Brad’s Big Profits Ebook

Hi Friends. This is Dr Bradley Tomkins with more great tips to help you make money online.
I just stumbled across this AWESOME ebook from a well known internet marketer that I really respect so I decided to share it with you.

You will probably prefer to download your own FREE copy at:

Brads-BIG-PROFITS-ebook.pdf

How To Make BIG PROFITS from a small mailing list!

The Proven Step by Step System anyone can follow to
maximize the profits from ANY list … no matter how small!

By Charlie Page
Owner of …
• CharliePage.com
• Directory of Ezines
• Follow Up Selling Systems
• Article Marketing Live
• Ezine Advertising Live
Copyright © Charlie Page. All rights reserved. No part of this eBook
may be reproduced in any form without the prior written consent of the
publisher.
NOTE: This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Distribution
or duplication by any means is a violation of International copyright law.
No resale rights are conveyed with this book. You may not sell,
give away or otherwise share the content of this eBook with any party
for any reason.
How to make BIG PROFITS from a SMALL list
Copyright © Charlie Page
Page 1
Table of Contents
Introduction …………………………………………………………………….3
Does Size Matter? ………………………………………………………………………………3
The Key Is Relationship ……………………………………………………………………….4
How To Build Your List ………………………………………………………6
Building a list from the visitors to your site ………………………………………………..6
Building a list by buying subscribers from a professional list building company …….9
Building a list by working together with other site owners …………………………….12
Placing ads (either free or paid) in order to build your list from traffic sources you
would otherwise never reach ……………………………………………………………….14
How To Get People To Ask For Your Information …………………………………………15
Why You Must Never Give Too Many Freebies For Subscribing ………………………..17
How To Cultivate Your Mailing List …………………………………….19
Introduce Yourself …………………………………………………………………………….19
Only Recommend Products You Know Work ……………………………………………..20
Know Your Audience ………………………………………………………………………….22
Tell Them What To Expect ……………………………………………………………………24
Personalize Your Mailings ……………………………………………………………………25
Let Them Hear Your Voice …………………………………………………………………..26
Meet Their Needs ……………………………………………………………………………..27
Reward Their Loyalty …………………………………………………………………………28
How To Manage Your Mailing List ………………………………………29
How Often To Send Your Message ………………………………………………………….29
What To Send ………………………………………………………………………………….31
When To Send It ………………………………………………………………………………36
How To Send It ………………………………………………………………………………..38
Formatting Your Message ……………………………………………………………………40
Conclusion and Further Action …………………………………………..43
How to make BIG PROFITS from a SMALL list
Copyright © Charlie Page
Page 2
Introduction
If you have been online for more than an hour, you’ve heard some
Internet marketer say, “The money is in the list!”
That sounds good, and most people agree that they would like to have
a list if they had a choice. But what most people really need is to know
HOW to do that, and how to do it in such a way that it doesn’t take
over their lives.
And that is why this report exists. To give you the systematic
procedures for building and profiting from your own mailing list.
Having your own mailing list, a group of subscribers who know and trust
you, is the #1 marketing method on the Internet today. This is email
marketing at it’s finest.
Note: There are many ways and reasons to build a mailing list. For the
purpose of clarity, everything you read here can apply to you, whether
you send follow up emails occasionally, have a pre-loaded autoresponder
follow up series, publish an ezine, or use a completely different method.
Does Size Matter?
One common misconception about having a mailing list of your own
is that it has to be very large before you can make any money. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
Yes, small mailing lists can be wildly profitable if you develop the list
correctly. And that is what this report teaches.
You should know that there are many online marketers today — not
“gurus” but regular people — who do very well with lists of 5000 to
20,000.
I think your first goal should be 1000, because experience says that
1000 is the level at which one starts to make substantial profits.
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NOTE: The word “substantial” is open to interpretation; so let me be
very specific. One client of mine earned $750 from one mailing to her
list of about 1000 people. This was for a $20 product, not a high-ticket
seminar type product. To my way of thinking, earning $750 on one email
that offered a small ticket product is “substantial” indeed.
To be clear, there are people online today who make what seem to be
outrageous claims about lists of under 1000 people generating profits
in the tens of thousands with but a single email. Be very careful when
you listen to these claims, for there is more here than meets the eye.
I have yet to see any marketer build a list of less than 1000 new
people (who express an interest in a product and join a list to learn
more) and then cause that list to make tens of thousands of dollars
from a single email.
What I have seen are marketers who have lists of less than 1000
previous buyers of high priced products, to which they can send
one email and make large profits. Of course, this type of list is
profitable.
The difference here is vital! Don’t think that you can build a list of
under 1000 people from “scratch” and be making $10,000 or more from
a single email in short order. That’s just not the Real World.
But you CAN build a list of thousands in a short order, develop the
list the right way, and go on to make handsome profits in a very
reasonable period of time. The key is to put the right practices in place,
practices that make time your ally and help you maximize the value
of every visitor or commercial contact you make.
The Key Is Relationship
The focus of this report is building your own mailing list, and developing
a relationship with your list that causes them to like you, trust you
and buy from you.
Does it sound odd to you when I say that “relationship” is the key? The
reason that you can have a list of thousands, even hundreds of
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thousands, and still maintain a relationship, is that email is a highly
personal way of communicating.
The key here is to realize that there is no difference between writing
an email to your sister or brother and writing an email to your list. In
fact, the more personal your writing, within reason, the better your
list will respond. We’ll get into exactly what to say, and what to avoid,
very soon.
For most people, the Internet is a big, impersonal world of websites that
provide information. While the ability to find the answer to almost any
question from the convenience of your computer is nice, it’s not a warm
and friendly environment in which to work or play. We mostly surf
alone.
Your emails can solve that. Your emails can be a breath of fresh air
in an otherwise stale world. Your emails can offer honest insight; they
can lead your reader to know what they need to do next in their
business, their life, or any other area you choose to write about. They
can be a welcome relief from the otherwise sterile Internet
environment.
Through emails to your list, you can create a valuable relationship,
a friendship really, that will reach across the globe and last for as many
years as you choose to write.
It is my firm belief that it is the relationship you develop with your list
that will generate the profits you desire.
More than giving deep insight, insider information, “hidden secrets”, or
the other things that so many online gurus claim they offer, when you
choose to offer ask questions, offer open insights and honest opinions,
and operate from a place where you want your reader (your friend)
to win every time, you will have created a powerful relationship that
will benefit both you and your reader.
And that is a powerful and good thing indeed.
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Now let’s look at exactly how to build your list, and develop a
relationship that benefits you and your reader, and stands the test of
time.
This report is divided into three sections.
1. How to build and manage your list.
2. How to cultivate your list.
3. How to manage your list.
How To Build Your List
When it comes to “list building” there is a boatload of hype on the
Internet. When you remove the bull, there are really just a handful
of ways to build a list.
Almost all list-building techniques can be included in one of these broad
categories.
1. Building a list from the visitors to your site.
2. Buying subscribers from a professional list building company.
3. Working together with other site owners and other list owners
to capture names from their traffic.
4. Placing ads (either free or paid) in order to build your list from
traffic sources you would otherwise never reach.
Each of these is important. Using all of them together (which is what
most professional marketers do) can create a powerful list in a very
short period of time.
Let’s look at each one.
Building a list from the visitors to your site
The first and best place to look for building a mailing list is your
own website or blog. Visitors to your site don’t end up there by
accident. They came to your site to learn more about what you offer.
And that means they are MUCH more likely to ask for, and respond to,
your follow up information.
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In most cases they saw an ad, found you in a search engine, read one
of your articles, follow you on social media or were referred by a friend.
No matter how they get to your site, they are prime prospects for
learning more about what you do. And the way you give them that
information is with email follow up … by asking them to join your list.
If you don’t have a site or blog now, building a list is a good reason to get
one. There are many other good reasons, such as controlling the page
your visitor sees, the ability to steer visitors to any site you want after
they visit your site, and more. But the ability to build a list is reason
enough to get a site or start a blog.
Even if you have no HTML skills, you can set up a WordPress blog in a
day using most hosting companies. Even easier, use a free service like
Blogger.com
Every site on the Internet gets some traffic. And every site owner I
know spends a considerable amount of time and effort to get more
traffic to their site. I’ll bet that you want more traffic too.
But getting more traffic isn’t always easy, and more traffic is not
always the answer to the question of how to make more sales.
Making the most of your current visitors is important too. And offering
follow up information, offering your visitor a chance to get on your
mailing list, is the first step to maximizing the value of every visitor.
Here are seven key techniques you can use to get the highest
number of list signups possible from your existing traffic … whether you
get 10 or 1000 visitors a day.
1. Put a signup form on the top right hand side of your main web
page or blog. Studies have proven that this is the most effective
location. If you have navigation links on the left, consider putting it
there instead. The key here is to have to box VERY visible to visitors.
2. Add a signup form to every page of your site. It sometimes
takes visitors a few minutes to feel comfortable enough to trust us
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with their email address.
What happens when they do feel comfortable enough to fill out a
form but they aren’t on your front page?
If they have to search for the form, you will lose them. If they have
to return to the home page to find the form, they will lose their place
on your site. Both are bad. Make it easy to signup from every page!
3. Use a popup on entry. I know … we all love to hate popups. But
they work, period. Every test I’ve ever run on popups has shown
that they increase newsletter signups to your list dramatically.
Today’s popups aren’t the old “in your face” type that never go away.
Because of new technology, you can have an attractive popup
window that is effective and not offensive, and will not be blocked by
any popup blocker.
NOTE: Studies show that the popups to which people object are the
third party ads that continue to popup, not popups from the site they
are visiting. If your popup is relevant to your site you will do well.
Our choice for this by far is PopUp Domination. Popup Domination
offers attractive popup windows that can’t be blocked by toolbars or
browsers, and allow you to control how often, where, and when they
appear. Visit Popup Domination using this link.
Bottom line: If you aren’t using popups, you are losing subscribers.
4. Use a pop-out window on exit from your site. This is the same
idea as a popup on entry, but it only popups up when a person
leaves your site. Some people put a survey here. I’m sure you’ve
seen the “May I ask why you aren’t buying” made famous by Alex
Mandossian.
It’s a great idea, but unless you are using that technique, then please
do use a pop out to make one last offer for your free information. This
really works.
HINT: You can create what is called an “order trapper” pop out so that
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people who click your order button don’t see the pop out window.
5. Add links to key points in your web copy where people can
ask for more information. It’s a pure fact that the VAST majority
of people don’t buy the first time. But they are interested or they
wouldn’t be there. You can capitalize on that interest by adding a few
well-placed “click here to learn more free” links inside your web copy.
These links look just like the rest of the wording, except that your
visitor can click them. When a visitor clicks one of these links, your
subscription box opens in a new window, so they can subscribe and go
back to reading.
6. Use testimonials for your follow up information or ezine.
People love testimonials and using them on your site will make a big
difference in sales and signups too. Adding a testimonial about the
quality of your follow up information lets your visitor know they are
safe asking for more information, and that your information is
valuable.
7. Give a gift – but not too much. We’re going to cover this in detail
below, but suffice it to say here that giving a gift for subscribing
does work in most situations.
Use the above seven techniques on your site today, and you will make
time your ally, as more and more visitors subscribe to your follow up
system.
Now let’s look at technique #2, the often misunderstood process of coregistration.
Building a list by buying subscribers from a
professional list building company
Many people have heard about buying lists. There is great confusion on
this subject, so I’m going to try to be crystal clear.
VERY IMPORTANT: ALL lists that you buy on CD (or on the Internet)
where a company sells you 1,000,000 (or more) names for a very low
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price are spam lists. NEVER buy this type of list, for it can ruin your
reputation online, waste valuable time you could spend doing real
marketing, and could even land you in jail! Never spam under any
circumstances.
Now that you know what not to do, let’s look at how buying subscriber
can work for you.
There are companies on the Internet who know how to build big lists
fast. They do it so well that they do it for a living. These are called coregistration
companies, and they can be very helpful to your bottom
line.
Here’s how it works. The co-registration company pays to place their
ad on high traffic websites. Their ad is somewhat generic, but still very
compelling. They often offer a free gift, or free information about a
certain topic, like weight loss. All they ask is that you fill in their form to
get more information. So far, it’s not a lot different from what you will
be doing on your site.
Here’s the difference. Once the person subscribes with them the person
is offered the chance to subscribe to other lists too. When they do, the
people who own those lists pay a fee for each subscriber.
Let’s say John owns a co-registration company and places ads on a
large website we will call Site A. Now Jane visits Site A and subscribes
to John’s list. Instead of seeing a traditional thank you page she now
sees a page that offers for her to join five other lists as well. If she does
then the people who own the lists she joins will pay John a fee.
This is an incredibly profitable business model for John because he not
only builds his list but he makes immediate cash too. He takes the risk
to buy the advertising and set up the co-registration system but is paid
handsomely if it works.
Using co-registration to build your list can be very good or very bad,
depending on what you do after you get the list, and the questions you
ask before buying the list.
Here are the questions you should ask before buying.
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• To how many people will any one name be sold? If it’s very
many people at all, the poor person who thought they were
subscribing to one list will get dozens of emails and probably
accuse everyone of spamming or drop that email address.
• On what date was the name gathered? One key to making coregistration
work is getting information to the subscriber very
quickly after they subscribe. If the co-registration company is
selling information 30 days old, watch out.
• Will you be showing only my opt in form or will there be many list
choices? The fewer choices the subscriber has when they are
offered the chance to join other lists the better for you.
Assuming the co-registration company will answer these questions to
your satisfaction, you will need to act quickly on the names that you
receive.
Here’s a list of what to do with the names you buy from a coregistration
company.
• Introduce yourself immediately. They need to hear from you
quickly, before they forget they even asked for information.
• Tell them how they can leave the list. This is a must. You
must clearly state how they can leave your list, and must provide
a link at the bottom of every message where they can do that.
• Keep your messages short. Once they are on your main list,
you can send normal messages. In this stage, you want to woo
them onto your main list with short, helpful messages on the topic
on which they expected to receive information.
• Get them in a conversation by asking questions. One great
way to “warm up” a cold list is by asking questions. You can ask
what they need, ask how you can help them, or ask them to tell
you something about them that will help you be of service to
them. Asking questions is the best sales technique on the planet,
and lets them know you are more than just another marketer
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pushing products.
• Offer them a gift to subscribe to your main mailing list.
Offering gifts specific to the reason they joined a list works very
well.
The goal with co-registration names is not to mail to them until they
buy or leave (although, sadly, that’s how some marketers do it) but
rather to convince them to join your main mailing list by offering
them a taste of what regular list members receive.
Once you get someone to proactively join your main list from a coregistration
list, the odds are you’ll have a subscriber who will both stay
on your main list, and buy something in time.
NOTE: You should know that MOST of the names you will buy will not
join your main list. Buying co-registration names is a bulk business, and
one where getting 15% to convert to a main list is considered wildly
successful.
Costs for co-registration vary from a few pennies per name up to $15
per name, depending on how many people are sold the names, how
“fresh” or recent, the names are, and how much information is
provided. Shop carefully, and be sure to check the reputation of the
co-registration company if you choose to go this route.
Building a list by working together with other site
owners
The idea here is that you get visitors that I’ll never see, and I get
visitors you’ll never see. So, we make an agreement that allows us each
to benefit from the other’s traffic.
The most common form of this is what is called a “thank you page
private co-registration”. That’s a fancy way of saying that I’ll show
your subscription form on the thank you page of my website, and you’ll
show my subscription form on the thank you page of your site.
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The thank you pages involved here can be found in a variety of places.
Each one has the common denominator that they are viewed after a
visitor takes action. This is good, because studies show that visitors
who take one action are likely to take another action. Here are
some common thank you pages where you can place your subscription
form.
• After a sale is made.
• After someone subscribes to an ezine.
• After they download a free gift.
• After they download a product they purchased.
• After they complete a survey.
• After they enter a support ticket in a support center.
• After they create a username for a membership site.
The possibilities here are endless, and this is one of the most
underused marketing methods around.
If you can find a site that compliments your site, these arrangements
can be a powerful list building method.
Another option is called a “list swap”. A list swap is simply an
arrangement between two list owners to send a solo ad (in most cases)
for the other.
Let’s say John and Jane both have lists of 500 people. John sends Jane’s
ad to his list and in return Jane sends John’s ad to her list.
No money changes hands – they just swap solo ads and everybody
wins!
But what happens if Jane has 1000 subscribers and John has only 500?
Then John sends to his list twice for every time Jane sends to her list
once.
There are sites online devoted to nothing more than helping you find list
swap partners. Some are free while others charge a fee.
If you are going to use one of them be sure to ask these questions
before agreeing to a swap.
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1. Know how often the other person sends solo ads to their list.
If they blast their list every day your results will be poor.
2. What type of offers work best with their list? You want to match
the offer you make to what their list responds to if you can.
3. How did they build their list? If they built their list using
questionable methods like safelists then your results will likely be
poor.
List swaps can be incredibly profitable or incredibly disappointing. The
more you know before agreeing to one the better the chances of yours
being profitable.
HOT TIP: I recommend you always send traffic from list swaps to your
own squeeze page and not to a sales page. Building your list matters
most!
Placing ads (either free or paid) in order to build your
list from traffic sources you would otherwise never
reach
Sometimes it’s hard to sell our products and services using advertising.
If that’s true for you, you might consider advertising for subscribers
instead of trying to make direct sales.
It’s clear that people like free stuff. Offering your free follow up
information is a softer sale than trying to sell your product, and it gets
them on your list so that you can build a relationship with them.
While many people hesitate at the idea of buying advertising for the
reason of giving away free information, this technique works very
well.
If you see the logic of getting 200 subscribers as much as making one
sale (because you know some of those 200 will eventually buy much
more than 1 product) then advertising for subscribers might be for you.
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A word of warning: Don’t waste time placing free ads for subscribers
unless you are offering a very powerful freebie for subscribing. People
who visit free ad sites are a particular group who are usually looking
only for freebies.
My experience has been that this type of person does not make a
good subscriber, won’t buy anything, and only stays on your list
hoping for more free stuff. You can get subscribers with free ads, but
you may find that your time is much better spent elsewhere.
No matter what technique you use, the key is to get people to raise
their hands and say, “Yes, I want more information.” Only when we get
permission to send information do we succeed.
Whether you use one or all of the techniques listed above, here’s what
you’ll need to do to get people to give you their permission to follow up.
How To Get People To Ask For Your Information
The most important thing to realize about getting people to ask for
more information is that you understand their motivation. And there is
only ONE motivation that is consistent on the Internet.
Your visitor wants to known what is in it for them!
You must appeal to their self-interest if you are to get their permission
to send more information.
Here are ten ways to get people to ask for more information.
Remember, they came to your site looking for something, but most of
them won’t buy the first time. In many cases, the reason they don’t
buy is that they need to know more, so offering them more information
is a logical thing to do for any site owner.
To get people to ask for more information, you can …
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1. Just ask – In some cases, just providing a sign up box does the
trick.
2. Offer a unique gift – If you offer a gift for subscribing, try to make
it something that they don’t already have.
3. Sell them – Yep, you have to sell them on why they should take
your free information. The idea of selling someone on taking
something free sounds wrong to most people, and for good reason.
But this is the Internet, and the fact is, you have to convince them to
take your free information. A short list of benefits usually does the
trick.
4. Ask them what they need, and then give it to them – This is the
“survey approach” and it works very well. The key here is to ask a
compelling question to draw them into the conversation, then offer
them more information, like the answers of other people who took
the survey. The way they get that information, of course, is by
subscribing.
5. Don’t just tell your story – Remember, your website must be
about your visitor, not you. While you must convey how you can help
them solve a problem, the more you talk about them, the better.
This holds true when asking for them to subscribe as well.
6. Tease them – Revealing just a part of what they will learn from
your follow up information sometimes generates enough curiosity for
your visitor to take action and subscribe. One technique that works
well is to ask a series of questions, then offer the answers once they
subscribe.
7. Bribe them – This is the oldest trick in the book, and highly
effective when done well. The key here is to offer something of
value, not the same old freebie that everyone offers. Trial
memberships work very well in this way.
8. Challenge them – This is a hard to use technique, but challenging
them can work if done right. The key here is to keep it friendly, light,
and fun. Something like, “Think you know the #1 sales technique on
the Internet? Click here to find out!” Of course, the click here goes to
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your subscription form.
9. Use testimonials – No one like to go first. Make your visitor feel
comfortable by telling them that many people have asked for more
information and received real help. Testimonials do this better than
any other technique.
10.Tell them what to expect – The more specific you are about what
they will receive, when they will receive it, and how often you will
contact them, the more comfortable they will feel. And that will lead
to increased signups.
HOT TIP: Always tell your visitor that their information is safe with you,
and that you will not sell or share their information with anyone, ever.
You don’t have to shout this, but you do need to put wording on your
signup form that tells them they will be safe.
Providing a privacy page on your site is another important step in letting
your visitor know that you respect their privacy and will never misuse
their information.
The key to getting people to sign up for your information is to ask them
often, use a variety of techniques, and never make them feel like they
are risking something by signing up.
Why You Must Never Give Too Many Freebies For
Subscribing
There is a hidden danger in offering too many “freebies” to
subscribers in exchange for their subscription.
This is a common mistake in email marketing, and a logical one. It
makes perfect sense to “load up” your potential subscribers with as
many good things as you can afford to give them. After all, doing so
shows your generous nature, and makes it more likely that you will get
a high percentage of visitors who do subscribe, right?
Right … And wrong.
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While tempting visitors will a long list of goodies might get more people
to subscribe, it sends two completely wrong messages.
1. You can’t get subscribers without bribing them.
2. You are a source of freebies.
The bottom line is this, if you give a ton of freebies in exchange for a
simple subscription, you will end up with a list of “freebie seekers”.
When that happens, selling anything to the people on your list will
become much more difficult.
This is the same idea behind not always offering a discount on what you
sell. If you are constantly running a sale or special offer, people
will wait for the next sale or special offer to act. That’s not what
you want.
What you want is a list of people who respond to you because you
provide great information and solve their problems.
HOT TIP: This is the implied agreement between your and your reader.
You will provide top-flight information, information that solves your
readers’ problems, and in exchange, they will buy the products you
advertise and recommend. While completely unspoken, this agreement
exists in every subscriber/publisher relationship.
Using freebies to attract visitors is a valid technique that many
marketers use. But giving too much attracts the wrong type of
subscriber.
If your goal is to build a responsive list of buyers, begin that
relationship by offering something of value, but not throw in the kitchen
sink.
Also, remember to change your free gift offer from time to time.
This lets visitors know that your site is fresh, and sends the subtle
message that nothing you offer lasts forever. And that’s a great
message to send in the beginning because they will remember that
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when you announce that a sale or special offer ends on a particular
date.
How To Cultivate Your Mailing List
Once people ask to be on your list, whether that’s an ezine subscription,
a request for more information, taking you up on a free download, or
something completely different, it’s time for the relationship building to
begin.
What you do immediately after someone joins your list, and what you
do in the first several weeks following his or her subscription, will set
the tone for the rest of your relationship. As you can imagine, this is
where paying attention and being very deliberate about what you do
can pay very big dividends indeed.
Introduce Yourself
They asked for your information. While you are not the subject of the
information (unless you are selling yourself as a consultant or coach)
you are the messenger, and that’s just as important.
The Internet is cold and impersonal. You can set a warm and friendly
tone in the very beginning of the relationship by simply writing one
paragraph about yourself so your reader can get to know you.
The key here is to be personable without being too personal. What
you want to give readers is a sense of who you are in a way that they
can relate to, without opening up the old high school yearbook and
showing off your science or football awards.
Here are some things that your readers might find interesting in your
short, one-paragraph bio.
• Where you live.
• How long you have been online.
• The types of online businesses you have experience with.
• Your hobbies or pets.
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• Your goal for the information they are about to receive.
Likewise, there is some information that you are just better off not
sharing. Here are some types of information I would not include.
• Your age.
• Your home address.
• Your home phone number.
• Anything (and I mean anything) about your children.
• How much money you make or want to make.
• Your religion or worldview.
• Your political viewpoints, unless you are distributing political
information.
The goal here is not to color your personality beige; it’s to be
business-like and personable at the same time.
Far from manipulation, what you write about yourself tells the reader
who you are, and a bit about why you are providing them this
information. That’s an important thing for them to know in the
beginning of your online relationship, and sets the tone for future
messages.
Only Recommend Products You Know Work
While some find this suggestion a bit controversial, recommending only
products that you have direct experience with, or very close indirect
experience with, will practically ensure that your audience buys from
you on a regular basis. Here’s why.
You know this in your heart, and it probably won’t come as a big
surprise to you, but the products and services we all buy on the
Internet are often disappointing at best.
Sales letters that make the product being offered seem like the
greatest thing since sliced bread are the order of the day.
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Many sites put most of their effort into making sales, knowing that most
consumers are too busy or lazy to ask for a refund, and knowing that
they can get away with producing an inferior product.
This situation is so rampant that it’s lead to a very high level of
distrust online. It’s also one of the reasons that a site that converts 2
out of 100 visitors is a smashing success, while a conversion rate that
low would put any offline business out of business!
Imagine only 2 out of every 100 visitors to a Walmart making a
purchase! They would go out of business in a month!
People are confused. They are afraid of being ripped off, of making a
mistake and not being able to get their money back.
Many (if not most) of them have been burned by a product,
service, or business opportunity that promised the moon and delivered
only disappointment.
And that’s where you come in.
You are their white knight of truth!!
You are their clearinghouse of right information. You are their Good
Housekeeping Seal of Approval!
If you announce to your list very clearly, and often, that you only
recommend products that you know work (either by having used
them or knowing someone who has used them) you will position
yourself to be the person your subscribers trust for unbiased,
quality information.
Can there be a stronger selling position than this? If there is, I
haven’t found it.
The key here is your personal integrity. It goes without saying that if
you ever violate this, the deal is off and it will take a very long time
indeed to rebuild that lost trust, if it can indeed be rebuilt.
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Another reason to only recommend products you know will work is
avoiding what I call the “also ran” syndrome. The term “also ran” comes
from the world of racing where they announce who came in first,
second, third, and who “also ran”. I call those marketers who hear
about a product, grab the pre-written solo email, then blast it to their
list as fast (and often) as they can “also ran” marketers.
These people do not have their subscribers’ best interest in
mind. They just want to make money. One person actually called this
technique (and forgive me for this – it’s not my wording) the “don’t give
a cr*p” technique”. How insulting is that? He was actually proud of
not caring but only caring about his bottom line. Sad really.
When you care about your audience, and you recommend products that
you know work the way they should, then offer them to your list, your
list will buy them in droves!
This is the same technique I’ve used for years with my own list, and we
routinely see conversion rates of up to 41% on the selling emails we
sell. To my way of thinking, that’s proof positive that this idea works,
and works very well.
If you are going to use this idea, be sure to include it in your “welcome”
email. When you are telling your readers a bit about yourself is the
perfect time to say that you are doing this, and why. If experience is
any guide, your readers will reward you many times for your
commitment to what is in their best interest.
Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is as important, or more important, as them
knowing you. The more you know about your audience, the more
accurately you will be able to predict what they will buy, and when they
will buy it.
Note: Cultivating a mailing list is not guesswork. Once you have
cultivated and managed your list for a while, you can expect to be able to
forecast what offers your list will respond to, and on what level they will
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respond. When you reach this stage, your list will truly be your most
valuable business asset.
The only way to get to know your list is to ask. There are any number of
ways to ask your list things that will give you insight into their needs.
And that’s an important point. Never ask an idle question. Only ask
questions which, when answered, will give you insight into how you can
meet the needs of your list members.
Online surveys are probably the most popular, and easiest to use, way
of asking your list what’s on their mind and what they need.
What you ask them is a different matter. Here’s a list of things I’ve
asked my lists over the years. I believe that knowing these things about
my list has been one of the reasons the list performs so well.
• What is your price sensitivity?
• How long have you been online?
• What are your goals online?
• What is the next product you intend to buy?
• What is the best product you have ever bought?
• What is the worst product you have ever bought?
• How many affiliate programs have you tried online?
• What is your favorite marketing technique online?
• What failed miserably for you from a marketing standpoint?
• If we could spend 1 hour alone, talking about nothing but your
business and how to make it successful, what would you ask.
One thing to keep in mind is that when you ask your list questions, they
are giving you not only answers that can guide your marketing, but
they are giving you their time, the most precious asset of all.
It is a completely appropriate to reward them for that time by offering a
gift to each one who completes the survey.
HINT: Don’t forget to use a co-registration form on the thank you page
of the survey as we discussed above. These are responsive people, and
will be a valuable addition to any list. You could score some marketing
points with a complimentary site here.
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When asking questions or taking surveys or polls, it’s important to let
your list know when the poll will be closing. If you can, it’s also a
great idea to announce the results of your survey to your list.
HOT TIP: If you can make time, writing up a short report about the
survey (why you took it, a list of questions, something about the results)
makes a great giveaway for getting new people to join your list.
No matter how you do it, take time to get to know the people on your
list. Only by meeting their needs will you succeed, and you can’t hit a
target you can’t see. So get to know as much as you can, and watch
your results increase month by month as you cultivate a powerful,
responsive list.
Tell Them What To Expect
Most people like to know what to expect when they agree to something.
Your readers are no different. The more you tell them about what they
are agreeing to by subscribing, the happier they will be.
There are a few things that are vital for you to tell subscribers
immediately upon receiving their subscription. Your “welcome” letter is
the perfect place to do this, and makes it super-easy to be clear with
them.
Here are some of the things readers want to know when subscribing to
your information.
• How often will you be sending emails? This is the big one
folks. If you indicate that you have a weekly ezine, then mail to
them five days a week, you will lose subscribers.
• What will the emails contain? No one will sign up for a series
of sales pitches. If you promise information about how they can
improve their golf swing, be sure to provide that before asking
them to buy anything.
• Will your messages be in plain text or HTML format? Often
overlooked, telling them this helps prevent readers from
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confusing your message from spam.
• What subject line will you use? Many people like to use the
same subject line beginning every time so that list members can
recognize or filter their messages.
• What From address will the email contain? One way to beat
the spam filters is to get your subscribers to “whitelist” your
email address or add it to their address book. This is an
important step that should not be overlooked.
The more you let your list know about what to expect from you, the
better they will do when it comes to finding, opening, and responding to
your messages.
In this day of spam and too much email, using this simple precaution
can make all the difference.
Personalize Your Mailings
Everyone knows by now that email addressed Dear Bob gets more
response than email addressed Dear Reader.
But there are ways to go beyond the basic personalization that let your
reader know that you know something about them, and care about
meeting their needs.
Here are three things I suggest to make your messages more personal.
1. Share your experiences with products, both good and bad.
Nothing makes you appear more human to your list than
admitting that something didn’t work for you. I’m not saying you
should fail on purpose, and use that to make your list like you.
What I am saying is that sharing the bad with the good shows
the people on your list that you are as imperfect as they, and that
you’re honest enough to admit mistakes. When’s the last time you
heard a guru admit that something they tried didn’t work as
expected?
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Being transparent with the people on your list is a powerful thing.
2. If you send a pre-written email for a program (and you
might – some of them are well-written) be sure to add a personal
comment at the top.
I’ve added this to some of my selling emails. “Just a note to say
that the message below was not written by me, but I wish it had
been! I’m sending this along untouched because it conveys
exactly how I feel about the product. I like this product, and think
you will like it too.”
Almost every time I use that type of message I get thank you
notes from people on the list that appreciate the human touch.
3. When you use surveys, add the results of that survey data to
your message to let your list know why you are promoting a
specific product or idea. This is a powerful sales technique, and it
lets your list know that you are paying attention to what they say.
Now that’s a win-win!
Personalization is a lot less about adding the Dear [firstname] tag than
it is about writing every message as if you were writing it to an
individual. Write your messages that way, and your list will feel your
warmth, rewarding you with business and loyalty for literally years to
come.
Let Them Hear Your Voice
This is perhaps my #1 piece of advice for any list owner.
It’s what the genie told Aladdin and what countless parents have told
their son or daughter on the first day of school.
Be yourself!
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When people join your list they don’t know you. They want to know
more about your offer, and they know they are going to hear that
from you. And they are willing to get to know you. So let ‘em!
It’s the little things that let our personalities shine through, and letting
your personality shine through is what this piece of advice is all about.
The thing to avoid, and I know you know this, is trying to sound like
someone else. The problem with that technique (and you would be
shocked at how many list owners try it) is that you can’t sustain it for
long.
Can you imagine the torment of having to think “I need to say it this
way because that’s how Ms. Big Time Guru would sound” every time
you write something?
I’m not saying that you should not try your best, or make improvement
over time. We are all “works in progress” and improvement is a good
thing.
The bottom line here is to just be you.
Honest advice written in poor grammar will sell more than the
most polished prose that sounds false.
The key is to relax, be yourself, and know that, no matter how well or
poorly you write or speak, there will be people who like you and people
who don’t like you. And there’s not much that you can do about that …
especially if you are trying to fake it!
Meet Their Needs
If you have read this far, you know how I feel about this, so I’ll be brief.
The absolute best list cultivation technique I can give you is this.
Meet THEIR needs!
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When my wife and I were married long ago, someone gave us the best
advice I’ve ever heard. He or she (I wish I could remember who) said
this to me. “If you spend your time meeting her needs, and she spends
her time meeting your needs, neither of you will ever need to be
selfish.”
I’ve seen many marketers come and go over the years, and can tell you
that the ones who succeed over time are the ones who are
meeting people’s needs.
There will always be the flash-in-the-pan successes who write a hot
book and then make a lot of money in a short period of time. But these
people won’t last online, just like they don’t last offline.
Let your list know that you want to meet their needs. Tell them
again and again, and soon they will know that you mean it, and begin
to open up to you, telling what they really need, and giving you the
chance to sell it to them.
And that is a very powerful situation … one that you can achieve if you
try and one that will reward you with an easy living for many years to
come.
Reward Their Loyalty
You list members are giving you the most valuable asset they own …
their time. You can reward them for giving you that gift by rewarding them
for their loyal readership. Here are three ways to do that.
• Give them something free when you can. At least 2 to 3 times a year,
surprise them with a free gift. You can use resale rights packages to find
items to give, or create something original. The more valuable and useful
the gift, the better.
• Give them a great tip when you can. We all have experience that can
benefit others. If you discover a great resource, or a way of doing
something that is effective and save time, share it with your list.
• Give them a great price when you can. Few things are more powerful
that negotiating a special price for the members of your list.
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I’ve done this by asking the creator of a product if I could offer a special
price to my list when I bought resale rights. Another method is the prerelease
offer, much like the one that might have brought you to this very
report.
As you go through your day, be on the lookout for ways to reward your list
members. Reward them often, and they will reciprocate with long-term,
loyal readership.
How To Manage Your Mailing List
How you manage your list – how often you send them messages, the
content of those messages, as well as a few other key factors – will
have a major impact on your level of profits.
Manage your list well, and your readers will eagerly await the next
message from you, confident that it will contain something to make
their life better.
There have been times in my business when I have been away due to
illness or family emergencies. Every time that happens many good
people on my list write to ask why I’ve “gone silent”. They like what I
share and want to hear more. For that I am eternally grateful.
Manage your list poorly, and your list will quit responding and very
conveniently forget that they were the ones who subscribed.
So how can you ensure (to borrow a phrase from Dan Kennedy) that
you are “a welcome guest and not an unwelcome pest?” You manage
your list very carefully, using the techniques found below.
How Often To Send Your Message
There is a great debate in the Internet marketing (and ezine publishing)
community about how often to send a message. I’ve seen ezines, and
marketers, succeed and fail with a wide variety of schedules.
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The right answer to the frequency question is, as is so often the case, a
simple one … you send messages as often as you told your list you
would send them!
The key here is to avoid any misunderstanding by accidentally leading
your list to believe one thing, then doing something different.
If you know how often you will send messages before you build your
list you can avoid this question altogether. You can also go to the head
of the class, because 99% of marketers miss this critical step. I
certainly did when I started out online.
Here’s a way to handle things if you don’t know how often you will send
messages before you build your list.
Simply tell your list that you will send occasional messages, and
commit to sending messages only when you really have something to
say.
This tells your subscriber that you won’t flood them with messages, and
that you are taking your relationship with them seriously. Committing to
quality works every time.
With all of that said, here is what my testing (and observing literally
thousands of publishers) has proven to be true.
• If you send messages less frequently than every 10 days,
your subscribers tend to forget you. I think this is due to the
amount of email that everyone receives. If you want to win the
profits game with a small list, you have to keep YOUR name at
the top of your reader’s mind.
• Sending more than three messages in a week is risky. If
you send more than three messages a week, you run a real risk of
both people unsubscribing, and getting complaints as well. Three
messages a week is a lot, especially when you’ve committed to
quality message content.
NOTE: If you send more than two messages a week, be sure to
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vary the length of the messages and use completely different
subject lines, so your audience doesn’t think they are all the same
message.
• Once a week is the minimum in my opinion.
• Sending messages too close together is the same as sending
too many messages in the mind of the reader. Readers have a
very “in the moment” focus, and they tend to see what’s
happening now as what always happens.
So, if you send them too many messages in any particular week
without a good explanation, they will tend to see you as sending
too many messages all the time.
I suggest spacing messages 2 days apart.
• If you send many messages, keep them short. I can’t explain
why this is true, but readers feel obligated to read what we write,
and when the amount they have to read is backed up, they get
angry.
In all things, you have to test to see what will work for you. But
keeping faith with readers by sending the number of messages you said
you would send, and being considerate of them by varying the message
lengths, are a good start toward cultivating a strong relationship with
your readers.
What To Send
When it comes to sending email to prospective customers, and existing
customers, for the purpose of making sales, you have a wide array of
happy choices. Here are some of the methods that are successful now,
along with the pros and cons of each.
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FORMAT PROS CONS
An ezine
People love ezines and
are used to receiving
them. Since ezines
cover a variety of topics,
you won’t be seen as
constantly selling.
Also, you can sell ads
and will be approached
for joint ventures.
Publishing an ezine on a
regular basis can be
time consuming,
especially if you are
writing the articles.
A follow up
series
The information that
goes out is only about
your product. Easy to
write, since you know
your product so well,
you can get into greater
detail about your
product with a follow up
series, and use
testimonials too.
Very easy to ask for the
order in every message.
Since the series is only
about your product,
people who decide they
are no longer interested
will leave, and you won’t
have a chance to sell
them something else.
It’s hard to keep a
follow up series going
very long as compared
to an ezine, which can
run for years.
News
Very popular if the topic
is specific and hard to
find.
Linking a product to the
news story and asking
for the order is easy to
do.
Very time consuming to
produce. You have to
find the news, and then
write about it, before
the general public learns
about it.
Blogs are a serious
competitor here.
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Product Reviews
Great for making sales!
People love reviews and
will read them if they
feel the reviewer is
objective.
Very easy to make the
case for buying the
product reviewed and
asking for the order.
Can be time consuming
and expensive. You’ll
have to buy the
products you review,
use them, keep good
notes, and more to do a
great job.
Money Saving
Offers
Everyone wants to save
money. People love this
type of information,
especially if it’s focused
on an area of interest
for them.
Time consuming to
gather and produce the
data. Most moneysaving
offers don’t leave
enough money on the
table to pay you.
Checklists or Hot
Sheet
People like to save time
and get inside
information. Tips do
both and position you as
an authority.
Very easy to make the
sale once you’ve
provided time or money
saving tips.
Time consuming to
produce, and you have
to be right on the
money with your advice.
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Insider Secrets
People love to think that
there is something they
don’t know, which if
they DID know, would
make all the difference.
If you have real inside
experience, and can
show readers a way to
save time or money or
make more money, this
is a very powerful
format.
You have to really know
what you are doing
here. Restating what
others have produced
will cause quick failure
and damage your
reputation.
The worst thing you can
do is publish a “secret”
that everyone knows.
NOTE: A follow-up series about a specific topic or product is SO
important to your online sales that I strongly recommend you use BOTH
a follow-up series and another method (like news or an ezine) to
communicate with your list.
If you use both a follow-up series and another method of contact, be
sure to write your subject line in such a way that your reader knows
which type of information you are sending.
Choosing carefully the type of information you will send is important.
It’s harder than most people think to keep up with a regular
schedule, so use care when making commitments to your readers about
how often they will hear from you.
No matter what type of information you send, how soon you send
specific types of information will make a huge difference to your
success.
As with any relationship, there needs to be a warm-up period where
your list members get to know you, and you get to know them a bit as
well.
I was watching a movie the other day where the male character stepped
up to a beautiful woman and said something like “I could waste both
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our times with small talk and be charming, but what say that we both
save that time and just make out (that’s the clean version) right now?”
How many of you reading this right now think he was slapped?
You BET he was slapped, and rightly so.
The problem is obvious; he made his big move too soon. He need to
get to know the young lady first, and let her get to know him, then let
things progress to where the idea of becoming more friendly seemed
natural.
And so it is with your list. The fact that they subscribed does not
mean that you now have permission to blast them with every offer in
your marketing arsenal.
It does mean that you have permission to begin a relationship
with them, and, as that relationship progresses, ask for the order.
I know one very well known marketer (who asked me not to share his
name on this subject) who sends 14 weeks of completely free
information with nary a hint of wanting to make a sale.
His belief is that doing it this way establishes so much credibility that
readers will literally jump on any offer he makes from that point
forward. And, honestly, they do.
What about you? How should you ease in to the fact that you want to
sell your list member something? Very few of us can wait 14 weeks
to make an offer.
Most of us need sales now.
My tests have revealed that there is a natural rhythm to sending
messages that works very well for most lists.
The method is to send one informative message (which could be an
article or a review for example) and send one sales message about
the topic of the article or review to your list every week.
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This “two messages a week” method works incredibly well. The first
message points out the problem while the second message offers a
solution to the problem.
The secret to making this technique work is to provide a partial solution
in your first message and then offer to fully solve that problem with
the product recommendation.
This is the essence of what Jimmy Brown calls “useful but incomplete”
article writing.
Of course, my strong recommendation is that you only offer products
that you’ve used or products with which you have very close
secondhand knowledge.
No matter what method you choose to send your information, being
very consistent in your form and approach will help you build
credibility over time, and that will translate into more sales, which is a
good thing!
When To Send It
Ah, the great debate on when to send. Some marketers are famous for
saying that there are only certain days of the week that work for
sending, as if they knew you personally and knew anything at all about
your business.
Is there a certain day of the week that is better than others? Not for
me, but this is a decision that only you can make for your own
business. Happily, you can test various schedules and learn what works
best in your business.
NOTE: I do think that Monday morning is a bad time for any email to
arrive. I’ve yet to run a successful test with email arriving Monday
morning, but Monday afternoons work very well for us.
The key here is to think about your audience. You must think about
when they are going to have the most available free time to read your
email, and send at those times.
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If you market to business professionals, it is a good bet that they
will read their email at work, not at home. In this case, you’ll want your
email to arrive during the day.
If you market to people who work at home, or want to, it’s safe to
think that they will read their email late at night (a great argument for
short emails) or over the weekend.
If you work with another very specialize group (for example, math
teachers) you can poll them to discover when they prefer to receive
email from you.
Of course, as with all things, you must test to find the rhythm that is
best for your list.
While there is no best time that will work for everyone, there are some
general observations that can be made about when to send
messages, and when to avoid sending them.
• Monday morning is a bad time for email to arrive. Weekend
email is piled up and your valuable email could be deleted by
mistake, as people are in a hurry. Bad, bad Monday.
• Friday is a great time to distribute a free download. Since
people have a bit more computer time on the weekends, the
freshness of the download will serve you well as they find
themselves with time to actually read what you gave them.
• Money saving offers are very effective toward the
beginning of the month, when people are feeling the pinch
from the tiny amount of money they have left over after their
check from the first of the month.
• The best time of the month to sell anything is generally
between the 16th and the 20th. The reason for this is that most
of us still are paid in the 1st and 16th. Since studies reveal that the
biggest bills are usually payable between the 1st and 15th, the
paycheck from the 16th will contain the highest amount of
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disposable income.
• People are at their computers less in the summer, so you
must work harder to reach them. The period during the middle of
the week is best, since most people travel on weekends in order
to take advantage of low weekend rates.
These are broad generalizations that offer you some guidance to begin,
but the real power comes when you learn how YOUR list
responds.
Once that happens, you will be able to reliably predict when to send
offers, when to send reminders, and will even be able to forecast your
sales results based on your intimate knowledge of how your list
behaves.
HOT TIP: Be sure to test the delivery speed of your email service
provider. I’ve seen delivery time range from instant (with Aweber) to
several days (with a hosting company that shall go unnamed). The key is
to KNOW when your email will arrive so that you can control when you
send your messages.
When you reach that point, you will have true, long-lasting
marketing power and begin to experience the freedom that working
online can bring.
How To Send It
For my money there is one supplier that stands so far above the rest,
that choosing them isn’t much of a choice. That vendor is Aweber.
Aweber has been online for many years now. Their customer service is
outstanding, their interface easy to understand, and they keep up with
the latest rules and laws, and protect their customers by informing
them of changes.
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But what makes them superior is their delivery. No one delivers like
Aweber. I can send to my lists and start seeing sales in less than 10
minutes.
No doubt in my mind, Aweber is the best.
Other options open to you for sending your messages include …
• From your own computer – Not recommended for many
reasons, including tying up your computer during the send and
limitations your ISP most likely has on volume of mail sent.
• From a script on your server – This used to be the most
common method and is the most cost-effective since you buy the
script once and use it forever. AutoResponse Plus and VarPro are
the best known in this category.
• From an autoresponder company – This is the choice I make
because it’s so easy and effective. If you go this route, expect to
pay for the service. I like using services because the burden of
maintenance and upgrades rests on their shoulders, not mine.
• From a bulk mail company – There are companies that
specialize in simply sending bulk mail. Almost all of these are
“offshore” and I’ve yet to find one I like. WARNING: Using these
companies could label you as a spammer!
• From your shopping cart – An appealing and cost effective
option, the thing to watch here is broadcast times. If your
cart can provide reliable and efficient broadcast times, or if you
can learn to work around their average delay, this is a super
option as it integrates so well with the other cart functions.
But be aware that carts usually charge by the number of clients,
and running up a large list on a cart can be cost-prohibitive.
No matter the method you choose, there are certain features you’re
going to want to have. Even if you don’t need every one of these
features today, you will want them in your arsenal for when your list
marketing becomes more sophisticated, which it will.
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• Multi-part mime – This means that you can send HTML and plain
text at the same time, and let the readers’ email program
determine which version they see.
WARNING: Never send HTML email alone without a text version
using multi-part mime. Email that is all HTML is seen as spam by
most spam filters and your email could be blocked.
• Unsubscribe on subscribe – A confusing term that simply
means a reader will be removed from list A when they join list B.
There are many uses for this, the most common being moving
someone from a “prospect” series of messages to a “customer”
series of messages based on a successful order.
• Open and click tracking – While it’s wise to use an ad tracker of
your own, you will want to track how many people open your
message. To do that, you have to send in HTML or multi-part
format.
Knowing how many people are opening your messages is a mustdo
in the list world, but many marketers make a lot of money
without knowing this. Still, it’s better to be able to know if you
want that.
While all of the ins and outs of the CAN SPAM laws are beyond the
scope of this report, you will need to comply with that law and any that
come after it.
Most ethical marketers would comply by just doing what comes
naturally (taking people off the list when requested, using honest
subject lines) but let me stress that you MUST know and comply with
CAN SPAM and all such legislation.
Formatting Your Message
How you format the messages you send has more to do with your
personality than anything else. Your messages should reflect your
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normal style of doing business. I think it’s when we try to imitate
others to achieve an effect that we fail.
If you are a short and to the point type of person, make the messages
you send reflect your “just the facts” thinking.
If you are more of a “explain it all” person, make the messages you
send fit that style.
If you are artsy or graphical by all means use pretty stationary or other
formatting to express your inner joy.
The key is to be you!
When it comes to formatting, you have a few options, including:
• Plain text – Looks like any other email you receive. Easy to write
and format, it poses few deliverability problems if written well.
• HTML – Your messages can look like plain text with some light
bolding, or look like a full-blown web page with Google AdSense
type ads at the top or down the sides. They say these sell well,
but I’ve yet to see it.
WARNING: Never send HTML email alone without a text version
using multi-part mime. Email that is all HTML is seen as spam by
most spam filters and your email could be blocked.
• You can use a HTML template that makes your message look like
an offline magazine. Some people really like this because they can
sectionalize their message and get more content out there.
• Short teaser messages that point to a web site. This is a
favorite blogger trick. Since the weakness of blogs is that you
have to remember to return to them, some bloggers will send a
short message “teasing” the reader back to the blog. This can
work well for regular websites too.
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• Long messages work well with a very faithful audience. Just like
long sales letters sell more (they really do) long emails can work
very well when your audience knows you already.
Our testing revealed that a message length of under 300 words
works best. I try very hard to avoid going over this number now,
because that is what my audience responds to.
On the other hand, a friend of mine sends 1500 word messages
routinely with great results. His audience expects this and would
probably panic if he sent a “short” 300 word-long message.
It simply depends on your audience, and how you have developed
the relationship with them. My friend’s audience expects him to wax
on, and would probably be panicked by a 300-word message.
One thing that is universally true is that you must manage your
message width.
I use a character width of 60, which means a hard return is inserted
after 60 characters across the page. I have found that this width
accommodates almost all email programs, and my messages don’t
word-wrap badly.
When I was a Windows user I used NoteTab for messages. I use the Pro
version but you can get the free version if you like, at this site. http://
www.fookes.com/
Now that I’m a Mac guy I use BBEdit. It costs a bit but there is a great
free app called TextWrangler you can get at http://
www.barebones.com/
As with all things having to do with your list, knowing what they
respond to best is what should drive your formatting decision.
It will take a bit of time and some trial and error to learn what they
want but it will be well worth the effort.
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Experiment with short vs. long, plain text vs. HTML messages, then
keep a close eye on your link trackers and you will soon discover the
formula that’s right for you.
Conclusion and Further Action
While you don’t need a big mailing list to make money online, it is a
very good idea to begin building your mailing list now, and begin
developing a trust relationship with the members of that list.
You’ve heard it said that most marketers could be completely wiped out
and easily rebuild their business using nothing more than their mailing
list.
While that might be a bit of hype, it is true that a well-cultivated mailing
list can be the most valuable asset a marketer can own.
Building and cultivating a mailing list is easy when you incorporate the
tasks needed to do that into your every day business practice.
If your site sees only 100 visitors a day, and you convert 20 of them
into subscribers, in a year’s time you will have a mailing list of over
7000.
Whether you can make a full time living with a list of 7000, or 70,000,
depends on how you develop your relationship with them, the types of
products you offer, and how faithful you are in your marketing efforts.
No matter the size, see your list for what it is … a group of individuals
who will reward your hard work by buying your products (and those
your recommend) time and time again, for many years to come.
And that is a beautiful thing indeed!
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