Here’s one of the biggest mistakes many people new to IM make.
They start off by promoting a product to earn affiliate commission. This product - usually a clickbank ebook- is then promoted by creating Google Adwords which sends paid-for traffic direct to the product sales literature … and then keeping their fingers crossed hoping that a good number buy the product … earning them maybe £12.0
($24.00) per affiliate sale.
What’s more, many so-called IM gurus actually recommend this method of earning money online. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you’ll not make money this way - many people do and are quite happy - what I want to do is change the way you look at making money online.
The most important point is to look at making money online as a long-term venture where you first lay the foundations and gradually build upon your early work.
This means that when you first start out, you don’t look to make sales, you concentrate on building.
This was one of the best pieces of advice that I received when I first started selling online back in 2007, and it has enabled me to earn £1,000+ ($2,000+) per week online.
If you want to earn the biggest amount of money online, then the most effective way to achieve this is by list building.
Whatever niche you are involved in, your ultimate aim is to build a subscriber list and nurture it.
If you spend your time building a list instead of acquiring sales, in the long-term you’ll make much more money.
So instead of sending traffic - whether it be paid-for or organic (seo) - direct to an affiliate sales page, you need to send traffic to a squeeze page and then to the merchants sales page.
It’s the same if you write an article or have links for affiliate products on blogs or on a squidoo lens, you replace the link with a squeeze page link where you’ll collect visitors information, and then send them to the affiliate merchants sales page.
Doing this allows you to build up a relationship with your subscribers and you can gradually encourage them to purchase the product that you were linking to.
At first you’ll make less sales using this method as opposed to sending traffic direct to the sales page, but you’ll build up a valuable list that over time, you can sell your own products, affiliate products and get involved in Joint Ventures.
I know of three successful online marketers who never advertise their products. They spend all their efforts on building their lists, then sending some free information over a two week period (nurturing), then sending them details of one of their products … and repeating the process over over.
Every month they each make over £5,000 ($10,000) using this method and it all runs on autopilot.
Each of their messages are sent automatically, their products are downloadable meaning they don’t need to deal with sales - just bank the money.
So I hope I’ve convinced you that list building is the way to go for long-term online riches.
So your next step is to actually start to build up your list.
The methods I’m going to describe to you enabled me to add over 1,000 names to my list within 45 days, so copy everything I’ve done and you too should be able to build a substantial list.
Firstly, you need a email responder service that collects all your subscribers, allows you to send them messages and allows the subscriber to change their details, or op out of your list and ensures the subscriber double opt-in to protect you from accusations of spamming.
Double opt-in simply means the subscriber filled out their details on the squeeze page, and then confirmed their subscription within a separate email message.
There are four services that are the best for these functions.
1. Aweber -
2. Get Response - http://www.getresponse.com
3. X Mail Pro - www.xmailpro.com
4. List Mail Pro - www.listmailpro.com
I use Aweber for my lists and messages as it is said to be the best available for delivery and reliability, so everything I describe applies to Aweber, however the other services provide a very similar service.
Your next step is create a squeeze page that will be used to build up your list.
This will be a page that collects a subscribers name and email address and will then forward them onto a sales page or simply a thank you page.
Here’s an example of one of my squeeze pages:
www.richmonkey.co.uk/My_Secrets_Revealed.html
If you take a look at my squeeze page it contains the following:
1. An attention grabbing heading
2. A list of benefits that the subscriber will receive if they subscribe
3. Boxes for the subscriber to enter their details
Remember you are trying to build up your email list, so take your time creating the squeeze page.
You need to make your offer so irresistible that people will instantly subscribe to your list.
To do this, rather than simply send the subscriber to a sales page, I offer some information, report or ebook.
Now the easiest way to do this is to buy a cheap ebook from ebay.co.uk with resell rights and give this away in exchange for someone subscribing to your list.
For example, your niche could be the car service market.
So you go to ebay purchase an ebook on easy home car servicing and offer this as your free ebook.
I do this all the time. I’ve hundreds of ebooks in my files and I simply create a squeeze page offering free ebooks whenever someone subscribers.
So, to recap,
1. You’ve decided which email list responder service you’ll use - I use aweber.com
2. You’ve created your squeeze page
3. You’ve got the free information ready to give away to your subscribers
Now what you need to do is insert the boxes in your squeeze page where your subscribers can place their name and address.
In Aweber, you simply create a list name - for example Car Service, and then you go to “list settings” then “web form” and you can create a form.
It only needs to be a basic form that contains “First Name” and “Email Address”.
Aweber has a default “thank you” page whenever someone subscribers.
What I do is create my own thank you page telling the subscriber that they will receive an email straight away and that they need to confirm their subscription so that I can send them the free information.
I paste this URL in the thank you section, so now whenever anyone subscribes, they are sent to this page.
Once you’ve created the form, copy the script into your squeeze page.
Now what you need to do is put the ebook on another page within your website, and copy the URL for this ebook.
For example: www.mysite.co.uk/freebook.html
Then you go back to your email list service and create your first message. Remember to include the URL for the free ebook.
So your first message will say something like:
----------------------------------------------------------------
“Welcome to the car maintenance newsletter.
You’ll receive lots of free helpful advice on how to keep your car running smoothly on the road.
Here’s your free ebook that you can download, it contains loads of great advice on home car servicing:
www.mysite.co.uk/freebook.html
Look out for more free advice over the next few weeks.”
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And that’s it, you’ve created your squeeze page and set up your email service responder.
Now it’s onto driving traffic to your squeeze page.
There are a number of ways in which you can drive traffic to your squeeze page.
The obvious ones are setting up Google adwords and directing visitors to your squeeze page, or from offline advertising such as press adverts.
However, what I want to reveal to you are the free ways in which you can direct traffic to your site.
Here are my 13 top ways to create free traffic to your squeeze page:
1. Write and submit articles to the article directories with a link back to your squeeze page such as ezinearticles.com
2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your squeeze page.
3. Post in forums and have a link to your squeeze page in your signature.
4. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com.
5. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com.
6. Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a backlink to your squeeze page.
7. Start a blog that mentions your squeeze page at www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com and submit it to the 100’s of free blog directories.
8. Manually submit your wsqueeze page URL to the major search engines.
9. Optimize each of your squeeze pages for a particular keyword or search phrase.
10. Add a link in your email signature to your squeeze page. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.
11. Submit a video with your squeeze page link contained within the video to www.YouTube.com
12. Place classified ads on www.eBay.co.uk with a link to your squeeze.
13. Start a lens on www.Squidoo.com. and mention your squeeze page.
I use every one of these traffic generator methods and receive 100's of free traffic per week to my different squeeze pages which enables me to collect 100 - 200 email addresses per week.
Follow my methods and you'll start to build a very profitable list that will reward you over and over again.
Remember, don't start trying to sell to your list, gradually nurture it, give away lots of free information and ebooks, and then once you are ready to sell a product, your list will be much more receptacle to all your offers.