7 Ways To Squeeze More Profit From Your Opt-In List
The money is in the list…right? You’ve read all the success stories about people who’ve built a small fortune with opt-in lists. So you decided to create one of your own (good decision).
- You set up a squeeze page with your freebie and your opt-in form and started promoting your list everywhere possible.
- You grabbed some great articles from an ezine directory and sent them to your list.
- You found a popular product at ClickBank, sent out a solo ad and waited for the sales fill up your inbox.
You felt the success welling up inside you!
Then reality strikes like a lightning bolt…
Nothing…Not one sale!
What could have gone wrong?
Why have others succeeded where you have failed?
The secret to squeezing more profits from your opt-in list is building a relationship with your subscribers. The following tips will help you establish friendship and trust with your readers so they’ll listen to what you have to say and act on your recommendations.
1. Establish the terms of your relationship. This starts at the squeeze page. Tell your subscribers what they will get and that they will need to confirm their subscription to download your report. Assure them that they will not be bombarded with product promotions. And of course, you will not share their email address with anyone.
2. Let your subscribers get to know you. The first contact is critical and will set the tone for your relationship. Tell your story. Let your subscribers know who you are, where you live, how you got started online, what you’ve accomplished and most importantly, how you can help them accomplish their goals. This bonding period will determine how they react when they see future email messages from you in their inbox.
3. Tell your subscribers exactly what to expect from you. Let them know up front what types of content you’ll be sending them. Tell them how often will you be sending emails. If you send special articles or reviews on Friday, let them know. Tell them what to look for in the subject line like the name of your ezine or an acronym. Make sure they know that you will be recommending products and services that you personally use to run your business. List all the benefits of being on your list in first email so they know exactly what to expect in the future.
4. Write your messages as if you were writing to a friend. Make your subscribers feel like you’re writing a personal note, just to them. Use a subject line that looks personal: Hey Bob, I think you’ll like this… Start your message with a personal story (make it short), then move on to the main topic of your email.
5. Get to know your subscribers. Before you start blasting your list with offer for the latest, greatest products that everyone else is pitching, get to know your audience and what THEY want. The easiest way to find out what they want is to simply ask. Have your subscribers send you their most important question about a particular topic or make a post on your blog. Surveys are another great way to find out what people want. Once you know what they are looking for, it’s easier to provide the content that they want and promote the products that they need.
6. Ditch the hype. It’s okay to get excited about a product that you truly believe in. But make sure you always tell the TRUTH about the products you promote. Don’t put a frosty coating on everything. Tell it like it is…good or bad. Your subscribers will love you for it and look forward to every email you send. People buy from people they trust. So when you do send a promotion, they’ll be more likely to buy from you.
7. Be Consistent. You need to contact your list on a regular basis. How often you send emails depends on the type of business you run. If you sell your own products, you may want to send a weekly update. If you promote affiliate products, you may want to send an article or product review every Wednesday to pre-sell your subscribers and then follow up with a promotion the next day. If they know when to expect your emails, then they’re more likely to look out for them on those days.
If you follow these 7 simple steps, you’re sure to build a long-lasting and profitable relationship with your list.
Did you like this article? Please leave a comment below…
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Derrick VanDyke is the author of “Affiliate Cash Secrets.” If you’d like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about affiliate marketing, visit: http://AffiliateCashSecrets.com/thankyou.htm
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REPRINT RIGHTS: You have permission to use the above article without omission and including the resource box. You have the right to insert your affiliate link for “Affiliate Cash Secrets” in place of the existing URL.
Business Basics
Even though the title is bland, this is probably the most controversial report I’ve ever written. You’ll see what I mean when you read what I have to say about what you should sell online…
Right Click Here to Download the Report
If you have any questions or opinions on this report, please leave a comment below…
Best regards,
Derrick Van Dyke
Giveaway Secrets
I just finished a report called Giveaway Secrets. If you had a chance to check it out, please let me know what you thought of it by leaving a comment below. If you’d like to be featured on my sales letter for massive exposure and a back link you site, just leave your full name and website URL with your endorsement.
Thanks,
Derrick VanDyke
How Many Real Assets do You Have in Your Business?
I’ve said this many times before… “If you’re not building a list, you’re not building a business… You’re building someone else’s business.”
But it goes even further than just building a list… The real question is, “Do you have any real assets in your business?”
The Wiktionary defines an asset as: Any component, model, process or framework of value that can be leveraged or reused.
The key words in that definition are “leveraged” and “reused.”
- If you’re just driving traffic from Google to a merchant’s website, you are not building an asset for your business.
- If you depend on surf programs, exchanges and safe lists for your traffic, you are not building an asset for your business.
- If you only advertise in ezines, you are not building an asset for your business.
Don’t get me wrong… You can generate a lot of traffic using the methods above. But once you stop, the traffic stops. If you depend on one source of traffic and that source dries up, so does your cash flow.
You need assets that generate sustainable traffic and sales around the clock whether you work or not. That’s what it’s all about, right? Making money on auto-pilot!
So what kind of assets can you create to build your business?
Asset #1: Your List. Building a responsive mailing list is the best investment you can make in your business. I say, “Investment” because it takes time and money to build a good list. But your efforts will be rewarded ten fold in time.
If Google forces you out of a market or drops your ads, you will still have your list. It’s your asset and no matter what happens, they can’t take that away from you.
And once you build a list of any size, you can leverage that asset in many ways:
- You can swap ads with other list owners to build your list faster.
- You can endorse affiliate products or sell advertising to increase your cash flow.
- You can get feedback on products you may want to create by conducting surveys.
Once you establish yourself as an expert (or at least knowledgeable) on your topic, your subscribers and customers will respect your opinions and advice about the quality products and services you sell.
Asset #2: Your Blog. If you do it right, you can get a ton of free traffic just by publishing to your blog each day.
- If you publish quality content, run contests, or give prizes to your readers, you will get repeat visitors and traffic through word-of-mouth advertising.
- If you target a niche market that’s not too competitive, you can generate free traffic from search engines by using the right keywords in your posts and links.
- If you encourage visitors to comment on your posts, you get other people to add unique original content to your blog.
Publishing a blog is a great way to communicate with your subscribers and customers while building an asset for your business.
Asset #3: Your Articles. An article is an asset because it’s yours. It’s something unique that you create and you can use it any way you wish…
- You can optimize your articles for specific keywords, submit them to article directories, and get free traffic from search engines.
- You can submit your articles to a distribution service and get them published in major ezines for instant quality traffic.
- You can combine your articles and create a viral PDF report to give away to your subscribers.
Now you might be thinking, “But there are tons of PLR articles that I can buy dirt cheap.” Sure, you can buy private label rights to tons of articles for pennies each. I have thousands on my hard drive… Do you want them? They are worthless to me…
99% of the PLR articles and ebooks people are selling are poorly written by people who don’t know the topic at all. I wouldn’t sign my name to a PLR article and an ezine owner would have to be pretty desperate or plain stupid to publish them.
You won’t get much traffic from search engines because Google and Yahoo! Systematically purge duplicate content. Unless you’re the first to get a PLR article listed in the search engines, you won’t see any traffic from your efforts at all.
About the only thing you can do with PLR content is re-write it yourself. But there are much better articles written by experts that you can use “templates” to create your own.
I’ve given you three examples of assets that you can create for your business. There are many more including, viral reports, audio and video reports and reviews. Basically, anything that YOU create that will continue to generate traffic and sales over time is an asset to your business.
For more affiliate marketing tips, visit my blog at http://affiliatecashsecrets.com/blog. Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box. You can also include your affiliate link when you sign up at my website: http://www.AffiliateCashSecrets.com.
Stay tuned to this blog for more business-building tips from me.
To your success!
Derrick VanDyke
P.S. Feel free to reprint this article in your newsletter or on your website or blog. Just leave the resource box intact (you can replace the link with your affiliate link). You can Sign up here and make 70% commission.
How to Bypass a Squeeze Page
If you’re an affiliate, you’re in the list-building business (or you should be). Your list is your #1 asset and you should jump at every chance you have to grow it bigger whenever possible.
But the biggest obstacle affiliates face is a merchant’s squeeze page and the #1 question I get is, “How can I bypass a squeeze page, so I can capture the lead and still get credit for the sale?”
To find the answer, Click here to watch the video…
Here are answers to several questions that people have posted on this blog about the New Squeeze Page Generator.
1. The software supports ALL autoresponder services.
2. The software will be available to Affiliate Cash Secrets members as soon as next week (still working out the bugs).
3. The software will support audio and video. Meaning you can embed your own media into the pages.
4. There will be additional templates (there’s really no limit to what I can do :o)
Don’t forget to leave a comment…
Thanks,
Derrick
Seven Elements Of A Killer Squeeze Page
If you want to maximize your opt-in conversion rate, you need to apply the seven elements for a killer squeeze page.
- Compelling Headline: you have about three seconds to grab the attention of your visitor and give them a reason to stay and read what you have to say before they click away to the next site. Especially if you’re advertising on traffic exchanges other related websites.
- Bullet List of Benefits: once you’ve got their attention, you’ve got to keep it by telling exactly what your freebie is going to do and how it’s going to help them get what they want.
- Strong Call to Action: next you need to tell them what to do and how to get what you’re offering. For example, “Enter you name and email below for instant access.”
- Opt-In Form: this may seem obvious, but the placing of the form is what’s important. It should be “above the fold” for best results. And the submit button should also use text like “Click Here For Instant Access” instead of just “Submit.”
- Email Notice: you need to give an incentive or a reason to enter a real email address. Note that the download link will be sent to their email inbox or they will need to confirm to get the download.
- Privacy Statement: ensure your subscribers that their information will not be shared with anyone and that you respect their privacy.
- Trust Seal: an easy way to increase conversions is by placing a trust seal on your site to let your visitors know that you do business with honesty and integrity. For example, I use the Honest Online button on my site.
Besides those seven elements, good formatting, nice graphics, and a professional design will go a long way to increase your conversion rates. But for most direct response squeeze pages, a simple page with a white background and black text will do just fine.
If you enjoyed this article, let me know by posting a comment below…
Derrick Van Dyke
http://affiliatecashsecrets.com
The 4-Step Plan
Here’s the 4-Step Plan for implementing “The Ultimate Business Model For Newbies” (right click to download).
http://affiliatecashsecrets.com/The4-StepPlan.pdf
If you leave a comment on this blog, I’ll give you more details on each of these steps…
Best regards,
Derrick Van Dyke
The Money is in The List…Right?
Everybody says, “The money is in the list…” Well, that’s not exactly true - it’s not the whole truth anyway.
The biggest obstacle you face when you publish an ezine is the fact that people have gotten used to getting junk (from your competitors) disguised as helpful information.
Many publishers write about every new trend (and the underlying product) because their writing from a mentality of “I gotta get paid” and when you do that, you completely forget about the people you’re writing to and start to concentrate on you and what you want.
That’s a surefire recipe for disaster…
Whenever you write anything for your subscribers, don’t write with the sole intention of getting a check. Getting checks is nice but your business lives or dies based on how many people believe you genuinely want to help them achieve their goals.
Show your readers that you value them enough to part with real, quality information and that you see them as more than just a dollar sign. Otherwise, you’re going to be lumped into a group with all the rest of your competitors with a big sign on your forehead marked “Will Do Anything For Commissions”.
Responsive readers come from a conscious effort to build a solid relationship with them. People connect with other people. Not mindless robots that only want commission checks.
Now don’t get me wrong.
I’d love for you to buy the products I recommend, but I’m not going to force that on you. When I do enough of the right things in your eyes, I will have earned the right to ask you for your money in the form of commission checks from other products and services that I not only recommend, but truly believe in.
The point is…I have to earn that right by giving up good information that is of actual use to you. When you write anything you expect other people to read, the same thing applies to you.
If you’re going to create information full of affiliate links then you’re completely missing the point of what it takes to get people to value what you have to say.
I’ve done that in the past and it is nowhere near as effective. If you want people to eagerly anticipate your next email with every intention of jumping on any products or services you recommend, you have to earn their trust first by giving quality information without asking for anything in return.
Sincerely,
Derrick VanDyke
The Ultimate Business Model for Newbies
This report is a little controversial and the content may even shock you…
If you’re a successful marketer, you may not e surprised. But if you’re just starting out or you’ve been spinning your wheels for some time, it may just be the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for…
http://affiliatecashsecrets.com/TheUltimateBusiness.pdf
Which Autoresponder Should I Use?
I have tested deliverability for both Aweber and Getresponse using the monitoring service at DeliverMonitor.com and Aweber gets the highest scores every time.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from using GetResponse (they pay higher commissions ;o), but Aweber’s deliverability rate is consistently higher - by 10% or more.
I talked to Tom Kulzer (owner of Aweber) for an hour one day and he told me that it takes a full-time staff and years of tenure with the major ISPs (not to mention huge monthly fees) to get the delivery rates that they attain.
I have talked to several marketers including Armand Morin, Jimmy Brown, Ryan Deiss, etc. - Guys who have been around for a long time and tried different solutions.
Now they all use Aweber.
If you’re using a cheap autoresponder, you’re wasting money.
Think about it this way: if you have a list of 1000 people and you make $500 a month from that list. You could be making $1000 a month with a quality autoresponder. And when you’re paying less than $20 a month…It’s really a NO-BRAINER.
End of Rant…
Derrick
P.S. I’m didn’t post this to make a buck (Aweber only pays 20% commission). I just want you to make the right choice from the start - you can’t move your list later. If you want to join Aweber through my affiliate link, click here. Otherwise, sign up here.