I hope you’ve been enjoying this lesson series, and I hope you’ve followed all the action steps so far, because today we’re getting into what I consider to be the “heart and soul” of internet marketing.
We’re talking about… list building!
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
Yes it’s also in the relationship with the list, it’s in the quality of the list, and all the other stuff that some marketers say. And you don’t NEED a list to make money online (there are other business models)…
BUT, it is true that the money is in the list for the type of business that we’re building.
– Mail
– Telephone
– Fax
– Mobile phones/SMS
– Social media
– (New types of lists will evolve as new methods of communication sprout)
– ANY combination of the above
1) It’s an effective way to capture and manage leads online.
2) It creates web traffic on demand. (See video for explanation of priority of traffic vs. list)
3) It’s here to stay. (In spite of rumors!)
4) It has a low startup cost, and is very cost effective.
1) Buy it
2) Build it (recommended)
-Receiving your opt-ins from your website
-Sending broadcast emails
-Creating autoresponder sequences
-Managing email campaigns
-Handling subscription management
-Making sure your email gets delivered
Two options:
– Hosted on your own site
– A specialized email host
Hosting your list on your own website is NOT recommended by me, for two reasons…
1) Spam compliance
2) Deliverability
– AWeber
– GetResponse
– Infusionsoft
– iContact
– VerticalResponse
– Constant Contact
– Topica
My personal recommendation: Aweber Communications (who I’ve used since 2005)
UPDATE: AWeber DOES allow you to import lists now, and in some cases without confirmed opt-in. I have imported several lists that I personally built.
Additional resource to learn more about list building:
Click here for the List Building Pack
Action steps:
1) Memorize this phrase: “The money is in the list”.
2) Sign up for an email marketing service provider, such as AWeber.
In the next lesson we’re going to set up a list… step by step!
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.
Have a great day!
This could not of come at a better time Eric !! this has just come to the top of my to do list. Thank you so much for putting these lessons up. I have been following since day one, but most importantly i have been taking action on what you have taught. Truly great stuff.
thanks Eric, This a very information because i have google for some few days now for this type of info.
Outstanding lesson again! Not because of the content (for me), but the presentation and teaching, here you really can learn, how to teach! Big fun to watch!
In my opinion email list building (marketing) will become more and more ineffective in the near future exponentially for many reasons, but it still works and always will, but building a list of BUYERS will be a huge effort. Start building a list of tenthousands NOW over the years to find out that it’s almost worthless some day soon? Investing into the future looks a bit different to me these days.
There is an all in one service provider I use since 2006 with excellent email marketing service of course, but so much more for a smaller price than specialists like aweber & co. No idea how Kavi can offer this, but it works for me and all my lists perfectly:
http://www.dropshipvault.com/umc.php
BTW: Ewen Chia uses this service and it looks like knows his stuff.
Maybe some readers here find this useful too …
This is a very informative post. Selfhosted scripts are good for smaller lists. since most hosting companies limit the number of emails you can send in an hour. mostly 500 is the limit.
I would encourage starters to use selfhosted, if you use wordpress there are plugins that support newsletter/ list management but once your list hits 1,500 you can go to 3rd party email services like Aweber as recommended by Eric to ensure you send a broadcast fast.
Also if you are in a sensitive niche that’s known to spam then i’d encourage you start with aweber from word go since they’ve relationships with companies like google and yahoo. It will therefore help your mail not tob reported as spam (false positive)
Thank you Eric, you are always giving tips on how to run internet marketing. Although until now I have not been able to apply everything you teach, but some can I apply on my website.
I say thank you
Thanks!
I generally do not recommend the all-in-one solutions because I feel you are putting too many of your eggs in one basket. But I do see that Ewen is using it.
Thanks so much Eric for this great info.
Thanks for your nice response!
Now I agree with the egg and basket story, when it comes to investments, then diversification is crucial. But with reliable, proven services it’s the other way round for me, the more concentrated and CONNECTED all functions, the easier all work. If the sh.. hits the fan, I have it all backed up anyway. But Kavi will not run, I guess.
For email marketing, here you have it: everybody is on everybodies list anyway, product launches every second exponentially, I deleted them all for Frank’s prelaunch, don’t even want to know about their bonuses for his core influence list thingy, bahh, I just opted out for Amish Shah, John Reese, Jeff Johnson and all the other guys promoting, boring. But I will watch Frank’s next videos, very inspiring, indeed! Not to buy his stuff, but to learn.
Eric,
You shared a great presentation on email marketing and list building. I agree with you about the challenges of deliverability and that it can be a bit tricky at times. However, I want to add that the job of a marketer is to “Always Be Testing,” setting and delivering on expectations with subscribers.
I’ve seen our successful users do this very well and that don’t have any issue with deliverability or spam complaints. As you know, this very tactic will work for any email marketing provider including AWeber.
I wanted to also take an opportunity to share that our service is a bit more unique than the others you’ve shared. We have a different twist on traditional email marketing to truly make it automatic without much heavy lifting on the part of the marketer. A few trackable links here, a follow-up sequence or two and the entrepreneur is well on their way to being very successful.
Let me know if you’re interested to discuss this further, I think your subscribers would gain valuable insights from it — regardless of what platform their using.
Again, this was a stellar entry! 🙂
Thanks,
Joseph Manna
Thanks Eric, good advice as usual. Have followed you closely and finally started to make some money online
Hi Eric, I agree about Aweber. I like the Spam alert and the staggered price structure. There have been times when I’ve triggered a high spam level without even knowing it, and the program warns me before I send the email out. And having pricing evolve according to subscribers, makes it affordable to start out.
Sorry I haven’t given any feedback for a while. Got whacked with a relapse.
Colin
Thanks for the input!
Thanks Colin 🙂
Good point. I agree that self-hosted can be OK for small lists (approx 500, as you mentioned). For example, I have some Amember sites with less than 1000 members and I do not hesitate to email those members from my own site.
However, I still recommend starting with Aweber because if you start with self-hosted and then want to switch to Aweber later, your subscribers will have to opt in again.
E-mailing to a list and selling all the same “next big thing” products that everyone else,just sounds dreary to me.
Dear Eric,
I have been following all your lessons closly.
Thanks for all your lessons …
I hear ya…
But I never said anything about selling the same things as everyone else. You may have noticed I do not promote 99% of the stuff the other “gurus” in this business are promoting.
Also it loses its dreariness when you see your inbox fill up with commission notifications and you make thousands of dollars from sending an email 😉
Hey Eric this is another great lesson. It is funny that you started this lesson series because I was searching everywhere for valuable information but kept getting the same stuff. However, once I noticed you started this series I felt relieved because your going to demystify and explain it thoroughly; which I like.
Thank you so much and am looking forward to the next videos.
Another question.
I was wondering if you can incorporate building a quick squeeze page that has a layout for a decent conversion rate with the list building videos. That would be AWESOME!
Thanks, and yes I will be covering squeeze pages 🙂
Eric,
Very good video as always. I’m interested in the List Building Pack but since there are a bunch of videos on list building you plan on releasing here, can you tell us what more we will get for buying the List Building Pack vs what you will publish here?
thanks again for sharing all the valuable info on your site.
Wow!great! what a lesson! awesome! I’ll do it, thanks Eric!
Hi Eric! I don’t know if I missed a lesson about this: How do you setup your website so that you can sell e-books and other materials and get paid and have the products delivered automatically? How do you setup payment and automatic delivery? When they pay through paypal for instance, how do they get the product automatically without you having to handle everything personally? Thanks!
Yup you missed that lesson 😉
It’s this one:
Good question. My lessons here are enough to get you through the process. But the List Building Pack goes more in depth on some of the topics and tactics. Also it has some additional training on Aweber. And since it is created by several different marketer/authors, it gives a few different perspectives that I may not cover here.
For example the audio interviews cover some creative viral methods that I probably won’t be getting into.
Thank you Eric. I was waiting for that, and I am looking forward to the next lessons.
All the best,
Arne
Hi Eric really enjoy your tips. Am a newbie and would just like to ask two other questions.
1. Are we able to use Alert pay with your “Traffic, Leads, and Sales”?…as we are not allowed Pay Pal in our Country for Credit card payments into our account/s.
2. On one’s main host account is it advisable to place a WordPress blog in the main directory or can one use the main directory for one’s website and use the sub-directory for the WordPress blog?
Regards,
John
Eric, I have developed an email list of about 1300 members, which I manage myself.
As the list continues to grow, I have considered switching to a managed service, but I am concerned about losing members as a result of the mandatory opt-in process of a service like Aweber.
I can foresee the potential loss of members both from inertia (people who simply never get around to opting in, because they are too busy, they forget, or what-have-you), and annoyance (people who are irritated by the perceived intrusiveness and/or hassle-factor of the opt-in request).
Can you offer any thoughts or perspective on this concern?
In particular, is there a persuasive way to frame an opt-in request for someone in my situation, who has a pre-existing list?
Thanks.
Hi Eric,
I’m so glad to learn from your lessons about creating opt-in lists.
I’m an internet marketer since 2005 year and I didn’t succeeded to build an opt-in list to earn some online money,just if my vision and goal is modest. I’m convinced “The money is in the list.”
Therefore I do ask you to cover this topic within much more lessons containing as much as details you can.
Unfortunately, I’m a deaf person and I can’t hear your audio comments from your videos.I only used what I see within “Main points”,”Action steps” and differend Comments.So far I succeeded to get domain,hosting,autoresponder (Aweber) and more tools from your lessons (Ecover Engine.
I just succeeded to create a squeeze page to promote an affiliate program but I have no an opt-in list.I have no where to send my created 7 message ad.
Now I just am working to create my own informational product but again I haven’t an opt-in list yet.
Therefore, I again ask you about opt-in list details.
Sincerely,
Petre Tudor
I would like to ask you this question because I could not get clear instruction. Eric provides the clear direction.
1. I have created a MP4 videos which 4 GB. I converted to FLV, now I don’t know how to stream and post to my site.
2. I want user to watch from site instead of downloading. Which format is very effective.
Thank you in advance for providing the information
Hi Eric,
Do you delete the post if you don’t like what asked for help? I have posted some questions before before they are all removed from this site. You act real person with good heart but my questions about videos content and I don’t know why it would be negative for deleting
Take care,
Kabir
Thanks Eric
The information you provide in your lessons have given me the confidence I needed to push me onward into internet marketing. I have blasted threw all of your lessons to get an overview of the processes involved in getting a business online going. I am going back to lesson #1 and will complete the action steps as you have requested. To get some feed back on my progress or questions answered in each lesson do I post them at the bottom of each lesson even if they are dated, or do I post them at the most current lesson? what I am after What is the best way to keep in contact with you? Once again thanks, you have another loyal subscriber I trust that you will lead me and others in building solid, honest, and profitable businesses online.
It is best to post your question at the bottom of whatever lesson is most relevant to the question. Thanks!
No I don’t do that. The only time I delete posts is if I feel they are very rude, spammy, or otherwise inappropriate. Most likely I just hadn’t approved your comments yet. I do not moderate them every day. Thanks
Did you watch this one?
You should be able to stream the FLV. You just need to embed the flash player on your site.
Thanks Petre. When I am done with all the lessons, I will be making them available as a package with full transcripts.
My advice is to keep your current list, but switch over your list building efforts to AWeber going forward. It will only be harder to make the transition, the longer you wait.
You can continue to send email to your self hosted list to keep that income going as you start building your list on AWeber. Then eventually you can invite those subscribers to join your AWeber list, and eventually you will come to a point that your AWeber list is big enough that you no longer need to maintain the self hosted list, and you can give them a final warning to switch over.
1) Sorry but that program is set up with Paypal only.
2) It depends on the strategy of your website. If you’re using WordPress as the main CMS (content management system)for your site, then you should install it in the home directory. But if you’re just using wordpress for the blog component of your site, then I would install it in it’s own directory, such as example.com/blog
The best use of email marketing is to build a relationship with your email marketers. Don’t blatantly sell, instead provide useful information first. That’s what’s worked best for me.
Eric-I am a newcomer to the Internet Marketing Arena. I stand in awe!Many things puzzle me, amongst others:
– What fortunes people guarantee you can make overnight.
– what they charge & how quickly they drop the price as you
move to log out
Then, along comes a guy like you `who offer so much value for FREE. Now I know that you are also making money. But GEE, you certainly provide value. Keep it up!!
Great video lesson – I’m looking forward to the rest!
Hello Eric,
I too am a beliver. I am not really sure how we connected, but out of all the information I have received, your info really struck home. First of all because I believe you really have a heart to help others. Your sincerity certainly comes through. Thanks for these very valuable tips. I really appreciate them.
Eric this is a great post that is jam packed with easy to follow and practical information. Building a list is one of the quickest and easiest ways to build a long term passive income in any niche and you totally made it crystal clear for any newbie to understand completely.
Thank you for posting such valuable information and keeping things simple like they really should be.
That’s some good, practical advice.
Thanks.
I lost my way a bit following the lessons…
First you had a sales page on your home page then the blog post and now a polished sales page is the home page but I dont see a blog at http://ideacash.org/blog- did I miss something? I am asking because I bought the master resale rights to your TPS product and obviously want to set it up but not sure whether it would be best to have the sales page on the home page and a blog in a subfolder or maybe no blog at all? Not entirely clear on the pros and cons of having a blog on product website. Or perhaps I would be better off following the structure of Eric’s Tips and having the TPS product in a subfolder like you do with so many of your products and affiliate promos. Your feedback would be much appreciated..and I am loving these lessons they are golden? Thanks so much for making them public!
Pingback: Setting Up an Email Opt-In List | Eric's Tips
Actually I moved that site to a different server, and I didn’t restore the blog yet.
It really depends on your strategy and the focus of the site.
If the primary focus of the site is to be a sales site for TPS and drive traffic to it from various sources, then I would put it on the home page and put the blog in it’s own directory.
But if you want the site to be an authority site in the trading niche, and you’re going to provide good content on the blog, then I’d put the blog in the home directory.
Blogs are good for a couple things…
If your main traffic source is SEO, then a blog is ideal from both an on-page and off-page SEO standpoint. (The on-page is well optimized, and it’s good for building inbound links to it)
Also if you have a list of subscribers, the blog is a great place to communicate. (Like I do here).
Thanks Eric that really helped clarifying things. These lessons are fantastic! Looking forward to the rest.
Hi Eric,
Thanks so much for the great content here. I have paid for products and membership sites that do not cover this topic in as much detail as you do for free.
Good service you have going here for us. Keep up the good work.
Steve
Hi,Eric
Thanks for the valuable lessons ,informative content,just what I’ve been wanting to learn
Thank you for sharing with us in such detail.
Much appreciated
Avis
Hi Eric Great stuff. Such good information on how to make real money online. I have purchased from you in the past and always watch your videos.
Keep up the good work thank you.
Derek