Archive for May, 2008
May 30, 2008
This post is continuing on my earlier post regarding my entry into the world of safelists. I have an update. To get the most out of safelists I’m going to need some resources to help me do it.
Now, I am a programmer and I can make most of this stuff myself. Thus, why should I join any programs instead of making my own tools? I’ll tell you why. Time. Have you heard the saying “time is money”? I’ll bet you have. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel and waste time creating what these services already offer. Also, these services are dedicated to doing what they’re doing — so they’re probably done better than what I can do in a short time frame.
First off, I do believe that if you’re not using safelists or traffic exchanges to build your own personal list then you are leaving dollars on the table. Dollars that someone else will snatch up while you’re helping to build their list.
I guess that’s why you hear “the money is in the list” so often. It’s true!
OK, so now I need a list manager. Ideally, this list manager should manage my list(s), send auto-responses when someone subscribes, allow me to send one-off messages, import and export, and all of the other great features that come with list managers.
Regardless of the recent debacle or controversy and partial make-up regarding AWeber and traffic exchanges, that has nothing to do with me (I’m building a personal list here!). So I went with AWeber and it is without a doubt exactly what I’m looking for. No wonder it is so highly praised in the internet marketing community. I was able to quickly and easily set up what I needed and I’m already all ready to begin receiving subscribers.
But wait.. I need something for them to subscribe to! I can’t just make a page that says “hey buddy, join my list!” Well, actually I could — but I reckon I won’t get many subscribers doing that.
So I thought for a bit. What do I know about that a lot of people don’t? Aha! Computers. I’m fairly nifty at those. So I wrote up an email series regarding some computer stuff. That is one of my options. What are your options? Let’s take a look..
- Write/Create your own content
- Promote someone else’s content (affiliate promoting)
- Find stuff to give away for free
I’ll actually probably do all three of those when I get deep into this stuff.
So what is next on my list now that I have content to deliver and a way to deliver it? Ah, the subscribe pitch! Like traffic exchanges I believe you need a quick loading page with good ad copy to truly grab the readers attention and push them to subscribing. I need splash pages and squeeze pages.
I made my own splash/squeeze pages because I felt that I could do it quicker and with more control than using a splash page builder or a squeeze page builder. That is just my preference. It was quick and painless for me to do. AWeber even gives me the option to copy and paste the subscriber form into my HTML. Awesome!
However, I realize that a lot of you scream and throw fits when it comes to HTML and building web pages. Luckily there are some really good resources available that will allow you to make and host splage pages and squeeze pages quickly and easily.
Here’s two that are widely used and popular:
With those tools you should be able to create just about any page you want and link the subscribe form (if you use one) to your list manager.
Next up for me I’ll be finding more content to offer to people to get them to subscribe to my list. Then I’ll be making more splash and squeeze pages to highlight what I have to offer. Then after that I’ll be ready to start my promoting and building my list!
I’ll keep you updated. 
May 28, 2008
A few days ago in Saturday’s Affiliate Funnel seminar I was asked to respond to the question, “How does an itty bitty exchange make it to the next step?”
Now I’m not that good with speaking live, I’ll admit. So my answer probably missed out on a few key points. However, I did mention the most important point. Networking and joint ventures. Now that I’m armed with my backspace key I’ll discuss this point a bit further.
This does not apply only to traffic exchanges but I’d say to any business at all!
Do you know what the most powerful form of marketing is? It is, without a doubt, word-of-mouth advertising. This is when a friend tells you about a site or business and personally recommends it. You trust your friend and you are very highly likely to take up their recommendation.
In the internet world, you want your friends to be the industry leaders. The people who’s names and faces are plastered and branded into the back of everyone’s minds. The people who everyone trusts and listens to their recommendations. THESE are the people you want recommending YOUR product or site.
So how do you do it?
You may think that offering them 50% commissions and a year free upgrade on your site (for example) is enough motivation to get them pushing your site like there’s no tomorrow. The simple answer is you’re right. The right answer is — you couldn’t be further from WRONG!
Let me explain a little bit. After all I did just contradict myself in the above statement.
You have to get on their radar screen before you should ever offer them a joint venture or any kind of deal. They should be familiar with you first. If you offer a “cold” deal to one of the industry leaders and they haven’t heard of your site or you — you’re probably going to get rejected. In fact, I’ll go as far to say you WILL get rejected.
So how do you get on their radar screen?
For me it was pretty easy. I want to be the best at what I do so I aligned myself with the best. You should do the same and here’s how you do it!
Hang where they hang. Forums are a great place to meet and converse. NetMarketingForum and TheMembersForum are two popular forums where a lot of people hang out and talk business. Go there and get involved.
You can also send these people private messages or emails asking for advice. Nearly every one of the industry leaders will give you good solid advice. Asking for advice is okay! I have asked for advice from many people and they gave it. The most important thing that I did that most people don’t after asking for advice is acting on the advice given. Don’t reject their advice. They’re not out to get you. They really are trying to help you.
Another thing you can do is attend online meetings such as Affiliate Funnel conferences or S.W.A.T. Traffic seminars.
What can you offer these people without getting anything in return? That will surely get you on their radar screen. At first you may think you have nothing to offer — but you do! Are you a programmer? You could do a little bit of work for them. Graphic designer? Those are always in demand. Don’t have any special skills? You’re still in luck! If they have a blog or website — comment on their stuff. If they’re a member of your program, leave THEIR referral link in your blog comment. Help them get referrals or sales for stuff they are promoting. The bottom line is to get noticed and help them to be able to help yourself in the future.
Branding yourself while doing all of this is a must! After all if they don’t remember your face or name your efforts are way less likely to pay off.
Okay, I’ve mentioned lots of good points already. Are you ready to pitch your offer or joint venture to them yet? Absolutely not. You may be wondering why..
The most important thing to learn from this article and the one thing you should take from this article is the following point:
You must show them that you are capable of helping yourself!
If I recommend your program or web site, I want insurance. I want to know that I’m not recommending a piece of crap with a lousy owner. After all, my reputation is on the line. Prove to me (or whoever you’re trying to network or joint venture with) that after I promote you a little bit, you’re capable and willing to put in hard work, dedication, and time into sustaining your program.
So, help yourself help yourself. Be a hard worker. Get noticed. Get active. Get involved. Learn. Participate. Prove that you’re capable. Etc etc etc. THEN pitch your offer. You’ll find that you get a much better success rate. Heck — you may even find that some people start to come to you.
Help yourself help yourself.
May 27, 2008
A while back, Solomon Huey wrote a lesson on branding. It makes for a good read and shows the results of branding your name and face. I’m going to go a step further and introduce a complete lesson on branding. I’ll cover three important parts of branding:
- Why you should brand yourself.
- How you should brand yourself.
- The results of branding yourself.
So, let’s jump right in.
Why you should brand yourself.
Take the following scenario into your imagination. You’re interested in buying a product and you go to your local market to purchase. Two salesmen approach you and are offering you the same identical item for the same price. You’ve never seen the first salesman before, but you’re familiar with the second salesman. His face is familiar and you know his name. He’s everywhere and people seem to trust him.
Who are you going to buy from? Exactly. You want to be like that second salesman. You want your face and name in front of as many people as possible. If a buyer knows you, has heard of you, or has seen you around — you have established a trustful relationship with that customer and he or she is more likely to buy from you.
The relationship I mentioned above is particularly important. Establish your relationship with thousands of people online by including a photo of yourself with your name. It’s that easy.
How you should brand yourself
You would think that putting up a picture of yourself along with your name would be easy, but plenty of people get it entirely wrong!
You should have a photo of yourself. Primarily of just your face. Anything else is out of the question. I know, I know.. your kids are adorable, your pets are too cute, your husband is awesome, and your wife is gorgeous. But you’re not branding them. You’re branding yourself. You should be the only one in your photo.
Another problem plaguing branding is the quality of the photos. Don’t use a scanned copy of your high school yearbook or a photo of your drivers license. You’re in the internet marketing industry — have the right tools available to get a decent photo online. 
Okay, so I’ve told you how NOT to brand yourself. So how should you? The following people you may recognize — because they’ve branded themselves correctly.
Odds are you recognize some (if not all) of those faces. From left to right is Paul Kinder, Soren Jordansen, Jon Olson, Solomon Huey, and Cindy Battye. You recognize them because they’ve done their branding the right way. Just copy them — I mean, they’re getting good results!
Another important aspect of how you should brand yourself is where you should brand yourself. The answer is simple — everywhere you can! Have your own web site? Brand it. Using generic affiliate pages that are identical to the affiliate pages thousands of others are using? Make your own and brand it. Advertising a splash page? Brand it.
The results of branding yourself
You may not know it, but as soon as someone sees your picture and reads your name you are getting results. The more they see your picture and name the better. You’re being burned into the back of their mind. You’re subconsciously making others aware of who you are. People liken names and faces to success. So when someone is ready to buy your product and they have to choose between the salesman they don’t know or you, they’ll choose you. So even though the results may not be immediate, they are there. By branding yourself, you’re establishing the groundworks for a trustful relationship with thousands of people.
It’s really that easy. I understand that I may have missed out on some aspects of branding so feel free to leave a comment and tell me what I left out and I’ll add it in.
May 25, 2008
Now that I’m concentrating my efforts on being a full time internet marketer, I simply cannot ignore the huge market and opportunity that safelists offer. After all, there are millions of people out there who are wanting my advertisements in their inbox — and I simply cannot deny them!
I’m taking my adventure into safelists slowly for a couple of reasons. Firstly and most importantly I want to do it the most effective way possible. This will allow me to skip parts of the “trial and error” that comes along with learning anything. I still fully expect some trial and error to happen, and I welcome it. Trial and error is the absolute best method of learning. Why do I say that? Because you not only learn what doesn’t work, you also gain the knowledge of learning why it doesn’t work. This information is invaluable. To quote the famous Tomas Edison..
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.
So, where do you go when you want good information on a subject? You go to one of the leaders in that industry. I sent some questions over to Soren Jordansen. I believe Jon Olson titled him the ‘King of Safelists’, and based on what I’ve learned from being around internet marketing for a little while I can’t disagree with that assertion.
He promptly sent me over to his Ultimate Safelist Survival Guide. I grabbed my copy and eagerly read it. Without venturing too far into safelists yet, this guide has already helped me identify lots of time saving features, some good logic, and some “secrets” that will help me make money later on down the line. It is a quality piece of reading and I already highly recommend it.
I then thought to myself that I should join just a few safelists to get the feel of things. I wanted to join five initially, but so far I’ve only joined three. The three I joined are:
Please note that these are all credit based safelists. From my understanding these are the most responsive types of lists.
Other than clicking a few (hundred) emails sent from each safelist, that is as far as I have gotten. So if you’re not into safelists yet and want to join me on my venture into them — feel welcome! You can come back here to read my progress, results, and what I’m doing to obtain them. If all works out as planned I’ll have a “from beginning to safelist master” blog series.
Oh, I should mention this as a note: The only “advantage” I have over anyone else right now is obtaining my copy of the Ultimate Safelist Survival Guide. This is paid information and I shall not duplicate it or speak of it’s techniques here in my blog.
May 25, 2008
Hello guys, and welcome to my blog. As you can tell from the title of this post and the website itself, my name is Scott Martin. I am a web site developer, programmer, and internet marketer.
In an attempt not to bore you, I’ll briefly summarize how I came to be where I’m at today. I started out dabbling in HTML when I was 15. Then I moved on to bigger and better things programming in PHP. I’ve built tons of things including libraries, web sites (including an entire social network and my newest one Blue-Surf), and downloadable scripts. At this point in my life (at the fat ripened age of 22 :P) I’m expanding into online marketing.. which is probably how you found me.
In this blog, I’ll share with you my journey into internet marketing. I fully expect to become a successful online marketer because I give everything I do 100% effort. So I welcome you to follow along with me. Occasionally I’ll post some codes or scripts that you may find useful. I may also post my reviews of programs or ways to make money online. Along the line there may be an opinion or two (or 500).
I’m aware that my blog is only as good as I make it. So! I ask that you leave feedback, comment on my articles, and.. if you like what you see.. subscribe!
That should about do it for my introductory post. I look forward to writing more!
