The True Importance of Building a List

We have heard the saying “Money is in the list” many times before, but for some reason a lot of affiliates and marketers still don’t realize how important building a list actually is.

I am not sure why affiliate marketers forget this crucial business building step, but list building should be your highest priority if you sell anything online. I don’t care if you are promoting a “how to build an igloo” ebook. Build that list of subscribers, or your business will not last very long.

For example, Google banned thousands of affiliates a while back from their Adwords program and those who weren’t capturing names and email addresses got left out in the cold. Their income dropped almost instantly and there was nothing they could do about it.

The fact is that it should be your highest priority to build a list of raving fans that read your emails. Sure you can make money online by simply driving traffic straight to an offer, but as soon as your traffic source stops producing clicks or your ads get disapproved, you are finished.

Let me give you some of the biggest key benefits of owning a highly responsive list of subscribers.

1. Traffic on Tap – Anytime you want to test out an offer or make some quick cash, you can simply load up your auto-responder with a promo email and click “send”. When that email hits people’s inboxes they click on your link and go to the offer. If you did a great job at preselling, they are going to buy whatever it is you recommended. What’s really important is that you no longer depend on other traffic sources for income. You basically own a traffic source that you can always count on without paying a dime for clicks it generates.

2. Joint Ventures – This is a huge benefit that most affiliate marketers forget about. If you have a highly responsive list, you can leverage it to sell your own products and services. When you promote someone else’s product and do a decent volume of sales for them, 98% of the time they will offer a reciprocal mailing for you. There is a reason why marketers with big lists make most of the money in the internet marketing niche.

3. Knowing What Your Market Wants – Use your list to find out what they want and sell it to them. You can use a service like SurveyMonkey.com and create a simple survey to send out to your subscribers. Ask them what they want or what they need help with. Then create a product or service based on the data you collected. Why guess what they want, when you can simply ask them and remove the risk of poor conversions completely from the picture?

4. Leverage – Don’t ever underestimate people on your list. Some of them might have successful businesses and could become your super affiliates. Imagine announcing your affiliate program to thousands of people with a single click of a button. You could literally overnight get your site flooded with traffic by leveraging your subscribers’ efforts. 1000 affiliates driving 100 clicks per day is better than one joint venture partner, who can send a limited number of clicks.

5. Be Viewed As An Expert – When you have a big audience, your opinion and message, which you send out matters. You could have a big impact on your niche market if you have the power to reach thousands of people with a click of a button. A lot of marketers do not know how to position themselves as experts. Build a list and eventually you won’t have to worry about that because of the instant social proof you can generate.

I think the above 5 key benefits make things very clear and why it’s absolutely crucial to put 100% of your effort into growing your subscriber base. I hope you now realize how powerful this actually is, and how it can take your business to a new level very quickly.

Your ultimate goal is to capture the attention of your market and have it at your disposal any time you want them to take your desired action.

This is a guest post written by Pawel Reszka, the founder of Affhelper.com, a blog dedicated to making money online and internet marketing. Check out his blog is for some cool super affiliate tips.

Mainstreet Marketing Fusion Bonus

Main Street Marketing Machines 2.0 Fusion Bonus

As you know, Jill and I run a successful business helping local businesses with their online web presence. Well, Mainstreet Marketing Fusion is launching today and it has a lot of great tools to help you start a business like ours. In fact, we are happy customers of the previous version of Mainstreet Marketing Machines. You can see our review of the previous version by clicking here. So, I am going to offer a bonus for those of you who buy Mainstreet Marketing Fusion through our affiliate link.

If you buy Mainstreet Marketing Machines through our affiliate link then after we get paid our commission for you using our affiliate link we will give you a free bonus one hour consulting call to answer any questions you have about running your online business.

Here’s what you have to do to get your bonus:

1. Click here on our affiliate link to buy Mainstreet Marketing Fusion http://mainstreetmarketingmachines.com/getitnow/cmd.php?af=32477
2. Then send an email to info @ mantywebdesigns .com with a copy of your receipt.

Once we have verified that you purchased through our link we will contact you to set up a one hour phone consultation with us to answer any of your questions after you have used the program for at least 30 days. Also, we will follow that call up with an email to check on your progress.

Main Street Marketing Machines Fusion Is Coming

As you know, Jill and I run a successful business in Houston helping local companies with their online presence. Well, Mike Koenigs is one of the most knowledgeable people I know in the area of marketing for local businesses and has a proven system called Main Street Marketing Machines. Jill and I are members of Main Street Marketing Machines and really like the product (especially the access to Traffic Geyser).

Anyway, Mike is offering a free video course on marketing for local small businesses and if that is something that interests you then you should go ahead and check it out.

All you have to do is enter your email for instant and immediate access.

Sign up now for instant access by clicking here
http://mainstreetmarketingmachines.com/cmd.php?af=32477

If you have any questions about the previous version of the program please leave your questions below. Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the training after you go through it.

Accepting Pre-Applications For Our Free Make Money Online Coaching Program

It’s 1/11/11 that’s a lot of 1s! We are looking for a few readers committed to becoming number 1 at making money online…

We are now accepting pre-applications for the free training program that we have been talking about. You should read our initial description of the program here and the followup post here before applying.

Like I said in those posts we are only go to accept a very small number of people into the program—think a maximum of around 5. If it interests you and you are willing to do what it takes to make a living online, then you need to go join the Can I Make Big Money Online Facebook fan page, by clicking like on our facebook page. Then click on the tab with the Pre-application and follow the instructions.

Please let us know if you have any question not covered in our previous posts, by commenting below.

Questions About Our Free Internet Marketing Coaching Program

We have been getting quite a few questions about what type of business you need to be running to get into our free training program. So, I wanted to make it a little more clear about what type of business is ideally suited for the free training.

The Can I Make Big Money Online Coaching program is intended for people who want to make a majority of their profits from online activities. For instance, a person who wants to start an online writing service, a person who wants to make money from their blog, a person who wants to sell their photography online, a person who wants to create a web design business, a person who wants to make money with affiliate marketing are all good candidates. If you are a baby clothes shop and you want to increase the number of people who come to your offline baby clothes shop in person then you aren’t really a good candidate. If on the other hand you want people to order online from your online baby store then you are a good candidate. In other words, if you want to run a business that makes a majority of it’s money from online activities, then you are good candidate.

The other main questions people have been asking is “When can I apply?”. We will start taking applications in early January. Look for an announcement both here and on our Facebook page (where the application will be posted).

It won’t hurt to apply no matter what your business does, but the more “online” your business is the better chance you will have of getting into the program. Jill, Trent and I will be making the final decisions on who we let into the coaching program and like I said, we will only be taking on a limited number of people.

Free Internet Marketing Coaching Program

Do you want personal free coaching to learn how to make money online?

In just a few weeks, Trent, Jill and I will be taking applications to be part of our FREE coaching program. We will be taking on a very limited number of quality individuals to train in running a successful Internet business. The three most important factors that will influence your chances of being chosen are:

1. Writing ability
Can I Make Big Money Online has always been about helping people learn. If you are accepted into the coaching program, we want to help others at the same time that we help you. So, anyone accepted will be writing 1 or more blog posts a month about their progress and/or things they have learned. Because of this, anyone accepted needs to be a proficient writer. That doesn’t mean you need to be able to write award winning copy or the great American novel. But you do need to write clearly, with some personality and with minimal need for editing.

2. Commitment To Follow Directions
Normally, I don’t require that our clients follow all of our directions. However, we are giving away free private individual coaching, so we can’t accept people into the program unless they are going to follow our directions and do what we ask of them.

3. Persistence
We need you to be committed to following our instructions for at least 12 months. Most people last about 3 months when they try to make a living online, then they give up. If you are a quitter, then don’t apply.

What you will get:
You will get monthly coaching from Trent, Jill and I to help you run a successful business. We will help you either improve your current business or start a new business from scratch that ideally suits your talents and skill.

What we expect in return
You will become an author on Can I Make Big Money Online so people can follow your progress and learn some of the things you learn. You will write at least 1 blog post a month to help readers learn from your experience.

Like I said, we are only go to accept a very small number of people into the program. If it interests you and you are willing to do what it takes to make a living online, then you need to go join our Facebook page, by clicking like on our facebook page. We will be posting the application and more details of the program on our facebook page in the coming weeks. The only way you can get into the free coaching program is by liking our fan page. Click here to visit the Can I Make Big Money Online fan page and remember to click the like button to learn more about the coaching program.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Keep Your Internet Marketing Competition Close

I am sure at some point in your life you have heard the saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. You’ve probably heard it many times. Basically it means that you want to keep your enemies closer to you than your friends so you always know what they are up to. Doing this will help you keep the upper hand on them if needed. This also applies to your internet marketing business. As an internet marketer you need to keep your competitors close to you.

Any niche you are in will have at least some competition and many niches are fiercely competitive. You will all be going after the same or similar rankings, traffic, and money of your potential customers. You might think you should keep far away from your competition but actually the opposite is true. You want to get to know them and associate with them as much as you can.

You want to see what they are doing to make money. What their websites are like. How they are getting traffic. Where their backlinks come from. Who their subscribers and regular commenter’s are. Which products they are selling. How successful they are. And everything else you can find out about them. You can learn a lot to help your own business while watching your competition.

Another great reason for keeping your internet marketing competition close is because they might just make great joint venture partners some day. Competitors can be the perfect allies at times. You can use each other’s strengths to mutually benefit your businesses. Doing this can help you achieve more success than you would have been able to do by yourself.

So, now you know, keeping your internet marketing competitors close to you can be a lot more profitable and beneficial to you than staying away from them. You can use the best of what they are doing or work with them to make your own business more successful.

Kajabi And The Death Of Email Marketing.

There are two really interesting launches happening right now that I wanted to talk about.

First, Kajabi just launched and you can check it out here:

http://get.kajabi.com/sales_pages/138?kjba=4c1bcbea (my affiliate link)

It should be interesting to you if you want to launch a membership site. It might be overkill for you, especially if you aren’t into video marketing (which you should be).

Next, the “Death of email marketing” is a really interesting read. I am going to be signing up for the program because it fits in well with my current business plans. Click here to download the book. (my affiliate link) It’s written by Scott Boulch who wrote the original “Death of” ebook “The Death Of Adsense”.

So if you are interested in launching a membership site using primarily video marketing, then check out Kajabi. If you are interested in finding out what technology may be replacing email marketing in the not so distant future then check out the Death of email marketing.

Kajabi – NICE Having The Right Mindset To Make Money Online

Have you seen the video for the Kajabi marketing software that came out earlier this week?

I have been waiting for months to see what Kajabi was and so far it looks pretty cool to me. After watching the video, I decided to join their affiliate program so the links in this post are my affiliate links.

Anyway, they just put out a really good ebook about some of the roadblocks many of us face when trying to make money online. You can click here to download the free report.

When you finish reading it let me know which of the roadblocks have prevented you from making money online.

An Easily Avoidable Internet Marketing Mistake

There are countless mistakes that any new internet marketer can make and many do. However, one of them is very common and probably the most easily avoidable of all. This one simple thing can be done the day you start your online business and failing to do it can have very negative consequences down the road.

So, what is this common mistake?

It is failing to register your own name as a domain name.

For example, my name is Trent Brownrigg, so I registered http://trentbrownrigg.com a long time ago to ensure I would own it and control it forever. But actually I made the mistake of not doing it until a few years after I started my business. I should have done it a lot sooner.

Even if you don’t plan to use the domain for anything, you should still own it. You can keep it parked, forward it to another site of yours, throw up one page on it and link to your other websites, or do whatever else you want with it. That part doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you own it.

Even if you are a newbie and don’t think anyone else would want your name as a domain, so you think you can hold off and register it later on. Don’t wait! You should still go register it right now.

You never know who might consider you an internet marketing expert and type it in assuming it is the domain to reach you at, or decide to register it themselves if they notice it’s available. You also never know when you might obtain “guru” status all of the sudden and then everyone will be trying to use your name. If the domain is available someone else will register it. Or even worse, one of your competitors could register it and use it to tarnish your reputation by pretending to be you.

Just the other day I happened to notice that a VERY well known internet marketer did not own his own name as a domain. Why he hasn’t registered it by now is a mystery to me. He should know better. So I registered it myself. Lucky for him, I happen to know him very well and am going to remind him of his mistake. If he wants it I will give it to him. But you might not be so lucky if the same thing happens to you!

Anyway, don’t make this easily avoidable internet marketing mistake. Go register your name as a domain right now. At least get the .com version because it’s the most important one to have. It’s probably smart to also get the .net, .org, and all the others but they are not quite as vital to own.

Main Street Marketing Machines Review

Jill here. Obviously, George and I haven’t had time to review the entire Main Street Marketing Machines program yet because it’s HUGE! But we got an email that they’re closing the doors Friday at midnight (Pacific), so we wanted to update you on what we’ve looked at so far so that you can make a decision if you’re on the fence. Look, I like to procrastinate as much as the next person, but do not wait until the last minute if you really want to get in on this and don’t want to wait months and months until it opens again. You’ll kick yourself if you forget and don’t get signed up.

This is what we’ve discovered so far. No offense to Local Business Money Machine, which has been a complete blessing this past year and really helped us get off the ground and headed in the right direction, but this is a MUCH better program. Of course, it’s about three times as expensive, so that’s something you’ll need to take into consideration. But, especially if you’re a “newbie”, this program breaks everything down into very manageable chunks. And the videos are incredibly professional (what else would you expect from the guys at Traffic Geyser) and even entertaining.

In fact, this program is broken down so well, that I am going to try my hand at some of the technical parts of it. I’m going to create a landing page myself and see whether someone who’s technically capable but completely unpracticed can do this. I won’t get it done in time to tell you the results before the program closes, but the fact that I’m willing to even TRY is a testimony to this program. Keep in mind that when I graduated from high school, I asked that my parents give me a typewriter instead of a computer, and I usually tell people that “I eat breakfast and talk to people, and George does all the work.” Perhaps I’ll no longer be able to say that

What else have we discovered? We would have paid as much for the level of Traffic Geyser membership included as we paid for the entire Main Street Marketing program. So, even if you’re thinking about trying out Traffic Geyser, go this route instead. You’ll get not only the great video marketing training that Traffic Geyser includes but marketing materials for your new business; over 40 hours of video training by everyone from Mainstreet Marketing success stories (they really do tell you EXACTLY what they did to be successful, even role playing some of the client approach strategies they use) to Bill Glazer; planners; free report templates; fill in the blanks autoresponders… I really could go on and on.

Is this program for everyone? I would still say “no”. There are plenty of people who won’t implement the steps and won’t follow the program. If this is you (you know who you are), don’t buy this program. If you don’t like interacting with people, and you’re not willing to take on a partner who can handle the client interactions, this probably isn’t the program for you. I think, however, that it is appropriate for people with varying skill levels when it comes to internet marketing. You do need some degree of comfort with technology, in general. But if you’ve ever blogged at all or are comfortable with Facebook, then you should do fine.

Like Local Business Money machine, you’ll need some time to set aside for this. The Traffic Geyser trainings are pretty quick and easy. There are eight lessons in the Express Lane training. The longest lesson I’ve seen so far is about 15 minutes. Then there are assignments that go along with those, which I think will take a minimum of 30 minutes to a couple of hours. So, you’ll need around 15-20 hours, probably to get through those trainings. And then, of course, you’ll need to go through the Main Street Marketing steps. Plus, making the pages and acquiring your clients. In other words, don’t think you’re going to buy this and five minutes later start depositing checks in your bank account. But, really, if any of you HAVE discovered a system that works that way, you should contact George about writing for this blog because clearly you’ve found a way to make money grown on trees and a quick way to harvest it.

I do think that you should be able to get through enough training and start implementing the program and figure out whether it works within your 30 day trial. That is, of course, if you don’t wait until day 25 to get started. And that’s my recommendation to you. If you’re interested, buy the program. Work the program for the next 30 days (no excuses— just get busy). If you realize it’s not for you, there’s no way you’re going to do it, you haven’t even opened the files— for crying out loud, return the program! It’s risk free if you’ll just take that step if you aren’t using it.

So, in summary, are we abandoning Local Business Money Machine and switching to Main Street Marketing? No. We’ll do a hybrid of the two for our business model because we’re already making money with Local Business Money Machine. There is a lot of overlap in these two programs, as they both target Local Search marketing opportunities. However, there are some areas that are mentioned in less detail in Local Business Money Machine that we haven’t really pursued as much as we could have (including doing more direct marketing and, of course, video marketing). These are the areas where we’ll be using Main Street Marketing Machines. Do I think you can use Main Street Marketing Machines without Local Business Money Machine? Absolutely!! It’s a completely different model and will stand on it’s own with no problem.

So, take some time to think about it. Write down the pros and cons, where you want to be a year from now and whether your current path is going to get you there. Then, if you think this is a good match for you, buy it! I think you’ll be glad you did.

P.S. Oh, and if you have any questions about the program that you’d like answered before tomorrow, let us know. We’ll be checking comments for the next couple of days pretty regularly so that we can answer anything that will help you make a decision.

PPS. To get our Main Street Marketing Machines Bonus, please remember to use our affiliate link by clicking here. Then send an email to info @ mantywebdesigns .com with a copy of your receipt. Once we have verified that you purchased through our link we will contact you to set up a one hour phone consultation with us to answer any of your questions after you have used the program for at least 30 days. Also, we will follow that call up with an email to check on your progress.

Please, let us know if you have any questions about our Main Street Marketing Machines review.

Making Money Online With Main Street Marketing Machines – Bonus

Can I Make Big Money Online is still on hiatus, but something is about to come out that I’m planning to sign up for, and I thought I should share it with you.

As most of you know, about a year ago my wife, Jill, and I invested in the Local Business Money Machine program. Since then, we’ve built a successful business utilizing that system. We’ve posted about the system before, and we still think it’s a good one, but one of the weaknesses we’ve pointed out is that we think it’s not an ideal match for absolute beginners.

Now there’s a new system that looks similar to the Local Business Money Machine with some noticeable differences that will make this program so much easier for those who are true beginners. Check out the first videos by clicking here:

http://www.mainstreetmarketingmachines.com/cmd.php?af=32477

Many of the materials are ones that we would utilize and that we may have to create ourselves eventually, so we think that any cost up to $5000 will pay for itself. While we’re not 100% sure yet whether we will be signing up (we are at about 99%), we are absolutely sure that anyone who is interested in starting a business helping market local businesses should consider this program. And if you’re already running this type of business, you should check out the materials in the program to see if this would complement your current business plans. You’ve got nothing to lose by checking out the following free video, so head over there right now.

http://www.mainstreetmarketingmachines.com/cmd.php?af=32477

If we do sign up tomorrow, as I’m currently planning to do, I’ll take a quick look at what’s included and give you a thumbs up/thumbs down report, hopefully before the program closes.

MY BONUS:

If you sign up using my affiliate link above then send me an email of your receipt and once I have verified that you purchased through my link I will contact you to set up a one hour phone consultation with Jill and/or I to answer any of your questions after you have used the program for at least 30 days. Also, I will follow that call up with an email to check on your progress.

Note: Some of the links above are affiliate links and I will make money if you buy from them.

UPDATE:

I just bought the Main Street Marketing Machines program. It should take me about week to test it out. If it looks like the doors are closing sooner then I will try to get a post out about what I think so far and will leave occasional comments on this post about it.

PS. Be sure to use my affiliate link for my Main Street Marketing Bonus.

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