We all know that having your own list is the holy grail of online marketing and there are numerous articles on this site (such as here and here).
Once you have an email list, it is important to nurture it and provide value to your subscribers before bombarding them with offers.
There is no problem marketing to your list, but you must always have their best interests at heart and treat them the same way that you would want to be treated by a marketer.
Once you have built that rapport, feel free to offer appropriate affiliate offers that would benefit your readers.
And, hopefully you may also have your own products and services that you can put in front of them.
And this is also a way of launching a new product or even relaunching one of your previous products or services.
Let’s say you’re reopening a membership for a limited time, or you’re launching a product just for your list.
Okay, so you’ve got a product you’re going to be offering to your list for a limited time – let’s say three days.
After the three days, either the product is no longer available, or the price goes up.
Yes, there is nothing wrong with offering special deals to your own list on your own product. In fact, I think it’s a great idea, because people on your list should be rewarded with special deals no one else can get (hint hint!)
In this example you’re going to be sending out a total of 6 emails. Yes, you could do 5, or 7, or… but I’ve found this sequence works well, so it’s what I do. Your mileage may vary. 😊
I suggest you write all 6 of your emails ahead of time, and here’s why:
First, you can schedule them and forget them. Nice.
Second, you can see if the entire sequence flows and makes sense.
Your first email will go out the day BEFORE your launch, and it will say something like, “Watch your email tomorrow for a very special limited time offer for my subscribers ONLY. I think you’re going to love it!”
This first email is low key, short, fun, and only sells them on watching for the next email.
On the day of the launch, you’ll send out two emails, one first thing in the morning and one in the evening.
But if the sales page is lacking, then you can do product selling right there in the email.
The first email of the first day of the launch gives all the great reasons to buy, only abbreviated. I like my sales page to do the heavy lifting.
The second email of that first day tells them how the launch is going, how many people are buying… that sort of thing.
Yes, it’s written ahead of time, so yes, you now know one of my secrets – I’m guessing how well it will be going when I write it. 😊
On the next day you should send one email in the middle of the day to remind them that this offer isn’t going to last, and to remind them of the big benefit they’ll get from the product.
On the final day you should send two emails. The one in the morning says something like, “Last 24 hours.”
The one in the evening says, “Last chance, last email.”
The power of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is very strong in people so don’t underestimate it!
I’ve used this same sequence of 6 emails many times because it’s effective. It works. And it gives me plenty of sales which I can then show to affiliates to get them to come on board and do their own launches.
As mentioned earlier, I recommend you make a special offer that is available only to your own list, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a special price. It could mean a special bonus that only they get. That way your affiliates can offer it at the same price point to their lists, too.
One more thing: If you’re only working with a handful of affiliates, you can make a special page for each one that says, “Special deal for Jane Smith’s subscribers only.”
I’ve found that using this technique boosts conversions by about 10%, depending on the offer and the list.
The thing is to not do this kind of thing all the time or you may end up annoying your readers.
Some marketers do these sorts of “crush campaigns” all the time and it just causes the readers to get angry and unsubscribe and you then need to keep replenishing your list.
Isn’t it much better to actually nurture and help your readers to succeed? They will appreciate you so much more and you can then build a tribe of people who will follow you and buy repeatedly from you and this is the best way to do business as you are building a brand reputation.
By the way if you are interested in building your brand the right way, you can grab a free report called Brilliant Branding by clicking on the featured resource below. If you do download it, please read it and take action and good luck 😊
When you hear the word entrepreneur, your first thought might be Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Daymond John or Susie Ma. These are high level entrepreneurs that saw opportunities to solve problems and make a lot of money. They built capital, created products and services, that are unique and became very wealthy.
Some of the ideas can be incorporated immediately, while the others, such as the ones with software or apps…will require a bit of research and decision making.
Are you 100% clear on what your business goals are? You need to get your new business off to a flying start. Or if you have been in business for awhile and there have been issues, it may be due to not seeing things, crystal clear.
Consider having a self-improvement goal as part of your business goals. Self-improvement will strengthen the other areas of your goal setting. Get a mentor or a coach who has the experience in the areas of self-confidence, self-esteem or creating a new mindset around achieving success in business.
Stop your internal negative dialogue. When you have lofty business goals, sometimes you end up talking yourself out of something that if you stuck to it…would be ultimately successful.
Hannibal saw the mountains and basically said, “we will either find a way or make one. Leading thousands of soldiers and elephants over a mountain range, Hannibal had an extremely positive mental image of himself.
Have a great idea for something that will make you $10K a month? If you start to balk, just take the first few actions and as you see success, put your foot on the accelerator and get up to speed.
Internal negative dialogue or “stinky thinking” as it is also called, destroys dreams and ambition. You can overcome that and build an awesome business.
When you have a business idea and want to either start it or add it to your existing business…you need to define your tasks. This is where you put on your strategic thinking hat and write out the who, what, where of what the tasks are. Questions to ask are things like:
Some of the tasks for this person to reach their goals might be:
Writing out the tasks and adding time to complete dates will help save time and achieve your goals.
There should be an action plan with clear time frames, deadlines and who should complete those tasks. Use project management tools as Asana, Basecamp or Trello.
With that knowledge, you can decide the best person for a task, set the deadlines, the goals and of course the rewards. With technology today, project management tools help the entrepreneur keep everything on track. Let’s look at three outstanding tools now.
A) Asana allows you to assign projects and then see on the righthand side of the app, who has the project and what stage they are currently in, such as just started or completed. You can chart your course for smooth sailing through the entire project. In Asana, there is a feature called, “Timeline,” where you can see the flow of work and where it is being passed to the next team member for their actions. There are over 100 items you can integrate into Asana, such as emails and all pertinent files.
B) Basecamp works in the same way and has features to remind people when a task is overdue. One thing that bogs any business down, is endless meetings. With Basecamp, it eliminates the need for time wasting meetings as everyone on the team can log-in and see where the project is at.
Basecamp states that 59% of meetings have been cut out by its users. Basecamp is simple to use and there is no steep learning curve, so anyone can jump right in. Basecamp is great for multiple projects, since you can pull them up all onto one screen and see the status.
All conversations on inline and this elimates that annoying re: factor you get in traditional emails. Cut down on the number of apps you normally used in projects, because in Basecamp, all notifications are in one spot.
C) Trello works on a board system, where all aspects on your projects are listed on individual cards that you can glance at. You can view a card like, “research,” and jump in with a comment or attach a file that will assist in the research end of the project. If your team is already using apps, you can incorporate those right into the Trello card to maximize productivity.
Check out the apps that you feel will power your business by clicking the link below:
OK, there are 3 steps you can use to multiply time and profits. However, there are 4 more and if you want to get all 7 in a handy report, then click on the featured resource below to download a free report that you can read at your leisure 🙂
All marketers will know that building an email list should be your number one priority when starting out in any kind of online business. If you ask any marketer what they would do if they had to start again, most will invariably say that they would start to build their list from day one and wish they would’ve done this the first time around.
So, after you have started to build your list what then? Well, you email them on a regular basis with useful help, tips and advice. You should also try to entertain them and open up to them and show them the real you rather than a business persona.
This opening up builds the know, like and trust factor that will make them more likely to buy from you again and again.
The key is to be yourself and don’t try to fake it. They want to know about you and your perspective on things or they wouldn’t have signed up.
They want to know that you have their best interests at heart and that you don’t just think of them as a commission on a sale!
So, now you have an email list and have started to write to them; great.
The next question is, “How often should you email your list?”
Believe it or not, this is one of the most commonly asked questions regarding email marketing. Some marketers say that you should mail daily so that your list can get to know you.
You’ll be creating a habit where they look forward to your emails. This is true and there are several marketers who mail their list several times a day and make six figure earnings from email marketing.
So who is right? How often do you mail out?
The truth is that there is no right or wrong answer to this question. It depends on several factors ranging from the people on your list to the type of marketer that you want to be. We’ll look at a few tips below and they’ll shed light on how frequently you should mail.
The golden rule is that you should do unto others as you’d want others to do unto you. If you do not mind receiving several emails from marketers promoting products every single day, you’d probably have no qualms mailing your list daily or even several times a day.
However, if you prefer getting one email every 3 or 4 days from a marketer and daily emails seem like too much for you, you can choose to email every 3 or 4 days.
You’ll feel better about yourself… and this will reflect in your emails.
If several people on your list tell you that they prefer fewer emails, then mail less frequently. You must have a ‘feel’ for your list.
There are two types of marketers when it comes to email marketing. One type follows the ‘Churn and Burn’ method of email marketing.
Basically, they release products constantly and use traffic generation methods such as solo ads and paid ads to build their list.
They then hammer this list with emails promoting offer after offer after offer. This can be very effective and they may make thousands of dollars doing it.
The second type of marketer sends fewer emails to the list and he or she is more concerned about building a relationship and rapport with the list. The focus is on repeat customers and the long term value of the customer.
Their goal here is to build a business and not sacrifice long term profits for short term rewards.
Providing value and helping their list is put ahead of short term profits. They treat their subscribers as people and not cash cows.
Both methods are just as profitable… and ultimately, you should choose one that you’re comfortable with.
If you feel like you have something to sell to your subscriber that will be of value to them, cast aside your hesitation and mail away. Just make sure you exercise due diligence and check the product out first.
Never make the mistake of blindly promoting a product that you don’t have a clue about. Like they say, trust takes years to earn and seconds to break.
Curious subscribers will click on the links and you will make sales. So, even if your emails are purely helpful content, do find a way to add a link or two subtly within the email that could lead to sales. After all, you are a marketer and you do need an income to keep your business going.
At the end of the day, the best way to know how often you should email your list is to self-reflect on your business goals and to do what is comfortable for you. Monitor your email open rates, click through rates and unsubscribes. With these stats you’ll have all the information you need to figure out just how often your list wants to hear from you.
If you want to know more about building your list after they have opted in, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report about simple list building to expand your knowledge further.
How do you move a mountain? One shovelful at a time. It’s a cute saying, but how many of us grab the shovel and start frantically banging away at the mountain, trying to whittle it down through sheer brute force?
That’s why so many ideas to help change your life fail—the frustration gives us an out, a way to rid ourselves of something so vast. It’s an open invitation for defeatism and defeatist thinking.
So how do you move a mountain? You make it into a series of tasks. You have the end goal; now you have to make your timeline. The catch is – you need to make it backward. You need to start with the year-long goal first and then slice it into 12 parts (one for each month).
Then slice each of those into four sections (one for each week) and then each of those into seven (one for each day). See the pattern?
Let’s look at this in a little more detail:
Although it might not be the whole mountain that you’re looking at, your yearly goal should be BIG. At least big enough to be a little scary.
There is wisdom in the expression that “it’s only the frightening things that keep us interested.”
Most of our big goals run into a few general categories.
Instead of making a New Year’s resolution, sit down for an hour or so and daydream about this time next year. What do you want this year to look like at the end of it? Who do you want to be in this year? Be specific. And don’t worry about “how.” That part comes later. Just figure out the “what” for now.
Decide what you can reasonably do in a month. If you’re taking a rock here and there from the mountain, it will never look any different. You need to concentrate on one small part at a time. Go back to that year-long goal and pick something that you can realistically do in a month.
Take the mountain out in monthly chunks. If your overall goal is to change your career, one month might involve learning a new skill set, say a programming language. The next month might be getting real-world experience by designing and building a website for a charity for free, just as a demonstration project.
This time, the re-occurring meeting with yourself is once each week. It can be a shorter meeting, about 15 – 20 minutes to plan out some steps you can take to get closer to your goal in the next seven days.
Write these down. For example, using the idea of working toward a change in careers, week one might be researching the best programming languages to study and which ones are in highest demand. Week two might be working through the first half of the book or video course you have on learning the language, while week three would be finishing the book and making some test programs, and so on.
Maybe you won’t have a finished web page or object-oriented database interface by the end of the week, but you’re making progress to get you there.
Now you’re ready to look at the wheelbarrow full of rocks. In the morning, jot down your to-do list for the goal you have in mind. Following the previous example, you might be doing the next three lessons in the language tutorial, finding a server to create pages on, or learning how to create that database.
This type of planning is flexible and powerful. Instead of saying, “I am moving that mountain,” all you’re saying is “I have a wheelbarrow full of rocks to put over there.” You still have the scary, impressive goal to aim for, but you’ve made it manageable. It’s now broken into bite-sized chunks that you can handle on a day to day basis.
Take control. No one will care about your goals like you will. The timeline here is yours, so take ownership of it. Our calendars control too many of us, instead of us being in control of our calendars.
One final note: Do you know someone that cannot make a move without checking their calendar? Are you one of them? If so, you might be begrudging the time set aside for contemplation each week or each month to get caught up on the progress. Don’t. It’s your schedule, and the end goal is worth the time. If that weren’t the case, you wouldn’t have gotten this far.
You have work/school/kids to work around your schedule. That’s understandable. Few of us do not have a full dance card. But isn’t achieving this beautiful far-flung dream worth skipping an hour of TV each week? What if you sacrificed that time you’d spend playing that game on your phone, or checking Facebook?
This fact is especially important for children. Trying to achieve a balance between work and family, and still finding time for some self-investment is a delicate thing. Remember that word – this is an investment. You are investing time and energy and even money into your future. Keep in mind; the payout will benefit you as well as your family.
While this tool is a form of time management, it’s a different type. It’s counting down, making the goal smaller and smaller instead of planning. You’re planning backward – to go forward. Stay the course, and those yearly goals won’t know what hit them!
Let’s say you want to write a Kindle book.
And further, let’s say you want to make sure it gets 5 star reviews and makes you a very nice, juicy, residual income.
Here’s how you might do exactly that:
First, choose a BIG niche that sells really well.
Selling a lot of books means you need a big money-making niche – something like:
You can’t go wrong with any one of these niches.
Now then, narrow your niche down to a specific topic. For example, you might narrow down “Diet and weight loss” to “How to lose belly fat after 40.”
Go to Amazon and search for all the belly fat and fat loss books, especially the ones tailored for people over 40.
You’re interested in anything in this sub-niche that is selling under the Kindle Bestseller rank of 20,000.
Why? Because of they’re under 20,000, then they’re likely selling about 10-15 books per day or more.
What – that doesn’t sound like a lot? Okay, let’s do some quick math:
If a book has a profit of $3 per sale, and is selling 15 copies per day, then that’s $45 per day.
Okay, I know that’s not going to make you rich, but think about this: At $45 per day, times 30 days, is $1,350 per month… Residual…
…As in, you publish the book once and get paid over and over again.
Increase the price or increase the sales and your profits go up.
Multiply 12 times $1,350 and see what that is per month.
Now do I have your interest?
Okay, back to your research…
You’re going to find these books in your subniche that are ranking under 20,000 and you’re going to read the reviews – especially the five star and one star reviews.
Make a list of everything people love about each book, and everything they hate.
For example, the list of things people love might be:
And things people didn’t like might be:
Write down all of that.
Now then, you’re going to keep what the customers liked, and improve what they didn’t like.
NO PLAGIARIZING, by the way.
That’s right – you don’t even need to write it yourself. Just give your instructions on what to include and how to write it to an outsourcer and let them handle it for you.
Your book will contain everything people love about the other books, and everything improved about what they didn’t like about the other books.
Do this and there is no reason for people to give you negative reviews, which is important.
As you know, Amazon reviews are HUGELY important.
Your book will eventually get more sales than the books it is modeled on as you get more and more positive reviews.
Meaning your income should surpass that of your competitor’s books.
Now then, rinse and repeat for your next book, and the next, and…
WAIT! Two more things…
First: Your book cover must be so mesmerizing that it STOPS Amazon customers in their tracks.
Everyone is busy. They’re skimming. They’re in a hurry. And there are hundreds of books in your category.
You can have the greatest book ever written, but if the cover stinks then you will get few sales.
Here’s what to do: Find a great Kindle cover designer on Fiverr. You might need to pay more than $5 – it’s worth it.
Ask them to make your title(s) BIG and BOLD.
Remember, on Kindle a lot of people are looking at titles on their smart phones. If the titles are small, they can’t read them.
Ask for high resolution graphics, because people associate higher resolution with higher quality.
Second Thing:
Now, when I say reviews, I mean REAL reviews.
Amazon has gotten smart about these things and they are cracking down.
Instead, ask your friends, family, acquaintances and so forth for real, legitimate reviews.
Also, place an email opt-in page with a nice freebie at the beginning and end of your book. This will build you an email list of readers.
ASK your readers (politely) for reviews.
Good question. Here’s how to do a killer promotion that gets your book ranking high on Kindle:
The only thing left for you to do is shoot your rankings up on Amazon.
Here’s what you do…
Promote your book on as many promotion sites as you can find. There are all kinds of Facebook groups dedicated to free Kindle books.
Set your book on a free promotion through KDP Select.
Also, if you have a series of books (HINT HINT) then link all of your books together. As soon as one KDP Select promotion is over, set the second book on promotion and so forth. This will cross-promote your books and your sales should see a compound effect.
Continue the above, along with building your lists (remember you’re placing an offer to get on your list inside your books.) Whenever you publish a new book, let your list know. Let them download it for free during the KDP Select promotion, and ask them to leave reviews.
Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat…
Yes, this is a six, or maybe seven figure business if you stick with it.
And you thought we were just going to talk about writing a single Kindle book…
…okay, if you only want to do ONE book for now, make it a great one and tie it in with something else you’re doing.
For example, if you’re a coach or consultant or provide services, let your book be your ambassador and show the world that YOU are the expert.
It makes for a much better and more effective business card than a little slip of paper with your name and phone number on it.
The sky’s the limit, so have fun and become a best-selling author THIS month before you put it off any longer.
