly into their brain so they are hardwired into your sales message until you choose to let them go. It is an in-depth look at the love-hate relationship we have with words and how to use them to get the results you want.

Different copywriting styles appeal to different personality types. There are many schools of thought on this but the one I find easiest to understand is called the DISC model of personality profiles. Its stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance.

So it is critical to know your target audience really well because not all customers are the same. Write copy using the right words and the correct tone to persuade them to take a desired action.

I recommend that you get a copy of Karon Thackston’s “The Step-by-Step Copywriting Course.” You’ll learn more about the 4 personalities of customers and how to get them all to respond to your copy,  the difference in how men and women buy… and how to use them to your advantage.

Using Co-Registration for List Building

Co-registration is a quick and easy way to add subscribers to your list. So what is Co-registration? It is building lists by buying subscribers from a third party service.

Dr. Ralph Wilson defines it as, “Co-registration is a widely-used approach to increase the size of your e-mail lists. Co-registration works this way: After completing a subscription form or upon leaving a website, visitors are invited to subscribe to one or more e-zines. If yours is listed among these and the site gets a substantial amount of traffic, you’ll begin to receive a number of subscriptions. ”

Some of the more popular co-registration sites are:

1. www.worldwidelists.com
2. www.nitrolistbuilder.com
3. www. buy-work-at-home-leads.com
4. www.listhero.com
5. www.co-registration.net

You pay a fee to these companies per lead or subscriber.  Usually leads cost around 15 cents to $1 depending on the niche market and whether you want double opt-in or single opt-in. Double opt-in is the preferred option whenever available.

Don’t try to sell a product the very first time you send out an email to these newly acquired leads. Offer them a free bonus or something of value to build a trusting relationship with them first.

An email mini-course or an eCourse works great because you maintain contact with these prospects over 5 to 10 days or however long your ecourse is. Each email from you provides them valuable information without it sounding like a pushy sales letter. Of course, links to your own or affiliate products are acceptable as long as there aren’t more than a few each time.

In my opinion, co-registration is not one of the better ways to build a list. When you first start out, it is tempting to buy leads but in the long run, they don’t usually prove to be profitable. The reasons most often cited are the poor quality of leads and high rate of unsubcribes.

Some marketers swear by it and have great results. Others fail and have to throw out the entire list they bought because it is riddled with fake addresses, spam complaints and freebie seekers.

Product Creation Juggernaut Reveals His Personal System

The first quarter of 2009 is GONE. It will never return. There will be no do over.

But here’s the good news! You cannot get Q1 back, but what if you could catch up in Q2? In fact, what if you could do more in this quarter than you had planned for all of 2009?

You see, I’ve met many online entrepreneurs who have ONE goal for 2009. “Create and launch my product.”

And yet, the vast majority will not reach their goal. The year will come and go and they will still be dreaming. Dreams are good, but you can’t pay the bills with dreams. The power company won’t give you credit for dreams. Even those struggling car dealers won’t take your business vision as a down payment.

So…what if you could have not one but TWO of your very own products launched by the end of this quarter? I know that sounds crazy. Even crazier is that it will not cost you a penny to learn how to do it!

For details: http://tinyurl.com/oq7gof

Paul Evans is hosting a free webinar called “Cash Catalyst 360.” He is known for:

• His unique ability to communicate and connect.
• The extreme value of his free content.
• His almost insane ability to create products at high velocity.

This is your chance to discover the secret behind Paul’s success. AND, more importantly, the secret to YOUR success. http://tinyurl.com/oq7gof.

But seats are extremely limited. Only 1000 seats are available. There is no doubt that each will be taken. And there is NO guarantee that this will ever be offered again.

“Cash Catalyst 360” reveals a system that will allow you to launch two products a month. Reserve your free spot right now… http://tinyurl.com/oq7gof

P.S. Listen, this is free. I can guarantee this webinar will be worth 10 times the value of the last product you actually paid for! http://tinyurl.com/oq7gof.

P.P.S. 5 Year Anniversary Celebration

• What: Nicheology 5 Year Anniversary Celebration
• When: Starting May 25 – A Five Day Event
• Where: http://tinyurl.com/qqgvkp
• Why: Because EVERYONE likes to have a good time!

Use Free Viral Ebooks To Get New Subscribers

Want to get thousands of new subscribers for your ezine without spending a cent on advertising and you’ve tried all the methods above but you still want more?

Viral marketing is the way to go! Writing viral books is nothing new, but it’s still a great way to get your newsletter noticed.

There are a few methods you can use when creating viral ebooks.

You can either create them as a free product, or charge for them and give people the reprint rights to the product so they in turn can give your product away while making some money in the process.

I prefer the reprint right route. The key here is that, once the momentum of the first book wears out, write another and another and another and another! All in the same method, all with reprint rights and all with your newsletter subscribe form inserted in them. The goal really isn’t to make money from the sales of the book, it’s to get more subscribers.

[Read more]

Next Page »