A main use of a newsletter is to distribute information to your readers about your site including product announcements, site updates, news and more. For business or affiliate web sites the newsletter becomes a tool to remind your visitors about your site in order to bring them back or make a sale. Returning visitors are more focused on what your site has to offer. Also, the more your visitors come back, the more chance they will have to make a purchase. With this in mind consider designing your site with an easy provision for the visitors to sign up for or leave a newsletter mailing list. You must also have provisions to easily send to your entire mailing list.
Email Broadcast Services and Software - What to Look For
You can let a third party mailing service handle the processing of your mail or you can purchase software to do it. A good web service company will manage the mailing list for subscription, unsubcription, bounced email and for archiving previous issues of your news letter. Many the third party mailing service providers send an email requiring you potential subscribers to confirm the subscription. This is known as double opt-in and helps stop any accusation of spamming.
Archiving previous of a newsletter helps in the promotion of the newsletter, as visitors are more willing and convinced if they know what information they are going to get from your newsletter. As the subscriber already knows what he is opting-in for, the attrition rate falls down dramatically.
Some of the disadvantages of paying a service to help you can be added cost, added advertisements, or lack of total control. You can get over these problems if your web service provider provides a mailing list service. Some of the good web hosts and web service providers have very good automated solutions for handling subscriptions, unsubcriptions and request for confirmation without much hassle on your side. These pay services are usually advertisement free. Depending on the automation process you can have a better degree of control over the mailing list like adding, deleting or blocking certain subscribers and the ability to change the confirmation method and message.
Newsletter Content
Your newsletter should contain information useful to the reader. It is a good idea not to send a newsletter if you don’t have much data. Newsletters that don't contain anything useful to the readers are likely to annoy recipients instead of encouraging them to become customers.
Avoid Spam Filters
Extra care should be taken to see to it that subscribers’ ISPs, email service providers or his or her own email software does not block your newsletter.
The main reasons email newsletters are blocked are:
1. Offensive material or words that trip spam filters
2. Words like FREE that spam filters are activated by
3. Some software (like Hotmail) blocks mail that is not directly addressed to the recipient
4. Sending emails from an ISP that is known to allow spam
Format of Your Newsletter - Text, HTML or Both
The format of the newsletter helps define its acceptability by the reader. The newsletter can be sent as a plain text document or in an HTML format. The HTML format lets you add color, graphics and fonts. For large lists, HTML emails can cost more due to increased bandwidth cost, but it is often worth the extra money. Better email marketing software allows email to be sent in both text and HTML format. This is ideal because not all email clients allow HTML emails to be displayed. By using a service that provides both, you can get the best of both worlds.
Conclusion
Having a newsletter on your site can increase traffic and sales. Some sites make more money from their newsletters than their web sites themselves. Using the right email software or service provider can make the task as streamlined and efficient as possible.
Sunday 3 January 2010
The Importance Of An Email List For Your Online Business And How To Create One
For any business whether offline or online you need customers. It's much easier to get potential customers into your online store, or business website, by a number of different means, search engine traffic, adverts of many kinds, or from links on other sites. It doesn't matter how they got there in the first place, as long as they buy, you can capture some details then and send them updates on your later offers or deals. But what about if these visitors don't buy, how do you bring them back again if you offer a better deal in the future, or have new products they may be interested in?
That's where an email list becomes your best friend, and online businesses biggest asset. You need to capture those email addresses before the visitor leaves. This is so important that the big name online marketers make building a subscriber list one of their main activities. Some of the figures bandied about concerning email lists may be erroneous, but from my own personal experience, they're not too far out, so I will repeat them here.
Figures quoted for the value of each subscriber range from 50 cents to 1 dollar per subscriber per month, so the larger the subscriber list you have the more you can make each month, you do the maths for yourself. There is a caveat to this, your subscriber list needs to be targeted, ie it's no use trying to sell high heeled shoes to a predominately male audience, or sending your best ad for gardening tools to people who sign up on a site about rap music, if they have little interest you won't make anything. It's also claimed that sales increase after the potential customer has received several emails from an online business, and the extra sales are in the order of over 50% of customers purchase when they are more comfortable with the seller following receipt of the emails.
So now we know the value of having an email list, how do we start to build our own subscriber base?
The easiest method is to use an online "autoresponder" such as getresponse.com which you can preload with messages ready to send to anyone who signs up. Then you will need a way for your website visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or sales letter series, all good autoresponders will give you some html code ready to paste into your webpages into which visitors can place their name and email address as a minimum, and some will allow you to include boxes for more information should you require it.
You now need to post this code into a visible spot in your webpage(s) and make it as easy as possible for your visitor to sign up for your email subscriber list. Now you have a way to capture contact details to give you a second chance at making a sale even after your visitor has left your site. So that's it sit and wait for those subscribers to sign up.
Hold on a minute, why would they want to sign up for your newsletter, or email series?
You need to give the visitor a good reason to subscribe to your list, after all they probably already get enough emails from spam, friends sending them the latest joke, and other online businesses who have their address, so you need to sweeten the deal in their favour. One of the easiest ways to attract subscribers is to offer a free gift for subscribing. The gift can be as simple as making the emails a course to teach them something about the topic of your website, a free ebook (there are plenty available on a variety of subjects if you don't have one to give away already, search in your favourite search engine) or you could offer a competition where subscribers can win one of your products. Whatever you do, try to make it an offer the visitor will find it hard to turn down,and they will subscribe to get it.
So these are the reasons to start your own subscriber list, and an overview of how to start getting subscribers, but what sort of emails should you send as your list grows?
Obviously if you are just selling something, and want to remind visitors why they went to your site in the first place, then send them some information about your product(s) in a series of emails, and include a reminder of the original link so they can go back to review the salespage and hopefully buy. There is a more subtle way though. Information is why most people are looking on the internet, so it makes sense to make your emails informational, and gently bring your sales pitch to the subscribers as part of the information. If you don't have time to write your own informational articles, you can search in article directories for ones written on the topic your site and newsletter deal with, just follow the directories terms for using the articles. These articles can then be preloaded into your autoresponder along with your additional promotional text, ready to be sent. Once it is setup, it can be all left to run automatically.
Hopefully you will now see the benefits of using email newsletters to increase your online business, or website visits, and see that it's not too difficult to get started. An article of this type can only give you an overview of the basics of email subscriber lists for online businesses, but there is plenty more available online, and I'd recommend you to find out more about it, especially how to avoid spam complaints. But most importantly, start your own email subscriber list today, and watch your business grow.
That's where an email list becomes your best friend, and online businesses biggest asset. You need to capture those email addresses before the visitor leaves. This is so important that the big name online marketers make building a subscriber list one of their main activities. Some of the figures bandied about concerning email lists may be erroneous, but from my own personal experience, they're not too far out, so I will repeat them here.
Figures quoted for the value of each subscriber range from 50 cents to 1 dollar per subscriber per month, so the larger the subscriber list you have the more you can make each month, you do the maths for yourself. There is a caveat to this, your subscriber list needs to be targeted, ie it's no use trying to sell high heeled shoes to a predominately male audience, or sending your best ad for gardening tools to people who sign up on a site about rap music, if they have little interest you won't make anything. It's also claimed that sales increase after the potential customer has received several emails from an online business, and the extra sales are in the order of over 50% of customers purchase when they are more comfortable with the seller following receipt of the emails.
So now we know the value of having an email list, how do we start to build our own subscriber base?
The easiest method is to use an online "autoresponder" such as getresponse.com which you can preload with messages ready to send to anyone who signs up. Then you will need a way for your website visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or sales letter series, all good autoresponders will give you some html code ready to paste into your webpages into which visitors can place their name and email address as a minimum, and some will allow you to include boxes for more information should you require it.
You now need to post this code into a visible spot in your webpage(s) and make it as easy as possible for your visitor to sign up for your email subscriber list. Now you have a way to capture contact details to give you a second chance at making a sale even after your visitor has left your site. So that's it sit and wait for those subscribers to sign up.
Hold on a minute, why would they want to sign up for your newsletter, or email series?
You need to give the visitor a good reason to subscribe to your list, after all they probably already get enough emails from spam, friends sending them the latest joke, and other online businesses who have their address, so you need to sweeten the deal in their favour. One of the easiest ways to attract subscribers is to offer a free gift for subscribing. The gift can be as simple as making the emails a course to teach them something about the topic of your website, a free ebook (there are plenty available on a variety of subjects if you don't have one to give away already, search in your favourite search engine) or you could offer a competition where subscribers can win one of your products. Whatever you do, try to make it an offer the visitor will find it hard to turn down,and they will subscribe to get it.
So these are the reasons to start your own subscriber list, and an overview of how to start getting subscribers, but what sort of emails should you send as your list grows?
Obviously if you are just selling something, and want to remind visitors why they went to your site in the first place, then send them some information about your product(s) in a series of emails, and include a reminder of the original link so they can go back to review the salespage and hopefully buy. There is a more subtle way though. Information is why most people are looking on the internet, so it makes sense to make your emails informational, and gently bring your sales pitch to the subscribers as part of the information. If you don't have time to write your own informational articles, you can search in article directories for ones written on the topic your site and newsletter deal with, just follow the directories terms for using the articles. These articles can then be preloaded into your autoresponder along with your additional promotional text, ready to be sent. Once it is setup, it can be all left to run automatically.
Hopefully you will now see the benefits of using email newsletters to increase your online business, or website visits, and see that it's not too difficult to get started. An article of this type can only give you an overview of the basics of email subscriber lists for online businesses, but there is plenty more available online, and I'd recommend you to find out more about it, especially how to avoid spam complaints. But most importantly, start your own email subscriber list today, and watch your business grow.
Building Email Marketing Highly Targeted Opt in List
The following paragraphs summarize the work of Opt in List experts who are completely familiar with all the aspects of Opt in List. Heed their advice to avoid any Opt in List surprises.
Are you successful with your Internet business? Better yet, do you think you are successful with your online business? When most online entrepreneurs are asked with these questions, they often brush it off. This is because most of them, who have not yet realize the right way to succeed in Internet Marketing, continue to believe that the mere fact that they have a website is already enough to succeed on the Internet.
The truth is, they all end up very upset because they fail to realize the secret behind the success in Internet Marketing.
Having a website is not a guarantee that your online business will succeed. How will you succeed if people will not realize that your business exist online? The key to Internet marketing is to get your business noticed.
An effective way to do this is to build an opt-in list. In fact, most of the people who are already experts in Internet marketing will tell you that building a highly targeted opt in list is the most effective and important tool in Internet marketing.
Basically, an opt in list is a list of email addresses of people who have agreed to obtain any kind of information from online businesses like you. The term “opt in” means that you have their permission to send to them whatever newsletters, brochures, or promotions that you have in your online business.
It is extremely important that you have their permission first before you send them information because unsolicited emails will be regarded as spam, and spamming is an illegal activity in the Net.
Because of the feasibility of building an opt in list on Internet marketing, most of the online entrepreneurs consider it as the most treasured tool online. They need this list in order to get the consumer’s attention and sustain interest.
By creating an opt in list, you will be able to maintain solid contact with your previous buyers at the same time boost your sales because of the fact that you have a sure target market always ready to purchase items from you.
Opt in list is considered to be the most important item in an Internet marketer. In fact, if in case something bad happens like emergencies and catastrophes and they could only save one item, it would be their opt in list saved on a backup disk.
Just imagine how these people value their opt in list. If this is the case, then it must be really something, right?
So, for people who are not yet aware of the importance of building a highly targeted opt in list and would like to know how to build them, here are some tips that could be very useful.
1. Decide on your niche market or your target market.
Is everything making sense so far? If not, I'm sure that with just a little more reading, all the facts will fall into place.
It is extremely important to know your target market in order to focus on something. It would be really confusing and time consuming if you will build an opt in list with no particular market in mind.
Moreover, having a niche market would bring more focus on your marketing campaigns and would derive better results because you have direct you emails to people who would most likely be interested in them.
2. Be sure that your selected target market is available in the Internet.
The mere acquisition of a niche market is not a guarantee that you can already start building your opt in list. Since, the concept of opt in list is specifically generated to aid in the growth of the Internet market of a particular entrepreneur, it is important to have a niche market that is available through the Internet.
The concept is basically simple, how can you promote your online business if your niche market is not available in the Internet? Hence, it is extremely important to verify if your target market is available online.
3. Verify if your chosen target market is income-generating market.
Building a highly targeted opt in list will just go to waste if your niche market is not generating any income at all.
Try to verify their income-generating potential through the search engines, wherein you will find some paid ads related to the keywords you have searched. This would only mean that if somebody is willing to pay to advertise focusing on the same target market that you have in mind, chances are, you will be able to reap positive results on your target market.
4. Generate solutions to the problems of your target market by using Internet forum.
Creating this type of forum will initiate the underlying solutions that will answer to most of your target market’s problem.
Through their posts and threads, you will be able to identify your target market’s problem and will be able to come up with a great solution. In turn, it will be very handy when you make your opt in list.
Indeed, the success of an online business or Internet marketing greatly depends on the opt in list. It is where the online businesses could come up with newsletters that would allow them to promote their products at the same time create the need for it. In turn, it will generate more income and make more money.
As they say, money is in the list that’s why most businesses consider opt in list as valuable as gold.
Those who only know one or two facts about Opt in List can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you're learning here. http://www.article-ecommerce.com/articles/Email-Marketing
Are you successful with your Internet business? Better yet, do you think you are successful with your online business? When most online entrepreneurs are asked with these questions, they often brush it off. This is because most of them, who have not yet realize the right way to succeed in Internet Marketing, continue to believe that the mere fact that they have a website is already enough to succeed on the Internet.
The truth is, they all end up very upset because they fail to realize the secret behind the success in Internet Marketing.
Having a website is not a guarantee that your online business will succeed. How will you succeed if people will not realize that your business exist online? The key to Internet marketing is to get your business noticed.
An effective way to do this is to build an opt-in list. In fact, most of the people who are already experts in Internet marketing will tell you that building a highly targeted opt in list is the most effective and important tool in Internet marketing.
Basically, an opt in list is a list of email addresses of people who have agreed to obtain any kind of information from online businesses like you. The term “opt in” means that you have their permission to send to them whatever newsletters, brochures, or promotions that you have in your online business.
It is extremely important that you have their permission first before you send them information because unsolicited emails will be regarded as spam, and spamming is an illegal activity in the Net.
Because of the feasibility of building an opt in list on Internet marketing, most of the online entrepreneurs consider it as the most treasured tool online. They need this list in order to get the consumer’s attention and sustain interest.
By creating an opt in list, you will be able to maintain solid contact with your previous buyers at the same time boost your sales because of the fact that you have a sure target market always ready to purchase items from you.
Opt in list is considered to be the most important item in an Internet marketer. In fact, if in case something bad happens like emergencies and catastrophes and they could only save one item, it would be their opt in list saved on a backup disk.
Just imagine how these people value their opt in list. If this is the case, then it must be really something, right?
So, for people who are not yet aware of the importance of building a highly targeted opt in list and would like to know how to build them, here are some tips that could be very useful.
1. Decide on your niche market or your target market.
Is everything making sense so far? If not, I'm sure that with just a little more reading, all the facts will fall into place.
It is extremely important to know your target market in order to focus on something. It would be really confusing and time consuming if you will build an opt in list with no particular market in mind.
Moreover, having a niche market would bring more focus on your marketing campaigns and would derive better results because you have direct you emails to people who would most likely be interested in them.
2. Be sure that your selected target market is available in the Internet.
The mere acquisition of a niche market is not a guarantee that you can already start building your opt in list. Since, the concept of opt in list is specifically generated to aid in the growth of the Internet market of a particular entrepreneur, it is important to have a niche market that is available through the Internet.
The concept is basically simple, how can you promote your online business if your niche market is not available in the Internet? Hence, it is extremely important to verify if your target market is available online.
3. Verify if your chosen target market is income-generating market.
Building a highly targeted opt in list will just go to waste if your niche market is not generating any income at all.
Try to verify their income-generating potential through the search engines, wherein you will find some paid ads related to the keywords you have searched. This would only mean that if somebody is willing to pay to advertise focusing on the same target market that you have in mind, chances are, you will be able to reap positive results on your target market.
4. Generate solutions to the problems of your target market by using Internet forum.
Creating this type of forum will initiate the underlying solutions that will answer to most of your target market’s problem.
Through their posts and threads, you will be able to identify your target market’s problem and will be able to come up with a great solution. In turn, it will be very handy when you make your opt in list.
Indeed, the success of an online business or Internet marketing greatly depends on the opt in list. It is where the online businesses could come up with newsletters that would allow them to promote their products at the same time create the need for it. In turn, it will generate more income and make more money.
As they say, money is in the list that’s why most businesses consider opt in list as valuable as gold.
Those who only know one or two facts about Opt in List can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you're learning here. http://www.article-ecommerce.com/articles/Email-Marketing
Always collect an email address
The power of collecting an email address is amazing. As I mentioned in a prior article, you can expect between 1 and 10 percent of visitors to make a purchase on their initial visit to your website (conversion rate) and between 10 and 33 percent to give you their email address (signup rate). Often visitors weren’t intending to buy any product but were after more information on your subject. Studies show it often takes 7 communications before a customer will buy a product. Believe me, after selling websites, it’s very rare to get a ‘yes’ on the first visit. Websites can be quite complex so maybe it’s not the best example but people just need more information and confidence before they’re ready to buy.
We need to offer the customer an awesome product that they simply can’t say no to for them to give us their email. Often people have no intention of handing out their email address but a careful planned report or mini-course that is instantly delivered to them is often incentive enough for them to build that bridge.
The method of collecting email addresses is called an autoresponder. That is, a database that stores names and email addresses and can send out pre-programmed email addresses to recipients. These can be customised and sent instantly, 1 day, 5 days and anywhere up to 10 years after the initial email was collected. Very powerful and effective. Third party autoresponders that sit on a separate server are the most effective and you can generate your own signup form to place on your website.
You can also send an email to your database at any time. Let’s look at an example of the power of an email database. Let’s say you attract 200 visitors each day (easily possible) and have a signup rate of 15%, so that’s 30 email addresses a day, and after a year you have 10 950. If you mailout a promotion for a course you have created that costs $97 and just 3% of your list signs up (quite reasonable), that’s an income of $31 864.50 just from one mailout. This profit is realised over a few days and a great example of the power of a distribution list and a value-adding product. So make sure you ask for that email address. Our goal is to add value for our customers so we need to work out what information will be useful to them and make it available. The easiest way to do that is via email.
We need to offer the customer an awesome product that they simply can’t say no to for them to give us their email. Often people have no intention of handing out their email address but a careful planned report or mini-course that is instantly delivered to them is often incentive enough for them to build that bridge.
The method of collecting email addresses is called an autoresponder. That is, a database that stores names and email addresses and can send out pre-programmed email addresses to recipients. These can be customised and sent instantly, 1 day, 5 days and anywhere up to 10 years after the initial email was collected. Very powerful and effective. Third party autoresponders that sit on a separate server are the most effective and you can generate your own signup form to place on your website.
You can also send an email to your database at any time. Let’s look at an example of the power of an email database. Let’s say you attract 200 visitors each day (easily possible) and have a signup rate of 15%, so that’s 30 email addresses a day, and after a year you have 10 950. If you mailout a promotion for a course you have created that costs $97 and just 3% of your list signs up (quite reasonable), that’s an income of $31 864.50 just from one mailout. This profit is realised over a few days and a great example of the power of a distribution list and a value-adding product. So make sure you ask for that email address. Our goal is to add value for our customers so we need to work out what information will be useful to them and make it available. The easiest way to do that is via email.
Don't Forget About Your Old Ezine Articles
It's over. You've written your ezine article, sent it out to some ezine publishers, posted it to some article banks and announcement groups, and have even had it published in a few ezines. Pretty good, huh! Now it's time to forget about that article and move on to the next one. Or is it?
Actually, if you forget about your article now you may be missing out on some of the most important benefits that can be gained from writing ezine articles. Listed below are 5 ways to get more benefits from your already published ezine articles.
1. Submit URLs of Published Article to Search Engines
Many times people will like your article enough to post it on their website. Once you find the URL where your article is published try submitting it to some search engines. The webmaster probably won't mind but a email asking for their permission can't hurt. Additionally, if your article is published in an ezine that is archived on a website you can submit the URL of the issue of the ezine that your article appeared in. If it's a well-designed site the search engines may except the submission and your article may start appearing in search results all over the Net.
I recommend using free search engine submission sites like: http://www.addme.com or http://www.submitexpress.com
2. Submit Article Bank URLs to Search Engines
When you post your articles to article banks like Ultimateprofits.com or Ezadsuccess.com, your articles are posted on their own webpage. Submitting the URL for this page to search engines can bring added readers to your writing. I tried this tip a while back and truthfully I forgot that I even did it. Recently, I was surprised to find that a few of the article bank URLs that I had submitted were actually in some of the major search engines!
3. Post Your Articles on Your Own Website
By posting your articles to your own website you are giving all visitors to your site a chance to read over and benefit from your writings. Having well-written, informative articles, that you've personally written, on your site can add to your credibility-which can increase sign-ups and sales.
4. Save All Articles and Promote Them Again in 6 Months/1 Year
New people are logging onto the World Wide Web each day. The ezines that run your articles now will have thousands more subscribers in a years time. Your article will be new to all these fresh faces. And even the people who read your article in the past will probably learn something from it the second time around as well. Of course, you'll want to be sure an update your article and maybe even add some new information.
5. Compile Your Past Articles Into an E-book
E-books are everywhere these days and for a good reason: People read them! After you have written a few articles you may have enough content to publish your own e-book. Then you can offer this e-book to subscribers or website visitors as a free gift. Or you can sell your e-book for a small fee.
**Bonus Tip** Always Include Good Resource Box
Whenever you write an article be sure to always include your resource box. This is the section at the end of the article where you talk about YOU. If people like your article they will look for your resource box to find out where they can get more information from you. Be sure to include at least one URL in your resource box. That way anytime your article is posted on a website you will have a link to one of your websites, which, coincidentally, will help out your websites search engine ranking if you follow tips #1 and #2 in this article.
So don't forget about those previously published articles you've got saved in Microsoft Word. Pull them out. Dust them off. Re-use them. Start on your E-book. And try and remember all the websites that have posted your articles. Get the URLs. Submit them to a few search engines. The benefits you receive may suprise you. And now, my resource box:
Actually, if you forget about your article now you may be missing out on some of the most important benefits that can be gained from writing ezine articles. Listed below are 5 ways to get more benefits from your already published ezine articles.
1. Submit URLs of Published Article to Search Engines
Many times people will like your article enough to post it on their website. Once you find the URL where your article is published try submitting it to some search engines. The webmaster probably won't mind but a email asking for their permission can't hurt. Additionally, if your article is published in an ezine that is archived on a website you can submit the URL of the issue of the ezine that your article appeared in. If it's a well-designed site the search engines may except the submission and your article may start appearing in search results all over the Net.
I recommend using free search engine submission sites like: http://www.addme.com or http://www.submitexpress.com
2. Submit Article Bank URLs to Search Engines
When you post your articles to article banks like Ultimateprofits.com or Ezadsuccess.com, your articles are posted on their own webpage. Submitting the URL for this page to search engines can bring added readers to your writing. I tried this tip a while back and truthfully I forgot that I even did it. Recently, I was surprised to find that a few of the article bank URLs that I had submitted were actually in some of the major search engines!
3. Post Your Articles on Your Own Website
By posting your articles to your own website you are giving all visitors to your site a chance to read over and benefit from your writings. Having well-written, informative articles, that you've personally written, on your site can add to your credibility-which can increase sign-ups and sales.
4. Save All Articles and Promote Them Again in 6 Months/1 Year
New people are logging onto the World Wide Web each day. The ezines that run your articles now will have thousands more subscribers in a years time. Your article will be new to all these fresh faces. And even the people who read your article in the past will probably learn something from it the second time around as well. Of course, you'll want to be sure an update your article and maybe even add some new information.
5. Compile Your Past Articles Into an E-book
E-books are everywhere these days and for a good reason: People read them! After you have written a few articles you may have enough content to publish your own e-book. Then you can offer this e-book to subscribers or website visitors as a free gift. Or you can sell your e-book for a small fee.
**Bonus Tip** Always Include Good Resource Box
Whenever you write an article be sure to always include your resource box. This is the section at the end of the article where you talk about YOU. If people like your article they will look for your resource box to find out where they can get more information from you. Be sure to include at least one URL in your resource box. That way anytime your article is posted on a website you will have a link to one of your websites, which, coincidentally, will help out your websites search engine ranking if you follow tips #1 and #2 in this article.
So don't forget about those previously published articles you've got saved in Microsoft Word. Pull them out. Dust them off. Re-use them. Start on your E-book. And try and remember all the websites that have posted your articles. Get the URLs. Submit them to a few search engines. The benefits you receive may suprise you. And now, my resource box:
Saturday 2 January 2010
E-Z GRO Opt-In Mailing List Techniques
An opt-in mailing list can be your most solid internet marketing tool. Think of it as a foot in the door – or better yet, a standing invitation to drop by anytime. Research has shown that it takes an average of seven contacts with a prospect to make your first sale.
It’s hard to count on someone returning to your web site seven times – but if you get them there once, and convince them to join your opt-in mailing list, you have a standing invitation to contact them with your offers, at your convenience.
The trick, of course, is turning your web site visitors into opt-in list subscribers. Opt-in list building is easier than you think. There are a number of tried and true methods of list building that you can use – but don’t be afraid to think outside the box to sign up folks who drop by your web site for a short visit.
Start with a good reason for people to join your opt-in list.
People don’t join opt-in lists out of the goodness of their hearts – they opt in because you’re offering them something of value. What have you got to offer?
• Get a 10% discount on all purchases over $25 – exclusive to members of our mailing list!
• Find out about our newest products through our opt-in mailing list!
• We’ll keep you up to date on the latest developments in [insert your field here].
• Special discount prices and offers exclusively for members of our mailing list.
Get the picture? You’re not saying, “Hey, can I keep bugging you to try to sell you stuff?” You’re offering a service – “I’ll let you know when I’ve got good stuff you want to buy.”
Post the invitation to join your opt-in list prominently on your web site. Simple list building truth number one is that people can’t join your opt-in list if they don’t know about it. Put an invitation to join your email list on every single page of your site – and make the invitation enticing.
Practice opt-in list building everywhere.
Include a short invitation to join your opt-in email list as part of your email signature so that it goes out every time you email someone. If you do a presentation or event, personally invite participants or booth visitors to join your opt in email list.
Bribe people to sign up with a free gift.
Bribery is a tried-and-true fast list building technique and website promotion tool. Selling weight loss products? Put together an e-book of weight loss facts about nutrition and offer it as an incentive to sign up for your opt in list. Be creative, and watch your list grow like a weed.
Offer incentives for referrals.
It’s hard to count on someone returning to your web site seven times – but if you get them there once, and convince them to join your opt-in mailing list, you have a standing invitation to contact them with your offers, at your convenience.
The trick, of course, is turning your web site visitors into opt-in list subscribers. Opt-in list building is easier than you think. There are a number of tried and true methods of list building that you can use – but don’t be afraid to think outside the box to sign up folks who drop by your web site for a short visit.
Start with a good reason for people to join your opt-in list.
People don’t join opt-in lists out of the goodness of their hearts – they opt in because you’re offering them something of value. What have you got to offer?
• Get a 10% discount on all purchases over $25 – exclusive to members of our mailing list!
• Find out about our newest products through our opt-in mailing list!
• We’ll keep you up to date on the latest developments in [insert your field here].
• Special discount prices and offers exclusively for members of our mailing list.
Get the picture? You’re not saying, “Hey, can I keep bugging you to try to sell you stuff?” You’re offering a service – “I’ll let you know when I’ve got good stuff you want to buy.”
Post the invitation to join your opt-in list prominently on your web site. Simple list building truth number one is that people can’t join your opt-in list if they don’t know about it. Put an invitation to join your email list on every single page of your site – and make the invitation enticing.
Practice opt-in list building everywhere.
Include a short invitation to join your opt-in email list as part of your email signature so that it goes out every time you email someone. If you do a presentation or event, personally invite participants or booth visitors to join your opt in email list.
Bribe people to sign up with a free gift.
Bribery is a tried-and-true fast list building technique and website promotion tool. Selling weight loss products? Put together an e-book of weight loss facts about nutrition and offer it as an incentive to sign up for your opt in list. Be creative, and watch your list grow like a weed.
Offer incentives for referrals.
Free Online Marketing Strategy
With the free marketing tools that we are going to list and explain here, you can create a whole online marketing strategy that will generate the amount of traffic needed for your website to start generating sales.
This means that you will never have to choose any tactic that requires continuous advertising investments. This does not mean in any way that there isn't any money to be spent.
The tools that we are going to explain can be implemented either in automatic mode or manual mode. The manual mode proved to be a very time consuming effort that is considered not only inefficient but can also be ineffective sometimes.
The automatic mode on the other hand can really save you a lot of time. A time that you can use to further your knowledge in online business and to keep yourself updated with what is new in the market, which a must in this industry.
Time is not the only advantage of automatic implementation, but listing all the advantages of such implementation will make us deviate from our main objective which is to discuss the tools and tactics that would compose a whole free online marketing strategy.
Choosing the automatic mode means that you will need to buy and use software programs that will enable you to automate the process. Buying those software packages is where the investment lies. I highly recommend you to buy software packages that require only a one time investment rather than a monthly subscription.
Now let us get started with the list of tactics that would give you a free online marketing strategy:
1) Directory and Search Engine Submission: It is recommended to start with this tactic as it is expected that this tactic bring solid and continuous traffic. Yet it needs time to build your position especially within the search engines. When we say search engines, it doesn't mean that we are talking only about the big names. If you submit your website to the smaller search engines, that can contribute to your position within the big players.
2) Reciprocal Linking: This tactic has gained a little bit of controversy lately. Many prefer one way links rather than exchanging links. I would agree with them, but what could it hurt to follow both tactics? With reciprocal linking you exchange links with other websites. This can really be time consuming if you are not automating the process.
3) Posting in Forums: Posting in active forums has a double impact. Not only you are generating traffic from people clicking your link in you signature line, but also you get one way back links as these forums are open to search engines and therefore, your posts with your signature are listed in those engines.
4) Article Submission: There are numerous directories that accept article submissions which would gain you a huge amount of one way back links to your website. Your priority is to find directories with high traffic and ones that have the ability to distribute your articles to other websites, e-zines, e-mail groups and other kinds of publishers.
5) Pinging: Pinging your Blog and your dynamic pages of your site. If your Blog is hosted on your server as an extension of your website, you can Ping your Blog to update search engines with the new changes. This will encourage search engine spiders to crawl to you Blog and eventually to your website. Also you can create dynamic content on your website by adding articles and news feeds to keep you website fresh with new content. This is something that search engines like and accordingly you can Ping those pages of your website to accelerate the spider crawling procedure.
With the above five pillars of free online marketing strategy you can create full aggressive campaigns to generate traffic and sales without having to spend any money.
This means that you will never have to choose any tactic that requires continuous advertising investments. This does not mean in any way that there isn't any money to be spent.
The tools that we are going to explain can be implemented either in automatic mode or manual mode. The manual mode proved to be a very time consuming effort that is considered not only inefficient but can also be ineffective sometimes.
The automatic mode on the other hand can really save you a lot of time. A time that you can use to further your knowledge in online business and to keep yourself updated with what is new in the market, which a must in this industry.
Time is not the only advantage of automatic implementation, but listing all the advantages of such implementation will make us deviate from our main objective which is to discuss the tools and tactics that would compose a whole free online marketing strategy.
Choosing the automatic mode means that you will need to buy and use software programs that will enable you to automate the process. Buying those software packages is where the investment lies. I highly recommend you to buy software packages that require only a one time investment rather than a monthly subscription.
Now let us get started with the list of tactics that would give you a free online marketing strategy:
1) Directory and Search Engine Submission: It is recommended to start with this tactic as it is expected that this tactic bring solid and continuous traffic. Yet it needs time to build your position especially within the search engines. When we say search engines, it doesn't mean that we are talking only about the big names. If you submit your website to the smaller search engines, that can contribute to your position within the big players.
2) Reciprocal Linking: This tactic has gained a little bit of controversy lately. Many prefer one way links rather than exchanging links. I would agree with them, but what could it hurt to follow both tactics? With reciprocal linking you exchange links with other websites. This can really be time consuming if you are not automating the process.
3) Posting in Forums: Posting in active forums has a double impact. Not only you are generating traffic from people clicking your link in you signature line, but also you get one way back links as these forums are open to search engines and therefore, your posts with your signature are listed in those engines.
4) Article Submission: There are numerous directories that accept article submissions which would gain you a huge amount of one way back links to your website. Your priority is to find directories with high traffic and ones that have the ability to distribute your articles to other websites, e-zines, e-mail groups and other kinds of publishers.
5) Pinging: Pinging your Blog and your dynamic pages of your site. If your Blog is hosted on your server as an extension of your website, you can Ping your Blog to update search engines with the new changes. This will encourage search engine spiders to crawl to you Blog and eventually to your website. Also you can create dynamic content on your website by adding articles and news feeds to keep you website fresh with new content. This is something that search engines like and accordingly you can Ping those pages of your website to accelerate the spider crawling procedure.
With the above five pillars of free online marketing strategy you can create full aggressive campaigns to generate traffic and sales without having to spend any money.
Five Ways To Get Visitors To Bookmark Your Website
There are many factors to keeping someone’s interest on your web page or site. It is not an easy task. Your ultimate goal is to get them to come back repeatedly. There is one precious commodity that most of us do not have much of - time. Face it even you do not have the time when surfing to read in depth every site you want to. Naturally, you bookmark it because it was impressionable enough for you to want to put it in your favorites. Now read about what will keep the customers coming back for more!
Before you consider setting up a web site, you will need to have your goals in mind. Answering a few targeted questions will help you decide how to best approach setting up the site. Targeting your customer is very important. Their age, economic status and gender will play a part in deciding how you will need to have your site designed. For example, you would not sell jeans in larger sizes and higher waist styles to a junior teen sized woman. Good market research is the foundation for setting the goals of your site, and marketing and designing your site with your customer in mind. This is only the beginning and a mere part of the story of getting customers and keeping them
You will need to look at how your customer interacts with the graphics and total site layout. Ask yourself is there any design flaws that stop them from going to the next page? Is there too many banners, buttons and graphics that confuse them? Is the text on the site clear and easy to understand? Is it confusing on directions about information on ordering? Consider having others evaluate the site to give an honest opinion on site layout.
Next, consider if your site leaves the customer with a feeling of confidence in your product and service. If the writing is timid, sparse or overtly braggadocio, it is more than likely, your customer will click away without so much as a thought of returning. Take some stock of others review of your site, and work to improve on the writing. Remember though you will not be able to please everyone. Keep tweaking it until it is in line with the image you want to portray and the product it represents.
The third step is looking at the content of information on the site. Is the information relative to what you are selling? Is it up-to-date and does it helps the customer decide what they want to buy? Do you offer other content that will give your customer a sense that you care more about them than your wallet, such as information on a subject they might be interested in? This is where your market research will come in handy. A person that is in the age bracket of 30 – 35 will be much more interested in a retirement fund than a 20 – 25 year old. It is, of course, not a standard to cling to, but it is a market idea theory that you will need to tweak and refine for your site.
Does your site generate interaction with your customers? Do you provide easy ways for them to tell you about themselves like providing surveys about other interests and hobbies? Are there fun things to do on your site? Kids are not the only ones that will enjoy entertainment. Do you have jokes of the day, puzzles or a pleasant inspiring story to read? Communicating with your customer is a nice way to get them to come back and visit too. That is a real shot of personalization that will set your site apart from the others.
Finally, consider the whole package. Does the whole website design entice them, make them want to come back and visit because it was a very user-friendly experience? Without trust and pleasant user experience, most customers will not return. Trust is a key value to happy customers and returning customers too.
It does seem like a lot of work to get your website up and running. The Internet is an impersonal arena with many busy people with limited time. To break through that barrier and capture their attention takes a lot of hard work and dedication on your part. As time goes by though you will be able to capture a loyal customer base that will want to return and buy again. It will not be because of tricks or just slick words. It will be because you care about your customer, and are determined to give them the very best website you can. You will love it when it happens.
Before you consider setting up a web site, you will need to have your goals in mind. Answering a few targeted questions will help you decide how to best approach setting up the site. Targeting your customer is very important. Their age, economic status and gender will play a part in deciding how you will need to have your site designed. For example, you would not sell jeans in larger sizes and higher waist styles to a junior teen sized woman. Good market research is the foundation for setting the goals of your site, and marketing and designing your site with your customer in mind. This is only the beginning and a mere part of the story of getting customers and keeping them
You will need to look at how your customer interacts with the graphics and total site layout. Ask yourself is there any design flaws that stop them from going to the next page? Is there too many banners, buttons and graphics that confuse them? Is the text on the site clear and easy to understand? Is it confusing on directions about information on ordering? Consider having others evaluate the site to give an honest opinion on site layout.
Next, consider if your site leaves the customer with a feeling of confidence in your product and service. If the writing is timid, sparse or overtly braggadocio, it is more than likely, your customer will click away without so much as a thought of returning. Take some stock of others review of your site, and work to improve on the writing. Remember though you will not be able to please everyone. Keep tweaking it until it is in line with the image you want to portray and the product it represents.
The third step is looking at the content of information on the site. Is the information relative to what you are selling? Is it up-to-date and does it helps the customer decide what they want to buy? Do you offer other content that will give your customer a sense that you care more about them than your wallet, such as information on a subject they might be interested in? This is where your market research will come in handy. A person that is in the age bracket of 30 – 35 will be much more interested in a retirement fund than a 20 – 25 year old. It is, of course, not a standard to cling to, but it is a market idea theory that you will need to tweak and refine for your site.
Does your site generate interaction with your customers? Do you provide easy ways for them to tell you about themselves like providing surveys about other interests and hobbies? Are there fun things to do on your site? Kids are not the only ones that will enjoy entertainment. Do you have jokes of the day, puzzles or a pleasant inspiring story to read? Communicating with your customer is a nice way to get them to come back and visit too. That is a real shot of personalization that will set your site apart from the others.
Finally, consider the whole package. Does the whole website design entice them, make them want to come back and visit because it was a very user-friendly experience? Without trust and pleasant user experience, most customers will not return. Trust is a key value to happy customers and returning customers too.
It does seem like a lot of work to get your website up and running. The Internet is an impersonal arena with many busy people with limited time. To break through that barrier and capture their attention takes a lot of hard work and dedication on your part. As time goes by though you will be able to capture a loyal customer base that will want to return and buy again. It will not be because of tricks or just slick words. It will be because you care about your customer, and are determined to give them the very best website you can. You will love it when it happens.
Benefits of Submitting to a Directory Website
A web directory is cyber yellow pages. It has different categories under which one can locate relevant information. Online businesses increase profitability, web traffic, and search engine ranking by submitting websites to directories.
Submitting to web directories is to broaden your horizons.
There are many benefits:
• Most directories attract considerable traffic. Surfers access specific categories of interest to them and open websites within the category. By default, the website submitted by you will get “click through traffic.”
• Spiders released by search engines will add your site to search engine indexes. And, links from directory pages are automatically indexed.
• Higher rankings on the search engine page for key words optimizing the website. Ensure that the anchor text linking the directory to your website has a phrase that identifies or states clearly the functions offered by your website. This will provide: higher click through ratings; better rankings in search engines; a greater number of links enabled by variations in key phrases.
• Increased number of links to your web page. Surfers will find links to your website, as being in a directory means receiving many back links. The more the number of links the higher a search engine ranking and the greater the number of viewers or users or clients.
• Enhanced credibility. Being a part of a quality directory means that you website has been through stringent vetting standards and reviews. Internet surfers are aware that only websites of high standards are listed in a directory. Websites listed in directories with credibility means these are the sites of choice and, they are guaranteed excellent content as well as services.
• A niche directory that is specific to your business will direct potential customers quickly and efficiently. The cost of submission can be quickly recovered.
• Provide simple links with a high PR category pages and few or minimal outgoing links. This ensures maximized popularity links to your site, boosting rankings.
Be prudent in your choices:
• Limit the number of directory submissions.
• Submit to all established free niche directories and just a few selected paid submission directories.
• Make use of sponsored links to jump start traffic to your site.
• Find out whether the directory uses keywords or uses an editorial approach using editorial ratings.
• Discover what sponsored listings signify. These are always listed first.
• Figure out whether the directory has alphabetical ordering or a first come basis.
• After inclusion in directories of standing, get listings in search engines with site rankings.
Do your homework, make wise choices. Experts recommend selecting niche sites as well as giants like Yahoo and DMOZ. Study thoroughly the comprehensive guidelines provided by directories. Think out and plan your marketing strategy and targets. Random submissions must never be made. You must achieve a ROI, return of investment.
Submitting to web directories is to broaden your horizons.
There are many benefits:
• Most directories attract considerable traffic. Surfers access specific categories of interest to them and open websites within the category. By default, the website submitted by you will get “click through traffic.”
• Spiders released by search engines will add your site to search engine indexes. And, links from directory pages are automatically indexed.
• Higher rankings on the search engine page for key words optimizing the website. Ensure that the anchor text linking the directory to your website has a phrase that identifies or states clearly the functions offered by your website. This will provide: higher click through ratings; better rankings in search engines; a greater number of links enabled by variations in key phrases.
• Increased number of links to your web page. Surfers will find links to your website, as being in a directory means receiving many back links. The more the number of links the higher a search engine ranking and the greater the number of viewers or users or clients.
• Enhanced credibility. Being a part of a quality directory means that you website has been through stringent vetting standards and reviews. Internet surfers are aware that only websites of high standards are listed in a directory. Websites listed in directories with credibility means these are the sites of choice and, they are guaranteed excellent content as well as services.
• A niche directory that is specific to your business will direct potential customers quickly and efficiently. The cost of submission can be quickly recovered.
• Provide simple links with a high PR category pages and few or minimal outgoing links. This ensures maximized popularity links to your site, boosting rankings.
Be prudent in your choices:
• Limit the number of directory submissions.
• Submit to all established free niche directories and just a few selected paid submission directories.
• Make use of sponsored links to jump start traffic to your site.
• Find out whether the directory uses keywords or uses an editorial approach using editorial ratings.
• Discover what sponsored listings signify. These are always listed first.
• Figure out whether the directory has alphabetical ordering or a first come basis.
• After inclusion in directories of standing, get listings in search engines with site rankings.
Do your homework, make wise choices. Experts recommend selecting niche sites as well as giants like Yahoo and DMOZ. Study thoroughly the comprehensive guidelines provided by directories. Think out and plan your marketing strategy and targets. Random submissions must never be made. You must achieve a ROI, return of investment.
How Many Links Should I Have To Point At My Website?
Using links as a way to get your search engine ranking high is a good thing. The question that many people ask, though, is just how many links should you have in order to have this happen? Can you have too many? Link marketing is the use of links to build traffic to your website as well as to build your search engine ranking. These things go hand in hand. If you want to increase your search engine rank, work on your links.
But, How Much?
There is no real set number. It's not having ten or twenty or even having a 100. It is more about having the right type of links coming to your website. For example, you need to consider both reciprocal links as well as those that are one way links. One way links generate traffic to your site without luring someone away with additional links on your website. Reciprocal links, when placed correctly and used in the right overall manner can help as well.
Beyond this, you will want to work with having good quality links. The links should be related in some way to your website. For many this will mean finding webmasters that offers similar, but not the same content as your site. If you are in the market of refurbishing homes, you may want to have links at your site that are not directly related but indirectly. Here, you could have a roof specialist listed.
As far as how many links you should have pointing to your website, the best number to go with is as many as you can. Make sure that they are solid, well researched links, not something that is inexpensively purchased. Make sure they provide for both reciprocal and one way links. Use them correctly and your business really can benefit from them.
But, How Much?
There is no real set number. It's not having ten or twenty or even having a 100. It is more about having the right type of links coming to your website. For example, you need to consider both reciprocal links as well as those that are one way links. One way links generate traffic to your site without luring someone away with additional links on your website. Reciprocal links, when placed correctly and used in the right overall manner can help as well.
Beyond this, you will want to work with having good quality links. The links should be related in some way to your website. For many this will mean finding webmasters that offers similar, but not the same content as your site. If you are in the market of refurbishing homes, you may want to have links at your site that are not directly related but indirectly. Here, you could have a roof specialist listed.
As far as how many links you should have pointing to your website, the best number to go with is as many as you can. Make sure that they are solid, well researched links, not something that is inexpensively purchased. Make sure they provide for both reciprocal and one way links. Use them correctly and your business really can benefit from them.
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