My Blog

Posted on 25th February, 2012 | No Comment

Visitors to your site are critical – getting them there automatically is even better.  So here’s how…

But, first…

Keyword research is really the first step in getting traffic to your website. Why? Because you have to target these keywords if you are to have any hope of actually generating traffic for them. This means it’s critical to select your keywords properly.

Here are the important considerations for your research:

• Are the keywords you’re interested in attainable? Take a look at the “strength” of others websites (and how many) are already targeting these keywords.
• Are these “buying” keywords? Some keywords will bring lots of traffic, but none of them will buy. What you want is buyers!
• Another thing to think about is affiliates. If you want to build a huge business, you’re going to need affiliates to help you. This means that some of your traffic focus should be on getting affiliates to your site.

This is critical to your business, but it takes a lot of time and effort. Hiring someone else to do it costs a lot of money. The upside is that these two factors keep most everyone from even doing their keyword research. If you’re smart you will use website traffic software  to help you with this process. This way you get this critical step done fast and done well.

OK, now we can talk about traffic…

Once you’ve done your properly keyword research, you’re now ready to start targeting these keywords to draw in visitors.

Here’s a very interesting video that you should
watch if you are interested in getting free traffic
from Google:

The video explains some important basics about
getting traffic from Google and it comes with a
downloadable PDF guide (completely free) as well.

SECockpit video < click

I recommend you check this out, as the PDF
describes a method for optimizing your sites for
both the search engine bots AND your human visitos.
This can make a very big difference, especially
since Google is increasingly looking for “human
factors” when ranking websites (watch the video
and you’ll see what I mean):

SECockpit video

It’s not often that you’ll see this kind of
quality info shared, so take advantage of it while it lasts!

Powerful Traffic Tactics:

• Most people overlook the power of Surveys!
• “Help” Websites
• Video Sharing Sites

Surveys

People love filling in surveys. And if you make it interesting, other people will post your survey on their website. It’s a win-win. They get a great perk on their site and you get a link back to yours. This allows you to get free website traffic  from other people’s sites! This is a sneaky little idea that most people never even think of. Just make the question interesting enough that people will want to share it with their own visitors.

I like to use  Survey Monkey. I recommend it!

“Help” Websites

These sites, like answers.yahoo.com are filled with people asking and answering questions for each other. But, like the surveys, that’s not why you’re going to pay attention to these sites. You are going to generate traffic, leads and sales from them. Of course, the process of digging through these sites and pulling out the content info of leads for your business is very time consuming. But a much smarter method is to use  website traffic software  to do it for you. These tools put the whole thing on auto-pilot and just deliver the leads to you each day.

Video Websites

Video is huge and sites like YouTube and Vimeo are extremely popular. In fact, YouTube has over 2 billion videos watched per day! If you’re not taking advantage of this rich source of website traffic  then you are really missing out.

And don’t worry if you don’t have any idea of how to make a video. One super easy thing to do is take an article or website you’ve written. Then just do a screen capture of yourself going through it. And like anything else, there is software available that will turn articles into videos for you automatically. Or use Animoto. Very easy to use. 

An example from one of my other niches.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Summary

Figuring out how to get some visitors to your site is not hard at all. It just takes a little time and some ingenuity. Plus, there’s lots of great software out there to help you.

So, start right now and:

• Keyword research first is key -  get Seocockpit

• Set up some viral surveys
• Survey Monkey
• Build your traffic traps
• Website Squeeze Pages
• And don’t forget about video 
• Animoto

Posted on 25th November, 2010 | 3 Comments

If you want to make money blogging,  you must be passionate about what your doing. 

Don’t think for a second that it’s misplaced sentimentality either! Why would your feelings make a difference? If the numbers look good, you have a moneymaking  niche on your hands, right?

Not quite!

Again and again we’ve noticed that marketers who really care about their niches make more money than those who don’t. There are some strong justifications for choosing a niche you love. Let’s examine a handful of them.

Initially, those who love a niche are more likely to create quality content for their blogs. If you know and care about a topic, you’re less likely to produce factually inaccurate material. You’re also more likely to supply content that connects with the audience. When you’re passionate, you’re simply a better all-around blogger and you’ll be better able to make money online.

Second, you’re much less likely to abandon a project if you care about the subject area. Motivation is a big part of successful blogging and those who work with their passions tend to find that motivation at a level others don’t. Blogging isn’t a one-off way to make money. Success relies on updates and ongoing attention. The failure to choose a niche that excites you can lead to project abandonment.

Third, making money in a niche you love opens doors to other opportunities. If you’re working with your passions, you’re more likely to find ways to expand your operation in profitable directions. If you’re not really interested in widgets, you’re not going to discover some great ways to maximize the value of your widget blog. You won’t find hot-button issues around which to center your content. You’ll miss opportunities. If you’re actually passionate about your niche, you’ll naturally discover new ideas and ways to improve your blogging business.

Finally, it’s fun. It’s just more enjoyable to work with your passions. We all want to learn how to make money online. That doesn’t mean we always need to think purely in terms of money, though. Why shouldn’t we strive to make money and to have fun at the same time?

Remember to consider your feelings when you choose niches for blogging projects. Go beyond simply getting rid of options that are patently unappealing. Actively search out ideas that match your personal passions. Keeping your passions in mind is one of the best things you can do for your business. One of my passions is Weddings and I have several blogs in that niche. It’s a great subject with great interest.

Posted on 20th October, 2010 | No Comment

The Next Step

You can make a living online with your own product. If you create a rock-solid product and do all of the right things in terms of promotion, you will generate sales. If you find a sweet spot in the market, your product can become relatively successful.

However, you can’t hope to experience optimal sales numbers if you’re working alone. The most successful internet marketers realize that it’s easier to achieve success if you’re traveling with joint venture partners. There’s strength in numbers.

Can you imagine the sales you’d make if big name marketers actively promoted your product? Can you imagine what would happen if you had some of these well-known forces backing your product? What if you could multiply that impact by teaming up with a group of top marketers?

The World of Joint Ventures

Every product creator needs an affiliate program. When other people are pushing your product, the sales figures naturally inflate. However, a standard affiliate program isn’t going to take you to the next level. You want more than a handful of marketers pitching your product as a part of their overall business plan. You want major players to line up with you to transform your product into a best-seller.

That’s what joint ventures are all about. If you can persuade talented marketers to promote your product in a concerted and serious manner, the sky really is the limit. That’s why forging successful joint ventures is the most important step anyone with an interest in moving up into the ranks of the top marketers can take.

Unfortunately, making those connections and setting up those joint ventures isn’t always easy. If you’re a relative unknown, it can be hard to get the attention of the major players. The top marketers are constantly on the receiving end of JV requests. If you don’t have a plan that stands out–and that really makes sense to those folks–you’re not going to get anywhere.

Click
Here To Get FREE Private Access to
This  $197 Value, Life Changing Product!

Many marketers make the mistake of approaching joint venture partners as if advertising their existing affiliate program is enough. That’s a doomed strategy. You’ll never put a great joint venture together unless you work harder. You need to approach the process the right way.

Making Joint Ventures Work for You

Building joint ventures the smart way requires a few things. First, you should have a strong understanding of the different ways to structure a joint venture. Second, you need to know how to assemble a JV proposal that offers benefits to both parties. Third, you must figure out how to make connections with the people you need as JV partners. Fourth, you should know the tricks of the JV trade–the various ways to transform a ho-hum offering into something thrilling. Fifth, you must have an iron grip on the details of JV organization and implementation.

If you don’t hit all five of those nails on the head, you won’t experience JV success.

In other words, you need to go to JV school if you’re serious about making the most money possible from your product.

You could try to learn the ropes on your own, of course. If you do, prepare to experience a number of failures before you taste success. You can ruin an otherwise great JV plan with a single misstep.

That’s why those who understand strength in numbers will want to learn from someone who knows the world of joint ventures inside and out. This is one area of internet marketing that really calls for assistance and instruction. This is an area of IM that truly justifies an investment in quality training. You should commit yourself to learning about joint ventures from someone who knows his or her stuff. Once you’ve learned the ins and outs of JVs and have a joint venture template at your disposal, you can start experiencing serious profits from your products.

Posted on 7th October, 2010 | 1 Comment

Trying to Succeed

How much are you spending on learning the tricks of a Internet marketing business? Spending money desperately in hopes of finding the perfect  internet business platform is not a good idea. Have you made a habit of buying everything you can, hoping to find that one missing piece of your  online profit puzzle? I’ve been there too, I know your pain.

Making investment after investment in  the Internet Marketing information niche,  you’re not alone. Many people are on the buy-buy-buy-and-buy-some-more treadmill… which would be ok but  there is a problem with running on the BUY NOW treadmill if you’re not making any money at it.

It’s entirely reasonable to invest in new strategies and tools to fine-tune your profitable IM enterprises. There’s nothing crazy about acquiring new information and products in order to stay abreast of changes in the business.  

Buying new tools to stay ahead of the games is very different from desperately making purchases in hopes of finding a base-level  of success.

You want to spend your money the smart way. You don’t want to spend yourself into bankruptcy before you build a real  online business.

The Right Kind of Purchases

How can you avoid dumping too much cash into things you don’t really need?  “I admit to spending over $1000 on a launch your business product with out a product.” You need to build a solid foundation for your business. If you look at the core of Internet marketing, it’s really rather simple.

• You need a product to sell.
• You need to have a strategy to sell that product.
• You need to secure website  traffic  to generate sales.

That’s it. Everything you do needs to strengthen one or more of those three simple core needs. So you have a product to sell? How are you going to sell your product? And Do you have a website?  Yes I have three products now, I have many ideas  to sell JVs etc and Yes I have several website/blogs.

So, You must work to create a strong presence on all three of those issues. Anything you buy as you’re building your business needs to address the construction of that 3 levels of  foundation.

You must have a foundation that let’s you make money from home
 before you invest in extras, details, tricks or adjustments. You can start experiencing real IM success after that foundation is in place. Then you can start experimenting with new ideas and products.

How to Build Your Foundation

Getting the core of your business in place doesn’t require a massive investment. Here’s a great approach to getting the job done.

• Get a smart, big picture understanding of Internet marketing. You need to hear, straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth, how things fit together and what really works.
• Focus a great deal of effort on traffic generation. Traffic is one of the three core needs mentioned above. It’s also the most important one you’ll address. Without traffic, you can’t determine if your product is interesting or if you’re sales strategy is working.| Absent traffic, you can’t determine if you have the right product or a workable sales strategy. You need to put eyeballs on your pages right away.
• Find a source of ongoing assistance. A good ebook can be helpful. Solid tutorial videos are a great idea. However, developing a real relationship with a successful mentor is much more valuable than any ebook or video series. You can become more efficient and successful when you’re on the receiving end of expert advice.

Minimize your exposure. You need to build your foundation without putting too much of your limited resources at risk. Find opportunities to get the essentials at bargain prices.  

Look  for a business coaching program  or mentoring arrangement that doesn’t cost more than you can afford. 
 

 One such program I found is a  really cool set of videos ( Word Press Classroom) ,that actually teaches you how to set up your own blogging business! The best part is that it teaches you for free! There’s something like 15 free videos that walk you through it step by step!

It even teaches you how to link up your blog with all the latest social media platforms out there! It’s all explained in step-by-step (free) videos.
Word Press Classroom 

Posted on 25th September, 2010 | No Comment

Suffering From a Little List? … Or Worst Yet… No List?…Even if you’re new to Internet marketing, you no doubt have heard the same saying a thousand times. The money is in list building.

List building is one of the most effective ways to generate online business success. Email list building secrets. The fact that so many successful marketers embrace list building isn’t an accident.

Go From Zero Subscribers & Zero Cash to Over 25,000 Without Spending a Single Dime On Traffic. Learn how to build a list in order to reach your potential.

In most cases, people need to see a marketing message more than once before they’re persuaded to make a purchase.  You’ve heard the ” People must see the message 7 times before they decide.” Repeated exposure is necessary to inspire action.

To have the chance to share your messages repeatedly you must share it  with those who are on your list.

People are also more likely to buy from those that they feel a trust connection.  Jeffery Gitomer stated : “that people buy from people they trust.”  So use emails to your list and forge a personal connection. This increases your credibility, your brand, and  produces more sales.

How to do it
Internet marketing is a proven winning home based business for women or men, by implementing a simple squeeze page. A squeeze page has one purpose and only one purpose. It is to persuade the reader to become part of your list. Nothing else. Everything else is irrelevant.

The bribe could be a free gift, one that effectively persuades the visitor to join your list.

Building a squeeze page the right way is important. There are certain squeeze page strategies that produce the best results. Your squeeze page should involve closely following three important guidelines.

1. Squeeze Page Basics
   First, your squeeze page should be free of all outgoing links with the exception of the “submit” button on your sign up form. You want your squeeze page to inspire sign ups, not to provide guests with an avenue to move on to other sites or pages.
2. Additionally, your squeeze page should have a concise & strong message. You want to make your offer of an inducement attractive and you don’t want to dilute that point with extraneous verbiage. Don’t forget that your squeeze page only has one purpose – to build a list. You should choose every word with that goal in mind.
3. Third, you will want to approach the sign up process as if it were as important as the big sale! Thus, your squeeze page’s sign up form needs to include an extremely strong call to action. Make it clear to readers that they’ll benefit from the simple, free act of filling out your subscriber form.

Summary
If you follow those three recommendations and offer an attractive freebie, you’ll be well on your way to building a list. You’ll have the chance to build good relationships with your potential customers. You’ll also have the chance to expose your subscribers to key marketing messages more than once.

You will dramatically improve your business by using these email list building secrets.   For more info  List Building BluePrint 

The money really is in Your list!

Posted on 7th September, 2010 | No Comment

It’s undeniable – the one thing you need to succeed in your online business is traffic. And the best kind of traffic is free traffic. Where does free traffic come from? Google and other search engines.

How does free search engine traffic work?

This is something you’ve experienced first hand countless times. You visit your favorite search engine. Enter the words you’re interested in. And click one of the links that shows up. That website owner has just enjoyed the benefit of free traffic. What need to figure out is how to get you free traffic.

Most people only click results from the first couple pages. The truth is that this first page of results receives nearly all the clicks. What’s even more amazing is the the first 3 links get more than 70% of the free traffic.

So, obviously your site needs to be in the first page of results to get free traffic from Google. To do that, you need to be “ranked” in Google’s Top 10 results. Which leads to..

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is a measure of how well Google and other search engines think your website matches the search terms people are typing into their search boxes. The intricate formula Google uses to figure this out is really only known by Google. However there are several things that we know for sure.

Getting indexed

Before you can get ranked, Google has to first know your site exists. This is called getting “indexed.” What this means is that Google’s spiders visit your site and records information about it in their database.

In order to get indexed, Google has to be able to find you. And the best way for Google to find you is to get inbound links from other sites. Since some of these sites will already be indexed, Google will follow the links on their pages and find you. Cool.

Use your Twitter and Facebook updates to get quick indexed links to your site. These sites are indexed multiple times every day. So your new link will get indexed very quickly.

Gaining ranking

Once you have been indexed, you will start working on increasing your ranking. Just getting indexed once does you almost no good, considering that Google has billions of pages in their database.

There are three components of gaining ranking: they are:

• Content
• Links
• Activity

Content strategies

This is the SEO work you do on your page. It means that the content on your page matches the keywords you’re targeting. Obviously, the article you’re reading now is about search engine optimization. One reason Google knows this is because the words search engine optimization appear inside it. And another way this is determined is by the other related phrases like traffic generation that are also in the article.

The title of the page, the domain name and other pages on your site are also important. Each of these plays a roles in Google determination about your site.

Your links

The next thing to consider is your links. This includes both the inbound and outbound links. With inbound links, you want to have more coming in than going out. So the number of inbound links is important.

One great way to get lots of inbound links is through web 2.0 sites. To accomplish this you start by writing an article that targets the keywords you’re after. Then you have to create multiple versions of this articles. Because you’re going to post a unique copy of it to lots of different websites. And quantity is the key here – so do lots and lots.

Increasing your activity

Finally, we know that Google gives you credit for the activity on your site. Static pages that just sit  there may rank at first, but will fall off over time. Google expects you to be updating your site regularly. One way to keep adding new content it through RSS feeds.

Another great way to keep your page content fresh is to enable comments on it and allow others to discuss your page topic. To get comments from others, you need to get others to visit your site. An easy way to do this is from forums.

Set up forum profiles with the ones related to your website. Visit often and make posts that are helpful. Always include a link back to your site. This generates even more links back to your site. And it gets people to visit the site you link to.

Conclusion

All of the above is important. However, writing a bunch of different articles on the same topic. Setting up tons of profiles on forums. And posting your articles and comments takes a lot of time. And you’re already too busy, so you mostly likely will never  get to doing any of it.

However, rank builder software exists. And it automates everything we’ve just talked about. So my best advice is to automate as much of this as you possibly can. And then you’ll besure to get it done. Not doing it means you will never get free traffic from Google.

Posted on 21st August, 2010 | 3 Comments

Answer this question:

What is the number one reason people get online everyday?

Simple. - To get information. This is such a ubiquitous a quest,  Google handles 400 million queries a day! So what does this mean to you? Well, this is an opportunity for your to provide what people want – information. And to earn some cash for doing it!

Info marketing 101

First of all, an info business is the least complex business possible. You take information and turn it into a digital product – like an ebook. People pay you for the information inside it.. Pretty simple, I would  say.

But how does it all work?

The concept is simple. In order to be successful there has to be value in the info you’re selling. So step  #1  is to discover what kind of info people  really want. How can you find out what people want?  Ask them.

One easy way to figure it out is with a simple search. Just go to Yahoo Answers or ask.com and see what kinds of questions people are asking. The easilest  questionaire I have  found to use is Survey Monkey. Your goal is to find a common problem. That people are having trouble solving. Then just give them the answer to their problem  in your ebook.

Think about this:

If you’re concerned about information product development think about this: An info product is just a bunch of articles strung together. So instead of sitting down to write the whole thing. Just write some articles for your blog.When you have a collection, flesh them out, add more content to them and combine them into a single ebook.

So, what’s so great about ebooks? Interestingly enough, we’re back to the name of this article… about “Why you must have your own info product” 7 reasons why:

1. Ease

As soon as you have the pieces in place, it’s virtually maintenance free. And your customers need very little support. So you can just set it up and let it run. You’re building a completely automated business.

There  is no inventory. You don’t have to ship anything. It’s digital.

2. Repackaging

After you’ve created a few ebooks. You can combine them together to create new high ticket products. It’s  simply a matter of merging a few ebooks into one. And your new product will be able to carry a much higher sticker price. There’s greater perceived value in a single big course. Versus multiple smaller ebooks.

3. Resellers

When you own the product, you can sell resell rights to it. Resell rights are very hot right now, because people just don’t want to invest the time and money into making their own. And the best part is you get to charge two to three time as much for these  resell rights.

4. Leverage

Leverage your ebook by using the content in different ways. Use part of it to make an autoresponder series.  Then you can use this to build a list by capturing their email and  their name so you can build a relationship with them, and  you can market to them  again and again.

5. More leverage

Utilize your content in as many ways as you can – like creating a few reports from parts of the ebook. Then use these to generate leads for the main product. You can make these low cost or even free. Either way, you win because you’re feeding your funnel. You can even make these viral by allowing your affiliates to give them away. Wait, did I say “affiliates”?

6.An army of affiliates

This one is huge. Once you have your own product. You’re able to let other people market it for you. Imagine having 100′s or 1000′s of other people promoting your products! You’ve got to have your own products to have affiliates.

7. Joint Ventures

Last, but definitely not least… Setting up joint ventures is the fastest way to gain success. Period. So, I’d say this is the most important reason to have you own products. Without your own products, you can’t do JVs.

In closing

If you’re not convinced to start selling information products, then you’ve probably been sleeping. You’ll be the master of your destiny. Because you’re the boss! So,  just decide to just start:

• Go to answers.yahoo.com
• See what people are asking about
• Start providing information

Information product development really is that simple.

Before you know it, you’ll have your own info product. Contact me and I just might be interested in promoting  your product for you.

Posted on 20th August, 2010 | 2 Comments

It’s undeniable that if you add audio to websites it will increase your results. If you’re not using audio on your sites, you’re making a mistake. Audio increases opt-ins.  Opt-ins  increase  your sales.

Example of old way to add audio Click > watermark

What makes it so effective?

It’s not hard to figure out. The web is mostly silent. It makes your site more “human”. And makes people feel they’re dealing with a real live person. Basically, audio brings your site to life. Which fascinates greater interaction from your visitors.

Here are the benefits

Adding audio increases your profits in two ways.

1. You’ll convert more visitors into buyers.
2.  And second you’ll save money on the sales letter.

Instead of having to pay a professional to write you a great sales letter. Simply record an audio message yourself. Your honest message about your product will sell better than a professional copywriter.

You’ll also get better conversions on your list opt-ins. The reason this works so well is because people need to be told what to do. So you make an audio recording that says: Put your email and name into the form and submit. A simple message like this will increase your opt-in conversions by 305% or more!

Some ways to use audio

A welcome message on your homepage. Most people abandon a website within just a few seconds. Your welcome message could make them stay when they would normally leave.

Step-by-step instructions. The same principle the we used to boost opt-ins applies. Use an audio message to lead your visitors through a process. Use this to lead them through the ordering process, as well.

Testimonials for your product or service. It’s good to get written testimonials. But audio testimonials are great! You can just make up written one and people know that. Using audio makes it much more believable. And that increases your results.

Sneaky trick

Something you may not have thought of is using audio for the product itself. You’ll be able to produce audio products faster than any other kind. And it still has a high perceived value. The great thing about audio products is people can take them with them on the go. Plus you can get them transcribed cheap. Then you’ve got an eBook, too – but it was easy to create!

Is adding audio hard?

It’s not hard at all. There are quite a few audio streaming software programs out there. You don’t actually have to do anything yourself. The software creates the audio button code for you. Just paste the code you copy from the software. There’s nothing else to worry about.

Summing it up

Let’s take another look at the benefits. Putting streaming audio on your site will boost all your results. You’ll get more sales. And your opt-in rate will increase. And you can use it to create products and sales letters quickly. No many people are doing this. But you’ll save a lot of time and money. Get started right now and realize instant results.

Posted on 19th August, 2010 | No Comment

Yes affiliate marketing rocks, but it’s really hard to get started. The reason is because there is a lot of competition. What you need to do is come up with methods no one else is using. It’s also hard to figure out what to do because there’s a lot of information out there. Here’s one trick that almost no one else is using.

Video marketing

No one would deny the power and popularity of video. The reason it’s so pervasive is because everyone loves it. Keeping people’s attention is so much easier using videos. So you can put this to great advantage in your affiliate marketing.

Here’s how to use videos for affiliate promotions:

• Record your testimonial
• Record a walk-through
• Do an ordering video
• Do a preview video

Testimonials

This one is super simple. Simply turn on your recorder and talk. It does not need to be polished or pro. Listening to your honest endorsement makes your viewers feel comfortable buying. And the mess-ups or mistakes just make the video more real. You can literally just press record and talk. And if you don’t want to show your face, use one of the next ideas.

Do a video walk-through

This one is a little more subtle. You’re taking the role of teacher and showing how to use the product. And while they watch you use it, they think, “I should buy that.” If the product is useful, watching the tutorial makes them want to buy it. So just make sure you’re demoing a good product.

Ordering

This could be the most powerful method of all. Record a video of yourself actually buying the product. Nothing inspires your viewers to buy like watching you do it. In the first place it acts as social proof. People will feel more comfortable buying after seeing you do it. This also makes your viewers trust you. People believe you’re giving them good advice if you take that advice yourself. And finally, it creates envy. It’s simple – you have it. Now they want it. To really cap this one off, end your video with: You’re gonna have to place your own order if you want to see the members area.

Do a preview video

This one is perfect for building up the value of what you’re promoting. In this case you record a screen share of the inside of the product. They get to see everything they’ll receive when they order. It also reduces the reservations of skeptics. It’s much easier to trust they’re getting something if they actually seen it.

You can do this!

You don’t need any special training for this. There are simple software programs that make it easy to create videos. Really, the software does all the work. So there’s no need to even think about the technical side. Just focus on the benefits:

• Increase sales You’ll earn more affiliate commissions when you add video. Start using videos because people love them.
• Reduce refunds Less of your commissions will be clawed back, too. Your customers will know what they’re getting into ahead of time. So less of them will ask for refunds.
• Outdo your competitors! This is a really easy thing to do. And almost no one is doing it. So, you’ll be way ahead of the crowd.

Get started right now and take your affiliate marketing to the next level.  Affiliate marketing 2.0. Relationship ROI. Be personal. The bottom line is that if you’re not using video, you’re losing money.

Posted on 18th August, 2010 | No Comment

Honestly, everyone making money online today has an email list.

This is the most important factor in your long-term success. Because you can market to your list whenever you want. It’s a resource you can tap at any time and generate income.

OK, but how?

There are 3 factors in list building you need to consider:

• The Squeeze Page
• Your Bribe
• Your Confirmation Page

Your Opt-in Page – Your opt-in page is the page you send visitors to to build your list. This page is the one that asks them for their email. That’s why it needs to look like a professionally designed page. And have an easy to understand opt-in form. You’ve also got to make a strong “close”.

If you fail to make a strong close, you’re wasting your efforts. This “close” tells your visitors what you want them to do. Without this your opt-in rate will plummet. The funny thing is that people just don’t know what to do unless you tell them.

One way to really spice up your squeeze page is to add a video to it. This will grab your visitors attention and keep it. And you can repeat the call to action several times int he video. And you can have the video just tell them to fill in your form after it’s done playing.

Now, don’t worry if you have no idea how to make videos. It’s very easy to hire people for a couple hundred bucks to make one for you. Or you can get email list tools that have everything pre-built for you.

The Incentive – The second component is the reason they are opting into your list. People won’t give you their email for nothing. Email privacy is very important to most people. This means your bribe needs to be very attractive.

The key to a good bribe is that is has value. Then it becomes something people want to get from you. And can benefit from. A few ideas:

• A report
• A piece of software
• Training videos
• A multi-part email series

Basically, you just need some content. It’s got to be something helpful for your new subscribers. And nothing sells like “free”. If you make it good enough, they will give you their email in exchange.

Now, if you don’t know how to create the bribe don’t worry. Here again, you can hire freelancers to create this for you. Just give them a topic and they will write the content. One easy and effective bribe is a 5-part email training series. You can have ghost writers create emails for under $25 an email. So, you’ll get the whole series written for under $150.

There are also list building products that include the follow up email series. Two things to keep in mind when writing (or buying) and email training series. First of all it has to give the subscriber what you promised – valuable information. And second, it needs to make you money. The easiest way to do this is to market affiliate products in the emails. This allows you to get started with no products of your own. And make money right away from your list.

The Opt-in Success Page – The last bit is the thank you page. This is the page your subscriber sees after they opt in. A great thing to do here is provide some immediate value. This helps them feel they’ve made the right decision giving you their email. It also sets the foundation for your relationship with them. So when they get your email, they’re happy to hear from you.

This is another case where you can get a complete marketing package. Or you can do it yourself. You can either write the content pages on your own. Or hire ghost writers to write them for you.

Final thoughts

It doesn’t matter if you do all of this yourself. Or pay a freelancer to write produce it all for you. Or go with a complete package. The important thing is that you build your own list starting now. Because as soon as you’ve got your own list . . . You’re able to make money at the push of a button.