SETTING UP YOUR EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

Without an email address, you’ve got no means of communicating with your visitors [and hopefully buyers] and they’ve got no means of communicating with you. Advertising and search engine optimization will get your site listed, and noticed, but you need a follow up strategy to maximize your marketing. Not every visitor to your site will buy. In fact, if you have a conversion rate of 10% of visitors to buyers, you’re doing very well. So you need a follow up strategy, partly to get those visitors to return and buy, and partly to encourage visitors to your website in the first place.

Every successful internet marketer will tell you that you need lists to optimize your marketing strategy, but more of this later.

An email address allows you to contact anybody and everybody you think might improve your sales, and as already discussed in the chapter on affiliate links, you might want to offer your visitors your own affiliate program, so they buy your product, and for everybody they send to your website to buy, you offer them a commission.

But here’s an important tip:

Try and get your primary address as part of your domain name

For example, if your website URL is www.potatosaladstodiefor.com, then get your primary email address as spud@potatosaladstodiefor.com Other email addresses will have a different user name, but your website must feature in each and every one, to give you maximum exposure.

Your domain ‘host’ should offer you an email address, or several if you want, as part of the hosting package.

This type of email address is also more professional than those using the email services of the major providers such as yahoo, or hotmail, or aol. Imagine your ‘targets’ receiving an email from spud@yahoo.com It looks tacky, tells them nothing about your website, and you lose a great opportunity to promote your site. If I’m into potato salad in a big way, and I receive an email from spud@potatosaladtodiefor.com, I’m going to visit. But an email from spud@yahoo.com will be deleted.

There’s a massive e-commerce business out there on the Net, dedicated to collecting email addresses and selling them on, or using them for bulk email shots to customers willing to pay the price, on a sliding upward scale according to the numbers you buy. So an email ‘shot’ to one million will cost you more than a shot to one thousand.

I have the gravest reservations about these bulk email shot providers, for two reasons:

Firstly, there are no reliable statistics of their success rate, known as Return on Investment [ROI]. In other words, out of the one million ‘shot’ mailings, how many will actually convert into sales.

Secondly, Internet Service Providers [ISP] are being much more rigorously monitored and regulated than a few years ago, to try and reduce spam emailing, which is washing over the Net like a tidal wave. In extreme case, some sites are being closed down, and in theory at least, you should neither receive nor send spam emails.

But there’s a very fine line between ‘solicited’ and ‘unsolicited’ emails, and it’s all down to ‘opt in’ lists. They work like this:

If you’re browsing on the Net, and you casually log onto www.potatosaladstodiefor.com, and then log off, your visit can be recorded and your email address ‘captured’. The ‘captor’ then assumes, rightly or wrongly, that you’re interested in potato salad, and anything else remotely related to potato salad, like mixed leaf salad, pasta salad, pastas, pizzas, fast food, you name it, the list is endless, so you’re treated as an ‘opt in’ name. Before you know it, you’re getting emails from all these websites, advertising their products and inviting you to visit.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

As its name suggests, SEO is the process of optimizing a website so that it ranks high in search engines. In an ideal world, your ‘all singing all dancing’ website should be up there in the top 10 when a surfer types in one of your keywords into his search engine. If you’re down at the bottom, worse still if you’re not even on the first page, chances are the surfer, with his short attention span, will surf on by.

Search engines want to provide their users with a valuable service, so the user instantly finds results relevant to his search. So when you launch your website, these search engines use a sophisticated and automative system of algorithms to determine rankings, and they’re changing them all the time. That’s why it’s essential to have a quality website with all the relevant keywords linked to it to attract visitors from the off!

There are two important components related to this system, and which determine your ranking:

7. Links

8. Content

If you have a quality website, in theory it should attract regular visitors, and this will show up on the search engines. In addition, if you get good links from other websites, this too will show up, and overall, will improve your rankings.

Patience is the watchword when it comes to search engines.  Whilst they are remarkably sophisticated, they have their work cut out to keep up with demand.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites and blogs being added every day, and all requiring the 'once over' before they go live.  Even the big hitting search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, take time to crawl your website, so it could be days, even weeks, before you're picked up and dumped at the bottom of their rankings.

Anything that attracts your website to the search engines is the way forward, and even the slightest alterations or additions can help.  That's why links are so important, as this generates traffic which in turn is picked up.

Finally, whether it's a website or blog, content is king.  Regular refreshing is essential to hold the interest of the search engines, so a tweak here or there, or simply adding new content, even a line or two, will keep you in the frame, and with perseverance, you will move up the rankings, and with luck and application, you will reach the Holy Grail of the first page.

PAY PER CLICK

More of this later, but again, briefly:

If you’re serious about making money on the Net, and you want a swarm of traffic to your website, you’ll need to consider a Pay Per Click [PPC] strategy. I’ve already mentioned Google as the market leader, but don’t ignore the other search engines. They provide a similar service, and for the most part, they’re cheaper than Google. But remember, you get what you pay for in life, and the Net’s no different. There are hundreds out there, so suck it and see!

Yahoo are the second ranking search engine, but don't forget MSN, Ask Jeeves, and many more. Compare their rates and their service. Compare click bids on your keywords with the competition, and decide how much you can afford.

If you’re just starting out on a limited budget, don’t commit yourself to big bucks on your keyword bids. Suck it and see!

Again, there are thousands of Net programs offering instant traffic to your site, and again, most are useless, but a few are worth exploring. Check the cost, is it a ‘one off’ payment, or a recurring monthly payment?

Factor it into your budget.

ADVERTISING

So you’ve set up your website, it’s loaded with goodies to tempt even the most discerning palate, and you’ve got your carefully selected affiliate links in place. So all you need do now is sit back and wait for the millions to roll in! Wrong!

It doesn’t matter how you square the circle, if surfers don’t know you’re out there, you’re dead in the water, and all that time and effort has been wasted, not to mention your hard earned cash. You won’t make a dime unless you get traffic to your site, and again, like so many internet marketing strategies, there are thousands of programs out there offering unlimited traffic. A few are good, the rest useless.

The biggest hitter in online advertising by several miles is Google. They’re raking in $10 million a day, so they must know what they’re doing. Google claim their Adwords program reaches over 80% of Internet users, and they may be right.  And don't forget Adsense, which is free!

But don’t confine your advertising strategies to just one big hitter. Yahoo, MSN and Hostned should be included in your list of "must do".

There are many other tools to apply:

• Blogging – start your own blog and plug your products and your website. There are also free blogging sites where you can do the same thing, and reach thousands.  I shall be devoting a number of articles in this series to blogs, so be patient.  Let's go one step at a time.

• Free Directories

• Ezines

• Press releases

• Classified Ads

• eBay

All these will be explained in future articles.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

With your new website up and running, you’ll need something to sell. You may have your own products, if so, fine and dandy, but even if you’ve just re-invented the wheel, you shouldn’t overlook the marketing possibilities of affiliate partnerships. There are literally thousands of products for sale on the Net where the sellers will offer you a slice of the action for every sale made through your website or affiliate link, or both. Their commissions vary from program to program, and product to product, but don’t ignore them. If you’re running on a really tight budget, and don’t want to spend money until you’re ready to launch, then an affiliate website will cost you a good deal less, and usually free.

I deal in detail with affiliates later on, but here is a brief summary of how it works:

Assume you have a website selling recipes for the best potato salad in the world, so you set up affiliate links to other sites selling similar products.

When a visitor comes to your site in search of potato salad recipes, and sees other similar products, hopefully he’ll buy your product and other affiliate products from your website.

Affiliate programs link direct from your website to their product with the click of a mouse, and with your affiliate link bedded into your website, when the visitor buys the affiliate product, you’ll get a share of the sale, at an agreed commission. It’s good business for you, and good business for them.

And there’s no reason why the process can’t be done in reverse. You invite other websites offering similar products to link in to yours, and in return, when they send visitors to your website who buy your product, you give them a share of the sale. It’s ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’!

You’ll need to make sure your products and theirs are similar. It stands to reason that when visitors come to your website, they’re expecting to find recipes for potato salad. If your affiliate programs are selling scuba diving equipment, there’s little chance they’ll follow the affiliate link, and all you’re doing is taking up valuable space on your website that could be put to better use.

A word of warning – don’t smother your website with affiliate links, otherwise your visitors won’t be able to see the wood for the trees! The main purpose of your website is to showcase your own products, and if your visitors are confronted with too much choice, they’ll leave. Don’t forget that the attention span of the average surfer from one site to another is very short, so if they don’t see what they want at first glance, they’ll be off! So much to see, so little time!

SELLING YOUR PRODUCTS

If you want to make good money online with as little hassle as possible, then information technology is the place to start. Basically, this means anything that can be delivered as an attachment to an email, or downloaded straight from the Net in e-book format. For the seller, once you’re up and running, it’s easy, painless and cheap.

You may have your own products to sell, in which case you'll need to load them onto your brand new, all singing all dancing website.  But if you don't have your own products, then you'll need somebody else's to sell, and e-books are by far and away the favourite to start building your empire.

If you don’t have your own e-book, and can’t be bothered with the time and effort of writing one, and who can blame you, then selling somebody else’s e-book by buying the master rights is the best way forward. Type e-book master rights into your search engine and check out the many e-books on offer. Make sure it suits your marketing strategy, and that the price is right. Of course you’ll have to pay for the master rights, but think of the money you’ll make by selling it over and over again, using my marketing strategies.

You can also give “Money Back Guarantees” as a marketing tool, but be prepared to honour your guarantee.  For the most part, this won't happen, especially if you price your e-books competitively, but if it does, then bite the bullet and refund the payment.  The last thing you want in your career as an online marketer is a bad reputation.  Worse still, if you are blacklisted by the search engines. 

Here's a tip!  If you buy two or three e-book master rights, you can always offer one as a freebie.  Freebies are a great way of pulling in the punters, as everybody wants something for nothing.

GETTING STARTED

In this post, you’ll find a thumb nail sketch of the basic essentials to get you started. In later posts I’ll give you a more detailed analysis, together with recommended links for you to play with. Forewarned is forearmed in this business!

1. Setting up your own website:

 

If you want to sell online, whether it’s your own products, or somebody else’s affiliate products, you’ll need a store window to display your goods to maximum effect, and with maximum impact. So it must be the best you can afford. We’ve all been window shopping, and as we walk along, there are store window displays that positively jump out at you, inviting you inside, and successful store owners pay their window dressers a small fortune to tempt you inside. Then there are other stores where the display is so tacky and uninteresting, you walk on by.

Two initial steps:

1. 
   
   Register your website, otherwise known as your domain.
2. 
   
   Get it hosted.

Again, you will need the help of the search engines to register your domain.  There are literally millions of websites out there, and many of the most popular are already taken.  It is obvious common sense to choose a domain name that relates to the product you are selling.  If your preferred name is already taken, many of the companies offering you a domain will suggest alternatives.  They may also offer you a design facility, taken from one of a number of 'templates' stored on their system.  The market leader by a mile is http://www.godaddy.com/, but big is not necessarily beautiful, so check out the competition, and take your time. 

You're looking for a catchy domain name with excellent visual impact. Depending on the region or regions you are targeting with your website, the suffix is important.  As a general rule, the suffix .com is the best, as it has a global appeal, so if it's available, take it.

Now I’m not in the business of promoting or endorsing any products or programs in these posts, in spite of repeated requests to do so from site owners, so you’ll have to do some research yourself. If you type website designers into your search engine, you’ll get over 24 million results!!

Lord knows how much business the twenty fourth million guy is managing to drum up! But take my advice! Don’t always ignore the guy off the first page. It’s all about advertising and paying the search engines a hefty sum to move your site up the listings and into the top 100. A quick check of the top 20 should give you a flavour of what's on offer and what to look for, but have a good browse around, check out their displays and their costs before jumping in.

2.  Finally, you will need to 'host' your new website to get it out there on the internet.  Again, there are thousands of hosting companies looking for your business, so check them out.   Also check out if there are any hidden extras,  including residual costs for maintenance and support, and if there is a minimum contract period, is there a penalty if you leave and go to another provider.

Above all, read their terms and conditions before signing up.  If you don't like what you read, don't sign up.

A WORD TO THE WISE

OK, so you want to climb abroad the Internet Marketing gravy train, and make big bucks. And why not? There are thousands out there doing exactly that, some better than others, some making millions, others making a living, and still others falling at the first hurdle.

The Net is global, and it’s big business if you know how to tap in to it. But it’s dog eat dog out there, and more snakes in the grass than you can shake a stick at! There are Get Rich Quick scams pumping out onto the Net by the minute, all making extravagant claims, all promising instant wealth for doing diddly squat, and as they say, there’s a sucker born every minute.

These scammers prey on greed, or fear, or both, and they prey on the most vulnerable, those in dead end jobs, with mortgages they can’t afford, unpaid bills, credit card debts, the whole nine yards! But these scammers are clever, or most of them. They pitch their opt in fee at just the right level, nothing too pricey, somewhere between $19.97 and $49.97, just about affordable for everyone, and they sell their scams over and over, with flashy presentations and slick sales hype, to hundreds and thousands of suckers, day in and day out, and they laugh all the way to the bank. No back up, no support, no nothing!

So it’s time you took control of your own life, and instead of buy, buy, buy all the time, with nothing to show for it but further debt and shattered dreams, it’s time to sell, sell, sell! If they can do it, so can you!

Of course there’s no such thing in life as a free lunch! Believe me, if you’re offered something for nothing, odds on it’s a scam. After all, these scammers are looking to make a fast buck, and a freebie isn’t the route to instant wealth!

I’ve spent the best part of two years researching the Internet Market for these “Get Rich Quick” programs, I’ve even subscribed to some of them, and the vast majority are scams.

With my help, I will take you, step by step, from setting up your own website, creating your own product line, tapping into lucrative affiliate links, advertising, driving traffic to your website, and more, much more, to put you on the Road to Success.

Let’s face it, we all dream of working from home, being our own boss, being in control, and earning the sort of income to enjoy the good life and all the luxuries that come with it.

As I say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so you’ll have to make affordable investments as you build your Internet business, but by following a few basic rules, these modest investments will repay you over and over again in profits as your business grows.

So what are you waiting for? Make today the first day of your new life! Start living the dream! You won’t regret it!