Description
Introduction – Your List = Your
Asset
You might wonder why it’s a good idea to build a list. After all, it probably
seems like a lot of work to find prospects, get them to accept emails from
you, and find new things to send out to them on a regular basis.
You might also think it will take a lot of hard work to get people to buy. You
know that you can’t just send them low-grade content and expect them to
buy simply because you sent them an email.
And if you think these things, you’re right: building a list is very hard. And
making sales from lists is also hard. It takes time and it takes attention to
detail to do things right. And this is exactly why many marketers never do
it.
But that is their mistake. You aren’t going to make that same mistake.
Building a list and marketing to it is one of the most profitable things you
can do in IM; and this guide is going to show you how to do exactly how to
go about it.
So why is building an email list a good idea? There are many reasons, but
these five are probably the most important:
i. Building lists allows you to reduce the cost of acquiring new
customers. Contrary to what you might think, it is much, much
cheaper (on a unique-sale basis) to presell and pitch to one person
until she buys than it is to pitch to different people until one of them
buys.
ii. Building lists allows you to maximize the profit that you generate
per customer.
List Building From Scratch
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iii. Having a list means that you can participate in major launch events.
Next time there’s a big launch, you can benefit by being one of the
first affiliates to offer the product.
iv. Having a list allows you to test your copy. With a captive audience,
you can run controlled experiments to test your copy’s conversion
rate before you pay to send the same advertisement out to a larger
audience.
v. Having a list allows you to bring more to the table in future joint
venture partnerships. Rather than simply offering to do part of the
product-creation work, you can now offer to market the completed
product to your list.
For these five reasons and many, many others, list building is one of the
most profitable things you can do as an Internet marketer. Not only will it
help you to monetize your current sites better, but it will also open up new
avenues for partnership and marketing.
With that said, let’s get started.
The Bare Essentials – What You’ll
Need to Get Started
List building requires attention to detail, careful thought, and, most
importantly, action.
So, if you think the early stages of list building are boring and seemingly
unproductive, don’t give up. It takes time and effort, but you have to keep
at it if you ever want to see progress.
So let’s start with the dry, boring stuff. What are the bare essential tasks
that you’ll need to complete before you can start making money with your
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list?
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There are roughly 3 things you’ll need to do before you can get to the “fun”
parts of list building.
Purchase a Domain and Get Hosting
Before you can do anything else, you’ll need a working website. In short,
this means purchasing a domain, purchasing hosting services, and using a
page-builder to create your website.
When it comes to this, the best place to start is probably by determining
the theme and URL for your website.
The Theme
Start by thinking about what niche your site will focus on. A good rule of
thumb is to keep things narrow. For instance, if you’re thinking about
creating a niche site that markets retail products through affiliate links, drill
down further and consider focusing only on one type of product, such as
fishing gear.
If you grow out of your niche in the future, you can always create another
site or expand your current site. But for now, keep things narrow to avoid
confusing your visitors.
The URL
Once you’ve settled on a theme, you’ll want to come up with potential
URLs for your site, since your first choice may already be taken.
In the past, marketers used to select URLs that were actually the key
phrase they were targeting (but with a dash between each word);
however, if you plan to create memorable, credible business, you will want
to avoid this and opt for a URL that is short and that visitors will remember.
Write Down Your Ideas
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Before you move to the next step, write everything down. Take careful
notes about the theme you wanted and the specific URLs that you believe
will fit well with your business model and niche.
Once you’ve done this, you can continue on to the next step.
