Business 81 - 90: Create Your Own Opt-In Email List

Let me reveal to you exactly what I do step-by-step to make money online. If you pay careful attention, this could quite easily be the most important book that you will ever read in your online career.

I could go into a complicated discussion of what this person does or what that person does. There are a lot of little twists people do in the marketing to make it more effective. You should never stop learning...BUT what I am going to show you today is a SIMPLE system everybody who I know that is making money online is following!

If you would like to learn my simple 3 step formula for creating wealth online...Keep Reading:

1. Generate Traffic for Your Business

You have to get your business exposed first. This is also the biggest question I am constantly asked by people, "How do I get more traffic to my site?"

The secret to getting traffic is actually so simple most people miss it. If you want traffic at your web site, give people a reason to come to your website! What do you give to them once they get there?

The best thing of all is give them FREE CONTENT. I am not talking about just free reports either, though that is a very good start. Find something in your industry that everyone needs online (Free SE submissions, FREE Listing of Ezines, FREE Training Course Online, etc.). Pick a HOT idea that is going to get people to link to you.

If you spend enough time at forums and talking with people in your industry, you will find a HOT need everyone has that you can offer to them for free at your site. Once you have something like this, your traffic counter will go through the roof!

Plus, you can use other Traffic Plug-ins such as:

Free Classified Sites
Free-For-All Link Sites
Postcard Sites
Magazine Sites
Message Boards
Chat Rooms
etc.

2. Start Your Own Opt-In Mailing List.

Start your own Opt-In Mailing List, But do Not SPAM. For those who don't know what "Spam" is, it is the practice of sending email to thousands or millions of people who have not requested it or have never contacted your company before.

I know you get "Spammed"....everyone does. Personally, I receive around 50 or so a day of these emails selling whatever product or service they have to offer. I delete most of them with barely a glance, yet they keep on coming.

They are usually (though not all of the time) poorly written and full of extremely hyped messages. One will be for bulk email products. The next might be for search engine submissions (I wonder why they have to bulk for it if they are so good at search engine submissions?).

The list goes on and on. I get ads for dolls, cars, credit cards, merchant accounts, and more. We won't even talk about the worst stuff which is sent out. One piece after another has to be deleted...and it just keeps coming.

Why So Much Bulk "Spam" Email?

If everyone is deleting it, then why do they keep sending it? It's simple. Although the response rates are extremely low, they still do get orders for their product or service. Their financial cost in sending it is almost nothing, so it is looked upon as a good advertising vehicle. Some sales are better than nothing...Right?

Wrong...In all of the offers about bulk emailing, notice that you never seem to receive the other side of the story. What happens after you send bulk email?

You could lose your local Internet Service Provider, your web sites, your email addresses, and more. Just a few complaints (which you will get even if you try to hide) and your server will cancel your account.

This doesn't even cover your reputation or the legal ramifications of sending unsolicited bulk email. Currently, several states have laws on the books or in the works which can fine you $500 or more for each piece of bulk email you send without a prior business relationship.

Bulk email just isn't worth the ramifications. If you have considered bulk email, don't do it. There are SO many other more effective ways to market your product or service on the net that it is not necessary to take the risks that go with bulk email.

"What Should You Do?"

I can tell you in one sentence what you should do instead of bulk email... "You should start building Your Own Opt-In Email List TODAY!"

Email Marketing is effective. That is why so many people are using it in the "Spam" arena. It can produce sales constantly in your business!

Anytime I see someone trying to build a business online without developing any type of Opt-In list I know they are shooting themselves in the foot. It is possible to build a business online without a list, but WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO?

Email is free to send out. Even if you have to purchase a listserver or some other type of application to do your email, we are talking about only a couple hundred dollars a year to send out UNLIMITED communications to your prospects and customers. Go to your local post office and ask them if you can send out as much mail as you want whenever you want for one low lump sum. I guarantee you will be laughed at!

Opt-In email is the wave of the future online. The easiest way to do that is through your own ezine. If you don't have one now, YOU are going to have an ezine in the future of Internet marketing if you want to stay competitive. The easiest way to set one up is to use Listbot at http://www.listbot.com who will give you one absolutely free!

You can offer your ezine monthly, weekly, or even daily, whichever one is best for you. If you can't write your own articles, there are dozens of people who will let you use theirs for free. Just ask! It is so simple to run your ezine, and so profitable, you have NO excuse for not doing so if you are a serious Internet businessperson.

3. Use the Seven Profit Streams of Every Opt-In List.

Your Opt-In Mailing list have 7 Profit streams. In this short space I am going to mention just 2 of them which can produce a GUARANTEED residual monthly income for you no matter what type of business you are in.

The first monthly profit stream from your ezine is your own products or services. Every month you can offer a special offer on a NEW product or service OR offer a special bonus to go along with the product.

Whereas bulk email has horrible response rates, Opt-In email with your subscribers has been known to produce response rates of 1% to 10%! Think about it.

If you have a $97 product which you offering to a list of only 2,000 people, and pull in a response rate of 1%, you would have a gross income of $1940! If you received a 2% response rate, you would have made $3880! PLUS, You can do this every MONTH or even every week!

What if your list had 50,000 members on it? I know of mailing lists online that have 600,000 or more members on them. Only having 2,000 subscribers is honestly a pretty small list and can be built in around 2 - 3 months even without much of an advertising budget.

The second profit stream from your ezine is classified advertising. As your list grows, you are going to want to give people the opportunity to purchase classified advertising space. If you are selling ads for $20 a week and sell 10 ads per week, you would be making $800 a month in classified advertising. This isn't a big sum of money, BUT it is a nice residual income to have coming in every month.

Now, think about when you put the other profit streams to work for you in your Opt-In list...what will happen then?

Usually when I tell people to start their Own Opt-In List, they give me one of three excuses about why they can't do it:

1. They don't know how.

I usually am the least patient with this excuse, because everyone of us had to learn at some point in time what to do. I don't think anyone jumped on the Internet and all of a sudden knew exactly what to do every step of the way. As a matter of fact, I know they haven't.

There are many resources online to learn how to start your own ezine. Dozens of ezines come out every week talking about the subject...not the least of which is the one we publish called "Web Gold." 

Ignorance is no excuse. You can learn how to do your own Opt-In list and you can learn how to profit from it. Don't let me hear you use that excuse!

2. They can't come up with that much content.

Maybe, you don't believe you can come up with that much content, because you aren't a writer. First of all, I hope you know a lot about whatever subject it is that you deal with in your business. Whatever you are selling...whatever problems you are solving...can be the basis for much of your content.

The second thing you can do is use other people's content. Hundreds of ezine publishers will allow you to use their articles in your ezine as long as you leave their contact information attached to the bottom of all of the articles. All you have to do is ask and most of them will give you their articles free to use. I know I will!

3. There are already too many ezines and newsletters out there.

Who said your Opt-In Email List had to be an ezine? When I speak of Opt-In Email, it doesn't have to just mean ezine, although this is the most popular application. I am going to give you 10 different Opt-In List ideas that you can get started using right this minute.

One admonition I want to leave you with though is to get started TODAY! If you don't get started in one way or another today in either the development of an idea or in the actual set-up of your idea, you by odds will NEVER do it. Owning your own Opt-In list is so important to the effectiveness of your business online that I have to stress you need to get started today if you want to succeed in your online business.

This is the basis of most Opt-In lists. You can start an ezine on any subject (an ezine is simply an online newsletter which is sent out by email). In your ezine, you will be providing free information about whatever your specific subject is. For samples of ezines, go to http://www.dominis.com/Zines/ (there are over 3,000 here). Subscribe to a few of these and start thinking of ideas of what you can do in your ezine.

Samples of this type of Opt-In list include "Joke of the Day" or "Recipe of the Day." Create any subject and put it in this blank: "_______ Tip of the Day." Then, go around and find a specific tip for each day to send to your list. Build a daily relationship with your prospects with this simple idea.

If you can't come up with another idea for an ezine list or you just don't want to take time for a weekly or monthly mailing, send out update notices whenever your site is redone. Whenever you add new products or new services, send out a short notice to all of your subscribers.

NOTE: For this type of list, you will definitely have to include a Free bonus for people who subscribe and make sure to mention the bonus whenever you send out your updates so people can remember subscribing.

This is another simple idea to use for an Opt-In list. Send out lists of resources to use in your industry to all of your subscribers. What makes it so simple is that you can save sites you visit in your favorite places as you are studying your market online. Then, use your favorite places resource as the basis for the lists you send out to everyone.

I have noticed this format being used more and more often lately. Basically, all you do is send out a daily business diary of what went on in your business that day. You may say how you find a new supplier, made so many sales in this market, gave out free information on a certain subject, etc. The people who use diaries of their businesses can often build a strong bond and relationship with their readers if they are high quality publications full of good information.

If used appropriately, this may be the best format of all. You send out your weekly or monthly letter to your subscribers in a personal format (it is best if you use a CGI program or listserver which personalizes the emails). They write good information their readers can use and then use P.S. for sales tools, endorsements, etc. Ads are rarely used in a friendly letter format, because you want to keep the personal touch like it was a letter written just for them.

Create a 6 week, 12 week, 24 week, etc. class which is sent out by email every week. On this one, you would want to make sure you use some type of automated follow-up autoresponder such as AWeber to do the actual work. Then, you save the email addresses once they have went through the entire class and send them out updates on the information or further training along with advertising for your business or joint ventures deals you have set-up.

Many webmasters are beginning to move over to ezines which are published on a web site in a magazine format. This way they can include pictures, formatted text, anything else you can have on a web site. The advantage of this method is that you can include more information on topics in an easier to read format. The disadvantage is that not as many people will read it, because they have to go to the site every month instead of just getting it in their mailbox. If you use this method, make sure to still keep a list of email subscribers so that you can tell them when the new issue is ready.

If you would prefer to do an audio presentation every month instead of writing, then you may want to think about using Real Audio to create web site audio which can be updated every month. Then, send out an email to your list and let them know when the new monthly message is up and what benefits are in it for them.

The same idea can be followed using video as using audio. The major problem with both of these methods though is the slowness of many people's connections and the fact that they will have to install additional software, even though it is free. As time progresses though, you can expect that both Audio and Video are going to become much more prevalent throughout the net.

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