As you may know, I recently interviewed Lee McIntyre and one of the questions I asked him during our interview together was “Since you’re well known for having a very responsive list, can you please share with us some tips on how you would recommend building one from scratch?”
As I’m sure you can guess, Lee revealed some awesome tips which I have included below.
Lee McIntyre: “Okay. Unlike a lot of the gurus and so-called experts out there, I’m not actually going to give you any theory now. I’m going to take a step back and I’m going to tell you about how I built my list. It’s almost exactly a year ago that I had zero subscribers in the Internet Marketing niche. I created a product that was called Auction Profits Unleashed. I drove traffic to that product using affiliates.
I went out there, recruited affiliates, gave them an incentive to promote my product for me, and as they promoted my product, those customers who bought the product joined my list. I didn’t have any contacts at the time. I didn’t have any JV partners. I just did it completely from scratch.
After two weeks of selling that product completely from scratch with no contacts and no JV partners, I built a list of 602 people. I then took part in an e-mail promotion for John Thornhill’s launch. I ended up being the number three affiliate with just a list of 603 people. People below me in the affiliate ladder had lists of 50,000 to 80,000 people! It’s just incredible when you think about it.
I want to share with you how that works. By the end of the month, I had a list of 1200 people. It might surprise you to know that up until week two, when I had a list of 600, I didn’t have a squeeze page. I didn’t have an opt-in form on my blog. All I had was a product that I was selling.
Undoubtedly, if you want to start by building a responsive list, you need to focus on getting buyers into your funnel. You can still concentrate on getting free subscribers from giveaways and from your blog. That should be part of your marketing process. The primary focus when you first get started to build a responsive list should be to create a high-value product that is actually low priced so that you sell that product in volume. As people buy that product, they’ll join your list.
I only had a list of 600 people after two weeks. It was 600 buyers, though. There are people out there with a list of 30,000 who won’t have 600 buyers on their list. They’ll have about 100 buyers potentially. That’s where the responsiveness comes in. I would rather have a list of 600 buyers than a list of 100 buyers and a list of 29,900 freebie seekers. There’s nothing wrong with that either, but I’m just telling you my personal perspective.
That’s what I did. I created a product and I recruited affiliates. I gave affiliates a powerful reason to promote my product for me. That is completely how I would build a list. That’s how I built a list from scratch.
The second element of that is there is no use having a list if you can’t build relationships with it. You need to be able to cultivate and maintain relationships with your subscribers. The best advice I can give people on that particular topic in terms of how to do that is to treat your subscribers like individuals. By that, I mean don’t just treat them as a number on a balance sheet. Don’t just treat them as something to sell things to. Treat them as you would members of your own family.
You need to be aware that if you just try to sell them stuff all the time and you just treat them as numbers on a balance sheet, they will become unresponsive or less responsive to the offers you send. If you actually give good value, create content and send them content for free, for no expectation of anything in return, then they will respond to your offers.”
I’ve been a paid member of Dynamic4Marketing.com since March and the tools and resources they put together back then were really great, but they’ve just launched D4M2 and I’m even more excited now!
And this is something I recommend thinking about now, since the price is rising $300 after August 19th (and this isn’t one of those fake marketing ploys that many internet marketers like to do to create urgency…).
I upgraded to D4M2 earlier this month and I’ve spent the past few days going through a few of the cool new tools that are included in D4M2.
The first one is Simon Hodgkinson’s brand new “Instant Member” software. The sales page says Instant Member is set to revolutionize membership and digital product management and after having gone through it myself, I actually agree. Just check out a few of the powerful features available…
-Create Unlimited Levels Of Membership With ‘Level Specific’ Product Access
-Create Free, Trial, One Time & Recurring Payment Plans
-Instantly Set Customers As Affiliates
-”DRIP CONTENT” - Set Product Delivery By Specific Date Or User’s Length
Of Membership
-”KILL CONTENT” - Expire Any Products By Date or Time
-Secure Downloads To Prevent Product Theft
By the way, the “DRIP CONTENT” feauture is absolutely AMAZING, because it increases the probability of your members remaining members. Instead of offering someone a FREE trial to your site and having them download everything inside and then quit, you can give them access to some of the content and then gradually ‘drip’ the rest of it to them over time.
I’ve also been going through the Membership Mogul training course that is included and it gives some great tips on how to set up your membership site properly. It’s the perfect companion to Instant Member.
Here’s a brief run down of some of the other exciting new tools you’ll get full access to inside the new D4M2 site.
JP Schoeffel’s “Blog Matrix Pro” - This software is the VRE builder’s dream come true. You’ll be able to instantly create as many blogs as you want on any domains, subdomains - EVEN - if they’re hosted on different servers.
You’ll also see details about Jeremy Gislason’s cool “SYT DASH” software and John Delavera has added his ‘Little Script’ which is a lazy membership marketer’s dream come true… Want a secure and protected download area in seconds - no problem with this.
Have I mentioned JP’s “Niche Video Creator” software? If you want ultra fast loading videos on your site and you want them quick, without turning yourself into a techno geek to do it take a look at NVC…
And there’s so much more…
Videos, membership passes, audios, training courses
Really TOO MUCH to cover here
Head over right now and take some time to check out all the great
resources…
Here’s the link you need and don’t forget the price is increasing after August 19th:
One of the biggest challenges I see new internet marketers struggle with is dealing with ‘information overload’. It’s very easy to get sucked into the really great sales copy and want to try to make lots of money by becoming a super affiliate, creating products, selling resell rights products, doing pay per click, blogging, AND creating your own membership site.
The problem is by running around in too many directions and trying to accomplish too many things, it makes it almost impossible to stay focused. And being focused is almost essential when it comes to enjoying success, especially online.
My number one tip for anyone who is struggling with information overload is to focus on just one thing at a time and promise yourself that you will see it through to completion. I believe you are much better off having one website that is completely up and running and makes even a little money, than dozens of websites that are only 50% complete and aren’t making you anything. Once you’ve figured out how to make money one way and you can do that consistently, then it is easy to add a new element to the mix (whether that be a new site, a new way to make money online, or a new product).
But if you try to learn and do too many things at once, it’s almost impossible to succeed because you’re probably going to end up feeling overwhelmed and stuck. The key is to always keep moving forward, even if it’s just a little bit at a time. You will be amazed at how much you can achieve simply by moving towards your most important goals, even a little bit, every day.
One person who really helped me stay focused and move forward (and I am extremely grateful to) is Erik Stafford ‘The Faster Webmaster’. Erik has helped over a thousand people (just like you and me) crush their fears and get their own websites online and running in no time flat. I used his Faster Webmaster Program and thought it was awesome, but he’s just released Faster Webmaster II and it is so much better. It is a very comprehensive program and it has earned rave reviews from people like Joshua Shafran, Dan Kuschell, and Bob The Teacher.
There are literally thousands of ways to make money online. One of the most solid business models to ensure a continual monthly income is a subscription based membership website.
Members pay a monthly fee for access to a private member’s area where they can access your information. You can provide a variety of information in as many formats as you choose. You can offer articles, reports, audios, videos, teleseminars, downloads, software, almost anything you can imagine.
Even if you offer a low cost membership, it only takes a few members to make a comfortable income. A membership website that charges $9.97 a month, only needs 300 members to generate $3,000 every month.
And setting up a membership website has become remarkably simple with advances in software that can be set up in a couple hours, even by the average non-technical person.
It’s just that simple. In the beginning, it takes some time and energy to put the whole project together, but then it’s simply a matter of updating, maintaining and marketing. So let’s look at the steps to put together a successful membership website.
Step 1
Choose a market. This is critical. You should look for a market you’re going to enjoy working in as well as a market people spend money in. People spend money where they are passionate. Markets like sports, pets, business, and hobbies all make hot markets to launch a membership website.
Step 2
Test the market. Visit forums and chat rooms and ask people if they know of any good websites that offer up-to-date information.
Step 3
Use your research from Step 2 to develop a rough outline of what your website will offer your members.
Step 4
Write a sales letter and have the graphics professionally designed. If you can’t do this yourself, hire a freelancer from elance.com or guru.com.
Step 5
Set up the membership software to run the site.
Step 6
Populate the site with your content.
Step 7
Market your site and let the cash flow begin.
7 simple steps and you’ve got a membership website that will generate a solid monthly cash flow for you. Each step takes some effort and energy, but you can have your first membership website completely set up and running in less than a month. Then you can repeat the process as many times as you like to increase your membership portfolio and your
monthly income.
URGENT UPDATE
For a few more days, you can bypass the whole membership website creation process. Get your complete membership website, ready to upload to your server today. You can have a fully functional membership website ready to take orders in the next 2 hours. It’s only available for a few more days, so make sure you visit today. http://musthaveinternetmarketingtips.com/recommends/7DaysOnly/
Alex Jeffreys recently launched ‘Post Launch Profits Secrets’ and I must admit that I was VERY surprised to learn that he was offering it for FREE (although don’t be surprised if this offer ends very soon).
If you want to learn some great tips from a very smart internet marketer, I highly recommend you check out the link below while it is still available:
I just wanted to share with you a case study that Lee McIntyre did based on the interview I did with him recently. The purpose of the case study is to show people how easy it is to create their own info product. I hope you find this video useful and if you have any questions about how to create your own, please do not hesitate to ask.
I just wanted to tell you about a great new product that I was lucky enough to purchase in advance through a Warrior Special Offer or more commonly referred to as a WSO. It’s by Adeel Chowdhry and it’s called ‘Overnight Affiliate Cash’. It officially launches tomorrow at noon (EST) and if you are interested in affiliate marketing, but aren’t happy with your current results, then definitely take a look at this product.
Overnight Affiliate Cash is one of the most enjoyable products I have reviewed lately and it is filled with some really solid advice. The idea of creating review sites and special bonus packages is something that I was already familiar with and these are two things you definitely want to try and do to separate yourself from the crowd. Unfortunately, I simply haven’t had enough time to create my own review sites and put together some awesome bonus packages. That is, until now.
Adeel has also launched another new product called ‘Killer Presell Templates’ and these templates are REALLY awesome. He’s offering two types of memberships, Gold which offers one template per month and Diamond which offers two templates per month (I’ve already signed up for the Diamond membership and if you’re like me and have struggled with trying to create these types of templates and bonus packages on your own, you’ll realize what a great deal these templates really are).
If you want to check out my bonus package for Adeel Chowdhry’s Overnight Affiliate Cash simply click on the link below. I hope this product helps you as much as it has helped me.
If you haven’t heard of Lee McIntyre before then do yourself a favor and read some of his FREE reports (by the way, just because he’s giving it away, doesn’t mean they’re not valuable… his reports contain some really great tips that most people would either charge you for or would keep secret).
Two freebies you should get you hands on are a report called ‘6 Months of Magic’ which talks about how he went from zero to $20,000 a month, as well as a leaked chapter from his best selling product ‘Mailing Lists Unleashed’.
By the way, if you’re interested in learning more about Mailing Lists Unleashed, click on the link below (and you’ll also save $10 if you decide to purchase it).
So just HOW MUCH traffic is enough? Do you need 100’s of visitors? 1000’s of visitors?
Successful web site traffic is never JUST about HOW MUCH traffic you can bring. In fact if it was only about how many visitors … you could drop a few hundred bucks and bring in hundreds of thousands of the least expensive visitors possible … and you’d be done.
NOT!!!
Here’s the key. You need the RIGHT type of visitor (whether it’s paid traffic or free traffic.) That’s because if your traffic isn’t interested in the product or service you’re selling, then there’s no hope at all of making any sales.
Let’s relate this to the offline world. Let’s say you own a small retail store that sells landscaping products (for example topsoil, mulches, and other ground covers.)
But if the people who walk through the door live in apartments, then chances of making a sale are slim to none.
To sell your landscaping products … who would need to walk through your door? Can you describe your customer?
A successful philosophy starts with the mind of the consumer. What do they want? What do they need?
This is exactly the process that an ONLINE marketer needs to do when deciding what type of traffic to bring to their site.
So let’s go back to the online world now.
Take a look at the product or service that you’re selling, and of course we’ll make a step of faith here that it’s something that people do actually want to buy.
Since buyers are looking for solutions to problems, then you need to know, where do they go when they want information? Yes, they’ll be doing some searching on the internet. They’ll go to their favorite search engine and start looking for some free information.
To get YOUR information into the results, you need to address their problem, and this can be done in an article, a blog, a youtube video, a podcast or any other CONCISE form of sharing information online. Be sure to ALWAYS include a call to action at the end of your info-piece because your goal is now to bring that CAPTIVE AUDIENCE back to your web site.
One of the ways to encourage them to come to your site, is to offer a free report or e-course series. Develop some credibility and rapport with your new lead, and then work on converting them to a buyer as a second step.
Traffic sources like YouTube, forums, article directories and podcast directories are excellent in producing targeted free traffic. And although in the beginning it may only produce hundreds rather than the thousands you are hoping for, always remember that every one of these visitors is HIGH QUALITY because they are already targeted to your market or niche.
P.S. If you are looking to generate more traffic for your own website, I recommend you take a look at these really great videos: http://www.VisitorSenseSpecialOffer.com
There’s no doubt that somewhere along the way you’ve heard someone say, “The money is in the list.” Am I right? And today might be the day when you have finally come to realize that you need an opt-in list. So you started your pursuit by reading articles, did a little online searching, and maybe you have even been reading posts on your favorite forum. But maybe you’re not brand new to list building, maybe you started 6 months ago, 12 months ago maybe even a few years ago and you are paying monthly for that online account, but you’re just not satisfied with the results that you’re getting from your opt-in list.
Today’s blog post will address both of these things. You can accept this fact as truth: people have made small fortunes with their opt-in lists. And finally today you are probably in a place, in your heart and mind, where you’re ready to dedicate some of your time, money and resources to growing your own opt-in list.
It might be said that your list is the most important marketing tool, and whether that’s true or not - if you don’t have one you are not achieving anywhere near your income potential.
While a large list of subscribers is important, the quality of that list is even more important. Your emails need to be opened, read and hopefully links are clicked on. The best way to achieve this result is to begin with that end goal in mind. You want your customers to trust you and your products, so begin by writing articles in your area of expertise. Post them not only in forums, but article directory sites. This is the beginning phase of building credibility, your online identity and your brand.
Always link back to your site, so the readers are able to see what your online business is all about, and what products you are offering. Even if you’re promoting other’s products, it’s truly hard for someone to trust and believe your recommendation if they haven’t first developed a relationship with you - that’s your goal and purpose.
The next thing is to keep a common theme in the material that you send to your list. For example, if you are building a list of pet owners there’s likely no point in mailing out an offer for a new weight loss product. Since it will just confuse your readers. Keep your e-courses, product offers and other material to a common thread or theme. Again, you are building rapport and credibility with your subscribers. Third is to keep in touch with those on your list. In the past I built lists, and many months would go by between mailings. So, when I finally did launch a new product and sent a mailing to my list, it was ineffective. Why? They didn’t remember who I was. Now how often you should mail your list will vary. Personally, I think that daily is just a bit too frequent, but I also subscribe to lists that the sender mails his subscribers, typically, twice daily.
The final point today is to make sure that when you build this list, you are using a reliable online service. The small monthly fee is very worthwhile, and you will be able to make that back in profits many times over.
I use and highly recommend AWeber. They are known for having top notch email deliverability as well as excellent customer support, which are both very important. If you don’t have an autoresponder yet or you aren’t pleased with your current one, you can click here to learn more about AWeber: http://www.gettingstartedonlinefast.com/recommends/bestautoresponder
Just remember, it’s never too late to start focusing some of your resources on building your opt-in list. So why not start today?
