11 Ways to Build Your list of Subscribers

Building a list is getting harder. People are less likely to provide their contact details unless there is a darn good reason to do so. So, no matter how you collect contact details, you need to craft a good offer. Once you’ve done that its your job to let people know about it. Here’s a list of 11 ways you can do that….

You’ve got an opt in form on your website, right? If not, your website is wasting its real value to you. Have a form where people can sign up :
Your existing list of contacts – you keep in touch with them don’t you? Family, friends, colleagues, people with who you have a personal relationship need to be in a mailing list of some sort. Let them know what you are up to and what you can offer. Maybe they are not interested … but they may know someone who is.
If you have a shopfront or you visit people, do you have a spot where they can sign up for what you offer?
You can run guessing competitions (just check the laws governing this as it can get messy!) Generate interest, get people entering and announce the winners so they know it was real.
I’m on the list for a women’s fashion retailer and I get regular offers and incentives from them – special opening nights for subscribers only, up to 50% off deals to subscibers only etc. What can you offer for a ‘private list’ clientele?
Check you advertising and promotional material – does it have a call to action to visit your website or email address for them to subscribe?
Your business cards are promotional material, too. Have you got your website on there and any special signup opportunities or offers?
If you get to attend or participate in conferences and trade shows, there’s a great opportunity to offer a special ‘show only’ deal to get people to sign up
Run a short seminar in your area of expertise – banks do this all the time – and have people sign-up for notices about future seminars, discounted rates, and special offers.
What does your email signature say – does it have an offer to subscribe?
Do you ever participate in forums or on social networks – include your subscription information in your virtual world

Actually, there has to be a 12th way. Can you think of one more? Hit the comment box and let me know!

How To Quit Your Day Job

I was on a webinar with Robert Plank recently and he had some great advice using his own experience for how to transition from paid employment to doing business online. Here’s my take of what he had to say…

9 Ways To Get Ready For Quitting

make sure you pay down your bills so the debt doesn’t hold you back and automate whatever bill paying you can to save time and energy
learn while you earn … there are probably training courses you can do at work that will help you with your future online business. For example if you’re a policy writer, find out how you can legitimately learn copywriting generally or for the web
look for things you do at work that you could teach others eg a systematic approach to something or do a video tutorial on how to use a certain tool (learn at work , teach at home)
knock over any tasks you have to do eg assignments for uni asap so you can concentrate on your web business without nagging deadlines for other things in your head
NEVER do ANYTHING related to your online business while you are at work – you could get yourself sacked and possibly lose your IP to your employer.
Be efficient and focused to get things done at work so you avoid working back can get home and do your own stuff with the extra time
for that reason, don’t tell people what you’re doing – they don’t need to know and it could be detrimental to you … also don;t include people you work with on your lists – they may not realise you used an auto responder to send that email that arrived at 11am and may think you did it at work
be careful about who you tell in your family and friends – open up only to supportive people
similarly be careful about getting friends or family to work with you – only do it if their skills and interest is there and if your relationship will withstand it!

Do a Bit of Self Analysis

Make sure before you head into internet marketing full time that you are content within yourself, are highly self motivated and honest with yourself about who you are and what you can do. Being online is going to require high levels of productivity, action-orientation and focused positivity. Develop and practice those capabilities while you’re getting paid at work!

By the time you are ready to quit you will have made enough money online to support yourself and be very clear on what you do, why you do it and who you do it for. A standard 60 second elevator pitch that you need in any business.

Your online business needs to be bringing in new leads every day before you quit your job. When you work on it full time you can build it faster and bigger but have a sustainable base to start from.

Set up as a Business

Incorporate. People feel more comfortable dealing with a business that is seen as legitimate. Talk to your accountant about how to set this up. It may cost but it’s sensible. And it has advantages.

Have Support

An accountability partner. A mastermind group. Get involved with people you can trust, build relationships with and who can help you to grow your business. People who understand IM and can give you advice or keep you honest.

Set Goals

Be really clear on what you want to achieve – for the next year, the next quarter. Know what that will give you and how you will now you’ve got there, especially if it’s not a numerate goal.

Have a Back Up Plan

What’s the cushion you’ll have behind you if things don’t go the way you planned? Have you got some savings? Can you freelance to earn some extra money? What’s the plan to make sure slow months or failures don’t happen or have a crippling impact?

How Do You Get Started While Working?

Freelance! Get your hands dirty by performing tasks for others in your spare time eg write articles for people, set up a blog for people, seo sites for people, do their social networking mechanics – do whatever you know. Find things you like and get some juice from.
Produce products from your freelancing – how to guides etc, then set up sales sites for those or put them on clickbank. If it works, do it again and again. Make an upgraded version. Add extra tools to the original product. The quicker you can create products and sell them the faster you grow your business.

According to Plank, and I agree, the only solution to becoming successful in internet marketing is to take action. Do something. But be clever about it. Doing something isn’t continuously reading other people’s stories and being on forums. Sure that helps. But what really helps is putting your oar in the water and actually getting product up, getting sales pages up, getting autoresponder sequences up, getting people on your list, getting paid.

So start

Then when you have some momentum and you are actually generating income and continual leads, then think about whether it’s time to quit your day job to build better and faster and bigger.

OK. Now the biggie…..

What’s the next actionable step you will take to move forward?

Secrets of Internet Marketing – Part 2

How do you get to that point?

Provide VALUE. That is, something that the reader sees as value, not what you think (which is the price or it’s free – that’s not necessarily value). It’s about giving them content. You can give things away which provide value but avoid training people to be freebie seekers or they may never buy from you

How many times a month should you email your subscribers?

That’s a magic question that’s hotly debated. Want to know the answer? The answer is, it doesn’t matter so long as you are consistent. If you have subscribers and you are not keeping in contact regularly, then you may as well not have them on your database. They will have forgotten you or not have a high level of recognition and trust with you. Your relationship with them is tenuous.

Just make sure you are consistently in touch and providing value.

“But what if I mail them too much, won’t that turn them off?”, I hear you ask. Not mailing, or being inconsistent in mailing can hurt your business just as much as mailing 10 times a day.

What can you send?

How about a link to something you found that they may like, remind them of something you said in an earlier email or post, send them to a sales page, send them your blog post. There are lots of things you can email about. From my perspective, the emails I quickly unsubscribe from are the ones where almost every time I hear from them they are wanting me to click a link to get something from another marketer and end up on yet another list! That’s not building value in my books, even if it is free. If it was an occasional email doing that,. that’s more acceptable. So don’t treat your list like a bank account. Obviously you want them to buy, but not in every email! BUILD the relationship.

Are you emailing at least ONCE a month?

No? Well accept this challenge to succeed!

Sit down now, right this minute [do not click over to a forum or browse the web yet again for more information – at some point you have to put your head down and do the grunt work – now is that time. Come on, you’ll feel better at the end, I promise!) and write out 12 ‘posts’ that would be of interest to your audience/subscribers/list. You can think of 12 things – just pick the topics then write 200-400 words on those topics. Go do that now then come back.

Okay, now plug those into your auto responder and schedule them to be sent – one each month (you DO have an autoresponder, right?)

Brilliant! Now you’ve got a Red Hot keep in touch system in place, whether there is one person on your list (and that may be you!) or 10,000.

Can I email more?

Sure!

When you come across something special you want to send them to or give them then that’s an extra contact point – just try and schedule it between your existing 12 scheduled mail outs.

When you have something you want to promote or to send them to a sales page, again that’s an extra contact point – simply schedule it between your existing mailings.

It’s not that hard really. Break it down to the basics then add to it.

At least ONCE a MONTH, email your subscribers.

This is the most fundamental process in internet marketing. You get this done and running smoothly, then start building from there.