How to Build Your Email List: Taking Your Business to the Next Level

What are you going to do to get more subscribers? Your income may depend on it!

Despite what some “experts” may tell you, email marketing is still alive and well. For most online marketers, the majority of your income will come directly from your list of subscribers.

Get Started Today For Only $1! - AWeber Communications

According to McKinsley & Company, Email is almost 40 times better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter.

Not only that, but it’s economical as well. MarketingSherpa found that companies sending over 100,000 emails per month see a 94% return on investment.They also found that companies sending under 100,000 emails per month see a 139% return.

That’s absolutely amazing, I know, but none of this could be possible without gaining subscribers and building your email list enough to profit from. That is why today I am going to show you a simple method that will allow you to gain more subscribers and inflate your email list like never before!

Creating the Incentive

In order to gain new subscribers to your list, you’ll need to provide a reason for your readers to entrust you with their email address. What are you going to do to convince your prospected consumer to hand over their precious email?

People believe they have to give away the kitchen sink in order to entice their readers to provide their email. This is FALSE.

Your incentive doesn’t need to be something mind blowing. Instead, it has to be something specific and most of all, extremely actionable. Meaning it is something where they can see immediate results.

Everyone perceives value differently. A report that I may be willing to give up my house and first born for, may not even entice someone else enough to give away their email.

This is why it’s SO important to understand your target audience. Who are the people that frequent your site the most and what would they be interested in?

So how do you find out what your audience is interested in? Easy. You just ask. Chances are, you have multiple social media accounts (if you don’t then you should). Once you’ve established a following, ask them.

• What is the biggest problem that they are facing?
• Pitch an idea “Hey guys, would you be more interested in receiving a guide on (ABC) or (XYZ)?”
• What media would they prefer? (i.e. pdf format, video, audio, etc)

Then all you have to do is create it as per their requests and ensure that it is actionable. What do I mean by actionable? The information that you provide must be able to be used immediately. People respond far better to offers that they can use right away as opposed to something that may take them a long time to see any results.

Priming Your Homepage for Opt-ins

Alright, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’ve been testing a specific op-in method on a few of my sites that seems to work extremely well.

We all know how valuable opt-in forms are right? I don’t think that there’s an internet marketing expert alive that would tell you NOT to use an opt-in form on your home page…except me.

Instead, I’ve been using a two step opt-in process and have begun to capture more emails than ever before.

So what exactly is a two step opt-in?

Well, instead of having a traditional opt-in form that contains an area to submit an email, it looks more like a small banner that contains some persuasive text / images and a call to action for the reader to click on the banner.

The majority of the two step opt-in boxes I’ve seen are square shaped, and are located in the same sidebar area as the traditional opt-in form would be.

Now, once the reader clicks onto the box, they are taken to an entirely different page. This page will look similar to a short sales page (or squeeze page) that promotes your free offers and contains an actual form for the reader to provide their email and finally subscribe.

Most people scoff at the idea of using a two step opt-in because it requires the reader to do more. I too am a firm believer that minimizing steps in any process will usually lead to better results…except in this one special case.

Here’s Why the Two Step Opt-In Works

The traditional opt-in forms are severely flawed. Yes, the reader only has one step (fill in the box with the correct email and hit subscribe), but because the traditional opt-in form is located on your homepage, the amount of space that you have to promote your free offer is extremely limited.

How do you convey how awesome your offer is in only a brief sentence or two? Especially when there are so many great things to say about it.

By using the two step opt-in method, the box on the homepage simply asks that you click on it. Ok, that’s easy enough. Most people would be willing to do that out of sheer curiosity.

The page it links to is where you can provide as much text and images as you want in order to promote your offer. Instead of only a sentence or two, you can list bullet points as to why your offer is awesome.

Trust me, this works extremely well.

Prepping Other Pages for Opt-ins

This will require you to do a bit of investigative work. By now, you should have a working knowledge of your website and its analytics.

I want you to find your top 10 most visited pages.

These pages can be anything; About Me, a contact form, certain blog posts, ANYTHING.

Once you’ve found these pages, you’ll want to place a horizontal opt-in form somewhere within the text and provide a short call to action.

Check out the one I have below…

The trick is to make the opt-in form extremely bare bones basic so that it doesn’t detract away from the page that it is on (especially if it’s a blog post). Instead, find a way to work it in with the text.

For instance, if I added it to a blog post about fat loss, and one of the paragraphs was about nutrition, then I could end that paragraph with a simple call to action like “If you want to learn more about how proper nutrition can help you lose weight faster than diet pills, then subscribe to my weekly newsletter to gain up to date information right to your inbox”.

Then add your horizontal opt-in form. BAM! More subscribers overnight.

Here’s Why Adding a Horizontal opt-In Form to Your Text Works

Humans are suffering from information overload every time they visit a website. It’s a condition known as banner blindness.

In the field of human-computer interaction, the idea of banner blindness is relatively new. Researchers are beginning to suspect that web users have become so saturated with “in your face” information that they fail to even register in the mind of the viewer, causing them to completely glance over it entirely.

The term “banner blindness” doesn’t just apply to flashy banner ads. It pertains to any aspect of a page that is meant to attract attention by standing out from the rest of the page.

This means that people may be completely overlooking the opt-in area that is located in the usual positions such as the sidebar and the bottom of the page.

By placing the form somewhere in the text, it makes it virtually impossible for readers to miss.

Again, in order for this to work, it has to not detract from the rest of the page or else it may chase off readers, which is the last thing you want to do. However, if done correctly, it can be one of your most effective tools for gaining new subscribers.

Conclusion

If you aren’t using email marketing as part of your business model, then you’re probably missing out on some big pay days.

If you follow the basic strategy I outlined above, you should be on your way to making more money online, and who couldn’t use a few extra bucks in their pocket? Honestly, what do you have to lose?

If you have your own unique strategies that you personally use to grow your email list, feel free to let me know in the comment section below!

"The Money Is In The List"

Name:

Email:

AWeber proves it to thousands of businesses every day.

Learn how email marketing software
can get you more sales, too.

How To Build Your List: Why The “Experts” Are Wrong

Want no BS advice? Find out what you can do to dramatically improve the success of your business.

How familiar does this sound?

“I’ve dedicated countless hours to creating content, but nothing is happening. It’s like I’m working for free!”

“I post on my blog several times a week, comment on other relevant blogs in my niche, and even started guest blogging. I’ve seen small increases in my list, but not enough to create a full time business around.”

“I’ve got the content, but the traffic isn’t coming.”

Well, I’ve got good news and bad news for you.

I’ll start with the bad news first. Chances are, you’ve been following the advice of the so called “experts”, which is either severely flawed or flat out wrong.

How many times have you heard another marketer tell you that you need to focus your efforts on creating more content?

Though this is integral to your overall success, it’s only a small piece of the puzzle. The good news is, that there’s still time to turn things around, begin marketing the RIGHT way, and start building your subscriber’s list to epic proportions.

Why the “Experts” are Wrong

So why is there so much phony information online? For the most part, this false information is perpetuated by marketers that fall into one of two categories….

Category #1 The “old school” marketers – These are the online entrepreneurs that have been around for a while don’t quite have a grasp of what it’s like to be a newbie in today’s online world. Their advice comes from a time when building up a readership was EASY.

The times have changed a bit and there are more people turning to internet marketing every single day, causing the market place to become more crowded than ever before.

Category #2 The Deceivers – Those that fake it until they make it.These are the marketers that sell courses on how to make money online, despite never having made money online. They share rehashed ideas that they’ve read online that they believe will work.

Following the advice of marketers in either category will lead you to waste an astronomical amount of time, money, effort, and sanity.

There’s a reason why the vast amount of new marketers fail. It isn’t because internet marketing is inherently difficult to succeed in, most people fail because they’ve listened to faulty advice and eventually give up once they’ve realized that all the work they’ve put in was for nothing. Now that we got that out of the way, I can show you how to actually succeed…

Why Do People Subscribe?

As an internet marketer, the majority of your income will come from email marketing. So it’s important to understand what factors contribute to building your list of subscribers. The amount of subscribers you have depends on…

• Your ability to drive high quality traffic to your site
• Your ability to convert incoming traffic into a loyal following
• Your ability to get your followers to promote and refer your brand to others

Nowhere in that list did I mention that you need to be the next Pulitzer Prize winning author. Content is important, but again, it should only make up a fraction of your business plan.

Shape How People View Your Brand

Have you ever heard of Frank Kern? He was a highly popular marketer a few years back. He’s still relevant to this day, except he focuses his efforts on coaching more than selling information products.

I want you to take a second and think of your prototypical businessman. An image of a finely groomed man wearing a button up shirt, tie, and dress pants likely comes to mind. Well, Frank isn’t your typical marketer.

He would show up these speaking engagements with his long, shaggy hair, wearing board shorts and flip flops, and joked around a lot. If you saw him walking down the street you’d assume that he was just another surfer from Southern California.

When people would speak about Frank, everyone would say “Oh yeah, that laid back surfer guy.” Do you think it was a coincidence? No, Frank expertly shaped his image so that it would resonate with the people that saw him.

He wasn’t just another internet marketer, he had created an entire persona that stuck with people that allowed him to stand out among the pack.

What does this have to do with building an email list? Before you can build your email list to epic proportions, you’ve got to create a brand; a position in the marketplace that people can remember. You need to shape how people view you and your business and it has to be as specific as humanly possible.

You have to be known for SOMETHING, and it has to be memorable and unique to you. Don’t just be the lady that blogs about dog training, but instead be “Kathy, the expert in dog psychology”, so when people have a specific problem, you will be their go-to solution.

That means that everything you do online should perpetuate this message until it is successfully burned into the minds of your potential consumers.

Why Does This Matter?

Remember when I said that the amount of subscribers you have is dependent on your ability to get your followers to promote and refer your brand to others?

If people remember EXACTLY what you’re about, then whenever they encounter someone comes to them with a problem, your name will become the default recommendation for that problem.

Referral traffic not only helps build your brand, increase the amount of subscribers you have, but also converts like crazy! Think about the bloggers that you currently follow.

Chances are, you found them because someone said “Hey, check this person out because they’re awesome at…” This will ONLY work if you’ve already finely crafted your brand image and drilled it into the head of everyone that is interested in your niche.

Start Getting More Traffic

No, I’m not going to tell you to start building links and spamming the comment section in blog posts. Instead, I’m going to give you REAL actionable advice that has worked for countless businesses.

Attracting people to your business is not something that you’re born with. It’s an acquired skill that takes a lot of practice. Though you may have seen marketers propelled into the spotlight virtually overnight, there was likely a lot of work behind the scenes that you aren’t aware of.

The absolute EASIEST way to build traffic without having to break the bank on paid ads is to get featured by the press or other media outlets. Right now, you may be thinking to yourself:

“How can I get the media to feature my website if I don’t have an established brand?” Well I’ll show you how to follow an easy 3 step process…

Step #1 – Create something worth promoting This can be anything from a piece of content to free software. For the most people out there that don’t have the means to create software, it will have to be a piece of content. Now, this can’t be any generic piece of content, it has to be extremely specific and truly worth being promoted.

Step #2 – Finding the press You’ll want to build a relationship with people that have a history of covering what you’d like promoted. This means approaching bloggers, reporters, people that have a podcast within your niche, etc. They’re far more likely to promote your work.

Find out where your competitors have promoted. If they’ve scored a write-up on a huge online publication, then open up a dialogue with the writer of that write-up.

OR

An even better approach would be to contact the competitor of that online publication and convince them to cover you. This works well because they will see that the original write-up worked well for their competitor, which may convince them to follow suit.

Another method that I’ve seen used successfully is to find press based on specific topics. Let’s say that you’ve created a piece of content called “Red Fishing Lures Are Better than Black Fishing Lures”. You could do a quick Google search for “Why bright colored fishing lures work”.

You can then approach the blog owners of the sites that appeared in the search results because the opinion in their content likely corresponds with the opinion in your content. Site owners are always looking for other content that confirms the opinions they state on their blog.

Most site owners will jump at the chance to promote content that compliments theirs because it helps establish themselves as an authority in the eyes of their audience.

Step #3 – Persuade them to cover you Remember, bloggers are just like you. Most of them are simply trying to manage their time in a way that allows them to make the most amount of money.

Anything that YOU can do to make THEIR life a little bit easier would be greatly appreciated. This provides INCENTIVE for them to help you out in turn.

If you want someone to do ANYTHING for you, you must provide them an incentive for doing so, and the more important / influential the person you’re contacting, the bigger the incentive will need to be. It’s up to you to find what it will take to get that blogger to do what you want and give it to them.

Conclusion

Ignore the shady advice that most so called “experts” give you. Internet marketing isn’t rocket science, but is a highly psychological game.

If you can influence how people view your brand, you can build referrals, awareness, and brand loyalty. If you can convince publications to cover your brand, you can build massive amount of traffic.

If you combine the two, you will be able to create a massive following that WILL build your list, and eventually convert to sales.

From Sean Donahoe

12 Content Marketing Tips Really Successful Small Businesses Follow

Content marketing is a crucial part of an effective marketing strategy, whether for a small business or a corporate organization.

According to CoSchedule, “Content marketing is all about sharing your advice and ideas with your audience through a blog or online social network…”

Writing every day may sound like a notorious task, but it doesn’t have to be.

Yes, the majority of the content should be relevant to the type of industry your business is in. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with your content.

Remember that you are writing for people, not just businesses. Mix up the content once in a while to not only attract new leads, but convert, close, and delight them. Writing every day, and writing well, will help increase the success of your content marketing strategy.

Your content also doesn’t have to be only writing. Add some exciting visual content (like infographics) to effectively attract and delight your audience.

Here are 12 more content marketing tips. Enjoy!

Kathryn Wheeler

7 Steps To Becoming A Perfect Stay-At-Home Entrepreneur

Your kitchen counter may be the most cost-effective business hub in the entire world. There are numerous benefits to being an entrepreneur who works from home, along with an equal amount of challenges...

Even if your home office is a just a $50 Ikea desk in the corner of your bedroom, adding the word ‘office’ makes quite a difference as to how others perceive what you do when describing where you work.

Since some may people may look down at working from home, mostly because the idea is such a foreign concept, the phrase ‘home office’ will instantly change others perception of what you do and may even cause envy.

Here are some tips for stay at home entrepreneurs that will help you be more productive, happy and successful.

1. Leverage your willpower

We have a finite amount of will power to get things done. Use it to accomplish your most important and challenging tasks first thing in the morning.

Limit yourself to four to six items a day, placing your most challenging tasks first. Limiting yourself to this manageable amount will force you to only focus on the most important tasks on your list.

2. Create a new productive habit every 30 days

Productive habits are formed by committing to doing something at the same time daily, then repeating daily.  Only focus on creating a single habit at a time in a 30 day period.

Imagine how much more effective you will be in 12 months from now, after creating 12 new productive habits this year. If you are not already doing daily exercise, then commit to making that your first habit – to create.

Exercise increases your energy, improves your focus and even helps you sleep better.

Start with creating the healthy habit of becoming and staying fit.

3. Learn to say no

When it is time to work you will be most productive if you turn off your phone and shut down your e-mail browser. Learn to say no to answering the phone, especially from numbers you don’t recognise as they can easily pull you away from your productive efforts.

Learning to say no also means saying no to yourself - don’t take on the next project until you complete the task at hand. 

4. Schedule and batch like tasks

Most people’s to-do list are ordered in a priority list. Batching like tasks is a productivity hack that can save you lots of time. So when you need to make a call, make all your calls and when you need to write an e-mail, write all your e-mails in one sitting.

Sometimes we plain just don't want to do work and would rather watch TV or play. Schedule fun as a reward for working.

Thanks to Peter Drucker, we know it’s best to work in blocks of one hour or more, but who said that you had to stay home every day?

After all, you start your business so you could have freedom.

5. Create and automate

Create FAQs, or a knowledge base for your customers so they can get instant answers without you. Set an auto-responder with your FAQs included as part of your signature.

Instead of rushing to respond to every event that happens immediately, automatically let customers know when you will return their call or e-mail with an automated message and call them back at your convenience.

6. Don’t wait for the perfect plan

If you’re the type to worry about looking silly or making mistakes this may be tough for you. 

You’ll learn a lot more from taking action then imagining and planning. If you are going to fear something, happening don’t fear it because of actions you take, fear not taking action. 

Personally, I don’t regret the actions I take, I regret the actions I do not take and taking action is rarely a bad thing. Action leads to growth and profitability for your business.

7. Shoot for great, not for perfect.

If you think you have the perfect business, you won’t keep trying to improve. It’s better to act now and strive to find a better way, rather than wait for the perfect way to do things.

A lot of people ask about growing their business, the way to do this is to not get too comfortable.

Richard Branson

List Building And Email Marketing With Autoresponder Services

The Mantra of the Internet Marketer:

The Money is in the List

Most Internet Guru's quote that each subscriber on their list earns them - on average - $1 per month.  E.g. 1,000 people = $1,000 per month income.

Capturing the contact details of interested visitors to your site is the best way to build a long term internet business.

 Your List becomes the greatest asset in your business as you now have the means to communicate directly with them. This will help you to turn enquirers into buyers and one-time buyers into Repeat Customers For Life.

Build a working relationship via email.

It is well known that customers will buy from people that they Know, Like and Trust. This relationship can be nurtured by you through the information that you send to them and the value that you are giving to your customers.

Your income will be in direct proportion to the value of the information that you give to your customers.

Email Autoresponders are the Gatherers of customer data and the Deliverer of you emails - on auto-pilot.

A  simple optin box - "type in your name and email address for more information" will capture your customer's details, usually in exchange for free advice - a report, video or ebook maybe or even access to your newsletter.

A suite of emails can be set-up in advance for your customers to receive. Chose the days or intervals that you want them to receive further emails etc..

Send an email to all your subscribers at the click of a button at any time you desire if say you have some important news for them or maybe that "special offer".

Which Autoresponder service is best for you?

Worldwide, Millions of emails are sent every minute of every day but a vast proportion never reach their chosen destination so choosing a reliable Autoresponder service is crucial to your success.

There are many autoresponder services available today but the crucial factor is their effectiveness in actually delivering your emails to your people. Picking a service with an excellent rating is crucial. It's no good sending emails out when they have little chance of arriving.

Pick a reputable one from the start as it is also difficult to move your list later on. The top services usually require that imported lists need to re-optin - and that can lose you a large proportion of your hard gained list.

Aweber has to take top place as industry standard for the reliable delivery of emails at an affordable price. The whole system is easy to set up and integrate into your website.

Setting up your emails is quick and simple with straight forward text or jazzed up using one of their many templates to give your emails more impact. And with excellent video tutorials at every stage to help you.

I have arranged a Special Deal so you can get started today for just $1 usd.

Click HERE to Get Aweber for $1usd