I've just finished putting the finishing touches on my Zen and the Art of Email List Building manuscript...
it's completely free...all that I ask is that you leave your thoughts on this manuscript by clicking on *comments* at the end of this post.
If you have not yet picked up your copy just go over to Zen and the Art of Email List Building
Be sure to come back and post your comments...
I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:
I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.
After I sent out the *survey asking for questions about our upcoming course on using joint ventures to build your email list, there were a lot of readers who contacted me wanting some more information about the basics...they had questions like:
Just exactly what do you mean by an email list? and What is a joint venture?
These are fair questions and everyone who is starting out in internet marketing needs to be clear on what these terms mean, so I'll provide a couple of basic definitions:
Opt-in Email list: this is a list of names and emails of people who are interested in your products or services and who have chosen to give you their information. In other words, they have opted-in to your list and have given you permission to send them more information on your products or services. You will probably want to provide your list with useful content, in addition to telling them about your products. When you provide your list with value, you will develop a relationship with them. People are more likely to purchase from someone who they know, like and trust.
So, building your relationship with your email list by regularly providing them with value can help to create a good relationship. You should set up your list to comply with all the current laws regarding spam, including providing a link at the end of each email so that people can unsubscribe if they wish.
Joint Venture (or JV): in the internet marketing world, a JV is a partnership with another person (or persons) to create a win-win situation for all involved. There are all sorts of joint venture arrangements and most involve leveraging the joint venture partner's email list or contacts. Usually, no money is exchanged up front and profits from the venture are split according to the terms of the joint venture. JVs can be a great way for someone with no list to get exposure and build their own email list.
Many times, these JVs don't involve formal legal contracts, but are just discussed via email or over the phone. Once you build your initial list, getting more JVs becomes easier and eventually, others will seek you out and ask you to joint venture with them.
*Our super-short, two question survey will remain open for a few more days...you can still participate, and see a few more details on the course, if you hurry! Just go to: www.MarketingQi.com/questions
When it comes to advice about building your email list, I've gotten nothing but positive feedback on my Marketing Qi "conversations" format...well, almost all positive feedback...
one reader did want to know why I persisted in adhering to what was referred to as my "Kung Fu" type of style and asked why I didn't just put these points into a list of some kind...
well, yes I could have easily formatted my points into a list...and risked having them look and read just like everyone else's internet marketing reports on list building...
one of my reasons for doing this was to integrate my marketing reports* and writing into the somewhat playful theme that is already inherent in the Marketing Qi name. The unusual format adds to my branding and helps to differentiate me in the already crowded internet marketing marketplace...
how can YOU stand out in a crowded marketplace?
*(If you haven't picked up your FREE copy of Zen and the Art of Email Listbuilding, just click here.)
Since the release of Zen and the Art of Email List Building, many readers had further questions about squeeze pages. So, I have transcribed for you, in the form of the post below, some further conversation on squeeze pages, between the Master of Marketing Qi and the Student...
If you are reading this post without having first read Zen and the Art of Email List Building, I invite you to pick you your free copy by clicking here.
Now let's join the conversation (below) already in progress...
~~~~~~
I don't mean to bother you again, but I just can't get my mind off this squeeze page thing. I know you told me about all the advantages, but tell me truthfully, does absolutely every webpage need a squeeze page in order to be profitable?
No.
--
Oh, no...please don't do this to me again! I know...I know...if I ask yes or no questions, I can expect to get yes or no answers...
You are correct. Please try again!
Okay...Under what circumstances would a squeeze page NOT be advisable?
It depends.
On what?Do you remember the Seventh Immutable Law?
Yes...that's the one that says that nothing is immutable, right.
Precisely...nothing is immutable; Marketing Qi's nature is to flow and bend. This nature must be honored.
All right...yes, I remember. But what does this have to do with squeeze pages?
Everything! The point here is never to be dogmatic. Every situation must be considered individually. As a general rule however, nearly every website could benefit from a squeeze page.
But what about a website of say...beautiful landscape photographs? Do you mean to tell me that people would have to sign in to be able to look at the pictures? This smacks of exclusivity to me.
Exclusivity is certainly not the point. The reason to have a squeeze page is to capture the names and emails of those who visit your site so you can continue to communicate with them and ultimately serve them better. If people are visiting your site and are buying your products and signing up for your newsletter at a rate that is satisfactory to you, then don't put up a squeeze page. But...you will never know how much better you could have done with one in place.
I would recommend this...if you are hesitant to put up a squeeze page, then build one and put it up at a slightly different web address, in addition to your regular homepage...then drive some traffic to both pages and test which one gets the most opt-ins to your email list.
Most people don't seem to realize that most visitors to websites don't regularly come back....so much of the traffic that does make it's way to your website it totally wasted...the visitor takes a look around and then leaves...without ever buying your product or service and, in many cases, never even signing up for your newsletter.
For the most part, the only ones that ever come back are the ones on your mailing list that receive a compelling email from you giving them a reason to return.
But I've been to sites that just have a sales letter? Why would you want to put up a squeeze page in front of that? It might discourage visitors from buying.
If you clearly outline the benefits of signing up on your squeeze page, then your visitors will gladly give you their names and email addresses in exchange. Then, after opting in, when they do see the sales page, some will buy and some won't. For those that don't buy, you can continue to communicate with them until they do buy or they drop off your list. Otherwise, you have lost them forever. And, as I have said before, if someone is unwilling to enter their name and email into your opt-in box, that person is not likely to give you their credit card information later.
My purpose here is not to force you to put up a squeeze page on your website...it's only to point out the advantages of doing so. Implementation of any advice is always up to you...and I always advise testing everything out for yourself.
But please remember this...you are NOT your customer. As much as you would like to believe that you know perfectly well what your customers will like and will not like, only testing will tell you this. I realize that this is a hard thing to accept. Even after testing has proven that one page performs better than another, some people are still not willing to change their websites...and of course, that's entirely up to them.
The sad truth is this...most internet business owners will never put up a squeeze page and certainly will never do any testing of any kind. They will continue to complain about how internet marketing just doesn't work for them and off they go again to find yet another web designer who will make an even more beautiful page for them, convinced that this is the solution to their low sales. The good thing about all this is that those who are willing to test and to innovate will always have the advantage over those who refuse to do so.
I just got a sneak peek at what's inside Seth Godin's new book, The Dip...all about how to become the best in the world at what you do.
What's the dip you say?
The dip is that long, long slog between beginning something and mastering it.
According to Seth, most of us (yes, even those of us who are those driven entrepreneurial types!) don't really want to be the best in the world.
How can that be? Of course you want to be the best, don't you?
Well, Seth says that wanting to be the best and actually being wiling to go through the dip to get there are two different things entirely. Most of us not only settle for mediocrity, we actually defend it as the best choice!
But you are doing yourself a huge disservice if you are aiming for mediocrity. In spite of the popularity of profiting from the *long tail*... the rewards at the top are huge and far outweigh settling for crumbs.
So how do you get through the The Dip and up to the top?
It's simple...quit doing all the stuff that you can't be the best at and invest all of your resources in getting through The Dip ?
And one of those resources would be Seth Godin's book, The Dip (Seth's book is being released on May 10th, but you can pre-order here now!)
I was tagged by Hueina Su at Intensive Care for the Nurturer's Soul to participate in an experiment started by Aaron Potts called Simply Successful Secrets (get details here).
Aaron's rule is to write about the top 5 to 10 things we do almost everyday to be successful. These can be things we do every day or at least 4 to 5 times per week. I need to link back to Aaron's original post and also link back to the person who tagged me. In this way, we can share our secrets of success with our readers as well as with the readers of all the other bloggers who participated. In addition, we are supposed to *tag* as many bloggers as we like to participate in this experiment.
Here are my Simply Successful Secrets (in no particular order):
1. Go beyond my comfort zone...I do this regularly. Right now, I'm involved in launching a very big project, a wellness teleseminar series called EveryDay Qi and I've had to really step out there in a big way to go after the people I wanted as speakers...but you know what? It paid off!
2. Begin and end my day with a sense of appreciation and gratitude for all that I have in my life. This is basic.
3. Notice and appreciate the natural world. There is abundant evidence that being in Nature is good for you...physically, mentally and spiritually. Just five minutes of sunshine in the morning can set up a good mood for you for the rest of the day. Think how that could impact your work!
4. Begin my day using Mark Joyner's awesome system to productivity, Simpleology Mark's system has made a huge difference in my productivity. And best of all, it's free to sign up!
OK, that's it for now...I'd like to tag:
Maryam Webster
Suzanne Falter-Barns
Andy Wibbels
The Blogsquad (Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff)
Kim George
Seth Godin
Ok...gotta go!
Let's finsh up this teleseminar magic act so you can get on with your show.
Give great information and end with a call to action. People sign up for your teleseminars for a reason. Make sure you deliver what you promise. If you are promoting a product or service at the end of the call, be sure to tell you audience exactly what to do after the call is over in order for them to take advantage of your offer. If you are directing them to a website, be sure to say and then spell out the name of the URL. Follow up your calls with an email message directing those who could not attend to a replay of the call.
Great teleseminars are not black magic and it doesn't take a wizard to have your customers clamoring for a repeat performance. By including the five ways outlined above, you can be sure to cast a powerful spell with your teleseminars every single time.
Check out TeleSeminar JumpStart, our complete five hour downloadable course that will help you get started, quickly and easily, in hosting your own profitable and powerful teleseminars. Just go to:
www.TeleseminarJumpStart.com
Let's continue with our series on Teleseminar Magic.
Greet people as they come on the line. Welcome them to the call. Invite them to state their first names, where they are calling from and to share their website if they have one. People love to be recognized. One of the main reasons for having teleseminars is to build a trusting relationship with your callers, so take the opportunity at the beginning of each call to personally interact with your callers.
Handle any problems with your teleconference bridge line immediately. If the call is large, be sure you have a line that gives you the ability to mute out your audience. Sure, you give up interactivity, but if there is annoying talking in the background, dishes clanking and the like and you ignore it, your audience will rapidly become annoyed and many may leave the call entirely. Respect your audience by providing them with a comfortable listening atmosphere.
Send out a reminder before your calls. An email a few hours prior to your call start will be appreciated and increase your attendance as well. Be sure to include the bridge number again, even if you have already sent it out, as many people will likely have misplaced it.
In Part Three, we will finsh our spell casting directions and bring down the curtain on your teleseminar show.
Check out TeleSeminar JumpStart, our complete five hour downloadable course that will help you get started, quickly and easily, in hosting your own profitable and powerful teleseminars. Just go to:
Great teleseminars can be really magical...loads of people on the line, a definite feeling of a sense of energy that carries the call effortlessly along to the end. The audience leaves satisfied and if you are promoting your product or service, a sizable number of callers actually purchase your product after the call is over.
So exactly how do you weave this magic into your teleseminars? It's simple really. Just remember to include these five magical elements in each and every teleseminar you host:
Make sure you do everything in your power to have good attendance on your calls. There is nothing that will cast the evil eye on your calls like poor attendance. Callers will know from the outset that there are few other people calling in and the energy of the call will be low at best. Getting good attendance on your calls, even if you jam the lines and not everyone can get in, is the best way to get great energy going from the outset. Loads of people demanding to get on the line will increase your social proof and put your calls in high demand.
In my next post, I'll list some more magic you can weave into your teleseminars.
Check out TeleSeminar JumpStart, our complete five hour downloadable course that will help you get started, quickly and easily, in hosting your own profitable and powerful teleseminars. Just go to:
Teleseminars are used by nearly all of the highly visible internet marketing gurus today, both to increase sales and to develop a cordial and friendly relationship with their lists. Yet surprisingly, the average internet marketer overlooks this vitally important tool, preferring to stick with familiar but costly pay-per-click ads or time consuming article research and writing. In fact, most of the successful internet marketers out there will rarely advise you to add teleseminars to your marketing mix, perhaps because they want to keep this super-effective tactic to themselves!
The benefits of teleseminars include the ability to deliver valuable information to your clients and prospects for free or as a paid class, as well as the ability to record your teleseminars and provide them as bonuses in exchange for a newsletter sign-up or to actually package and sell them as a product.
Like many internet marketers, you may be confused about what it takes to start doing your own profitable teleseminars. In reality, there are only three simple things you must "get" in order to be successful with teleseminars. In part two of this post, I'll reveal those three things.
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