By Sir Lucius
Why The List Is So Important
If you're new to Internet or Affiliate Marketing you may not be aware that the real money is in the e-mail distribution list of people interested in what you're marketing. A list allows you to build rapport with prospects, and gurus who make millions every year understand that once you have a great relationship with your customer you can sell them almost anything for any price. Building a list also gives you a lot of leverage within the Internet marketing world. You are able to follow-up with prospects, pitch new or complementary products, and even partner with other Internet marketers who will split profits with you for e-mailing your list about their product or service. If you don't ask for your website visitors opt-in email address when they visit and follow up with them or send a newsletter to them you are losing a significant volume of sales. Experts have shown that it often takes 7 or more marketing exposures before prospective customers purchase. The best part is you don't even need a large list, just people who are willing to buy. A list of 100 with 50% conversion is much better than a list of 500 with 5% conversion. Are you beginning to understand the importance of the list?
Building a list isn't difficult at all once you understand how to work smarter, not harder. In the next section I will explain the key to building a great list and the tools that enable you to build one fast. Before I continue, let me first say that you should abosultely make sure you are picking the right niche. You don't want to waste time with a niche that doesn't buy, because you'll end up frustrated and quitting a business that can forever change you and your family's lives for the better. I will highlight exactly how you can check your niche to find out if its filled with buyers in a future hub. But for now, let's concentrate on list building.
The Key Is Great Content
People will gladly give you their e-mail address if you provide valuable, useful, or helpful content. All you need to do is set-up an opt-in page with a link to an eBook, audio interview, or video. Then give it away and watch it turn into a list building machine. It really is that simple and easy. You can set-up an opt-in page in minutes, manage your list through Aweber (more on this later) and I'll explain how to create free content in the section below.
Fast Content Creation
You don't have to be an expert in your niche in order to create useful content that you can give away to build a list. One of the best ways to create an eBook, report, or other freebie is to visit a forum in your niche then create an account, introduce yourself, and ask, "What is the single most important question you have on X?" What you're doing is getting your market to tell you what content to create. Another approach is to read the message boards and find what the most common questions or concerns are. You can also post a survey telling them you are creating a product or putting together a report on "X" and you want to know what question or issue they would like addressed.
Another way to find content is to check the sales letter page of your competition or the affiliate program you've joined and look at the list of bulleted benefits the product or service claims. Turn those claims into questions by adding, "how" or "where" and voila, you've just found the major concerns of your market that can be addressed in your freebie.
Now that you have the topics you need to address, how do you get the answers?
The simple way is to head to eLance.com or Guru.com and hire an expert to write a report for you answering these questions. You shouldn't have to spend more than $250 for a simple report, and if you find that amount too high you can try finding an expert on Amazon.com. Authors might be willing to conduct a short audio interview with you answering these questions if you offer to let them plug their book or website and mention that the interview will be distributed virally all over the Internet. You can then elect to have the interview transcribed (again, hire someone on eLance.com or Guru.com) or post the audio up on your website using a service like AudioAcrobat.
Granted you do not want to create an entire product, just answer enough questions and concerns so that the information is useful, but incomplete. In order for the reader to get the complete answer he or she should purchase whatever it is you're promoting. You won't always be able to do this, just remember that if you give away all your secrets about "X" there is no incentive for your reader to buy whatever it is you're promoting.
Finding & Approaching Experts
Should you attempt to approach experts by not hiring them through eLance or Guru.com, then you should keep the followoing things in mind. To find experts try search engines, online bookstores, and forums. Create a list of experts based on the size of their list, overall respect in the industry, and star power. The key to approaching experts is to be respectful and not assume that they will actually want to help you. The two things they ask themselves when you contact them is 1) "why me?" and 2) "What's in it for me?"
The key to answering these concerns is to be genuine in your letter, or phone call to the expert. You want to be sincere in why you chose to ask them for help, and then offer them something (money, publicity, leads, website traffic, etc.) in exchange for lending their time and expertise. Do not use a "cut-and-paste" e-mail, customized it for your expert. Do not be overly assumptive and assume they need you, the truth is YOU NEED THEM. If you can, call the expert, it's much more personal and will help you stand out from the dozens of request they may get each week. If that fails try a WHOIS lookup at www.godaddy.com and find the mailing address for their website and send a handwritten letter. You may have to build rapport first before you can ask the expert for help, so be prepared to send an initial e-mail that is simply complimenting the expert on their work or impact on the industry. If they respond, use that as an opening about you the freebie you're creating to hand out.
Easy Video Creation
The future of the Internet is video. Just listen to the stats on the video to the right. Video is extremely easy to create, especially if you're using a service like TrafficGeyser. You can also create video through CamStudio, which is free, and programs like Microsoft PowerPoint (PC) or Apple Keynote (Mac). I've personally created videos in less than 1 hour using CamStudio and PowerPoint. Should you need background music I recommend MusicBakery.com. For the purpose of creating an opt-in list, you'll almost certaintly want to have it hosted on the opt-in page which is possible with a service like AudioAcrobat. However, TrafficGeyser allows you can create the video with their service and then have any one of the popular video sites such as YouTube or Blip.tv host it for free. It's very simple to paste the embed script from these sites into your opt-in page, and you also have added benefit of TrafficGeyser's distribution to the dozens of other video sites, which will allow your page to rank higer in Google.
By using video as your content, you'll do a much better job of engaging your audience and getting them to opt-in into your list. You should be certain that your video contains valuable content. A great example of how to use video effectively is over at http://www.masscontrolsite.com/blog. Keep in mind that he runs a multi-million dollar business and has the money for the fancy sound effects and music, but you get the basic idea of how much more engaging a video can be compared to an audio interview or eBook. At the end of the day, as long as your content is valuable, your users won't mind if they have to read it rather than watch it. Just know your toughest competitors are probably creating video.
Aweber Overview
Earlier in the Hub I mentioned you should use Aweber as your auto-responder. This service automates and makes list management easy:
- Visitors request information from you via email or through your web site, and it is automatically delivered to them within seconds automatically
- The name and e-mail address of each subscriber is automatically added to your AWeber database, saving you endless hours of data entry!
- Personalized follow up letters are automatically sent to each of your subscribers at regular, predetermined intervals, building trust and rapport between you and your subscribers!
- You spend more time with your family, since AWeber is doing so much of your work!
- Your efficient AWeber follow up account converts subscribers into customers without intervention from you!
- Save time, reduce stress, build customer loyalty, increase conversion ratios, and make more money!
Your free alternative to Aweber would be Feedburner or FeedBlitz; however, as this article points out these are not very good alternatives.
Nuture Your List
Your list is a living, breathing thing. You have to treat it well in order to reap the full benefits. If your list recognizes you as an authority AND a friend, then anything you recommend they will buy because they trust and respect your opinion. Remember that the relationship you have with your list is your most important asset, and every e-mail you send either helps or hurts your reputation. Don't pitch them bad products or services that you feel won't really help them. Would you recommend a crappy car to your best friend?
Likewise, don't spam them with useless information just to stay on their radar. Always provide them with useful content anytime you send something out. This can be as simple as a link to a YouTube video you found or an article you have written, "How To Make Money Online With No List, No Product, and No Website". If you're having trouble finding useful content or need an idea of what is considered useful I would suggest subscribing to the e-mail lists of StomperNet, Frank Kern, Ryan Deiss, Armand Morin, Eben Pagan, Jeff Walker, and other gurus. They are the best at what they do and really understand how to work a list. One thing you'll notice is that they actually just give away free information, no strings attached because they are investing in the list. They may not have anything to pitch for weeks or months, but they understand that in any successful relationship you have to bring something to the table, and not just take.
Dealing With Unsubscriptions & Nasty Subscribers
No matter how well you treat your list, someone will unsubscribe after you send an e-mail out or mark your message as "SPAM" because they were too lazy to hit the unsusbscribe button and deal with the unsubscribe confirmation page. There is nothing you can do about this because it is the nature of the beast. You should be gaining more subscribers then you are losing, if that is not the case then your content is not valuable and probably considered spam by those on your list. Go back and create better content!
Don't be put off by angry e-mails either. If you have 1000 people on a list and 5 people send you an angry letter after you send out an offer, that doesn't mean your list is mad at you. It means 5 people out of 1000 are upset. Let them go, the four or five-figure check you get was worth it. Don't waste your time with people who are being nasty. Get them out of your life and move on. They'll never purchase anything, and in the meantime you're missing out on customers who do buy and enjoy your content and offers.
Conclusion
You now know what it takes to start building an e-mail list. Do you still have questions? Just ask me me in the section below, I'll also be adding a lot more to this Hub so I look forward to any and all feedback.
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