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Explore these Vital Secrets to Dramatically Boost Your Profits
So you want to start earning an income from the net? You have
your computer fired up ready to go, your website looks great but
now what. No visitors, no sales and no income. You will not get
visitors with your site just "sitting there". To get...
How to Create a Linking Strategy that Works - Easily!
Reciprocal linking is the art of getting other websites to link to yours. Done properly, it's a powerful mar- keting tool that can improve your search engine rankings and bring you highly qualified traffic. If you can get enough websites to link to...
“I Made $17428 in Profits Last Month” Thing
On many sites that consider themselves to be helpful to the community of people that try to make an income on the Internet you’ll find messages of this type. Those are similar to paid TV commercials for “internet informational” products with...
The Struggling Internet Marketer
Instead of giving you advice on how to make a million bucks, and pretending to be famous and wealthy, I would like to talk about all the net-prenuers who aren't making a living on the information superhighway. Everytime you turn around, someone...
Website Promotion
Have you ever wondered why some websites get a thousand hits a day while others don't? Well, the secret lies in something called 'website promotion'. When I mean 'website promotion' it does not require you to spend loads on money to ensure that...
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Three E-zine Alternatives You May Not Have Considered
After my live talks, I always get a few people who say to me, "You know, publishing an e-zine sounds great, but I just don't think I have the time to do it on an ongoing basis." Or, "I'm not sure if I'll have enough content to publish an e-zine."
If this is your case, you may want to consider one of these e-zine alternatives. These can still help you achieve your goal of establishing credibility, staying in touch with your prospects, and capturing your Web site visitors.
For the first two alternatives, you'll need an e-mail autoresponder. This is like a fax-on-demand system that sends out e-mails automatically when others request them. (I recommend QueenCart.com, which has a FREE 30-day trial.)
The great thing about autoresponders is that you can set the timing of a series ahead of time. For example, you can schedule message 1 to go out immediately once a person signs up for the list. Message 2 could follow two weeks later. Message 3 would follow two weeks after that. Get the idea?
ALTERNATIVE 1: THE "EVERGREEN" NEWSLETTER
If you don't foresee yourself writing fresh new content every week or month that you publish, why not make your newsletter "evergreen?"
This means that you write all your content ahead of time, and none of it can be time-sensitive. That is, it should be just as relevant today as it would be a year from now.
Evergreen e-zines are brilliant and easy to do. Here's how it works: Suppose you want to publish a short tip every week. That means you'd need 52 tips for a year's worth of content. Once you had these written, you'd just set them up on your autoresponder and tell it when you want them sent out. (For this example, it would be day 1, day 7, day 14, etc. -- each reader would get a message every week.)
It's important to realize that when you use a sequential autoresponder, these are sent as a SERIES. That means everyone who signs up goes through the series in order, no matter when they sign up. For example, let's say you publish a weekly tip like in the example above. If I sign up today, I start with tip #1. And in 10 weeks, I'll be on tip #10. But if Suzy Q signs up 10 weeks from today, she starts with tip #1 just like I did. Get it?
[BONUS TIP: You don't have to write your entire series before you begin! Just stay one tip ahead of the first person who signs up for your series. : )]
ALTERNATIVE 2: THE MINI E-MAIL COURSE
OR REPORT
These are very popular right now. You simply create several e-mails' worth of content to spread out over a certain amount of days, and set them up on your autoresponder.
Many sites offer 7-day courses or reports, and quite frankly, many of them are awful. So here's a chance for YOU to stand out. Make sure yours offers really useful or interesting content that's more helpful than salesy.
For example, say you're a small business coach. You could offer a course called "5 Ways to Make This Your Most PROFITABLE Year Ever!" Just sit down and list the 5 ways, then write a few paragraphs of copy under each.
Then write one final sales message that you'll add on to the end of the series as the 6th message. This should be a friendly invitation encouraging the reader to call you for a consultation, buy your book, sign up for your workshop, etc.
Paste all the messages into an autoresponder series, set the timing to what you want (e.g. every day or every few days), and voila -- you've got an e-mail course!
ALTERNATIVE 3: PROMOTIONS ONLY
If you offer products on your site that don't lend themselves well to creating related content, just offer what you've got!
Give your visitors the chance to rece1ve special offers that will save them money at your site. The trick to high sign-up rates is to make them feel as if they'll be part of an exclusive group. Use words like "special, exclusive, limited, VIP, first looks, discounts, savings, club, and members-only."
For example, one site that I frequent sells discounted designer clothes and handbags. (Hooray!) During my last visit, they invited me to sign up for "discounts, exclusive offers, and first looks." I jumped at the opportunity!
Don't underestimate your visitors' interest -- many of them WILL sign up for e-mail offers if you politely extend the invitation and make them feel special.
Just make sure not to overdo your messages to this crowd. Keep your blasts to a maximum of once a week. Otherwise your readers will get irritated and may unsubscribe.
© 2003-2005 Alexandria K. Brown
About the Author
Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is creator of the award-winning 'Boost Business With Your Own E-zine' system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.EzineQueen.com
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