real world profit - lists

REAL WORLD PROFIT

Book 2

ListsBy

Mark Ferguson

realworldprofit.com

Book 2 in a 3 part series about how tomake a real world profit

http://realworldprofit.com/

Real World Profit – Lists http://realworldprofit.com

Legal

[YES] You can give away to your list free of charge[YES] You can sell this ebook[NO] You cannot edit or alter in any way

Disclaimer

All results described in this report are accurate to the best of my knowledge, and should not beconsidered "typical". As with any business, your results may vary, and will be based on yourbackground, dedication, desire and motivation. Any testimonials and examples used are exceptionalresults, which do not apply to the average reader, and are not intended to represent or guaranteethat anyone will achieve the same or similar results. You may also experience unknown orunforeseeable risks which can reduce results. I am not responsible for your actions

Trademarks

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimedas trademarks. All product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorialfashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of thetrademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or otheraffiliation with this book.


Contents

Foreword ................................................................................................................................... 4

Chapter 1 – The Plan ................................................................................................................. 6

Chapter 2 – Creating Your Free Report ..................................................................................... 8

Chapter 3 – Website Setup........................................................................................................ 9

Chapter 4 – Setting Up Your Autoresponder........................................................................... 11

Chapter 5 – Traffic and Testing ............................................................................................... 13

Chapter 6 – Monetising Your List ............................................................................................ 16

Chapter 7 – Conclusion............................................................................................................ 17


Foreword

“The money is in the list” is one of the most used phrases in internet marketing butmaking money from lists is a very old, real world concept. The internet marketingcommunity did not invent lists or making money from them.

There are many real world companies who make millions, if not billions, fromtraditional postal mailing lists and have being doing so for decades. Other companiesfrom every type of industry buy or rent these lists for their own mailshots and arewilling to pay a lot of money for it.

Why? Because it works!

How does this help you achieve your goals of growing your business?

The internet offers an opportunity for anyone to build their own list in a way whichwas not possible before. It can be done quickly and relatively cheaply. Owning yourown list is like owning a unique commodity. It is valuable.

The great advantage of having a list based business is that it is not affected byGoogle changes and you don’t have to keep up with the latest trendy sites to gettraffic.

The general consensus is that each subscriber on your list is worth between $0.50and $1 per month.

So think about this for a moment…

How much money do you need to earn online each month before you can thinkabout quitting your job?

Divide that by 0.50 (just to be on the cautious side) and that gives you the magicnumber of people you need on your list to quit your job.

If you are anything like me, you have just gone ‘wow!’

When you look at it like this, it seems like you suddenly have a tangible goal toachieve. It is also a measurable goal as it’s just numbers.

I am guessing you are now fairly excited and just want to know how to build your list… but hold on, if it is that easy then everyone would be doing it.

So why aren’t they?

The simple answer is a lack of commitment. Anyone can do this but you need to becommitted to it and stay focused on your long term goals.


Chances are you won’t be able to reach your magic number in a month. It willprobably take months if not years. You will also need to invest money in advertisingif you want to grow your list quickly.

So before you start down this route, make sure you are committed to seeing itthrough, otherwise you will spend money and time without achieving your ultimategoal of quitting your job.

If you follow the plan until Chapter 5, you are further than over 90% of people.

So why did the Real World Profit series start with websites rather than listbuilding?

It may not surprise you to know that you will need a website or websites to buildyour list. You will need to know how they work and possibly end up creating a lot ofpages which all lead towards building your list.

Don’t forget, our ultimate goal is to build a sustainable, stable online business thatwe can rely on to put food on the table. If you rely on only one method, then you areat the mercy of that method. If it should suddenly fail, you will be without income soit is safer to cover your bases with multiple strategies.

What separates this from spam?

Sometimes people get wary of the idea of emailing lots of people. They think it isspamming. Don’t worry, there are rules you need to follow to make everything legalbut that is all done for you.

There is a huge difference between emailing people who have opted-in to your listand the sorts of emails we know as spam.

This is a legitimate business model both online and in the real world.

How does it work?

There are two basic models for building a mailing list. One is to sell a product tocapture ‘buyer’ email addresses and the other is to offer a free product/report. Inthis book, we will be working through the free report version.

As you become more experienced, you will want to utilise both methods as there isno hungrier, more targeted prospects than a buyers list.

To start off with, it is quicker and easier to collect emails by offering a free report sothat is what I am concentrating on in this book.


Chapter 1 – The Plan

The process works likes this (don’t worry if you don’t understand the terminology atthe moment, you will soon) :

1. Create a squeeze page which offers a free report if the visitor enters theiremail address

2. Autoresponder sends out a confirmation email to the visitor

3. When the visitor confirms their email, they will be sent to the reportdownload page

You end up with a double opt-in, completely legal, subscriber and they end up withyour free report.

Once this is setup, you send traffic to your squeeze page and you will build your list.You are guaranteed to get subscribers with this method. The amount will depend onyour squeeze page or what you are offering for free.

There are some costs involved. You will need a domain and hosting for your website.You will possibly need to pay for a special theme or plugin to create squeeze pages.And finally you will need an autoresponder.

What is a Squeeze Page?

This is a web page which you use to collect email addresses. In this case we will offera free report which can only be accessed by entering an email address. Examplebelow of one I have used in the past:


What is an Autoresponder?

This is the service which collects and stores the email addresses, sends out theconfirmation emails and allows you to email your list legally at any point.

Every email they send includes a postal address and an unsubscribe link which makesyour emails CAN-SPAM Act compliant.

The autoresponder is the most important part of your list building business as it ishere that you store your list of subscribers.

I use one called GetResponse as it is free for the first month. This allows you sometime to become comfortable with the business model and confirm it works for you.

Other popular ones include Aweber, Mailchimp, iContact.

http://trk3.net/getresponse


Chapter 2 – Creating Your Free Report

We are going to be offering a free report so we need to create that first.

You can take a shortcut here and buy a PLR report (that is one that is already writtenthat you can give away) but if it has been read by your visitors previously, it willmake a bad first impression.

It is advisable to create your own report on a subject you know and are passionateabout (you knew I couldn’t get far without mentioning passion again!) At first, Iwould link it to the same subject as the site you created using Book 1 of the RealWorld Profit series.

Creating your report is as simple as typing it in Word or Open Office (free officesoftware - http://www.openoffice.org) and saving it as a PDF. That’s it!

As far as style, layout etc. it is entirely up to you. Different people respond todifferent styles. Just write in a way that feels comfortable to you.

Your report doesn’t have to be long but it should be useful or informative. You wantit to be worthwhile for the reader.

You are not trying to trick someone into giving you their email address. That wouldultimately be a waste of time as they would immediately unsubscribe from your list.Don’t forget, it will have your name on it so you should be proud of it.

Important :One mistake people always make is to think that if they know something, so doeseveryone else. That is not the case. As long as you write about what you know,believe and love, other people will find it engaging.

If you are wondering ‘what can I write about?’ think about recent searches you’vedone on Google, or interesting articles you’ve read recently. You don’t have toreinvent the wheel here, just put your spin on it.

I like to give my reports a file name which includes my ‘brand’ and is descriptive. Ifind there are times I discover an ebook weeks or months after downloading it anddon’t always know where I got it from. A descriptive, branded title sometimesmakes me more likely to open up the PDF.

Once you have created your free report, it is time to move onto setting up thewebsite.

http://www.openoffice.org/


Chapter 3 – Website Setup

We covered in the last book what you need to set up a site. Now we will use thoseskills to set up a very small site of 2 pages.

You need :

A squeeze page

A download page

The squeeze page invites the visitor to enter their email address and once the visitorhas confirmed their email address, they are directed to the download page todownload your free report.

Buy a domain name which is somehow linked to your report. It doesn’t have to beexact and if you plan on creating multiple squeeze pages, you might want a genericone.

Point it at your hosting and install WordPress. If you are not sure about this, look atBook 1 in the Real World Profit series or search on Google. There are thousands ofguides and videos about this.

Theme Options

It is best to use a theme or plugin specifically designed for squeeze pages. A quicksearch of the internet will provide you with some free options.

However, I use two different paid versions : OptimizePress and Lead Rocket

They both create a different style of squeeze page. If your budget is tight, I wouldsuggest starting with Lead Rocket.

OptimizePress is great for internet marketing sites as it incorporates sales funnels /launches etc. and has been the WordPress theme of choice by internet marketers foryears.

You can find loads (almost too much) information on what makes a great squeezepage with a simple Google search. I try to create a page that I would be happy toenter my email address in to.

Obviously you want a compelling headline which makes the visitor curious enough toread the rest of the page.

The traditional way to build a squeeze page is to start with a problem, then offer asolution (after you have collected the email address).

http://www.optimizepress.com/

http://trk3.net/lr

http://trk3.net/lr


Important :Don’t spend too much time on your first version of the squeeze page trying to get itperfect. It won’t happen and you’ll spend all day tinkering with it rather than gettingtraffic to it.

Go with your instinct and set up your first version and leave it alone. We will dealwith changes a little later in the testing phase.

Now you need to create your download page.

You want to name this page something that visitors couldn’t guess. After all, youdon’t want them reading your report without giving you their email address first. Sonever call this page yourdomain.com/download as it’s too easy to guess.

Call it something completely random but make sure you keep a note of it.

This page can be as detailed or as plain as you like.

You must obviously have a link to your free report but you might also want to addother affiliate offers to make a little money.

It is worth putting a couple of these offers on this page but I wouldn’t have too manyand definitely do not let them get in the way of downloading your report.

Another issue to be wary of is that you don’t want search engines to index yourdownload page. OptimizePress allows you to set ‘noindex, nofollow’ on individualpages to stop it being indexed.

If you are not using OptimizePress, then you can use Google Webmaster Tools toremove certain URLs from Google. Once again, a Google search of ‘how to stoppages being indexed’ will give you some options if either of these don’t work for you.


Chapter 4 – Setting Up Your Autoresponder

So we have both of our pages set up, our squeeze page and our download page. Wenow have to integrate our autoresponder into the squeeze page and point it to ourdownload page.

I will have to talk in general terms as each autoresponder works differently. Use thehelp function of the autoresponder you choose if you are unsure what to do.

You will need to set up a ‘list’ or ‘campaign’. This is the list of emails you will collect.When you start getting more experienced at this, you will end up with multiplelists/campaigns of addresses you’ve collected.

Important :When you set up your campaign, you will be asked for a ‘confirmation page’. This isthe where your subscriber goes after confirming their email.

In this case, it is your download page from earlier.

This is the crucial part that links your squeeze page to the download page.

Once you have set up your list/campaign, you need to get the ‘email’ box, where thevisitor can enter their email address, on to your squeeze page.

In your autoresponder, go and set up a webform. Don’t worry too much about whatit says or how it looks.

When you set this up, you will be prompted for a ‘thank you’ page. This is the pagethe visitor sees after entering their email but before they confirm it.

Keep the default one for the moment. When you become more comfortable with thesystem, you can do some clever things with this but for the moment, stick with thedefault.

The final step of setting up the webform will allow you to copy the HTML code for it.Depending on what type of squeeze page theme you are using, you will need thiscode.

The help section of your chosen theme/plugin will lead you through how to integratethis webform into your squeeze page.

Once this is done, your system is complete!


Test it before you go any further :

Enter your own email address into the squeeze page.

Check the confirmation email arrives.

Click on the confirmation link to check you go to your download page.

If everything works as it should, you have created a list building automated machine.

If you have completed this step then you are further than over90% of people. Well done!


Chapter 5 – Traffic and Testing

Your funnel is now complete :

squeeze page - autoresponder - download page

Now our focus is getting traffic to the squeeze page, monitoring the results, tweakingthe squeeze page and repeating the process.

Testing

Whichever source you use to get traffic to your squeeze page, you will need to test ifit is working.

The best way to do this is to send some traffic to your page and monitor thepercentage of visitors who convert into subscribers.

Next, change ONE thing on your squeeze page, send some traffic and come up with aconversion rate. Whichever is the higher conversion rate is the change to go with.

Keep repeating changing one thing at a time and you will gradually increase yourconversion rate.

This is why you don’t have to worry too much about your first version, you willalways be tweaking the page.

Traffic

I am not going to go into too much detail on traffic sources as there are so manyways to get traffic and so much information available it is mind-blowing.

I will tell you what works for me.

I always prefer paid traffic to free traffic. Free traffic usually relies on creatingbacklinks, SEO and is a waiting game. Google also hates squeeze pages so you are ata disadvantage already.

With paid traffic, it is instant, you can control it and it is easier to monitor results.

I find mobile phone advertising to be really effective. The next book in the RealWorld Profit series will deal with traffic from mobile phone users. It is a hugemarketplace, relatively cheap and requires a book of its own.

However, you cannot put all your eggs in one basket so I have other ways of sendingtraffic to my squeeze page.


Solo Ads

Solo ads are going through a boom period at the moment. The demand faroutweighs the supply.

A solo ad is when someone sends out an email promoting your page or product totheir own list. In this case you would want a solo ad which had links to your squeezepage.

A search in google for ‘[your niche] solo ads’ will provide you with a list of places tobuy ads from. If your squeeze page is internet marketing based, then you would type‘internet marketing solo ads.’

A great resource for solo ads in the internet marketing area is Safe Swaps. You canget 100 clicks for around $30.

If you use solo ads, you will need to write the email (solo ad) yourself. That is not asdaunting as it sounds.

A great feature of Safe Swaps is you can look at other users emails (known as swipes)to see what works. Copy something you like and adjust for your solo ad.

Once you have written a good solo ad, you can keep reusing it. The only limit is howmuch money you are willing to invest in ads.

Ad Swaps

Once you have 1,000 subscribers, you can start doing ad swaps. This is where yoursolo ad is sent to someone else’s list and you send their ad to your list. The idea is togrow each other’s lists.

These are free and a great way to grow your list exponentially.

Safe Swaps and the Warrior Forum are the best sites for arranging ad swaps.

JV Giveaway Events

These are another really popular list building tool and are increasing in effectiveness.

JV Giveways are short-term events where a bunch of marketers give away freeproducts (like the one you created in chapter 2), and drive traffic to the site wherepeople can download all the products for free.

http://trk3.net/sswaps

http://trk3.net/sswaps

http://www.warriorforum.com/


You can see an example of a JV Giveaway here.

The plus side for you is that to download your product, they must go through yoursqueeze page. This puts them on your list.

The real beautiful part of this is that there will be approx 200 other marketers drivingtraffic to the giveaway site.

Some giveaway events actually have contests with hundreds of dollars of cash prizesfor contributors.

This is what you do :

Join a JV Giveaway as a contributor (this link will always be updated with thebest current giveaway)

Upgrade your membership (gives you bigger commissions, more exposureetc.)

Upload your gift (free report)

Drive some traffic through your promotion link and you will receive visitors.

http://trk3.net/gjv

http://trk3.net/gjv


Chapter 6 – Monetising Your List

As you are growing your list, you need to start making money from it. That way youcan reinvest your profits into even more advertising which grows your list further.

The basic principal is very simple : you send out emails through your autoresponderto your list with an affiliate link in it and when your subscribers click the link and buythe product you are promoting, you get paid.

However, if you keep promoting every day, you will lose a lot of subscribers and willneed to spend more money to make up for the lost subscribers.

Remember your list is a valuable commodity. You need to treat it with respect.

Try to provide informational emails which are relevant and useful to yoursubscribers.

Then you can send the odd promotional email and your subscribers will be morelikely to open it as they know you send them good information.

When recommending a product it is good practice to own a copy yourself. That wayyou can personalise your email to your own experience and people are more likely tobuy.

Before you send any email, think to yourself “would I like to receive this?”

Treat your list the way you would like to be treated and you will be successful.


Chapter 7 – Conclusion

List building should become the core of your online business. Even your websitefrom book 1 should be growing your list in some way.

The important difference between 99% of people and the 1% who are successful iscommitment. List building is a process you need to be committed to but ultimately itis worthwhile.

How long it takes will depend on the amount of money and time you are willing toput in but the consolation is that it is a proven method.

Initially you should reinvest all the money you make from the list into growing it withadvertising. As your list gets larger, you earn more so you can invest more and thegrowth becomes exponential.

In the next book, I will talk about using mobile phones to turbo charge your listbuilding.

Thanks for reading,

Mark Ferguson

If you would like any help with anything related to this report or just want to have achat about it, please email me at [email protected].

mailto:[email protected]

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