The money is in the list. Any internet marketer will swear by that, if he is even moderately successful in internet marketing. In fact, I was reading an ebook where an internet marketing guru was interviewed. The interviewer asked the question:

“If you were told that whatever you have will be taken away from you, including all your money, equity, home, office, bank balance, etc, but you were allowed to keep just one thing with you, what would it be?” He answered “My customer list. There is one important thing I have built besides the wealth you see, and that is the trust of my customers. If you would take away everything I had, I will build it back again in just a couple of years, if I have my customer list with me.”

I hope you are convinced enough that the money is, indeed, in the list. Let me rephrase that – “The money is in a responsive list”. This means that even if you had a list of 2 million, but if you had an open rate of one percent, and a click-through rate of half percent, don’t ever expect that it will be of much use to you. On the other hand, if you have a very responsive list of 20k and you have an open rate of 50% (some marketers do have that), and a click-through rate of 30%, you would certainly make money from it.

So, how do you get such a high conversion? By taking care of your subscribers! Treat them the same way you would expect others to treat you. Don’t bombard them with commercial offers all the time; give them useful and valuable information in your chosen niche regularly. Be so good to them that they would look forward to receive your newsletter, and not click the “delete” button instantly. Or worst still, if they click on the unsubscribe link, you’ve lost them for ever!

Your emails should contain at least 80% content and maximum 20% commercial pitch. You can adjust these figures but don’t adjust drastically. If you give enough good content regularly, they won’t mind a few pitches, at times. They’ll understand that you too have a living! Some gurus have managed to gain so much trust from their subscribers that they will buy almost anything that the gurus recommend! Those gurus who did not stick to the 80/20 rule find themselves losing the trust of their subscribers, and even being flamed in popular IM forums.

Having covered the most important issue of list management, let me give you a few more tips on getting more subscribers, keeping them, getting them to open your emails, and finally, to click on the links:

To get more people to signup to your newsletter, a good idea is to bait them with a free report or ebook that is not available anywhere else. Have the download link emailed to them instantly when they signup or confirm their subscription. Next, place the newsletter subscription box in a prominent manner on your web page. If it is a long page, sprinkle the “free signup” link throughout the page. Have a link to your privacy policy within the subscription box which also opens in a new window. Also make it very clear that you respect their privacy and you will not rent out or share their email address.

It also makes sense to create an autoresponder series which sends them emails at regular intervals with some nice content. Build your trust slowly and gradually. You can also use a tell-a-friend or viral inviter so that your subscribers can invite their friends and associates to join your newsletter.

To have a good open rate, use an enticing headline and some good interesting content in the first few lines of your email. This is because:

a) Your headline will determine if your subscriber opens it or not.

b) In most email providers (like gmail) you can read the first lines without opening the email.

The headline should preferable contain your subscribers first name. This feature should be inbuilt in your newsletter manager software. It should also preferable contain the most important benefit that the email content offers.

Your email should contain the URL of the link you want them to click at least 2 to 3 times, and once in the PS at the end. Make them to click as easily as you can, without scrolling up or down. A “PS” is very important, for the fact that time is valuable for everyone and most people who receive a lot of emails tend to skim through the email.

Warning: Don’t use hype (at least don’t overuse it), it will escalate your unsubscription rate. Be genuine, don’t promote other products unless you have tried them yourself and validated their worth. And don’t use a misleading headline. If it’s slightly controversial, ensure that the content backs up the purpose of it being so.

I hope you found my article useful and informative. If you would like to read more of my articles, do visit http://www.bharatbhasha.com/author.php/Nirjara%20Rustom. I also write on internet marketing, websites promotion, advertising, copy writing and other IT related stuff, besides others.

Nirjara Rustom moderates the newsletter tips section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/newsletters.php

Email marketing is the most cost effective form of marketing. Actually, it doesn’t cost anything to send emails, unless you consider internet bandwidth as a cost! However, you do need to have systems to send emails to your mailing list. There are many ways you can do this, ranging from free hosted services and free software, to one time payment owned products, to monthly payment hosted solutions. All systems have their own pros and cons, their own features and advantages. Let us discuss these in detail so that we can decide which one is best for you:

Free Hosted Solution: There are several free autoresponder services available online, if you search on google. One of them is sendfree.com. The problem with these services is that they have very limited features and at some point of time you will require to upgrade to their paid solution, as your business expands. I wouldn’t advice to go for it, unless you’re doing it for entertainment purposes only.

Free Mailing Software: There are quite a few softwares available that you can install on your own server. This is OK to start with. But since it is free, you may be limited with features. Additionally, you won’t get any support and neither will they hold responsibility for any bugs or security holes. You can opt for this solution if you’re just trying your hand at it and are not very serious about it.

Paid Mailing Software: If you prefer to have complete control over your subscriber list and would prefer to pay a one time fee (and maybe a small annual fee for support and upgrades) instead of a monthly fee, this is a good option to choose. Depending on the software you purchase, there are a range of features to choose from, so do your research before taking a decision. Remember, taking backup of your lists is your responsibility. Depending on the number of subscribers you add to your lists on a regular basis, you should take a backup accordingly, like weekly, daily or even every few hours. Your list is your most important business asset, so take care of it. Autoresponse Plus is a good option to choose, if you opt for this solution.

Hosted Solutions: There are a whole range of hosted list management and autoresponder solutions available on the internet. A few of them are aweber, getresponse, emailaces, 123response, etc. Some of these solutions also offer an inbuilt ecommerce module like the 1shoppingcart. In fact, the professional package of 1shoppingcart has a complete online marketing system including digital delivery of downloadable products, affiliate tracking software, shopping cart, ad tracking, multiple payment gateway integration, etc.

Most popular hosted email solutions providers also maintain very good relationships with many ISPs, which is certainly an advantage when it comes to email deliverability. The chances of getting your email lost in a junk folder or not getting delivered at all decreases drastically, when you choose this option. However, this tends to be an expensive option and you need to fork out anything ranging from $10 to a few hundred dollars a month. The cost depends on which provider you choose and also the number of subscribers that you have / expect to have. Choose this option if you’re confident of taking full commercial advantage of your list. Another good but very expensive hosted solution is infusionsoft. It has all the bells and whistles like open rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate, and other statistics.

Whatever solution you choose, remember to educate yourself with the spam laws and also keep your knowledge updated. You never know when an unintentional goof up can land you in serious trouble. Most importantly, use double optin, have your complete address in all emails, and have a genuine unsubscribe link within your emails.

Nirjara Rustom moderates the email marketing section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/email.php. The content here is free to read, so do check it out.

If you’ve been on the mailing list of a few internet marketing gurus for even a few months, you must have surely heard some wildly successful stories. Something that goes like – “I sent one email to my list of 64452 subscribers and earned $9388.77 within 24 hours”. Have you ever wondered how they do it? More often than not, these stories are true and it is indeed possible to achieve this type of success. But reaching such levels takes time – it does not happen overnight. If you really want to achieve success at affiliate marketing and are willing to do what it takes to be one, this article will put you in the right direction.

To begin with, you first need to pick a category of products or services that you wish to promote. To identify your niche, there are 3 things you need to keep in mind:

1. It should be something that you’re quite passionate about.

2. The product or service you wish to promote should be in demand.

3. Your target audience must be willing to spend money on it, or are already spending money on it.

Do not try to promote anything that does not meet these 3 elements, or you will be frustrated. Once you’ve identified your niche, you need to select the products / services. You can find them at CJ, AssociatedPrograms, Clickbank (for information products), etc. Some suppliers have their own affiliate program, but do some research before promoting them. You need to ensure that they pay you your commissions, and on time.

Once you’ve made a list of products that you would like to promote, do proper research on each of them. Check out what others are saying in forums; don’t just go by the testimonials on the vendor’s website. Make notes of the commission amount and percentage. Some even have a recurring commission, some pay on multiple levels and some pay commissions across all their products. Make a note of all this information in an excel sheet.

The next thing you need to do is actually try out the products. See if the vendor gives samples. If it is an information product, you may get a review copy or even the actual product. If it is an ebook, don’t feel shy to ask the vendor if he can give you a review copy. You will be surprised at how many are willing to give! If it is a hot product and you’re unable to get a sample, consider buying it yourself. Remember – if you have used the product and you are very satisfied, you will give full justice when promoting it. This is because you’re speaking from your heart. People can tell when you’re being honest.

Next, you will want to create a squeeze page (or a landing page) where you want your target audience to visit. This should ideally be something about the niche and also maybe about the product, but not a copy/paste of the vendor’s page. This should have an optin form where visitors can enter their name and email address. You may want to bribe the visitor by giving them a free report (that contains your affiliate link) or an ebook in exchange. Don’t just send your audience to the vendor’s page through your affiliate link. You want to ensure that you also keep the lead so you can send him other offers in the future.

Now that you’re ready, you need to identify all the places that you can find your target audience. Things like related discussion boards, yahoo or google groups, etc. Start participating in forums actively and have the URL of your squeeze page in your signature, with an enticing anchor text. Consider using PPC for fast lead generation.

The key takeaway here is – build your list slowly and surely. Be in touch with your list at least once a week. Don’t just pitch in your emails, give some good and useful content regularly. Ideally, your emails should be free content 75% of the time and promote in the balance 25%. This will ensure long term success.

I hope you found this article useful. Unfortunately, affiliate marketing is a huge subject and I cannot give it justice with just one article. If you’re really serious in being a successful affiliate, I urge you to visit http://www.bharatbhasha.com/affiliate-programs.php where we cover this subject in much more detail. It is a free content site, so do drop in!

Nirjara Rustom moderates the affiliate marketing section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/affiliate-programs.php. This section is updated with new tips at least once a week, so do check it out.