Saturday, December 8, 2012

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.

How to Become Self - Employed - 3 Critical Pieces to Creating Online Wealth - Fire Your Boss!   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   How Your Website Can Get More Conversions   Build That List   

Futuristic Marketing: Will We Be Marketing on Mars?

Do you ever wonder what marketing will be like in the future? Will Mars, UFOs, aliens, robots, and the Mayan calendar be relevant?

When you sit down and think about content marketing, it can be delivered in one of three methods: audio, video, and copy. The difference is in the quality and efficiency of the content. Is the target audience being reached? Is it aesthetically pleasing? Is the sound crystal clear? How much growth is left for technology in the world of internet marketing? Has the internet flat-lined in that regard?

Social media marketing itself is not rocket science. There are basic networking principles that have to be applied. The marketer simply has to do more marketing than selling. Yes, the goal is to make sales. But the customers don't want to be sold to. They want to feel like they are choosing to buy. It is actually quite easy to forget these fundamentals.

Every other new social networking site is practically the same. The interface may be different along with the style. Themes may vary and each platform has their own unique culture. But ultimately it all seems to be information through words, video, audio, and images. The engagement factor varies on each site

Forum marketing, article marketing, and video marketing are more specific in their social styles. But the ABC rules apply. ABC means Always Be Cool. This does not mean to wear a leather jacket, smoke a Cuban cigar, and ride your Harley with a pretty lady holding on to you. Although, that is very cool. It just means to be you. Do not force your product, service, or company onto people's computer screen. ABC means to be sociable and friendly. Bring value to your audience. That is how your audience grows. Strive to stand above the rest by being interactive. Find different ways to entertain, educate, inform, and empower.

Do not worry about catching the next wave. With that said, you should try to make a conscience effort to stay up to date with the most current changes and advancements in technology and your field. You can do this while building your list, cultivating relationships, and improving the quality of your products, services, and brand. Remember the old saying, "If you build it, they will come." Just make sure you build it with a strong foundation. You should not be wasteful of your concentration when building your business. The saying, "Slow and steady wins the race" is very relevant to building your business online. Just take it one step at a time and you will be fine.

How to Become Self - Employed - 3 Critical Pieces to Creating Online Wealth - Fire Your Boss!   Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   An Email List Building Key: Creating A High Converting Squeeze Page   How to Improve the Trust of Your List and Double Your Profits   

Practical Content Creation: How Well Do You Know Your Market?

Let"s say a fisherman went out to fish in the Pacific Ocean. Before going, he made the biggest, sophisticated net there was during his time. He learned all of the fishing tips and techniques available. He felt confident about what he was going to accomplish. He said good-bye to his friends and family before embarking upon his adventure. He knew what to do when he got to the Pacific Ocean... which was, to cast his net. He also knew the Pacific Ocean had all kinds of fish. Just the thought of casting his net in such a large body of water gave him great excitement.

At last he was in his ship and on the Pacific Ocean. He reached the spot suggested in his fishing courses; but he decided to go further for a bigger catch. He took a deep breath, thought about all he went through to get here. He cast his net! This was the moment for which he had longed and worked so hard.

He felt the weight of the net. He drew up the net carefully. How many fish could there be, he wondered. Just the joy of having caught so many fish on his first trip kept him going. He pulled and pulled. The task of drawing up the net into the ship was tedious.

He pulled with all his might and at last he got his net out of water. He dumped all of his catch on the floor. First, he was in awe of what he saw... He had caught so many different kinds of fish and other sea creatures. Then disappointment began to set in. Some of his catch seemed strange... he did not know what to do with them. How could he separate his catch? Which ones could he throw back into the ocean? This, he thought, would take so much time and energy. What could he do?

What would you do?

Target Market, as defined by biztazlaw.about.com is a specific group of customers which you have identified who have needs or problems which your products or services can fulfill.

Identifying a target market is a critical component to the formula of your success as a coach or business owner. Many opportunities open up for you with a target market.

Here are just few of the benefits of having a target market:

You know what your target market needs and wants to solve. You become known and recognized in that specific market. You know where to find them. You know who they are and how you can serve them. You are seen as an expert. You can write directly to them.

Three Ways to Identify a Viable Market

1. Identify a market based on who you are, your experiences, and your expertise.

2. Identify a market that you're surrounded by-- Do you have exposure to many contacts in a specific industry? Or did you grow up surrounded by restaurant owners/managers, or people in politics, medicine, sports or other markets?

3. Identify your market arbitrarily. You do not need to be an expert in a particular market before serving them. Identifying a viable market you know little or nothing about should make you want to know more about that market; and in your efforts to learn more, you build and develop a strong rapport with this market.

What Makes a Market Viable: Three types of questions to Help You Find Out

1. Are the people in this market accessible? Can they be found in groups? Are there several ways through which I can get in front of a large number of them? Are there avenues available to access them?

2. How about the size? Is it narrow enough that I can stand out in the crowd and be able to connect with them regularly?

3. How about their purchasing power and desire? Is this market motivated to invest in their desired solution? Are the people in this market seekers who will invest in their personal and professional development?

Six Categories of Potential Viable Markets

Professional Markets (Life Coaches, Financial Planners, Lawyers, etc.) Small Business Markets (Speakers, Web Designers, Home-based Business Owners, etc.) Holistic Practitioner Markets (Massage Therapists, Chiropractor, Herbalists, etc.) Entertainment Professional Markets (Producers, Directors, Talent Agents, etc.) Position Markets (CEOs, HR Managers, Call Center Managers, etc.) Your own... Do your research and come up with your own potential viable market.

Action Plan

Ask yourself these questions as you identify your target market... write down your answers.

1. Who is my market?

2. What do they value? Are they men or women? How old are they? What are their demographics? What experiences have they had or are having? What do they do for a living? What gifts and talents do they have?

3. What attracts me to this market?

4. What knowledge and expertise do I bring to this market?

5. What do I need in order to serve this market?

How to Become Self - Employed - 3 Critical Pieces to Creating Online Wealth - Fire Your Boss!   Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   List Building Tips - Product Reviews   List Segmentation Strategies   

Powerful Ideas For Developing An Effective Email Marketing List

There are a lot of various ways to promote a business on the Internet, it has been a growing trend for individuals to use an email marketing list. This turns out to be a very effective method because only people already interested in your product or service get your emails. If you are interested in developing an email list that will make you money continue reading this article for some effective tips.

The Subscription Form

It can't be over stated, your subscription form should be professional looking and easy to access. Many individuals skip this important tip. You should keep in mind that people will see a form but can be hesitant to fill it out. If the form is enticing or appealing enough people will be interested. Make sure your opt-in form stands out on your web page, also be sure it is easy to find.

Putting your subscription form in the most effective places is very important. Having it at the very top of your web page can make it seem as though you are being over-anxious, to low on the page and you will never get subscribers because no one will be able to find your form. One good tip is to put your form In multiple places on the front page. Your readers will get multiple chances to see your form so that filling it out stays fresh in their minds.

Use Social Media Networks

Have you taken advantage of the social media networks, they are exploding all over the Internet. It is a good idea if you haven't already done it, is to set up your profile at as many of the social networking sites as possible. They are the perfect opportunity to let individuals know that you would like them to join your email list. This is just another avenue of getting people to notice what you want them to do and to get involved.

You have to remember that once you begin to email people give them something of value some information they can use, don't send useless irrelevant content. While giving your readers good advice and good news is good what is better is delivering information that they won't find anywhere else. Show your email list subscribers that they are appreciated by giving them special reports, e-books or relevant newsletter.

Promote Offline

There are ways to promote offline as well it can be very effective if done correctly. Get permission from someone at your local library to put your information on their bulletin board. Putting an ad in the local newspaper is also an effective way of letting people know what you are promoting. These are only two of the many places where you can use offline marketing effectively.

If you are one of the many individuals who want to get an email marketing list started the tips above are an excellent place to get started. By putting the above information into use immediately you can increase your business earnings potential. You should keep in mind that building a email list takes time so your patience will be needed, but don't give up. before you know it your list will be providing you with extraordinary financial benefits.

How to Become Self - Employed - 3 Critical Pieces to Creating Online Wealth - Fire Your Boss!   Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   List Building Tips - Product Reviews   List Segmentation Strategies   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   

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

How to Become Self - Employed - 3 Critical Pieces to Creating Online Wealth - Fire Your Boss!   Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   An Email List Building Key: Creating A High Converting Squeeze Page   How to Improve the Trust of Your List and Double Your Profits   

What You Need to Know About Directory Submission?

Directory submission services have helped many online investors to make their presence felt around the world. The ultimate aim of this service is to attract as many visitors as possible to a particular website. This is what internet experts prefer to call traffic build up. With the best directory expert, you will be able to draw enough traffic to your site, which you can later transform into regular clientele. Building enough traffic in your website will also earn you better search engine rankings. But how do you go about this? Well, you only need to understand what link building or directory submission is.

This process is important to every website owner mainly because it does not demand a lot of financial sacrifices. It is the best, affordable and convenient SEO option. It comes with numerous opportunities of promoting your business on the internet. Certainly, this process is one of the essential factors to bear in mind whenever you are developing your online marketing strategies for your company. Notable also is the fact that there have emerged a lot of individuals and firms that claim to offer this service. The problem with this is that it is very hard for website owners to choose the right profile link builders. Nonetheless, there are a couple of important benefits that you will get when you hire these services.

Benefits of Link Building or Directory Submission

For starters, this type of submission is the commonly used method of creating back-links. You can build as many connections as possible using this service. These connections are important because they allow you to reach out to the largest number of consumers cost effectively. A website without links experiences a lot of difficulties while trying to reach out to its target audience. The following are some of the possible benefits of using this approach.

Enough back-links: The main aim of using this SEO approach is to develop more connections for your website. More links means more traffic in your site, which can easily be translated to more sales. You need to make more internet users aware of your products or services by making your website easily accessible. Search engine rankings: Many website owners know that search engine rankings matter a lot to their businesses especially now that more websites have continued to emerge. Always aim at putting your site on top of the rest because by doing so you will be drawing more traffic, which has a potential of becoming your regular consumer. Remember, online shoppers are only interested in sites that are well established and easily accessible. Therefore, make sure that your e-commerce site is readily available to the online community. How to Become Self - Employed - 3 Critical Pieces to Creating Online Wealth - Fire Your Boss!   Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   Build That List   

How to Romance Your List to Skyrocket the Growth of Your Business

Your list is the main reason your business is still alive, and as an email list and affiliate marketer, you must understand the importance of making your subscribers happy.

You may ask, how am I supposed to know if they'll be happy, or how am I going to go about it?

Well, the answer is very simple and it lies in you.

A lot of internet marketers underestimate the fact of building close and positive relationships with their list, which is very wrong. The top affiliate marketers out there are making a ''killing''because they've learnt to romance and entertain their prospects such that when they offer them anything, they'll always buy.

Let me show you a case study.

Long time ago, I subscribed to an email newsletter on dating and sex; but anytime I'm being sent an email, I always look forward to reading and in fact, I find myself buying every product that's promoted via any email they send. Why? Was it that I'm being controlled by them to buy, or could it be that they have enchanted me? Definitely no.There's nothing of such.

The only thing they did to grab my attention was their conversational speech ( The way they communicated with me in their messages). They always communicate with me as if we belong to the same family and they even went as far as sending me a birthday card during my birthday. Now tell me, why wouldn't I buy from them? It's just impossible not to buy from them.

I'm using this example so you can relate it to your business.

How caring are you to your list? Do your romance them? Do you care about what they do and the things that bother them? These things are very important if you wish to earn in the long run in your business.

Does your list trust in you enough to listen and act on every of your recommendations?

Well, if your answer is Noto this question, I'm going to help you. I'm going to show you how to romance and make your list trust in you like never before.

Here are surefire tips that will help increase the trust of your list in you and also make them buy anything you recommend to them.

Tip 1#: Work on building a close relationship-- set up an autoresponder series to achieve that.

A good way of getting your prospects trust in you is to contact them from time to time.

You can set up like 10 to 15 autoresponder series. These emails should be educative, informative, and thought provoking. They should be written around the area of the product or services you're promoting.

Make them want to sit down to read every of your messages. If you do this often, trust me, over time they will start to trust you more such that they will be willing to buy anything you offer them. I'm a testament to that.

Tip 2#: Be free like a dove--be interactive.

You can build a solid and long lasting relationship with your subscribers by interacting with them via email, social networks, and forums.

An email newsletter is not supposed to be boring or is it supposed to include in it each and every of your offer. It's very wrong. Your newsletter should flow more in a natural way.

Flowing in a friendly and conversational way will make you know what they think, what their challenges are, and what you can do to help solve them.

If you can apply all these, with time, they'll trust in you more than their friends and would buy your products like crazy...

Tip 3#: Don't make money be your main source of motivation, be a problem solved!

As an online business person, money should not be your primary goal; your primary goal should be to solve your subscriber's problem.

I was walking with a friend of mine one time last year, and he was sharing with me how he gets 5% open rate in emails to his subscribers. Disturbed, unhappy, and sad for him, I shook my head and told him that I get over ten times the CTR he gets.

How was I able to achieve that? Because instead of selling every time like most marketers do, I solve problems and make money at the same time.

As a marketer or online business person who wish to go far in business, money should not be your primary goal; instead, seek for many problems in your niche and reach out to meet those needs by providing answers to them.

Make research and use your creative skills to find answers to this problem. It's a bit difficult but if you do it, your business will skyrocket and your bank account will break forth!

It's your solution that they're interested in and if they find you as someone they can confide in, they will buy everything and almost anything you offer them.

Tip 4#: Get their opinions

Another good way to grow a close relationship with your readers is by taking surveys.

Ask them the kind of tutorial or articles they want. Get their opinions and ask them about the things that concerns them. Ask them the kind of products they're looking for and anything you feel they might need.

Keeping in touch, taking surveys, solving their challenges and building a close relationship will go a long way to make your list more profitable if you're willing or ready to start implementing them today...

Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   List Building Tips - Product Reviews   List Segmentation Strategies   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   How Your Website Can Get More Conversions   

List Building, a Simple Thing for You to Do or a Big Problem to Solve?

What is the big deal about List Building when it comes to an Online business? Do you really need a list of subscribers to your specific niche? What is your chance of success without a subscriber's list? Like it or not, these are questions that you need to find some answers if you want to take your online business to the next level.

There are ways of building your list. Each of them requires a fair amount of effort to do. In some cases it demands technical knowledge. And some is less complicated but requires more effort and your physical presence.

Let us walk through some of the ways together and discuss them in some details:

1. The free-talk and presentation attendance

If you read newspapers, you will surely see advertisements for a free and no obligation talks. Normally, you will attend this type of talk to listen what the presenter has to say. The good thing about free-talks like this is that, you are in a group sharing the same interest as you are. In other words, your target audience. So during break times, make use of the opportunity to introduce your products to some attendees. Do not be shy to give your business card to them and get their information in return. So when attending talks, always bring more business cards to give.

2. The training opportunities

The same scenario applies if you are attending related training. You can use the same techniques to have more subscribers. The break times are your golden opportunities that you should take advantage of. While gaining some knowledge during the training, you will also benefit by building your list and knowing your co-trainees.

3. Paid advertisements

This is the easiest way to publicise your business and get noticed by your potential customers. The downside is the cost involve. A simple small and rectangular ad will already cost you few hundred dollars for 24 Hours duration. In similar way, it will cost you a fortune to buy some air-time for a radio broadcast to advertise your business. The cost is even higher when you use Television broadcast.

4. The hated phone calls

No offence to those using this method to get some leads to build their list. But personally, I suggest to do this as your last resort. Why is that so? It is because this could be a little annoying to your target. Imagine yourself in the midst of something and suddenly you have to stop to answer a phone call. In some cases you do not even know who is the guy calling on you, and how he got your phone number.

5. Leaflet distribution

This is a no-brainer. You need to print an advertisement for your business in a piece of paper and distribute them in some hot pots. The hot pots in this case are places with the most of the people, like shopping malls for as an example. You can just hire somebody to the job of distributing the business leaflets for you.

6. Online opportunities

Unlike the rest of the options, this one has a bigger opportunity. This is my preference for list building! Why? Simply because you have a global reach and your ads are working 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. You can also target your audience based on your niche market. The downside of this option is that you need technical knowledge to do it on your own. If you can not do it, hire somebody to do the job for you.

Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   Build That List   

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.

Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   Build That List   An Email List Building Key: Creating A High Converting Squeeze Page   

How To Build An Email List That Works

How do you make a list that works? You focus on helping people!

Who you help and what you help with matters because you're not the best fit for helping everyone. Nor are you best at helping any one with everything.

This article gets you to take a look at your life so you can discover how to build an email list that works best for you. This article does so by helping you become more aware of your best fit"Who?" and "What?"

Business is about helping people! And your business works best when you choose discover who most appreciates your help and what they most want from you.

Step 1. Who

People often ask, "Who do you want on your list?" Skip that for right now!

Building an email list that works is about helping people. Make time to figure out who you help best.

One way to do that is to take a look at your life. Who did you help today?

Who said, "Thank you!" to you today? Your list, like your life and your business, works best when what you do truly helps people.

When you truly help people, people tend to thank you.

So who thanked you today? Write that down. Repeat tomorrow!

You'll begin to identify what's working best in your life. That's how to build an email list that works for your life and your business.

By the way, when you help people, do you know what else happens? You get paid.

You'll find it useful and important to identify who thanks you for helping them. Because these are who you're providing value to right now.

Step 2. What

People often ask, "What should you sell to your list?" Skip that for right now!

You've got stuff that's special. That's why people you help thank you.

In fact, your special touch is how you can change the world.

Identify what parts of what you do make the most difference so you can learn how to build an email list that works for you.

How? Here's how!

What do you tend to get thanked for? Start counting! Make notes. Count.

The next time someone thanks you, pay attention so you can make a note about what exactly it was you did that created the thanks.

This is how to identify what you do that people most appreciate. How to build an email list that works is about helping people with what they most want right now.

Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   An Email List Building Key: Creating A High Converting Squeeze Page   List Building Tips - Product Reviews   List Segmentation Strategies   

Using a Freebie to Build Your List? 3 Must-Know Strategies

List building 101 - use a free gift to entice people to sign up to your list.

What is a good way to go about choosing the topic? What are the potential formats that your freebie can come in? What to do so that you can save time and effort, and don't have to reinvent the wheel?

Here are a few pointers to get your creative juice flowing...

Picking a Topic:

What is your target market's biggest challenge or deepest desires? Your content should address these, and your title should tell your audience right away that this freebie can help them solve their problems. Look through your correspondence, blog post comments, or social (media) interactions - what do people always ask you? What are the topics that you discuss most frequently with others? What makes you go on and on? What information others can't get enough from you (be it the nature of the information, or the way that you present and interpret it)? These "FAQs" are great places to start. Look through your blog content - if you have a good number of posts around one theme, compile them to create your freebie. What are some of the handouts, templates or checklists that are most popular among your clients? Of course you don't want to give away the farm, but a couple of these most popular items can just be spot on.

Picking a Format:

Checklist - I like things that are succinct and help me take action. A short checklist that helps people achieve a specific goal is a great format to cut through the information overload clutter - especially if you position your services as helping people take action and achieve results. Template - templates, somewhat like checklist, emphasize on taking action. Good example is a food journal template, maybe with a special twist to record information relevant to a certain condition specific to your target market (e.g. emotional eating). Special report or eBook - delivered as PDF files, they are easy to create and accessible to everyone. If you have or are working on an ebook, you can give away one chapter as freebie (I recommend picking a chapter that focuses on either building awareness around a problem, or one that focuses on solution), and use it as an opportunity to upsell your ebook. Newsletter - most of the time, telling people "give me your email address so that I can add one more thing to your already overflowing inbox" is NOT going to do the trick. If you want to entice sign up with a newsletter alone, your hook better be damned good! E.g. you deliver exclusive perks and discounts to folks on your newsletter list (which, by the way, Slideberry does - my tribe gets special discounts or first dibs), or you are going to provide some really awesome information that people would actually pay for in every issue of your newsletter. Email series - after sign up, the freebie/information will be delivered as a series of emails. A little more work in the set up process (and you need an autoresponder function from your newsletter service provider) but the advantage is that you will be appearing in your potential clients' inbox consistently with valuable information that they requested, and you are training them to open your emails. Audio - you can leverage a free teleclass that you used to launch a product or program and re-appropriate it as a freebie. Or, you can pull together a collection of blog posts around a theme and put them in audio format. If you plan ahead when you are doing a teleclass, you can put all the content about the product or service that you are launching in one segment, and you can easily edit it out with software such as Audacity (which is free, btw). Another idea for an audio is to have someone interview you - this makes for a more interactive experience and some people find the more conversational approach appealing. Video or video series - video is great because your audience can put a face and a voice to a name - which really helps accelerate building the "like, know and trust" factor. However, if this sounds too intimidating and creating videos will significantly hold you back and delay your effort in launching your free gift, you can table it as an "enhancement" after you get your first iteration of freebie out to the world.

Information to Include:

Don't be shy about telling people about yourself - include a section about you, about your company and about the products and services that you provide. Appropriate your elevator speech, your unique selling proposition and your compelling story to start developing a relationship with your prospect. Always include a next step - what can your audience do if they find the information in the freebie super helpful, and completely resonate with your approach? Tell them about your products, programs or services - include links to your website so that they can learn more, or invite them for a discovery session. If your freebie is in printable format, include your company name and website address in the header or footer area of each and every page. Print outs get scattered, and hopefully shared - make sure people who see and like your stuff have a way to find you. Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   An Email List Building Key: Creating A High Converting Squeeze Page   List Segmentation Strategies   

Why Every Website Needs to Build a "List" Using an Opt in Box!

List Building is Truly Essential For Local Businesses

For many businesses, list building is one of the most essential ways that products and services are marketed successfully. List building marketing includes email marketing, text message marketing, newsletter marketing, and even customer loyalty programs or rewards clubs. There are many ways to entice clients and potential customers to share their contact information with you so that you can build a large list for marketing purposes. The best methods usually involve offering some type of incentive or reward to those who elect to participate in your marketing campaigns. Many list building platforms simplify the sign-up process by offering auto-responder tools that allow you to send content to those who opt-in to your various marketing campaigns.

Why this is Such a Valuable Tool?

If you are involved in internet marketing or mobile marketing, list building is the only way that your campaigns will actually work. Without a list of individuals to which to send your newsletters, coupons, MMS messages, SMS messages, emails, special offers, sale announcements and other content, there is no value in the promotion. You can have the best strategy and the best deal in the world, but if you aren't telling anyone about it then no one is going to take advantage of the offer. No matter what type of local business you own, if you begin building a list for local marketing purposes you stand a much better chance of increasing the amount of foot traffic to your establishment.

What Types of Information Should You Collect?

It is a good idea to collect whatever information you can get from your clients and potential clients. Collecting names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers is enough to begin a text message marketing campaign and an email marketing or newsletter marketing campaign. Collection of physical addresses is not as important. Traditional marketing methods such as postal mail marketing can be extremely expensive, so it isn't a big deal if a customer doesn't wish to share their home address with you. Besides, email and text message marketing are much faster anyway, with your messages being delivered almost instantaneously.

How Can You Entice Customers to Opt-In?

Create something of true value and your customers and clients won't be able to pass up the opportunity to opt-in to your marketing campaign. If you run a local restaurant, offer a 10% discount off of the check for one dinner. If you run a local nail salon, offer a free manicure with the purchase of a pedicure. Whatever your customers love, offer them a piece of that for free or for an inexpensive price and they are sure to come flocking to you. That is a wonderful way to begin list building.

Customer Loyalty Programs for List Building

Customer loyalty programs are another great idea for list building. If you have regular customers, why not thank them for their continued patronage by allowing them a chance to join an exclusive club reserved for your best customers? Once you begin engaging and connecting with your local customers by using effective list building to create your SMS marketing and email marketing campaigns you are sure to see a major return on your investment.

For a free list building analysis click the link below

Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   An Email List Building Key: Creating A High Converting Squeeze Page   List Building Tips - Product Reviews   

List Building Tips - Multi Targeting

In this installment of List Building Tips, I want to talk about multi targeting. This is something that very few people do, which makes it all the more effective if you do it correctly. I'm going to explain what multi targeting is and how to properly do it so that you can build your list in places you never expected.

First of all, what is targeting? Targeting is when you go after a very specific group of people related to your niche. For example, let's say you were into the game of Magic the Gathering, as I am. It's a collectible card game. Now, those first and last words, "collectible" and "game" should right away give you an idea of what multi targeting entails. But let me spell it out.

Let's say I was selling a book on how to play Magic the Gathering, which I actually do, and I was targeting that book at people who actually play the game or want to learn how to play the game. My initial methods would be to focus on the part of the book that teaches the rules and strategies of the game. With me so far? Good! In building my list, I would focus those efforts on the same thing. That would be ONE target market.

However, as I said, this is a "collectible" card game. So, in addition to actually "playing" the game, there are people out there who collect the cards as well or instead of actually playing the game. Yes, some people don't really care about playing and only collect the cards because many of them are worth a lot of money. An Alpha Black Lotus goes for thousands of dollars if you can get your hands on one.

So, what I would do, assuming that my book also covers the collectible aspect of the game, is create another campaign that promotes the "how to get good deals on cards" aspect and build my list accordingly. Naturally, in order to do this, you would have to make sure that your newsletter focuses equally on the collectible aspect of the game as the playable aspect of the game. Otherwise, one target market or the other might feel cheated.

This does two things. One, it gets people onto your list who you might not have gotten had you only targeted either the playing or collectible aspect. Two, it allows you to make sales off of two different markets from just one product, again, assuming that one product has something that will appeal to both markets. This is something you might want to research BEFORE you actually create the product itself. But that's another topic for another time.

And imagine if your particular product could actually appeal to several different markets. If you're selling special edition Monopoly sets, you could be appealing to those who like Monopoly, those who like special edition sets of anything, those who like board games in general and those who like collecting games of any kind. The key is to look at your product and your list and see how many different markets you can appeal to.

Done correctly, this tactic can grow your list faster and bigger than simply focusing on ONE target market.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Four Building Blocks of a High Converting Squeeze Page   The Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Ad Swap   Article Writing Secrets - Revealed: Learn How to Make a Successful Squeeze Page   An Email List Building Key: Creating A High Converting Squeeze Page   List Building Tips - Product Reviews   How to Improve the Trust of Your List and Double Your Profits   

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