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nicolasb86
08-03-2010, 07:47 PM
List building is possibly one of the most important factors when it comes to online success. It’s vital because building a good and healthy list can contribute to the success of almost any online goals, ventures, or activities.

Often list building can be used to get more traffic, leads, and of course sales for the business/products/services you may have or are promoting.

It is extremely easy to do; but, only if you understand two critical and proven principles.

These two well known principles are the main ingredients to any list, and without them you can find that list building is not as “smooth” going as you may want. So understanding these principles is key to making an effective and successful list that could last for years.

Powerful Elements in List Building:

1.) Free Giveaways- Giving away useful information in free products such as e-books, videos, reports, discounts, and prizes is a tested method for building solid relationships with your visitors and customers. This is seen time and again with offline companies and especially franchises that will have special sales, hold major events, or give away prizes. In fact, giving away free items is the quickest way to build a list because people are looking for value…and something free.

Although giving things away for free is the sure-fire way of attracting more visitors and contacts, many marketers have objected to this act simply because they fear it might attract the “wrong kind” of subscriber or customer. Often this refers to “tire-kickers” or people that will never buy anything because they are looking for a “free meal”.

Attracting “tire-kickers” has more to do with the nature of your gift and the kind of contacts you’re building. For example, if giving away guides to buying the best and latest gadgets or the fastest cars, then this will definitely attract the “buying customers” if done right. The solution to attracting the right customer is to tweak methods by adjusting the marketing to incorporate free elements appropriately.

2.) Value- Any list should include the offering of a valuable relationship between the expert and the subscriber. Subscribers join lists because they are looking for information in a subject they have enthusiasm for, are studying, or have a career in. In short, they are looking for benefits, and so in order to keep subscribers the key is to provide these benefits in the best way possible. An easy way to identify these benefits is to make a list of what someone would want to receive when joining a list, or you could put yourself in the subscribers shoes.

For example, what benefits would be the most enticing?:
- receiving important information
- getting special & valuable content
- getting to participate in forums with like-minded people
- receiving workshops/training videos
- getting updates and timely announcements

Whatever the benefits may be its important to make them the main selling points when building a list.

Besides the two elements of ‘Value’ and ‘Free Giveaways’ there is also a psychological reason to people joining lists.

The fact is that people like to feel included and want to become emotionally involved in their interests with like-minded individuals. This factor is great to keep in mind when building a list since including a comment box or forum in relation to your list can add to its success.

Ultimately, addressing these elements can possibly ensure a loyal list of contacts for years to come.

nicolasb86
08-16-2010, 09:35 PM
Affiliate marketing is a business model in which one could start without a website. It is mostly a myth that a website is completely needed in order to be successful online. Therefore, promoting affiliate products or services can be done through alternative strategies that can generate free traffic and leads, which will in time, translate into profit.
Marketing affiliate links or products with free tactics can range through a variety of methods in the Affiliate Marketing business model. All free methods can be highly valuable if incorporated strategically into an online business.

Email Marketing-

Promoting affiliate links using email can be extremely effective to a list. Having a list of many people who are potential customers; or being apart of a membership site, both allow you to use email marketing as a means of promotion. Through this way of marketing you can email these people an affiliate link which will divert them to an affiliate site. If they follow your affiliate link and purchase the product/service, you will get a commission.

Article Marketing-

Submitting an article to a directory and getting highly targeted traffic to an article on a specific niche is common. However, many article directories have stopped allowing authors to put an affiliate link in the author’s signature area. The goal with article marketing is to find directories which will allow you to place affiliate links so you can proceed to build highly targeted traffic to the affiliate programs you’re promoting and then eventually convert this traffic into profit.

Yahoo Answers-

Marketing in Yahoo Answers consists of finding people who are asking related questions to your product, and then promoting your affiliate link through your answer. However, simply pushing the affiliate link will not be effective enough to make a sale, but providing a good and valuable answer in addition to asking the asker to visit the affiliate site. This tactic will dramatically increase the chances of making commissions and attaining leads through Yahoo Answers.

Ebook Marketing-

Viral ebook marketing is another form of marketing that can promote your affiliate programs. Viral marketing is where you can create an ebook which explains certain information which can be valuable for the readers and make them want to share this information with their friends by passing the ebook around. Within this viral ebook strategy the author leaves affiliate links at strategic locations in the ebook content, and as the readers click the links they will be taken to the appropriate affiliate sales page. The entire concept of viral marketing lays in the fact that the more this ebook is passed around the better the chances are for making sales.

These are only some of the methods that can be used in generating traffic to certain affiliate programs using affiliate links. If done properly, these methods; such as article marketing, ebook marketing, and email marketing, can provide highly targeted traffic to these programs for possibly many years, or as long as the links remain active. There are various other methods that can generate traffic and without having “your very own website”. The tactic of not having to have your own website will make the goal of becoming a successful internet marketer easier to attain; especially if one is just starting out.