How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive List

How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
1
How to Use
Article
Marketing to
Build a
Responsive and
Profitable List
Step by Step Instructions to
Create Your Own List Building
Machine by Doing Nothing But
Writing Articles
Sean Mize
В© Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize
www.secrets-of-internet-success.com
How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
2
Note: This is a NOT a free ebook! This book does NOT come with any resell rights
whatsoever. If you received this ebook for free or are aware of its illegal distribution,
please send an email to: webmaster@secrets-of-internet-success.com. You may not alter
this ebook in any way, shape, or form, and it must remain in this original PDF form with
no changes to any of the links contained within.
Copyright Notice: В©2006 Sean Mize. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use, sharing,
reproduction or distribution of these materials by any means, electronic, mechanical, or
otherwise is strictly prohibited. No portion of these materials may be reproduced in any
manner whatsoever, without the express written consent of the publisher. Published under
the Copyright Laws of the Library of Congress Of The United States Of America, by:
Sean Mize
Secrets of Internet Success
If you would like to become an affiliate of this series of ebooks and earn commissions on
upgrades and different products, click here:
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To immediately download an easy product that makes starting and running your own
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Limit of Liability
It is a shame in my opinion that I have to include this in my ebook. I have taken every
effort in writing this ebook to include useful information on the topic of creating email
lists. I do not in any way shape or form guarantee or even imply any level of earnings
from anything you might apply from this ebook or anything else you may purchase or
download from me or any of my web sites. I cannot vouch for the legality of any of the
methods I describe, nor can I be held responsible for any repercussions or reactions that
may occur when you apply any of these methods.
All of the links that I have included in this ebook are designed to eliminate the work and
effort involved in searching for effective resources with which to build your business, and
are included with the understanding that to the best of my knowledge, which in some
cases may be non-existent, are genuine and reputable sources. However, whenever you
make a purchase from one of the web sites, links, or companies I recommend, suggest, or
simply compile for your use, I cannot be held responsible for their deliverability or
reputation.
Now, my legal notice: This ebook is designed to provide helpful and useful advice
regarding the subject matters covered. However, it is understood that the author and
distributor does not engage in the practice of providing legal or professional advice and
that the laws and regulations governing the subjects covered in this ebook may vary from
state to state, country to country, and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It is also understood that
the author and any distributors of this ebook specifically disclaim any liability that is
incurred from the use, application, or recommendations of this ebook. The author and
distributors of this ebook make no representations, warranties, or claims whatsoever
regarding the accuracy, effectiveness, legality, or completeness of the information
included in this ebook, including any and all links, references, content, and
recommendations therein. The author and distributor of this ebook shall in no way be
held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental,
consequential, accidental, or other damages. As always, legal, professional, tax,
accounting, and any other forms of advice should be sought from a professional and is in
no way implied in this ebook. Any and all links and recommendations are for
instructional and informational purposes only and are not warranted or guaranteed for
accuracy, content, reliability, or reputation, or any other expressed or implied purpose.
Warning: Read This Before You Build a List: Essential
Information About CAN-SPAM
Sending unsolicited bulk, commercial, or otherwise unwanted email is a crime in the
United States and I would imagine in many other countries. Exorbitant fines and jail time
В© Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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may be associated with this crime. Because I am not an expert on the legalities of email,
I highly recommend that you fully understand the laws that pertain to your jurisdiction
before you begin building your list. The following link should help you understand the
CAN-SPAM law: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm
Remember, ignorance is not an excuse. Learn the law and abide by it.
About the Author
Sean Mize initiated his first internet marketing venture in January of 2006, writing his
first book for internet distribution. In February of the same year, he launched his first
web site to promote that ebook, and began building his first online list at that time. By
the end of the month, he was in profit, and began to expand his online efforts to include
affiliate marketing in the internet marketing niche, and immediately created additional
revenue streams.
In August of 2006, Sean made the choice to enter the arena of internet marketing
fulltime, and began building multiple email lists of individuals interested in internet
marketing topics, including getting started online, traffic building, list building, and web
site promotion.
To join his mailing list and receive recommendations of useful internet marketing tools
and helpful internet marketing and list building tips, visit: Secrets of Internet Success
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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Table of Contents
Limit of Liability.........................................................................................................3
Warning: Read This Before You Build a List: Essential Information About CANSPAM .........................................................................................................................3
About the Author.........................................................................................................4
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................5
Introduction.....................................................................................................................7
Why List Build? ..........................................................................................................7
Why Use Articles Exclusively? ...................................................................................8
Why are Article Generated Subscribers More Likely to Spend Money With You?.......9
How to Use This Step By Step System ............................................................................9
Introspection on Internet Marketing...............................................................................10
History of Internet Marketing ....................................................................................10
Understanding and Utilizing Fads..............................................................................11
The Mindset You Have to Have to Make Money Online Consistently........................12
How to Set up Your List Building Web Site ..................................................................13
Your Step by Step Plan to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable
List................................................................................................................................13
Step 1: Choosing Your Niche or Topic ......................................................................13
Step 2: Choosing Your Angle ....................................................................................14
Why Use a Squeeze Page?.........................................................................................15
Step 3: How to Create a Squeeze Page.......................................................................16
Overview of Creating a Squeeze Page....................................................................16
Specific Instructions on How to Create a Squeeze Page .........................................17
Outline of Steps to Create a Squeeze Page .............................................................17
1) Find or Create a Giveaway for Your Squeeze Page...........................................18
2) Create a List of Benefits (not Features).............................................................19
3) Write a Headline...............................................................................................20
4) Write some Compelling Copy...........................................................................21
5) Create some Bullet Points.................................................................................21
6) Create a Compelling Opt In Line ......................................................................21
Squeeze Page Builder ............................................................................................22
7) Copy and Paste in Your Autoresponder Opt In Code ........................................22
Step 4: How to Structure the Rest of Your Web Site ..................................................22
How to Set Up Your Email Campaign...........................................................................23
Understanding the Importance of the Feel of Your Email Campaign..........................23
Step 5: Decide on the Goal of Your Email Campaign ................................................24
Step 6: How to Structure Your Email Campaign........................................................24
Step 7: How to Write Your Email Letters ..................................................................26
How to Write Content Emails ................................................................................27
How to Write Free Gift Emails ..............................................................................28
How to Write Referral Emails................................................................................29
How to Write Feedback Emails..............................................................................29
How to Create a Feeling of Relationship with Your Subscribers ................................30
Step 8: How to Make Sure You Are Making Money With Your List .........................31
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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How Often Should You Mail? ...................................................................................31
How Much Money Should You Make Per Subscriber? ..............................................32
How to Write Articles for List Building.........................................................................33
Why You Must Write Your Articles With List Building in Mind ...............................33
Step 9: How to Decide What to Write About .............................................................34
Step 10: How to Structure Your Articles so That People Will Click Into Your Web Site
After Reading the Article...........................................................................................35
Step 11: How to Write a Title ....................................................................................36
Step 12: How to Write the First Paragraph.................................................................36
Step 13: How to Write the Body of the Article...........................................................37
Step 14: How to Write the Conclusion to the Article..................................................38
Step 15: How to Write a Compelling Bio...................................................................38
Formatting Your Articles For Maximum Readability.................................................39
How to Submit Articles So That You Get Subscribers ...................................................40
Step 16: Where to Submit Your Articles ....................................................................40
Step 17: How to Submit Your Articles.......................................................................43
Step 18: How to Test Article Directories for Effectiveness ........................................44
How Many Articles to Submit ...................................................................................44
How Frequently to Submit Articles............................................................................45
How to Find Hidden Articles in Your Existing Works ...............................................45
How Long Should Your Articles Be? ........................................................................46
Advanced Article Marketing/List Building Techniques .................................................46
Step 19: Create Additional Autoresponder Campaigns...............................................46
Multiply Your Niches................................................................................................47
Step 20: Cross Sell Your Subscribers.........................................................................47
Step 21: Create Your Sales Funnel.............................................................................47
Creating Long-Term Streams of Income With Your Subscribers................................48
Note From the Author................................................................................................48
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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Introduction
Why List Build?
In todayвЂ™s internet marketing environment, list building is practically a requirement for
making long-term income online. Sure, you can build a business of one-time sales, and if
you have a great product, great sales page, and are willing to work extra hard, you can
sell something one time and make money.
But in most cases, the upfront one time sale will probably only break even or maybe
slightly better. The advertising and accumulation costs of achieving the new subscriber
are simply too high. But on the second sale to the very same customer, the cost of
generating that sale is practically nill. Especially if you have a list. A list of customers.
You simply email to your existing customers who already trust you, and they buy your
second product. An incredible savings of advertising costs and hence a whole lot more
profit to you, the seller.
So how about a list of people seeking to buy products or get more information about a
specific topic? Assuming that a particular sales page has a long-term conversion rate of
1% per visit to the page, if you were able to get the same person back to that sales page a
number of times, what would happen to sales per unique visitor? They would go up!
So instead of a conversion rate of 1%, maybe if you have the same person go back to the
sales page 5 times, your conversion rate would be 5%. What if over the course of the
year you could send the same person back to the same or a similar sales page 10 times?
And with a properly built list, the cost to do that is practically zero, with the exception of
the cost in time and knowledge to set up the email campaign, the subscriber collection
campaign, and the autoresponders to make it all work.
By list building you are able to repeatedly gain exposure to people who initially were
looking for information on one of your topics, and who may purchase similar products in
the future.
By list building you are able to create additional products that may appeal to members of
your existing list, and rather than spend additional advertising dollars to promote your
second product, you simply promote it to your existing list of subscribers, with whom
you have already created a meaningful relationship.
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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Why Use Articles Exclusively?
When I first started in internet marketing and list building, I tried many different ways to
gain traffic to my squeeze page, and build a list. From the very beginning of my internet
marketing list building, I did things on the list building end quite correctly and
successfully, but I found that many sources of traffic did not produce as many
subscribers, or they produced subscribers who, although I could brag that they made my
list bigger faster, were not buying from me.
Here is a partial list of what I did to generate traffic:
I bought traffic like guaranteed traffic, exit traffic, expired domain traffic, safelist traffic,
traffic exchange traffic, and pop up traffic.
I bought advertising to drive traffic to my site: classified ads, ezine ads, pay-per-click
traffic, and other advertising.
I created exchange links with other web masters, and put my signature on my emails, and
other creative things to make traffic happen.
And I was getting traffic. I was getting a lot of traffic, and that traffic often subscribed.
But they werenвЂ™t buying too much from me вЂ“ not enough to pay the bills.
However, I was also writing articles and submitting, for the purpose of gaining backlinks
to my sites. I was doing that to get better search engine rankings, and it was working.
But what I found was that the traffic I received from those articles was subscribing to my
lists, and it was buying from me.
So I began testing and tracking which article directories were producing the best
responses. I began to make some changes to my articles so that people would click into
my web page rather than just read them and click out.
I practically stopped all other forms of traffic building. And my income grew from $250
per month to $5500 my fourth month of aggressively article marketing and list building
with this system.
This is the very system I show you step by step how to use.
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Why are Article Generated Subscribers More Likely to Spend
Money With You?
I am simply going to give you some reasons that I believe are to account for the reason
that article generated subscribers are so valuable. My average article-generated
subscriber spends well over $2 per month with me, whereas subscribers from other
sources spend around 50 cents or less with me.
There are two primary reasons why I believe that article-generated subscribers spend
more money.
The first is that an article generated subscriber is actively looking for information on the
topic about which your article was written, reads your article, feels they received value or
could certainly receive value in the future from your writings, and chooses to click
through a link that indicated they could receive more information. So, unlike people who
might often click an advertising link or pay per click link, these people are clicking
because they are truly looking for more information. People who subscribe to my lists
via articles I have written are about 10 times more likely to buy from me than people who
join my list from a PPC link, based on my personal PPC results. The thing is, with
articles, those who donвЂ™t really like what you have to say or your approach, or who do not
feel they can gain anything from you, will simply click out of the article. So the article
serves as kind of a screening process.
The second reason I believe that article generated subscribers spend so much more
money is that I believe there is a psychological connection that occurs when someone
reads the article and clicks through to your web page. I think that the article serves as an
instant rapport creator, so that when the visitor clicks into your site, they already feel as
though they can trust you. The certain advantage to that is that you can begin to sell to
them even faster through your email campaign, because you are already working with
some level of rapport; you are building on it, not creating it.
How to Use This Step By Step System
I have designed this book to show you my system step by step. I recommend that you
read the entire book from beginning to end, so that you have a good idea of what you are
going to be doing, and so that you will perhaps understand better why you are going to do
what you are going to do. It will give you a glimpse into the why this system works and
why some of the steps are included.
Once you have taken an overview of the entire system, go back to step 1 and simply work
each of these steps in the order they are numbered. You should find that very quickly
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you are gaining new and higher quality subscribers to your list, and should be able to
monetize them faster.
Introspection on Internet Marketing
History of Internet Marketing
When internet marketing first began, it was like a wide open wild, wild west. Anybody
could do anything вЂ“ and they did.
Advertising companies tried using banner ads and popup ads to create traffic, and people
began harvesting email addresses for the purpose of sending out sales emails.
After awhile, people began to resent the constant advertising, and advertising
effectiveness has gone down. With the explosion of unwanted emails, readers began to
click through less frequently, and anti-SPAM (unsolicited business email) laws became
prevalent.
Internet marketers have turned to search engine optimization techniques and advanced
list building as options to make big money online.
Article marketing was developed as a way to create massive amounts of content to drive
traffic to web sites, and list builders created lists of people who personally opted in, or
chose, to be on their list, to conform to anti-SPAM laws.
Article marketing and list building are currently at the forefront of effective internet
marketing techniques. As many of the older, well-used methods have lost their
effectiveness, internet marketers have turned to article marketing and list building to
create incomes.
Even article marketing has changed. Initially, it was used for creating search engine
content, to drive pay per click (PPC) and other lucrative advertising programs. With the
advent of article and content generation software, articles have declined in effectiveness
for search engine and raw content purposes, but have become extremely effective for
driving hot traffic to squeeze pages (web pages designed to вЂ�squeezeвЂ™ visitors into opting
in to a list).
List building has become more advanced, as marketers have learned the most effective
ways to write emails and get them opened and purchased from.
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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Understanding and Utilizing Fads
Just looking at the history of internet marketing, we have seen a number of fads. Banner
ads, popup ads, search engine optimization, pay per click schemes, article generation
software, content generation schemes, and even mass emailing are all fads that have seen
their better day.
They were extremely effective at the beginning of their use, when they were used by just
a few, savvy, internet marketers. The marketers tended to make fortunes exploiting the
new-found fads as they came onto the scene.
Once the fad activity became less successful, the marketers tended to sell their
understanding of the fads to other, less experienced marketers. At that point, many
internet marketers would jump on the fad bandwagon and effectively destroy the strong
impact of the fad.
Understanding this, we have to recognize that fads will come and go, and that when they
are in their infancy or perhaps their prime, you can make a lot of money with fads. But
you have to recognize that fads do come and go, and that when something no longer
works, you must find out what does.
So how does that apply to article marketing and list building? Certainly there are faddish
aspects that arise in both article marketing and list building.
With article marketing, people try to create instant articles using content creators or
content spinners. Anything created by readily available software like that is bound to be
a fad, and the effectiveness of it will disappear. However, because hand writing articles
takes time and energy in an instant gratification world, I think that although the exact
methods of writing and submitting articles may change over the years, I think there is a
strong possibility that, done correctly, article marketing can last a long time. Do we have
any guarantees of that? Of course not. So the recommendation is, treat it like a fad and
make as much money as possible, now, and if it dries up, that is okay. If it does not, that
is good too. This should be your general attitude towards anything you do online.
On the list building front, as big list building software programs and viral schemes are
created and used, I think that the effectiveness of those types of emails will go down.
But if you are building good, solid lists, and creating relationships with the people on
your lists, I think that the odds are good that you can keep your lists effective for a long
time. Will you have to adapt to changes, as more and more people start building lists?
Of course вЂ“ you will have to work harder to stand out, to be the premier email to read in
the morning. But I think you can effectively adapt in such a way as to make big money
from your lists for a long time to come.
В© Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize
www.secrets-of-internet-success.com
How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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The Mindset You Have to Have to Make Money Online
Consistently
Whether you are article marketing and list building, or you are using some other system
to make money online, the money will not just happen. You must do work to make it
happen, and you have to have the drive and desire to see it all through.
You see, so much of the money that you make online will not be made the very first week
or the very first time you do something.
For example, you may only get 5 subscribers from the first article that you write and
submit. Or you might get 100. And neither of those is indicative of your future. If you
base your expectations of the future on your immediate results, you will probably be
disappointed.
You see, you might not think that writing an article is worth it to get just 5 subscribers,
but you donвЂ™t realize that there is a cumulative effect that occurs when you write and
publish multiple articles.
On the flip side, if you get 100 subscribers on your first article submission, you can be
assured that it is a fluke. If you base your expectations on that, you will be sorely
disappointed. So you must have the drive and desire to do whatever it takes to see your
internet marketing success all the way to the future.
You must have an absolute, nothing is going to stop you, attitude towards internet
marketing. No matter how concise and direct I am when I write this book, and no matter
how hard you try to do everything exactly the way I tell you to do it, your results will not
be the same. Some of your results will be better, some will be worse. People will
respond to your style of writing differently than they do mine. You will have to learn to
adapt to that, you may have to learn more about writing. You might have to put aside the
mindset that you are a great writer (and maybe you are) because if you are used to
writing, for example, scientific briefs, you will not be able to reach the average internet
user (unless of course, your target audience is scientists!). You must be able to adapt to
both your audience and your results. But again, you cannot get measurable and
consistent results after just a few articles and a few days. You must commit to the longterm of it, and simply make it happen.
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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How to Set up Your List Building Web Site
Although a list building web site is created the same way as any other web site out there,
using an html editor or other software, the content on the site itself must be tailored to the
purpose of list building.
If you are starting list building from scratch, you should create a web site that has as its
only purpose, the purpose of adding subscribers to your list.
If you already have a web site that sells something or promotes something, etc., you
should do two things: 1) Add an opt-in form to every page on your web site, so that
visitors to your existing web site can join your list and become a subscriber. 2) You
should create a separate web site to be used for the express purpose of creating
subscribers.
You see, even with the very best techniques around, you can only get up to about 15% of
your visitors to convert to subscribers if you are selling something or promoting
something on the same page as the opt in box. But if you create a web site that only
gathers subscribers, then funnels those subscribers to your web site, then you can get up
to 60% of your visitors to opt in to your email list, assuring you that you can reach them
in the future, and by funneling them to your main web site afterwards, you will not lose
many sales. Think about it, if they donвЂ™t trust you enough to give you their name and
email address, are they going to trust you enough to give you their credit card number
and expiration date to buy something from you?
Your list building web site should contain a main page that is structured to only create
subscribers out of visitors. We call this page a squeeze page because it is designed to
вЂ�squeezeвЂ™ visitors into your email list.
Your Step by Step Plan to Use Article Marketing to
Build a Responsive and Profitable List
Step 1: Choosing Your Niche or Topic
Obviously, if you already have a niche or a web site chosen, you can skip this step in the
process.
If you still need to choose a niche or topic around which to build your list, start with
something that you know well. If you choose some niche or topic because you have
heard that it is a highly trafficked topic or because you think it will be lucrative, but you
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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know nothing of the topic, you will probably not be able to make money with it. The
reason is that you wonвЂ™t have a working vocabulary for that niche, nor will you have any
real interest in the topic, and your subscribers will be able to tell. They wonвЂ™t connect
with you, trust you, or buy from you.
Start by creating a list of ten things you know something about and have some interest in.
For example, you might be a skilled gardener, or cook, or be good at raising kids. Maybe
you have a hobby like collecting stamps or coins. Perhaps you like to write poetry or
maybe you are good with car engines.
Find a topic about which you have enough knowledge that you can write some
introductory articles. You donвЂ™t have to have all the details when you get started,
because you can always research the information, but you really need to have a good
background in your chosen topic.
To find out if there is any interest at all in the topic you have chosen, use a keyword
research tool to find out how often a particular keyword is searched. Although my
experience recently has been that the high volume of traffic has made this page often
unavailable, when it is available it is a priceless (and free) tool:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ You can also look up the
keyword in a search engine and determine the amount of pages that are dedicated to that
word. Some marketers like to compare the number of keyword searches to the number of
pages for that keyword; the higher the ratio of searches to pages, the better they like the
word. My current feeling is that the internet has been around long enough that most
niches are going to reasonably well exploited, and that by writing articles and list
building, you can make just about any niche that has any reasonable level of interest, into
a profitable niche for you.
Many marketers have multiple niches in which they build web sites. By doing that, you
can capitalize on small niches that, although profitable from a per вЂ“ subscriber basis,
would only yield a small number of subscribers each. But by having several niches, you
can still crank out a long term full time income.
Step 2: Choosing Your Angle
This is important, especially if you are in a niche area that already has some number of
marketers, as I believe is the case today.
So what do I mean by choosing an angle? What do I mean by вЂ�angleвЂ™?
You must be able to differentiate yourself from everyone else in the market. You must
be able to offer something that others do not вЂ“ that is your angle.
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www.secrets-of-internet-success.com
How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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Have you noticed how, out of the 100вЂ™s of emails you receive daily, that you only open a
few of them вЂ“ and that it has nothing to do with headlines or font вЂ“ but that it has to do
with who sent the email?
You recognize the sender of the email, you like something about that person or their
service, so you read their emails. And you buy their products. Why? You like their
angle. Whatever it is they do different, and you like it, that is their unique angle, and it is
the reason you read their emails and buy their products.
So how do you choose an angle?
What do you do well? Are you good at simplifying things? If so, your angle could be to
simplify things in your niche and market to beginners.
Maybe you are the type that can make sense out of really complicated things вЂ“ your angle
could be to produce materials that make complicated processes in your niche seem easy.
Do you like to teach people how to do things? Maybe your angle is that you offer
specialized training in your niche.
Do you have a knack with words? Maybe your angle is that your emails have a special
feel to them, created by your ease of use of your language.
Maybe your angle could be that you offer a collection of free items that other marketersвЂ™
sell, and you offer them free to your subscribers.
Maybe your angle is that you offer obscure and hard to find information for free or a
reduced price.
Find or create your angle вЂ“ and then keep that angle first and foremost in your mind in
everything you do for your niche list building.
Why Use a Squeeze Page?
As I touched on earlier, the purpose of a squeeze page is to create an exclusive
opportunity for someone to opt in to your list before gaining access to your web site and
the information you contain within. By using a squeeze page, you can often achieve up
to a 60% conversion rate of visitors into subscribers, whereas with a regular page that
includes an opt in box, you will probably be restrained to about 15% on the top end.
You may think that you are losing business by not giving your visitors the option of
seeing your web site before they opt in to your list. Sure, you may lose some visitors вЂ“ in
fact, I lose around half of my visitors вЂ“ but keep this in mind вЂ“ the ones that subscribe are
likely the ones that are most interested in your topic.
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How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
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Think about this: If they arenвЂ™t willing to give you their email address, will they really
give you their credit card number? The ones you lose are not your best customers.
On the other hand, the ones that opt in will often buy as soon as they get to your web site,
and you will have repeated opportunities to sell to them again. I feel very confident that
my success online has been primarily due to my system and that involves forcing
everyone who wants to associate with me at all, to opt in to one of my lists.
My sales pages convert at about 1% to raw visitors, but nearly 15% of my subscribers
have bought one of my two best selling books online. If they had gone to my sales page
first, that percentage would probably be about 1%, but since they are on my list, and I am
willing to patiently wait for them to buy from me over time, around 15% of my
subscribers have purchased one of two of my books вЂ“ and that is in a addition to all the
other products they buy from me. That is only possible because I have my list.
Sometimes you have to be simply willing to give up the visitors that will probably never
buy from you, in exchange for subscribing the visitors that are most likely to buy from
you. You must look at the big picture, not the immediate return.
Step 3: How to Create a Squeeze Page
Overview of Creating a Squeeze Page
Your squeeze page should include a headline and some persuasive copy that tells the
visitor what they will receive for subscribing.
Your headline, like any other headline you create, should stimulate maximum interest,
and is probably the most important thing on the page. If your headline is good, your
visitors will read the page, and you will have a chance to subscribe them. If the headline
is bad, they will leave the page without reading it and therefore not subscribe.
Your sales copy for this page should be to sell your visitor or joining your list.
Generally the way I will write these is to ask a few questions that are aimed at things that
many people do not know or understand about the niche I am working with. Then I will
list some things that I answer about the niche, in my newsletter or in a free ebook that I
create for the express purpose of answering these questions and offering as a free
incentive for joining my list.
This free ebook does not have to be long; in fact, I prefer one that is shorter, perhaps
between 5 and 10 pages. The reason I like it to be short is because people will generally
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tend to read shorter things all the way through, and at the end of the free ebook I like to
place a link to a paid product of mine. If the ebook is too long, they will not get to my
paid offer вЂ“ and I donвЂ™t make as much money.
After this, I place the opt in box my autoresponder company gives me. This allows my
visitor to opt in and then they receive an automated reply that includes a link to the free
book. Now, in my case, the autoresponder company I use gives me the option of being
able to redirect my new subscribers to any page I want, and I route them to a sales page
for an inexpensive book, like $10 or so. Many of these new subscribers will immediately
buy my paid book, probably as many or more as would have bought had they been sent to
my sales page first.
So you see that I am not just getting the subscriber, but also the sale. I am always
looking for ways to monetize my subscribers.
Another note on this: sometimes I will be asked the question: How do I make sure my
squeeze page is search engine friendly, for example, how many words, etc.?
Here is my reply: it doesnвЂ™t matter, nor does it need to be search engine friendly. You
see, you are not focusing on getting search engine traffic here, you are building article
traffic. The search engines donвЂ™t matter.
This is one important thing: you must build each thing that you do for a specific purpose.
If you want a web site that is search engine friendly, build another one. You will do far
better on each one of your web sites if you have only one purpose for each вЂ“ you cannot
effectively get several purposes out of each of your web sites, without sacrificing the
quality of each.
Specific Instructions on How to Create a Squeeze Page
Outline of Steps to Create a Squeeze Page
1) Find or create a giveaway product for your squeeze page
2) Create a list of benefits (not features)
3) Write a headline
4) Write some compelling copy
5) Create some bullet points
6) Create a compelling opt in line
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7) Copy and paste in your autoresponder opt in code
So when you are creating your squeeze page, you can just go straight through that list,
one at a time, writing copy as you need to.
Now, I am going to break each one of these down for you:
1) Find or Create a Giveaway for Your Squeeze Page
This is an extremely critical part of the squeeze page. You have to have a free gift to
giveaway to the people who opt in to your list.
This giveaway product should have high perceived value and a low cost to you. Now one
of the lowest cost products you can create is an information product. This information
product can be an ebook (my favorite), a video, or an audio recording. Note: at this
point, unless you already have a video or audio recording that you can upload, do not use
video or audio. It is far more important that you spend the next few days on creating this
squeeze page, than to spend it creating a video or audio. You can always change your
giveaway product in the future.
If you already have an ebook that you have created, or you have an ebook of someone
elseвЂ™s that you have giveaway rights to, use that first. This will allow you to focus your
energy on creating your squeeze page, rather than creating a product. Again, you can
always change your giveaway item in the future.
If you do not already have an information product you can giveaway, you can create one
easily using these easy steps:
1) Pull out all the articles you have written over the last few weeks. Select 5 articles
that are related in topic, and yet are not repetitive of each other.
2) Take the five articles and place them in some logical order. It can be from basic to
advanced, or beginning to end, etc.
3) Compile them into one document; use copy and paste to do it.
4) Create a heading and footer for your document (like this one has)
5) Write a title for your mini-ebook, focusing on features, not benefits
6) Rename each of the articles so that they appear to be chapters in your mini-ebook.
7) Create a table of contents
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8) At the end of the book, place a link to your sales page (if you do not have one, you
can add it later)
9) Upload the ebook into a pdf. If you do not already have pdf software, you can get five
free pdfs made here: Free Adobe Trial Look for the link to creating a trial account. After
the first five, you can subscribe to their service for $10 per month, or of course buy the
software for yourself.
10) Upload the pdf to your web server
Now you have a giveaway ebook, and if you strictly use articles you have already written
as a part of this program, the entire process should take you less than 2 hours (less than
that if you have created ebooks before).
If you have 3 or 4 articles, for example, that will fit together well, then write some
additional вЂ�chaptersвЂ™ for your ebook.
This giveaway ebook does not need to be long; in fact, less than 10 pages is best. The
shorter it is, the more likely that someone will read it all the way through; the more they
read of it, the more likely they are to continue to buy from you.
For an example of an ebook that I created by throwing together some articles using this
process, click here: Sample Mini-Ebook
By the way, if you are in the internet marketing or related niches, and do not want to
create a mini-ebook initially, I have several you can use as giveaways вЂ“ just let me know.
2) Create a List of Benefits (not Features)
So what is the difference between a benefit and a feature?
A feature is something that the product does, and a benefit is something that the buyer of
the product actually gets from the product.
For example, if you are selling lawn mowers, here is a list of features and benefits of the
lawn mower:
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Features
sharp blade, cuts grass
quick - start starter
self propelled motor
brake override
20
Corresponding Benefit
Beautiful Green Grass on First Pass
Easy to Start Motor - No More Struggling to Start Mower
Easy to Mow - No Effort on Your Part
Make Stops Without Restarting Motor
Now that is a simple list, and is certainly not exclusive, but is designed to give you an
idea of the difference between features and benefits.
Nobody buys a lawn mower specifically because it has a quick вЂ“ start starter, they buy it
because if it has a quick- start starter, they wonвЂ™t have to mess with priming the motor, or
pulling some crank.
They donвЂ™t really buy because it has a self-propelled motor in and of itself, they buy
because they donвЂ™t have to expend energy pushing.
So one of the first steps in creating your squeeze page needs to be to create a list of
features that your product has, and then create a corresponding list of what the buyer
actually gets from those features.
Then, only use the list of benefits in writing your headline, sales copy, and bullet points.
3) Write a Headline
A headline is one of the most important things you can do for your squeeze page. The
headline may well be the most important thing you do for your squeeze page. Keep this
in mind, if they donвЂ™t like the headline, if they are not вЂ�grabbedвЂ™ by your headline, they
wonвЂ™t read the rest of the squeeze page copy. So the headline is critical.
Now, writing a headline for a squeeze page is very much like writing a headline for a
sales page, or any other kind of sales copy.
The headline must grab the reader, and should be benefit oriented, not feature oriented.
Here are some examples of compelling headlines:
How to Cure Diabetes Naturally, Once and For All!
How to Make Money Online as a Christian Entrepreneur
How to Have Green Grass Year Round
How to Lose 30 Pounds in the Next 90 Days
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Do You Want to Learn the Secrets of Forex Trading?
You can also use these fill-in-the-blanks examples:
How to _________ in __________ (time, year, month, days)
Do you want to ____________ in __________ (time, year, month, days)?
How I _______________ by _________________
Do you want to ______________ like me?
4) Write some Compelling Copy
This should be a short paragraph that simply describes what they are going to learn when
they read your free ebook. You can literally make sentences out of each of your topic
headlines.
5) Create some Bullet Points
Create a list of bullet points using the benefits you came up with earlier.
For example, for a weight loss ebook:
вЂў
вЂў
вЂў
вЂў
Discover the secret to losing 2 pounds per week
How to drop a dress size per month
Secret food that makes fat melt
Revealed вЂ“ how to banish hunger, quickly and easily
6) Create a Compelling Opt In Line
For this line, I simply tell the reader to download my free ebook. Do not tell them to opt
in to your list вЂ“ tell them to download your ebook. When they download your ebook,
they will be automatically opted in to your list. If they do not want to stay on your list
after they download the ebook, that is fine (a few will unsubscribe). But your opt in rate
will be much higher if you use language that indicates they are downloading an ebook
(which they are) and simply leave out any language about a list.
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For example: Download my free ebook вЂњHow to Lose 30 pounds Before Swimsuit
SeasonвЂќ here:
That is it!
For an example of how I do it, click here: Article Writing Squeeze Page
You will notice that I do not include a paragraph of script on that squeeze page, and of
course I have asked you to do that. The reason is that I am using this page strictly for opt
ins from people who have read my articles, and therefore page rank for this page is not
important. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the search engines prefer landing pages in
top ranking web sites to have some content, so that is why I have asked you to add a
paragraph of content. If you are using this strictly for opt ins from a traffic source, and
are not interested in having this page rank in the search engines, feel free to model it
directly after mine. Just an incidental note: that squeeze page converts consistently at
65%. Keep in mind, the traffic to that page is highly targeted, and are following a link
that basically tells them to click on that page to download my free ebook.
Squeeze Page Builder
If you do not already have software to create squeeze pages, download this:
Squeeze Page Builder
That software leads you through a series of questions, and when you get to the end of it, it
creates a squeeze page for you. I used that software to create the squeeze page above.
I recommend that you go through the menu once, even if you do not have all your bullet
points ready, just to create a sample, and see how it looks. Give it a try!
7) Copy and Paste in Your Autoresponder Opt In Code
Whichever autoresponder service you are using, you should be able to copy and paste the
html code for your opt in web form into the code for your web page. If you are having
trouble with this, shoot me an email, describing exactly what step you are getting to, and
I will try to help.
Step 4: How to Structure the Rest of Your Web Site
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So now that you have a squeeze page on your website, what do you do with the rest of it?
That depends on what you are trying to do with it. If it is primarily a content and
informational web site, then you can simply create another page that will serve as your
surrogate home page. You see, you need to put your squeeze page on the true homepage,
because if you do not, then savvy visitors that do not want to give you their email and
name can circumvent your squeeze page by retyping in the site name without the squeeze
page name associated with it, and get to your home page. So to make this work best,
your home page should be your squeeze page, and then put everything else on other
pages.
If you are selling products, you can do basically the same thing, creating a different web
page for each additional product.
Or, you can have two web sites, one for the squeeze page, and one for everything else,
but I prefer to keep things simple and just use my squeeze page as the homepage.
How to Set Up Your Email Campaign
Understanding the Importance of the Feel of Your Email
Campaign
You must decide on a feel for your email campaign. The feel of your email campaign
must be specifically geared towards the type of feeling you want to inspire in your
subscribers.
One thing you must keep in mind is that you cannot be all things to all people. If you are
seeking to connect with advanced gardeners, for example, the language you use will be
significantly different than the language you use with beginners. If you try to appeal to
both on the same list, you will fewer sales than if you were to create two lists, one for
beginners, the other for advanced people.
So think about a feeling. Do you want it to feel intellectual, simple, fun, or serious?
Whatever the feeling you choose, you must be consistent. Someone who subscribes to
your list because they identify with one feeling or tone will unsubscribe if that changes.
So it is far better to have multiple lists for multiple people than to try to be all things to all
people.
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Step 5: Decide on the Goal of Your Email Campaign
What is your goal online? You probably need to know that before you can think about
the goal of your email campaign. Are you online to make money, to make friends, to
pursue a hobby, or to share with people?
In that same sense, the goal of your email campaign should bolster the goal you have on
the internet. For example, the goal of your email campaign might be to educate people
on some topic that is close to your heart. Or, like me, your goal, might be to convert
subscribers into buyers. What do you want to get from your email campaign, your email
list?
Once you have decided on the goal of your email campaign, make sure that everything
you do is in line with that goal. Ask yourself before you send out any email, does this
email bolster my goal, or does it detract from my goal and my purpose online?
Step 6: How to Structure Your Email Campaign
Because every email campaign is different, and will be structured differently according to
the goals you have for it, I am going to share with you some ideas for some elements of
the structure of your email campaign, and also share with you my email campaign
structure.
First, some background.
One of the theories that I read a lot about when I first got started online proposes the need
to build rapport with your email subscribers before you sell them anything. This theory
proposes that you send out lots of great content emails at the beginning of your email
campaign and then add in sales emails as time goes by.
I subscribed to this idea at first, but then I noticed that after about 5 or 6 emails вЂ“ about
the same time as I was about to start sending out sales letters, that my readership went
down. After the introductory, rapport building emails, my readership was going down вЂ“
right at the point where I wanted to start making money with them.
After some research and study, I discovered that people go through a period of buyer
intensity. This is a period of time when they are most likely to buy something.
Here is an example. Assume that you are going to visit your long-time cousin in Florida.
You and your cousin used to fish together. You have since moved to the Midwest, and
no longer fish, and you also have no fishing equipment, and you are not familiar with the
latest fishing equipment and terminology.
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Now, letвЂ™s assume that you start looking for fishing information online. You go to my
fishing niche web site. You also go to someone elseвЂ™s fishing niche web site. For the
sake of this example, letвЂ™s assume that my email campaign is a rapport builder, while the
other personвЂ™s is a salesy campaign.
Now, you need this information now! You trip begins in two weeks. What happens?
You buy from the other website; by the time I begin to promote anything to you, you
have already bought from the other web site.
Now, you may think that this is just a remote example, but I do not believe that to be the
case. I think that most people search for information online when they need it, when they
are most interested in buying something.
So in response to this information, I changed my email campaigns so that they contained
a mixture of content, free gifts, and sales letters вЂ“ and my sales went up dramatically!
Now, keep in mind that the bulk of my subscribers are generated from articles. This
means that my typical subscriber has a stronger level of rapport with me than they would
if they would if they were recruited from a pay per click ad.
Perhaps if I were generating the bulk of my customers from other, more impersonal
means, this would not work. But for me, it has been extremely effective.
What are some other ways that you could structure your email campaigns?
Any mix of the following makes for a good structure, the most important thing is that you
think about why you are doing it вЂ“ so you can understand your statistics when you look at
them.
You can include free gift emails, these build incredible loyalty. And one thing on free
gifts вЂ“ they must have some non-free value. If you give away free junk, it will not earn
you any kudos with your subscribers. Anything you send to your subscribers will be a
reflection of you and the quality of your products. Your subscribers will expect the same
level of quality from your free gifts as they do whatever they pay you for. And they will
assume, if your free gift quality is low, that the quality of your paid products is also low.
You may think that you do not want to give away things you could get paid for. But
think about this вЂ“ you are getting paid for the free gifts if, as a result of the free gifts you
give away, you create rapport with your subscribers and they end up buying more from
you later.
You can include content emails in your email campaign. Again, these have to deliver
real content, not just filler. Your readers will be evaluating you and your products by the
free content you deliver, so it must be of the highest quality. One thing you can do here
is to offer a free excerpt from one of your paid products, and include a link to your paid
product at the end of the email.
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The most obvious thing that you can include in your email campaign structure is referral
letters. Now I call these referral letters because they should only refer someone to a web
site, even if it for your own products. You see, when people read hype in your emails,
and they get to the sales page and are not impressed, they will be less likely to go to a
sales page you recommend in the future. Far better to get fewer click throughs and
protect your list for future mailings than to get more click throughs today and lose the
opportunity in the future to continue to make recommendations.
Another thing that I like to include in my email campaigns is feedback emails. I ask my
subscribers interactive questions, questions like:
What do you want to learn more about?
What is your greatest struggle in (your niche)?
What is the hardest thing you have found in (your niche)?
If you could learn more about 3 things in (your niche), what would they be?
And then at the end of the email, I use language like this:
Please, just hit вЂ�replyвЂ™ to this email to send me your answers.
Now obviously you can use a web form or a survey form to do this, but I like this method
because it is nice and simple and creates a feeling of personalization that doesnвЂ™t come
from a survey.
Step 7: How to Write Your Email Letters
One of the keys to writing strong emails is to imagine that you are indeed writing to a
person, a very specific person. One way to do that is to imagine that you are writing this
email to a friend, a very specific friend. Write it like you are writing it to him or her. If
that is too difficult, ask a friend to subscribe to your list, and then it will be real вЂ“ he or
she is on the list, and they will be reading your email вЂ“ write it to them! This will make
your emails better immediately.
Although I am not a proponent of some special structure in your email, I will give you a
raw structure.
You see, I think that when emails are truly effective, they are written to a specific person,
but they are also personal. They will not always follow some set structure. Think about
it, when you write to a friend to tell him or her something that happened in your day, do
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you use a formula? No, you tell them what happened, maybe ask a question or two вЂ“ and
then end the email.
So why not do the same thing with your subscriber list emails?
Often, that is exactly what I do. I ask a question, tell someone that they can learn
something from clicking on a certain link, give the link, and end the email.
ThatвЂ™s it. Nothing special. Other times I might tell a story, and then give a link. I switch
up the structure of my emails, and the content. You see, I am writing to real people, so I
must vary the email structure. If you are writing to your best friend, you wouldnвЂ™t have
the same structure every time, would you? And neither should you here.
Now, here is a sample structure, one that can, and should, be deviated from вЂ“ to make
your emails unique.
1) Headline (Title) вЂ“ something exciting, yet accurate, to get the readersвЂ™ attention.
2) Intro вЂ“ I often ask a question вЂ�do you know how to build a big list?вЂ™, for example.
3) A story вЂ“ I will often tell a short story about a problem I have had and how I solved it.
4) Another question вЂ“ for example, do you want to learn about how I did it?
5) Call to action вЂ“ for example, check this out and see what you think:
6) A closing
That is pretty basic, and you can leave off any of those parts on any email you want вЂ“ you
certainly do not want to have the same boring format every time you send out an email.
How to Write Content Emails
Generally with a content email, I know that my response rate is going to be low, so I am
not really trying to get clicks, although I will usually put a link back to me at the end.
A great content email might just be an article that I have written. I will use the title of it
for the subject line, then I might use language like this to lead in:
Dear {!firstname_fix},
I have recently written something I thought you might like:
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Or I might just lead immediately into the content. As long as the content is good, you can
use either method, if it is not, you should not be using it!
Remember that this email is just to build rapport; I am not trying to sell anything here.
What I want is for my readers to like and respect me so that they will buy from me in the
future.
How to Write Free Gift Emails
Generally with a free gift email I will simply write the following:
Dear {!firstname_fix},
Here is a free gift for you:
Or Here is something I thought you could use (100% free)
The nice thing about free gifts is that people really appreciate them. Sometimes if I have
been sending out a lot of sales or referral letters and my list responsiveness has gone
down, I will send out a few free gifts to spark things back up вЂ“ and sales usually go back
up!
One thing that I have started doing with my free gifts is creating backend offers.
So what I will do is set up the download sequence the same way as if I had sold
something, except that the product is free, and after they click through to get the free
item, they get copy like this:
Thanks for accepting my free gift. Here is the link to download it: (download link here).
But before you download it, please check this product out; I have been able to secure a
special price just for you:
At this point, I place the sales letter here.
The conversion rate on this sales letter, although lower than if I had sent them directly to
this page, is still better than the 0% conversion you get if you send them directly to the
free gift. And one thing that is nice about the free gift is that the open rates and click
through rates are a lot higher, so you get a lot more exposure than you do with a normal
referral letter.
Another thing that has worked quite well for me has been to write a short free report (4-7
pages) on the topic of one of my paid products. At the end of the free report is a link to
my paid product, with script like this: If this report has been useful to you, you might
like my (name of my product). Click here to take a look: (link to my product).
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How to Write Referral Emails
When I say referral email, I mean just that, even when it is my own product. You see, the
email is not the place to sell the product, although sometimes I do. The email is the place
for rapport and communication. So I simply refer my reader to take a look at a sales
page. I let the sales page do the selling вЂ“ that is why it is called a sales page.
For my referral page, I will often ask a question, for example, вЂ�have you been struggling
with (your niche)?вЂ™ I have found something that might work nicely to help: (link to sales
page).
What I have done there is come across as helpful; even if they donвЂ™t like the sales page,
they will still appreciate that I sent them to it, thinking of them. In that way, I get the
click, but I also preserve the relationship with my subscriber.
If you try and sell in the email, then the subscriber feels as though you are selling him or
her with your email campaign, and will often unsubscribe. Although a few unsubscribes
are fine with me (I figure that if I am not getting any unsubscribes, I must not be
aggressive enough), I do not want to lose buyers because I have been too aggressive.
Once again, I simply let the sales page be aggressive for me.
How to Write Feedback Emails
In these emails, I am attempting to do two things: 1) Create rapport by stimulating
conversation and 2) Find out what to write my next book about.
Creating the rapport is extremely important to me. Used correctly, I believe that
feedback emails create incredible rapport and can lead to multiple sales later on in the
relationship.
The feedback email might look like this:
Dear {!firstname_fix},
I need your help! In a constant effort to improve what I send to you, and how I can best
help you (niche verb) better, I have a couple of quick questions for you. Please just hit
вЂ�replyвЂ™ to this email, and send me your answers. This will help me a lotвЂ¦thanks in
advance.
1) What is the most difficult thing you have found in (your niche)?
2) What types of information are you looking for from this newsletter?
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3) What is one thing you want to learn more about?
How to Create a Feeling of Relationship with Your Subscribers
One of the important things here is to remember that you are dealing with real people
who have real needs, have real feelings, and will be spending real money with you.
It is easy, once your list gets big, to think of people as just an email or a name or even a
number. It is easy to think of things strictly in terms of how much the aggregate spends
everyday. But the only reason they spend money with you is that they need what you
have, and unless you are the only one online to have it (and you probably arenвЂ™t) you
must build a personal relationship with each person on your list.
Now that may seem impossible to do, especially if you have a list of 5,000 or 10,000.
But there are some specific things you can do to make that happen.
The most obvious is to use your autorespondersвЂ™ personalization feature, so you can
address the email to the personвЂ™s first name. If you can, have the feature capitalize their
first name and do not use their last name.
The next thing to do is to write as if you are writing to one individual. Do not use
terminology like вЂњyou allвЂќ or вЂњall my subscribersвЂќ. Use the word вЂњyouвЂќ when writing to
your subscribers. Write as though you are writing to one person, not many.
Another thing you can do is to ask questions of your subscribers. Ask what they want to
learn about, ask them if they have any questions you can answer. When they write you,
answer each and every question personally. Now, you can use a mass format for this.
Use language like this to do it:
Wow! A few days ago I asked you (whatever you asked them) and I have received an
incredible response. Please forgive me for not answering these personally, but I thought
that the answer to your question was pertinent to everyone. So here are the questions and
my answers:
This will create a feeling of community and relationship, especially for those who did not
even ask any questions. They will see that others are very involved in your list, and that
will give them the credibility they needed to see before buying from you.
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31
Step 8: How to Make Sure You Are Making Money With Your List
Unless you are building a list just for the fun of it, or for educational purposes, you are
probably thinking that you want to monetize your list.
With this in mind, not only should you structure your entire campaign in such a way that
you are always looking for opportunities to make money, you should always be thinking
about how you can monetize something you do.
Just to give you some examples, here are some places where I make money on my list:
1) Once someone subscribes to my list, they are immediately sent to a sales page that
says this at the top:
Thanks for accepting my free gift (or subscribing to my list, whichever is most accurate).
A confirmation email has been sent to your email address; just click the link in the email
to verify your address, and you will be able to immediately download the gift.
While you are waiting, please check out my new book вЂ�(name of book)вЂ™
My conversion rate on this page from referred sources is around 5% and probably
between 2 and 4% on article traffic.
I create free ebooks and include links to my other products.
I include links to my other products in books like this.
I give away free items and give the opportunity to buy something, too.
Many times, when I sell something, I immediately give the purchaser the opportunity to
buy something else. After they have paid for the first item, they get to a page that says
something like:
Thanks for purchasing (name of product). To download it immediately, click here:
But, before you do, take a look at this incredible offer вЂ“ discounted just for you:
Then I place a sales page to a different product here.
How Often Should You Mail?
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This is a much debated topic. Very few marketers agree completely on this, and in fact,
probably the frequency should be different for different lists.
One of the keys is consistency. If you are going to mail once per week, mail once per
week. If you are going to mail three times per week, be consistent about it. And if you
are going to mail once a day, you must mail everyday.
The reason for this is that different people will respond differently to different
frequencies, and will unsubscribe if they do not like the frequency. So if you start out
mailing daily, you will get unsubscribes because of it, and then if you change to once a
week, you will have lost subscribers who would have tolerated once a week mailings.
And vice versa, if you mail only once a week, you will have some people who forget who
you are, and then if you change to mailing more frequently, they will unsubscribe.
So just recognize that whatever you do, you must be consistent, and you can expect
unsubscribes. Do not take them personally.
You should generally mail only as often as you have the time to create useful content or
offers. If you are working this business part time, a few hours a week, you cannot mail as
much as someone working part time 30 hours per week.
I personally mail everyday, and some subscribers get several emails per day from me,
because they are on several lists. I have the ability to do this because I work this business
fulltime, and have the time to create new offers, in addition to writing multiple articles
and books like this.
Do I lose more to unsubscribes than average? Probably. Do those that stay on my list
buy more from me than if I mailed twice a week? I think so.
But the key here is that I have the time to do it. Never set up a mailing schedule that is
more frequent than you have time to maintain.
How Much Money Should You Make Per Subscriber?
This is also an age-old (at least as old as the internet is!) question. Many marketers
promote $1 per month per subscriber as a good number to shoot for, and I tend to agree
with them. Others feel that 50 cents per subscriber per month is also a good number.
I personally, although I would be satisfied with $1 per subscriber, am currently over $2
per subscriber per month. I think that it is as high as it is because I am primarily using
articles as my main form of subscriber recruiting, and because I am actively cranking out
new books regularly. If I were to slow down that pace, or slow down the article writing, I
think my number would go down.
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33
Keep in mind, that although my average is above $2, I have some lists that are at or less
than 50 cents per month, so a lot is dependent on the source of your subscribers.
Keep in mind that the purpose of this book is to teach you to list build using articles, and
that should allow you to attain higher than average revenues per subscriber when done
correctly.
How to Write Articles for List Building
I believe that when you are writing articles for list building, you are utilizing a
significantly different mechanism than if you are writing articles to just get your name on
the web or to disseminate useful information. You are literally writing the article with
the firm intent of getting interested people to click through to your squeeze page and give
you their name and email address. That is your purpose.
Why You Must Write Your Articles With List Building in Mind
If you do not write your articles with list building specifically in mind, you will not get as
many clicks to your squeeze page. You see, when you write articles for just about any
other reason, you want people to get all the information they need in that one article.
But not so, if you are using the articles to list build. You want people to feel two things
when they finish reading your article: 1) That you delivered really good, helpful
information, and 2) That they want to read more.
So you have to have a balance of really good information that answers their question, yet
leaves them hanging, so they feel like there is more information needed.
If you do not effectively do this, you will have people read your article, appreciate the
information, and yet not subscribe to your list. But at the same time, if you do not give
them good, solid information, they will not feel you have enough information on the topic
to warrant them joining your list.
As you write articles and work specifically towards making this balance happen, you will
be able to do this more effectively.
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34
Step 9: How to Decide What to Write About
I am assuming at this point that you know what your niche or topic is and that this section
is designed to help you decide what you should write in regards to your niche or web site
topic.
Start with your niche or topic, for example, gardening.
Then make a list of things that people might want to know about gardening.
For example:
How do you garden?
What climates are good for gardening?
Do you garden differently in different climates?
What types of things can you grow in the cold climates?
What types of things can you grow in the hot climates?
Notice at this point how I am building a number of questions around one subtopic of
gardening: the climate. You can probably think of 20 or 30 more questions related to just
the climate.
Now for a change of subtopic, for example: tools for gardening
What types of tools do I need for gardening?
What are the easiest tools for gardening?
Are there different tools for different plants?
Where do I buy quality tools for my gardening?
What are the top three tools for gardening?
And again, you can add many more tool questions, especially if you are in the gardening
niche and understand gardening (I am not, and donвЂ™t).
Now you should be able to easily think up 20 subtopics for your niche, similar to the two
I suggest here for gardening. For example, in the gardening niche:
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Temperature
Color
Brand
Soil
Weather
Time of year
Part of the world
Seeds
Plants
Vegetables
Fruits
Obviously this is a partial list of all the subtopics for the gardening niche. Come up with
at least 20 for your niche, then write at least 10 questions to answer for each subtopic.
Next, write an article about each questionвЂ¦just given this scenario, you will have 200
article subjects ready to write!
Step 10: How to Structure Your Articles so That People Will Click
Into Your Web Site After Reading the Article
As I have mentioned already, one of the big keys when you are writing articles and you
want people to click through to your website, you have to both answer the question they
are asking, and give them enough information to see that you know what you are talking
about, and that they like your style, and yet you have to leave them hanging at the end.
Now, one of the things I find that really leaves people hanging is simply the exclusion of
a concluding paragraph.
Most people are accustomed to reading an introductory paragraph, then some substance,
then a concluding paragraph. But when I write articles, instead of getting a concluding
paragraph they get, instead, my bio that starts off with something like:
To read more on this topic, click here:
So they are left hanging, and then I give them a way out: they can click through to get
more information.
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36
Step 11: How to Write a Title
Your title is extremely important, and must be compelling. It must drive the surfer online
to click into the article to read it. It must therefore be specific about what it is going to
address, because the surfer is looking for specific information.
Keep in mind, if they do not open your article, they will not read it, and if they do not
read it, they will not click through to your web page. So the title is critically important.
Now, not only should the title give specific information about what the article will cover,
it also needs to have very specific, keyword-oriented language so that if someone is
searching the internet or an article directory for specific information, they will be able to
find your article.
I like to begin my title with the keyword that someone might use to find my article, if
they are interested in the article topic.
For example, if I am writing an article about deep sea fishing, my article title might read
like this:
Deep Sea Fishing вЂ“ Fishing Equipment Hazards and Warnings
Now that is a very highly targeted keyword rich article title.
If someone types in something like deep sea fishing hazards or deep sea equipment
warnings, I might get a click into my article. These are very targeted readers, as should
be most of your article readers. You see, the more highly targeted is a reader, the more
likely they are to be in the buying stages, and not just surfing aimlessly.
Now after the keyword beginning, I am very specific about what the article is going to
cover.
Now, one thing that is very important here is that your article actually answers or
addresses the question or specific topic in the title. That is a credibility issue. If the
reader does not think you have been honest in your title about the article, they will doubt
your credibility when it is time to subscribe or buy.
Step 12: How to Write the First Paragraph
Although I have included this first, because it occurs next in the article, if you are just
getting started, it might be easier to write the body of your article first, and then write the
first paragraph afterwards. This allows you to вЂ�cheatвЂ™ by alluding to the points in the
body of your article. Then you can add an introductory sentence, create a transition line
into the main points, and you are done.
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But if you write it first, you can write it like this:
Write 1-3 sentences introducing your idea.
For example, in keeping with the deep sea fishing equipment topic, my introduction
sentences might look like this:
Deep sea fishing, although lots of fun, and generally safe when done correctly, can be
fraught with danger when the equipment used is not correctly inspected. It is important
to have your deep sea fishing equipment inspected regularly.
Next, I might list the things that the equipment needs to be checked for. After that, I will
include something like this:
Here are the steps you need to take to make sure that your deep sea fishing equipment is
in safe condition before you leave the dock:
Step 13: How to Write the Body of the Article
In the body of my article, I am going to address each of the main points that I alluded to
in the introduction. If you are writing the body first, pick 3-4 main ideas that the reader
can benefit from knowing, that are directly related to your chosen article title or topic.
You can either write a paragraph for each one, or list each idea in a bulleted or 1,2,3
fashion.
One note on making your article keyword rich: Although I am not a big proponent of
spending a lot of time keyword optimizing articles, one thing that is easy and helps with
keyword density without making the article stiff is to begin each point with the keyword
or keyword phrase.
For example,
1) To keep deep sea fishing equipment safe....
2) To inspect deep sea fishing equipmentвЂ¦.
3) To maintain deep sea fishing equipmentвЂ¦.
In this way you are using the keyword phrase without making the article unwieldy or
unnatural.
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Step 14: How to Write the Conclusion to the Article
Now, if you have been reading of all this book, and not jumping around you know by
now that I do not generally use a conclusion to my article.
But if you feel the need toвЂ¦
Here is how to do it.
Start with a sentence that summarizes your main idea, then follow with summaries of
each of your main points, then add one more sentence that finishes things upвЂ¦
In all reality, though, if you are writing articles for list building, leave the conclusion off
and go directly to the compelling bio.
Step 15: How to Write a Compelling Bio
One of the most important things in writing a compelling bio is to immediately, while the
reader is fresh from reading your article, give them a really good reason to go to your
squeeze page.
Here are some ideas of how I do it:
To download my new free ebook on deep sea fishing equipment, click here:
To take a look at more articles just like this one, click here:
To read my free report, вЂ�Taking Care of Deep Sea Fishing EquipmentвЂ™, click here:
To subscribe to my free course вЂ�Deep Sea Fishing Tricks and TechniquesвЂ™, click here:
Notice that I do not begin with: Sean Mize is an accomplished deep sea fisherman and
has won numerous awards for his huge and unbelievable catches.
They already know that I know what I am talking about after reading my article. If I
donвЂ™t know what I am talking about, no amount of self-acclamation is going to change
that, and if they already know from the quality of my writingвЂ¦what do I gain?
The key here is, I want them to immediately go to my squeeze page while they are hot,
while they are really interested in my topic, not after they get bored by my self-praise.
At the end, I might put something like this:
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Sean Mize is an accomplished deep sea fisherman who has been teaching fishing for 10
years.
Notice that this line about myself is much more modest than the earlier example, and
gives the reader a reason why I might be able to help themвЂ¦not that I have received
awards, but rather that I have been teaching for some time.
Obviously, you have to adapt it to meet your needs, and it is often helpful to write out
many potential bios, and then start eliminating those that donвЂ™t feel good.
Remember, the process of article writing and list building is as much an art and works on
the feelings people get when they read your articles, as it is a science that appeals to
peopleвЂ™s needs. If it doesnвЂ™t feel good when you write it or read it to yourself, it might
not to anyone else, either. On the flip side, do not let that hold you back, especially if
you are overly critical of yourself вЂ“ just write something, follow the patterns in this book,
and you will get better with time.
Formatting Your Articles For Maximum Readability
If you are using the techniques described in the previous sections, you will already have a
pretty readable article.
To make your article even more readable, add breaks after every few lines.
So for example, if your introductory paragraph has 5 sentences, but each sentence is 3 or
4 lines long, break that into 5 paragraphs. Do not worry that it is not technically
correctвЂ¦it is far more important online that it is easily readable.
If your paragraph has 8 lines, perhaps split it in two вЂ“ find a natural breaking point, even
if the subject will still be the same, and add a line between the sentences.
This will keep the article easy to read вЂ“ remember some people will not read the entire
article; they will just skim the first few words of each paragraph, so you want it to be
easy for those people to get a feeling for what you are writing about.
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40
How to Submit Articles So That You Get
Subscribers
Step 16: Where to Submit Your Articles
Although you can search the internet for article directories, and there are probably over
500 working article directories, I am including a list of article directories to which I have
submitted in the past.
Now, my personal recommendation is that for the purpose of list building, you are far
better off writing multiple articles and submitting them to the first 4-7 article directories
on the list, than writing a few and submitting them to all the directories. The reason is
that the traffic on the first few article directories in this list is significantly higher than
probably all the other directories combined, so your time is probably much better spent
writing additional articles.
The only exception to this is if you are writing and submitting articles for the purpose of
creating backlinks for search engine optimization (which is not the purpose of this book,
or this system). In that case, you are better off writing a few articles, altering them
slightly, and sending them to many article directories. This will gather you more
backlinks to your web site, but this method will not really increase your traffic unless you
are able to achieve something like a top ten search engine ranking in a reasonably high
traffic keyword.
Again, for the purpose of the system in this book, you should only submit to the first few
article directories on this list.
Ezine Articles
Search Warp
Go Articles
Article Bank
SG Web Design
Article Dashboard
Article Marketer
Article Sender
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Isnare
Idea Marketers
Christian Notepad
Christian Article Bank
Article Alley
Article 99
Business Tool Chest
Content Articles
Freezinesite
Ezine Plug
Eclipse Articles
Articles 365
Articles Submit
Add Article
Article Boy
Digital Women
Articleson
Article City
Web Pro News
Author Connection
Free Articles Search
Articles Base
Jesus Works
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Boconline
Connection Team
Article Motron
Articlesrus
Article Leader
Tips
The Article Library
Article Host
Relationships Article Library
Writers Pen Article Directory
My Do Little
Add Me
Decision Web Systems
Articles Galore
Article Database
Archivex Ht
Mega Articles
Business Highlight
Lead Articles
Link Snoop
Pure Directory
Sir Look
Article Zilla
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Buzzle
Easy Articles
Article Warehouse
Main Street Mom
Press Article
Article Depot
Amazines
Article Hub
Content Desk
Article Teller
Article Capital
Urban Christianz
Step 17: How to Submit Your Articles
When you first get started submitting articles, you will need to create an account with
each of the article directories to which you wish to submit articles.
Because of the prevalence of spam article submission, most of the article directories will
require that you respond to a confirmation email before you can submit any articles, and
some of those emails can take 30 minutes or more for you to receive.
So the easiest thing to do is to go through the list of article directories, signing up with
each one, assembly-line style, then go to your email and answer each of the confirmation
emails, again assembly line style.
Next, once you have registered with all of them, you can go back and start submitting
your articles. Once you have written the article, you can pretty much copy and paste each
of the parts into the various forms required by the article directories, and just keep in
mind that the first few that you submit will take longer to submit than they will once you
know exactly what each directory requires.
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Step 18: How to Test Article Directories for Effectiveness
Because I am big tester online, meaning that I test just about everything that I do to make
sure that I am not wasting my time, I create duplicate squeeze pages and use a different
one for different article directories. This allows me to track the traffic that goes to each
squeeze page to determine how effective a particular article directory is for my purpose.
I also use different autoresponders for each of my squeeze pages, so that I can also test
the conversion rates of the different article directories.
I think that one of the main reasons that I have been able to succeed so quickly online
while others have not is that I am a pretty stringent tester. I believe that everything can
be tested, and that everything that is going to be effective will be effective pretty quickly.
Now, for article writing, it can take a few weeks and a few dozen articles before you have
clear indications of success or failure with a particular directory or process, but no more
than a few weeks.
Unfortunately, I get emails regularly from people who are still struggling with something
online that hasnвЂ™t been working for a year or more.
Although you must be committed to the long term process of internet marketing if you
are going to be successful, you must not spend too much time on something that isnвЂ™t
working. That is not to say that you cannot continue to make adjustments, especially
when you are just getting started and are learning, but if a new traffic source or article
directory isnвЂ™t pulling in a few weeksвЂ¦it probably never will.
Now one thing that you can do when you are testing, is to always be testing multiple
things at one time, then you will have some things that do better than others, and you can
drop the poorer things and add in new things, rather than testing and eliminating one
thing at a time.
When I first got started online, I would test as many as 10 different traffic sources at one
time, keep the best few, make changes, add more, and keep testing. As you know by
now, my current emphasis on article marketing has been due to the phenomenal success
and income I have received via articles and article submission.
How Many Articles to Submit
As many as you can! I have submitted around 900 articles, and since about my third
month online (it takes some time for the search engines to do all their work and there is
definitely a lagged effect when writing articles), my income has been proportional to the
number of articles I have published. I honestly believe that if I had only written 500 up
to this point, that my income would be half what it is now, and my greatest regret is that I
have not written 2000!
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Obviously, if you are new to this, those numbers are probably scaring you. Your first
article might take you a few hours to write, so you will be hard pressed to imagine
writing 500! But once you have written a few, you will get to where you can write a few
an hour.
If you are not used to typing, your typing will improve just by use, and you will be able
to write faster over time. I currently can crank out about 7 articles per hour вЂ“ but it has
taken me a few months to get to that point.
By the way, if you are a 2 finger typistвЂ¦.and you are serious about writing onlineвЂ¦.take
a typing course. Without being able to type, you will have a hard time cranking out
enough articles in a short enough period of time to make it worthwhile. Another option is
to invest in speech recognition software that will transcribe your words into a word
processing program. I have not used one, so I cannot recommend one, but if you cannot
type efficiently, you should look into speech recognition software.
How Frequently to Submit Articles
I have only included this section because it gets askedвЂ¦.but I like to submit my articles
as soon as I write them.
Another way to do it is to save all the articles you write from one day and then submit
them, assembly line style.
How to Find Hidden Articles in Your Existing Works
This option of creating articles may not jump right out at you, but if you have been in
internet marketing or your niche for long, and you have written any kind of reports or
books, or have been answering peopleвЂ™s questions in forums or via email, you may have a
number of articles in your possession that just need some polishing up for the article
purpose.
A lot of times the answers you have given people to questions in forums online or via
your own email, make great article content. You may need polish up some grammar or
add an introduction, etc., but when you are first getting started it can be nice to have some
quickie articles you can get posted without a lot of work involved.
The same goes for anything else you might have written like reports, ebooks, or
autoresponder content вЂ“ just adapt it to articles and you are ready to go.
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How Long Should Your Articles Be?
For the purpose of generating clicks to your squeeze page, my opinion is that the articles
should be as short as possible.
In my opinion, the shorter the article, the faster the reader will get to your bio and links,
and the faster they will click throughвЂ¦before they get bored and click out of the article.
So what is that length? Well, most article directories require at least 250-500 words, so I
will write mine to the shortest length that the majority of article directories will require вЂ“
just check the current length requirements for each of the article directories to which you
will submit.
If you find that you cannot cover a topic in less than 700 + words, consider breaking the
article into two parts, part one and part two, or name each of the two parts appropriately
according to their respective content.
Advanced Article Marketing/List Building
Techniques
Step 19: Create Additional Autoresponder Campaigns
By creating multiple autoresponder campaigns, you can test using different email
campaign structures on your subscribers, and measure which is most effective at
producing sales.
You can also use different autoresponder campaigns to separate mini-niches of
subscribers who might have different needs.
For example, with the gardening niche, you could have an autoresponder for beginner
gardeners, an autoresponder for experienced gardeners, and even autoresponders for
specific types of gardening or plants.
This allows you to more tightly target the individual needs of specific types of
subscribers, and when done correctly, can produce much higher sales.
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Multiply Your Niches
Perhaps you have chosen a niche which, although profitable per subscriber, does not have
enough demand to create a full time income.
The answer to this is to have several niche web sites and email campaigns. By having
multiple niches, you can more effectively target smaller, undermarketed niche areas
which many fulltime internet marketers might turn away from. However, because of the
reduced competition, you can often charge more for your products, and this can often
more than make up for the size of the market, especially if you have several niche
markets like this.
Step 20: Cross Sell Your Subscribers
One important area of profit online is cross selling to your customers. Cross selling
occurs when you sell subscribers or purchaser of one particular niche or niche product
something in a related niche.
For example, your niche might be vegetable gardening, and perhaps you can cross sell
your vegetable gardening customers a fruit gardening product.
Or perhaps you have puppy dog web site; a cross sell product would be a kitty cat
product.
You can either produce the cross product yourself, or become an affiliate of another
internet web site and earn a commission selling the cross product.
Step 21: Create Your Sales Funnel
With a sales funnel, the idea is that you introduce your customers to bigger and more
costly products as they purchase your less expensive products.
For example, you can use a free product to induce potential subscribers to join your list.
Once they join, you might offer them a $17 product. Then, once they have purchased the
$17, you can introduce them to a $47 productвЂ¦and so on.
Now, you can either create your own products, or find quality affiliate products that offer
increased commissions to you.
Your sales funnel might look like this:
В© Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize
www.secrets-of-internet-success.com
How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
48
Free ebook (6 pages)вЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦..free
Ebook (40 pages)вЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦...$17
Advanced EbookвЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦$47
Advanced Ebook (different topic) + CD setвЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦..$97
Complete course in your niche (with CDs and workbooks)вЂ¦..$497
To create products that sell for even more than that, you can create consulting programs,
complete niche kits and training programs, or seminars (these can range from $997 to
$10,000).
Creating Long-Term Streams of Income With Your Subscribers
The sales funnel discussed in the last few paragraphs, when done correctly, can enable
you to create long-term streams of income with your customers.
The key here is that you have to make sure that everything that you create or represent is
of high quality. Your subscribers will stop buying from you if they buy something that
doesnвЂ™t live up to the sales page.
Be creative about thinking of ways you can upsell, cross-sell, and back-end sell your
customers. Many of my customers have bought many different products from me, both
my own, affiliate products, and products of othersвЂ™ that I have sold.
Once your list ages, and they have bought much of your own products, it may become
beneficial to come up with multiple affiliate programs that can help you maintain your
income. Of course, consistently recruiting new subscribers is a great way to continue
creating income, and creating new products for your existing customers is also a great
way to maximize your income.
Note From the Author
As you should be able to tell quickly from reading this book, I am an avid article
marketer and list builder, and I have done what many online have been unable to
doвЂ¦break past the $1000 per month barrier. My third month of consistently applying the
techniques I have shared in this book I created $3840 in online income, my fourth month
income was over $5500, and this month should be about $7000 (I am at $5600 today and
it is the 20th of the month).
Can you exactly duplicate my success? I guess the better question is, will you do what I
have done? I work 50-60 hours per week, writing, testing, and building squeeze pages,
writing articles, writing books, and communicating with those on my list and in my
В© Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize
www.secrets-of-internet-success.com
How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List
49
coaching program. I have written 900 + articles. I have written 9 ebooks, including this
one. I am still writing multiple articles, and I am very aggressive with my list.
So if you do what I have done, I believe you can duplicate my success. If you do more
than I have done, I imagine you can do more. And if you do lessвЂ¦.you get the point.
My deepest and most sincere advice to you is to settle on something and do it. Test it.
Improve it. Monitor your success. Know where your profits come from.
Too many people online jump from get rich quick program to get rich quick program,
losing money on each one.
I do not believe there is a get rich quick program online that really works. Making
money online is work, just like any other legal method of income.
The one nice thing about online income, however, is that you can do something once, and
it continues to make you money.
For example, with articles, you write them once, submit them once, and you can get
traffic for years. With this book, I am writing it once, but I should sell it hundreds or
thousands of timeвЂ¦.possibly for years to come.
So internet marketing is hard workвЂ¦.but in my opinion, well worth it.
Now, get out there and start writing articles!
To your article marketing and list building success,
Sean Mize
В© Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize
www.secrets-of-internet-success.com

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