When Aweber first posed the question, “Can you get more readers by displaying your subscriber count,” on their blog, it got me to thinking about some of my niche businesses. I use email marketing extensively in my business, so anything that will increase my subscribers is a good thing.

The general idea here is that you may be able to turn more of your website visitors into subscribers if you can prove to them that many other website visitors have made the same choice. Marc Kline puts it like this:

Just because someone else does something, doesn’t mean you should, does it? Maybe not, but from infancy all the way through adulthood, we take cues from others on what is worth our attention.

To test the theory, Aweber makes it possible to display a chicklet that shows your website visitors how many others are benefiting from your email newsletter… in other words, the chicklet shows your current subscriber count under your subscription form.

It’s a nice little setup because all you have to do is insert the code and Aweber keeps track and maintains your subscriber count for you. No fuss, no hassle.

So I decided to test out the whole social proof theory with a couple of my niche websites that offer newsletters.

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Newsletters and ezines are a fantastic way to follow up with your target audience and keep your business on the tip of their tongue… so to speak.

Marketing a business with email newsletters can benefit your business because the people who sign up for your newsletter want to hear your message, they are already familiar with your products and services, and you can build a lot of rapport with your target audience through a newsletter. In addition, a well-written newsletter provides you with a tremendous amount of credibility. It puts them in a warm, ready to buy, frame of mind.

Most important of all, however, is that newsletters and ezines can create the additional benefit of generating revenue for your business, provided that you don’t practice any of these humongous newsletter mistakes!

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I know it’s a bit late, but after two days of no internet access due to storms and power outages I’ve finally been able to post the September edition of Answers eMagazine.

In this month’s issue we’ve discussed sales letters and I’ve given you some tips on how you can increase your conversion rate, we’ve continued our discussion of giveaway events by talking about how to build profit into them, and we’ve explored how you can choose the right subscriber incentive for your market.

In addition, we’ve got an article about the branding power of article marketing and I’ve put together a step-by-step tutorial on how to upsell while using Clickbank.

Subscribers can get their copy anytime in the subscriber area, as well as download all back issues of Answers eMagazine.

If you’re not a subscriber, but you’d like to become one, you can sign up to get your own copy of Answers at:

http://imarketingwatch.com/answers/

This is just a quick note to let you know that I have the August Edition of Answers eMagazine ready and available for your enjoyment (At least I hope you enjoy it!)

In this month’s issue we’ll discuss giveaway events and how to use them to build your email list, talk about how AIDA can help you write your next sales letter, and I reviewed the Top Secret Magic Code. Believe me, you don’t want to miss this review. I’ll give you a hint… it was ugly.

In addition, there’s also a couple of other articles that I think you’ll like, including my take on the American Presidential Election marketing campaigns.

Only subscribers can get current and archived issues, so I hope you’ll subscribe now!
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After my last post, When A Guru Loses It… And Takes It Out On His List, I expected to see some changes in the frequency of emails I received from this guy. Well, I can’t see any difference in the amount of junk I’m still getting from him. Some people just don’t learn from their mistakes.

It’s alright though… I just delete them. I only stay subscribed because I find his style of email marketing funny, a little foolish, and full of marketing lessons. In other words, he’s constantly bombarding me with solicitations and I’m using him for inspiration and illustration. (I secretly wish I could tell you who he is… but that would be wrong.)

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I subscribe to a lot of lists in the online business and marketing world as well as competing newsletters in my various niches. I do it so that I can keep on top of what’s going on with my competition, the various industries I’m involved in, and the internet in general… and I suggest that you do it too because it can be very enlightening at times.

I had one of those enlightening moments this weekend where one of the self-proclaimed gurus of internet marketing completely lost it with his list, alienated his subscribers, and probably lost a lot of folks.

Let me set up the story for you and explain how he could have avoided the whole thing…

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I can’t believe how many email messages that I’ve received regarding the new Traffic Secrets 2.0 course due out today at noon… it’s completely ridiculous!

But then again, that’s why John Reese makes so much money with his product launches.

I have gotten every kind of email you can image — everything from the “buy this from me and I’ll give you all these bonuses” to “I’m above all this, but buy it from me anyway” to the pre-written email messages in the affiliate area of the Traffic Secrets website.

Since Traffic Secrets is giving away 51% commission on the course (and there is a pretty heafty pricetag), it’s no wonder that so many affiliates are trying to cash in on a huge payday when it releases.  But I really wonder how many affiliates are going to make any sales… aside from the sale that the affiliate buys himself (or herself). Read the rest of this entry