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

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 2

Related posts:

1. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers
2. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers Part 3
3. Why Don’t SOME Affiliate Products Sell?

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

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

Related posts:

1. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers Part 2
2. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers Part 3
3. How Does Attraction Marketing Really Work?

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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How Do Gurus REALLY Make Money?

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I was coaching a new client yesterday who told me a story about how she had spent thousands of dollars on pay-per-click advertising for an affiliate product that she was promoting, yet yielded absolutely no sales.

Of course she was absolutely certain that the affiliate program was ripping her off — She’d actually made sales but they weren’t credited to her affiliate account.

Maybe that was true in her case, I don’t know, but there are also other factors that could explain here lack of affiliate sales.

1.  Does the affiliate sales page convert?

This is probably the biggest thing that all affiliates should consider before joining because it will have the biggest impact on your bottom line.   Does the sales page for the affiliate product that you want to promote have a good conversion rate?  In other words, how many people who click over to the sales page actually buy the product?

Believe it or not, conversion rates average around 2%… but I’ve see affiliate sales pages converting at much, much less.  It’s not unusual to find affiliate conversion rates in the tank at 0.01%.

2.  Does the sales page offer “untracked” sales?

Sometimes an affiliate sales page offers prospects other forms of payment that can’t be tracked to the affiliate who referred them.

For example, if a prospect can order by 800 number, then the affiliate may not get credit for sales they’ve referred who purchased through that toll free number.

I’ve seen a lot of Clickbank merchants do this kind of bait and switch thing to affiliates… let me explain.

The merchant joins Clickbank and sells one of their products through them.  Once they’re in the Clickbank marketplace and affiliates start promoting them, the merchant switches over to take payments through PayPal, phone, or another payment system and cuts the affiliate out of the sales.

3.  Is your advertising targeting the right market?

This is what I think happened to my coaching client… she was getting plenty of clicks, but they weren’t people who were interested in actually buying the product she was advertising.

It’s easy, especially with pay-per-click, to get a lot of people clicking through your ad.  All you have to do is word the ad so that it provokes a lot of clicks.

But clicks aren’t what really matters in a pay-per-click campaign… quality clicks are what matter.

That’s why most PPC experts use negative qualifiers and precise information to weed out all the tire-kickers.  Once you do that and specifically target who will see your ad, you’ll find that the quality of your clicks and your return on investment (ROI) improves tremendously.  (If you want to learn more about PPC, then I highly recommend The Definitive Guide To Google Adwords!)

In the end, there are probably lots of reasons why some affiliate products don’t sell, but these are the most common problems that affiliates face.

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Why Don’t SOME Affiliate Products Sell?

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There’s really no reason to make things complicated when it comes to figuring out what people want, need, and will spend their hard-earned money on.  It’s actually really easy when you figure out that there’s really only five things that people really buy and just about everything fits into one of those five categories.

It doesn’t matter how great the features are, how awesome your marketing message, or even if your product has all the bells and whistles.  It doesn’t even matter what your industry is… At the end of the day, your customers all buy some variation of one of these things:

1. Make more money
2. Save more time
3. Make them feel better about themselves
4. Avoid the frustration of doing things they don’t want or like to do
5. Saving or avoid losing money in the future

So now that you know that your customers fit into one of these categories, how can you use that to your advantage?

Easy… Focus all your energy on selling one of these key points in all your copywriting and keep these five categories in mind as you create new products.

Of course, there are a lot of other factors involved in the entire sales process, but keeping an eye on these five categories and integrating this basic knowledge into your business plan will ultimately help you to make more sales and create products and services that address a need in your industry.

And there’s your quick tip for today… there are really only 5 things that people buy.

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Only 5 Things People Really Buy?

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2. List Building: 62 Super Strategies For Gaining Subscribers Part 2
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The idea of attraction marketing seems to be really making a lot of noise lately.  I can’t tell you how many of my clients have been asking me about it in the last couple of months — what is it, does it work, can I do it too?

There’s really no secret.

I’ve been practicing attraction marketing for years in my own business.  If you’re successful, I bet you have too.

So here’s the big secret… Attraction marketing is any marketing strategy designed to “attract” people who are interested in your products, services, or business to you or your website like a magnet.

Frankly, I think attraction marketing and pre-selling are pretty much the same thing.

The idea is that you don’t want to SELL people your wares.  People hate to be “sold,” but they love to buy stuff when it hits their hot buttons and the buying experience is pleasurable.

In my mind, attraction marketing really comes in two parts… attracting interested people and enticing them to buy.  Let’s talk about each one separately.

1.  Attracting Interested People

The key to making a good living with your business, no matter what business you’re in, is to get your business in front of people who are interested in buying what you have to offer.  The more interested people who see what you’ve got, the more money you’re going to make — simple as that.

In the online world, there are lots and lots of easy ways to do that:

• Write great keyword rich content that attracts interested people through search engines.
• Write articles that will interest your target audience.
• Create videos that will attract interested people.
• Offer a free ebook, ecourse, or report to your target audience (lead capture).
• Advertise your free offer, rather than your products, services, or business.

You want to help interested people find you, but you don’t want to sell them.

You can practice attraction marketing in the offline world as well:

• Advertise a free offer on your website in newpapers, signs, flyers, billboards, etc.
• Create and advertise a recorded message about your business or products.
• Put a sign on your car.
• Use your own products publicly.

The essence of attraction marketing is that you want to give people who are interested in your products, services, or business a reason to be attracted to you and do it in a completely non-threatening way.

2.  Enticing People To Buy

First of all, you’ve got to get the dollar signs out of your eyes.  Too many people operate their business like a used car salesman.

Let me draw you a picture and you’ll see what I mean.

As you’re driving up on a car lot, you notice a group of salesmen sitting together near the entrance.  As your car turns in, all the salesmen turn towards you and you see the cold glint of dollar signs in their eyes.

You flinch just a little, but still find a parking spot and stop the car.

As you get out of the car, you notice that the salesmen are urgently talking amongst themselves until one of them puts on one of those fake smiles and starts walking towards you while the others quickly disperse.

“Hey what kind of car are we looking to buy today?”

YUK!  I hate that so much that I actually refuse to talk to sales people and make my husband deal with them.

No one likes to be treated that way in any situation.

But if you’re hard selling everyone who visits your website, then you’re acting like that money-hungry used car salesman and driving potential customers away.

You’ve heard it before, people buy from other people that they like and trust.

Your job is to give people the things that will attract them to your business, build a relationship with them, and then gently recommend your products, services, or business when they show an interest.

That’s the essence of attraction marketing.

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!

How Does Attraction Marketing Really Work?

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One of the most difficult challenges you’ll face as an online entrepreneur is pricing your products.  It’s difficult to strike a balance between pricing it high enough to make a good profit and low enough to make sales.

Lowering Your Price To Compete

This is a strategy that a lot of product owners mistakenly try in order to increase sales and gain more customers.  It sounds right — lower your price so that your product is less expensive than your competition.

Unfortunately, this strategy almost never works and will actually result in fewer sales, not more.

People don’t necessarily buy the cheapest product.  They usually buy the product that appears to be the best value for their money.

In addition, lowering your prices means less profit.  Earning less profits per sale may mean that you have a hard time keeping your business afloat.

Here’s a better strategy for pricing your products:

1.  Remain Competitive

You may not want to be the lowest priced product in your niche, but you do want to be competitive.  Take a look at the competition and what they’re offering.

You can’t price your product in a vacuum.

You’re competitors will help to guide you in your own pricing strategy.  You can take a look at the most expensive competitors and the bargain basement competitors and get a pretty good feel for what the market will bare in your industry or niche.

Once you know what your competition is doing, it will be easier to create a pricing strategy that gains a share of the market and creates sales.

2.  Create A Perception Of High Value

The best way to compete on price is to create a higher perceived value of your products compared to your competition.

You may even be able to charge significantly more for your product if you can prove to your potential customers that your product is better than anything else on the market.

The best way to create a higher perceived value is to pile on the bonuses.

Your product may be priced at $97 when the rest of the competition is priced at $47, but if you offer bonuses worth an additional $2,000 you’ll be able to easily convince potential customers that your product is superior.

Perception is everything.

3.  Test Prices

One of the best ways to price your products to compete for massive sales is to test different price points.  There are software products that run on your server that will allow you to test different prices — and they’re well-worth the money.

You’d be surprised how often you can actually charge a lot more for your product than you’d expect.

The idea is to find that “sweet spot” where you’re maximizing profits, not necessarily sales.

Here’s an example:  Let’s say that you can sell 100 ebooks for a $10 dollar profit on each and make $1,000.  You test out different price points and find that you can also sell the same ebook for $50 profit, but you only sell 50 of them instead of 100.  In the first scenario, you’ve made $1,000.  At the higher price, you actually profit $2,500!

Testing is the best way to find the “sweet spot.”

In the end, it’s important to remember that buyers are always much more interested in getting the best value for their money rather than the cheapest product.  Knowing that is how you go about pricing your product to compete for massive sales.

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!

Pricing Your Products To Compete For Massive Sales

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When it comes to trying to build your business and making money, it all comes down to giving your visitors and prospects lollipops and cookies!

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Give Them Lollipops And Cookies

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The Google Slap, in case you aren’t familiar with the term, is a nasty little punishment that Google wages against Adwords advertisers that don’t live up to Google expectations.  It’s punitive, uncompromising, and completely non-customer centered.

Let me lay out my story for you.

I’ve been running Google Adwords campaigns for years from the same account, for several different niche websites.  I’ve never had a problem with them — I’ve always diligently followed the rules:

1. No squeeze pages.
2. Content-based landing pages.
3. Keywords matching the landing pages.

In fact, the majority of my landing pages have always been plain old article pages directly from my website — nothing fancy.

I had a pretty good thing going here… then I made a silly mistake.

For some reason, I got in a hurry and didn’t set up a proper article-type page for a new campaign that I started.  Instead, it was a php redirect to an affiliate sales page.  It ran for about six weeks and I made a killing with it — then Google caught it.

My sales plumetted and it didn’t take very long to figure out that I had been the victim of the dreaded Google Slap!

Every one of my landing pages in every campaign I was running (not just the offending campaign) carried a 1/10 rating.  That means that NONE of my campaigns were showing for any domain or product I was promoting through Google Adwords.

Further investigation revealed that Google also dropped my pagerank for iMarketingWatch.com site from a PR3 or PR4 to a PR1.

I immediately deleted the offending ads and hoped that Google would return my “good” campaigns to their normal 7/10-5/10 ratings.  Days went by and there was no change in my account status.

Then I deleted ALL my campaigns and started over fresh with brand new campaigns that went to articles that I have running on my blogs on other domains.  They were only designed to generate traffic, not sales, but Google ranked them at a 1/10 too, making it impossible to run the campaigns.

I repeatedly emailed Google to see if they would review my account, see that I was following the rules, and maybe stop punishing me for my one error in all these years.  They never answered my questions.

They did manage to send me an automated survey to see if I was satisfied with customer service however.

Google Slap experts claim that once you’ve been slapped you should get rid of the offending domain and start over with a new domain.  They claim that once you’ve been slapped, your site can never recover and make it back into Google’s good graces.  I haven’t decided if I want to dump iMarketingWatch.com and start over or not.  I sure hate to start over!

Apparently, you can never use the Google Adwords account that’s been slapped again either.

I deleted my account over the weekend and moved all my advertising dollars over to Yahoo.

I don’t know if starting a new account at Google would allow me to continue working with Adwords, but I’ve heard horror stories about Google tracking your IP or credit card and giving you the old Google Slap again on your new account.

Frankly, I’m not too inclined to give Google a second chance, despite it’s enormous search engine market share.  At Yahoo I’m paying less money per click and getting keywords that I would never be able to afford at Google — even before the Google Slap.

Although Yahoo generates a lot fewer impressions than Google, Yahoo seems to remember that advertisers are customers and they treat them like customers.

Obviously, Google doesn’t really care about it’s customers.  Rather than being punitive, they could easily just disable the offending campaigns for any advertiser – but they choose to brutally punish advertisers instead.

I guess you can do whatever you want when you’re the 800 lb. Gorilla.

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!

Boy Did Google Slap Me Hard!

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If you’ve ever tried to generate new product ideas and come up dry, this podcast is for you! Today I’m lining up three killer idea generators to help you create the perfect product for your niche or business.

Here’s my notes from this podcast:

1.  Harness the endless supply of targeted information in trade publications, newsletters, newspapers, and magazines to create your next product.

These are ideas that are ready-made for your target audience and waiting for your to exploit!

2.  Compile the expertise of respected experts in your niche or industry.

This is the fastest and easiest way to create an ebook that I’ve every come across.  All you have to do is let others create the content for you!

3.  Let Uncle Sam do all the work for you.

You can get your hands on hundreds of pages of completely free, high quality, already researched content to build your next information product on.  It just doesn’t get any easier than this!

It’s really easy to come up with new ideas for your next product if you open your mind up to the possibilities.  I have more ideas right now than I’ll ever be able to act on and so can you!

Discover How To Find, Re-Package And Sell Public Domain Content As Your Own Moneymaking Information Product — Click Here Now!

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!

3 Awesome Idea Generators For Your Next Product

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