How to Build a Responsive Mailing List

Build a list of subscribers. Your list is the ultimate tool for keeping in touch with your website visitors. You will hear many, many times about how having a huge list of subscribers can literally mean big income for you.

Having a huge subscriber list allows you to generate mountainous income by selling multiple times to the same customers over and over again. When you need money, all you have to do is find a quality product and endorse it to your subscribers.

With an opt-in list you can get massive high-quality traffic to any website instantly.

Having a large subscriber list also opens many doors for you. You will have greater success getting JV partners, as well as opportunities literally thrown at you.

The benefits are endless.

Create a weekly newsletter. This is a great way to start out building your list. Create a free gift package, maybe a report, an ebook, software, etc., that you can provide to your signups as incentive. Make sure your signup form is placed predominately on your site.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

1. Be creative and find ways, whatever it takes, to get customers to sign up to your list. Once a customer is on your mailing list, they’re a prospect (and hopefully a new customer) for life! Repeat sales will be the lifeblood for your business.

Promote your mailing list EVERYWHERE possible! In your email, on your website, your auctions…EVERYWHERE! Find clever and unique ways to get your list information out there! Use your own creativity and come up with some “never before seen” ways to attract new subscribers! Browse the net and see what other retailers are doing. This is so important that many websites actually setup an entire domain name just for their opt-in list!

2. Let’s assume you have a newsletter subscription box that allows your readers to sign up for your newsletter. You have a free offer for signing up, perhaps a “Special Report” that readers won’t want to miss out on so they’ll subscribe, or even a special sales promo for those on your list.

The subscription box is setup very nicely and sells effectively, getting dozens of new subscribers each day, but unfortunately once the new prospect subscribes, a simple little “Thank You For Subscribing” page shows up to confirm their subscription.

That’s very nice and all, but the greater lesson here is that this is another page on your site to SELL! Why not put another offer on your “Thank You” page as well! This is PRIME advertising space.

The offer doesn’t have to be obvious or annoying. Actually, the offer should be something extremely subtle. You don’t want to keep bombarding your visitors with popup ads or flashing neon sales promotions… one sales pitch after another. By doing that, you lose credibility and trust!

But by being a smart website owner, you do want to effectively sell at every turn and take advantage of every opportunity.

In fact, more and more I’m finding an OTO (one-time-offer) on thank you pages. This is where you can place a valuable product or service for a special, lower price, and the offer is only seen one time. You already have their attention, so make the most of it!

3. Submit your Newsletter to all the Newsletter directories you can find, there a plenty of them on the net, and some of them get really big traffic every month. If your articles are good quality and informative then newsletter and website publishers will be interested and your work could end up being published in endless newsletter editions and hundreds of websites. Not only will this increase your credibility, it could result in 1000’s more visitors, this is because at the end of all your articles which you allow others to publish will be a link back to your site. Don’t forget also if lots or your articles are published on websites then your link popularity will improve drastically. This will result in higher search engine rankings in Google and the other engines which use link popularity as a ranking factor, which or course means lots more visitors and profit for you.

Submit Articles

Write articles and submit them to article directories – Submitting your own articles to article directories has been proven time and again to generate steady, long term traffic to one’s website. Another way to take advantage of your articles is by collecting a list of ezine publishers and submit your articles to them.

This accomplishes 4 things.

1. It sets you apart from others as an expert in your field.

2. It helps give you and your site name recognition.

3. It provides many links back to your site to help increase your rankings.

4. It provides viral traffic as your articles are spread over the Internet.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

1. Article Distributors. We have just discussed submitting your articles to article directories to get links and traffic to your site by writing articles. Once you have your articles written, go to several article distributors and LET THEM pass your articles out over the Internet. These “distributors” can pass out your articles to literally thousands and thousands of article sites. A couple of these include iSnare.com and ArticleMarketer.com. You can do a search to find others.

2. Turn Your Articles into a Viral Marketing eBook
This is one the best things you can do for your business. It requires no work on your part, or little work and it will bring in results for years to come. What you are going to do is create a viral marketing ebook with articles you’ve already written and you are going to sell it for $19 with reprint rights. That means everyone who buys your book can sell it themselves or give it away.

Not only do you get sales from your books (that’s practically already written), but you get others selling and spreading it around FOR you.

Make sure you include your website info and address, and any other special information you have into the ebook!

Signature Block

A simple, little thing such as adding a signature block to your email can bring you traffic to your website. A signature block is that small block of text you see at the bottom of an email you send or receive. We’ve all seen this many times and you probably didn’t even realize that this was prewritten text that goes out with every email sent from a particular email address.

Normally, your signature block should consist of your name, your website URL and perhaps a slogan.

If you don’t have a signature block setup in your email… DO IT NOW! This is yet another form of advertising you can capitalize on very easily.

Add your signature block on all your outgoing emails, your autoresponder messages, when posting in forums, everywhere your name goes, your signature block should be there.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

I’m sure many of you have already set up a signature block for your email program and other postings, but have you set it up effectively to pre-sell? Are you getting the kind of response from your signature block that you should? Do you even know what kind of traffic your signature block brings you?

Here’s a bit more detail about what you should and shouldn’t have in your signature block if you want to generate traffic and sales.

So many times I see it…. A signature file that reads:

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank You,
John Doe
http://mywebsite.com
Phone: 888-555-5555
Fax: 866-555-5555
Email: John@/mywebsite.com
——————-

Or, you receive his email and at the bottom it reads:

************************************************** ********************
SAVE $$$$$ ON OVER 20,000 PRODUCTS ONLINE. SHOP SAFELY AND SECURELY 24/7! FROM TOOLS AND APPLIANCES… TO LAWNMOWERS AND OUTDOOR LIGHTING… WE’VE GOT IT ALL ON SALE! CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR WEBSITE!
************************************************** ********************

Well guess what? I’m not looking for a tool or lawnmower right now! Am I going to visit that website? NOPE!

Am I going to remember that website the next time I do need a tool or lawnmower? NOPE! Well then, what could he have done differently?
How about something like this?

—-

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please be sure to let us know!

Thank You,
John Doe
http://www.mywebsite.com
Phone: 888-555-5555
Fax: 866-555-5555
Email: [email protected]
——————————-
Your feedback is very important to us! If you have a comment or suggestion you feel would help us to better serve you, please send an email to [email protected]. You’ll receive a FREE gift just for helping us improve our service! Your satisfaction is very important to us.
——————————-
Is your outdoor landscaping the envy of your neighborhood? Want your neighbors wondering just how you do it? Download our FREE “DO IT YOURSELF” LANDSCAPING GUIDE TODAY!
“12 Amazing Yet Affordable Ways To Turn Your Lawn Into A Tropical Paradise In One Weekend!”
————————–
Have You Heard The BUZZ? Why Are So Many People Talking About Our Newsletter?
Simply Put, It’s Jam Packed With The Most Amazing “Tips & Tricks” Every Homeowner Needs to Know To Save Time And Money! Get Your FREE Subscription Today And You’ll Receive Your First Issue Immediately!
——————————-

Is there a chance one of these subtle ads in this “Signature Files” will grab my interest?

ABSOLUTELY! Will I sign up for John’s newsletter?

Maybe. Do I want a yard that’s the envy of the neighborhood? YES I DO!

My point here is this… with a signature block created similar to the last example, the odds of obtaining a new prospect are 1000 times higher than just trying to sell something right out of the gate. Any of the “freebies” (including the feedback email) offered in this signature block will get my name in their email list and as you already know, their autoresponder software will then kick into full gear, emailing me automatically without anyone lifting a finger.

It’s like having 1000’s of salespeople out on the net daily, and all you did was setup your system once!

Free Reports

A Free Report is great incentive for your newsletter signups or squeeze page prospects. You can take a couple of PLR (Private Label Rights) articles or an ebook, create a report from them. Just make sure it has the same subject type as your business or newsletter so you keep the interest going.

Once you have created your free report, offer it as incentive for visitors to subscribe to your newsletter.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

Go one step farther and have your Free Reports with giveaway rights. Make sure to write useful and informative content and place your name or company name in it along with your website link. This method helps spread your links virally.

The important thing here is to let your website visitors or subscribers know they can also give the reports to their members or subscribers to really boost your advertising. If you have a good report, it can spread rather quickly.

Payment Processors

When doing business online, have several different payment processors to ensure accommodations to your customers or prospects when purchasing your products or services.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

Did you know that an often overlooked way to advertise your products or content legally is through a payment processor such as PayPal, StormPay, PayDotCom or 2CheckOut.com.

Often times, when you select a payment processing company to collect your online payments, they also have a place where you can advertise your online store. This form of advertisement should be used strictly for those selling products though.

Research the payment processors you are currently using or perhaps are considering using and see what they offer as far as advertising.

Surveys

Setup a Survey on your site with a random drawing for a prize of value to get visitors and subscribers. You may even want to give everyone who participates in your survey a gift to maximize interest and subscribers.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

I recently saw a GREAT survey, because of the WAY they set it up. Find a hot topic that is related to your product or service. Ask the survey questions in such a manner as to allow your visitors discuss the pros and cons about the subject and possibly any solutions. This works well if your product or service is something that “solves a problem” or can “improve” something (doesn’t pretty much everything?).

What can happen if phrased correctly, is that the visitor can pretty much talk himself into the end result, which is purchasing your product or service.

Let me give you an example.

Without knowing what the product or service was, I visited a site that had a survey. If I filled it out, I got something really good (a product, report, etc.).

I was asked specific questions as to how often I got spam emails, viruses, junk emails, etc.; what I did about it, how hard it was to send and receive email, etc. I was also asked what other problems it caused me, such as extra time and effort, and what could be done to improve this situation. They made me pretty much THINK about all the BAD things connected with spam and junk emails, etc. – and having to write them all down just reinforced them.

When I was through, the ending survey brought me to a page about a new kind of email program that prevented pretty much everything I just wrote about. Was I ready to purchase their product?

YOU BET! I had already TALKED MYSELF into it! I don’t think you can “pre-qualify” someone any better than that! After discussing the problems, it’s great to offer a solution!

Likewise, you may want to discuss how great something is and the positive sides of it. It will work pretty much the same way. Since they have thought and written about how great a particular subject is, they are pretty much apt to purchase a similar product or service after having been reminded.

Squeeze Pages

Set up a squeeze page system to get subscribers by offering a report, ebook, etc. as incentive. Make it a short page, very much to the point without giving anything away except information to peak the visitor’s interest and curiosity.

The information and signup form should all be above the fold (meaning the top half of the webpage – without having to scroll down).

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

Some marketers are putting up a squeeze page BEFORE you even get to their main page. They offer enticing information that you can only access AFTER you put your name and email information in their subscribe box. They may say something like, “Brand new software solves all your problems concerning _______! Sign up here to find out more.” Then after visitors enter their signup information, they are directed to the “Sales Page.” (Yes, their SALES PAGE!)

There are some pros and cons with using a system like this. Some people may not opt-in when they aren’t even sure WHAT the site is about yet or without any information about the site owners. So you may lose subscribers. However, if you are creative enough and enticing enough to spark their curiosity and interest, you may do very well. And I’m sure you will have much more success if you do state that they can opt-out at any time, so they don’t feel trapped into it.

Free Giveaways

Free Giveaways are becoming pretty popular these days. It will really pay off if you can sign up as a gift provider, or JV (Joint Venture) Partner. But you must have your own product and need to be able to give Master Resell Rights or sometimes Private Label Rights along with it. If you can do this, you can build a huge list of prospects FAST! It is definitely worth the time and effort to create a product in order to take advantage of this method.

Make sure to check each program’s rules, restrictions and requirements. Some require that you have a list of at least 1,000 subscribers or more before you can become a contributor. There may also be other requirements as well.

But if you have a small list and would like to start building it, find a giveaway that doesn’t have a list requirement. Once you join a couple of these, you can build your list bigger and then qualify for the other giveaways with those big list requirements.

Also remember that you will have to advertise the giveaway program as a whole to ensure the success of the program.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

1. Another lucrative add-on to this is to attach an OTO (one-time-offer) when they are signing up for your giveaway. This is where you can place a valuable product or service for a special, lower price. You already have their attention, so make the most of it! Also, to improve your sales, try to connect this product or service to the free giveaway item, as your prospect is obviously already interested in this area.

2. You can also add in your “readme” file (where you explain the rights, etc.) another “Bonus” which could go to a different subscriber list you have or other products/services you have. This way you can get that extra mile for your efforts. This is also a good thing to do to for your newsletter signup in case there are any giveaways that bypass your signup form and let members go directly to your download product. It’s just extra protection that you ARE getting subscribers to your newsletter or list.

Classifieds and Safelists

Advertise everywhere you can. Classifieds and safelists, among other of these types of advertising places, can still get you traffic. They may not be as effective as they once were, but they are still around and plentiful. Besides, many successful marketers will tell you that you should always advertise using many different means and methods. The old “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” type of thing.

Although there are probably many thousands or more of these types of programs, there are many free submitters that can help save you time and effort advertising this way.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

Build YOUR OWN classifieds, safelists, FFA, etc. sites. Having a website where others can advertise provides a great service – one everyone with an online business needs. You can’t have TOO many places to advertise. But the trick here is that while others are placing their ads and links, getting them out to the world, hoping to get hits and sales… YOU get every single member’s CONTACT email information (not their AD email address – which is usually worthless).

They know that they will receive notices from you (make sure that is VERY obvious on your website), in order for them to use your services, whether it’s free or paid.

In fact, to help protect yourself further, on your emails to them, put a disclaimer statement right at the very beginning where they can’t miss it, stating that they signed up at your site and have agreed to receive this message. Then go with your regular message after that.

These types of sites also have built in messages that go out to the members automatically, normally with a copy of their ad they posted or sent, etc. Use the top portion of these emails to place a “top sponsor” type ad, along with the disclaimer statement. Anytime you want to change the ad, depending on what you are currently promoting, just go in and change it in the admin back office.

This is a “set it and forget it” type method and it works great! Then all you have to do is go in once in a while and do a big mailout of all members for any solo ad you want (don’t forget the disclaimer statement on the top).

These days, it’s really EASY getting a script for any of these types of sites and there are many free ones, for example: http://www.submitad.com . It doesn’t take much to set them up either. You can get your site added to many of these types of directories that lists classifieds, safelists, etc.

Affiliate Program

Start an affiliate program! Starting an affiliate program is one of the greatest ways to get high quality traffic to your website. Almost every successful business online has got an affiliate program.

Not only do you have members for your program, but you also have them as part of your list as well. On top of that, affiliates are like having your own army of recruiters because it pays for them to refer others to YOUR program.

Just make sure you keep them motivated!

They are also more apt to read your messages and emails because they have already signed up with you and want to keep up with the program and news you have for them.

*** Turn it up a notch! ***

Once you have an affiliate program up and running and have members, you can joint venture with other affiliate owners. You can do cross-advertising, which can help both of the programs by increasing memberships.

The more successful your affiliate program is the better the bargaining position you will have with others on the Internet. The bigger your affiliate program, the more offers and opportunities you will have as you will have more clout! People will actually seek you out for their business proposals.

Reciprocal Linking

Exchanging links with websites can generate heavy traffic to your website. You can either request for the exchange of links the traditional way by emailing the owner of a website, or setup a link exchange script on your own website.

ONE STEP BEYOND:

1. The secrets of MySpace

There are reports circulating that www.myspace.com is generating 2 ÃƔÃ’Ò½ times the amount of traffic that Google is acquiring. This is a mistaken report that grew out of proportions. The real fact is that www.myspace.com is using 2 ÃƔÃ’Ò½ times the bandwidth of Google, given the many exciting, but bandwidth-hungry features of this website.

Nonetheless, there is no denying the fact that MySpace is one of the MOST visited websites today.

MySpace is a community/dating website that allows people to create their own profiles and connect to other people to build their own virtual network. It’s quite easy to build your network in this community. People claim that they are able to gain 1,500 contacts within two weeks.

Now, how could these statistics help you generate massive traffic for your own website?

Simple.

Create a MySpace profile and build your network. It doesn’t require much effort. There are already quite a number of services out there that could even do the job for you.

Include your main website’s link in your profile page. This would give you a back link on a page that has a very high Page Rank ( PR ), which is excellent to boost your website’s own PR . For the uninitiated, a high PR would mean a higher placement in search engine results, hence a greater volume of traffic for your website.

But this isn’t enough.

MySpace also has a community billboard feature. If you’d post there, your message would appear in the profiles of all your contacts. Simply include your link in your message. Imagine if you have 20,000 contacts. You could potentially garner 20,000 visitors with just one message. Additionally, you’d have 20,000 back links pointing to your main website! This is a wonderful opportunity to increase your link popularity!

This MySpace route is something that has yet to be exploited. In fact, most of the internet marketing superstars have yet to discover this approach.

Connecting With CraigsList

The website www.craigslist.com is an online classified ads center dedicated to employment opportunities. However, it accepts all manners of advertisements.

For free, at that!

What does this mean?

Well, Craigslist is a PR7 website. Simply choose the category most appropriate for the subject of your website and place an advertisement that would invite readers to visit your web pages.

They don’t have to click on the link. They don’t have to visit your website.

Having your link in a PR7 website is enough to spike up your own website’s Page Rank! Again, this means a higher position in search engine results pages, and more organic traffic for your online business.

USING CONTESTS TO PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE

Contests can come in many forms, and the possible mechanics, really, are only limited by your imagination. The fact is, there is so much you could do with contests to arouse the interests of prospective visitors and eventually win their attention.

Before we discuss some contest suggestions, let us first take a look at the many uses of contests for your promotional needs.

Contests can help build your mailing list. If you’re running a raffle, or a sweepstakes, for example, you could make their subscription their entry form. They would have to regularly check the emails you will send so that they may be informed if they have won or not, and this would likewise ensure that your business messages would be read.

Contests can also attract some visitors without having them subscribe. You could use the built-in counter to determine who would eventually win. For example, prizes can be awarded to the 6,000th visitors of your website.

Contests are also excellent ways to make your visitors write content for you. Content is king in the World Wide Web, as we all know, and you could sponsor a contest for the best-written article on a certain topic, with the condition that you would be allowed to publish the same in your website. You won’t have to write your own content or hire an expensive freelancer then. Your visitors would do the work for you, though not all of them are promised to win!

If you’re trying to build up your forum, there’s no better way to compel your members to make quality posts than by enticing them with the promise of rewards. Run a contest for the best post in every category and chances are, you will have for your business a forum bustling with activity!

Contests can most definitely spark up a level of activity on your website just like that. There is nothing wrong with the concept, but understandably, since you would have to deal with people from all around the world, execution can be problematic. Please consider the following guidelines in employing any contests you have in mind.

Provide gifts that can be downloadable. These should be digital products of good value, so that you won’t have to spend for expensive shipping charges.

If you’re planning to run a raffle or a sweepstakes, you could make their subscription or their counter number as the basis for their selection as winners.

If you’re running a contest that needs judging, try to get the help of established people in the industry to help you come up with a winner to avoid any partiality issues that might be brought up.

Come up with a clear set of rules that would be available for your would-be participants to assure them that everything would be fair and equitable.

Disqualify the people who are close to you to avoid any issues of partiality that might be brought up.

Contests are excellent ways to promote your website. But you would also have to be concerned about how to sustain their interests once the same is over. A good quality website offering premium and unique information would be able to do the trick. Just treat contests as advertising vehicles, and allow the strength of your website to do the rest.

TESTIMONIALS

I’m sure that you have purchased products and services on the Internet. If you truly like a product and use it (you should be honest about this) and the owners have a place for testimonials, consider writing one.

Make sure you give the benefits of how that product or service has helped you, how easy or thorough the product or service was to use, how it has helped you or your business, etc.

If your testimonial is accepted, most sites will publish it in their webpages with your name and website address.

This not only helps get you a link back to your site (good for search engines), but it is free advertising and gets your name and site out there for branding purposes.

YOUR CUSTOMERS

Make sure that anyone who has purchased anything from you, a product or service, etc., is on your list. A big incentive to get and stay on your list would be to receive news about updates, upgrades, etc. concerning their product or service. Since they have already spent their money, you KNOW they want to make sure they get everything coming to them and more. This is a powerful incentive to get and keep them on your list.

EVERYTHING’S A BILLBOARD

Are you taking advantage of EVERY space available? How about those “thank you” pages or the “thanks for confirming” pages? Did you put anything special on those to sell, subscribe, etc.?? One-Time-Offers as well as any “Specials” would be a GREAT place for them.

MULTIPLE LISTS

Do you have more than one list? You could start lists for more niche areas to ensure the maximum potential for signups. Maybe a visitor isn’t interested in subject A, but would be in subject B. Offer many different areas of signups.

Also, you could take your main area of products or services and split up the different benefits or features and create a whole subject matter based on that one thing. Do that for each benefit and you will have many different subject areas AND they will all be connected to your main product or service.


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