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Opt-In List Building
Introduction
You have probably been to several
websites that have a box that ask you to enter your name and email
address. When you fill this box in, you’re adding your name and
email to somebody’s opt-in list. This is one of several ways to
build your lists. These lists allow you to then market to your past
traffic through email marketing.
Now, if you think that there aren’t
many people on email – thing again. Email marketing is one of the
most popular and effect ways to build a list and market to people. In fact, most people have at the very least a free email that they
check occasionally. There are even more people who check their email
at least every ten minutes. In fact, in this day and age, a person
without an email address is like a person who doesn’t have a home.
Many people are also afraid of making
people angry by sending them newsletters. They are also afraid of
being accused of sending spam. Well, this is where the “opt-in”
part comes in. You are asking people for permission to market to
them by having them fill out the form. If they know that they will
be getting a monthly newsletter when they put in their information,
then you are free to market and email to them. Now, you do need to
be sure to include an unsubscribe option at the bottom of your
newsletters in case people decide they don’t want to receive it
anymore.
The great thing about these lists is
that you know these people are interested in what you have to offer. They have been to your site, they have seen what you are all about
and they have signed up to receive more information and updates. By
utilizing opt-in lists, you are opening yourself up to a world of
people who are potential customers and that is what it’s all about.
In this eBook, you will learn the
various different ways that you can build your lists and what you can
do with them.
It’s All in Your Email
Email has taken the world over. Individuals and people are utilizing email on a daily basis and most
prefer it over postal mail. This is for a few obvious reasons such
as it’s free and you don’t have to pay postage, it’s much more
reliable than the post office and there are several services that
allow you to send even the largest files much more quickly. Most
servers are able to send emails in less than 5 seconds. Because of
the flexibility of email, you can see why people are using it on a
daily basis whether it is their personal email or work email.
Marketing promotions are utilizing
email as well. You can send newsletters, promotions and a variety of
other informational products. So, you may be wondering, how exactly
you come up with all these names and email addresses. That’s where
the opt-in list comes in.
An opt-in list is essentially a list of
emails that you can send your marketing materials to. Now, getting a
whole bunch of emails is easy, but you also want to be able to target
your marketing to the right group. You wouldn’t want to send
cosmetic coupons to a bunch of men and you wouldn’t want to send
tool coupons to a bunch of women. A good list will also provide you
with a profile of the email address owner so that you can easily
target your promotions to your target audience.
There are several ways that you can
begin to develop a list that is targeted and give you all the
information to ensure that your promotions are as successful as
possible.
Create Your Website
Obviously, if you’re selling a
product or service online, then you’re going to need a website. You don’t have to go through the expense of having your site
professionally designed, as there are several website services that
offer hosting and a website designer as well. These have advanced
drastically since their inception and you will be able to create a
very nice website with them.
If you have some experience with HTML,
you can use Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage and even
Microsoft Word to develop a simple HTML site as well. If you are
going to be using FrontPage, you will need to ensure that your web
host offers FrontPage extensions so that your forms will work. You
may also have to download a special program to read your forms as
well. On your website, you are going to want to be sure to have a
guestbook where people can leave you comments and their contact
information.
On your website, you are going to want
to have an opt-in form. In this form you are going to request the
person’s name, their email address and a short description of their
business. This will help you target your lists. You are also going
to want to have a lot of good content. Good and useful content will
attract the search engines to your site and will help you get indexed
in them.
With a website comes website promotion.
This is important because you need to generate traffic to your
website so that people can sign up on your list. By promoting your
site properly you will be able to increase your chances of attracting
people to opt-in to your newsletter or other promotions. This means
you will also need to look into traffic generation techniques such as
writing articles over subject that relate to yours. You can then
provide a link to your website in your articles so that people will
be driven to learn more by going to your website and signing up on
your list.
With your opt-in, you also need to
provide an opt-out. Most people are going to want to opt-out
eventually, and this allows them to have that out. People are also
often very leery if they do not see a way to unsubscribe and they are
less likely to sign up if they don’t see that they can get out
somewhere down the road.
In an effort to keep promoting, you can
also look for other people who would like to share in on your list. This allows you to share your list and split the expenses associated
with the list. It is best to have a partner who has a business that
is similar to your own. This will allow you both to profit for the
lists.
You should never forget about the
offline list building options that are available as well. You can do
small supermarket raffles or similar sign-ups for prizes at events. Simply have a field for an email address and you have just received
permission to email these people with your future promotions.
In most cases, you are going to know
that the people who signed up on your list are interested in what you
have to sell. By obtaining lists of people who are interested in
your products or services, you are opening yourself up to a word of
boosted sales.
Building Your Lists – 5 Must Do’s
Online marketing is huge and most
people are on the Internet, so it is safe to say that the Internet is
one of the best places to market your business. There are several
ways to build an opt-in list, but you want to ensure that people are
interested in your products. This means that there are several
things that you need to do on your website to ensure that you are
setting yourself up for success.
-
Set
Up a Web Form on Your Site
Place
this form on the side of your site or directly at the end of your
homepage’s content. If a person is reading through your site and
they see something they are interested in, they are most likely going
to go ahead and sign-up. A good form is simple. It should provide a
short statement about your newsletter and have a call to action. You
should also tell them that they will be kept updated about the site
and then provide an area for their name and email address. The form
will automatically save and the send you the information. This is by
far the most popular way to build a website opt-in list.
-
Ensure
that Your Website is Impressive
Your
website, especially the homepage, needs to be impressive. You will
want to have content that is well-written and useful. You also want
to let people know what your site or business is all about. Your
website should also be simple and not overwhelming. You also don’t
want to overdo it with Flash graphics or photos that take a long time
to load. The longer they take to load, the faster your visitor will
leave.
-
Provide
a Useful Service or Product
If
your service or product is useful, then you are more than likely
going to make a sale. You are also likely going to get return
customers as well. Your customers are also more than likely going to
recommend your website to someone else if they are happy with your
service as well. As your clientele grows, so will your list. The
more members you have on your list, the more likely you are going to
have people take advantage of your offers in your newsletters and
promotions.
-
Keep
Your List Clean
Your
list should be free of profanity, nudity and anything else that a
child should not see. You never know who will be checking the email
in a household. You also do not want to send out something that is
going to betray your customer’s trust.
Keep
Your List Private
People
hate receiving spam email. This means that you should never share
your list with someone who is going to spam your list and send out
trash to your clients. This will make your customers angry and it
won’t be long until your list has unsubscribed.
Easy Ways to Ensure Your List is Profitable
Many people have tried to start lists
and failed. However, even if you have failed in the past you can
rejuvenate your list and start anew. Whether you have had little
success in the past or if you are just starting, you can follow these
simple tips to get your list up and going.
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It’s
All About Trust
It
really is all about trust. People tend to be wary of things on the
Internet. They don’t want to get viruses, but they also want to
explore things that will be helpful to them. Provide them with good
and useful information on your website to start with. It’s always
best if your business is over something that you know well and that
you can write about easily. Be sure that you look like a credible
and professional business, and people are likely to purchase your
products and sign up on your lists.
You
can also gain trust by becoming friends with your visitors. Implement a forum on your website that will allow you to talk and
chat with people. They will also allow you to learn more about your
customer’s wants and needs. At the same time, you can join other
forums and attract people to your site.
The
money will come when people know you and you show you are
trustworthy. You need to hold up your end of the deal as well by
providing your customers with products that are useful and worth
their money.
-
Offer
a Service that People Need or Desire
If
you are able to meet the people who are interested in your website
and what you have to offer, then you will be able to provide a
service or product that people need or want. It is said that people
come to the Internet for one of two things – information and to
shop. If you can provide both, then you are going to have a very
useful site! Invest your time and money in providing excellent
service, products and information. If you do this, then people are
going to be interested in learning more about you and sign up on your
list.
-
Become
Friends with Others Who Have Been Successful
If
you are in the process of building a successful list, it never hurts
to learn from others who have been successful. Do some social
networking and become friends with those who have become successful
and remain successful. There is nothing better than first hand
information.
Gaining the Trust You Need
In order to be successful with your
list, one of the first things you need to do is gain the trust of
your customers. There are tons of services that have been set up to
keep email boxes spam free. This means that you need to set up your
list so that your customers are willing to allow your email
promotions to come directly to their inbox. At the same time, they
are going to expect to receive emails on what your website is about. They are going to want to receive new information and updates on the
products or services that they are interested in and it is up to you
to hold up that end of the deal.
When your customers trust you, they
will be willing to buy from you and your sales will see a boost. Because you are providing a useful service, people will be more than
willing to allow your email promotions to come through to their
inbox. This ensures that your email recipients are able to read and
view what you have sent them without it being caught in a spam box. In order to ensure that your customers trust you, then you need to do
the following:
-
Show
that you are legitimate. Nobody wants to buy from a site they
think is a scam. As a website business you need to show that you
are legitimate. There are several ways that you can do this. For
example, you can sign up on verification services and offer security
for purchases. You can also offer live customer service or at least
online customer service. These types of systems show people that
you are trustworthy and you're not going to be scamming them out of
their hard earned money.
-
Show
your customers you are credible and professional. Provide your
customers with good, solid knowledge. You want to show people that
you know what you’re talking about. If you have credentials in a
field, ensure that they are prominently displayed. You can also
provide them with helpful hints, articles and other resources to
help them out. Remember, people are often on the Internet simply
looking for useful information. If you can provide this, they will
be happy and will be likely to sign up on your newsletter if they
feel you will keep providing them with information.
-
Don’t
be too salesy. Too much hype can work against you. There are
some hardcore sales letters out there, but for the most part, the
service or product should be able to sell itself. If you do hype up
your products, then you need to at least provide some sort of
guarantee. The more satisfied customers you get from a simple
service or product that sells itself, the more likely you are going
to find that people will trust you and recommend you. Those people
are then likely to go to your site, sign up on your list and look
forward to the same good service you provided their friend or family
member. This means that you need to gain their trust and keep it by
providing consistency in your services.
Making Money
One of the most important things to
remember is that your list will be useless if the people on it are
not responsive. At the same time, you are going to need to lure them
into buying your products as well. You can do this through a variety
of ways.
-
Use
advertisements on your newsletters and promotions that have a call
to action. Place banners and ads on the newsletters. In fact, if
you have a popular newsletter or website, you may have people
wanting to purchase advertising space in your newsletters. You can
sell this space as a way to cover the expenses of running the list
and some companies may also provide you with a commission.
-
Place
affiliate advertisements on your newsletters. Whenever someone buys
a product through your affiliates, you will make a commission off of
the sale.
-
Sell
products from other sites for a commission. Provide your readers
with descriptions, articles and photos of the product. If the
product sells, you get a cut.
-
Sell
eBooks or other information on your newsletter. Manuals and how-to
books are in huge demand and people love them. Your products should
be directly related to the type of business you are running.
-
Keep
building your list. Find other ways to get people to sign up for
your list. The more people you get on your list the more you will
be able to sell.
Leads, Leads and More Leads
When you are building a list it is all
about quality and not quantity. Sure, you can send out a newsletter
every day, but soon people are simply going to begin deleting your
emails. This is because they are being solicited everyday and they
get tired of that very quickly. What you accomplish by doing this is
you create a list that is unresponsive and that is not how you are
going to make any money. Plus, you will eventually have a list with
no emails on it!
The key is responsiveness. It is much
better to have a list that has 2,000 responsive customers than a list
with 20,000 names and no responses. Once you begin building your
list, you will begin making sales if they are responsive and that
will begin to earn you money on a weekly basis. Now, you may be
wondering how you are supposed to get these responsive people. The
answer is leads. No lead is a bad lead, although several Internet
marketing gurus will deny that. They do agree, however, that the
money is in the list.
Why Do You Need Leads?
You need leads to make money! You need
people on your list to buy your products! Now, there are several
different types of leads and we will explore those here.
Low Grade Leads
These are leads that you purchase
through a company. You can pay $35 and receive 20,000 names. Now,
the chances of those emails being good and those people being
interested in your services are pretty slim. Also, even if you are
spam compliant, you are probably going to get spam complaints on your
emails. What does this mean? This means you need to avoid these
companies the same way you avoid a can of spam. They do nothing but
spell trouble for your list.
Now, there are good lead companies that
you may consider. You may get a few spam complaints, but nothing
that is going to put you out of business. Besides, if they’re not
interested, you do provide them an out. These companies get leads
from running networks of free sites and classified sites. In order
to place free ads, they have to provide their email address. These
people are usually interested in some sort of product you have to
sell if they are in your niche.
Good Leads
These are leads those that you can get
through Free Ad Programs, Co-Opt Programs and Giveaway sites. These
are better than those that you get from companies because they have
signed up through your squeeze page. Usually, you offer some sort of
free gift if they sign up. The bad thing is that they usually
unsubscribe from your list after they receive the free gift. But,
you will still usually retain some interested folk.
The Best Leads
These leads are those that you receive
through paid advertising websites. You can use sites such as Google
AdWords or Overture to obtain these leads. They are targeted leads
and they are usually in response to your advertisements, which means
that there is some interest in your products there. These are also
the most expensive leads you will get because these services are not
cheap and you will need to be prepared to invest in this type of
advertising. However, they are the best leads that you can get and
worth their weight in gold.
Landing Pages and Squeeze Pages
Now, you have probably heard of these
things, but you may not have the slightest idea what they are
exactly. These are perhaps some of the most important pages you can
have on your website. These are the pages that help to generate your
good leads. This where you get the contact information of interested
parties and add them to your autoresponder.
These are sales pages, so you have to
sell yourself. This is very important and there are two different
categories that these fall under.
Gift Pages
These are pages where you offer a gift
to sign up on your newsletter or mailing list. You will provide some
sort of free item. For example, if you are selling an eBook you may
provide them with a free chapter. If you are selling software, you
may provide them with a trial version. The key is that they have to
sign up for your newsletter in order to receive this free gift. Now,
some of these people will only use you for your free gift and then
unsubscribe, but if your gift is really good then they are more than
likely going to stay on your list. Now, in order to keep people on
your list, you need to keep selling yourself in all of your
newsletters.
The Benefits Page
With this type of sales page you will
sell the benefits of being a subscriber to your newsletter. You will
tell your potential customers what exactly they will receive for
joining your list. This is also where you will want to sell
yourself. You are going to want to tell people two things on this
type of sales page:
-
What
you can provide the reader
-
Why
they should listen to you
On this type of page you have to bring
out all the stops and really sell. This is one of the hardest pages
to produce because you have to be salesy. However, if they are done
right they will bring you the best prospects.
Combining the Two
Now, there are some people who are able
to successfully combine these two types of pages. You really sell
yourself and get people to sign up and for signing up they also
receive your free gift.
When you are setting up your pages and
sending out your newsletters, don’t be afraid to get personal with
them. Let them know who you are, what your qualifications are and
how you got involved in your business. You can even tell them what
your goals are and people are really going to eat it up. The more
that you are able to build trust in your list members, the more money
you will be able to make. They will feel as though they are buying
from a friend rather than just some stranger who owns the list.
Finding Targeted Subscribers
After you have set up a list, you need
to begin narrowing it down to targeted visitors. It is best if you
can get these targeted subscribers right off the bat, that way you
don’t have a list of 20,000 and only about 1,500 who are really
interested. In order to do this you need to drive those targeted
people to your sales page and talk them into signing up. There are
several ways that you can attract your target market, including:
This
involves finding other ezines that are in your niche and then offer
to swap advertising space with them. This is a win-win situation and
its great if you already have some subscribers.
If
you are just starting out and you don’t have any subscribers yet,
then you can always barter for advertising space. Offer the other
ezine owner a free product in exchange for advertisement space. You
can also make them an affiliate and give them a commission on sales
of your product in exchange for advertising space.
Here
you will sign up for a Joint Venture account with a Give Away
website. After registering, you upload a free gift, such as a free
report or eBook, to the website and provide a description as well as
how subscribers can receive the free gift. These instructions will
lead potential subscribers to your sales page and then they have to
sign up to get the free report.
With
a Give Away venture a bunch of Internet marketers have free gifts
available on the website. Each marketer also endorses the Give Away
campaign to their subscribers. These are usually free to join and
can easily send you thousands of leads.
Blogs
are great because the search engines absolutely love them! They
index blogs constantly and this provides you with a great chance at
getting a great spot on the search engines for a variety of keywords.
They are also free through WordPress.com or Blogger.com. They allow
you to set up a small website and keep it updated continuously. They
are also great because you can strategically place your form
throughout the blog, whether it is just on a page somewhere or every
other post. Search engines send traffic to blogs all the time and
the chances of getting leads are great, especially if your blog
provides useful information that shows you are a credible business.
In
addition to bartering or swapping advertising space, you can also
just purchase it. You can write an advertisement that will grab the
attention of the other ezine readers and send them to your page. When you are looking at investing in advertising space you need to
realize that not all ezines are regularly read. There are also a few
questions that you will want to ask yourself, such as:
-
What
is the ezine about?
-
What
type of people are subscribing to it?
-
How
responsive is the list it goes out to?
-
How
many subscribers are there?
Buying
advertising space on an ezine is just like buying it in a newspaper
or magazine. You want to be sure that the circulation is good and
going to be responsive to your advertisements before you spend a lot
of money.
There
are tons of ezine directories and they are great places to promote
your ezine. The best thing about them is that you can get really
good, targeted subscribers through them. Be sure that you have a
short and compelling description of your ezine before you submit it
to the directory. Here are a few directories that you may want to
consider:
I Have My List – Now What?
Okay, so you’ve done a lot of
promotion for your website and you’re getting people signing up for
your newsletter or ezine. Now, all you need is the newsletter! Here
you are going to find a step-by-step guide to getting your newsletter
or ezine set-up.
Create Your Free Report
You’re going to need a digital
product of some form. It can be an eBook, which is the best by far,
or it can be another type of free report. Either way, they need to
be full of real, useful information. You don’t want to just send
something to your people that is really vague and not helpful. It’s
all about providing them with a good, free gift that is helpful to
them. This will keep them coming back for more. You will also be
using this as something to get people to sign up on your list for, so
it needs to be good. If they like it, they will send it to their
friends and family and they are likely to sign up as well. The more
people you are getting to sign up, the more money you will be able to
make.
Now, a free report can either be sent
as a Word document or a PDF document. These are two file types that
most people are easily able to open. If you are giving away some
sort of software trial, then it will be a program in an .exe format. Because we are talking about free reports, we will cover how to
create those.
Creating a free report is simple. All
you have to do is begin typing. You will want an eBook to be laid
out in a similar form as a traditional book. You will also want to
have a cover page, preferably with a graphic. If you are not a
writer, have no fear! There are thousands of writers out there just
waiting to write your eBook or free report for you. Visit sites such
as these listed below to find a writer:
At these sites you will be able to post
a free project and then have writers bid on your projects. They will
place a bid and their price. When you are looking at your bids,
remember that you get what you pay for. There are thousands of
writers and you are bound to find one in your budget. Be sure to be
very descriptive in your project and tell them how many pages you
need the book to be and what the subject is. Many of these writers
will also be able to offer you graphic design for your covers and 3D
eBook covers at an additional cost. If you are not a graphic
designer, then you will probably want to pay the additional money to
get a good cover.
Throughout the eBook, it is a good idea
to use pictures and advertisements. You can also have
recommendations with your own links to your affiliates. This is a
great way to profit off your eBook and your affiliates.
Once your ebook is complete, you will
want to have it converted to a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat
to do this. To do this cheaply you can sign up for Adobe’s program
that allows you to convert them on the web for a monthly fee. Or,
you can purchase the program as well. If you’re not too concerned
about getting the most up to date software and spending that much
money, then it is a great idea to look on eBay for older versions of
the software that will do the trick. There are also simple PDF
converters available as well. Also, MicrosoftOffice.com has a
similar service available as well for a small fee. This is the best
way to send your file because it will compress it and it also keeps
people from editing the book. That’s all there is to creating your
free report!
Get an Autoresponder
An autoresponder is a program that
sends out pre-written Email messages to your subscribers. You write
out your ezine issues in advance and store them in your autoresponder
system. You can then set them up to send out at certain time
intervals.
For example, you subscriber will
receive the first email, which is normally a confirmation email that
they signed up. The second and third emails are sent out by the
system based on your schedule. You can also set the system up to do
the following:
Once the autoresponder is set-up it
does all of the work for you around the clock.
Create Your Sales Pages
The next step is to create your sales
page. Because you are giving away a free product, you want to be
sure that you keep it salesy and really reinforce the fact that they
are getting this valuable product for free. People love to see the
word free, so you really want to play this up. If you are not a
natural born salesperson, then you may want to hire a writer to do
this for you as well. When a visitor comes to your page, you want it
to capture them and then tell them about all of the benefits they
will receive for joining your list. If there is nothing in it for
them, then they are not going to want to sign up.
This letter is also your first chance
to make money as well. You may be selling a product that has a bonus
that is completely irresistible. If he passes on signing up, he
doesn’t get the bonus. Or, you can be selling your product at a
huge discount. If the pass on it now, they will have to pay the full
price later. Or, you could be offering a product or package that
can’t be found anywhere else.
At
the end of your sales page, you want to give the reader two options. They can either:
-
Buy
your product
-
Not
buy the product, but sign up for your newsletter to receive your
free report.
These two options should be available
at the bottom of your sales page. If the subscriber buys from you
then great! If not, he is still signing up on your newsletter to
receive the free gift.
Thank You Page
This is the last page that your buyer
or subscriber will see. This is where you will want to refer your
readers on to your other products as well as thank them for signing
up or purchasing your products.
Your Ezine or Newsletter
Now, that you have all the main
components in place, it’s time to start working on your ezine
issues. The first thing you want to do is write a couple of letters
that will allow your subscribers to get to know you. You want to
tell them who you are and what type of information you plan on
providing them. You also want to let them know why they should stay
on your list.
You will need to create another series
of emails that will be loaded into the autoresponder. The repetition
of receiving emails from you will keep you fresh on your potential
customer’s minds. They should not be sales oriented, but provide
valuable information. If you sell too hard, they will end up
unsubscribing.
On your third email, you will begin to
start sending out links to products or your affiliates. There are
several products that you can sell that will allow you to keep all of
the profits. You can also continue developing your own products as
well. You will also want to have an article in each issue. This
should have something to do with what you are promoting in your
email.
It is very important that you are
always building your credibility in your emails. You want to
establish your credibility from day one and you will want to do
everything that you can to keep your customer’s attention. You
should always have personable and conversational emails and really
write from your own perspective. You also always want to write as if
you are talking directly to your readers.
To learn more about your readers, you
may also consider having a short survey in your email that people can
send back to you. Not everyone will reply, but several most likely
will. This will be enough to give you an idea as to what type of
people you are communicating with.
Ezine Theme
Before you start writing you are going
to want to determine a theme for your ezine. This is important
because you want your ezine to be focused. You want to keep it
consistent so that you readers will easily be able to recognize you
when they receive your emails. With a focused ezine you are also
able to offer and promote products that are targeted to your readers.
It is also preferable that you focus your ezine on a theme that is
in high demand or a growing market. People tend to be very
interested in the latest trends.
Sample First Email Ezine Letter
Subject: (First name),
Your subscription to (Your Ezine’s Name)
Hi (First Name),
This is (Your Name).
Thank you for subscribing to (Your Ezine’s Name).
You are subscribed as (First Name) at (Email).
If you don’t remember subscribing to this ezine, somebody may have misspelled his email address when subscribing. In this case, please accept my apologies. You can easily subscribe by clicking the unsubscribe link below.
Otherwise, please look forward to your first issue of (Your Ezine’s Name) tomorrow.
To help me understand more about your needs, I would love if you would introduce yourself.
1. How are you? How do you feel? Fantastic?
2. Please tell me more about yourself. What do you do for a living, for fun?
3. What do you need for you (insert anything that has to do with your business) at the moment?
(You can add 2 or 3 more questions here.)
You can tell me more about yourself by simply replying to this message.
I personally don’t know of many Ezines that care about their subscribers and their needs, but I am here to cater to you. I also invite you to ask me any questions.
Remember, (First Name), YOU are the reason this Ezine exists!!
Have a nice day!
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
(Your Domain)
If you write your first issue in this
manner, be prepared to get a variety of different answers. Some may
not be so nice and it may be a good idea on your part to go ahead and
remove those people from your list. There are many different people
out there and many may not remember signing up on your list and may
send you rude messages.
Format of Your Ezine
There are two main types of ezine
formats that are out there. These are:
Text is the most common form. This is
because not all emails support HTML emails. If you write in text
format, then your ezine is going to be in this format:
-
Courier
New Size 10 font
-
60
characters per line
This is due to the fact that all email
programs will interpret these text messages in exactly this manner. There are pros and cons to the text format as well. They are easy to
write and everybody will be able to read them. However, the cons are
that people are more prone to follow through on HTML formats. Also,
in text format, your URLs are going to be very long and you may have
to see about getting shorter affiliate URLs.
The text format is good for you if you
are not good with HTML. Also if you are not a good writer, you can
source other writer’s articles and publish them in your newsletter
with their permission.
HTML can be used if you are comfortable
working with it. These allow you more freedom in terms of color,
fonts, sizes and graphics. This format receives higher response
rates simply because they look more professional.
PDF is another option. They are
similar to eBooks and you basically just release an email with a link
to download it on a regular basis. These can be presented through a
link in a text email, but they do require the reader to take the
extra step in downloading the product from the email. The PDF is
versatile because you can include more information, links, affiliates
and products in this format. You can also make the PDF look however
you would like it to.
Writing Your Content
Each issue of your ezine should provide
some sort of good and valuable information. You also want them to be
written with a lot of personality, especially since there are so many
ezines out there that have stiff and boring messages going out. The
more personality that you have the more likely you will see responses
from your readers. When writing there are mistakes that you are
going to want to be certain that you avoid:
How Often Should You Send Out Your Ezine?
You will want to decide the frequency
of your ezine issues. You will want to decide if you want them to
receive them daily, weekly or monthly.
It is up to you what interval you
intend on sending them out. If you are prepared to email your
subscribers five days a week, then you can definitely do that. If
you do not have the time to write that often, then you may choose to
do once a week, every other or once a month. This will all depend on
how often you will want to send it out and how much time you have to
write.
What All Should You Include In Your Ezine?
Once you are sending your ezine out
pretty regularly you will want to begin adding in your affiliates or
your other offers. Here are a few ideas to help you begin profiting
from your list:
When
you have your reader fill in your opt-in form to join your list, they
will receive your free report. However, before doing so they will
see your One Time Offer first. This can be something like a great
deal on a package of products or an eBook. Your One Time Offer is a
sales letter which pushes the reader to purchase your products.
Giving
something away for free always improves your credibility. These also
give them an incentive for signing up. In your report you will want
to include affiliate links and other product links in your free
reports.
Once
your reader subscribes, they will automatically be redirected to your
Thank You Page. This is where they will download your free report. At the same time, you want them to be enticed by other offers you may
have on your site such as links to other products and affiliates.
On
your Thank You Page you will also want to notify your subscriber that
they will receive a confirmation email as well. While they wait for
this confirmation email with their free report link, they will be
tempted to explore your other products as well. Even if they are not
interested in your One Time Offer, they may be interested in your
other products.
The
bigger your list gets the more money you can make. This means that
they are going to be more interested in your endorsement messages as
well.
Once
you have at least 1,000 subscribers, you may want to begin
considering your options in selling advertising space. You will want
to contact other ezine publishers as well as place advertisements on
your list that the space is for sale for advertising. You never know
who may be interested.
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