So you want to make money on-line…either selling your own products or someone else’s as an affiliate.
Who are you going to sell to?
Your website visitors?
Yes, you will get a few buyers, if you are advertising a product or resource they want.
A better way is to build up a customer email list whereby you email free advice and special offers.
(see my recent post on creating an Email Marketing Campaign that works by clicking here).
So, your task is to grow your email addresses list as fast as possible.
Are people queuing to see your products? (photo courtesy of avlxyz)
Now many people succumb to the mistake of ‘buying’ email-marketing lists. Don’t make the same mistake.
You may have seen the ads that offer you millions of email addresses for a relatively low cost.
My advice – steer well clear.
If you fall for one of these ads, you will end up labelled as a ‘spammer’ almost as quickly as you send the email. Many of the messages you send will end up in ‘junk/spam’ boxes and I guess a high percentage of the addresses you purchase are made up. In summary, you’ll reap zero benefit from your efforts and lose your money.
So what do you do?
Remember, your primary goal should be to send emails to people who actually want to hear from you.
The big question, “Where do you find these people?”
You need diverse marketing methods…
1. Your Website / blog. Ask individuals to sign up in return for something for free. Could be an audio, an e-book, your online magazine, your newsletter, a contest. Make sure you put this ‘sign-up’ functionality on every page of your web site.
How fast your email list builds up this way will depend upon the subject matter, what you are giving away and, of course, the number of visitors to your site.
You may just get one or two each day. I know of some very popular sites that get hundreds of sign-ups each day.
2. Your business cards. When you design your business cards, be sure to request that people visit your site and sign up to get valued free information.
3. Attend teleconferences. When you get an opportunity to speak, introduce yourself and your domain name and what you have to offer.
4. Consider hosting a Blog Carnival on your subject matter (see video here on blog carnivals). Blog Carnivals can bring a lot more relevant visitors to your site and many will sign-up if you have a great offer.
5. Consider hosting an online contest. Open contests are extremely effective way to obtain e-mail addresses. On contest entry forms request e-mail addresses as method of approval for contest entry.
As you can see there is more than one way to build your customer email list…please do not resort to buying email marketing lists.
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nice and simple way, it may take some time to get a big list, but I have started to work on that since we talked last time about MMO contest!
looking forward to read good tips from you Andrew!
.-= Hesham´s last blog ..Why Bloggers Lie about Making Money Online and their Blog Traffic =-.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Hesham
it does take time and effort but worthwhile in the end!
Andrew
Thanks for the simple and easy to follow article bro. The contest, that is a great idea.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Latief
I hope you try some of the tips, then!
Andrew
Andrew,
I only recently decided to start building a list and am working on a free e-book to offer with it, will see how well this works. My plan is to use it mainly to offer a newsletter that is completely unique to my content which I plan to send out 2-3 times a month only. After my list reaches a few hundred I may try to market some other products and services through it….
.-= Keith@ Hot Blog Tips´s last blog ..Do-Follow Forum Just For Bloggers =-.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Keith,
That’s a good approach. My approach is for every ‘sales’ type email I send to my list, I send 4 to 5 advice type ones.
Andrew
Thank you Andrew for a great site and advice, found you in forum, followed on to your site and have been really impressed with the information you present here.
Starting out with article writing and have a plan so research is the order of the day.
Thanks again
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Joan,
I’m glad you found me – I hope my site helps a little.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Blogging Guide : How To Write An About Page (video) =-.
I have a new site and have had trouble building an email list. Your tip in step 1 (” Make sure you put this ‘sign-up’ functionality on every page of your web site.”) is something I have not done. This may be the key to my lack of success. Thanks for the tip.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Romona
You have to test these things. It may or may not make a difference.
Try it and see.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Blogging Guide: Improving Your WordPress SEO =-.
Once you get your email list sorted out, it’s very important that you use the information wisely once you have it. Buying email lists is a big NO NO as well. There are a lot of “dirty” email list. More often than not, this consists of a list of email addresses from people who do not want to receive solicitations.