niche-marketingNiche marketing is often difficult to understand because it goes against the grain of what you may have been taught about marketing. Many people are under the assumption that the more people you can reach with your product or service, the better your chances of making a sale. In all actuality, this type of thinking wastes a lot of time and energy and rarely generates the return you’re hoping to achieve.

You want to narrow your market down as specifically as possible to a small “niche” of potential customers. Then focus your efforts on getting them to buy. Why waster your time selling to those who have no interest in what you have to offer and therefore, have no intention of every purchasing from you?

To help you understand niche marketing further and how it can benefit you and lead to bigger success, here are some examples.

Virtual Assistants

A great example of niche marketing is virtual assistant businesses. A virtual assistant service is a niche because they market to a specified group of people wanting and needing their administrative and technical services without the need to hire an in-house employee.

While virtual assistance is a niche market in its own right, in order to be more successful VAs should consider narrowing their niche down even further. Tapering down the services offered to an even smaller list is extremely beneficial to service providers such as VAs. Most virtual assistants find the most success when a niche is clearly defined and only a few services, as opposed to a wide array of them, are performed.

For instance, a virtual assistant may offer specialized services to real estate agents, coaches, Internet marketers, etc. If the VA really wants to see results she could go even further with her niche and offer ghostwriting services, content management services, proofreading and editing, or something else. The key is to specialize in one or two things your target customer is in need of and become the expert in that area.

Internet Marketers

There are literally millions of potential customers an Internet marketer can cater to. However, just like the virtual assistant, the biggest success will come when an Internet marketer narrows down his or her target market. Here are some common niches these marketers provide information to.

  • Newbie Internet Marketers
  • Moms
  • Moms in Online Business
  • Bloggers
  • Info Product Creators
  • Article Marketers
  • Content Site Owners

Keep in mind even these groups can be broken down further to create a tighter, more defined niche market.

Another way to help further define niche is to contrast it to the masses. Mass marketing is just that, marketing to the masses…millions of people. A niche, on the other hand, is a small, defined group of people.

One example is pets. While they are a niche, they are a very large niche. However, you can narrow the large niche into a smaller, more defined niche by specifying cats, dogs, birds and so on. You can take it a step even further and narrow each of these niches down to a specific breed of dogs, cats or birds.

As you can see in the examples above, by narrowing your market you’re able to focus on the type of work you want to do and enjoy. Zoning in on a niche makes it easier to maintain a concentrated marketing focus instead of trying to service everyone in every area of business.

Remember the old saying “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.” This is true no more than in niche marketing.

How Internet Marketing Software Can Help You Find and Reach Your Market

Many people who once did things “for fun only” are now looking for ways to turn their hobby into a money making business. They are quickly learning how niche marketing can help boost their new found business into success. Finally, people are beginning to take niche marketing and online marketers, for that matter, seriously. I say it’s about time.

For the once hobbyist turned online business owner, conducting the necessary research to help define their niche market doesn’t come naturally. One of the reasons for this is because for years they were taught appealing to the masses was the way to go in order to be successful. Enter software developers and marketing companies.

It’s now easier than ever for even the most novice Internet business owner to learn the ins and outs of conducting market research in a quick and easy manner. Internet marketing software is being developed quite frequently to help with all aspects of starting and running a profitable business online, and niche market information is not left out by any means.

Areas where software can help with defining and catering to your niche market include:

Keyword Research – Some programs work by performing keyword searches for the most popular words or phrases people are searching for on the Internet. If you were to actually do this type of research manually, you would spend tons of time and probably never get your business off the ground. Keyword research software and programs do the ‘dirty work’ for you.

Protection – Another advantage of using software to help start or grow your niche marketing business is by offering protection for your website. With so many people beginning to realize the effectiveness of niche marketing now, content often gets copied off of websites or blogs. Some companies include added protection for your niche blog or website within their program.

Email Marketing Campaigns – If you plan to create an email list for your business (which I highly recommend) you’ll need a program to help automate, test, track and make this process easier. There are various programs out there including Aweber.com, WahmCart.com and more that provide various levels to suit your email marketing needs. Be sure to take your time in deciding which one is right for you.

Link Building Software – Creating links back to your website from others is extremely important in getting your business out there. However, if you’re not creating them in places your niche market will look, they aren’t going to be doing you as much good. Again, you’ll be playing to the masses when you could focus your efforts on a more specific market and reap better results.

Information Management & Organization – There are many programs out there (some of which are even free) that you can use to easily organize your website’s content. One that many marketers find very useful for many purposes is the WordPress platform. What was once just a blogging platform can now be used to create websites with multiple contributors, arrange content by type or information and more.

Finding the perfect marketing software that’s right for you creating your own niche business may take a little research because not all marketing software is equal and one program may not have all the features you desire. One Internet marketing software program may offer keyword research capabilities and nothing more. Another one may help you define your niche and offer other tools to help develop your niche. A little effort and determination is all you’ll need to find the program that suits your business needs best.

As with any type of software, make sure you’re getting what you pay for. There are a lot of hyped up marketers out there that promise and never deliver or only partially deliver. So do some legwork first and try to find software you can try before you buy or that comes with a money back guarantee.

How to Find Your Perfect Niche

In the world of niche marketing, the possibilities are endless when it comes to finding a niche that’s right for you. In this article, I’ll be sharing with you some tips to help you find a niche you’ll love. After all, if you love what you do it’s easier to stay focused and continue to promote and profit from for years to come.

Time to Dump Your Thoughts – Let’s Brainstorm!

The first step you need to take in order to find your perfect niche is to sit down and brainstorm. With a piece of paper in hand or on your computer, start writing down everything you love to do or things you’re passionate about. To get the wheels spinning, I’m going to give you some ideas that may hit home or spark an idea of your own.

  • Bowling
  • Fishing
  • Golfing
  • Cooking
  • Parenting
  • Reading
  • Scrapbooking
  • Drawing
  • Writing
  • Volleyball
  • Horseshoeing
  • Nursing
  • Make-Up

As you can probably see, the possibilities are endless. So, from this list, I’m going to teach you how to find a niche that’s right for you.

Continuing with the brainstorming, I’m going to choose make-up as my passion; this is just an example, but it will show you how to break down your passion into a niche that’s ideal for you.

Sub-Niching for Greater Results

Make-up is obviously a very large niche so instead of focusing on one big item – let’s niche down.  Here are some possible smaller niches that fall within the make-up niche:

  • Make-up for actors and actresses
  • Make-up for your eyes only
  • Halloween make-up
  • Make-up for the acne prone
  • Make-up as you age
  • Make-up for teens
  • Make-up for darker complexions
  • Make-up for red-heads

This list is only a very tiny one. There are literally thousands of sub-niches I could go into when it comes to make-up or almost any other niche.

Now out of one of those smaller niches, the next step in how to find a niche that’s perfect for you is to think about which one you love the most or which one you have the most knowledge about. Since niche marketing is an extremely focused type of marketing, you definitely need a passion for what you’re doing as well as lots of knowledge. Those things will keep you going when you find yourself unmotivated or wanting to throw in the towel. Trust me; there will come a time this happens no matter what topic you’re working with.

Once You’ve Found Your Perfect Fit

After you determine which niche is perfect for you, think about how you’ll market your niche for the most effective results.

Let’s use make-up for darker complexions as an example. Where is a good place to find people with darker complexions? Tanning booths and hair salons are just a few places that come to mind. You would then look at advertising your product on those types of websites, stores, forums, etc.

Remember, with niche marketing your target audience should be very specific and well researched in order to achieve the highest success and make the most of your time and effort.

How to Use Niche Marketing Articles to Boost Your Business

All types of article marketing take effort, time and know how. The main purpose of any marketing is to eventually lead your readers into wanting to know more about you, your business or to purchase your product or service. Because niche marketing is directed to such a defined market, you need to know how to write your articles so they are the most effective use of your resources. Here are some tips to help you do just that.

Tip 1: Determine Your Intent

You must first determine what it is you want your article to accomplish. By this I don’t mean make sales because ultimately everyone who uses article marketing wants this. Instead think of the action you want your readers to take immediately after they finish reading the article.

Here are a few examples to get your juices flowing:

  • Interaction with You – Do you want your readers to comment on the article, give you feedback, etc.?
  • Lead Readers to Your Website for More Information – Do you want your readers to visit your website to learn more?
  • Get Yourself Noticed – Do you want to develop trust with your readers?

Tip 2: Decide on a Topic

This may be the hardest part of the article writing process. You want to determine exactly what it is you need to write about. In order to come up with a topic that your target market will want to know more about, you’ll need to know your market first. Do your research. Visit some forums, message boards, social networking sites to determine what it is your potential customer or client needs from you.

Tip 3: Grab Your Reader’s Attention – QUICK!

You want your customers to find your article on the Internet. This means your articles need to be keyword searchable by the search engines. Using certain keywords throughout your article so that it’s picked up by the search engines when your potential customers type that keyword into their search engine.

Important Tip Regarding Keywords: Don’t overdo your keyword placement. It’s best to have the keywords in the title of the article as well as strewn about naturally in the body. Remember – “naturally.” If you stuff your article with unnecessary keywords over and over it can actually do more harm than good.

When people are searching for information on the web they scan articles before they ever even begin to read the details. Here is an example of how to catch their attention with your article titles. Once you do this, keeping them reading will come easier.

Your niche is indoor plant automatic watering systems. Your target market is plant owners going on vacation. The first thing your reader will see is the title of your article so make it one that will grab their attention and tell them what your article is about. Here’s an example:

“Rest Easy While You’re on Vacation and Let [Name of Product] Water your Plants.”

As you can see, using key words like “rest easy” and “water your plants” catches their eye because chances are they’ll be worried about their plants getting watered and not dying while they’re gone.

Another catchy title: “Save Money! Let [Name of Product] Water Your Plants While You’re on Vacation.”

“Saving money” is always an eye catcher and “watering your plants” peaks the interest of your potential customer.

Tip 4: Stay Focused

After you’ve captured your audience’s attention with a killer title, now comes the hard part. You have to keep their interest by providing them with quality information they can use. This is accomplished by defining a clear focus for your article and sticking with it. Here are a few things to avoid when writing an article for your market.

  • Veering off into something unrelated to the topic of your article.
  • Get too wordy.
  • Filling the article with information that’s simply being restated in a different way.

Keeping your article short enough to hold a reader’s interest but informative enough to develop trust and a want to know more is the ultimate goal of any article for article marketing purposes. State your case, show them your knowledge on the subject and invite them to know more.

Using articles to assist in your niche marketing efforts is a great way to reach your specific audience, give them information they need, develop relationships and increase your profit online. Keep the tips above in mind with each and every article you write and you’ll put yourself ahead of the curve.

Increase Your Chances of Business Success by Developing a Niche Marketing Strategy

Developing a niche marketing strategy may sound foreign to some business owners. This is probably because we tend to think the more people we can reach with our product, the higher the chances we have to sell our product or services. Now while this may sound good, it actually defeats your marketing efforts and can result in lost money.

To help you better understand how you can increase your chances of business success by developing a niche marketing strategy, let me explain the concept further. Let’s use the example of expensive skin care products.

You may think that marketing your product to every single woman is going to help sell more products. This in fact is in correct. You’ll spend many hours and lots of money marketing to an enormous group of people who don’t have the kind of money necessary to purchase your skin care products. Wouldn’t that time and money be better spent on those who CAN afford it?

When you spend less hours and time marketing to women in the corporate world or in the professional world (to give you a few examples) who have the money to spend on your skin care product, you’re chances of selling to them increase dramatically.

This is what is known as niche marketing. You find your little niche and focus your marketing efforts on that group of people. As you can see in the above example, your chances of business success increase dramatically by developing a niche marketing strategy to reach the people who want and need your product. Not to mention, if you can spend less time and make more money it’s bound to be positive, right?

The key to developing a niche marketing strategy is to find the people who have the money to buy your product, need your product and are willing to buy it. You may have to do a little research at first in order to find these people, but once you do, you’ll be able to market directly to them, increasing your chances of increased profits.

Now, you might be asking yourself “That’s great but what if my product will work for a larger audience? Why limit myself?”

You may be right. Your product may be something you can offer various groups (niches) of people. If so, that’s wonderful, but I still suggest you focus on the niche that has the highest probability of purchasing from you first. Here’s why.

Once you’ve made some money using your niche marketing strategy, then you can begin marketing to a larger group of people followed by an even larger group. After a while, you might find yourself marketing to the entire country and then the world, but now you can do it on a budget you can afford without sacrificing all of your time and money.

So, next time you think that niche marketing isn’t going to help lead you down the path to business success, think again. Just like anything else, start small and work your way up for the best results. You’ll be glad you did in the end.

Make Money with Niche Affiliate Marketing

If you are interested in niche marketing and how to turn your hobby or passion into a successful business, you need to know what niche affiliate marketing is and how it works. First, let’s talk about what affiliate marketing is and then we’ll go over what niche affiliate marketing is.

Affiliate Marketing in a Nutshell

Affiliate marketing is basically promoting products or services for another person or company. Many business owners, authors and speakers have various products they offer online. When you sign up to become an affiliate marketer for them, every time you refer a sale from your blog or website, you get a commission.

Obviously you need to do some good endorsement of the products or services you’re promoting on your site in order to generate sales. You can’t just slap some products links and banners up and expect people to click on them. This rarely works.

Niche Marketing & Affiliate Marketing Working Hand in Hand

With that in mind, let’s talk about niche affiliate marketing and how it differs from just affiliate marketing. Niche affiliate marketing is the promotion of affiliate products or services targeted to reach a specific audience. Therefore, in order to reach that audience your site and the products you promote need to all be in the same niche for the best results.

When your potential customers plug specific keyword into the search engine and come to your site, the ads and promotions you have should also be geared toward your specific niche. It won’t do any good to have fishing lures on a site that’s all about bowling. The visitors who come to your bowling site are looking for information about bowling, not fishing lures.

However, if your niche is fishing boats, an ad that promotes fishing boat accessories makes much more sense and your visitors are more likely to click on it. After they get done reading your content and determining you know your stuff (because you are positioning yourself as the expert and giving them quality and useful information, right?) they may just click on your affiliate link or graphic to go shop for items they need for their own boat.

Of course the content on your site has to be trustworthy and reliable, as well as your blog or site needs to look well made, professional and inviting for visitors to stick around long enough to see your niche affiliate marketing banners and links. If you seem unreliable or unprofessional your visitors aren’t going to trust the products you promote either.

The potential for niche affiliate marketing is great when there is thought, research and effort put into it. Remember, it’s all about finding and appealing to the perfect potential customer.

Niche Definition – Helping You Understand Niche Marketing

When it comes to the Internet there are a lot of terms frequently used and many times you may find yourself having no idea what those terms mean or how they apply to marketing online. One such word is “niche.” Some of us may know what a niche is in terms of biology or even the corporate world. You might say “She found her niche in nursing.” While this is a correct definition of niche in everyday use, it’s not quite accurate regarding the world of Internet marketing.

In the world of Internet marketing the definition of niche takes on a whole new meaning. Having a clear meaning will help you focus and market to those people who are interested in and wanting to purchase your product or service, which will increase the success of your online business.

Here is how Wikipedia defines niche as it pertains to the online world. “A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing on.”

While that may seem a bit unclear to some still, basically it tells you a niche is a smaller portion of a larger piece. In this case a market.

So, just how do you go about defining your niche so that you can focus and reach your target market? Begin with a large market and narrow it down into all possible smaller niche markets.

Take for instance work at home moms (WAHM). There is a whole huge world of moms out there that work from home, either online, in direct sales or running some other type of business. While that is a niche, that is a very large niche and you’re not going to be able to target individual work at home moms very well.

However, by breaking down the niche even further, you will begin to see the different sub-niches possible in the work at home mom arena. Some examples are:

  • WAHMs with newborns
  • WAHMs who are also homeschoolers
  • Virtual Assistants WAHMs
  • Direct Sales WAHMs
  • WAHMs who help other WAHMs be successful

The list can go on and on. There are probably thousands of different sub-niches under the work at home mom umbrella. The point is that you can increase your chances of success by focusing in on a specific area of your niche. You may have heard this called “niching down” by some marketers. In other words, you choose a broad market and niche down to find your perfect customer who is more likely to respond to your offers.

As you can see, finding the right niche for you will be determined by how well you are able to define your niche to reach the target market of people you wish to promote your products or services to. The more detailed and specific your niche, the more success you will have.

Three Steps to Help You Identify Your Niche

You want to be a niche marketer but you’re not sure which niche is right for you? Here are some steps to help you identify your niche.

1.      Brainstorm: write down all the things you have a passion for or a hobby you love.

2.      Narrow broader terms with smaller, more specified terms.

3.      Take the more specified terms and narrow them down to an even smaller possible niche.

Now obviously that’s not all there is to helping you identify your niche. You will need to think about and do some research on the various possibilities of niches to see if there is a market for your passion.

You’ll also need to check out your competitors and see if there are products you can sell related to your passion. Chances are there are, but you also need to make sure there is a large enough market to build a long standing successful business from. Trendy and passing fads come and go and if you choose a niche that falls into either of these categories, you’ll soon be out of business, so try to steer away from those topics or at least use them to supplement a more sturdy and stable business subject.

When writing out the steps to help you identify your niche, you’ll want to do some keyword researching to see if it’s a topic people are looking for on the Internet. You can do this a number of ways including buying software that does it for you or performing the search yourself. There are a couple of online tools you can use as well to help you identify your niche and conduct a keyword search. They are WordTracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) and Google’s Keyword Search Tool (http://www.google.com/sktool/).

Once you’ve identified a niche you think you can find success with, do a regular search online to see how many other people are working in this same niche. If there are millions, you may want to reconsider. If there are only a few hundred or so, you’ve probably got a great product you’re your niche market. Keep in mind, if there are little to no interest in a product, you may want to consider rethinking your idea.

Remember, large businesses don’t have time to focus on one product or a small group of targeted customers. If your niche is too small, you may not have enough interest from consumers to stay in business long. So use the steps above, identify your niche market, do some research and in before you know it you’ll have a successful business in niche marketing.

What are the Advantages of Niche Marketing?

Perhaps you’ve heard of niche marketing and may even understand what it is. But, you’re not quite sure of the advantages of niche marketing and how it can work for you. In this article, I’m going to explain a little about what niche marketing is for those who don’t quite understand it. Through the explanation I’ll be able to better show you the advantages of niche marketing.

Niche marketing is the opposite of mass marketing. Most of us know that mass marketing is marketing to the largest amount of people in all situations and lifestyles and from all backgrounds. Niche marketing is the opposite of that because your focus is on a much smaller group of people who are interested, need and who actually want your product.

Now, you’re probably asking, “Why would I want to focus on a smaller group of people when I’ve learned that the more people who see my product the better my chances of making a sale?” I understand your thinking, so in the next couple of paragraphs I’m going to help you understand why this marketing tactic works and the advantages of niche marketing over mass marketing.

Want Not Waste Not

Niche marketing works because you’re focusing all your effort reaching those people who have the money to buy your product or service, who are interested in what you have to sell and who need your products or services.

Why waste time, money and efforts on people who are not interested and most likely never will be in what you have to say and offer? Remember, it’s about working the least amount of time and making the most amount of money.

Saves Time

When you advertise to people who have no interest in what you have to offer, you’re throwing money down the drain. Not only are you wasting money, but your precious time. Remember, time is money in business. So even if you spend nothing on advertising you do spend time getting the word out. You’ll spend less time and money in your marketing efforts when you niche down.

Make More Moola

Finally, there’s the added benefit of making more sales to people who actually want what you have to offer. So, not only will you be saving money on marketing campaigns, your chances of making a sell increases dramatically.

Soon, you’ll be selling so many of your products, you’ll have to consider increasing your staff and may even want to narrow your niche down further so that you can enjoy living life instead of working so hard all the time.

What is a Niche?

What is a niche? This is a question commonly asked, especially among those new to Internet marketing. So, to put it simply, a niche in the marketing sense is a specified group of people with a common interest. For instance, you may be interested in or have a lot of knowledge about boats and boating. While that is a broad, general niche, when it comes to niche marketing it really helps to narrow the field down even further, to reach an even more specified group of people.

Think of how you could narrow down boating to reach a tighter group of people within the boating niche. There are the various types of boats, boating products such as special waxes and cleaners, boating attire and boating gear. You can narrow your niche down even further within those categories and sell one product from it.

Another good example to help answer the question, “What is a niche?” is the food industry. While the food industry is obviously huge, there are thousands, if not millions, of products you could sell to a more defined niche.

Niche marketing is marketing to a specified group of people. Some of you may be asking, “Why would I want to target such a seemingly small group of people?”

There are a few reasons actually. First, while it may seem like you’re marketing to a much smaller group of people, you’re actually not. What you’re doing is focusing on, and therefore specializing in, a specific product or service.

Being a niche marketer works well because larger businesses don’t bother focusing on one or two specific products. If you do your research before settling on a niche, you should be able to find a niche that not very many other people are reaching with a specific product. This helps set you up as the go to person without having to compete with those larger companies.

So, now that we’ve answered, “What is a niche?” let’s talk about choosing a niche that’s right for you. When niche marketing, it helps to build a business or sell something you’re passionate about. Because you’ll be focused and considered an expert, you also need to have a lot of knowledge about your specific product or service. Think about something you love to do, such as a hobby first. Then think about how you can narrow it down to a more specific group of responsive people. You may need to do some additional research to gain all the knowledge you can, but it will pay off.

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC

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Increasing Opt-In Conversions

After you have your autoresponder set up, your opt-in forms in the right locations, and some promotional strategies that work, you want to do everything you can to increase your conversions. Your goal is to get as many people as possible who visit your website to sign up for your list. It’s not uncommon at all to see a good conversion rate such as 30 to 50% on an established marketer’s squeeze page.

It’s in your best interest to tweak things as much you can until you reach that point.

Tip #76 — Offer Opt-In Incentives

You can definitely increase your conversions if you offer the right incentives for people to sign up. This might be in the form of discounts, e-books, sneak previews, or an e-course. You want to make the incentive to sign up so good that they don’t mind handing over their e-mail address at all. Many people are wary of giving people their email address, so they have to be really enticed to do so.

You also have to keep in mind that there are other marketers who are trying to get people to opt-in to their own list. Making the best offer you can will help increase your conversions and put you ahead of the others.

Tip #77 — Stand Apart From the Crowd

As was mentioned in the last step, there are many other marketers vying for people’s attention. If you want to get as many opt-ins as possible, make sure that you are standing out from the crowd.

Doing something different and creating a different offer than everyone else has will increase people’s interest and increase your conversions. If your offer is boring and just like everyone else’s, you’ll have a more difficult time enticing people to sign up.

Tip #78 — Focus on the Benefits

It can’t be said enough that if you want to increase your conversions you need to focus on the benefits of your offer. It’s not enough to tell people that your course will help them, you need to concentrate on their emotions and dig deep into what the benefits are. Too many marketers focus on the features, which are wonderful but don’t really have those emotional hot points.

The old copyrighting adage is that people don’t want to buy the drill, they want to buy the holes. You need to be selling the holes, instead of the drill. Or another way to look at it is that people don’t want to buy the rake – they just want the nice yard. ;)

Tip #79 — Tell People What to Do

Having a call to action will increase your conversion rate. You’ll want to test to find the right call to action. Simply saying “sign up for my list,” might work… but it’s probably not be the best way to phrase things to increase your sign up rate.

Instead, you should encourage people to sign up for your list because of the benefits they will receive.

Tip #80 — Make People Feel Safe

People will not sign up for your list if they don’t feel safe. There are  scam artists all over the net, and many of these people you are targeting have been burned before. Make sure you include some text that guarantees that you will not sell or rent their e-mail list, and that the information is absolutely secure.

Adding a privacy policy is also standard operating procedure and highly recommended.

Tip #81 — Use a Picture of Yourself

If you want to increase conversions make sure that people know who you are so they can trust you. A great way to do this is to include a picture of yourself. It doesn’t matter whether you’re camera shy or not, having a picture can increase the number of people who sign up. People want to know who they are giving their e-mail address to.

Make sure you look professional in your photograph so that you come across as an expert that people can trust. This is also a huge part of branding yourself, which is a great thing for long-term profits.

A smile wouldn’t hurt, either.

Tip #82 — Include audio

Have you considered adding an audio message to your squeeze page?

Adding an audio message to your squeeze page allows you to add another level of personality and trust. Not everyone who visits your page will listen to your audio, but those who enjoy audio will certainly be more inclined to sign up as a result.

You don’t have to make your audio intrusive. In fact, you can simply include a very small area where it’s obvious that audio is available if people want.

You may not want to have the audio play automatically, because some people may be startled. Others may open your website in a place where they are not able to listen to it at that point in time – like at work.

Obviously it wouldn’t help your conversion rate to have people clicking away from your site before the boss catches them!

Tip #83 — Try Including Video

Sometimes you might be able to get your message across more clearly if you include video rather than audio. You can buy an inexpensive camcorder to record yourself, use your WebCam, or create a screencapture video with free software. This type of personalized message also shows people who they are dealing with, which can definitely increase conversions!

In fact, you can kind of “kill two birds with one stone” by uploading the video to YouTube as well. That way you will get views on YouTube, and it will help increase conversions on your own website as well.

Tip #84 — Show People What They Can Expect

Depending on your niche, people may not have signed up for many lists before. If they don’t know what they can expect, you may get spam complaints or people simply will not confirm their address. After they sign up with their name and e-mail address you might want to direct them to a page that  outlines what will happen next.

You can either do a video or screenshots of the confirmation e-mail that will arrive in their inbox. Some people have reported that this has increased their confirmed opt-ins substantially!

Tip #85 — Consider Including Testimonials

One thing you might want to test is including testimonials on your squeeze page. While many marketers use testimonials on their sales pages, very few use them on the opt-in pages themselves. Remember — social proof is a very important aspect of making sales. Social proof can also show people that it is very helpful to be a member of your e-mail list. They are likely to feel more comfortable seeing someone that is “like them.”

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC

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Off-line Promotion

If you sell physical products or have a storefront, this section is definitely for you. Even if you consider your business to be strictly online, there are a few golden nuggets here that you’ll want to pay close attention to.

Off-line promotion is something that many online marketers forget about and neglect. The truth is that there are many people out there who would enjoy being on your list, and who will be very responsive to doing so. However, if you never take the time to reach them — you won’t!

Tip #71 — Include Opt-In Forms with Shipments

As you ship packages you should include a postcard or form that makes it easy for your customers to join your list. They can send this form back to you, and you can enter their e-mail address manually. Another option is to explain the advantages of being on your list and direct them to a website where they can go sign up themselves.

This is a great strategy because you know that the people who are receiving a shipment are proven customers. That means there are a lot more likely to be responsive.

Of course a better alternative would be to invest in a shopping cart that has an autoresponder built in. That way your customers can automatically be added to your email lists.

Tip #72 — Visit Tradeshows

The chances are good that there are tradeshows related to your niche in your area. If you go to these you can find people who would be interested in joining your list. People are more likely to trust a face-to-face interaction than an online one. These contacts can turn into lifetime customers for you.

In fact, this tip works well whether you have physical products or you focus your energies strictly online.

Tip #73 — Advertise in Magazines

Many people are surprised to find how inexpensive it is to advertise in  targeted magazines. You can often pay a lot less than the advertised price in the magazine. All you need to do is ask the ad team what kind of special deal they can give you.

It’s often easiest to find smaller magazines that have a very targeted audience. Write your ad copy to explain that you’re giving something away for free, or talk about a special promotion you’re having. Once again, it doesn’t matter whether you focus your energies online or off-line, this strategy can work for you.

Tip #74 — Send Postcards

This strategy is not quite as targeted as including an opt-in form on postcards with shipments, but it can still work. You can send postcards to lists of people that you have purchased, or in targeted geographic areas. These postcards should focus on the benefits of signing up for your list and visiting your website. This can be a very time-consuming and costly experience, so make sure you’re going to see a return on your investment by doing a small test first.

Tip #75 — Display Your Domain Everywhere You Can

This is a great strategy that can really help to brand yourself. You want to include your domain and logo on every package, letter, flier, etc. The more people see your domain name, the more likely they are to visit. As you know, the more people you get to visit, the more sign ups you’ll get.
Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC
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Promoting Your List

Promoting your list is one of the most important pieces of the list-profit puzzle. If no one knows about your list, no one will be able to sign up. That’s why promoting your list on your website is essential and it’s why I will keep repeating it until I’m sure that you’ve done it.

In fact, even if you get everything else on this list right but don’t have the traffic, you are never going to have the profitable list that you want.

The other steps are important, but once your list is created and ready you really need to focus on your promotional strategies to grow your list to bigger sizes!

Tip #53 — Add Your Site to Directories

One of the best ways you can make sure you generate lots of traffic and recognition is your niche is to add your site to directories. There are some directories that are niche specific, and others that are more general. The point is that the more places that contain a link to your website where your opt-in forms are, the better.

Another benefit to submitting to directories is that you’ll get more back links to your website. This will help your search engine rankings for sure!

If you’d like to outsource this, here’s an excellent service:

Directory Maximizer

Tip #54 — Use Article Marketing

Another excellent way to promote your website and get more people to your website (and therefore onto your mailing list) is to write articles and submit them to article directories.

In case the idea of article marketing is new to you, it works like this.

  1. You write an article.
  2. You publish it at an article directory and give others permission to use it.
  3. Website owners go to the article directory, grab your article &  publish it on their websites, blogs, or in their ezines.
  4. Every time they publish your article, they must include your author resource bio (similar to your advertisement) along with it.

Your article should contain valuable information, but not so much that people feel like they’ve gotten everything they can out of the topic. If you leave out some key information in end, they will be more inclined to visit your website to get that information and sign-up for your list.

Here’s the place to submit your articles, if you’re busy and only have time to submit to one directory: EzineArticles.com

If you’d also like to submit to other directories, there are a few services that will help you with this.

The one that I prefer is the credit system at Isnare.com.

Tip #55 — Encourage List Members to Send The Link to Their Friends

Usually your list members will have friends that have similar interests. So, why not encourage your readers to send the link to your opt-in form to their friends? You might give them some kind of incentive to do so, as this can dramatically increase the response.

This is another example of social proof at work. Because the recipient is getting a recommendation from their friend, you’ll be a lot more likely to get the sign up.

You can simply put some text in your messages that encourages them to pass your newsletter or opt-in address along. There are even website scripts out there, such as the “tell a friend” script that will allow them to easily enter their friend’s e-mail address on the spot.

Tip #56 — Search Engine Optimize Your Website

One of the best ways to get traffic is to search engine optimize your website. When people want to find something, they generally go to the search engines to find relevant websites. If your website is at the top of the search engines for certain keywords, you’ll be able to get a lot of targeted traffic and help your list grow in the process.

There are many different aspects to search engine optimization that you need to pay attention to. The first thing to do is research keywords that are related to your niche. It is ideal if these keywords are highly searched and have low competition in the search engine results.

Then, create content based around these keywords that will help you rank more highly in the search engines. You should also work on getting backlinks to your website, to boost your credibility in the eyes of the search engines. Backlinks are nothing more than getting OTHER websites to link to yours, preferably ones that are established, quality websites.

Tip #57 — Pay For PPC Traffic

While we all want to rank at the top of the search engines, it often takes a while.

But, there is a way that you can zoom your site to the top of the search engines in minutes. The trick is to invest money into Pay Per Click traffic. You simply bid on keywords, create a small ad, and send people to your squeeze page.

Your ad copy should be compelling, and give people a reason to visit. You might even spell out that you’re giving something away for free. Then, all people have to do is sign up for your list to get their free item. It is then up to your autoresponder messages to take over, build a relationship and help you make sales.

Of course, pay per click, like any advertising should be tested before spending too much money to ensure that you’re getting a good return.

Tip #58 — Create a Blog

Creating a blog can be another effective way to get search engine traffic.

That is because blogs contain RSS feeds that the search engines absolutely love.  If you update your blog consistently, you’ll have a lot more content that can help you rank in the search engines.

People also love to follow blogs, and will bookmark your blog as well as subscribe to your RSS feed (if they like what you have to offer!). This gives them repeated exposure to you and to your expertise. Sooner or later, they will hopefully be compelled to sign up to your list. Your blog is yet another place to put your opt-in form.

Tip #59 — Consider  Co-Registration

Co-registration is not for everyone, but in some niches it can work quite well. Basically, you find partners in your niche who will place your opt-in box on their think you page, and you will put their opt-in box on your thank you page.

This can work well since these are proven customers in the niche, but you do have to be careful. It has to be done in a way that is not tricky to anyone so that people know what they are really signing up for. You’ll gain a lot more trust if people realize that they are signing up for your list.

Tip #60 — Get JV Partners

Getting JV partners to promote your list gives you access to their list of subscribers. This strategy also helps you to come across as an expert since someone else is recommending you.

You can find JV partners on forums, by contacting them through their website, as well as a variety of other methods. It is often best to contact someone who has a product or website that complements rather than competes with yours. They’ll be a lot more likely to promote the product of a person who is not directly competing with them.

Keep in mind that you will often be asked to promote something for them in return, either now or in the future. Make sure you’re comfortable with everything they are doing before you agree to promote them back.

It becomes infinitely easier to attract JV’s once you have an affiliate program. Obviously, you’ll need your own product in order to do this, but once you do it’s easy to get JV partners. Basically what you get from this is traffic to your offers and opt-in box without doing additional work yourself.

As your affiliates drive traffic to your website, you can capture people’s addresses before and after the sale. You’ll not only make money by having the affiliates promote for you, you’ll gain long-term subscribers as well.

If you’ve already got an affiliate program but it’s not doing what it should – sign up for the free ecourse at Sales Army Secrets

Tip #61 — Exchange Newsletter “Plugs”

Another thing you can do with JV partners is agree to mention each other in your respective newsletters. This does not have to be a hard sell, rather a way to show that you recommend each other’s products.

If the people on the other person’s list know and trust that person and have a good relationship with them, they are likely to immediately trust you as well since you come so highly recommended.

Hot Tip!

If you have an affiliate program, offer a lopsided offer, which can really get people interested in a mail swap.

  • Offer to send their offer to your list.
  • Let them send your offer to their list THROUGH their affiliate link.

This accomplishes two things …

  1. It gets your foot in the door.
  2. Once the sales come in, that JV partner will likely want to continue to promote your product.

Tip #62 — Post a Link to Your Squeeze Page In Forums

Forum marketing is an excellent way to grow your list.

  1. Search for forums in your niche.
  2. Make sure the forum allows you to put a link in your signature.
  3. Join those that do.

After you join some forums, begin answering people’s questions and presenting yourself as the expert you are. People will be a lot more receptive to the things you have to say in this case. Your hope is that you become a very respected member so that you get a lot of clicks to your website and then a lot of sign-ups!

Tip #63 — Use Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is an excellent way to get traffic to your squeeze page and sign-ups to your list. There are many different social bookmarking websites out there, like Digg, Delicious, and Stumble Upon.

You’ll not only get a backlinks to your website by bookmarking, but you also get the benefit of people in your niche clicking through when they find your info.

Keep in mind that the traffic from these websites is not always super- targeted, but it is well worth it to sign up for accounts. Bookmarking doesn’t have to be a daily task. Simply bookmark your best content every once in a while. It can increase your opt-ins a variety of different ways.

Check them out:

www.StumbleUpon.com

www.Digg.com

www.Reddit.com

Tip #64 — Comment on Blogs

Commenting on blogs is a strategy that is well worth your time. You’ll want to find a few of the top blogs in your niche and leave regular comments on them. You will get a backlink to your website, but just as importantly, you’ll get visitors when people click on your website link.

This is great because it can help you get the attention of an authority that is already in the niche (the blog owner), and you may gain some of their traffic, which is highly targeted.

Tip #65 — Use Yahoo Answers

Yahoo Answers is yet another way that you can get traffic to your website. People ask questions on this site on a variety of different topics – and you can provide answers. Yahoo Answers also tends to rank highly in search engines like Google, and people who need answers can search all the old topics as well as start new ones!

This is great for you when you leave an expert answer with a link to your website. Keep in mind that Yahoo Answers strives to keep the spam away, so make sure that the page you have linked to is actually helpful and relevant.

Tip #66 — Use Linkbait

Link bait works best if you have a blog and are in a niche that has a lot of other bloggers. Linkbait is simply a way of talking about something controversial or having a controversial opinion. When other bloggers and webmasters notice your post  they may link to you because they want to share their opinion as well. You’ll likely get a lot of comments from readers agreeing and disagreeing with you.

Keep in mind that not everyone is going to like what you have to say, and you might get some flak. As long as you can back up what you’re saying, you’ll probably gain respect from both those who agree and those who disagree. At the same time, you may see an increase in your sign-ups!

Tip #67 — Write a Press Release

Press releases are a time-honored strategy of announcing new information to generate interest.

There’s nothing new about press releases and the internet. Here’s how it works.

  1. Do something eventful or plan something interesting.
  2. Write a press release about it.
  3. Submit your release to the press release sites like PRWeb.com, including a link to your website.

There are some free and inexpensive press release distribution websites. Just search Google.com and you’ll find them.

What you might want to do is announce the opening of your blog or website, or your new product, or anything else that people would find interesting.

Have your press release link to your website where your opt-in list is featured. Remember, you’ll get more opt-ins if you have some sort of incentive there — especially during the period where your press release is active. If you make your press release interesting enough it might get picked up by news channels.

Tip #68 — Send Articles to E-zine Publishers

There are many electronic magazines out there that have a very large subscriber base. Better yet, they are often looking for authors. You can use this to your advantage and send an article (after inquiring, of course). After your article is accepted, you will be able to include a link back to your website or squeeze page. If people find your article interesting and compelling, they are likely visit to sign up for your list!

Remember, you don’t have to stick to just one e-zine. The more you submit to over a period of time, the more likely you are to be seen by as many people in your niche as possible. Getting your name out there and branding yourself is half the battle.

If you’re looking for ezines that accept articles, you might check out the www.directoryofezines.com

Tip #69 — Submit Videos

Yet another great way to get traffic to your opt-in page and your website is to submit videos to sites like YouTube. There are many people who browse for videos on a variety of different topics. The description area of your video can contain a link back to your website. If your video is compelling enough, people will likely click over to visit.

One thing that many people forget to do is put a call to action at the end of the video. This is a great way to increase responses to get people to visit your website. You can even make it clear that there is something available for free if they do visit.

Tip #70 — Write Guest Posts

Writing guest posts on other people’s blogs or websites that are already established will showcase your own credibility. Browse around on Google for the top authority websites in your niche, and present an offer to the website owner to write an article for them.

Many blog owners would love the chance to take a break, and many readers enjoy reading guest posts. Make sure you provide high quality content, and you’ll get a lot more visitors to your own website with the link you’ll be allowed to put there. This will increase your exposure with people who are regular readers of the other website — your hope is that they want to bookmark your website as well and join your list.

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC
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Squeeze Page Basics

In addition to adding an opt-in box on most of the pages of your website, you will also want to create a squeeze page. A squeeze page is simply a dedicated page to gather up leads to your list.

You’ve seen them before, I’m sure, but if you’d like to see one in action, go to List Profit System and you’ll see a squeeze page.

Tip #49 — Understand Your Purpose

Many marketers get this wrong. They think that they can add tons of offers, Adsense, and other things to their squeeze pages. This is very damaging to your goal, which is getting people to sign up for your list.

People should be asked to do one thing and one thing only when they visit your squeeze page. Put some compelling copy, along with an opt-in box that clearly spells out what they’ll get and how to sign up — and that’s it.

Tip #50 — Examine Other Squeeze Pages in Your Niche

One of the best ways to make sure you got a good handle on what a squeeze page should look like is to visit other marketer’s squeeze pages. You can see what kind of headlines they used, what their copy looks like, and whether they used opt-in box graphics. That way you can just put a spin on things that are already working.

You can also take note of what you think is harming their conversions and improve things for your own squeeze page.

Here are a few to look at:

www.PLRSO.com

www.BrandableStuff.com

Tip #51 — Create Compelling Squeeze Page Copy

While you might create long sales letters for your products, shorter copy is ok for your squeeze page. (Half a page to one page of text.) Make sure that you have a compelling headline that grabs  attention, as well as bullet points that point out the benefits of joining your list.

Make your opt-in box visible above the fold. You might even consider putting the box both above the fold and below the fold to make sure people can easily sign up.

They are some niches that do well with graphics and other added features on the squeeze page. There are others that do better with very simple, no-frills design. The best thing for you to do is to split test different designs to see which increases your opt-in rates.

You may be surprised at how much a simple change (like a change in color) can increase or decrease opt-ins. While testing might be time consuming, you’ll get results that will add money to your pocket.

Tip #52 — Offer an Incentive

While you might think that you’ve made the benefits of signing up to your list very clear, you’ll find that you can increase conversions if you offer some kind of incentive to sign up. This might be in the form of a sneak preview of a premium product, a free white paper, e-books, or an e-course.

The important thing is that you make an offer they can’t refuse — something free in exchange for a simple e-mail address.

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC

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Where To Put Your Opt-In form

Now that you have the actual writing elements down, and all the technical aspects are set up, it’s important to know exactly where you should put your opt-in form. This is how people will sign up to your list, so it needs to be compelling and easy to find.

Tip #43 — Make The Signup Form Clearly Visible

Many people who are new to list building put their opt-in form on just one tiny area their webpage and wonder why no one is signing up. If your opt-in form is not clearly visible and without priority placement, you’re going to get very few sign-ups.

It is a much better idea to make it very visible and “above the fold.” That means that as soon as someone lands on your webpage they should be able to see your opt-in form without having to scroll down at all.

You should also make sure that your form is large enough to read and and uses contrasting colors from the rest of your site so that people’s eyes are drawn to it. Experiment with different priority placements to determine whether the form should be on the left side, right side, or front and center.

Tip #44 — Consider Using A Pop-Up or Pop-In

There are a lot of differing opinions on using pop-ups or pop-ins with opt-in forms. If you have a pop-up on your webpage, a box will come onto the screen with your opt-in form when someone visits. Some of these even darken the rest of the webpage that the only thing people can really see is the opt-in form.

Keep in mind that some potential customers will find this annoying and will simply leave your page. Still, many marketers have found that it greatly increased their opt-in rates. This is something you will have to test.

Tip #45 — Put An Opt-In Box On Every Page Of Your Site

Many people also make the mistake of only including an opt-in box on one or two pages of their website. If list building is a large part of your business plan (and after reading this, it had better be), you need to make sure your optin form is on every single page of your site.

If someone lands on a page of your website that does not contain an opt-in form, you’ve lost a potential lifetime customer.

By placing an opt-in box on every page of your site you know that everyone that lands there will have a chance to sign up. Making this simple change can dramatically increase your signups!

Tip #46 — Put An Opt-In Box on Your Thank You Pages

If you have an information product for sale, the chances are good that some people will buy your product even if they have not already signed up to your list.

Since you don’t want to lose contact with these customers, you should make sure there is an opt-in box on your thank you (or product download) pages.

Some people force their customers to opt-in before they get their product. This is not recommended most of the time as it can really irritate people who have bought your product and just want access to it. What you might do instead is include an extra bonus for signing up – make it an offer they cannot refuse.

Tip #47 — Offer Free Products and Put an Opt-In Box on Those Pages

One method is to offer free products that people can download in exchange for opting in. Place your opt-in form on the download page itself, or even as a requirement before they get their free product.

People absolutely love to get free items that are high quality. This will start your list out right as people will be interested in what you have to say since you gave them such great value for free.

Tip #48 — Participate in Giveaways

There are many niches where marketers hold giveaway events. This is pretty much a one-stop shop where people in your niche can grab free offers that they are interested in. People will sign up for your list in return for getting your free product.

Putting your opt-in box on one of these giveaway websites is another way to get increased exposure to those who might not have otherwise seen what you have to offer.

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC

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Advanced Copywriting Techniques

Now that you thought about the basics of creating autoresponder messages, building relationships, and making money, it’s time to consider advanced copywriting techniques. While you’re not writing full-length sales letters, a lot of the techniques still apply.

Applying these time-proven methods can increase your profits substantially. These are very powerful, so make sure you always use these techniques ethically and responsible.

Tip #36 — Create Scarcity

One of the ways to make money as quickly as possible is to create scarcity when you present an offer. People have very busy lives and will put off making a purchase until later — often forgetting in the process. If you create a sense of scarcity, they will be a lot more likely to make a purchase immediately rather than waiting.

There are many different ways do this.

Only allow a certain number of a product to be sold.

If you’re an affiliate, you can limit the number of bonuses that you are presenting with that offer.

Offer a product at a very low price to begin with, with the price rising at a point in the near future.

People don’t like to feel like they are missing out, so scarcity tactics work very well. Be sure you are always truthful about this scarcity, though. If you aren’t, it can make you look dishonest.

Tip #37 — Give a Reason

Studies show that responses increase if you give a reason for taking a certain action. It doesn’t matter whether the reason for buying is a good one or not, as long as you give a reason for people to do so.

Psychology expert Cialdini notes a study where there was a line at an office where everyone was waiting for the copy machine. The researcher asked to cut ahead. The response was not very good.

However, when the researcher asked to cut ahead “because I have to make a copy” response increased substantially, simply because a reason was given.

The same thing can be applied to your copywriting. If you give a reason for people to make their purchase now, they will be a lot more likely to do so.

Tip #38 — Use Reciprocity

If you do something nice for people, it is natural for them to want to do something nice back to you. This is one of the reasons why creating a relationship with your list can be very lucrative for you in the long run.

If you give someone a gift, they feel a sense of obligation to help you out too. In this case, it might be buying a product.

Tip #39 — Offer Social Proof

Social proof is another amazing way to boost your sales. Nobody really likes to make the first move, in case we make the wrong one. The same can be said when people are buying an offer. They don’t want to take the risk of it being a bad buying decision.

If they see that other people have already purchased and have enjoyed the product, they will be a lot more likely to buy it themselves.

Some ways to incorporate social proof are…

  • Include actual numbers when talking about results.
  • Include case studies or before and after videos or pictures.
  • Include some testimonials and even a picture of people who have used the product you are promoting.

You don’t have to do this within the e-mail copy itself, but you want to do it in the copy that you link to. You can even give some sales figures if you think that will boost their confidence.

Tip #40 — Focus On Their Emotions

Many people make their purchases based on their emotions. If you feel very strongly about something, the chances are that you’ll make a purchase, right? That is why niches based on hobbies, desperate situations, and passions are so easy to make money in.

Step into your customer’s shoes to see what their emotions are, and how you can showcase your product so they feel that it will take care of their needs or fulfill their desires.

Hitting those emotional hot buttons is often what makes people purchase quickly. If you can incorporate some honest and real emotions into your emails, you’ll stand apart from the competition.

Tip #41 — Use Contrasting Prices

People are very cost-conscious. If you are able to show a contrast in price between your product and another you can often make yours seem far more appealing.

For example, if you are  selling a strategy used to eliminate stress from your life, you can compare the cost of your information product to going to a doctor to get expensive medicines.

You often put things in a different (better) light when you present them in this way.

Tip #42 — Give People a Reason To Trust You

On of the most important things you can do is make sure people know that they can trust you — and give them a reason why they should trust you. People are very skeptical so be sure to clearly spell out why they should listen to you by telling a compelling and true story.

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC
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How to Make Money With Your List

Your ultimate goal is to help people, but you also want to increase your bottom line. Learning how to make money with your list is essential — it’s also important that you don’t make mistakes that could cut into your profits.

Tip #31 — Promote Affiliate Products

One way to make money with your list is to promote affiliate products. The chances are good that no matter which niche you’re in, you can find relevant products that people will respond to. These might be information products, physical products, or even services. The important thing is that you check the product yourself for quality to make sure it’s something that you will feel good about putting your stamp of approval on.

Many list owners make the mistake of simply choosing offers based upon their commission without checking to make sure it’s something that their readers can actually use. By hand-selecting what you promote, you’ll gain the trust of your list members and they will be more likely to buy from you in the future.

In doubt? Don’t promote.

Want to learn more about affiliate marketing?

The course I recommend Affiliatenaire

Tip #32 — Promote Your Own Products

What many list owners end up doing is creating their own products (if they don’t have them already).

This gives you ultimate control over what you’re offering to your list, as you are the one who decides what goes into the product. This is amazing, because after a while you will have gotten a feel for what the members of your list really need. This allows you to zero in on their wishes and hand-deliver them a product you know they’ll be happy to pay for.

It can also be more beneficial to promote your own products, since you don’t have to split the commission as an affiliate. This can be more lucrative in the end. Having your own product can also brand you as an expert. As soon as people see your name on a book or other product, they know that you are a serious person in your field.

If you don’t have your own product yet, I recommend you check out the free information at Small Reports Fortune

Tip  #33 — Presell The Product

No matter whether you’re promoting an affiliate product or you’re providing your own, you need to make sure you presell the product.

Preselling means to warm up your reader BEFORE he/she is sent to the sales page.

That means using good copywriting skills right within your e-mail that will show people that the product that you’re recommending is one that they actually need. Empathize with the reader, and show that this is a product that can do exactly what they need it to do.

That doesn’t mean you’re going to hype the product at all or lie. You can certainly make a lot of sales without making false claims about anything. It will be easier than you think to presell to your customers if you are promoting a product that you truly believe in.

Tip #34 — Create Special Offers

Creating special incentives and offers can help you to make sales. Your list members will be thrilled to get discounts just by being a member of your list. This strategy also makes being a member of your list special and exclusive – something they can’t get from the competition.

Here are some ideas…

Negotiate a special discount with a product owner if you’re an affiliate. Ask the owner for a percentage off, a free trial, or even an added bonus – just for your readers.

Create and offer an added bonus yourself. Provide it only to those readers who buy a product through your affiliate link. For instance, an extra report, audio, or maybe even your notes that you took when YOU went through the same course.

Drop your price just for your list members on a product that you own.

Offer Resale Rights or PLR rights to your own product – only to your list.

Bundle up other people’s Resale Rights products into a package and offer it at a steal.

Offer personal coaching only to your list members. (Want to know how? http://www.easycoachpro.com/yourowncoaching/ )

No matter what you decide to do, keep in mind that you need to treat your list members like gold, which means giving them offers that nobody else has access to.

If you make these offers truly special, you’ll get customers for life!

Tip #35 — Don’t Be Afraid To Change Out Products Over Time

It can be very tempting to just leave everything as it is after you’re done setting up different products to promote in your autoresponder series. The truth is that some offers may not convert as well as you thought they would. You need to check your stats and periodically clean things out. Test different offers to make sure the needs of your list members are being met — and that you’re earning as much money as possible.

That may mean trying different affiliate offers or taking note of your list member’s feedback and creating products based around that. Even though your autoresponder series can be “set and forget,” that’s not always the best case scenario.

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC

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Additional Goodies for Making Twitter Use Easier

There is no shortage of programs and applications used to make Twitter readily accessible and easier to use. Many of these can save you time and add convenience so you can make the most out of your Twitter time.

Some of the most helpful Twitter tools include desktop clients for accessing Twitter without needing to spend your time on the actual Twitter website. The two most popular desktop clients for Twitter are TweetDeck and Twhirl.

Desktop Applications

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is an Adobe Air application that can be used on either a Mac or PC. It helps you break down the vast amount of information on Twitter into manageable sized groups, which helps you stay abreast of your conversations. You can split your TweetDeck screen into columns, helping you to sort things out. For example, one column is for your regular tweet stream, much like your Twitter home page. However, you can also set up separate columns for your @replies, your direct messages, designated groups of people or results of a keyword search.

When you separate things into these various columns, you remove a lot of the “noise” from Twitter and can see the information most important to you. This is especially helpful so you don’t miss any replies sent to you by other users, as well as showing you direct messages instantaneously. One big frustration with the Twitter webpage is you have no way of knowing someone has sent you a direct message, without continually checking that page. The same applies to your @replies (messages sent to you, but in the public stream.)

When you use Twitter from the website, you need to keep your focus on the page so you can see what’s happening. There’s nothing wrong with that if all you are doing is tweeting, but many people prefer to multi-task and tweet throughout their day.

TweetDeck lets you continue working on the web, or any other program you may be using and alerts you when you receive messages, with a little chirp and a small pop-up window. Then, with just a glance, you can see if the tweet is a direct message, a personal @reply or a response to a keyword search or simply a general tweet from another user.

Using TweetDeck for its search feature is a great way to keep an eye on your company name, a keyword for your industry or any other topic you want to keep in your sights. For example, if you are selling golf shoes, you can set the search feature for that term and whenever someone tweets about golf shoes, it will show up in your search column.

TweetDeck also helps you respond quickly and easily to other people in a few different ways. When you hover your mouse over a person’s avatar, you are given four options: reply, DM, ReTweet or the other actions option. The others actions button offers you a range of choices from following to translating the tweet into another language, among others.

Twhirl

Another popular desktop client for Twitter is Twhirl. Twhirl is much smaller than TweetDeck and doesn’t have as many features, but it does give you a small compact application to tweet and follow your tweet stream. Twhirl will also let you know when you have new messages. It also has a search feature. It also allows you to keep track of some other social networking sites such as Friendfeed, laconi, ca and Seemic. Twhirl will cross post to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn as well.

Both TweetDeck and Twhirl have built in link-shorteners, which shrink a link to help accommodate your 140-character limit on Twitter. These are only two of the various desktop clients you can use for Twitter.

Other Handy Twitter Apps You Might Find Useful

Many other applications serve to make your Twitter experience more convenient. Several of them allow you to schedule tweets to be posted at a later date and time. There is some controversy over whether these are a good idea or not. Many people feel they sorely neglect the social aspect of Twitter, which is the main point of the site. Other people, however, like the flexibility of being able to schedule tweets for times they are unavailable to do so manually.

Tweet Later

This is a popular service for scheduling tweets. Tweet Later lets you set up a tweet or a series of tweets and schedule them for broadcast later. Tweet Later will also let you automatically follow anyone who follows you and you can even automatically send a welcome message to your new followers.

Social Too

This application gives you the option of automatically following anyone who follows you. It will also send you a daily email with the names of everyone who follows you or un-follows you each day.

Some people like to know who unfollows them, as they believe it will help determine if they are tweeting unpopular posts. However, the general consensus is to not worry so much about those who un-follow you. There are plenty of fish in the Twitter Sea and if someone decides to stop following you, it doesn’t necessarily have any great impact on you or your business.

Twitter Grader – There are also some services to help you connect with appropriate people to follow. One of the most popular one of these is Twitter Grader. Twitter Grader calculates the power of your Twitter network based on who you follow, who follows you and how often you tweet. The more popular your followers the higher your Twitter Grade. Twitter Grader also gives you suggestions for people to follow based on your profile and the most commonly used words in your tweets.

Twitter Buttons – This is a site where you can pick up cute buttons to paste on your website, blog, newsletter and more that encourage people to follow you on Twitter. They’re free and updated frequently.

URL Shortening Applications

One type of service many people like to have available on their tool bar is an URL shortening service. Because Twitter limits you to only 140 characters per tweet, posting a link to your website can be troublesome. There are several services that let you type in the URL of any site and will then shorten it into a clickable URL that uses fewer characters.

Here are just a few:

www.budurl.com

www.tinyurl.com

www.snipurl.com

You will find many more applications and services available to help you get more out of your Twitter use. There are new ones being developed everyday. If you aren’t sure how they work or which ones are the best, simply ask around right on Twitter itself. You’ll find plenty of people more than happy to offer their opinions. In fact, one of the things you will notice on Twitter is plenty of people are more than happy to share all kinds of things.

Conclusion

The atmosphere on Twitter is a bit like a party filled with generous, helpful go-getters who truly enjoy interacting with people and doing all they can to help each other out. THAT could just be the secret power of Twitter right there – real people letting down their guard just a bit and truly enjoying helping each other create successful businesses. There is a genuine cooperative spirit on Twitter that is making it one of the most popular spots to be on the Internet.

What are you waiting for? Start tweeting and join in the revolution. Watch your business soar to levels you couldn’t have even imagined.

Twitter Resources & Additional Tools to Make Marketing with Twitter a Breeze

Custom Background Designs for Your Profile Page

Twitter Webs

Twit Design

Easy WAHM Websites

Twitter Desktop Clients:

TweetDeck

Twhirl

More Bling for Your Twitter Account:

Twit This – Let people tweet links to your website pages or blog posts automatically with this. You can copy the Twit This code to almost any website and there’s a plugin for WordPress that will add it to each and every post you publish!

Twit Pic – Share your photos with your tweeps!

Twitter Grader – How cool is your Twitter account? Want to find more people in your target market to follow? Here you go!

Tweet My Blog – Want to post a tweet every time you update your blog with a new post? This tool does it automatically if you have a WordPress blog. You can even promote it as an affiliate!

Additional Twitter Applications – From using Twitter on your iPhone to posting badges that pull your tweets over to your blog or website, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for to make Twitter an even better resource in your business.

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC

Link Shortening Tools:

www.budurl.com

www.tinyurl.com

www.snipurl.com

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How to Find People to Follow & Get Followers Too!

Building a network on Twitter starts by finding people to follow. While you want to build a list of followers that is comprised of people in your target audience, you should also include a variety of other people as well.

Twitter is an amazing place to connect with people for new ideas, joint ventures and partnerships you may not find in your other business activities. By following people in your own industry, you can find inspiring ideas, opportunities to help others and the camaraderie of connecting with people who understand the ins and outs of what you do. Every field has specific highlights and lowlights that only others in that same field can relate to and understand. When you get to know people who struggle with the same issues you have, you have the opportunity to encourage each other and offer suggestions for working through the tough stuff. Many people in business online work in a solo enterprise, which can become extremely isolating and stifling. Twitter can be an excellent remedy for this affliction – which can lead to greater productivity and success.

There are several ways you can find people to follow on Twitter. Starting from your home page, you can look to your right and find the link that says “Everyone”. This is called the public timeline and it will show you tweets from absolutely everyone on Twitter. Read through these until you find one that interests you. Then simply click on the username or profile picture to go to that person’s home page. Read through some of their tweets, go to their website, and read their bio – whatever you need to do to get a sense of who they are. If you like what you see, click the follow link under their picture and voila, you are following someone!

Another way to find followers is to use the “Find People” link. This is at the top of your homepage, in the navigational links. There are four different options in the Find People section.

  • Find on Twitter: Here you can search for people by their username or their real name. This is great for searching out specific Twitter users.
  • Find on Other Networks: This feature lets you import names from your Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or MSN accounts. You do need to enter your email password, but it isn’t stored and you won’t be spammed by Twitter.
  • Invite by Email: You can enter email addresses here and send them a pre-written message inviting them to Twitter.
  • Suggested Users: This little feature will offer you some possible users to follow. Many of these names are celebrities on Twitter – it may not do a whole lot for your business networking goals, but then again, you never know. You might just enjoy what they have to say!

On the bottom of your home page is the “Search” function. You can use Twitter Search to look for a username, a topic or a keyword. Type in your search word and you will instantly get a page of results containing that word. This is a great way to find followers in your niche. Again, when you see a tweet that resonates with you, go to that person’s homepage and look around a bit. If you like what you see, add them to your following list.

Once you are following a few people, you can check out their followers! Go to their home page and check out their followers. On the right side of their page, you see a link that says Following, with a block of photos underneath it. Click on the link or on a photo to go to the profile page of that Twitter user.

Finally, you can get followers by adding those who follow you. As you start tweeting and interacting with people, you will start gaining followers of your own. Many people follow everyone who follows them. Other people are more selective and only choose to follow back those who are in their niche. The choice is yours, but don’t limit yourself too much. You may miss out on some great new friends, colleagues and customers.

Mistakes to Avoid on Twitter

There is no “right way” to use Twitter. Some people use it as a purely social platform, others use it as a teaching tool and still others use it for both of these reasons – and more. There are, however, a couple of important things to avoid doing on Twitter.

  • The biggest mistake to avoid on Twitter is using it solely as a sales platform. If the only tweeting you do is self-promotional, you’ll burn your bridges before you have a chance to even build them properly. You need to focus on the networking aspect of Twitter before you try to sell. Spend plenty of your tweet time reaching out to others, sharing useful information and being a social butterfly. If you focus strictly on self-promotion, you will be ignored or worse yet, blocked by other users.
  • The other mistake to avoid on Twitter is spending all of your tweets on literally interpreting the “What Are You Doing?” question Twitter asks at the top of your home page. While you can certainly include information about your daily life, don’t focus solely on your mundane activities. No one cares if you are brushing your teeth or doing laundry all day long. The primary tactic on Twitter is to be engaged with other people. Ask questions, offer helpful links to things you are reading that might be of interest to your followers and seek out ways you can be useful to other users. Always remember Twitter is a networking tool – not a sales engine.
  • Some applications that work in conjunction with Twitter allow you to set up an automatic direct message to be sent to people who begin following you. Although many people use these auto – DM features, a large number of Twitter users frown on them. Several Twitter polls have shown that a large majority of users do not like automated messages.
  • If you do send direct messages in response to new followers, sending a link to your website – especially if you are trying to sell something – is a huge No-No! Most folks on Twitter would like to get to know you first before you start trying to sell your products and services.

Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC

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