Category Archives: List Building

Posted on

Effective List Building Techniques For Publishers & Authors

by

Article MarketingMethod #1 – Article Marketing

How many different email marketing lists do you belong to? If your mailbox is anything like mine, then you probably have subscribed yourself to quite a few during your browsing sessions online.

Whether the emails that you get are from other businesses that may be able to provide you with goods or services that you simply cannot get anywhere else for the price, for musicians who you like to keep an eye on in hopes that they will visit your city sometime soon or from bloggers who have great articles in your eyes – your email box is probably filled to the brim with notifications that you subscribed to at some point or another.

Now that you are considering moving into the realm of online marketing (more specific – online book marketing), it is high time that you learn to take advantage of the power of an email list and notification program. Potential clients and random visitors alike love notification lists, as it keeps them up to date on what you’ve got going on without them having to visit your website every moment of every day. People like things to be easy – and that is exactly what an email list is giving them – easy access to information on your website when they want it.

At this point in your career as a blossoming author/publisher, you probably do not know too much about the whole web design thing (or perhaps you do). However, even with your potential lack of experience, you have probably realized that it takes a well designed website with some killer content to draw people in and make them stick around.

While terms like article marketing and SEO may elude you, it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that you have got to have good, enjoyable, enlightening information on your website to make your guests, your readers and or your potential customers to stick around – and one of the best ways to do so is to be involved in an Article Marketing Program.

So What Exactly Is Article Marketing?

Quite simply it is just as it sounds – marketing your articles and taking advantage of articles written by other people to bring traffic to your own website. Because of the definition, there are two very different ways in which you can become a part of the article marketing phenomenon:

Submitting or Using.

Whichever method of article marketing your prefer is entirely up to you, although the former is much better way to attract traffic to your website and the latter should only be used in extreme situations.

Thanks to the wondrous power of the article marketing websites, there has never been a better time for you than now to become a better writer. Since you are probably already a writer, it shouldn’t be all that hard to do!

Writing Articles For Business Marketing

You see, in order to be able to take advantage of the amazing marketing potential of submitting to an article marketing website, you first have to be able to write your own articles.

For some of you who truly enjoy writing content all day long, this will not be a problem as you will be able to crank out great content in no time and flood the article marketing websites with lots of cool articles that everyone will want to have on their websites – easily getting your name out there so that you can start to establish a comprehensive email list of potential buying customers.

However, there is that problem that many people face who simply cannot draft an enjoyable document if their life depends on it. Perhaps you are tired of writing after completing your book, or you may have hired a ghost writer, if you are one of those types of people, the road to establishing an email list through article marketing will be long and arduous.

Eventually, you will be able to write an article that you deem worthy of submitting to an article marketing website. After some time you may even get a few hits on it and a few unique visitors to your website because of it.

But how much time are you willing to spend on something that may only net you a couple of people on your email list? Instead, why not try hiring a freelance writer (or ghost writer).

There are droves of them out there in cyberspace (check out http://www.Elance.com) who will work for relatively cheap rates and provide you with decent content (and if you don’t like what they have provided you with, you can always edit it).

Although many article marketing websites require that you write the articles yourself, if you have a ghostwriter do the dirty work for you, you can claim the article as your own and nobody will be the wiser.

Submitting To Article Directories

Once your article writing is finished, it is time to submit your work to an article marketing website. After it has been up there for awhile you will start to see people view it and you may even get a few downloads here or there. It is the downloads that you are really looking for, as it shows that someone found it interesting enough to put it on their website using your name, a link to your website/book, perhaps an email address and certainly some social media sites so that people will know who actually wrote the article in the first place. This will ultimately help a multitude of website visitors who may be interested in your content and also give them the opportunity to connect with you personally & ultimately bring your website more traffic.

Below, you’ll find a comprehensive list of some of the better article sites on the Internet. There are literally hundreds of sites, but these are the ones you should start with.

List of Article Directories:

Now, you can also use other peoples’ articles on your own website (but keep in mind that you are trying to direct traffic to your own site), so you’ll have to provide plenty of links to the original author’s website. However, there is a risk using this technique because you’ll be possibly driving people away from your own website before they get the opportunity to sign up to your eMail Opt-in List.

Getting people into your eMail Opt-in List through an article marketing plan can be tricky and arduous, but for the most part it is one of the more successful methods for establishing a good client base.

A lot of work must be done before you even think about posting that first article on an article marketing site, but once you are through with that all you have to do is sit back and watch as it brings in more and more potential customers to your website.

With each unique visit, there is another chance that person could sign up to your email Opt-in List. And we all know that the more people on your email list at the end of the day, the more people you’ll have the opportunity to sell your books to & ultimately maximize your chance for profits.

Posted on

Effective List Building Techniques For Publishers & Authors

by

Mail IconList Building 101

List building is very, very critical to the success of any business – online or offline. And it applies whether you own a small, medium or big-sized business. Fortunately, the same can apply to publishers and authors who want to sell more books.

Brick-n-mortar companies invest a great effort in collecting prospective leads. Network Marketers often begin with writing a list of 100 names of people they know. An online business owner’s main focus is on building their Online Mailing List. As a publisher and or author, it’s just as critical to develop your eMail list.

List building doesn’t have to be as difficult as some attest to, as long as you know what to do, and how to do it. The aim of this article is to show you how to get started on building your own mailing list using multiple, unique and different techniques that add TARGETED leads to your database and at the lowest cost possible.

If properly managed you’ll begin to sell more books. I’ll introduce you to some techniques that you may be familiar with and perhaps some that you are not. You should be able to integrate one or more of these techniques into your list building strategy. The more methods you use, the better chance you’ll have with growing your list and getting the results that’ll help sell more books but ultimately develop a database of buyers that kep buying from you.

Building successful websites can be somewhat tricky – especially if your plans are to make those websites the cash generator for your business.

With so many other websites out on the world wide web, what is there to set your business apart from the pack?

One simple answer should be the contents of your website. People like a nice, professional & clean looking design for the sites that they frequent and they like to have plenty of enjoyable articles or copy to read that is genuinely interesting to them. If you’re able to supply these fundamental features, you’ll be well on your way to making it easier to sell more books.

In order to take the extra step to make your website attractive enough for your visitors, you’ll need a list of potential customers!

Before you can get someone to purchase from you, they need to know who you are, right? Or, they have to at least be aware of your “store” or the services you provide. List Building is finding leads, the people that have an interest in you (or your product), and this involves creating an eMail/mailing list (also known as List Building).

Your eMailing list allows you to do something that most stores wish they could do: “welcome in” your visitors, add value through your mailings (eg. via your eZine/newsletter and or blog), build credibility and ultimately trust. As a result you can then market/promote your book anytime you wish because you are not limited by store hours 🙂

Even with a small eMail list, you’ll have a much better rate of sales than if you were to not have an eMail list at all.

Unfortunately it’s not wise to simply go around and collect random names and email addresses to add to your eMail list. You need to attract targeted traffic to your website. Once you’ve accomplished this, you can then convert those visitors to eMail list subscribers when they opt-in to your eZine/newsletter and or blog.

There are a variety of methods you can use to generate traffic to your website. In the next series of posts I’ll discuss these List Building techniques. Here’s a list of the some of these methods:

  • Article Marketing
  • Paid eZine Advertizing
  • Press Releases
  • PPC Programs
  • SEO
  • Using Special Reports
  • Ad Swaps
  • Give away Events
  • Co-registration leads
  • Resell Rights

Advanced Techniques:

  • Affiliates
  • Joint Ventures
  • Book Launch Campagins
  • Maximizing your Mailing List

I’ll discuss how you can get started right away and explain how you can attract these subscribers so that they can be converted into buying customers.

Posted on

3 Quick And Easy Ways To Build A Profitable Opt In List

by

You finally realize that you need a good opt-in list. After reading countless articles and sought expert advices and have read many success stories of people creating a small fortune with opt-in lists you finally decide to have one of your own. Then it happens, you think you have known everything there is to know about opt-in lists and have followed their advices to the T and you still weren’t able to make a profit.

In fact, you may be losing money. You maybe hiring writers to help you out, or there are some expenses incurred, even if you have a big list, but only a very small percentage actually buys from you, your still losing profit. You’ll realize that after a few months when you see your statistics and sales figures.

So what could have gone wrong? Why have others succeeded where you have failed? The most common mistake is that you dived straight right in. You chose a topic where you think could be quite popular and would earn you money. This just not the case. Just because you wrote people from the list doesn’t mean they are going to buy instantly.

Here I will offer more advice, for those who have started an opt-in list and have failed, you can rejuvenate your failed venture. For those who are starting, here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list.

1.) Get your customers to trust you and your products first. Just launching your opt-in list would not make you an expert and a believable seller. Put many articles first before you start an opt-in list. Write about the topic you know and have started and used for your site. Try to put forums first to gain knowledge about your customers about their wants and needs and target those wants and needs.

Join forums from other sites as well. Provide expert advices and recommendations. When you feel that people trust you already, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Friends are always good customers. Put up a link to your site so that they may be able to see what you’re business is all about.

The certain truth is, the money will only come in when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that could be a good exchange for their money. People are not going to buy something out of your recommendation if they don’t know you.

2.) Find a product or service that people want and need. Although it may not be your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can carry it on forward. Invest your time, effort and money that you could sell as well as the buyers or subscribers of your opt-in list can use.

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, there are not many people who have the same interest as you if you decide to sell something that is not entirely popular or profitable. Do your research well and you would see the profits come in. Also provide your subscribers with promotional material that they could actually use and spread around.

3.) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is basically beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in this venture and experience is still the best teacher. While there are many articles available for you in the internet to use, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust.

Experienced opt-in list users will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful. There are many things to avoid and these people will be able to tell you which ones.

Building a profitable opt-in list don’t just happen overnight. There are many preparations and effort to do. Opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you.

Posted on

Here’s Why Paying For Your Traffic Is A Smart Move

by

There are so many success stories you will hear about businesses making it good in the internet. The troubling thing is, there are maybe a tenfold or even a hundredfold of stories contradictory to theirs. Many have unsuccessfully launched a business enterprise that is internet based but only a handful shall succeed.

Is this through luck? That is even more remote. It takes good business sense and a lot of help and team effort. Most importantly, it is the eagerness to succeed and the determination to learn and the willingness to invest in a lot of hard work and some money.

The Very Basic

Like Neo, traffic is “The One”. Without traffic, all your effort would just go to waste. Every business needs customers, without them you wouldn’t have anyone to sell your products to. In the internet world traffic is the walk in customer. The more traffic you have the more people would be able to sell your products to.

But like any business that’s in every corner building or in the mall, not everyone that goes in will buy, but the greater of number that do come in to browse your merchandise, the greater number of people that will buy your products. It is a simple and known fact.

But, how do you get traffic, traffic large enough that could make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good profit. Many big companies generate traffic of tens of thousands a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buys, but that small percentage is enough to provide them with good business.

Many of these success stories get their traffic from paying others. Yes that’s right; you have to spend money to make money. Advertising is the key. The more people that knows that your site exists; the more people would of course go to your site, that’s common sense.

While there are many ways that can get you advertising for free, this do not generate the same high volume as those methods that are getting paid. These paid advertisements include advertising schemes by Google and Yahoo.

The Value of Searches

The search and will be the easiest and fastest medium in finding what a person needs in the internet. Search engines have been very popular because they provide a vital service to many people. They are free and easy to use. With this popularity, they get many visitors and clicks that they are the most common sites that people go to. It is easy to understand why so many companies would pay to advertise with these search engines.

Search engines provide information to the millions of users that they have each day. They provide links to many sites that a user may be looking for. If your sites link pop up in the high ranks of the search results page, you get a great chance that they will go to your site. While search engine optimization is a cheaper and low cost way to get your site a high rank, paying for advertisements will ensure that you will be on the top ranks.

When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your traffic. This may sound like not such a good idea, but the payoffs would tell a different story. When you pay for your traffic, you are guaranteed of a consistent traffic flow to your site. You will never go with an empty sales day.

Paying for your Traffic

Usually, you will be charged with the number of hits a link gets when your ads is clicked, this is called pay per click. For some search engines, you will be charged with the number of times your ad shows up when a certain keyword or keyword phrase is searched. It is imperative that you have good keyword content in your ad. There are many tools that aid you in using the right keyword for the right moment.

All the money you spend in paying for your traffic will not be for naught. You will get an impressive boost in traffic which will also result to a great boost in your sales figures. Paying for your traffic would be a really good idea and you will get all the benefits it has to offer.