Internet Marketers - Want To Build An Email List And Don't Know How?

To be a successful internet marketer you need to make money, and to make money online you need a list of prospective buyers. If you have a website and no list then your traffic is dependent upon the whims of the search engines or you take up paid advertising. A secure way is to build a database of all the customers who bought from you in the past. This database is pure gold because these people are the ones who are likely to respond to your offers in the future.

The basics of creating a list are quite simple; you need a website, an autoresponder service and something to offer, usually free. An autoresponder will store all your email leads and be able to send out scheduled messages, newsletters or latest offers to all or just some of your subscribers. When you think that a marketing list can contain 10,000 subscribers or more, then you see that an efficient autoresponder service is essential and one called Aweber is probably the best.

You will want a targeted list of subscribers to market your offers to. For example, you will get a poor response offering beauty products to a list of subscribers in the soccer niche! Each niche will need a separate list and some internet marketers may have 20 or so different lists! Don't worry though, you'll only be starting off with 1 or 2 lists as a beginner and the autopresponder service can take care of 1 or 20+ lists just as efficiently.

If you are a total newbie when it comes to internet marketing, then you are going to have to learn how to get a webpage or blog up and running so you can offer something of value to your visitors. Try a free blog at Blogspot.com (owned by Google) which is pretty straightforward to setup and has a user friendly backend where you carry out admin tasks. The other more involved option is to buy a domain name with hosting where you can set up your webpage. GoDaddy.com is quite good at hand-holding the beginner and walking you through the various steps, but beware they will try and sell you different 'bells and whistles' options at each step so do some research first about basic things you'll need for a simple website.

Now you have a hosted webpage or free blog at Blogspot with your offer on a 'squeeze page' [designed to let the visitor access your free offer or product only after they entered their email address first]. Your squeeze page must include a web form with a link back to your autoresponder service to put your subscribers onto a list. There are paid email marketing solutions provided by the likes of Aweber and Getresponse but there are also free solutions like MailChimp.com. If you are serious about internet marketing to develop it into a full time income, which is certainly possible, start off with a good paid service like Aweber.

To be honest, speaking from experience, it can be a bit tricky getting these things set up if you are a complete beginner when it comes to list building, and mistakes are bound to be made. As you progress along the learning curve your skills will increase but in the initial stages it's possible to make a big error that can be difficult to recover from and may try your patience to the point of wanting to give up. That would be a shame because, as I mentioned before, the potential to make good income is there and it's oft been said by internet marketers 'the money is in the list'

There is another way for those without technical skills to begin building a marketing list without the need of a blog, webpage, squeeze page, domain name or hosting. 5iphon.com (I think they refer to themselves as 'Siphon') who will provide you with a totally free hosted webpage that will virally build you a list on autopilot. Another service is Instant Cash Machine that also provide a ready made hosted squeeze page for a one off payment, they also provide you with an in house autoresponder service although you may opt to use Aweber. You will still need a separate autoresponder service for either Aweber or Getresponse if you use 5iphon.com, but Aweber in particular has some very good video tutorials for beginners to help set up your first list. May I wish you every success in your email marketing career!

I wrote this article because I'm seeking for ways to make money online to help me pay some of my monthly bills. I've also started a blog to keep me motivated and hopefully act as a guide to others as well. Everyone says that the 'money is in the list' and to that end I've started to explore email marketing to build a list of subscribers to my newsletters.

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List Segmentation Strategies

I often run free online marketing strategy sessions with other small business owners. During these sessions we focus on a particular issue they have in their business and I help them work out the best approach to tackle the problem. Following a conversation within one such session, it presented these questions:

Building a list on an email/newsletter programme, what strategy can you use to best handle various access points and their ensuing lists?

What can be done to ensure that lists do not produce cross-over where clients may receive information that is no longer relevant to them as they move on in the marketing chain?

My advice is, and it would also be relevant to any business owner who creates a lot of access points into their marketing: e-books, webinars, seminars, downloads, events, newsletters, special offers and product purchases, to use a tried and tested email/newsletter programme to look after the lists and use to cater to the demands of a multiple access point market.

The great feature of email/newsletter programmes are their list management functionality. You won't annoy members on your lists, if you are sending a newsletter to more than one list at a time, they will ensure that each person received the newsletter only once, even if they are members of multiple lists, provided they signed up for all lists with the same email address. So for example, you could be a member of e-book list and tele-summit list but you will receive the newsletter only once if you send it at the same time to both lists.

Indeed it's better to have lists separated for all different products, seminars, offers, events you will run. The key is to keep a separate log of why you created that list, what members signed up for, when, how this list is linked to and related to all other lists. After 6 or more months it won't be easy to remember without this log when you've got 10 lists on the system with abbreviated names!

The benefit of having lists separated is that you could then create very targeted campaigns and follow ups based on what subscribers were initially interested in: e-book, webinar, strategy session. If you bought a webinar recording, you could then promote a follow-up webinar, an e-course on the same subject and strategically up-sell on other services and products you have. If you have all your subscribers in one list you won't be able to segment and target them in the same manner.

For each new list you can have separate auto-responders' series and you can send newsletters to go out to each list individually using separate templates. What's even better, you can set up different business details for each list.

Email/newsletter programmes show you your list totals on the dashboard so you will see how many people in total you have across all lists, as well as how many active/inactive subscribers per each list. Finally, you can set up list automation,signing up for a free e-book (free-ebook list) will also get automatically added to other lists (free-teleclass, newsletter, promotions). However, if you buy a coaching session (you become a member of coaching-clients list), you'll be automatically removed from promotions list as you are now a client, rather than a prospect. This keeps your lists targeted to most relevant prospects and ensures that clients won't get bombarded with promotional messages for products or services they've already bought.

My name is Tamara Baranova. I run TJConsulting and I help small business owners grow their business by delivering effective online marketing mentoring, support and training.

It allows my clients to stop wasting valuable time and start seeing real results. Business owners I work with are serious about raising their business profile and attracting more opportunities. They want their business to succeed, to grow fast, and to generate healthy profits through online marketing strategy that works.

Want to know more? Go to my website http://www.tjconsulting.co.uk/ to grab my free eCourse 7 Steps to Online Marketing Mastery and learn how to plan your unique social media strategy. Use our step-by-step jargon-free guides to master all popular online marketing tools: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, blogging, and more! Sign up today to get immediate access!

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List Building Tips - Forum Blogs

This is the second in a series of list building tips that I hope you'll find informative. In this installment, I'm going to be discussing list building and forum blogs. I'll go over why they're good to post to, what benefits you'll get from doing so, how to go about doing it and when you should. Put all of that together and you should end up with a relatively effective method for driving traffic to your squeeze page and increasing the number of subscribers on your list. Ready? Let's begin.

Let's start with why forum blogs are good to post to. Let me preface this by saying that not ALL forum blogs are good. Some won't help you at all. Some, may even be more helpful than posting to your own blog. But why? The answer is authority.

If you take the Warrior Forum as an example, if you do a search through Google for just about any topic related to Internet marketing, more often than not, you'll find the Warrior Forum pages at or near the top of the search results. The reason is because of their authority as recognized by Google in this area.

Having said that, the problem with forums, as far as using their authority to your advantage, is that most of them, if not all, do not allow you to use the forum for advertising purposes. Certainly the main sections of most forum have a no advertising policy, as does the Warrior Forum.

But - and this is where you can take advantage of their authority - the Warrior Forum DOES have a blog that each member can use to post content that can be a little more promotional as long as the bulk of the content is informational in nature. No, you can't post a sales letter on your blog, but you can talk about a subject at length and then make a pitch for a product at the end. If the content is good, the small promotion at the end will be acceptable. In the case of building a list, this is a perfect vehicle. At the end of your content, you simply put "For more info, sign up to my newsletter."

You will find that you may actually get more subscribers from doing this than from posting articles to your own blog simply because the forum in question has more authority than you do. In other words, you're piggy backing off of somebody else's success. Hey, if they allow you to do it, take advantage of it. Just make sure you post relevant information that isn't a blatant sales pitch.

The benefits from doing this are clear as day. You reach more people because your blog entry has a better chance of being seen than if you made it on your own blog, unless of course your blog has equal authority with Google and other search engines. Good luck with that.

Since I've already covered basically how to do this, the last item on the list is the "when" or "how often." That is going to greatly depend on the forum and what you're trying to accomplish. Personally, I wouldn't make more than one blog post per day. You really don't want to make it look like you're just there for the free lunch. Contribute to the regular discussions as well. Be a regular forum member as far as participation and you'll find that even making one blog post a day won't be seen as excessive.

Bottom line is simple. If you're posting at a forum that has good authority, you'll reach more people with your blog posts and in the process drive more traffic to your opt in page.

It's a simple tactic but one very few people really take advantage of because they think it's not worth the effort.

Trust me - it is.

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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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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Getting Your Site Linked

Getting great search engine results is more than simply optimizing your site for keywords.

The most effective way to get more visitors to your site is by "link building".

This type of advertising is the online equivalent of word-of-mouth and involves getting other Web sites to link to your site. Similar to a friend recommending a good mechanic. As this person has a relationship with you the referral carries more weight than if a person visited your site Web site from a search engine result.

But beware, it's not a case of just any link will do. "Link popularity" is the concept of relevancy. Search engine listings will increase or decrease depending on how relevant your site is for a particular keyword search in relation to the links pointing to it.

Links from sites that are not relevant to yours will have the opposite effect and lead to a decrease in your listing or could even result in Google blacklisting your site altogether.

To help you get the best results, here are a few steps you can follow when building links:

1. Set a goal.

Link building can time consuming if you don't plan ahead.
Start with working out how many links you need and what types of sites you want to approach.

2. Create value.

Before approaching other businesses make sure your site is worth the link. If it's untidy, half finished or does not sell products or services; you need to ask yourself what their visitors will get out of visiting your site.

Think about creating linkable content such as how-to articles or product reviews.
Creating content can be tough but content is KING. If you have nothing of interest on your site than why would another business want to recommend you!

3. Establish the type of sites you want to trade links with.

This is obvious but often overlooked. Creating content that will appeal to a wide range of link partners takes some practice.

Start by focusing your attention on one type of customer profile you have and what websites they would visit.

As you acquire new link partners you can shift your focus to other types of customer profiles you have.

4. Evaluate your link partners.

More always seems better and it is easy to fall into the trap of accepting link partners without thoroughly assessing the link value.

Make the most of your efforts and download the Bing Toolbar to help you decide which sites are worth it and which aren't.

The toolbar integrates with your Web browser and displays each site you visits "page rank".

Tip: Try to link with sites that have pages ranked higher than yours!

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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 - 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.

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