Build That List has moved to:
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Sunday, July 09, 2006
15 Days To Building A List - Day 4
Setting Up Your Autoresponder and Opt-in page
For those of you who are new to internet marketing, and email lists here's a bit of an overview. Whenever you go to a website, and you see a sign up form and you put your name and email in it you receive an email. In that email you are welcomed personally, and then given all the information about the list that you signed up for. Some of you may think that there's a person doing this manually, but in reality it's just a computer sending out emails to people who fill out the form.
You may be wondering how they include your name in the email also. Well, there's certain coding that you can put in your emails through your autoresponder that includes the name of whatever the person puts when he/she is signing up for the list. It's a very simple process that only takes seconds to do if you have the autoresponder service.
Without an autoresponder service, you would have to manually record all the sign ups, and send out each email to everybody in your list. Trust me, that would be the biggest waste of time in your internet marketing career. The first step to building a list is to sign up for an autoresponder service.
There are two choices here. There are free autoresponders that you could use, but you are limited to everything, and it's not the greatest service that you would receive. I would highly recommend using a paid unlimited lists, campaigns, follow ups, and newsletters autoresponder. The service I highly recommend is Aweber. The service is great, and it only costs about $20 per month.
Now that you're signed up with your autoresponder, let's set up a opt in form. But before we do that, let's get an idea of what some successful ones look like. Take a look at the following sites. Pay close attention to where the form is located, what intices the viewer to sign up, and where the sign up brings you after you sign up.
Rosalind Gardner's Net Profits Today
Jim Edward's I Gotta Tell You
and there are many other great ones out there.
In this example, we're going to be using Aweber.
Sign into Aweber
At the top right of the screen click on the link that says customer & affiliate Login. Now sign into your account. Once logged in click on the tab that says 'Leads'. This is where all the information about your sign ups are, and the link to the web form generator. Below the tabs you'll see buttons. Click on the 'Web Form Generator' button. Now you'll be taken to the web form generator page.
Click on 'create new web form' in the middle of the page. The first field is form name. You can name this whatever you want, because nobody's going to see it. Now there are many different kind of forms that you can choose from. In this example we're going to choose a form that's on a webpage. For this we choose in-line (which should already be chosen). Next you're going to fill in the headline field. This is what is going to appear on your page. This is your form. So make it look good, use an attractive headline, bold, colours, but don't go overboard. Remember to keep in the line of the examples I showed you earlier. Don't worry about the boxes, because they will appear automatically below your headline.
The next field is the input fields. You'll want 2 fields on this one. A name field, and an email field. I like to put the name field before the email field, but you can switch it around if you want. This next step is very important. If you're hosting your own website, you'll want to change the 'Thank You Page'. One thing I don't like about the Aweber thank you page is that all it says is Thank you for subscribing. I know they didn't mean to make it spectacular in anyway, but I highly recommend creating your own unique thank you page. Also, on the thank you page remember to tell the subscriber to check their email because they will have to confirm their subscription. When I made my first web form for one of my newsletters I used the aweber thank you page. The results ended up that only half of the people were confirming their subscription. Then I came out with a mini-course, and made my own thank you page. The results were drastic. Out of about 40 subscribers 1 didn't confirm. So creating your own thank you page will help you out a lot.
Now you need to save your form, and now it's created. You'll be taken back to the web form generator page, and all you have to do is click on the 'Get HTML' link, and paste that code into your website. Simple as that.
So now you should have a good idea on how to get started with your list. Aweber provides a great load of useful information for email lists, promotions, and a lot more so take a good look around the site, and you'll find a lot of useful information.
Well, that's all for today.
See you tomorrow.
For those of you who are new to internet marketing, and email lists here's a bit of an overview. Whenever you go to a website, and you see a sign up form and you put your name and email in it you receive an email. In that email you are welcomed personally, and then given all the information about the list that you signed up for. Some of you may think that there's a person doing this manually, but in reality it's just a computer sending out emails to people who fill out the form.
You may be wondering how they include your name in the email also. Well, there's certain coding that you can put in your emails through your autoresponder that includes the name of whatever the person puts when he/she is signing up for the list. It's a very simple process that only takes seconds to do if you have the autoresponder service.
Without an autoresponder service, you would have to manually record all the sign ups, and send out each email to everybody in your list. Trust me, that would be the biggest waste of time in your internet marketing career. The first step to building a list is to sign up for an autoresponder service.
There are two choices here. There are free autoresponders that you could use, but you are limited to everything, and it's not the greatest service that you would receive. I would highly recommend using a paid unlimited lists, campaigns, follow ups, and newsletters autoresponder. The service I highly recommend is Aweber. The service is great, and it only costs about $20 per month.
Now that you're signed up with your autoresponder, let's set up a opt in form. But before we do that, let's get an idea of what some successful ones look like. Take a look at the following sites. Pay close attention to where the form is located, what intices the viewer to sign up, and where the sign up brings you after you sign up.
Rosalind Gardner's Net Profits Today
Jim Edward's I Gotta Tell You
and there are many other great ones out there.
In this example, we're going to be using Aweber.
Sign into Aweber
At the top right of the screen click on the link that says customer & affiliate Login. Now sign into your account. Once logged in click on the tab that says 'Leads'. This is where all the information about your sign ups are, and the link to the web form generator. Below the tabs you'll see buttons. Click on the 'Web Form Generator' button. Now you'll be taken to the web form generator page.
Click on 'create new web form' in the middle of the page. The first field is form name. You can name this whatever you want, because nobody's going to see it. Now there are many different kind of forms that you can choose from. In this example we're going to choose a form that's on a webpage. For this we choose in-line (which should already be chosen). Next you're going to fill in the headline field. This is what is going to appear on your page. This is your form. So make it look good, use an attractive headline, bold, colours, but don't go overboard. Remember to keep in the line of the examples I showed you earlier. Don't worry about the boxes, because they will appear automatically below your headline.
The next field is the input fields. You'll want 2 fields on this one. A name field, and an email field. I like to put the name field before the email field, but you can switch it around if you want. This next step is very important. If you're hosting your own website, you'll want to change the 'Thank You Page'. One thing I don't like about the Aweber thank you page is that all it says is Thank you for subscribing. I know they didn't mean to make it spectacular in anyway, but I highly recommend creating your own unique thank you page. Also, on the thank you page remember to tell the subscriber to check their email because they will have to confirm their subscription. When I made my first web form for one of my newsletters I used the aweber thank you page. The results ended up that only half of the people were confirming their subscription. Then I came out with a mini-course, and made my own thank you page. The results were drastic. Out of about 40 subscribers 1 didn't confirm. So creating your own thank you page will help you out a lot.
Now you need to save your form, and now it's created. You'll be taken back to the web form generator page, and all you have to do is click on the 'Get HTML' link, and paste that code into your website. Simple as that.
So now you should have a good idea on how to get started with your list. Aweber provides a great load of useful information for email lists, promotions, and a lot more so take a good look around the site, and you'll find a lot of useful information.
Well, that's all for today.
See you tomorrow.
Back to '15 Days To Building A List'
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Saturday, July 08, 2006
15 Days To Building A List - Day 3
Setting Up Your Website Or Blog
So you have your website host, and your domain set up (if you don't know how to do this refer to Day 2 of this series)
We're going to cover two things in this section.
How to set up a website, and how to set up a blog
How To Set Up A Website
First, sign onto your website's cpanel (http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel)
In the list you will see many different icons. Click on the 'File Manager' one.
Click on the folder (not the text link) public_html
This is where all your website pages are stored. Everytime you want to make a page on your website, make sure to save it to this folder.
Now, we're going to discuss how to design your website. You may have some, a lot, or none html knowledge. If you have a lot, then you're on your way. If you have some or a lot read this story.
When I first started making websites on the internet, I had some html knowledge. So I thought to myself "Well, since I know how to write html code I might as well design and manage myself using the wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) html editor." I did this for 3 months, and I got so frustrated. I got so angry at manually going into each file, and editing it. Also, when I wanted to add a link to the navigation bar or make changes to the design I had to do it to each page seperately. I was just wasting a whole lot of unnecessary time. Then I was introduced to
XsitePro
When I started using it I knew this program would increase my productivity by at least 100%. It's so simple to use (by simple I don't mean not flexable, you can design and tweak your website). Also, XsitePro uses ftp which means that you can upload your site from the software right to your website in the click of a button. No messing around with files. I also find that I now have motivation to write. I have motivation to keep building my website and blogs. When I was doing everything manually I was starting to loose a lot of motivation. I knew I had to find something or else everything would just start going down hill (well it was). XsitePro has drastically helped me out.
How To Set Up A Blog
Setting up a blog is so much easier with Cpanel.
First, log into your cpanel account (if you don't know how to there's instructions in the how to set up a website section). Now scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you will see a button that's named 'Fantastico'. Click on that, and you will see a section that says blogs. There will be many to choose from. Personally, I chose Wordpress. It's the most popular, lots of templates, it's easy to use, and the support is great.
Once you choose which one you want to use click on it, and to the right you will see a 'new installation' link. Click that, and you will be given instructions on how to do that rest.
That's all for today, we'll see you tomorrow for Day 3.
So you have your website host, and your domain set up (if you don't know how to do this refer to Day 2 of this series)
We're going to cover two things in this section.
How to set up a website, and how to set up a blog
How To Set Up A Website
First, sign onto your website's cpanel (http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel)
In the list you will see many different icons. Click on the 'File Manager' one.
Click on the folder (not the text link) public_html
This is where all your website pages are stored. Everytime you want to make a page on your website, make sure to save it to this folder.
Now, we're going to discuss how to design your website. You may have some, a lot, or none html knowledge. If you have a lot, then you're on your way. If you have some or a lot read this story.
When I first started making websites on the internet, I had some html knowledge. So I thought to myself "Well, since I know how to write html code I might as well design and manage myself using the wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) html editor." I did this for 3 months, and I got so frustrated. I got so angry at manually going into each file, and editing it. Also, when I wanted to add a link to the navigation bar or make changes to the design I had to do it to each page seperately. I was just wasting a whole lot of unnecessary time. Then I was introduced to
XsitePro
When I started using it I knew this program would increase my productivity by at least 100%. It's so simple to use (by simple I don't mean not flexable, you can design and tweak your website). Also, XsitePro uses ftp which means that you can upload your site from the software right to your website in the click of a button. No messing around with files. I also find that I now have motivation to write. I have motivation to keep building my website and blogs. When I was doing everything manually I was starting to loose a lot of motivation. I knew I had to find something or else everything would just start going down hill (well it was). XsitePro has drastically helped me out.
How To Set Up A Blog
Setting up a blog is so much easier with Cpanel.
First, log into your cpanel account (if you don't know how to there's instructions in the how to set up a website section). Now scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you will see a button that's named 'Fantastico'. Click on that, and you will see a section that says blogs. There will be many to choose from. Personally, I chose Wordpress. It's the most popular, lots of templates, it's easy to use, and the support is great.
Once you choose which one you want to use click on it, and to the right you will see a 'new installation' link. Click that, and you will be given instructions on how to do that rest.
That's all for today, we'll see you tomorrow for Day 3.
Tags:
Friday, July 07, 2006
15 Days To Building A List - Day 2
Where To Start
There's 2 directions that you can take here.
You could either build a website with useful content, or publish a blog (which can be a form of a website).
If you're building a website I suggest you get paid reliable hosting, instead of free hosting. You won't get very far with free hosting, with free hosting
Next is to get a domain. I go with godaddy because they have good service, and well priced. So you purchase a domain, and they will give you instructions how to set your domain to your host. It's a fairly simple process, and should only take about 20 minutes or less to do.
Ok, so now you have your website set up, and ready to go.
Now you have have to decide whether you want to use a website or a blog.
With both a blog and a website you have the deicision of linking to different categories, and writing on different subjects. A website and a blog are just two different ways of presenting content. It's just as simple as that.
It just goes down to the bottom line of how you want to present your information. Blogs is just a journal style format. The more successful bloggers categorize the content in their blog instead of just scrambling all the information. With the website format, it has a more traditional internet feel to it. Everything is there, and you can browse through the website using the sidebars (or where ever the navigation bar is).
Take some time to discover all the possibilities that CPanel has to offer.
Tomorrow, I'll show you how to set up your website or your blog (whichever format you choose), and the mistake people make.
There's 2 directions that you can take here.
You could either build a website with useful content, or publish a blog (which can be a form of a website).
If you're building a website I suggest you get paid reliable hosting, instead of free hosting. You won't get very far with free hosting, with free hosting
- You get limited bandwidth
- You don't get your own domain (you get something along the lines of freehost.com/youruser/page.html which doesn't look too good)
- Most of the free hosts put their advertising on your website (You write the content, so you should get the advertising)
Next is to get a domain. I go with godaddy because they have good service, and well priced. So you purchase a domain, and they will give you instructions how to set your domain to your host. It's a fairly simple process, and should only take about 20 minutes or less to do.
Ok, so now you have your website set up, and ready to go.
Now you have have to decide whether you want to use a website or a blog.
With both a blog and a website you have the deicision of linking to different categories, and writing on different subjects. A website and a blog are just two different ways of presenting content. It's just as simple as that.
It just goes down to the bottom line of how you want to present your information. Blogs is just a journal style format. The more successful bloggers categorize the content in their blog instead of just scrambling all the information. With the website format, it has a more traditional internet feel to it. Everything is there, and you can browse through the website using the sidebars (or where ever the navigation bar is).
Take some time to discover all the possibilities that CPanel has to offer.
Tomorrow, I'll show you how to set up your website or your blog (whichever format you choose), and the mistake people make.
Tags:
Thursday, July 06, 2006
15 Days To Building A List - Day 1
Coming Up With The Idea
So you want to build a list, have thousands of people that you can send email to, and they will click on your affiliate or product link and buy. Then you get a nice big fat commission check. Sounds great doesn't it? Of course it does. Easy? Definately not.
One thing I'm going to tell you about Internet Marketing is it takes as much work to build your business as it would in a brick and mortor business. Maybe even harder. People are less likely to buy a product on the internet than from a brick and mortor business. So you have to come up with an idea. Sure you see 'Get Rich Schemes' all over the internet. You see people telling you that you could instantly get big amounts of cash from the internet. Truth is, the internet is not a get rich quick scheme. It's far from it. It requires a great amount of discipline, effort, and creativeness.
The first thing you have to do is come up with a theme. A niche. What is this website/blog/idea going to be about. What topic is it going to be on? Cooking Recipes? Greek Cooking Recipes? 9 Ball Pool? Texas Hold Em? Texas Hold Em Tips and Tricks?
If you have a million ideas of things you want to write about or you can't think of what to make your website here's what to do.
Here's a tool I use to see how many people search for terms on the search Engine:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
I suggest you bookmark that page as you will need it, and discover that it's a very useful tool. Now look on your list, and look at your keywords. You're going to now find out the demand and supply of your topics/keywords.
For an example, let's use the term Texas Holdem
So we search for the term texas holdem using the keyword suggestion tool, and we get (They give you Wordtracker results, but we'll just focus on the overture results)
Now if you go to google type in the first search result, and do a search.
Near the top right you'll see the results which will looks like "
Results 1 - 10 of about 11,200,000 for texas holdem"
Now that means that you have a bit of competition. 11,200,000 sites are optimized for the word texas holdem.
This is where we use a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.
You'll want to set it up something like this:
now the ratio is calculated by dividing the supply by the demand. I calculated everything and came with these results
The rule of thumb is the lower the rating, the better the niche.
So in this case the top three are texas holdem, texas holdem poker, and texas holdem strategy. Now you have to put a little thinking into this. Texas Holdem, and Texas Holdem Poker would be to wide of a category. So the best nice would be 'Texas Holdem Strategy". There would be tons of things you could write about in that niche.
So do that for each of your keywords, and see what your best results are.
That concludes Day 1. If you have any comments or tips feel free to post in the comments.
So you want to build a list, have thousands of people that you can send email to, and they will click on your affiliate or product link and buy. Then you get a nice big fat commission check. Sounds great doesn't it? Of course it does. Easy? Definately not.
One thing I'm going to tell you about Internet Marketing is it takes as much work to build your business as it would in a brick and mortor business. Maybe even harder. People are less likely to buy a product on the internet than from a brick and mortor business. So you have to come up with an idea. Sure you see 'Get Rich Schemes' all over the internet. You see people telling you that you could instantly get big amounts of cash from the internet. Truth is, the internet is not a get rich quick scheme. It's far from it. It requires a great amount of discipline, effort, and creativeness.
The first thing you have to do is come up with a theme. A niche. What is this website/blog/idea going to be about. What topic is it going to be on? Cooking Recipes? Greek Cooking Recipes? 9 Ball Pool? Texas Hold Em? Texas Hold Em Tips and Tricks?
If you have a million ideas of things you want to write about or you can't think of what to make your website here's what to do.
- Pull out a peice of paper and pen.
- Go in a room where there is no computer.
- Write down as many topics that you would like to write about.
- Write down as many things you are good at.
- Write down as many things you want to learn about.
Here's a tool I use to see how many people search for terms on the search Engine:
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
I suggest you bookmark that page as you will need it, and discover that it's a very useful tool. Now look on your list, and look at your keywords. You're going to now find out the demand and supply of your topics/keywords.
For an example, let's use the term Texas Holdem
So we search for the term texas holdem using the keyword suggestion tool, and we get (They give you Wordtracker results, but we'll just focus on the overture results)
Now if you go to google type in the first search result, and do a search.
Near the top right you'll see the results which will looks like "
Results 1 - 10 of about 11,200,000 for texas holdem"Now that means that you have a bit of competition. 11,200,000 sites are optimized for the word texas holdem.
This is where we use a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.
You'll want to set it up something like this:
now the ratio is calculated by dividing the supply by the demand. I calculated everything and came with these results
The rule of thumb is the lower the rating, the better the niche.
So in this case the top three are texas holdem, texas holdem poker, and texas holdem strategy. Now you have to put a little thinking into this. Texas Holdem, and Texas Holdem Poker would be to wide of a category. So the best nice would be 'Texas Holdem Strategy". There would be tons of things you could write about in that niche.
So do that for each of your keywords, and see what your best results are.
That concludes Day 1. If you have any comments or tips feel free to post in the comments.
Tags:
15 Days To Building A List
It's great that savvy internet marketers are telling you that you have to build a list. "Build That List! It's the only way to create a real online business". So you say to yourself "Sure. That's what I have to do!......oh...how do I do it?"
This is where I come in. I'm going to start a series on how to build your list. So lets get going!
15 Days To Building A List
Day 1 - Coming Up With The Idea
Day 2 - Where To Start
Day 3 - Setting Up Your Website Or Blog
Day 4 - Setting Up Your Autoresponder & Web Form
Tags:
This is where I come in. I'm going to start a series on how to build your list. So lets get going!
15 Days To Building A List
Day 1 - Coming Up With The Idea
Day 2 - Where To Start
Day 3 - Setting Up Your Website Or Blog
Day 4 - Setting Up Your Autoresponder & Web Form
Tags:
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Email Has Become a $7.3 Billion Industry
I don't know about you, but to me that's a huge market. That's just proof that there's money to be made on the internet using email. No, no, no..I'm not talking about SPAM. SPAM is sending people emails that they didn't ask for in the first place.
What I'm talking about is opt in lists. Lists of people who come to your website, fill out a form, and request for more information. They request you to send them emails. Isn't that great? Not only does it feel moral, but these people will actually read your email. Unlike SPAM, where you see the headline - notice that it's SPAM, and delete it right away.
That's not the end of it either. Not only will they read your email, but in the back of their mind there will be something telling them "Hey. This guy knows a lot about this, you should read and believe what he says". That is the power of email marketing.
The most important part is can you write an email that will convert. Can you send an email to someone which they open, go to the link and buy? You're right. You don't. But Cory Rudl, Joe Vitale, Allan Says, and a lot of other successful internet marketers do. Yanik Silver has over the years compiled all the greatest emails that has converted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. His book is called:
Million Dollar Emails
Purchasing this ebook for a simple $19 could help you write emails that generate $500,000 or more.
What I'm talking about is opt in lists. Lists of people who come to your website, fill out a form, and request for more information. They request you to send them emails. Isn't that great? Not only does it feel moral, but these people will actually read your email. Unlike SPAM, where you see the headline - notice that it's SPAM, and delete it right away.
That's not the end of it either. Not only will they read your email, but in the back of their mind there will be something telling them "Hey. This guy knows a lot about this, you should read and believe what he says". That is the power of email marketing.
The most important part is can you write an email that will convert. Can you send an email to someone which they open, go to the link and buy? You're right. You don't. But Cory Rudl, Joe Vitale, Allan Says, and a lot of other successful internet marketers do. Yanik Silver has over the years compiled all the greatest emails that has converted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. His book is called:
Million Dollar Emails
Purchasing this ebook for a simple $19 could help you write emails that generate $500,000 or more.
Tags:
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
81% Of Sales Are Closed On The Fifth Contact
Isn't that amazing? Think about it. Before someone buys your product they're going to see it at least five times. That's the great thing about email marketing is that you have 'their' contact so you can 'remind' them about your product. You remind them to look at your product 5 times.
There's one problem though. Can you get them to read your email, and click the link to your product (or affiliate link)? The main thing you have to look greatly on is the headline. If the headline is not attractive and personalized people are not going to read the email. It's as simple as that.
Yanik Silver is one of the greatest email marketers of all time. If you want to learn about email marketing, he will be a great mentor.
Fortunately, he wrote an ebook focused on autoresponders.
Read More:
Autoresponder Magic
There's one problem though. Can you get them to read your email, and click the link to your product (or affiliate link)? The main thing you have to look greatly on is the headline. If the headline is not attractive and personalized people are not going to read the email. It's as simple as that.
Yanik Silver is one of the greatest email marketers of all time. If you want to learn about email marketing, he will be a great mentor.
Fortunately, he wrote an ebook focused on autoresponders.
Read More:
Autoresponder Magic
Monday, July 03, 2006
Which Page Should You Put Your Sign Up Form On
A lot of people get confused on what page or pages should they put their sign up form on. "Should I put it on my home page?" "Should I put it at the top of my forum?" "Should I put it on my blog?" "Where should I put it?". The answer is simple. Put it on every page that you have. You might be asking, "well won't it look too repetitive?" To some it might, but if you have your website optimized for the search engines then everyone's not going to land on your homepage.
Let's say you create a page for the new Dodge Charger. If your site is listed on google then google will link to your Dodge Charger page, not your homepage. So, if you have your internet user search for Dodge Charger on Google, then it brings them to your Dodge Charger page, and you only put the sign up form on your homepage. Guess what! They're not going to see it. Odds are they're going to read your article, and leave. There's a chance that they might want to check out your Muscle Car homepage, but wouldn't your chances be better if you put a sign up form on your Dodge Charger page? Of Course.
Just keep in mind that every page is a possible landing page, and that's the key reason why you should have a sign up form on every single page.
Let's say you create a page for the new Dodge Charger. If your site is listed on google then google will link to your Dodge Charger page, not your homepage. So, if you have your internet user search for Dodge Charger on Google, then it brings them to your Dodge Charger page, and you only put the sign up form on your homepage. Guess what! They're not going to see it. Odds are they're going to read your article, and leave. There's a chance that they might want to check out your Muscle Car homepage, but wouldn't your chances be better if you put a sign up form on your Dodge Charger page? Of Course.
Just keep in mind that every page is a possible landing page, and that's the key reason why you should have a sign up form on every single page.
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