Google Adwords has become a completely ridiculous system to deal with.  You might remember that I became the victim of the “Google Slap” last summer.

Well, Google gets so much search volume that I was compelled to give it another try.

This time I started a completely new account, new email, different credit card, different computer… even a different IP to set up the account because I wanted to be able to start from scratch with Google.

I followed their guidelines EXACTLY and got a 7/10 quality score for ALL my ads. Here’s what happened:

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Google Did It Again

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I really hate some of those stupid Facebook apps that put dumb stuff like Mafia Wars, Food Fight, Farmville on your FB wall… they are a complete waste of time and don’t really provide any value.

Anyway… enough ranting.  Here’s a short video that will show you how to easily block stupid Facebook apps:

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Blocking Stupid Facebook Apps

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38.  Create an autoresponder course on a hot topic.

No one can resist learning about a topic that they’re already interested in… so why not create an autoresponder course on the subject.

Creating an autoresponder course is really easy.  All you have to do is write a report and then break it down into pieces.  Set your autoresponder up to mail out each piece to subscribers one at a time.

39.  Get other subscribers to promote you with a free monthly contest or referral prizes.

This is kind of like creating a refer-a-friend contest.  Just set up a contest where the subscriber that refers the most new subscribers to join your list gets a monthly prize.   Here’s a really good script that you can use to create your own contest and a free video to show you how it works.

I like the script above because it prevents people from sending out spam in your name and sets up the system so that referrers are sending their friends email directly from them, not your autoresponder.  You still need to check with your autoresponder’s terms of service before you use this marketing tool however.

40.  Squeeze Pages.

You can generate a lot of new subscribers very quickly by using squeeze pages and a really great offer!

Essentially, a squeeze page is the landing page that you send visitors to prior to your sales page (or another page) where you request their subscription before they can proceed.  Once they put their subscription information into the form and submit it, they’re redirected to the sales page.  Some squeeze pages even go a step further and require new subscribers to confirm their subscriptions before they can get to the information that they want.

41.  Get someone to offer your newsletter subscription as a bonus to their own product.

People are always looking for additional bonuses to add to their product packages online… why not your newsletter?

All you have to do to make this one work is joint venture with someone who has a compatible product for sale, write your newsletter bonus pitch, and add your email subscription form script to their product download page and you’re all set.  It creates a win/win because your partner gets an additional bonus to help them sell their product and you get a new subscriber who is willing to spend money in your niche.

42.  Create a dynamic pitch page for your subscription.

This one is kind of a no-brainer.  You can’t just slap up a subscription form and expect people to fall all over themselves subscribing to your list.  You’ve got to present some kind of compelling offer to entice them to subscribe.

The way I usually do it is that I put my subscription form along with an image on every page of my website along with a link to another page where they can learn more about it.  When then click on the link, they get a sales letter type page that tells them what they can expect with the subscription and why they should subscribe to it.

43.  Get your newsletter listed on as many free sites and directories as possible.

There are all kinds of directories for newsletters and ezines available online, so it makes sense that you should get your newsletter or ezine listed on as many of them as possible.  You just never know how people are going to find you.

44.  Post thoughtful comments on related blogs with a single link to your pitch.

Most blogs have a script on them that prevents search engines from following the links within comments, but you’re comments will still be read by blog visitors who might be interested in what you have to offer with your subscription.  The key here is to make sure your blog comments are interesting and worthwhile.

45.  Make an offer for one of your other lists on you thank you page.

This is a tactic that I’ve used with one of my family related lists and it works quite well.  Here’s how it works…

When people subscribe to newsletter #1, they are sent to a thank you page where they are told to check their email for the confirmation notice.  In addition, they are given additional information about newsletter #2 where they can get related, but not competing, information.  In my experience, one out of every three subscribers to list #1 also subscribes to list #2.

46.  Giveaway Ventures.

A giveaway venture is when you joint venture with several other people in your niche or related niches to run the program.  Each person or business gives something away and all the donated products are put together into a single package to giveaway to subscribers.  Each partner then promotes the giveaway products to gain subscribers to their lists.

The beauty of this scenario is that you gain new subscribers directly to your own list because of the value of the giveaway, but that’s not all.  Depending on what you offer as your product to give away (a free report or ebook, for example), you’re also putting your product in front of all those other prospects who subscribed through one of your partners.  If you have links to your product, your website, or your newsletter, in the ebook you donated to the venture, you can gain new subscribers and visitors, as well as sell additional products.

47.  Buy subscribers.

There are several services available where you can buy lists of subscribers.  I’m not a big fan of this method, but some claim it works well for them.  If you choose to buy subscribers, be sure that that they are all double optin and that your source is reputable.

48.  Use Pop-ups.

As a surfer, I absolutely hate pop-up ads.  As an internet marketer, I use them on several of my websites because they work.  In fact, I’ve performed several tests on my websites to find out if I get more subscribers with or without them and it always turns out that I get more subscribers when I use a well thought-out pop-up advertisement for my newsletters… about 40% more on average.

You might hate them, but pop-ups work.

49.  Create bonus for someone else’s product.

This one can be a little bit tricky, but it’s well worth it if you can pull it off.  The idea is to create some kind of product that works well as a bonus for someone else’s product.  For example, if you found a software product that you really liked and you’d found a new way to use it, you could create an ebook that works with the software and explains this new method.

The software owner would love the ebook, especially as a bonus to their software, and you could gain more subscribers through subscription links in the ebook.  A win/win.

50.  Use Co-Registration.

This is exactly like number 45 above, only the newsletter that you’re offering on your thank you page is someone else’s.  Co-registration can also be when your subscribers sign up to several lists all at the same time.  If this is something you’re interested in doing to build your email list, then there are several services available to match you up with co-registration partners and run the program for you.

51.  Become an expert in your field.

Okay… Duh!  If you’re going to produce a newsletter, ezine, ecourse, etc. you should position yourself as an expert in your niche or you’re just plain wasting your time.

So how do you position yourself as an expert in your field?  Write a lot of articles and content, write professionally, and know what you’re talking about when you write.  If you look like a credible expert, you’ll have a lot more people wanting to sign up to receive your mailings.

52.  Direct mail offers.

Direct mail, specifically postcards, can be a really great way to get people to subscribe to get your newsletter, ezine, ebook, ecourse, or report, provided you create a really compelling offer on your postcards.  Sometimes a physical post card delivered directly to someone’s house can carry more credibility for your offer than other online advertising methods.

53.  Use hover ads.

I already mentioned pop-up advertising for subscriptions above, but hover ads are a completely different animal.  Generally, hover ads aren’t blocked by pop-up blockers and they are much more interactive than pop-ups.

If you’ve ever seen one of those websites with a peeling corner that suddenly unpeels to reveal a special offer, then you’ve seen what I’m talking about.  They’re unobtrusive, but they really get visitor’s attention.  There are lots of software programs on the market that will create hover ads for you, but the best one in my opinion is Instant Popover.

54.  Make your forum registration page work with your email capture system.

Many people operate their own forums as part of their websites, so it’s a great idea to make your forum registration and your email subscription programs work together.  All it really amounts to is a check box on the forum registration form that says something like “check here to subscribe to…”  You can even have the box already checked so that they actually have to uncheck it to keep from subscribing… Oooo!  Sneaky!

The service you use to run your email lists probably has a way to do this that you can do yourself.  If not, you can always hire a programmer to set it up for you at very little cost.

55.  Practice risk reversal on your email form.

According to Christopher Knight at http://www.emailuniverse.com, “Risk reversal is when you remove the risk from the buyer and put the burden of client satisfaction on your shoulders instead of your buyers. In the case of email newsletters, the risk of someone giving up their email address is that they will be sold, spammed or abused in some way.”

Give subscribers a “we don’t spam” kind of statement somewhere near your form.

56.  Offer newsletter testimonials.

Simply put a list of testimonials on your newsletter pitch page.  This demonstrates the value of the subscription to others who are considering subscribing.  I did this with one of my non-marketing newsletters and increased my newsletter subscription rate by over 200%!

57.  Create a separate website just for your email newsletter or ezine.

If you think of your newsletter or ezine as a product, and you should, then it makes sense to have a separate website just for that product.  It gives it more weight, makes it stand out from the competition, and positions your online publication as the journal of choice for your niche.

58.  Use viral marketing to your advantage.

Viral marketing is any campaign that uses word-of-mouth or tell-a-friend in order to get the message out.  In this case, you’re trying to get more people to subscribe through viral marketing, so you have to encourage your subscribers to pass your email messages on to their friends and family so that they will subscribe too.

It’s as simple as adding a reminder and link at the bottom of each email you send out and it works really well.

59.  Offer testimonials on related products and link to your pitch page.

Businesses are always looking for satisfied customers to extol the virtues of their product.  You can capitalize on that and promote your own email list at the same time by offering unsolicited testimonials on products related to your niche.

Simply buy the product, write a great testimonial (assuming the product is actually good), and include a link back to your subscription pitch page.

60.  Mention your newsletter or ezine in your teleseminars.

Many people run their own teleseminars or are guests on other people’s teleseminars.  This presents a perfect opportunity to plug your email list to that audience.  In fact, you can pitch your subscription opportunity at just about any speaking engagement.

If a subscription is free – and most are free – no one will really mind the blatant advertising.  They may even see it as a nice gesture that you’re offering them a free subscription.  Just refer them to your subscription pitch page… better yet, create a pitch page especially for them!

61.  Mention your free subscription on your business cards.

This is especially useful if you only have one newsletter or ezine that you write for.  Here’s an example of how to pull this off very effectively.

Let’s say that you’re a real estate agent and you have a free ezine about rehabbing local real estate.  It would be extremely effective to plug your ezine on your business cards because real estate agents hand out tons of business cards during the course of their day to all kinds of people.

62.  Test, test test.

As with everything in your business, it’s really important to test everything that you do to find out what works for you as you build your list.  Some list building activities will work better with some niches than with others.  If you don’t continually test all your marketing activities, you could be wasting a lot of time and money doing all the wrong things.   Test everything!

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

If you'd like to get more answers to your online business and internet marketing questions, subscribe to Answers eMagazine now!

List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers Part 3

Related posts:

1. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers Part 2
2. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers
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22.  Become a guest author on another website.

If you’re a pretty good writer and can commit to a regular schedule of articles, then becoming a guest author or columnist is a really great opportunity.  You get free publicity and the website you write for gets free content from you… Another win/win!

If you’re really feeling good about your writing, why not extend this idea and ask to become a guest columnist/writer for a print publication?  All they can say is no.

23.  Announce Your Ezine.

There used to be a software program that would do that announce your ezine for you, but it’s no longer available.  Instead, you’ll have to do the same thing manually.  The object here is that you want to add your ezine/newsletter to as many newsletter and ezine directory lists as you can find.

Simply type “ezine directory” or “newsletter directory” into a search engine to find them.

24.  Start a pay per subscriber for your newsletter.

This idea is similar to an affiliate program where you pay your affiliates for each new subscriber that they introduce to your newsletter.  You can easily set up a program like this through an affiliate network, or you can install a script on your server to do the job.

25.  Offer your newsletter as a bonus to a current product you sell.

This one’s really easy!  All you have to do is create a short pitch for your newsletter and add it to your list of bonuses offered with a product that you already sell.  Once a customer buys your product and are forwarded to a thank you/download page, provide them with a subscribe box so that they can claim the bonus subscription.

26.  Create a subscriber only membership website.

People love memberships, especially when they don’t have to pay for them.  In this case, your membership is really a subscription to your ezine, newsletter, etc.  Memberships have a lot of perceived value, so making a subscription to your list a “members only” affair will bring in subscribers in droves.

27.  Promote through a joint venture.

You often see people creating joint ventures to sell products and services.  Why not promote your free subscription in your JV instead?

28.  Get your subscription pitch on other people’s thank you pages.

If a website visitor has already subscribed to one list, then they are more likely to subscribe to others.  If you can get your subscription pitch on another business’s thank you page, you’re likely to get a much higher subscription rate.  In addition, it looks like the other business is recommending you to their subscribers!

29.  Start an affiliate program.

Starting an affiliate program benefits your business in so many ways, it’s not surprising that it can help you get subscribers as well.  When you start an affiliate program, why not start a list just for affiliates?  That way you can encourage them to subscribe to other lists, market products that will help them make more affiliate sales, etc.

In addition, starting an affiliate program will naturally increase your subscriber base because it will bring you more traffic through the affiliates that promote your product.  More traffic will obviously result in more subscribers.

30.  Make them laugh and they will subscribe.

People love to read stuff with personality… especially humor.  If you can make them laugh, chuckle, or smirk then they will be more likely to subscribe to anything that you ask them to subscribe to.

31.  Create a video.

It seems that everyone online appreciates an informative, enlightening, or humorous video… why not capitalize on that by creating an intriguing video that promotes your newsletter, free ebook, email course, or ezine?  Nothing gets their attention like video!  In addition, it’s a good way for potential subscribers to find out what you’re offering.

32.  Create multiple lists for specific niches.

The idea here is to create different subscription lists with different goals in mind.  For example, you might have a newsletter list, an ecourse list, and a list that provides updates to your customers about products they’ve purchased.  Each list has a different purpose, separate autoresponders, and unique messages.  You really don’t want to try to serve all your subscribers under one umbrella.

33.  Traffic Exchange Programs.

Frankly, this isn’t one of my favorite ideas, but some experts claim to grow their lists very quickly using this method.

The way it works is that you visit a specified list of websites in the traffic exchange network to earn credits.  For each credit you earn by visiting other websites, others in the network will visit your website.  (Some programs don’t do a one for one exchange, so check into it before you sign up.)  Additionally, you can also purchase credits so that you don’t have to waste your time visiting other websites.

The idea behind using traffic exchanges to build your list is that you send your “credits” to your subscription pitch page rather than your home page or another page on your website.  You’ll get lots of new subscribers, but I can’t vouch for whether they will confirm their subscriptions or whether they will be responsive to your message, but it’s worth trying.

34.  Find a controversial topic on a forum and post a comment with your subscription information in your signature.

This one is kind of a no-brainer… lots of people will see the topic of conversation on the forum, read the comments, and visit your subscription page – especially if they like your comment!

35.  Purchase solo mailings.

Find a newsletter or ezine that is related to your subject, but not in direct competition, and arrange with the owner/editor to email out solo piece in the form of an advertisement or an article.  I’ve had a lot of success in doing this with an article.  At the end of the article, I put a pitch for my free subscription and it works like a charm!

36.  Become a guest blogger.

People who run blogs are always looking for more high quality content for their blog posts and this creates a good opportunity for you to gain more subscribers.  Write a really good blog article/post for a popular blog that’s related to your niche and use the resource box to promote your list.

37.  Create a poll or survey on a controversial topic that includes a click to subscribe box.

This is one that you’ll kick yourself for not thinking of sooner!  The next time you create a poll or survey on your website – preferably on a controversial topic – simply include a box on the form that ties into your subscription system.  In fact, I suggest that you make the box already checked so that poll respondents actually have to un-click the box if they don’t want to subscribe.

End of Part 2. Click here to go to part 3

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers Part 2

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1. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers
2. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers Part 3
3. Top Notch Strategies To Increase Your Sales

I often hear online business and marketing types talk about how important it is to have a good subscriber list.  In many cases, having a reasonable sized list of responsive subscribers can make the difference in whether your online business succeeds or dies a slow painful death.

You’re heard it before, “The money is in the list.”

What exactly is a list?

Simply put, a “list” is generally a database of subscribers that you contact regularly.  Your form of contact could be direct mail, email, phone, fax, or any other technology available.  For purposes of this discussion, we’re talking about how to successfully build an email list, but many of the strategies below could also apply to other kinds of list building.

Most online businesses create newsletters or ezines to send to their subscriber lists (a method I highly recommend), you can also create email lists in order to disseminate other types of information like website updates, ebooks, email courses, reports, blog posts, etc.  As long as subscribers know in advance what kind of information they’re signing up for, the sky’s the limit.

So, what are the benefits of building a good list for your business?

• Sending high quality information to your lists helps you build rapport with your subscribers and potential customers.  Relationship building is a huge plus in any business, but is especially profitable in an online business.  It also helps to establish you as an expert in your field.

• You can promote special offers and products to your list.

• An email list allows you to keep in touch with your subscribers and potential customers.  This gets them back to your website more often and will increase your sales.

• Promoting to email lists is much less expensive than other forms of direct marketing.

• You can easily gather additional information from your list that will help you plan future promotions and products.

• Regular mailings to an email list can make your website seem more human.

• There are lots of ways to monetize your email list, making it a huge money making opportunity… if you do it correctly.

Clearly there are lots of benefits… probably a lot more than what I’ve mentioned here.  I’m sure you’re all gungho to start your own mailing list now… or maybe you’ve already started a list and you’re looking for ways to get more subscribers.  That’s what very few people actually talk about… how to get a good subscriber list.  So that’s what we’re going to discuss here.  I’ve put together a list of 62 strategies that you can put into practice to build yourself a great list.

One word of caution before we get to the list… don’t try to implement every single strategy on the list at one time.  Just pick a single strategy, fully implement it, and then move onto another strategy.  In reality, there’s really no way to implement all the strategies listed – so develop a plan for implementing the strategies that seem best suited to your business.

One more quick note: The list below starts out with the most obvious and easiest to implement strategies and gets more creative as we go.  I came up with so many ideas that I decided to split them up, so Part 2 will come out later this week.

Now, let’s get on to the list…

1.  Put a subscribe form on every webpage of your site.

Most email experts agree that you should put your subscription form in the upper left or right hand corner of your website.

You never know which page of your website visitors will reach first, so putting a subscription form on all your relevant pages ensures that potential subscribers will see your message.

2.  Create some kind of graphic representation of your newsletter, course, etc.

You’ll will always see a higher response rate if you use a graphic rather than just words.  A cover is more dynamic, personable, and professional.

It’s easy to create your own graphic with any of the popular graphics programs or you can use a software program especially designed to make ebook covers, newsletter pictures, ezine images, software boxes, etc. covers like Killer Covers , Cover Software Pro, or the one I use:  Cover Action Pro.  You can also hire a cover designer.

3.  Tell people why they should join your list.

You’ve got to give potential subscribers a compelling reason to join your list.  Tell them what kind of information you’ll give them, what they can expect, and how they’ll benefit.  As will so many things in business, answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”

4.  Create a separate pitch page.

It’s not enough to just slap up a subscribe form and a graphic to get people to subscribe to your list… You’ve got to sell them on the idea.  To do that, you need to write a well-crafted sales page that outlines all the benefits to joining your list.

The way I usually do this is to link directly from my subscribe box to a sales page with a link that says “click here to read more.”  I also link the graphic for the list to the pitch page.  Don’t forget to include your subscribe box prominently on the pitch page as well.  After all, you’ve talked them into subscribing.  You want to make sure they have a place to do it.

5.  Target your forms and pitch page to your audience.

It’s important to know who your target subscribers are before you go through all the trouble of creating an ezine, newsletter, or ecourse.  That’s obvious… but you also need to have thought through your potential subscribers’ possible reasons for subscribing, what they’re looking for, and how you’re going to give it to them.  That way you can tailor the graphics, pitch, title of the subscriptions, etc. to what will most likely appeal to your target subscribers.

A properly targeted list will be much more responsive and profitable.

6.  Allow email subscriptions.

Sometimes people make the mistake of only allowing new subscribers to subscribe through an online form.  They often do it that way to make sure that someone isn’t harvesting emails and fraudulently subscribing people.

In my opinion, you should also allow people to subscribe by sending an email directly to your list.  This is an easy option to set up in most email management programs.  As long as your list requires subscribers to confirm their subscription, you shouldn’t have any problems with spammers.  If spammers become an issue, you can always turn the option off.

If you aren’t comfortable with this idea, you could also allow people to send their subscription directly to you and you can manually add them to your database.  It might take a little more time, but if someone goes through the trouble of sending you an email, they’re probably going to read every email you send them.

7.  Offer incentives to subscribe.

There are lots of different incentives you can offer to entice people to subscribe to your list or ezine.  You can offer free ebooks, special reports, audios, videos, teleseminars, free coaching, or anything else you can think of.

There is a school of thought that offering freebies to get subscribers can actually lower the responsiveness of your list because many people will only subscribe to your list to get your freebies then unsubscribe.  On the other hand, if you offer high quality original material to your subscribers, you may retain more subscribers.  My advice is to offer freebies that give subscribers a taste of what to expect in your ezine.

8.  Show archives or samples of past ezine issues.

This is a really good way to let potential subscribers know what to expect when they subscribe to your newsletter or ezine.

If you don’t want to archive all your issues for non-subscribers, then you can always provide a few samples to whet their appetite for more.

9.  Be sure to post your email privacy policy.

Make it easy for people to subscribe to your list with confidence that you won’t spam them or sell their email address.

You may also want to try something like, “No obligation.  Nothing to buy.”  This is something that I’ve begun implementing on my own subscription forms and the results have been good so far.

10.  Use a strong call to action.

A call to action is exactly what it sounds like… it’s a command for your subscriber to subscribe.  Some common calls to action on a subscription for are:

• Subscribe Now!
• Send Me The Report!
• Click to Subscribe Now!
• Show Me How To…
• Join Now!

In other words, tell potential subscribers exactly what you want them to do.  Ask them to subscribe to your list.

11.  Advertise in newsletters/ezines.

Find other newsletters and ezines that are related to your target market, but don’t directly compete, and buy advertising.  If the newsletter or ezine that you’re interested in doesn’t currently offer advertising, contact them anyway and see if you can work something out.

A somewhat riskier tactic is to actually advertise in competing newsletters and ezines.  Some publishers won’t allow competing advertising, but most aren’t paying close enough attention to their lists to care.  The risk to advertising in a competing ezine is that you will be directly compared to your competition… if you think you can go head to head, go for it.

12.  Advertise on Google Adwords or other pay per clicks.

Pay per click advertising can be extremely effective and get you a lot of subscribers in a hurry… if you know what you’re doing.  It can also cost you a small fortune and result in very few subscribers if you don’t know how the game is played.

I highly suggest doing a little homework on the subject before you embark on this type of campaign.  You can choose to purchase a course on the subject like Google Money Pro, but you can get a good idea if pay-per-click advertising is for you from a free email course from Perry Marshall called, 5 Days to Success With Google Adwords.

13.  Put subscription information in your signature file.

I’m guilty, I admit it.  I rarely use a signature file on my outgoing emails.  Why?  I guess I’m just plain lazy.  It’s a really good idea to create a mini-ad about your newsletter or ezine and include it in your signature… I’ll have to put that on my list of things to do (boy that list sure is getting long!).

14.  Incorporate your subscription information into your print media.

So many businesses that operate out in the real world in addition to the online world totally miss the boat on this one.  If you have a business that uses print brochures, fliers, business cards, etc. you should include information about your newsletter, ezine, or update list, ecourse or any other type of list you have on your printed media.

If you have a retail location, for example, you could actually build a good email list out of your customers and visitors by offering to send them updates of upcoming sales, special product offers, or special shipments coming in.  You could even hold a contest and collect email addresses at your retail location so that you can notify the winner by email.  I could go on here, but you get the idea.

15.  List with ezine directories.

List your newsletter or ezine with directories specifically for that purpose.  You may not get a lot of subscribers this way, but every little bit counts.

16.  Advertise in print publications.

This is a great idea that is very rarely used, from what I’ve seen.  The idea is simple.  Find printed publications related to your website or business and pay for advertising in them.  In your ad, you’ll want use your pitch page URL so that potential subscribers go directly to the subscription page.

If you’re really smart, you’ll create a separate subscription page for each advertisement that you place so that you can track the results and see which ads are paying off and which ones you should drop.

17.  Do link exchanges.

If you do link exchanges on your website, that presents an excellent opportunity to advertise your newsletter, ezine, ecourse, or free report.  All you have to do is link directly to your pitch page rather than your website when you exchange links with other websites.

You could also take this one a step further by developing a link exchange program on your website that is strictly for ezines, for example.  In other words, you provide links to other “great ezines” while the ezines you link to do the same for your ezine.

18.  Ad Swaps.

A truly simple idea that creates a win/win for everyone involved.  All you have to do is find a newsletter or ezine that’s related to your target audience, but that isn’t direct competition and exchange ads.  You place their ad in your ezine and they place your ad in there’s.

One thing to keep in mind when you do this is that any publisher you approach should have about the same size email list as you.  If you have far fewer subscribers, they may require additional ads to make the swap fair and equitable.

19.  Write high quality articles.

If you already write articles as part of your overall marketing plan, simply add a plug for your ezine or newsletter.  You could also write articles specifically with the idea of promoting a special free report or something similar.  If you’ve written high quality articles, subscribers will flock to your ezine.  If you want more information about article marketing, visit The Amazing Article Formula.

20.  Send articles to other newsletter publishers.

You can get even more mileage, and subscribers, by sending your well-crafted article to other newsletter and ezine publishers for use in their publications.  A lot of online publications don’t offer advertising, but they love really good articles because it means less work for them!

21.  Get your articles published in print media.

Nothing gives you and your ezine or newsletter more credibility than being published in a printed – as in paper and ink – magazine or newsletter.  Guest articles in print media usually include some kind of information about the author, just like online publications do.  This provides you with a great opportunity for some free publicity about your special report, ezine, or free online course.

End of Part 1. Click here to go to part 2

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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No matter what kind of email you send — promotions, follow ups, newsletters, etc. — You only have a few seconds to catch your reader’s attention and get them to open your email, read it, and click through on your email links.

The most difficult obstacle in email marketing is to get people to actually open your messages.

After all, you can’t provide value to your prospects, develop rapport, or establish yourself as an expert in your industry if they won’t open the skinkin’ email!

So let’s talk about the most important factors in getting people to open your email and increase your email open rates.

There are two things that you’ve got to focus on, you’re email subject line and the “from” field of the email.  Let’s do “from” first.

1.  Be Consistent With Your Branding.

What I mean by this is that you’ve got to put the same thing in the “from” field every time you send out an email so that people will know who it’s from.  I have one non-business niche newsletter that I send out that always has the name of the newsletter in the “from.”  On the other hand, all my business niche email goes out with “Arvada Yates” in the “from” field.

The point here is that you don’t want to put something different in that field every time you send out a new message.  That just confuses people and lowers your email open rates.

2.  Use A Real Name

I absolutely hate it when people send me junk email that doesn’t even have a real name in the “from!”   I get junk from completely fake names, and that’s bad enough, but I also get stuff from really clever people like:

GOOD NEWS!
Home Warranty
Investigation and Debt Settlement Committee
8.2 Megapixel Camera
A Slimmer You!

Or they just leave the “from” completely blank.  Do they really think I’m going to bother opening something from “GOOD NEWS!”… of course not!

Now let’s get on to those subject lines.

3.  Don’t Over-Hype Your Email Subject Line

This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make with their subject lines… they throw in a bunch of hype instead of just delivering a good subject line. Here are some over-hyped email subject lines from my own inbox:

Make $1000 Every Day from Google Adsense
EARN From The MOST POWERFUL MONEY MAKING Program On The Net
Gain $50k this-week with a poscard mailing system

Do they think anyone is going to believe any of this crap?  Hype just makes people hit the delete button without bothering to read about what you’re hyping.

4.  Don’t Use ALL Caps

I really hate it when people use all capital letters in their subject lines.  It’s hard to read and it makes you feel like THEY’RE SHOUTING AT YOU.

5.  Be Honest

Honesty always works better than dishonesty to increase your email open rates.  You can’t trick people into opening your emails, and even if you do, they won’t click through to your website or offer.  Here’s what I mean by dishonest:

Hunagshi Donbei global lottery (You Are A Winner)
RE:  Your Commission Has Been Sent
Your Payment Overdue
ATM Code Problem
Congratulations Arvada, You Just Made A Commission!

That last one REALLY ticks me off. I get those kinds of things all the time and I usually preview the email to find out who I earned commissions from… only to find out that it’s a scam.  I hate that.

6.  Don’t Use Extra Punctuation

I’m talking about those email subject lines that use a bunch of punctuation marks to point to the words or when people use ten exclaimation marks in their subject line…  Like this:

FREE Money!!!!!!!!!!
~~~~~%%%% You’ve Won Our Super Lottery%%%%~~~~
===>> Check this out <<===

Just write a meaningful subject line and you won’t need all that other junk, plus you’ll increase your email open rates!

7.  Limit Your Subject Length

Most email software and online services limit the number of characters that they show in a subject line, so your subject line should be 50 characters or less — including the spaces. If you write a longer headline than that, it will probably be cut off by the software and you won’t be able to increase your email open rates.

8.  Put A Benefit In Your Subject Line

Subject lines are kind of like the headlines of sales letters.  They have to capture your audience, get them to read on (open your email), and convey the benefits of your message.  In other words, give them a good reason to open your email.  Here’s some examples:

How To Get A Great Job In A Bad Economy
3 Free Tools I Love
Merry Christmas (Present Inside)

Subject lines are the most important factor in increasing your email open rates, so take the time to do them right!

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Twitter can be a great tool to increase your visibility, create new leads and subscribers for your business, and produce more sales for your business or affiliate marketing, but you have to use it the right way to accomplish all those things.

That’s where all the self-proclaimed Twitter Experts and Gurus come in.

There are a lot of people out there who claim to be “Total Twitter Gurus,” and they just LOVE to give advice on how you can become a Twitter Expert too!  So I thought it would be kind of fun to talk about the top three totally stupid twitter tips that I’ve see over the last few weeks.

1.  Don’t Automate Your Posts

Okay, that’s definitely a totally stupid Twitter tip!  Internet businesses use autoresponder email to set up campaigns to keep in touch with customers and prospects, why not autoresponder-type tweets? As a matter of fact, if your blog is tied into your Twitter account, you’re already auto-posting.

As long as you pre-schedule Twitter posts that are useful, helpful, and interesting, it doesn’t seem like there’s any harm in automating your posts.

With so many different social networks out there now, it makes sense to automate as much as possible so that you can spend time every day personally interacting with your followers on a personal basis.   If you don’t use automation, then you’re constantly trying to keep up!

2.  Don’t Autofollow Others

Again… totally stupid Twitter Tip!  I automatically follow EVERYONE that follows me. In fact, I think it would be kind of rude not to follow them back.

I think of it kind of like a handshake.  If someone extends their hand, you should meet them half way and shake hands back, then you get to know them better.

In the same way, people choose to follow you on Twitter, you follow them back, and then you get to know them better by reading their tweets.  If you don’t like the things that they post, simply stop following them.

3.  Don’t Promote On Twitter

Okay, as a business owner, what’s the point in spending a lot of time on Twitter interacting with customers and prospects if you aren’t going to use it for promotion?  That would be a complete waste of time!

Having said that, I’m not suggesting that you should jump on Twitter and repeatedly post a link to your product saying, “Check it out!”  That would also be a complete waste of time.

In my mind, Twitter is another tool that you can use to pre-sell people on you, your business, or your product by providing useful information, tips, and helpful advice that your followers can really use.

It’s about building a relationship.

If you can effectively build a relationship with your Twitter followers, then you’re effectively promoting your business.  There’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s also nothing wrong with letting your followers know about your latest article, blog post, newest video, or Facebook note, as long as that’s not all you’re doing on Twitter.

In the end, you should be following The Golden Rule when it comes to tweeting.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.

Twitter can be a great marketing tool for your business, as long as you learn to use it wisely and not follow totally stupid Twitter tips from self-proclaimed Twitter experts and gurus.

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Yesterday I worked on setting up a new email marketing campaign and realized that Aweber, my autoresponder service, made some MAJOR improvements to their service that will help everyone who uses autoresponders.

Aweber added a new form generator that will make your subscription forms look ultra-professional without having to do any fancy coding yourself.  The web form generator now has templates to give your form that professional edge.

Check out the video below to see what I mean:

Pretty cool, huh?

But here’s how it helps EVERYONE who uses email marketing and autoresponders, no matter what service they use…

It forces other autorsponder services to upgrade to offer subscription form templates too if they want to compete for our consumer dollars.

Wait and see… It won’t be long before just about every autoresponder service on the planet offers subscription form templates too.  As a matter of fact, they’ll probably make it one of their major benefits on their sales pages and include screen captures of their templates so that they can prove that they have the “best” templates.

That’s okay… Any way you slice it, these are functionalities that benefit us all.

Isn’t competition great?

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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The whole idea of blog commenting for traffic has been around for a long time, but you don’t hear too many people talk about the effectiveness of this strategy. Maybe that’s because sooo many people do it all wrong.

So, is blog commenting a smart traffic strategy?

Well, it depends on how you do it. Let’s take a look.

Blog Comment Spamming Sucks!

There are A LOT of people out there who are trying to drive traffic to their own sites by posting spammy comments, manually or by using software, on other people’s blogs. If you’re one of those people, stop right now.

First of all, most blogs have “no-follows” scripted into their comments so that you’ll never get any search engine traffic from those postings.

Secondly, there’s not a REAL person on the planet that’s going to follow your link when you post some kind of ridiculous comment that doesn’t make any sense and only promotes your link.

People are smarter than that.

I seriously doubt that you’ll even get any curiosity clicks, so don’t waste your time.

Build Blog Commenting Relationships For Traffic

Now that we’ve gotten that whole spam thing out of the way, let’s talk about how you can use blog commenting to gain traffic. The key to success is to build relationships on any blog that you peruse.

If you’re the blog owner, it’s really a piece of cake to build relationships with your commenters.

But here’s a newsflash — you can build relationships as a commenter too!

Talk directly to the person who wrote the post, talk to other commenters, comment about other comments, and get involved in the blog.

Bloggers Build Community

It’s no secret that many of the people who comment on blogs, especially business oriented blogs, are bloggers themselves. That’s why relationship building on blogs is so important.

When you meaningfully participate in the community aspect of a blog, you’re creating relationships with other people who can send you a significant amount of traffic through blogs and other social media.

In other words, you have to give in order to receive.

Provide great content, post thoughtful and compelling comments, re-tweet posts, make comments about posts on facebook or other social outlets, and bookmark great posts. It all adds up to a lot of interaction with the blog community, gets the attention of the blog owner, and gives you credibility when you post a comment on that blog.

And other bloggers will reciprocate in kind.

That’s the way content REALLY spreads and how you get the kind of traffic that REALLY counts.

It takes time to build traffic this way, but it’s well-worth the effort because it becomes an unstoppable flood of traffic to your site or blog — traffic that converts.

In the end, blog commenting is a REALLY smart traffic strategy if you do it right!

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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People ask me all kinds of questions — “Should I go with affiliate marketing or network marketing?”  “What’s the best thing to sell online?”  “How can I REALLY start a home business that makes money?”

Most of the time what people really want to know is:  How can I make the kind of money all those gurus talk about?

Well, the first thing that you need to know is that many of those internet marketing gurus aren’t being completely honest about their income, the size of their lists, or their products.  I’m sure you already knew that — after all, it’s hard to take anyone at their word anymore, especially online.

But here’s the other thing you need to know about a lot of internet marketers… for some, the major source of their income doesn’t actually come from selling their internet marketing products (or any products for that matter) online .  Let me explain…

A LOT of Internet Marketing Gurus Are MLM’ers Too!

Would it surprise you to know that a lot of those internet marketing gurus who try to sell you all kinds of marketing products actually make the majority of their income through network marketing? Some of them actually started in network marketing and then developed their internet marketing products later to sell to their downlines and then to the public.

I know that’s hard for some people to believe — network marketing — really?

After all, network marketing has gotten a really bad reputation over the last several years.  But I actually have proof that internet marketing gurus make a substantial part of their income from network marketing… Click here for proof.

See any marketing names that you recognize? How about Jim Daniels, Yanik Silver, Rosalind Gardner, Frank Kern, Terry Dean, Bryan Kumar, and Mike Chen?  Several years ago I was even approached by Corey Rudl about a MLM opportunity – even though he flatly denied it to his internet marketing followers.

So why do so many internet marketers dabble in network marketing as well?

Because there’s HUGE money in network marketing!

In fact, network marketing is exactly like affiliate marketing in a lot of ways… the only REAL difference is that network marketers get paid down several levels for their efforts, resulting in more income, while affiliate marketers only get paid on one or two levels.

Network marketing is a GOLD MINE if you know how to do it!

Should You Follow In The Guru’s Footsteps?

Like any other home based business, some will succeed and some will fail… But one of the real benefits of network marketing over just about any other home business is the possibility of absolutely HUGE paydays.  You just can’t make as much money as quickly in any other business model.

But that’s not the only reason that I like network marketing as part of my own business.

For me, the best thing about network marketing is that I can mentor, coach, and train people in their home businesses for FREE.

Let me explain… In a traditional coaching, mentoring, or training career, the coach earns their living from charging clients an hourly fee.   Frankly, I never liked the idea of charging by the hour. I always found it restrictive and uncomfortable because some clients need a lot more attention than others. …And you can’t always reach the people who need you most because they can’t afford to spend $300 per hour on this kind of service.

But now I can provide unlimited personalized coaching, mentoring, and training, centered around an EXTREMELY lucrative home business model, to people who really need the help and support, and EVERYBODY WINS!

• I get to help people to develop a successful home business that can absolutely change their lives… This is an AWESOME way to earn a living!
• The people I coach get REAL help and training from an expert so that they have a REAL chance to make it in home business and turn their lives around.

For me it’s a win/win situation.

But how do you know if it’s right for you?  Here are the basic reasons why you might want to consider getting into network marketing:

1. You’d like to supplement your current home business income.
2. You’d like to bump your income to the next level.
3. You’re struggling trying to make it with affiliate marketing.
4. You really need a coach/trainer to help you make it.
5. You’ve never had a home business before and you don’t know what to do.
6. You don’t know anything about marketing or internet marketing.
7. You’re already an expert and want the chance to help others reach your level of income.

Still don’t know if network marketing might be your thing?  That’s okay… I was skeptical at first too.

But the network marketing business model is built in such a way that you can actually test-run it for a month or two to see if you like it.  If you don’t like it — move on to something else.  There are tons of network marketing companies out there, so you’re bound to find one that will work for you and your lifestyle.

After all, network marketing seems to be the “best kept secret” of many successful internet marketing gurus — maybe it’s worth looking into.

Learn more about my FREE coaching program… Click here!

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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