Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing For You

February 27th, 2008
affiliate marketing
Caleb Anderson asked:


Affiliate marketing is derived from Internet marketing. In this program, the ad publisher receives a payment on each customer for any sale done. Affiliate marketing serves as a base for other strategies of Internet marketing where management companies, internal domestic managers and third party sellers are used for search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, display advertising and RRS capturing, so the product launch is successful on the market.

Traffic to the web site is traceable using self-affiliate programs or through any third party. This process surely involves hard work. First, marketing through these means involved spamming, trademark infringement and false advertising. However, since the findings of advance security and complex algorithms, the same is safe for shopping online and doing business.

Through affiliate marketing programs, online merchants find it easy to scrutinize their terms and conditions. Affiliate marketing has become more profitable and opened doors to opportunities facing a stiff market competition.

Benefits:

Affiliate marketing has many benefits to offer its sellers. It provides sellers with a big scope for advertising e-book, software product or any service, cutting down on the marketing costs involved therein. Higher the number of affiliate web sites intended to promote a product, higher is the targeted leads for converting the same into sales. To have a working sales network of people aimed at marketing is the same as affiliate marketing. Here, the commission depends entirely on lead generation.

Benefits to product owners: In affiliate marketing, owners have a great space for promoting their products and services. The market expands when there are more affiliates promoting the product. It is advisable owners do not select associates only for the sake of adding to the strength. Make sure that the Internet site of an affiliate has a connection to the business. If the web site of affiliate marketer fits the product idea, then there are chances that the sales may boost. The web site may attract prospective customers willing to learn about the product.

In affiliate marketing, a number of affiliate marketers promote the products of product owners. This results in more sales in little time. The owner’s Internet site also looks after promoting the product. If the owner’s web site along with that of affiliate marketers caters to customers’ demands, the product attracts more traffic. The web site of affiliate marketers on the Internet directs leads to the owner’s main business site.

Affiliate marketing calls for a tough task of promoting the owner’s product. Affiliates are engaged in this work. Since they work on generating targeted audience to the product, the owner need not invest much effort on the same. This saves both time and money for the owner. All the owner needs to focus on is improving the product quality and putting new products on display.

Through affiliate marketing, owners are able to build a strong customer base in a short time with the help of affiliates. The program creates additional income for them. The marketing banners of their products result in quick sales. As for the affiliates, they need not worry concerning customer support, e-commerce and bookkeeping. It is on the part of the owner to look after these works.

Customers need not attend the owner’s store in person for purchase of a product. They may avail of membership facilities in affiliate marketing programs. This online business has gained popularity ever since the introduction of Internet marketing. Product owners depend largely on this type of marketing for their source of livelihood. Most web site owners actively participate in the program without having to invest many efforts. Simply place an ad on a web site of the affiliates and reap long-term benefits.

Targeted Traffic Promotion

February 27th, 2008
targeted traffic
Sanjay Johari asked:


What is targeted traffic? When a visitor arrives at a web page which has the information he is looking for, we say that he is a targeted visitor. The web page is set up to draw attention of such visitors. The visitor may not be looking for that web page specifically, but he is interested in the information available there. Even before he clicks open that page, he almost knows that he will find relevant information.
How does he know that?
He knows because the URL of that page appeared before him when he was looking for information on the subject of his interest. Perhaps he was searching on a search engine, or going thru an ezine on the relevant subject, or maybe he was visiting a forum dedicated to the topic. There are many more sources by which he could have arrived at that web page.
This is how targeted traffic can be generated - by placing your web page at places where people would be looking for the information available on your page. Before we discuss those “places” in little more detail, let us see briefly why targeted traffic is required.
There are many sources thru which you can get traffic without spending anything, such as search engine traffic. But it is not entirely correct to say that you have not given anything at all to get that traffic. At the minimum you have invested time, effort and other resources to put up your website and advertise it. With this investment you have fair expectations that interested people will take benefit of your offer. Then why put in your effort to attract people who have no interest in your offer? These people are untargeted traffic. There is no point in wasting your time and the time of uninterested people. You will do much better to attract targeted traffic from which you can expect to get a favorable response.
Now let us see some of the methods of targeted traffic promotion.
Article Promotion - Hundreds of articles are published every day, yet there is always appetite for more articles. You can take advantage of this situation when demand for good quality articles seems to be on the rise. You can submit your articles along with your resource box to several ezines for publication. When your articles are published they are picked up by other publishers and web site owners and your articles get distributed with viral effect.
Those interested in the subject of your articles can get to see them thru search engines, ezines serving that subject and other web pages bearing your articles. They see the resource box with the article and click the link to arrive at your web page where they expect to find further information on the subject. They are targeted visitors who are likely to take your offer.
Forums - Forums are used for exchange of information on a particular area. You can join the forums in your area of interest and start participating there. When you post your message, generally you are not allowed to use the message for advertising your business. However, many forums allow you to add a signature line where you can tell briefly about your offer and give URL of your page. This small by-line does the marketing for you. When people read your post they may like to click on your URL and visit your web page. This way you get targeted traffic, visit from people interested in your area.
Linking - Reciprocal links have become very popular, not so much to get traffic as for improving search engine ranking. But you do get some targeted traffic from link exchange. The visitors are likely to be your link partners. When your link exchange efforts help you in getting good placement of your pages in search engine searches, you tap on the inexhaustible source of traffic from search engines.
Subscription List - This is reverse of the processes discussed above. Instead of visitors finding your web pages, you contact the interested people and show what you have to offer. You get your visitors to subscribe for your newsletters or ezines. Your subscribers give you their email addresses and permission to send them emails. Then you have the option to contact them when you decide. You can send them issues of newsletters and ezines at regular interval. You can also send announcements at any time. It will be in your interest to retain and enlarge your list to secure future of your business. This is one of the most inexpensive and effective marketing tools.
You can get additional viewership by syndicating your newsletters with the help of RSS feed.
These are some of the methods of targeted traffic promotion where you do not have to spend money.
Next time when you see your own web page, see it from the visitor’s viewpoint which will help you to ensure that your visitors get what they are looking for.

What Kind Of Affiliate Marketing Mentors You Have To Follow, & Why?

February 27th, 2008
affiliate marketing
Jo Han Mok asked:


Affiliate marketing has been in the Internet industry for quite sometime now and it is among the most popular tools used by many online entrepreneurs today.

It is a great option for those who want to put up an online business quickly and cheaply. However, there is still a large number of the population who knows a little or even nothing about it. And most of the people who have just discovered this business usually assume that they can easily make big bucks out of it. Well, they’re definitely wrong.

To be successful in affiliate marketing business is not an easy task and it will never happen overnight. It’s just like an ongoing assignment where you need to find out and try various advertising strategies and tactics. This may even require you to sign-up with numerous affiliate programs just to determine which merchants performs well.

Another misconception that affiliates have -bout this kind of business is that they expect to gain more if they place about 20 affiliated banners on just one niche. Well it will not really work the way you think it would because once your site is flooded with too many banners, it will look like a link farm and visitors won’t be interested and won’t even bother clicking on any of those banners.

So if you really want to promote several affiliate programs in your website, make sure that they jive with the theme and topic of the rest of the content on your niche. Bear in mind that three or four affiliated links in your site are enough, depending on the size of the web page.

There are also some who think that if they add affiliate materials to their site, they can receive sales right away. Maybe they just don’t know that affiliate marketing is all about advertising. If there’s no traffic coming to your site, how can you expect to get any sales?

Remember that the more you advertise your affiliate link or the site where the affiliate links are placed, the more clickthru’s these links are likely to receive.

If you want to be involved or you’ve already joined an affiliate program, but you have the above misconceptions regarding affiliate marketing, then, you might need a mentor to help you figure out where to start and what to do in order to succeed.

In the dictionary, the word mentor is defined as a wise and trusted teacher or counselor. Usually, these persons are experts in the field they are into. They can give expert advice and guidance as well as supervision to another person. So when we say affiliate marketing mentors, they are experienced counselors that have made affiliate marketing their specialty.

Affiliate marketing mentors can be those persons that have already been successful in affiliate marketing and are always willing to share their experienced-based knowledge from the viewpoint of both the affiliates and the web merchants. And that’s the reason why we come up with this page. It is aimed to give you the stuffs that affiliate mentors should possess and follow and why do they need these things.

Of course, it is good for an affiliate marketing mentor to know and apply some theories and generalities regarding your business but there’s nothing more helpful and effective than telling the client what works today and what are the things that could probably work in the future and if the trend changes.

As a mentor, you should be one of the sources of knowledge for your client and the first one to teach them on how to generate more affiliate income.

You too, need to be knowledgeable and equipped with the keys to success for affiliate marketers as well as for merchants. And you should guide your clients as they try to do the things that can help boost their profit because once they do well in that business, it can be counted as one of your great achievements. This also makes you a successful mentor.

There are some articles on affiliate marketing that says, in order to be triumphant in affiliate marketing business, you need to encompass and develop these traits: persistence, patience and thirst for knowledge. And as a mentor, it is your job to help your clients take in these traits within themselves.

Once they’ve already developed the abovementioned character, it’ll be very easy for you to explain to them that attaining success in affiliate marketing requires sweat, blood and of course, hefty time commitment. These traits will also teach them not to give up.

Moreover, before you train your client to be proficient in search engine optimization, link exchanges, email marketing, newsletter marketing, reciprocal exchanges and advertising in forums, you should first become expert on these fields. They will surely find it hard to learn these things alone and without supervision from the one who knows best. So make sure that you are knowledgeable on these things before you accept any invitation to be a mentor.

Yes, being a mentor is way harder than succeeding in affiliate marketing but this task is very rewarding especially if your client become victorious. The failure of your client is your failure too so you must do your very best to be able to bring your client on the road to success. Again, it is never an easy task and there’s nothing you can do about it. After all, that’s what affiliate marketing mentors are for.

Why Affiliate Marketing Is A Blessing For Online Marketers

February 26th, 2008
affiliate marketing
Kurt Naulaerts asked:


Affiliate marketing is different things to different people, but essentially, affiliate marketing is the act of marketing someone else’s products or services for a portion, or commission, of each sale that you make.
Some people do affiliate marketing as their full time jobs. That’s it. That’s all they do. They market other people’s products or services, collect their commissions, and live their lives as they wish. They do not have to deal with customer service, shipping orders, or anything else. All they do is promote other people’s products or services, everyday.
Other people use affiliate programs in conjunction with their own products or services, using affiliate programs as front end products, upsells, and back end products. For example, if you had an information product about weight loss, you might want to market exercise equipment, exercise clothing, vitamins, or other items or services that are related to weight loss along with your weight loss information product to increase your revenue.
Obviously you would not want to create these items, so you would find these related products or services, and sign up for the affiliate programs, allowing you to promote them. Some people even low cost information products, such as ebooks, in order to sell high ticket affiliate products or services. Alternately, some people just use inexpensive affiliate products to enhance their own high ticket products or continuity programs, such as membership sites.
Some people are confused about what affiliate marketing actually is. For instance, many people who have products and offer affiliate programs for those products might say that they sell their product through affiliate marketing. What they mean is that they have affiliates who sell the product for them, but they are actually merchants or affiliate managers, in affiliate marketing terms.
But basically, affiliate marketing is selling someone else’s products or services through various means, for various reasons, either to earn an income, to enhance a product, or even to sell an additional product. In fact, many people use low end affiliate products as lead ins, or entry level products, for higher end affiliate products never actually creating or promoting a product or service of their own.
Is money being made? You better believe there is! If you include all products and services that are sold through affiliates, affiliate marketing is essentially a billion dollar industry, even though it isn’t technically considered an industry in its own right. Many people don’t even consider it a career, but they are mistaken.

Right now, at this very moment, there are thousands of affiliate marketers that you have never even heard of quietly promoting affiliate products and collecting huge commission checks every month. Why haven’t you heard of them? You haven’t heard of them because they are not in the Internet Marketing products market. They are in other consumer niches, such as weight loss, healthcare, sports, gambling, education, financial products, etc.
Now, if you have an active interest in those things, or any other conceivable thing, you have probably searched for information or products related to your interest on the Internet. If this is the case, you have most likely come into contact with an affiliate marketer, without even being aware of it. You may have even purchased a product through an affiliate marketer without ever knowing it.
Even Google has an affiliate program. That’s what Google AdSense is all about. It’s an affiliate program, but it isn’t technically called that. EBay has an affiliate program, as does Microsoft. There is an affiliate program available for just about any product that you can imagine, but not all brands have affiliate programs which of course is their mistake.
Affiliate marketing presents a win-win-win situation. The owner or maker of the product being sold is making money. The affiliate marketer is making money, and the customer is getting what they want or need. Everybody wins. Affiliate marketing has been around longer than you think it has as well.
Many people think that affiliate marketing started sometime after the Internet came into existence. This is wrong. Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, all of these are essentially affiliate programs, but the people who were actually doing the affiliate marketing were called distributors or representatives and they are still called distributors or representatives to this day.
Affiliate marketing can even entail network marketing. Affiliate marketing is the act of selling a product for a commission. Network marketing also involves selling a product for a commission, but also focuses on bringing other resellers (or affiliate marketers, distributors or representatives) into the program as well. Sometimes, however, affiliate marketing also allows and encourages you to bring other affiliate marketers into the program.
Again, affiliate marketing is different things to different people, but the goal is the same to make money. Affiliate marketing offers you the opportunity and ability to make money without creating a product of your own.

The Power and Profits of Affiliate Marketing

February 26th, 2008
affiliate marketing
William Potts asked:


Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning money online. This is an opportunity that gives everybody a chance to make a profit through the Internet.

Affiliate marketing is flourishing and spreading across the internet at an incredibale rate. Some would argue that the future for Affiliate Marketing is as far reaching as that of the internet itself.

Affiliate Marketing is an agreement between a merchant and a website owner. The website owner, or the affiliate, allows the use of their site for the promotion of the merchant’s products by linking to the merchant’s website.

Affiliate Marketing is selling on behalf of someone else in return for a percentage of the sale. You stock no product, don’t need to package or handle, nor do you have the normal business overheads.

Affiliate marketing is often called, “performance-based-marketing”, meaning you don’t pay the advertiser until they sell something. Affiliate marketing ensures that you only pay when your ad results in a sale.

Affiliate marketing is nothing more than commissioned sales on the Internet. The affiliate is a commissioned salesperson for a specific product or service which he is promoting through online advertising.

Affiliate marketing is a really easy way to get started online. The reason for this is that it is a lot of work to create a product and learn all the skills required to make money online. Affiliate marketing is one of the biggest markets on the internet today.

More so than any other type of business, people are hanging up their traditional nine to five jobs and joining the internet bandwagon. Affiliate Marketing is the fine art of selling other people’s stuff online, usually through your own website.

I believe that Affiliate Marketing is the fastest, easiest, and most effective way to break into the Internet Marketing field of business and I also believe it is one of the best Home Businesses you can start.

Affiliate Marketing is simply the art of selling products for a company. It’s like being a Car Salesman who works on commission, except as a car salesman - you can’t sell just any car (in most cases).

Affiliate Marketing is a way for advertisers to reach potential customers and only pay when a visitor takes some predefined action. Predefined actions range from a sale to registration.

Affiliate marketing is a gamble. That’s no secret to affiliates rolling the dice every day on new offers and campaigns.

Affiliate marketing isn’t for the weak of heart.If you want to be successful and make money from it, you need determination and motivation. Affiliate marketing is tough. Anyone who tells you different is most likely very very smart, or very very stupid.

Affiliate marketing is really about working with partners to help market or even sell your products. Think of how authors often put the Amazon widget on their blog to sell their book in hopes they get a small residual.

Affiliate marketing is both an effective and powerful way to earn money online. The affiliate marketing programs are easy to join and implement. Affiliate Marketing is the most promising and lucrative business model on the internet.

There are millions of affiliate marketers but there is more than adequate money for everyone out there. Affiliate Marketing is the relationship between website owners and merchants whereby the merchant offers the website owner (affiliate) commission for linking to his/her merchant site.

Affiliates send traffic to the merchant site through these affiliate links and the affiliate is rewarded each time a visitor converts to a sale (CPA) or lead (CPL).

Affiliate Marketing is definitely a system that works. Affiliate marketing is the Home Business model that CAN bring you home business success, without outlaying a cent.

If you have “The Affiliate Guide Book” you will be armed with the information, method and wherewithal to successfully achieve your work from home dream.

Do yourself a favor - DO IT NOW! Affiliate marketing is not easy work but it’s is definitely a good way to build a side business that could have the potential to be a full time job.



Blog Marketing: How Easy is It?

February 26th, 2008
blog marketing
Li Ming Wong asked:


Blog marketing is one of the latest trends of marketing online that you are going to find. Blogs which are also known as web logs are very popular in this day and age. You can make a blog on any particular subject that you want and then publish it for the world to read.

If you are just beginning in internet marketing, you are going to find that starting a blog is very easy to do. Anyone can sign up for a free blog, and then proceed to market basically anything that they want to. Because blogs are free to have and make, this makes blog marketing even better. Where as if you have a website, and are wanting to market things that way, you would have to pay for your domain, pay for your hosting of the domain, and then know some HTML or hire a website designer.

Search engines love blogs, and are always pretty fast to index them. Getting yours out there for the world to see is not going to be hard. There is this cool tool that you can use every time you update your blog that is known as pinging. Pinging your blog after every entry that you make will let everyone know that your blog has a new entry and updated.

Depending on your overall goal with blog marketing, you can update your blog as frequently as you like. Which could be daily or weekly. Whichever you choose, just be consistent with it. If you start out updating daily, stick with it. This way your blog readers will know that they can check your blog daily for new postings.

If you are wondering exactly what you can market in a blog, you can market whatever you want to. However, it is best to stay within one market in your blog. If you have several different things that you would like to promote, and none of them really fit together well, you can create a blog for each market. Remember that if the markets are not related, do not mix them on your blog. For example, if you have a blog on vacuum cleaners, you will not want to also mix in television sets on the same blog. This is because both vacuum cleaners and televisions sets are two different markets. But, you could mix vacuum cleaners and handheld mini dust busters. Make sense?

There so many things that you can market in your blog. Whether you want to sell your own products and services or someone else’s and make a commission off of what you sell. The sky is the limit when it comes to marketing. Affiliate links work great in blogs as well. Signing up to sell other people’s products and then marketing them in your blog is a great idea.

If you are considering having both a blog and a website that will work if you have enough information to cover in both. Linking them both together is a great idea if you do decide to have both. You can always use the website to hold your main information and products, and the blog to promote them and discuss any issues regularly.

Wondering about hosting? If you have a website, you can either host your blog on the same server you use for your site, or you can leave it where it is. The choice is ultimately up to you, either way you can have successful blogs that will begin to bring in revenue to you.

Getting links to your blog is a good way to gain new readers. Another great tool you can use is the RSS feeds. When you use the RSS feeds, it allows people to publish your blog on their site, and in return it gets you more visitors.

Blog marketing can be pretty effective if it is done right. However, you cant just set up a blog and expect people to find it. Get your blog out there and make it known to others just as you would a website. Exchanging links with others will help, so will article marketing using your blog.

Blog marketing is easy and anyone that wants to can do it. Getting your blog out there and known will be your biggest challenge, but just know that the harder you work at it, it will pay off. Find sites that are related to the market you are promoting, but not in direct competition and ask for link exchanges.

If you want to start blogging for cash, check out Atomic Blogging.

Getting Targeted Traffic to your Site – for Free

February 26th, 2008
targeted traffic
Richard Legg asked:


Every online entrepreneur knows that targeted traffic is a crucial part of his website’s success, but not everyone knows that they can get targeted traffic for free. And this knowledge is especially valuable if the website is not yet generating enough income to justify spending money on advertising.

So how do you get targeted traffic on your site for free? There are 6 effective techniques that you can use to do so, and these involve article directories, exchanging links, and participating in forums that specialize in topics related to your website’s niche. If you know how to use these methods effectively, you will be sure to generate lots of targeted traffic, all for free.

First, try working with article directories. Write articles that are relevant or related to your site, and then submit them to online article directories. Make sure that these articles contain useful information, not just a blatant advertising piece. Article directories always allow you to include information about yourself and your website, so people can see it and be encouraged to visit your website to see what you’re all about. While you’re at it, why not try offering a freebie, such as an e-book, to get visitors to your site? All of these can be placed in the resource boxes that are conveniently provided by the article directories.

The second technique involves writing articles or reports about certain topics that you’re particularly interested in. These articles should then be sent out to several websites that have content related to your articles’ topics. For example, if you’ve written articles about cooking, you should send them out to websites about cooking, recipes, or perhaps home-related topics. Of course, sending out articles about pets to websites that feature content about ballet equipment is out of the question! Offer links to your site with every report or article you send out. Giving free content to others using this method will help a lot in promoting your website, and you can also give out permission for anyone else to freely distribute the articles, in order to increase the chances of getting even more free targeted traffic.

Have you ever tried joining a link exchange program? This is the third technique I want to show you. Link exchange programs are great sources of free targeted traffic. Look for members that have websites with similar interests or topics like yours, since they will be the best link partners you can have on the program. This will make your site more relevant and attractive to search engines because you’re linked to other sites that share the same topics or interests as you do.

The fourth technique involves forums. There are hundreds of online communities or forums that are related to your website’s niche. Join them and participate actively in the discussions. If you’re going to start a thread, make sure that it’s interesting and relevant to the overall subject or topic of the forum. Post interesting comments in the online discussions and the other members of the forum will be more than happy to read what you have to say. You can use your signature to post a link to your site. All of these will benefit your website in the form of free exposure and free targeted traffic from forum members.

The fifth technique I’m going to show you is using social bookmarking sites. Some of the most popular ones include Squidoo, del-icio.us, Digg, and StumbleUpon, to name a few. Register with them and submit your website’s information. Your website will then be listed in their directories, which gives your site additional exposure and more free targeted traffic.

The last technique for getting free targeted traffic will be effective if you have a blog on your site. If you do have one, send your blog’s URL to several RSS (Really Simple Syndication) sites. Every time you post new content on your blog, your RSS data will also be updated, making your website more appealing to search engines that specialize in blogs. People like blogs with good content and are updated frequently, so keep that in mind as well. If you can establish your blog as a good source of quality, interesting, and up-to-date information, more and more people will visit you regularly, thereby providing yet another free source of targeted traffic.

Email List Building: How List Building Can be the Key to your Internet Marketing Success

February 25th, 2008
list building
John Tulley asked:


List building can be a key to your Internet Marketing success. Through this article as you are provided nine key ways to advance in email list building. By following the steps, pointers, and suggestions, you’ll be well on your way to enhancing the profitability of your business enterprise in the very immediate future.

First, email list building requires you to develop a comprehensive marketing plan. You need to determine how list building can fit into your overall promotional efforts.

Second, if you are unfamiliar with a email list building process, you might want to engage the services of a professional or an expert to help you with your list building.

Third, when it comes to email list building, you need to make very certain that you comply with all applicable laws pertaining to email promotions on the Internet.

Fourth, one of the nine day advance to ways towards effective list building is to make it easier for potential clients or customers to opt onto your email list.

Fifth when it comes to list building, you will want to make sure that your Internet website is in top condition. As part of a list building process, you will need to make consumers who visit your website want to opt onto your list by offering them free products or services as an enticement In this regard you will want to make sure that your website is attractive and user friendly.

Sixth, you need to make sure that you are developing a quality list. Towards this end, you do not want to sacrifice quality for quantity.

Seventh, in this regard you will want to continually review and revise the list you have developed. You want to keep your list current and active.

Eighth, you might want to develop strategic alliances with other companion businesses to develop a master list that you can both legally and appropriately share. Once again, you need to keep in mind that the development of this type of list must be done in accordance with the law. Provided that legal requirements are met, you can get a great deal of my mileage through a shared email list.

Finally, you will want to make sure your list is designed in such a way that you can use it for targeted marketing purposes.

List Building: 5 Great Ways To Increase Opt-ins And Conversions

February 24th, 2008
list building
Tellman H. Knudson asked:


If you’re just starting out with Internet Marketing, you probably don’t know where to begin when creating your first list building page. Tracking and testing of whatever page you create is important, and you should start doing those things right away. But before you begin, you really have no stats to base your business on, so you may find it useful to use the stats of others. MarketingExperiments.com is such a place.

In 2004, MarketingExperiments.com conducted a survey about subscription rates. Though the study isn’t completely about list building, many of the ideas that the company presents are highly relevant. I’d like to share some of the results of the 2004 test and show you how they relate to list building. (You can see the ful report at http://tinyurl.com/2ymexr.

1) Be sure your value proposition is prominent.

When you tell customers or potential list members what’s in it for them, you’re letting them in on your value propsition. How will your special report that you’re giving away in exchange for their name and email address solve their problem? For example, if your niche is computers and your report tells them minimum requirements they need to select a new laptop, people who don’t know computers quite so well would be interested. You’re going to show them what they need to make an informed decision before they buy. This value proposition should probably be your headline.

2) Make signing up quick and easy

Opt-in boxes should be kept simple. You only need the person’s first name and email address. If you need more to deliver a product, for instance, then get it when the person actually buys what you’re selling. Just getting them onto your list is the goal, the list building page simple, and you don’t ask for too much information, you have a better chance of getting people onto your list.

3) Tell them you’ll protect them

Just below the opt-in box on your list building page should be a statement of privacy, such as “We will never rent, sell, or otherwise distribute your information to anyone for any reason.” Though it’s true that everyone can put such a statements on their websites and not mean it, just having it there increases the public’s security level and may help them to make the decision to opt-in to your list.

4) Provide a statement aout low-risk.

Letting people know that they can unsubscribe at any time often boosts your opt-in rate. Sometimes, they just realize how much mail they have coming in, and shy away. But if you let them know that they can always unsubscribe without issue, they’ll be more likely to join your list.

5) Your list building page should be the beginning of your sales funnel.

Most list building has selling subsequent products to the customer over time. So, make your list building page the top of your sales funnel. Once someone signs in, your thank you page should be your sales letter for the product you want to sell. Even so, they may still not buy, and that’s what autoresponder messages are for. Though you’ve advertised your product in your special report that people got for signing up, you want to continue to send a series of informational messages with the product in mind via your autoresponder. If you give them good content, a greater number will be willing to buy.

Though you have to track and test your own list building pages, these 5 hints will certainly help your opt-in rate and potentially, your conversion rate, as well. Always remember to answer the “What’s in it for me?” question, and help people solve their problems. When you can do that, you’ll build a customer base of loyal people that will last a lifetime.

Using Micro-list Building to Boost Your Sales

February 23rd, 2008
list building
Titus Hoskins asked:


Copyright (c) 2008 Titus Hoskins

Micro-list building and marketing is creating small lists of very targeted and very interested prospects for your products and services. Instead of concentrating your marketing efforts on building large general lists, you create hundreds, even thousands of micro-lists directly related to the product or service you’re promoting.

This is not exactly breaking news, savvy online marketers have been sub-dividing their lists into smaller micro-lists for years. It is a simple way of getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

Many of these marketers create an “A” list which may consist of their most responsive contacts, usually customers who have bought from them before, or affiliates who have joined the marketer’s affiliate program. They even divide those lists further, such as a micro-list of your top 50 affiliates.

Micro-list building is only slightly different in that your original goal or aim is to build a small targeted list directly related to a product or service so that you can send follow-up information. It often means writing a separate tailor-made AR series of emails for each product or service you’re promoting.

The objective of this follow-up is to establish a friendly business-like relationship with your potential customers. Keep the emails objective and give helpful information, buying tips, reviews… but don’t be all positive, if there are any complaints/negatives against a product or service give these to your subscribers. Any support issues should be thoroughly dealt with and discussed.

Why go through all this trouble? Mainly because, like long tail keyword marketing, using a micro-list will be much more targeted and much more effective. You are fine-tuning your marketing to target the right customers for your product or service; then creating custom information that will better convince that potential customer to buy from you.

Granted, since we are talking about affiliate marketing here, writing an AR series for each product or service you promote can be a massive chore. And you may have to do extra filtering on your AR forms or do other surveys to find the best prospects. However, what I have found is that once you have these plugged into your AR system (I use Aweber which gives you unlimited campaigns) you can virtually forget about them, no pun intended.

By using these micro-lists you can create hundreds of automatic marketing systems that are selling your products 24/7, day in, day out. Again, this is not exactly breaking news, many companies who use affiliates to sell their products already have their own AR follow-ups… I always first check to see if the company has their own system and use that one. If it’s not effective, even big companies get it wrong sometimes… I do an AR series of my own and see if it can perform better. Sometimes, input from a third-party source is better received, especially if that person uses and recommends the product.

Micro-list building is one of the most effective online marketing tools you can use. Quite frankly, I have found building a large opt-in list is not the real key to creating online income but instead creating small micro lists for each of your promoted products to be much more effective. You can have hundreds, even thousands of these different micro-lists.

Studies have shown, interested customers may not buy on the first visit, that it may take up to six or seven reminders. So keeping in contact with an interested customer, one who is looking and in the right mindset to buy, will definitely increase your sales.

Here, rather then the hard-sell, the emphasis should be on collecting contacts in order to give them helpful informative content on the product they’re interested in buying. Supplying quality content should be your main goal, let the selling take care of itself. If you get the first part right, the sale will come naturally.

Micro-list building and marketing gives you the perfect opportunity to reach your potential customers time and time again. It extends your sales pitch and truly gives you an opportunity to gently persuade the customer to buy. The real money is in the Micro-List!