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How To Leverage Your List to Grow It Even Faster

05 2008 Wednesday

By Willie Crawford in Featured

People are peculiar creatures… more alike in our thoughts and behavior than we like to admit. One thing that is true of most people, regardless of culture, and unique circumstances is that they like to know something that other people want to know.

We also like to share that information.

It makes us look and feel smarter

It allows us to appear to have inside information and we like that. Not only do we like to share information, we like to steer our friends and family in the right direction.

People share all kinds of information. They tell their neighbors which exterminator to use and which one does a shoddy job. They recommend the talented barber or hair stylist.

The same traits are common among your subscribers. They consider you a trusted expert, and a great source of products or services, or they wouldn’t stay on your opt-in list.

You need to find ways to take advantage of this human need to know what-is-what and the instinct to share useful information. Most people will share information willingly and without much incentive from you. However, providing a little incentive usually doesn’t hurt.

Your first step is to convince your opt-in list subscribers that they really do have the inside track for success by being members of your list. There are about a million ways to tell people that they are smart and that by being members of your opt-in list proves it. Never miss the opportunity to share that compliment.

Your next step is to get these smart subscribers to share your great ezine with their family and friends thus building your list.

The easiest and simplest thing that you can do is to… ask them.

Ask them to pass along copies of your ezine or autoresponder messages, and include a link to your subscribe url at the bottom of each issue. That way, those who read “pass-along copies,” and enjoy them, will know how to get more

You can also Offer incentives for referring new subscribers. I actually PAY my existing subscribers (on some lists) for referring others.

You can offer cash payments for new referrals, having them send the referrals to get something like a value-packed free report. Use an affiliate tracking system such as ProfitAutomation.com to automatically track referral commissions and then once a month, pay those commissions.

If you want the paid referral system to be totally hands-free, set it up as an affiliate program using a script like Rapid Action Profits. With Rapid Action Profits, they would use a referral link to sell an inexpensive report, and when a referral gets the report they pay the referrer directly. The token fee for the report, is deposited directly to the referrer’s Paypal account.

This is a very powerful way of using subscribers or customers to build a list of paying customers. Many people treasure a list built this way more because it’s a list of PROVEN buyers.

If you are not familiar with RAP, you can check it out at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/RapidActionProfits/

You can see how I implemented using RAP with an ebook that I wrote called “Secrets Of The Clickbank Millionaires.” I let my subscribers sell the ebook for $5 (a real bargain for their friends) but the payment goes directly to them, and it’s paid INSTANTLY. Since they don’t have to wait for Payments, it’s a very powerful incentive for those with cashflow problems.

You can see how I’ve implemented using “Secrets Of The Clickbank Millionaires” to incentivize subscribers to make referrals at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/ClickbankMillionaires/

Another powerful way to get your existing subscribers, and even just random website visitors, to make referrals is to use a tell-a-friend script on your site.

Perhaps, tell your list that referring your ezine to 4-6 people will earn them a free gift, and set the form to forward them to that download once they’ve completed and submitted the form. Don’t base it on the number of people who actually sign up, but rather on them referring your list to their friends. Many of their referrals won’t sign up, and you need to avoid creating frustration in existing readers who are trying to help you build your list.

You can find good tell-a-friend scripts in many places. The Rapid Action Profits script mentioned earlier even has a tell-a-friend script built in that allows customers and subscribers to make referrals right from your download pages.

I’ve just given you a few quick and easy ways to leverage your existing list to grow your opt-in list even faster. The leverage comes from you simply getting existing subscribers to recommend you to their contacts. You can do this with or without offering an incentive.

Simple isn’t it

Willie Crawford is an Internet marketer with over 11 years of experience at generating record-breaking sales and massive email lists using viral marketing techniques. Rebrandable books created using Viral Document Toolkit are a favorite tool! See the demo video at: http://ViralDocumentToolkits.com

How To Get And Keep More Loyal Ezine Subscribers

05 2008 Monday

By Willie Crawford in Featured

When I noticed an automatically generated note from one of my email list hosting accounts at ProfitAutomation warning me that the account was approaching the 200,000 subscriber limit, and that I needed to increase its size, I realized that I finally had all of the subscribers that I really “needed.” That account is one of five that I have with ProfitAutomation, and I also have one with Aweber.

So, while I still have a goal of building my database to over 1 million subscribers before the end of 2008, subconsciously I have to admit… that’s somewhat for “bragging rights.”

As I studied list building over the years, I eventually realized that a more important question than how to grow your list is “How do you keep loyal subscribers.”

Growing a large list is fairly simple… depending upon your definition of large.

It’s as simple as:

- Having a subscribe box on every page of your website

- Having a subscribe box somewhere in the backend of each sales processes

- Giving people a very specific reason for subscribing (telling them what benefit they’ll gain from being on your list)

- Using testimonials from happy subscribers to prove that other already enjoy your ezine

- Focusing your ezine on a tightly niched topic that your audience has a real interest in

There are other things that you can do such as joint ventures, and finding ways to get in front of other publishers’ audiences, but it all centers around answering the question of “What’s in it for me?” that all of your potential subscribers have.

Once you get subscribers though, how do you keep them?

My friend Paul Myers, in his ebook, “The Amazing List Machine” taught me that you simply deliver to your subscribers what you promised them when they first joined your list.

If your ezine is on affiliate marketing, then your content teaches them affiliate marketing.

If your ezine is on website traffic generation then your content teaches them about website traffic generation.

If your ezine is on cooking (as one of mine is) then you teach them to cook.

Sounds fairly simple doesn’t it?

If you give your subscribers what you promised them when you enticed them to join your list, they should stay on your list, and read your newsletters, provided their needs don’t change.

For many ezine publishers, the tougher question becomes “How do I monetize my list without driving off subscribers.” After all, isn’t that why most of us started a newsletter?

Yes, it’s fun writing something that people enjoy reading. It’s nice getting emails telling you how long they’ve been a subscriber, and how much of a difference your lessons have made in their lives.

However, that won’t put food on your table. So, how do you monetize your list?

The answer is that you offer them goods and services directly related to the topic of your list. If your list is on cooking, then you offer them cookbooks, and cooking gadgets, and perhaps cooking videos… or live workshops.

If you ezine is about list-building then you offer them supplemental courses on list-building. You offer them software that automates the process more. You offer them case-studies that show how others are building large, responsive lists.

The whole process is fairly simple when you step back and look at it. You entice subscribers to join your list by promising them exactly what they want (that you can deliver). You keep them by delivering what you promised. Finally, you monetize your list by selling them things that make it easier for them to get what they were looking for when they first joined your list.

Take a few minutes now and examine your process. Honestly look for weak points in your system… and then fix them. Then you too will one day realize the you no longer need to focus on growing your list. Then the challenge becomes deepening the relationship that you have with list members, although you should have been focused on that all along too

Willie Crawford has been running an online business, largely driven by email marketing, since late-1996. He is the author of the popular ebook “How I Boosted My Ezine Sign-Up Rate By 5200 MORE Subscribers Per Month - Virtually Overnight - And You Can Too.” Get your copy now at http://TheRealSecrets.com/5200/