Why You Absolutely Must Have Your Own Opt-In E-mail List
| Category: E-mail Marketing | Date: 2003-09-03 |
Probably the number one marketing tool at a web marketer’s disposal is the opt-in e-mail list. This is something that the majority of people struggling with their search engine position, submitting to directories and bidding on pay-per-click search engines have yet to learn (or choose to ignore).
Running a regular newsletter seems like a lot of work. You need to write articles, find advertisers, come up with a witty introduction, create some more compelling content for the second half. It’s all just far too much effort, right?
Actually, if you work it out, you’ll probably find that the time you spend on search engines, directories and pay-per-click search engines, far outweighs the time it would take to run and promote your ezine. And yet, running your own ezine would prove far more profitable.
Now, I’m not saying that these other methods are a waste of time. It’s important to use them in moderation, but if you’re basing you whole marketing campaign on them, then this is probably why you’re not making the kind of income you’re looking for.
A lot of people will tell you that search engines are the main way that people find information on the Internet and therefore are the most important marketing tool to concentrate on.
Yes, most people do go to search engines when they’re trying to find information, but this does not make it the best marketing method.
Mark Joyner, one of the most successful Internet marketers ever, reports that he gets about 15% of his traffic from search engines. This is fairly typical for an Internet only business.
Even then, the conversion rate is not that great as these are first time visitors who probably know nothing about your business. Another problem is in optimizing your site for the search engines.
You could easily pay a search engine professional $500 to optimize your website and submit to the search engines. You may well be delighted when you hit the number 4 spot in Google for your targeted search term and the traffic starts pouring in…
But how delighted will you be a week later when Google have completed changed their ranking formulas, and yours is in 167th position and getting zero traffic? This sort of thing happens all the time. Make sure it doesn’t happen to you!
Directories and pay-per-click search engines generate similar problems. People will be less inclined to buy on their first visit when they don’t know who you are. Plus these methods are getting expensive.
Almost all directories now charge fees to be accepted, and for the major ones this can be a large amount of money. The only directory that counts and is still f*ree is ‘The Open Directory Project’, located at http://www.dmoz.org.
This is an important one and being listed can boost your search engine ranking quite a bit, but they do tend to be quite picky about whom they let in and a sales only site may well not make it.
Pay-per-click search engines are also expensive. If you’re paying $2.50 per visitor for a top, popular search term ranking, you’d better make sure you’re making enough money per visitor to cover it. It’s very easy to lose a lot of money on PPC search engines, if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
eZines have all kinds of benefits over search engines/directories:
a) It keeps you in regular contact with your customers. It reminds them that you exist and that you provide great services or products.
b) It is an excellent source of income. When you recommend a product to your list, you can be sure that a fair percentage of them will purchase it.
Occasionally, you’ll be able to send a one off e-mail that is just a recommendation of a product. When you’ve managed to build up a large list, this can amount to a lot of money.
c) It builds trust with your potential customers. Who would you feel more comfortable buying from: someone you’ve only just heard of, or someone who sends you valuable information every month for f*ree, and who clearly knows what they’re talking about?
You can build a sense of trust with your customers by proving to them that you are both knowledgeable and reliable. They will be far more susceptible to any offer you send them.
The most important thing to remember with ezines, is that they must be ‘opt-in’. Subscribers must give you their name and e-mail address willingly.
If you simply buy a list of e-mail addresses and send spam messages to thousands of people, you will destroy your reputation as a trustworthy seller and probably lose your ISP.
As I said earlier, the time it takes to run and promote an ezine is probably far less than you would spend struggling with search engines and directories. I run two successful monthly ezines and I can get an issue done in less than a day, probably 5 or 6 hours.
Many people give the excuse that they don’t know how to write or they don’t know enough about a subject to produce anything useful. Firstly, you don’t need a University degree to be able to write an ezine…
In fact, it may help if you haven’t. You certainly don’t want to write an academic essay. eZines should generally convey a friendly tone that reads as you would speak.
Of course, you will need to adjust your tone a little depending on your audience, but if you’re creating an ezine about something, you’ve probably read enough about it yourself to know the appropriate style of writing.
I’m sure you’ll find that you know a lot more than you think you do. Plus you can always use other people’s articles for inspiration. Now, I’m certainly not suggesting you copy someone else’s article and put your name on it, but if you can find a few articles along the theme of yours, and borrow ideas from each one, then you’re well on the way…
What’s more, you won’t just be teaching your readers about the subject, but you’ll be learning a lot more about it yourself. For an excellent ebook all about profiting from writing articles, take a look at ‘Turn Words into Profit’ by Jim Edwards – http://www.successgold.com/turnwords.htm.
Once you’ve got your article, the rest of the ezine is simple. Most begin with a personal letter to the readers. Perhaps let them know how your week’s gone or tell them about something that happened to you recently. You may also want to include a section after your article, perhaps a resource list or quick tip.
As for ads, I recommend that you promote affiliate programs rather than include paid advertising. It is much simpler to sign up with an affiliate program and get a commission of every sale that you refer than it is to find the right advertisers. It will also usually bring in more money.
If you want to learn more about running your own ezine, I highly recommend ‘Boost Business with Your Own eZine’ by Alexandria K. Brown – http://www.successgold.com/ezinequeen.htm.
The ebook also tells you all about promoting your ezine, which unfortunately there’s not enough space to go into here.
So if you’re one of those people that relies on search engines and directories for your traffic, and you’re wondering why you’re not getting anywhere, then you will hopefully have seen the error of your ways.
You know have the knowledge to build the kind of income you’re looking for online. Use it wisely!
© Joe Beaven - All Rights Reserved
About the Author
The Top Info Products Information and Software Available with Resale Rights Anywhere, Now on a Money Saving, Time Saving, Incredibly Convenient CD successgold.com
Joe Beaven has been making money online since 1998 by various methods including Internet auctions, information products and affiliate marketing.
Info@SuccessGold.com
http://www.successgold.com
Running a regular newsletter seems like a lot of work. You need to write articles, find advertisers, come up with a witty introduction, create some more compelling content for the second half. It’s all just far too much effort, right?
Actually, if you work it out, you’ll probably find that the time you spend on search engines, directories and pay-per-click search engines, far outweighs the time it would take to run and promote your ezine. And yet, running your own ezine would prove far more profitable.
Now, I’m not saying that these other methods are a waste of time. It’s important to use them in moderation, but if you’re basing you whole marketing campaign on them, then this is probably why you’re not making the kind of income you’re looking for.
A lot of people will tell you that search engines are the main way that people find information on the Internet and therefore are the most important marketing tool to concentrate on.
Yes, most people do go to search engines when they’re trying to find information, but this does not make it the best marketing method.
Mark Joyner, one of the most successful Internet marketers ever, reports that he gets about 15% of his traffic from search engines. This is fairly typical for an Internet only business.
Even then, the conversion rate is not that great as these are first time visitors who probably know nothing about your business. Another problem is in optimizing your site for the search engines.
You could easily pay a search engine professional $500 to optimize your website and submit to the search engines. You may well be delighted when you hit the number 4 spot in Google for your targeted search term and the traffic starts pouring in…
But how delighted will you be a week later when Google have completed changed their ranking formulas, and yours is in 167th position and getting zero traffic? This sort of thing happens all the time. Make sure it doesn’t happen to you!
Directories and pay-per-click search engines generate similar problems. People will be less inclined to buy on their first visit when they don’t know who you are. Plus these methods are getting expensive.
Almost all directories now charge fees to be accepted, and for the major ones this can be a large amount of money. The only directory that counts and is still f*ree is ‘The Open Directory Project’, located at http://www.dmoz.org.
This is an important one and being listed can boost your search engine ranking quite a bit, but they do tend to be quite picky about whom they let in and a sales only site may well not make it.
Pay-per-click search engines are also expensive. If you’re paying $2.50 per visitor for a top, popular search term ranking, you’d better make sure you’re making enough money per visitor to cover it. It’s very easy to lose a lot of money on PPC search engines, if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
eZines have all kinds of benefits over search engines/directories:
a) It keeps you in regular contact with your customers. It reminds them that you exist and that you provide great services or products.
b) It is an excellent source of income. When you recommend a product to your list, you can be sure that a fair percentage of them will purchase it.
Occasionally, you’ll be able to send a one off e-mail that is just a recommendation of a product. When you’ve managed to build up a large list, this can amount to a lot of money.
c) It builds trust with your potential customers. Who would you feel more comfortable buying from: someone you’ve only just heard of, or someone who sends you valuable information every month for f*ree, and who clearly knows what they’re talking about?
You can build a sense of trust with your customers by proving to them that you are both knowledgeable and reliable. They will be far more susceptible to any offer you send them.
The most important thing to remember with ezines, is that they must be ‘opt-in’. Subscribers must give you their name and e-mail address willingly.
If you simply buy a list of e-mail addresses and send spam messages to thousands of people, you will destroy your reputation as a trustworthy seller and probably lose your ISP.
As I said earlier, the time it takes to run and promote an ezine is probably far less than you would spend struggling with search engines and directories. I run two successful monthly ezines and I can get an issue done in less than a day, probably 5 or 6 hours.
Many people give the excuse that they don’t know how to write or they don’t know enough about a subject to produce anything useful. Firstly, you don’t need a University degree to be able to write an ezine…
In fact, it may help if you haven’t. You certainly don’t want to write an academic essay. eZines should generally convey a friendly tone that reads as you would speak.
Of course, you will need to adjust your tone a little depending on your audience, but if you’re creating an ezine about something, you’ve probably read enough about it yourself to know the appropriate style of writing.
I’m sure you’ll find that you know a lot more than you think you do. Plus you can always use other people’s articles for inspiration. Now, I’m certainly not suggesting you copy someone else’s article and put your name on it, but if you can find a few articles along the theme of yours, and borrow ideas from each one, then you’re well on the way…
What’s more, you won’t just be teaching your readers about the subject, but you’ll be learning a lot more about it yourself. For an excellent ebook all about profiting from writing articles, take a look at ‘Turn Words into Profit’ by Jim Edwards – http://www.successgold.com/turnwords.htm.
Once you’ve got your article, the rest of the ezine is simple. Most begin with a personal letter to the readers. Perhaps let them know how your week’s gone or tell them about something that happened to you recently. You may also want to include a section after your article, perhaps a resource list or quick tip.
As for ads, I recommend that you promote affiliate programs rather than include paid advertising. It is much simpler to sign up with an affiliate program and get a commission of every sale that you refer than it is to find the right advertisers. It will also usually bring in more money.
If you want to learn more about running your own ezine, I highly recommend ‘Boost Business with Your Own eZine’ by Alexandria K. Brown – http://www.successgold.com/ezinequeen.htm.
The ebook also tells you all about promoting your ezine, which unfortunately there’s not enough space to go into here.
So if you’re one of those people that relies on search engines and directories for your traffic, and you’re wondering why you’re not getting anywhere, then you will hopefully have seen the error of your ways.
You know have the knowledge to build the kind of income you’re looking for online. Use it wisely!
© Joe Beaven - All Rights Reserved
About the Author
The Top Info Products Information and Software Available with Resale Rights Anywhere, Now on a Money Saving, Time Saving, Incredibly Convenient CD successgold.com
Joe Beaven has been making money online since 1998 by various methods including Internet auctions, information products and affiliate marketing.
Info@SuccessGold.com
http://www.successgold.com
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