Make Money Online

Forum marketing can be a highly productive way to market your internet business, but only if you use it correctly.  Most advice about forum marketing isn’t the most productive in the world.  “Show up on forums,” it tells you.  “Read everything in sight.  Then start making those useful, informative comments that will brand you as an expert.”

Approaching a forum this way can be bewildering and frightening.  What if there are no topics that are custom-designed to show off what an expert you are?  What if you’re not an expert at all, what then?

There’s something very artificial about approaching forums this way, something which causes marketers to forget the overall aim in forum marketing.  It’s not just about finding a dozen places to post up back links.  It’s about becoming known to the overall internet community and about connecting with other people who think your niche is important.  It’s almost impossible to build relationships when you’re approaching forums in such a stilted way.

It would almost be better if forum marketing were simply called “forum participation.”  It’s easy enough to set up your signature line so that it includes a few links, but everybody knows that’s only a part of the battle.  You really have to be someone that other people know, like, and trust.  We humans are inherently capable of telling when someone is only there to make a sale—which means that you’ll never really achieve the full effect of your participation by approaching things with the sale in mind.

What if, instead of looking for some place to be “useful and informative,” you approached forums by looking for interesting conversations to join, and then joining them?  You still avoid the ubiquitous “nice post, very informative” posts which litter the internet, but you also avoid approaching the forum like a bloodthirsty marketer on the hunt.  You approach the topics naturally, like a drifter at a party who mingles in and out of different conversational circles.  You talk about what interests you and what’s important to you.  You acknowledge other people’s opinions and respond to them.  The clicks on your signature links, and the reputation as an expert, come later, because you’re focusing your productivity where it counts—on the relationships that you are building.

It’s easy to feel like you’re just wasting time on forums when you do this, because doing this is a lot more fun than just looking around for ways to be a know-it-all expert.  That’s one of the secrets of true productivity in the internet marketing world—done right it really is a lot like fun, a lot like having conversations with people you actually like.  It may be that your posts are interesting and informative, but they’re often just as effective if they are merely human.  You can control your time by setting a post limit on each day—3 to 5 posts, say, or an hour spent scanning and scouring the forums before going on to nurture other parts of your business.  Some days, you might not post at all, because you just don’t have anything to say.  And that’s okay.  When it comes to forums, honest participation trumps “marketing” any day of the week.

To get more information on how to make money online while building your list, just go to:

==> http://rossdalangin.com/showinfo/21dayprofit

Share The Love: Bookmark This Make Money Online Post, Thanks!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Internet marketers have deceived a lot of new entrepreneurs by painting a poor picture of what internet marketing productivity is all about.  If you listen to many gurus you’ll get an inaccurate picture of your workday.  The average marketer will tell you that it’s all about putting up your website, buying their software package, and waiting (passively) for the profits to roll in.

More realistic entrepreneurs already understand that’s not how it works, but they may not understand exactly what the daily “work” of internet marketing is all about.  This can lead to a few futile, half-hearted blog posts, a few attempts to post a link here and there, and a few other scattered efforts that never amount to very much.  Clicking “refresh” on your blog all day long or hopelessly searching the internet for the latest secret technique is not going to get you to the wealth and riches that you are hoping to receive.

Productivity begins with researching the various tasks associated with internet marketing.  These tasks could be very simple, including:

• Finding and following blogs so that you can participate in the comments section and build back links.
• Creating and submitting guest posts to said blogs to build still more back links, and credibility.
• Posting new content to your blog two times a week.

Of course, these three examples truly only scratch the surface of the wealth of tasks you could be doing to promote your website.  However, they are also examples of concrete work you can be doing.  Assigning a time limit to each task and resolving to perform each task every single working day can put you well on your way towards creating a full, productive day.

The day does not have to be long—that is, after all, the premise behind “The Four Hour Workweek” and other books that have sparked the internet marketing revolution.  It just has to be productive enough to actually achieve the objective of promoting your website.  Websites are found when you take the time to place breadcrumbs (links) leading back to those sites.  You have to work diligently to make those breadcrumbs relevant and visible.  Days of productive trail blazing can eventually lead you to that site which supports itself and which does not require your daily direct intervention, but until it does productivity is a good strategy.

You can think of your plan as a written job description, a contract that you are writing with yourself which outlines everything you are committing to doing in order to be successful.  At the very least, your internet marketing productivity plan will give you a solid start and some sense of what you should be doing.  You can take the time to master the techniques now, so long as you are doing something to promote your business every single day.

To get more information on how to make money online while building your list, just go to:

==> http://rossdalangin.com/showinfo/21dayprofit

Share The Love: Bookmark This Make Money Online Post, Thanks!

Popularity: 4% [?]

There is a lot of debate between marketers about personalization in your autoresponder emails. Personalization is setting your emails to include the subscriber’s name inside the emails. Many people do this to help raise their open rates and make things more person while others believe it makes emails look more like spam. Ultimately it is up to each individual. It may be for you, it may not. To help you decide, let’s take a look at the pros and cons.

First, take a look at some of the reasons for personalization.

One of the main reasons is it helps get your emails noticed. When someone sees their name they naturally stop and take a second look at the subject line. This increases your chances they will open them. It is also a more subtle and safe way of drawing attention than hyped up subject lines, which can easily get marked as spam or deleted.

Personalized emails also help build relationships by helping the reader feel like there is more of a one-on-one relationship. It also helps indicate permission to send. Even if your reader doesn’t remember putting their name in your opt-in box, the inclusion of their name gives them the idea they asked for this information making them much more likely to read the email expecting to find information they requested or are interested in.

While that all sounds great, there are also several reasons not to use personalization. One of the main reasons is the fact it is your subscriber entering their email. Many do not feel comfortable giving out their name so they will give a fake name. Other times they may misspell it or not use proper capitalization. If any of these happen your personalized email will have these incorrect names which will have the opposite effect, making your emails look more like spam. In fact, some people even use a fake name for the sole purpose of filtering out emails from opt-ins.

Even if their name is correct, personalization can still cause problems. There is also is the possibility of your own error! Always test your emails, the last thing you want to do is mistype your personalization code and send out that email to your subscribers.

Another thing to note is some people don’t like the personal touch of having their name in emails from people they don’t know. If you use personalization, be careful not to overdo it or you could leave your reader feeling uncomfortable.

All and all, personalization is something you will need to decide on your own. Consider your niche and audience. Some audiences respond better to personalization. If you aren’t sure test both and see what your open, click, and unsubscribe rates are. Figure out what works best for you and your list.

To get more information on how to make money online while building your list, just go to:

==> http://rossdalangin.com/showinfo/21dayprofit

.

Share The Love: Bookmark This Make Money Online Post, Thanks!

Popularity: 2% [?]

In email marketing your subject line is like your headline. It is the first thing your subscriber sees and the main factor in their decision to read your email, not read it, or delete it. Obviously your subject line is something that deserves a bit of thought then, right? So how do you craft the perfect attention grabbing subject line that begs to be clicked on?

There is no sure-fire formula that will guarantee your email gets opened, but there are several things you can do to increase your chances. As you read through this article, think about the your current autoresponder campaigns and how you can improve your subject lines to get more opens.

Don’t forget the “from” line. I don’t mean you need to change your name on your email or anything, I mean don’t forget it is there. Your subscriber will see who the email is from so there is no need to repeat it in the subject line. Rather, you should use that space to draw attention to your email. If your message is part of a newsletter, it can be helpful to brand your newsletter by having the name of the newsletter in the subject line, otherwise let the “from” line do its job!

Keep your subject line short. Many email clients have a character limit, sometimes as low as 50 characters, for the subject line so you need to get what you want to say out there in as few words as possible. You don’t want your subject line to be cut off in the middle of an important word or before an important point!

Don’t make your subject line spam-line. Not only can this get your email deleted or marked as spam, it can also get it sent right to the junk box without hitting the inbox. Avoid exclamation points or strange, non-standard characters. If you are offering something free, don’t use “free” as the first word in your subject line. Many spam filters will filter your email for it. Instead put it a few words in. You also want to be honest about what is included in the email.

If you are stuck for ideas, two great ways to come up with subject lines are using interesting things in the news, or using open ended questions. Read newspapers, watch the news, and see if you can apply those to your emails when writing subject lines. Especially with controversial news, these can be great for drawing attention.

In the end though, like most things with list building, it comes down to knowing your niche and audience, then testing to see what gives you the best results. Test different subject lines and keep track of your stats. Figure out what works best for your list.

To get more information on how to make money online while building your list, just go to:

==> http://rossdalangin.com/showinfo/21dayprofit

.

Share The Love: Bookmark This Make Money Online Post, Thanks!

Popularity: 2% [?]

One of the most common questions people have when building and marketing to a list is how often they should send out emails. After all, you don’t want them to feel like you are spamming them but you also don’t want them to forget about you.

The answer, unfortunately, is that there is no right or wrong answer. There is no magic number of emails you should send each week. It depends on you and your list. How often do you want to write emails? Remember, you want content rich emails, so part of how often you email depends on how often you can produce content. Does your list respond well to how often you send emails? Don’t be afraid to ask them if they would like to hear from you more or less.

A general rule is to email everyday for the first few days and then start lowering it until you are emailing three to four times a week depending on your preference. This allows them to get to know you in those first emails so they will be looking forward to those three to four a week later. Now, that is if we are talking about your autoresponder series.

If we are talking about sending out broadcasts, or one time emails, the more important question isn’t so much how often, but when. When should you send a broadcast? The answer is simple. Send a broadcast whenever you have something your list will benefit from and enjoy that they should see right away rather than down the road in your autoresponder series. Is there a special limited time sale going on they should know about? Did you find a great blog entry they would enjoy? Those are great reasons to send a broadcast.

The best way to know when and how often to email your list is to think about their needs rather than your own. With each email or broadcast think about your list and if they will appreciate what you are sending. Will they actually WANT to receive your email?

The big picture here is that as long as you are providing a lot of value, your readers will look forward to your emails so it won’t matter how often you email. If you are only sending things your subscribers actually want you will start to find the balance yourself. If you are worried you are emailing too often or not enough, send a quick broadcast or add a P.S. to your next one and let them know you want to hear what they think and if you have built a strong relationship with your list, they will respond.

To get more information on how to make money online while building your list, just go to:

==> http://rossdalangin.com/showinfo/21dayprofit

.

Share The Love: Bookmark This Make Money Online Post, Thanks!

Popularity: 4% [?]