Marketing Methods
Overview
Ezine Advertising
Autoresponders
List Brokers
Safelists
Traffic Systems
List Builders
Viral Tools
What is Marketing?
Marketing, or traffic generation, is the method that
you use to get visitors to your site, convert those visitors into customers
or members of your programs and, most importantly, retain them so that
you build up a base of satisfied clients, happy affiliates, and successful
partners.
There are many ways of doing all of the above; this
page will go through some of the methods that I have found to be effective.
Pick a few (or pick the lot) depending on the time and
resources that you have available to you.
Many of these methods cost little or nothing to implement
but generate sizeable numbers of visitors over the years.
On their own they may hardly seem worth the effort but
once you have put them on autopilot the trickle effect comes into play,
just watch and see!
The bottom line to all of these methods is that you
Build Your List, without a list you will not be successful - period!
There is a very successful book written by two of the
top marketers called "Inside The List". This normally retails for $67,
find out how you can get it as a bonus product by Clicking Here
Take note that if you use any of these services you
will be added to many lists. For this reason I suggest that you do not
use your primary email address. Go to Yahoo or Gmail and create a free
account there which you can then use.
I will not be going on to the subject of search engine
optimization (SEO) here as that is a totally different subject and is
beyond the capabilities of all but the most dedicated. If you wish to
learn more about this subject visit one of my other sites where I deal
with SEO on a professional basis - Search
Engine Optimization
I have just one word of warning if you run Adsense
on any of the sites you are promoting. Google hates start pages, auto
submitters and many other list builders. Please make sure that the
landing page that you submit to any of these systems does NOT have
Adsense ads on them. Otherwise you will wake up one day to the email
that says your Adsense account has been terminated, and they will not
listen to you when you ask for it to be reinstated!
Ezine Advertising
One very good way of marketing your products is through
ezine advertising, but it is difficult to do effectively.
First you have to find an ezine that accepts advertising,
then you have pay for the ad, and then submit it!
This gets to be very time consuming and after the first
few you will probably give up as it is far too much hassle...
OR
You can use a submission service where you pay and submit
your ad one time only and leave the company to deal with the mechanics
of getting your ad published with your chosen ezines. This method is
efficient, time saving, and very cost effective.
2
Bucks An Ad
2 Bucks is owned by a friend of mine in Brazil. Bo Ekvall is a Swede
who has now semi-retired as a result of his online business skills.
His advertising service is one of the best and has given me great results
since 2002
Click Here
To Read The Details
The Ezine Ad Network
This ad submission service will cost you only $15 per ad group, and each
ad group contains over 300,000 subscribers (maximum of four ad groups)
Autoresponders
Autoresponders may not seem like a marketing aid, but
they are THE Number 1 tool in your arsenal. How would you like to manually
deal with hundreds, or even thousands of enquiries about your product
or service? I think not!
You also need an autoresponder to be able to start your
list, every Internet marketeer needs their own list of prospects, past
customers, future customers and ezine subscribers. You will hear it said
all over the place; The Money Is In The List!
Invest in a reliable autoresponder system and you are
on your way to bigger things.
Your choice really has to start with whether you wish
to host an autoresponder on your own server or to use a third party service.
Third party services are the easiest to get started
with, but you may prefer the control that you get by having your own
system. I use a combination of the two - A dedicated system on MY server
for a large number of my lists, and Get
Response for my premium subscriber lists as they have a great record
on deliverability.
Third Party Autoresponders
Dedicated Autoresponders
My personal choice of dedicated autoresponder software
is AutoResponse Plus.
I have been using this system now for almost four years and it has
never let me down. AutoResponse Plus is hosted on your own server and
is owned by you - no monthly fees for access. You just pay for a hosting
account which you can also use for your web site.
Currently, November 2009, they are offering FREE installation
on your server which is worth around sixty bucks!
Some of the benefits of AutoResponse Plus are:
- No limits to the amount of autoresponders
- Lead import via text files
- Easy subscription management
- Text, HTML or RSS based mailing
- Full message personalization
- Time sensitive mailings available
- Allows file attachments
- Free Installation
Click
Here To Read All The Features
AutoResponse Plus needs you to have your own hosting
system. I host mine with ThirdSphere as they are the absolute best
at working with this program. They have set up many automated services
to help you run AutoResponse Plus which will make your life so easy!
Plus their affiliate program is second to none - Highly Recommended
Click
Here To See What You Get With ThirdSphere
Back To The Top
List Brokers
The money is in the list; so build a list!
The quickest way is to purchase names and email addresses
from a list broker...
It doesn´t cost you a lot of money and the benefits
of mailing to large numbers of prospects are fairly obvious.
But you do have to be very careful with purchased
leads, especially when you first mail to them, as depending on the quality
of the leads spam complaints may be a problem.
Also be aware that the small print on most contracts
to purchase leads clearly state that you can only mail these leads ONCE,
any more than that is very likely to get you into trouble.
I ALWAYS offer purchased leads a gift when I mail them,
if they wish to download the gift they have to Double Opt In to another
of my lists first.
Here is one of my gift pages, feel free to take me up
on this gift yourself- Click
Here
This weeds out the dead and junk leads, and gives you
positive proof that those that want to stay on your list have consented
to it.
Simple to set up, amazingly effective in keeping a clean
and responsive list.
Until then, please mail responsibly.
OppSeekers
I use Oppseekers regularly and find the value of their leads to be excellent.
Unsubscribe rates are low, leads are always over delivered and complaints
are few and far between (remember to mail responsibly)
Check Them Out Here
LeadClub
I have been using LeadClub for a couple of years now without problems.
I suggest you use their online mailing system to send your emails so
any complaints go to them, not you. A value for money service.
Check Them Out Here
Back To The Top
Safelists
Safelists, You either love ´em, or you hate ´em!
The choice is yours, all I can say is that I use them regularly and get
results.
You have to be realistic about the results that you may get, maybe only
one in a thousand of my safelist messages ever get read!
But when I can legally send a million safelist messages a day that still
means that 1000 people see my message, and maybe 5% of them actually
visit my site. That´s an extra 50 visitors a day, and they are
targeted visitors who have made a conscious decision to visit. Give it
a try but make sure that you do not use your primary email address when
you register, I suggest getting a Yahoo or Gmail email address just for
your safelists.
SafeList
Online.Com
This is controlled by yours truly, and is proving extremely popular,
maybe it's because I am using a great viral script that allows you to
build your own downline of members!
Whatever the reason the response to mailings far outweighs any other
safelist that I have been a member of...
This list is the exception to the rule about using a throwaway email
address. The software is set up so that the maximum number of emails
that you can ever receive is kept to a very low number. Only members
upline of you for 10 levels can mail you - 10 upline members = 10 emails
a day max!
But your downline members can grow to 10 levels deep and as wide as you
want so you may end up with tens of thousands to mail to!
Normally a PRO membership is $39.95, as a visitor to this site you can
get it for FREE - You also get immediate access to the affiliate program
that pays out weekly to your PayPal account!
Click
Here To Join
Back To The Top
Traffic Systems
You use traffic systems to generate a steady stream
of hits to your sites.
Each one may not bring in serious results, but put a few of them together
and the hits soon mount up.
If you integrate these into a start page rotator system they are capable
of generating hundreds of hits a week, for next to no cost!
The hits are generally of low quality and covert very poorly so don't rely
on these to make you big bucks... good for traffic figures to a site.
Back To The Top
List Builders
List builders and lead generators do just what they
say on the box; build lists and leads, often for free.
Combine these systems with your autoresponder and you are onto a winner,
add a couple to your toolbox and see the difference.
Back To The Top
Viral Tools
Viral Link Tracker - Add your links to this system and
every time your link gets displayed you get credits, which then allows
your links to be shown on another site. The explanation on their site
is far better than I can do!
Free Membership Here
Putting It All Together
To make the best use of your time you have to have some
form of strategy and have decided what you are trying to achieve.
Time is normally the biggest problem facing you as initially
you will also be needing to balance your full time job and family and
leisure commitments.
I know that when I started my online activities I had
a full time job plus part time work four evenings a week. I also had
to fit in visits with my children a couple of times a week as I was in
the process of getting a divorce, plus I was yacht racing at European
and World level where I had to be available regularly so as not to let
down the team.
Happily, after a couple of years of effort, I was able
to give up the second job and also managed to reduce my hours in my full
time job to about half the previous level.
Now I do not have a boss or a full time job! I work my
own hours as a web designer and online marketer, take vacations around
six times a year, don't have an alarm clock or wristwatch, and get up
when the time feels right... it's a good feeling!
Now I'll be the first to admit that I don't live the super
guru lifestyle, I don't earn mega millions, I don't own a mansion...
but I earn enough to choose how I want to live which was always my goal.
So one of your first choices is deciding what you want
to achieve.... Extra income is easy, you should be able to knock out
a couple of hundred dollars worth of sales almost whenever you want.
A change of lifestyle takes a little bit more planning and effort. Just
don't expect a couple of hours of work here and there to make a huge
difference.
Start off with a short term goal, maybe aim towards your
first hundred dollar week, build up to making five hundred in a week,
but be realistic... It will not happen overnight.
Be prepared to invest some money in your new business,
for sure you need a domain name and web hosting, you need an autoresponder,
you need to buy some advertising, maybe buy someone's time to guide you
in the right direction. And if you think that spending money is out of
the question just think how little an online business costs in comparison
to a bricks and mortar enterprise!
For a couple of hundred dollars you are good to go in the
online world, that should buy you your first few months of services at
least.
Compare that to the last bricks and mortar business I
set up, a small computer store selling hardware and support. My first
month cost me almost ten thousand pounds Sterling, about eighteen thousand
dollars US then. And that was doing it on the cheap!
If I had invested that amount of money online I reckon
I could have cut down the time taken to go full time online by about
two years!
So think carefully about your goals, believe in yourself,
believe that you are entering a business that really has NO boundaries...
it won't always be easy, but it can always be fun!
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