Man you gotta be careful what you read and who you listen to.
Just been scanning a hot thread at a popular Internet marketing forum that’s gonna cost a whole bunch of innocent people a TON of money.
Here’s the story…
A newbie is advising other newbies not to build an email list.
Why? Because he says they wouldn’t know what to do with it!?
Here’s a direct quote:
“learning how to handle and monetize a list is much more important and much harder than learning how to build one”
Well der.
And how do you suppose you learn how to monetize a list?
Certainly not by reading about it.
Probably not by watching others. (You can pick up some stuff by watching others but unless you already know the tactics they’re using you’ll most likely miss all the REAL strategies at play.)
The bottom line is you learn by DOING it.
You figure out who YOUR prospects are… what THEY respond to… what YOUR style is.
And the only way to do that is to build a list and learn it first-hand.
The worst part is other newbies (and a few people who should know better) are agreeing with him, which is a form of social proof, which will cause other newbies to put off building their list until they “know” it all — and that day NEVER comes!
There is a reason why virtually every successful Internet marketer says to build your list from day ONE. There is a reason why “take action” is the number one piece of advice given. There is a reason why those that get started before they know what they’re doing FAR out-perform everyone else waiting for their ducks to line up.
Be careful who you listen to and who you choose to model.
That said, here’s my advice for NEWBIES who want to get started building your list:
1. BAIT YOUR HOOK
If you want someone to give you their name and email address, you’ve got to give them something of value in return.
This is your bait.
Could be an email series, a short report, an audio interview… the format isn’t really all that important.
It’s the CONTENT that matters — they’ve got to want the content more than they mind giving up their details.
Forget all the “move the free line” stuff you’ve heard, your bait piece doesn’t have to be a $1997 piece of software or 200-page ebook. A 3-page report on a hot topic is more than enough to do the job.
2. CAST MULTIPLE LINES
Don’t rely on one source of leads or one squeeze page to build your list.
Create multiple squeeze pages with different offers targeting different segments of your market.
Use traditional squeeze pages… Aweber lighboxes… Ultimate Footer Ads… an Exit Splash… because different people/markets will respond to different stimuli.
3. FISH WHERE THE FISH ARE
Figure out where your market hangs out online, what language (keywords) they use, then figure out how to get in front of them.
Drive traffic to your squeeze pages from PPC, banner ads, forums, blogs (posts, comments, article swaps, reviews), articles, joint ventures.
The more traffic you drive the faster you’ll build your list, so make it a PRIORITY to drive traffic.
4. (BONUS) MONETIZE THOSE FISH!
OK, now you’ve got a list…
What do you do with it? How do you monetize it?
This is where the REAL learning comes in — the stuff you can read in a book but never learn until you DO IT.
It’s actually real simple…
Survey them. Find out who they are, their wants/needs/desires/fears, what they want.
Email them. Send them content. Send them offers. Test, track and improve. See what works for you.
Rinse and repeat.
You’ll learn more in one month building and emailing your own list than you ever would reading about it in yet another ebook.
Kyle Tully
P.S. Speaking of list-building…
Wednesday at 8pm ET (that’s tonight) I’m interviewing Daniel Levis about how to grow BIG, responsive email lists up to 7 times faster than average.
Daniel is a world-class copywriter and marketing consultant who gets paid $17,500 for ONE web-marketing campaign… and… you can understand why when they regularly convert at 10%, even on high-ticket items.
If you want to know how he does it — and get his step-by-step process handed to you on a silver platter — then register now and get ready to take notes.
This is a FREE training call for my subscribers — sign up here:
www.KyleTully.com/DanielLevisInterview
