Many new Internet marketing people ask themselves this question. What are my successes in my business and why? What are some of my failures and what would I do differently if I could do things all over again?
I myself have had some proud successes but I am not sure which is my biggest. If I were writing about building an opt-in list then here’s what I would teach and why it is important to start with an op-in list.
Step 1 would be to create a membership site with a bunch of free quality downloads (e-books, software, reports, etc.) where people could sign up for what they are interested in what you have to offer them.
Your next step would be to create a password protection page in what would become known as the members area for those who sign up.
Step 3 would be to create an exclusive one-time offer on a valuable product and offer it at a nice enticing discount. You need to stress that this is the only time they will see this offer as they cannot sign up twice. Then near the bottom of the page they can chose to either accept the offer and order the product or decline the offer and go straight to the members area to download their free goodies. This technique is being used very successfully with the Internet professionals and is very important.
Moving to step 4 you would then create what is known as a lead capture page offering the free quality downloads (e-books, software, reports, etc.). You probably already have a bunch of them on your computer. Choose wisely. On the lead capture form you ask for their name, email address and next they have to enter a turing number (Note:a test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Example: AbY256) to sign up. They would then need to confirm their email address through their email account. You would also need to tell them to watch for a confirmation email. This is all security measures to prevent scams and phony email sign ups.
Let me explain why this is so powerful approach for beginners.
When a user signs up for your membership site free they need to complete a number of small, important actions.
1. Sign up and fill in a turning number to make sure they are who they say they are.
2. Click the link in the confirmation email they receive acting as a double op-in and clearing you of any spam accusations.
3. Log in to the members area and download their FREE products and then using an auto responder follow up with a welcome message,then helpful information and then some additional information with a sales recommendation spread out over a week or so.
There really is a very powerful psychological and motivating reason for getting them to take these important actions. It is a proven fact that when people get used to taking small actions, they are more likely to take a larger action allowing you to present other products that you recommend.
If you really think about it. Real estate people don’t actually sell houses. The smart ones watch what grabs the interests of the couple viewing it while touring the house. If the woman is excited by the kitchen,bathroom,or bedroom, they sell them on those points and the rest of the house goes with what they really liked about it. For the men it might be the office or the two car garage. They focus on these and the rest of the house goes with their choice also.
Cars are the same. Seventy to eighty percent of the sale will be the “color” for the woman and the same percentage will be the engine and Interior for the man.
They also never ask a client to sign a contract. Instead they hand them the contract and smile asking, “your pen or mine”. They know that if the client makes the one decision, they are already made the larger one and their interest is high.
This type of list building technique is currently converting at around 8% to 10%, which means 8 or 10 out of every 100 people who sign up will order the special one-time offer. Some of that will depend upon the quality of the offer. When you do a comparison that is way above industry average.
So my advice to Internet newbies and even veterans pros alike is to concentrate on the list building?
The most important thing is to give people good information and knowledge for free. That is why they came to the Internet in the first place. Nobody wants to receive just advertisements and solicitations. You need to build you own opt-in list of people who want your information and trust you as an honest expert. Make sure you also comply to email laws and use good business ethics.
If you are interested in in a easy to set up web site for newbies please go to “Buy Rite Shopper” or “My Secret Cash Flow Vault.” These ready made websites will not make you rich over night and have to be worked but they can start you out by giving you experience, exposure and motivation when you see the extra dollars each month. They are intended for the person with no or little knowledge of Internet web site building.
I also recommend a service like “Exactseek” for submitting to search engines and other service instead of the ones offered at the FREE web site. Exact Seek has more to offer. You can also track your web page using Google analytics.