Own List or Bought List – Which is Better?

There are two basic varieties of email projects that can be used to establish a decent income online.  One is the email campaign that uses the list you procured online and has been mailed to countless consumers.  That list is quite anesthetized, tends to generate spam complaints, and, although it may generate a very low return, it is a nightmare!

The other is the e-mail campaign that uses your own, personally developed list, and is only mailed as often as you select.  That list is hugely responsive, doesn’t promote spam complaints, and results in a substantial return.

So which to choose? – Your own list, of course.  But what if you do not have your own list?  Create one.  That’s right; assemble your very own list.

How can you do that?

1) It’s vital you have a web site and an autoresponder.  Put a web form on one page of your web site (the page where you send traffic) and submit those leads to your autoresponder.

2) Offer a free ebook or other useful give-away to induce visitors to subscribe to your list.

3) Send your subscribers only very useful information.  Develop a relationship with your subscribers.  Bet them to look forward to your emails so they will open them gladly, and read them gladly, and respond…gladly!

This seems very simple to do, and it is.  Too many people try to over complicate things and use 200 proven steps to get the job done.  Why use 200 steps when 3 or 4 will work just fine?

Once you have constructed a relationship with your email list, you can begin to promote your product, web site, or whatever else you have that earns you your online income.

But you must develop the relationship first.

Which would you prefer?  To send an email to your small, responsive list of subscribers and receive a healthy response, or send an email to a large, unresponsive list that comes complete with multiple spam complaints.

I don’t even think the question needs an answer as it is as clear as the nose on your face. But just incase you actually did miss it……..

Your own list will ALWAYS win hands down!

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Using A Squeeze Page To Boost Your List Size.

If you’ve been on the net for for a long time, you have discovered that one of the keys to success is in your email list.  You can have a magnificent website, a great product/service or affiliate connections, and lots of website traffic, and still not make very much money online.  And that’s what you’re here to do, right?

Specialists reveal to us that it takes as many as 7-10 connections with a new prospective prospect before the typical one will buy.  What that means is that if you are just delivering visitors to your internet site without including that traffic to your email list, you are possibly burning off most of the business you could be bringing in.

Think about it this way.  If your web site converts at 1% and the average buyer purchases after the 7th contact, you are perhaps losing three to four sales for every one you get.  That 1% conversion rate should probably be 3, 4, or even 5percent.

How to do it?  Use a squeeze page as an entry page into your site.  What that means is that in order for your site traffic to get into your site, they must furnish you with their email address and name.  In exchange, you will send them a free ebook or free newsletter or free report, etc.

Sure, you will lose a few who will not offer their data, but you should grab info from the majority of the traffic you get.  This way you can email them several times until they order, rather than the one-shot opportunity you get with your current web page.

So how do you turn this list into a super highly responsive list?

You must send them very useful and free information the first few mailings, and then send useful information regularly forever after that. Don’t send them a blatant sales message every contact you have with them.  Give them several good reasons to continue to open your email.  If they don’t open your mail, they will not purchase through your email campaign.

I know that sounds basic and common sense, but I think we have all probably made a few silly blunders in our internet marketing.  In our hotheadedness to get a person to order something, we’re forever bombarding our list with sales offers.  Sure, you have to do it to get sales, but if you choose to keep your list responsive, you must send them useful info; substance they can apply straight away.

Get them used to clicking through links in your emails.  Offer free tools, but they have to click through to get them.  Why?  It gets them comfy with your emails and with clicking.  Then when you have a free trial you want to expose them to, they will click through on that, and you will make profit.

This is a no-brainer—but it does not always happen—use the same sent-from email address on all your e-mail.  Why?  Because people open mail from YOU because they like and trust YOU.  If they do not recognize your email address they will not open your email.

Test everything you do.

Test three things particularly.

1)  What’s the open rate of your email given a specific type of headline?

2)  What’s the click-through rate of your email given a style of letter?

3)  What’s the open rate of the following email?

That last one is pretty important.  If your reader reads a shit email  from you, they may be less likely to open the next one from you.  You must study your list and your list dynamics to create responsive list.

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How responsive is your email list?

Your email list is only as responsive as the relationship that you’ve built with it.  Do your emails generally comprise of strong, educational advice, or are they miserable attempts to sell something every time you mail?

The people on your email list are seeking for high-quality subject matter, or they would not have subscribed to your list.  They are also screening you for quality.  If your emails are terrible and grammatically poor and contain very little fresh information, your followers will simply assume that your product is lousy, grammatically poor and has little fresh information.

Your autoresponder sequence should be busting with informative emails packed with useful gems that a reader can apply straight away, without purchasing your product.  Once they apply some of your ideas, and they see that they work or make sense, they will feel much more comfortable sending you money for your initial product.

So how do you make your email list responsive?

1.  Write intelligently.  You are the knowledgeable in the topic about which you write, that is why they are reading your emails.

2.  Write comfortably.  Your list should be able to examine the letter with the same ease that they might be discussing your product or the subject of the email in their office with a cup of tea. The language should not be artificial or awkward; it should basically be easy to browse.

3.  Don’t try to sell in every paragraph.  Feel free to send an email or two with useful information and merely a link to your website.  You don’t have to sell them on your product everyday.  Let them appreciate reading your letter.  Think about some of the letters you read daily.  Are they long-winded sales pitches, or are they informative?

4.  Be sure to send a sufficient number of emails.  When you are first getting to know your client, and they have the optimum level of interest, mail more frequently, maybe 3-5 times per week.  Once you have developed a partnership and they will recognize you by your email or name, you can drop down in frequency.  Keep in mind that if you have truly informative emails that add to their knowledge base, you can generally mail more often.  If you are sending out sales letters every other day, you will be invited to unsubscribe them in a hurry!  So use good judgment here.

5.  Examine it and ask yourself what you would do if you received that email in your inbox.  Would you read it, click through from it, delete it, or unsubscribe from the list?

6.  Do not forget that your reader is a human being, not an email inbox.  Be personal.  Be respectful.  Treat them like you want to be treated–remember the “golden rule”?–it works!

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How to Build a Big List Using Social Networking

[MySpace.com - Facebook.com - LinkedIn.com - Friendster.com - Twitter.com]

You’ve likely heard some of these sites and possibly you’ve taken a look at some of their home pages or even signed up for a free account. But tell me this:

Are you generating a ton of qualified leads using these sites yet?

If you’re not pulling in traffic using these sites, you’re certainly not alone.  Plenty of marketers haven’t even touched the social networking scene yet. And many of those that have ventured out into this relatively new territory aren’t matching their strategy or their message to the medium.

You see, you can’t just post a profile on MySpace and talk TO your audience.

These are social networking sites, meaning you talk WITH your audience. In other words, it’s a two-way conversation. And if you try to make it into a static, one-way conversation, you’ll find very few people interested in what you have to say.

To that end, here’s what you need to do to start making the most out of social networking sites:

1) Join and Set Up Your Profile

Stay away from setting up a jumbled profile with lots of images, colors and fonts that make it hard to read.
If people have to struggle to read it, they won’t. And you’ll lose a potential prospect.

On the flip side, don’t make your profile into a “clinical white” corporate-type site. People don’t visit other people’s profiles to read about companies. If they want to look at a business page at all, it’s because they want to find solutions to their problems.

In other words, your profile isn’t really about you. It’s about your prospect.

2) Contribute Good Content

Social networking sites aren’t for blasting out one commercial message after another. And in fact, doing so can get you banned.

However, you can use these sites to establish yourself as an expert in your niche, as well as to attract qualified leads to your site. And to do that, you need to contribute good content on your social networking blog, on the forums and elsewhere on the site as appropriate.

Doing so starts the conversation with like-minded others – and networking is the key to using these sites successfully.

3) Start Now

Today is the time to get started. And that’s because social networking is not only hot today, it’s the future of the web. We’re seeing this evolution right now – and if you start using social
networking sites immediately, you’ll be rewarded handsomely in new customers, new leads, new sales … and plenty of money!

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How important is a list?

How important is a list, your very own personalized list, when you are building an on-line business?

Think about this one.  Are you more likely to open an email that has a sender’s email address and name that you identify or a sender’s email address and name that you do not?

If you subscribe to a newsletter and you are given an informative newsletter once a week or every few days, are you more or less likely to open an email from the sender of that newsletter than one from someone you don’t know?

That is for sure – and other people online behave much as you do.

So if you grow a list of your own, sending emails to subscribers who recognize your return email address as one that sends educational useful advice, will your emails be opened at a stronger rate than they would if you bought a “safelist” or rented someone else’s list?

I think the answer should be clear.  Your own list wins every time.

Keep in mind, when you procure a list, it is most probably being mooted to numerous others.

So the recipient not only gets your email but 30 or 50 others, all from email addresses they do not trust.

You must grow your own list.

So how do you do it?

At the very least, you need a web site.  It does not have to be anything elaborate, just a landing page for interested individuals, where you will put your opt-in script.  There are plenty of zero cost ones out there that you can just fill in the blanks.  I recommend this do it yourself website builder.  It really is point and go.

You must have an autoresponder account. You will use the autoresponder account to supply messages that help you build a association with your potential prospects.

Your emails must be informative and useful in order to keep them getting read.  If you give useful and informative material, people will look forward to your email as often as you send it.  If you do not provide useful information, your emails will not get read.

You must have perseverance.  You will not build a huge list over night.  But as you grow your list, you will be putting together a business.  A long-term business, with repeat buyers.

One note to the sensible:  Be sure you use the “double opt-in” feature you will receive with your autoresponder.  This ensures that anyone who opts in to your list will have to click through to a confirmation link before they receive any emails from you.  This helps protect you from SPAM complaints.

A word of warning to those who really want to buy a “safelist” and simply email your offer to the email addresses on that list.  Is it worth a one-time mailing to get your web site suspended for spam activity?

Don’t do it!

Build your own high-quality list and cultivate a strong, long-term relationship with those leads.

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