If you don't collect addresses, your marketing effort is a one-shot wonder. You're making only one attempt per visitor to achieve a sale and then giving up.
As branding expert Rob Frankel says, people like buying from people they know, like and trust.
If you're not giving people a chance to get to know and trust you, don't be surprised if they don't buy.
If you're not collecting email addresses, you're seriously crippling your marketing. Remember how the big dot-coms poured buckets of money into banner advertising and TV advertising? Now they've finally realized that collecting email addresses is much better value.
It's getting harder and harder to do, because we're all deluged with spam and newsletters which don't provide the information we need. So get started now, before the competition becomes even stronger.
You may not want the commitment of publishing a weekly newsletter. Perhaps you don't believe you have the necessary skills. One option is to simply offer a monthly Update newsletter, telling people what's new on your site.
Perhaps you don't like the thought of being tied to a weekly or monthly publishing schedule. You don't have to be. You can publish irregularly, only when you feel you have something worth saying - or selling.
If you want a no-nonsense, no-hype guide to newsletter publishing, I highly recommend Ezine Adrenaline: How to Create, Publish and Market A Profitable E-zine on the Internet by Kate Schultz. It tells you all the stuff you need to know.
Build an opt-in email list.
5. Do you have visitors but no sales?
Some affiliates complain that they receive thousands of visitors but can't turn those visitors into buyers. To them, I usually recommend re-reading Ken Evoy's article on pre-selling. Studying that article and implementing Ken's suggestions could have a huge impact on your sales.
Donald Skarzenski reported on a company which bought a MILLION visitors but - whoops! - hadn't first taken the time to figure out what to do with them. It's a tale of stupidity on a grand scale.
It's time to try something new.
If you keep repeating actions which fail, you'll continue failing. If what you're doing isn't working well, it's time to change it, to move out of your comfort zone and try something new.
Here's something you can do. You can syndicate your columns or tips all over the Net to other web sites. Imagine how that would boost your image, your traffic and your sales.
Each web site publishing your column simply puts two lines of JavaScript code on its page at the location where your column is to appear.
All you do is paste your column into a Syndicator form and click a button. That one button click automatically updates all syndicated web site pages.
You don't even have to create the script. Acclaimed CGI expert William Bontrager has done that for you.
You can learn how to syndicate your content.
Try new techniques.
Are you promoting questionable products and services in the hope of earning high commissions?
Or are you building something of VALUE? Are you creating a business you're proud of?
Even if it's a small site, build a USEFUL, strong web site, one which provides valuable information and helps people. Not only will this give you a great sense of achievement, it will do wonders for your marketing.
If you build a site or write a newsletter which helps people, your readers will do a lot of your marketing for you.
They really will.
I love it when I see my sites mentioned on other web sites, in newsletters, in mailing lists and in books. I love it when web sites link to mine.
For example, my assistant Glennys is building a useful resource with PayPerClickSearchEngines.com , the first directory of pay-per-click search engines. Most of the links to it were created simply because website owners like it and want to recommend it.
Ralph Wilson, publisher of the hugely popular Web Marketing Today newsletter, has created a massive, valuable Internet marketing resource which earns links the same way.
Such voluntary links are pure gold. People see the site recommended, visit it, and add a link on their site, and so on...
Such a site takes time to build but after a while momentum builds. If you're the expert in your niche, you'll be interviewed for articles in newsletters and books - and those articles will attract more interviews for more articles...
All those links and favorable mentions don't just boost your reputation and sales, they help boost your ranking in search engines such as Google.
Build something useful.
It is possible to earn a living that way, but such successes are rare.
Create your OWN product. Then you can use affiliate programs for back-end sales. That works well because someone who has just bought a product is often in the mood for buying a second, complementary product.
When you create your own product, you control your destiny. You control how it is marketed. You control how much profit you make. Neil Shearing's newly revamped Internet Success Blueprint tells you how to do it, how to create an ebook, illustrate it, and sell it, with or without a merchant account. Neil describes, step-by-step, how he earns his living online.
Create your own product.
One of my favorite email discussion used to be John Audette's I-Sales Digest. There were many reasons for its success. One was that members of that community helped each other in their posts to the mailing list.
John says that I-Sales Digest was the major force behind his success in building a multi-million-dollar business. The digest gave him an opportunity to build credibility, respect and trust while encouraging people to help others.
John sold I-Sales Digest to someone who didn't have John's flair and didn't seem to care enough about his readers. It quickly folded.
Is your website or newsletter just selling, or is it helping people learn?
Help people learn.
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