Sim Garner on Affiliate Marketing

“The money’s in the list” has been heard all across the internet. Every small business marketing on the internet has started building their opt in list.  With automatic email responders that will immediately deliver your newsletter, marketing tip series, or a great little product review into your subscribers email box there is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be building an Internet marketing opt in list.

The thing is that there is so much competition out there now trying to get people to opt in to an email list. You have to give them a good amount pf perceived value. I use perceived value here because no matter how much value you are giving to get the opt in, if your visitor don’t see that perceived value, then they will not opt in to you email marketing list.

You Squeeze Page Sells Your Ethical Bribe.

Unless you are a well know Internet marketing guru and even if you are, you have to give something your visitor wants enough to type in their name and email address. That something also has to be seen to give value to your visitors. Remember, just because you know it is a fantastic gift offer doesn’t mean your visitor will know that.

I have put my name on an opt in email list, received the advertised information and deleted it within 30 seconds of opening it. What good did that do me or the email marketer who gave it to me? NONE

That meant the squeeze page had a very convincing offer but the information did not give me any value. That is one good score for the marketer with the squeeze page. The problem is they lost the time and effort they put into getting me on their email marketing list. What good was their effort as far as building their email marketing list is concerned?

I know most Internet marketing opt in email list give great information. Email marketers put a lot of work “someone puts a lot of work” in their ethical bribe. With the competition such as it is you have to give good value initially and after the fact to keep people on your list

What can I Bribe my Visitors With to Get Them on my Opt in Email  List?

One of the most popular ethical bribes in the past has been a free report. That, I think is changing. You have to create a special gift for subscribing that will attract your perfect customer.  A tip sheet, a special report, a great resource list, etc. is great to keep their interest after you have them on your email marketing list but to get them initially your need something with a greater perceived value.

With everyone giving away so much information in video and audio today it is in your best interest, if you want to build your email marketing list fast, to give more that a written document.

How much more do you need to give?

Here is my suggestion for keeping it simple. Take the report you were going to give away, setup your outline, put it on audio and have it transcribed. That makes a great gift, takes about another 30 minutes or so to setup and give a great perceived value initially.

Make sure you take some time and format this free report and audio professionally.  It will show your subscribers that you offer them professional quality even in t the free information you give away. That lets them know just what they can expect from you in the products you create and promote.  If they are really impressed with your freebies, they’ll have a high expectation of excellence for your products and services.

Remember to create a higher perceived value make your free offer look professional with a great graphic of the report and audio. This alone will pay for itself with your first few hundred visitors to you email marketing opt in list page.

Sim Garner

PS. What do you use as an ethical bribe for your squeeze page visitors?

Do you have a newsletter or Internet marketing email tips series. If you do the most important online list building tool you have is your sign up box. To maximize this email marketing tool you must have one on every single page of your Internet Marketing website!

How do I use this Online List Building Tool Effectively? 

To be effective in your email marketing list building efforts you have to have an offer that can’t be refused. You have to make your invitation to your potential subscribers so enticing that they can’t possibly think of leaving without getting what you have to offer. You positively do not want to just say “Sign up for our mailing list.”

What you do want to say should shout out to everyone “if you don’t sign up now you are a looser”. Another way to do the same thing is to have copy that tell your prospective subscribers “this free item is the only information on the Internet that can make you rich, beautiful, healthy, etc, right now”.

If you can express that view in your copy you will have a online list building tool that will convert above 50%.

How do you Utilize This Online List Building Tool on my Website. 

In todays Internet Pop up windows are most often blocked by user installed software. When you use pop in windows they can usually make it through the pop up blockers because of how they are designed.  You can also program pop in windows to appear when your guest arrives on your page or have it come in as they exit.  You can also program pop in windows to only appear one time during a session to an individual user.

With the use of cookies you can set pop in windows to appear each time a person visits, once a week, once a month or every time they move to another page. Pop ins are an effective online list building tool but you have to consider the effect it has on your visitors and more.

When is The Best Time to Use Pop Ins?  

Pop in windows that appear as soon as your visitor arrives at your page usually triggers an automatic “close it” response. Most Internet users have seen them so much now that there reflexes take over when they first appear.

On the other hand if you let your visitor have time to look over your page and allow the pop in window to appear as they exit the page, I think you will have a better response. When shown after your visitor has had time to relax a bit and see what they came to your page to see in the first place they may be more likely to opt in at that point.

Online List Building Tools, The Side Bar Opt in Form.

Of course it depends on just what type of Internet marketing you are doing but to make sure your visitor has a chance to get access to your newsletter or Internet marketing tips series, you should have an optin form on every page. In fact it would be very beneficial to your email marketing list building endeavors to have an opt in box at the bottom of every static page you have.

Think of it like this. As an online list building tool we all know that the opt in form, in whatever manner shown, is the way to build your list. When you think about the fact that the more times a person sees something the more likely they are to get it then it makes sense to have several forms a person can fill out to get your offer.

Having an opt in form in the side bar of your page is usually expected. By having one at the bottom of the page it is unobtrusive and convenient. If you use a pop in about 15 to 20 seconds after a person gets on the page you allow your visitor several chances to get accept your offer and only inconvenience them one time with a pop in.

The way you use online list building tools has as much effect on their performance as the tool you are using. My suggestions may or may not work for you. The way to find out is to test what works best on your site.

Online list building tools are the way for you to have a continuous customer base to market to. Building your email marketing list should be most Internet or affiliate marketers first priority. You know it is true.

The money is in the list.

Sim Garner

PS.  I have just been looking at the floating action buttons for having an optin that floats in the empty space beside your pages.  Leave comments on how you offer your newsletter or ezine.

You have to determine, based on your niche market, just what type of email marketing system you plan to put into place. Your email marketing solution will be built around an email marketing tips list, newsletter or ezine.

How do you decide what kind of email marketing list to run?

Let’s define three basic email marketing list types.

Email marketing Tips List.

The email marketing Tips List is set up with ‘evergreen content’, which means that the emails are not date or season sensitive. You can load as many tips as you like into the auto responder and set the delivery schedule according to your preference.

These tips are usually based on the niche market you are promoting. If you were an Affiliate marketer your email marketing program could be built around basic tips on email marketing itself, article writing, keyword research, etc. As long as you stay with the basics this information will be good for many years to come.

If you want subscribers to receive one tip from you each week – you only need to provide 52 tips and the list will run without interruption for a whole year. In this manner each subscriber will always get every tip from the very beginning of the series.

You can add to your email marketing tips list whenever you desire. This is one of the simplest and easy email marketing solutions and probable the most time savvy ways to run a mailing list. You can even outsource your tip writing to a ghostwriter and just add in personal remarks and P.S. messages to each one.

Using a Newsletter as your Email Marketing Strategy.

A great email marketing strategy is the use of a Newsletter. As I am defining a newsletter here it is built around the products or services you offer and has as it’s primary purpose, the goal of promoting those products or services through showing people how they could benefit from them.

This method is usually not as “evergreen” as email marketing tips but if you have a good solid program the changes to your mail content will be minimal and will have to be made only when the product is updated.

Using an Ezine as your Email Marketing Solution.

Your email marketing strategy for your Ezine is usually based on a more in depth publication offering a variety of articles and content centered on a topic of interest. The good thing about Ezine marketing is that your can promote a large variety of products to your audience.

You can use an Ezine to not only promote your products but to also to sell ad space to other marketers for them to promote theirs. This can be a nice little extra income for your business.

You could prepare your Ezine with evergreen content and load it into an auto responder just like the newsletter or Tips List. This could workout alright as long as you keep your information basic but most often you will want to provide the content in a date sensitive fashion.

The good thing about and Ezine is that it usually goes out monthly or biweekly. You have plenty of time to write your copy and setup your ads.

What Email Marketing Solution Should You Use.

Each of the email marketing programs listed above work very well in most any niche marketing area. In my opinion for what I call the self improvement industry. where you are helping people to build a better life, a combination of an email marketing tips and a newsletter work best.

This way you can setup an “evergreen” content rich system that you can add to constantly and promote with as well. You can have a short series of tips with newsletters in between that show people how to benefit from a product that will help them better use the tips you are giving them.

Either way you decide to setup your email marketing program, just remember that one of the things that is of paramount importance is to build a relationship with your email marketing list. This is done best with good content and programs that meet the desires of your list.

Sim Garner

PS. What type of content do you like in your email. Leave comments below.

HTML as You Email Marketing Solution.

There is absolutely no doubt that as an Internet marketing email solution HTML Newsletters are more attractive than plain text.  Using HTML in your email marketing system provides a large variety of ways for you to incorporate colors, fonts and images that you would love for your subscribers to see.  They are also great for branding your Internet business.

By using your Internet email marketing to show the same logo, colors and even your photograph on a regular schedule you can influence feelings of trust in you subscribers. This is a great way to help your subscribers become comfortable with you and your product or service. By creating this comfort and trust through your email marketing system in your brand you will also increase your sales and profits

By using HTML as your email marketing solution on the other hand, it is much more likely to get caught up in spam filters which drastically reduces deliverability. One of the main reasons for this is because a high percentage of spammers use graphical emails in their email marketing system, in an attempt to show words that would have triggered spam filters.

Another unfortunate strike against using HTML as your email marketing solution is that many users have opted to block graphics in their emails. It is an easy choice to make when you are getting 30 to 50 graphic emails each day advertising male enhancement’s and other high turnover products.

Text as Your Internet Marketing Email System.

On the other hand email marketing using text messages can seem much more personal since they look more like all of the other email that a person usually gets from friends and family.  If you are careful with your choice of words and phrases, they will more easily pass through spam filters.

The deliverability of text only email marketing messages and newsletters are a lot better than HTML and with a little work on your side in delivering good content, your subscriber will be looking forward to receiving your email message.

The major concern with any email marketing solution is getting your message delivered so that it will have a chance to be opened. With this being the case then text only email and newsletters are the way to go.

Once you have separated your niche market into separate specific categories and wrote your Internet marketing email sequence to be sent to your subscriber list, it will be time to set it all up in your automatic email responder system.

When it comes to the selection of an automatic email responder system You have two big choices to make first:

1 - Will you look for automatic email marketing responder software for setting up your mailing list management script that works on your own website server?

2 - Will you look for a managed automatic responder system that is hosted by a credible hosting company?

Automatic Email Marketing Responder Software.

There are pros and cons for each. If you decide to host your mailing list on

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If you’re just getting started with or are new to the idea of a Internet Marketing email promotion, you might not realize that it’s not something that you can manage on your own. The email broadcasts that you will be doing will have to be in sequential order.

This means that as a person opts in to your list they start with the welcome message in your Internet Marketing email promotion, on day 0 (the day they subscribed). They will then get the first email marketing message on day 1 after they subscribed, then day 4, and so on.

Even though your Outlook email program or your Yahoo email account allows you to develop email lists that you can communicate with at the click of a button, this is not a good option. Trying to send out a sequence of Internet Marketing email promotions over a long period of time using outlook would be so time consuming that it would be practically impossible.

Imagine for a second

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