Firstly
lets be clear about what is
an opt-in list. Every
business keeps a list of its
customers and potential
customers. When the list is
only made up of people who
have willingly joined it by
subscribing or registering,
knowing you will be
contacting them, then you
have an opt-in list. On the
Internet it is much easier
and cheaper to create and
maintain an opt-in list.
Note
that people generally only
join knowing that you will
be contacting them with
information relating to a
'certain topic'* - we'll
talk about this in a moment.
Buying lists or copying from
other sources goes against
the notion of opt-in and
sending emails not related
to the topics the
subscribers originally
signed up for will destroy
your credibility.
*
Think about it, would you
join some mailing list that
is about a broad range of
subjects knowing that you
are going to get emails that
are totally irrelevant to
your interests? Would you
have any more respect for
the list owner who seems to
be the master of nothing in
particular and intends to
send you mailings about
anything he likes (because
he doesn't know/care what
‘your’ interests are)?
Let
me tell you, when you focus
your material and your
subject on a specific
subject, you get a greater
proportion of your readers
wanting to join your list.
Just as important is the
fact that you can then
finely tune your offers to
their specific interest and
significantly increase the
response rate to each of
your offers.
Therefore, it should be
obvious that after building
your highly targeted list,
you can easily waste it all
by a careless irrelevant
offer. I tell you, do not be
tempted to offer something
unrelated or even just
loosely related to your
subject area no matter how
lucrative the profits for
you! If you have a lucrative
product or offer, with a
healthy market, then build a
new list. The second time
around is a lot easier.
Ask
any expert ... the late
great Corey Rudl opened 'my'
eyes to the 'life time
value' of customers and
prospects. In other words it
is not that first sale that
makes you rich but rather
the steady stream of sales
over time that makes you
wild profits.
Just
one final point here, when
marketing to your list,
'your' emphasis must be on
informing and educating not
selling and marketing!
Nobody joins or stays on
your opt-in list begging,
"please advertise to me".
If
you just inform and educate,
people will respect and
trust you. Your
recommendations will then
find willing customers,
easily. You can then of
course add subtle references
to products and offers that
you recommend on the
periphery of your highly
informative communications.
Once
again you must thoroughly
research your offerings and
ensure they are completely
relevant and of the highest
quality.
Look
out for my other articles on
list building techniques.
For now let me show you a
few ways you can profit from
your opt-in list(s).
Once
you take care of focus and
product quality etc, there
are a number of ways to
'monetize' your effort to
earn top dollar. Here are
some ideas:
1-
Advertisements.
Advertising your products
and services in ezines and
newsletters to your opt-in
list. This seems an obvious
one. But many people haven't
considered advertising other
companies' products. This is
a rich and repeatable source
of income.
Just
get the above principles
about focus and quality
right and getting
advertising revenue will be
easy, successful and soon
you'll have a queue of
advertisers. Take a look at
various ad brokers and ad
exchanges etc.
Note
that because companies can't
trust bought-in lists,
they'd rather place ads
around your newsletters etc.
You could then also offer
higher priced 'solo ads'.
That is, you could then
email your list once a week
or once a month with just
one ad that is bigger than a
classified ad but smaller
than an article.
Tip:
join a few ezines and you'll
see exactly what I mean.
However, I suggest you
reduce the frequency of
these solo ads compared with
the average. Be above
average, 'less is more'!
2-
Look into affiliate programs
There
is no shortage of
'affiliate' programs for
absolutely any market. If
there is demand for the
product or service in
question, there is
definitely a good affiliate
program out there for it.
Join it and profit hugely
when someone else does the
entire fulfillment,
administration etc.
Two
points:
(a)
If you're not clear about
affiliate schemes, you
really do owe it to yourself
to do a search for terms
like "affiliate marketing".
(b)
It is just possible but
still highly unlikely that
after searching thoroughly
for an affiliate scheme in
your subject area, you find
nothing suitable. If so, you
have just struck gold!
Research and then perhaps
set up your own scheme.
I
guarantee you, if you can't
find a good scheme, there
will be many thousands or
may be even tens of
thousands of others having
the same problem. You will
be richly rewarded.
3-
Direct approach
Don't
be frightened of approaching
other web sites with some
sort of proposition for
joint effort. Most companies
welcome the any reasonable
offer that lands in their
laps without any effort,
when it is intended to make
them money.
Ask
if they are willing to share
a percentage of the sales
revenue that comes through
your list if you market
their offer to your list.
4-
Product sales
There
are a great many product
wholesalers and distributors
who would love you to sell
their products. They already
have product catalogs,
photos, distribution and
logistics facilities and
marketing write ups etc.
They
already make bulk purchases
and warehouse the goods and
are well equipped to fulfill
orders. They certainly
welcome someone else also
selling their products and
increasing the sales of
something they are already
engaged in.
In
the US, search for these
under terms such as 'drop
shippers'. In the UK they
are known as wholesalers
with fulfillment houses
among other terms.
I set
up exactly this kind of
system for three major
clients last year … the
clients loaded up the
product details from files
supplied by the distributor.
The client then focused
purely on selling and
marketing online. They never
even touched a product or
saw one in their own
offices.
After
the launch one client told
me, who’d be crazy enough to
sink a stack of cash into a
warehouse, advanced payment
for stock or imports etc,
then work like hell for
weeks and months by the time
the stock is sold! This is a
dream: we use your hosted
end-to-end online product
catalog/retail system and
make 50% - 70% commissions
on products we never touch!
5-
Sell information products
This
is a vast and rich subject
which I can't discuss in any
reasonable detail. I just
ask you to consider it.
Often delivery is by
electronic means (email,
download, etc) with no
physical warehousing,
fulfillment, shipping etc.
Therefore you have no
distribution costs at all.
The supply is almost
infinite and you can package
your product in a variety of
ways from regular lessons to
ebooks to audio material.
No
matter what the percentage
profit margin, since you are
effectively supplying
electronic files, there is
no supply cost at all. This
means you repeatedly turn a
profit on every sale over a
long period of time.
Look
into this and you won't be
disappointed.
6-
Pass-on!
You
are reading this article
therefore you certainly know
the importance of having a
list. No matter how good or
bad the profits from your
list, that will only improve
when you increase the size
of your list. But don't
forget that you must keep
your list tightly targeted.
Two
highly neglected ways of
increasing your subscriber
base are pass-on and post-on
(explained in 7 below).
On
every informative article or
mailing add a little text
asking the reader to pass-on
the article to a few friends
and colleagues that they
think may benefit from the
information. You'll be
amazed how many people never
think of sending the
information on to others
until they're prompted.
You'll also be surprised how
many think this is a good
idea when reminded.
Don't
forget to add a little more
test to the effect that:
"...
If someone else passed this
information to you, you can
benefit from regular
informative articles by
registering [or emailing]
...". Be sure to put this
information in your resource
box. A resource box is a
short 3 - 6 line paragraph
stating who you are, what
you do (that makes you an
expert) and a link to your
website for more information
or your contact email
address. This goes at the
bottom of all your articles
and emails. You'll see why
next, in (7).
Tip:
Some people advise that you
can do any advertising in
the resource box. I
personally think this could
take something away from
your informative article. I
suggest you put no ‘overt’
advertising in the box. Also
you may put off publishers
from publishing your
information, again see next,
in (7).
I
suggest you only go as far
as offering further or more
detailed information from
your web site (or by
emailing you). If your
information is top quality
and it should be, then
people will naturally want
to know more and will click
through to your site or
email you or take up your
offers elsewhere in your
ezine.
7-
Post-on!
On
every article or ezine
mailing to your opt-in list,
include another line of text
permitting other ezine,
newsletter or website
publishers to reprint your
article on condition that
your article is published in
its entirety [if you want it
that way] "AND" that your
resource box remains
attached to your article
without any change.
A
great many other publishers
require regular fresh
content and you will find a
huge number of 'takers' for
your top quality articles.
Attaching your resource box
to all articles and
newsletters and 'not'
advertising overtly, vastly
improves both the response
to your articles (i.e.
increases your subscription
base) and the reprint of
your articles by publishers.
This translates to more
income from your opt-in
list.
I
have one final tip you:
Focus on one of the methods
above and keep on tweaking
testing, improving. Once you
have mastered the method and
you see major benefits from
your op-in list, then move
on to another technique from
the above list. You can
apply this idea to virtually
all actions and enhancements
to your online business. It
works extremely well.
You
will find most of those who
fail to make any meaningful
profit from their opt-in
lists or other efforts,
usually have at least one
thing in common: a very
noticeable lack of focus!
Don't be one of them.
I
wish you success and profit
from your opt-in list. The
world around us is changing
all the time, look out for
this and never stop learning
newer, more suitable
techniques and approaches.
About
the Author: Dr Sami
Fab is the founder of
OnDemand Ltd dedicated to
creating time-saving
solutions for the home
based, small and medium
sized businesses.
To
see a powerful marketing
machine click:
http://www.Autopilot-Business.com
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sami_Fab
