Newbie Affiliate Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘Email Address’

So now we know the money is in the list.   But if having a mailing list is such a huge boost, how do you go about building one?

How to grow a mailing list.

We will ignore, for now, the technology required to operate a mailing list as it is very easy to simply sign up to such mailing companies as Aweber or Get-response.  What is more important is how you get people to sign up to your mailing list so that you can mail them as and when you want, that requires some clever techniques.

Firstly you need to give them the option, which will require some simple code from the mailing company you are using, this will allow users to enter their email address and get themselves onto your mailing list.  More important though is how you get them to enter the details.

So make sure that when you are placing the code for the sign up forms you place it somewhere that is easily seen, ideally ‘above the fold’ (in the top screen of the web page).    The easier it is for people to see the easier it is for them to sign up, and ease is important.

And ease is important, as with all advertising the less barriers between the ‘customer’ and what you want to happen the more often it will occur.  So when you are creating the forms for people to enter their details you need to consider what is easiest for them to do whilst still doing what you want… this means that you want them to have to enter as few details as possible so as not to make things more difficult than they have to, and not make people worry they are giving you too many details.

Entice and Reward

People need something to motivate them to do something, whether that is reward or fear.  For mailing lists you want people to sign up because they want something, but often simply suggesting what they will get is something intangible and in the future is not enough – people want something real and now to properly motivate them.

To that end you need to think about what you will be using to entice them, what reward you will give them for entering the details that you want.  For many people this could be in the form of an ebook – something that gives people the answers they are looking for, or information about something they wish to know.

Setting up a mailing list allows you to repeatedly talk to customers, directly in their inbox, and so make money.  In turn make sure that you are enticing them with something they want, ensuring that everyone benefits.

Having your own website to promote your affiliate products is a good option. But it is not necessary. There are many methods available that can be used to do your affiliate marketing business. The list is long, but the most important methods are email marketing, writing articles to e-groups, joining online discussions etc. Let us discuss some important methods that can be used to promote your affiliate products without having your own website.

Email Marketing

In this method you can promote your affiliate links and you don’t need your own website. People can click on your affiliate links present in your emails and can go directly to the merchant website to purchase the products.

Your email should contain the introduction about the product you are promoting and your affiliate links. Try to make your emails interesting and brief.

Try to expand your contact list. Use as many methods as you can to grab the email addresses of new people. Use online forums, chat forums etc to make new friends. Your email list must contain a few hundred contacts, at least. But don’t spam. Don’t send emails to the people who don’t know about you or who don’t want to receive your emails. Otherwise they will just block your emails and you will lose your contacts. As I said, your emails should be interesting to get the reader’s attention.

Offline Promotion

You can use the offline methods of promotion, like the classified ads, flyers etc. The best choice is the classified ads because its exposure is largest.

Writing free e-books

It is similar to email marketing. But in this method you will write the informative and interesting e-books and will send to the people via their email address. These e-books should be easy to read and helpful for their readers. The topics should be related to your affiliate products so that you can recommend the products in the body of e-books. Alternatively you can add a brief note about your affiliate products and affiliate links for promotion. If the readers like your e-book, they may visit the merchant website and make a purchase.

Writing in Forums

Search for some forums, at least three, that are related to your product and have high page rank. Register on these forums and start some discussion in the forum where maximum people are involved. Just post your questions there or answer some questions of other members. But don’t add any promotion text in the body of your posts. You are allowed to put your signature at the end of your post. Here you can write you name and your affiliate links.

When you become an active member of this forum then you may get some traffic from these forums to your merchant website through your affiliate links. This will ultimately result in more sales of the products you are promoting.

Writing Articles

You can write articles and publish them in the free article directories. You can embed your affiliate links in the text of your articles. If your articles are well formatted, informative and the article directory has large traffic then you can expect some good traffic to your affiliate links. And you know that more traffic on your affiliate links will result in more sales through your affiliate links.

Conclusion

The use of a website to promote your affiliate products is a good idea but it is not necessary. You can use the alternate methods to promote your affiliate products and links. The most popular among these methods are email marketing, writing to forums, article writing and offline promotion like classified ads. The main idea is that instead of promoting your website you will directly promote your affiliate links and people will directly go to the merchant website by clicking your affiliate links to purchase the products. This way you do not have to pay extra for your website creation and maintenance.

Here are a few very esy things you can do on your blog or web site that can build your email list.

- OFFER A FREEBIE

Eveyone loves something for nothing. Offer a free download that your readers may want but require them to enter their main email address.

- ADD A SUBSCRIBER BOX

Add a subscribe here or subscribe to the newletter box on each and every page of your site (like I have done). Why on every page? When search engines index your web site, a visitor may or may not come directly to your hom page. If the person misses your home page and the subscribe button is only there your missing out on thousands of visitors who may bypass your homepage.

- CONTESTS

Create a contest, tel your readers to enter their email address for a drawing at the end of the month. Let them know the item that they are winning before hand. This is a sure fire way to build your list.

Take this esy to use methods and start using them and watch your list grow.