How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 1 How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List Step by Step Instructions to Create Your Own List Building Machine by Doing Nothing But Writing Articles Sean Mize © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 2 Note: This is a NOT a free ebook! This book does NOT come with any resell rights whatsoever. If you received this ebook for free or are aware of its illegal distribution, please send an email to: [email protected]. You may not alter this ebook in any way, shape, or form, and it must remain in this original PDF form with no changes to any of the links contained within. Copyright Notice: ©2006 Sean Mize. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use, sharing, reproduction or distribution of these materials by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise is strictly prohibited. No portion of these materials may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever, without the express written consent of the publisher. Published under the Copyright Laws of the Library of Congress Of The United States Of America, by: Sean Mize Secrets of Internet Success If you would like to become an affiliate of this series of ebooks and earn commissions on upgrades and different products, click here: Secrets of Internet Success To immediately download an easy product that makes starting and running your own online business as easy as point and click, click here: Marketing Dashboard © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 3 Limit of Liability It is a shame in my opinion that I have to include this in my ebook. I have taken every effort in writing this ebook to include useful information on the topic of creating email lists. I do not in any way shape or form guarantee or even imply any level of earnings from anything you might apply from this ebook or anything else you may purchase or download from me or any of my web sites. I cannot vouch for the legality of any of the methods I describe, nor can I be held responsible for any repercussions or reactions that may occur when you apply any of these methods. All of the links that I have included in this ebook are designed to eliminate the work and effort involved in searching for effective resources with which to build your business, and are included with the understanding that to the best of my knowledge, which in some cases may be non-existent, are genuine and reputable sources. However, whenever you make a purchase from one of the web sites, links, or companies I recommend, suggest, or simply compile for your use, I cannot be held responsible for their deliverability or reputation. Now, my legal notice: This ebook is designed to provide helpful and useful advice regarding the subject matters covered. However, it is understood that the author and distributor does not engage in the practice of providing legal or professional advice and that the laws and regulations governing the subjects covered in this ebook may vary from state to state, country to country, and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It is also understood that the author and any distributors of this ebook specifically disclaim any liability that is incurred from the use, application, or recommendations of this ebook. The author and distributors of this ebook make no representations, warranties, or claims whatsoever regarding the accuracy, effectiveness, legality, or completeness of the information included in this ebook, including any and all links, references, content, and recommendations therein. The author and distributor of this ebook shall in no way be held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, accidental, or other damages. As always, legal, professional, tax, accounting, and any other forms of advice should be sought from a professional and is in no way implied in this ebook. Any and all links and recommendations are for instructional and informational purposes only and are not warranted or guaranteed for accuracy, content, reliability, or reputation, or any other expressed or implied purpose. Warning: Read This Before You Build a List: Essential Information About CAN-SPAM Sending unsolicited bulk, commercial, or otherwise unwanted email is a crime in the United States and I would imagine in many other countries. Exorbitant fines and jail time © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 4 may be associated with this crime. Because I am not an expert on the legalities of email, I highly recommend that you fully understand the laws that pertain to your jurisdiction before you begin building your list. The following link should help you understand the CAN-SPAM law: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm Remember, ignorance is not an excuse. Learn the law and abide by it. About the Author Sean Mize initiated his first internet marketing venture in January of 2006, writing his first book for internet distribution. In February of the same year, he launched his first web site to promote that ebook, and began building his first online list at that time. By the end of the month, he was in profit, and began to expand his online efforts to include affiliate marketing in the internet marketing niche, and immediately created additional revenue streams. In August of 2006, Sean made the choice to enter the arena of internet marketing fulltime, and began building multiple email lists of individuals interested in internet marketing topics, including getting started online, traffic building, list building, and web site promotion. To join his mailing list and receive recommendations of useful internet marketing tools and helpful internet marketing and list building tips, visit: Secrets of Internet Success © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 5 Table of Contents Limit of Liability.........................................................................................................3 Warning: Read This Before You Build a List: Essential Information About CANSPAM .........................................................................................................................3 About the Author.........................................................................................................4 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................5 Introduction.....................................................................................................................7 Why List Build? ..........................................................................................................7 Why Use Articles Exclusively? ...................................................................................8 Why are Article Generated Subscribers More Likely to Spend Money With You?.......9 How to Use This Step By Step System ............................................................................9 Introspection on Internet Marketing...............................................................................10 History of Internet Marketing ....................................................................................10 Understanding and Utilizing Fads..............................................................................11 The Mindset You Have to Have to Make Money Online Consistently........................12 How to Set up Your List Building Web Site ..................................................................13 Your Step by Step Plan to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List................................................................................................................................13 Step 1: Choosing Your Niche or Topic ......................................................................13 Step 2: Choosing Your Angle ....................................................................................14 Why Use a Squeeze Page?.........................................................................................15 Step 3: How to Create a Squeeze Page.......................................................................16 Overview of Creating a Squeeze Page....................................................................16 Specific Instructions on How to Create a Squeeze Page .........................................17 Outline of Steps to Create a Squeeze Page .............................................................17 1) Find or Create a Giveaway for Your Squeeze Page...........................................18 2) Create a List of Benefits (not Features).............................................................19 3) Write a Headline...............................................................................................20 4) Write some Compelling Copy...........................................................................21 5) Create some Bullet Points.................................................................................21 6) Create a Compelling Opt In Line ......................................................................21 Squeeze Page Builder ............................................................................................22 7) Copy and Paste in Your Autoresponder Opt In Code ........................................22 Step 4: How to Structure the Rest of Your Web Site ..................................................22 How to Set Up Your Email Campaign...........................................................................23 Understanding the Importance of the Feel of Your Email Campaign..........................23 Step 5: Decide on the Goal of Your Email Campaign ................................................24 Step 6: How to Structure Your Email Campaign........................................................24 Step 7: How to Write Your Email Letters ..................................................................26 How to Write Content Emails ................................................................................27 How to Write Free Gift Emails ..............................................................................28 How to Write Referral Emails................................................................................29 How to Write Feedback Emails..............................................................................29 How to Create a Feeling of Relationship with Your Subscribers ................................30 Step 8: How to Make Sure You Are Making Money With Your List .........................31 © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 6 How Often Should You Mail? ...................................................................................31 How Much Money Should You Make Per Subscriber? ..............................................32 How to Write Articles for List Building.........................................................................33 Why You Must Write Your Articles With List Building in Mind ...............................33 Step 9: How to Decide What to Write About .............................................................34 Step 10: How to Structure Your Articles so That People Will Click Into Your Web Site After Reading the Article...........................................................................................35 Step 11: How to Write a Title ....................................................................................36 Step 12: How to Write the First Paragraph.................................................................36 Step 13: How to Write the Body of the Article...........................................................37 Step 14: How to Write the Conclusion to the Article..................................................38 Step 15: How to Write a Compelling Bio...................................................................38 Formatting Your Articles For Maximum Readability.................................................39 How to Submit Articles So That You Get Subscribers ...................................................40 Step 16: Where to Submit Your Articles ....................................................................40 Step 17: How to Submit Your Articles.......................................................................43 Step 18: How to Test Article Directories for Effectiveness ........................................44 How Many Articles to Submit ...................................................................................44 How Frequently to Submit Articles............................................................................45 How to Find Hidden Articles in Your Existing Works ...............................................45 How Long Should Your Articles Be? ........................................................................46 Advanced Article Marketing/List Building Techniques .................................................46 Step 19: Create Additional Autoresponder Campaigns...............................................46 Multiply Your Niches................................................................................................47 Step 20: Cross Sell Your Subscribers.........................................................................47 Step 21: Create Your Sales Funnel.............................................................................47 Creating Long-Term Streams of Income With Your Subscribers................................48 Note From the Author................................................................................................48 © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 7 Introduction Why List Build? In today’s internet marketing environment, list building is practically a requirement for making long-term income online. Sure, you can build a business of one-time sales, and if you have a great product, great sales page, and are willing to work extra hard, you can sell something one time and make money. But in most cases, the upfront one time sale will probably only break even or maybe slightly better. The advertising and accumulation costs of achieving the new subscriber are simply too high. But on the second sale to the very same customer, the cost of generating that sale is practically nill. Especially if you have a list. A list of customers. You simply email to your existing customers who already trust you, and they buy your second product. An incredible savings of advertising costs and hence a whole lot more profit to you, the seller. So how about a list of people seeking to buy products or get more information about a specific topic? Assuming that a particular sales page has a long-term conversion rate of 1% per visit to the page, if you were able to get the same person back to that sales page a number of times, what would happen to sales per unique visitor? They would go up! So instead of a conversion rate of 1%, maybe if you have the same person go back to the sales page 5 times, your conversion rate would be 5%. What if over the course of the year you could send the same person back to the same or a similar sales page 10 times? And with a properly built list, the cost to do that is practically zero, with the exception of the cost in time and knowledge to set up the email campaign, the subscriber collection campaign, and the autoresponders to make it all work. By list building you are able to repeatedly gain exposure to people who initially were looking for information on one of your topics, and who may purchase similar products in the future. By list building you are able to create additional products that may appeal to members of your existing list, and rather than spend additional advertising dollars to promote your second product, you simply promote it to your existing list of subscribers, with whom you have already created a meaningful relationship. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 8 Why Use Articles Exclusively? When I first started in internet marketing and list building, I tried many different ways to gain traffic to my squeeze page, and build a list. From the very beginning of my internet marketing list building, I did things on the list building end quite correctly and successfully, but I found that many sources of traffic did not produce as many subscribers, or they produced subscribers who, although I could brag that they made my list bigger faster, were not buying from me. Here is a partial list of what I did to generate traffic: I bought traffic like guaranteed traffic, exit traffic, expired domain traffic, safelist traffic, traffic exchange traffic, and pop up traffic. I bought advertising to drive traffic to my site: classified ads, ezine ads, pay-per-click traffic, and other advertising. I created exchange links with other web masters, and put my signature on my emails, and other creative things to make traffic happen. And I was getting traffic. I was getting a lot of traffic, and that traffic often subscribed. But they weren’t buying too much from me – not enough to pay the bills. However, I was also writing articles and submitting, for the purpose of gaining backlinks to my sites. I was doing that to get better search engine rankings, and it was working. But what I found was that the traffic I received from those articles was subscribing to my lists, and it was buying from me. So I began testing and tracking which article directories were producing the best responses. I began to make some changes to my articles so that people would click into my web page rather than just read them and click out. I practically stopped all other forms of traffic building. And my income grew from $250 per month to $5500 my fourth month of aggressively article marketing and list building with this system. This is the very system I show you step by step how to use. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 9 Why are Article Generated Subscribers More Likely to Spend Money With You? I am simply going to give you some reasons that I believe are to account for the reason that article generated subscribers are so valuable. My average article-generated subscriber spends well over $2 per month with me, whereas subscribers from other sources spend around 50 cents or less with me. There are two primary reasons why I believe that article-generated subscribers spend more money. The first is that an article generated subscriber is actively looking for information on the topic about which your article was written, reads your article, feels they received value or could certainly receive value in the future from your writings, and chooses to click through a link that indicated they could receive more information. So, unlike people who might often click an advertising link or pay per click link, these people are clicking because they are truly looking for more information. People who subscribe to my lists via articles I have written are about 10 times more likely to buy from me than people who join my list from a PPC link, based on my personal PPC results. The thing is, with articles, those who don’t really like what you have to say or your approach, or who do not feel they can gain anything from you, will simply click out of the article. So the article serves as kind of a screening process. The second reason I believe that article generated subscribers spend so much more money is that I believe there is a psychological connection that occurs when someone reads the article and clicks through to your web page. I think that the article serves as an instant rapport creator, so that when the visitor clicks into your site, they already feel as though they can trust you. The certain advantage to that is that you can begin to sell to them even faster through your email campaign, because you are already working with some level of rapport; you are building on it, not creating it. How to Use This Step By Step System I have designed this book to show you my system step by step. I recommend that you read the entire book from beginning to end, so that you have a good idea of what you are going to be doing, and so that you will perhaps understand better why you are going to do what you are going to do. It will give you a glimpse into the why this system works and why some of the steps are included. Once you have taken an overview of the entire system, go back to step 1 and simply work each of these steps in the order they are numbered. You should find that very quickly © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 10 you are gaining new and higher quality subscribers to your list, and should be able to monetize them faster. Introspection on Internet Marketing History of Internet Marketing When internet marketing first began, it was like a wide open wild, wild west. Anybody could do anything – and they did. Advertising companies tried using banner ads and popup ads to create traffic, and people began harvesting email addresses for the purpose of sending out sales emails. After awhile, people began to resent the constant advertising, and advertising effectiveness has gone down. With the explosion of unwanted emails, readers began to click through less frequently, and anti-SPAM (unsolicited business email) laws became prevalent. Internet marketers have turned to search engine optimization techniques and advanced list building as options to make big money online. Article marketing was developed as a way to create massive amounts of content to drive traffic to web sites, and list builders created lists of people who personally opted in, or chose, to be on their list, to conform to anti-SPAM laws. Article marketing and list building are currently at the forefront of effective internet marketing techniques. As many of the older, well-used methods have lost their effectiveness, internet marketers have turned to article marketing and list building to create incomes. Even article marketing has changed. Initially, it was used for creating search engine content, to drive pay per click (PPC) and other lucrative advertising programs. With the advent of article and content generation software, articles have declined in effectiveness for search engine and raw content purposes, but have become extremely effective for driving hot traffic to squeeze pages (web pages designed to �squeeze’ visitors into opting in to a list). List building has become more advanced, as marketers have learned the most effective ways to write emails and get them opened and purchased from. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 11 Understanding and Utilizing Fads Just looking at the history of internet marketing, we have seen a number of fads. Banner ads, popup ads, search engine optimization, pay per click schemes, article generation software, content generation schemes, and even mass emailing are all fads that have seen their better day. They were extremely effective at the beginning of their use, when they were used by just a few, savvy, internet marketers. The marketers tended to make fortunes exploiting the new-found fads as they came onto the scene. Once the fad activity became less successful, the marketers tended to sell their understanding of the fads to other, less experienced marketers. At that point, many internet marketers would jump on the fad bandwagon and effectively destroy the strong impact of the fad. Understanding this, we have to recognize that fads will come and go, and that when they are in their infancy or perhaps their prime, you can make a lot of money with fads. But you have to recognize that fads do come and go, and that when something no longer works, you must find out what does. So how does that apply to article marketing and list building? Certainly there are faddish aspects that arise in both article marketing and list building. With article marketing, people try to create instant articles using content creators or content spinners. Anything created by readily available software like that is bound to be a fad, and the effectiveness of it will disappear. However, because hand writing articles takes time and energy in an instant gratification world, I think that although the exact methods of writing and submitting articles may change over the years, I think there is a strong possibility that, done correctly, article marketing can last a long time. Do we have any guarantees of that? Of course not. So the recommendation is, treat it like a fad and make as much money as possible, now, and if it dries up, that is okay. If it does not, that is good too. This should be your general attitude towards anything you do online. On the list building front, as big list building software programs and viral schemes are created and used, I think that the effectiveness of those types of emails will go down. But if you are building good, solid lists, and creating relationships with the people on your lists, I think that the odds are good that you can keep your lists effective for a long time. Will you have to adapt to changes, as more and more people start building lists? Of course – you will have to work harder to stand out, to be the premier email to read in the morning. But I think you can effectively adapt in such a way as to make big money from your lists for a long time to come. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 12 The Mindset You Have to Have to Make Money Online Consistently Whether you are article marketing and list building, or you are using some other system to make money online, the money will not just happen. You must do work to make it happen, and you have to have the drive and desire to see it all through. You see, so much of the money that you make online will not be made the very first week or the very first time you do something. For example, you may only get 5 subscribers from the first article that you write and submit. Or you might get 100. And neither of those is indicative of your future. If you base your expectations of the future on your immediate results, you will probably be disappointed. You see, you might not think that writing an article is worth it to get just 5 subscribers, but you don’t realize that there is a cumulative effect that occurs when you write and publish multiple articles. On the flip side, if you get 100 subscribers on your first article submission, you can be assured that it is a fluke. If you base your expectations on that, you will be sorely disappointed. So you must have the drive and desire to do whatever it takes to see your internet marketing success all the way to the future. You must have an absolute, nothing is going to stop you, attitude towards internet marketing. No matter how concise and direct I am when I write this book, and no matter how hard you try to do everything exactly the way I tell you to do it, your results will not be the same. Some of your results will be better, some will be worse. People will respond to your style of writing differently than they do mine. You will have to learn to adapt to that, you may have to learn more about writing. You might have to put aside the mindset that you are a great writer (and maybe you are) because if you are used to writing, for example, scientific briefs, you will not be able to reach the average internet user (unless of course, your target audience is scientists!). You must be able to adapt to both your audience and your results. But again, you cannot get measurable and consistent results after just a few articles and a few days. You must commit to the longterm of it, and simply make it happen. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 13 How to Set up Your List Building Web Site Although a list building web site is created the same way as any other web site out there, using an html editor or other software, the content on the site itself must be tailored to the purpose of list building. If you are starting list building from scratch, you should create a web site that has as its only purpose, the purpose of adding subscribers to your list. If you already have a web site that sells something or promotes something, etc., you should do two things: 1) Add an opt-in form to every page on your web site, so that visitors to your existing web site can join your list and become a subscriber. 2) You should create a separate web site to be used for the express purpose of creating subscribers. You see, even with the very best techniques around, you can only get up to about 15% of your visitors to convert to subscribers if you are selling something or promoting something on the same page as the opt in box. But if you create a web site that only gathers subscribers, then funnels those subscribers to your web site, then you can get up to 60% of your visitors to opt in to your email list, assuring you that you can reach them in the future, and by funneling them to your main web site afterwards, you will not lose many sales. Think about it, if they don’t trust you enough to give you their name and email address, are they going to trust you enough to give you their credit card number and expiration date to buy something from you? Your list building web site should contain a main page that is structured to only create subscribers out of visitors. We call this page a squeeze page because it is designed to �squeeze’ visitors into your email list. Your Step by Step Plan to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List Step 1: Choosing Your Niche or Topic Obviously, if you already have a niche or a web site chosen, you can skip this step in the process. If you still need to choose a niche or topic around which to build your list, start with something that you know well. If you choose some niche or topic because you have heard that it is a highly trafficked topic or because you think it will be lucrative, but you © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 14 know nothing of the topic, you will probably not be able to make money with it. The reason is that you won’t have a working vocabulary for that niche, nor will you have any real interest in the topic, and your subscribers will be able to tell. They won’t connect with you, trust you, or buy from you. Start by creating a list of ten things you know something about and have some interest in. For example, you might be a skilled gardener, or cook, or be good at raising kids. Maybe you have a hobby like collecting stamps or coins. Perhaps you like to write poetry or maybe you are good with car engines. Find a topic about which you have enough knowledge that you can write some introductory articles. You don’t have to have all the details when you get started, because you can always research the information, but you really need to have a good background in your chosen topic. To find out if there is any interest at all in the topic you have chosen, use a keyword research tool to find out how often a particular keyword is searched. Although my experience recently has been that the high volume of traffic has made this page often unavailable, when it is available it is a priceless (and free) tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ You can also look up the keyword in a search engine and determine the amount of pages that are dedicated to that word. Some marketers like to compare the number of keyword searches to the number of pages for that keyword; the higher the ratio of searches to pages, the better they like the word. My current feeling is that the internet has been around long enough that most niches are going to reasonably well exploited, and that by writing articles and list building, you can make just about any niche that has any reasonable level of interest, into a profitable niche for you. Many marketers have multiple niches in which they build web sites. By doing that, you can capitalize on small niches that, although profitable from a per – subscriber basis, would only yield a small number of subscribers each. But by having several niches, you can still crank out a long term full time income. Step 2: Choosing Your Angle This is important, especially if you are in a niche area that already has some number of marketers, as I believe is the case today. So what do I mean by choosing an angle? What do I mean by �angle’? You must be able to differentiate yourself from everyone else in the market. You must be able to offer something that others do not – that is your angle. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 15 Have you noticed how, out of the 100’s of emails you receive daily, that you only open a few of them – and that it has nothing to do with headlines or font – but that it has to do with who sent the email? You recognize the sender of the email, you like something about that person or their service, so you read their emails. And you buy their products. Why? You like their angle. Whatever it is they do different, and you like it, that is their unique angle, and it is the reason you read their emails and buy their products. So how do you choose an angle? What do you do well? Are you good at simplifying things? If so, your angle could be to simplify things in your niche and market to beginners. Maybe you are the type that can make sense out of really complicated things – your angle could be to produce materials that make complicated processes in your niche seem easy. Do you like to teach people how to do things? Maybe your angle is that you offer specialized training in your niche. Do you have a knack with words? Maybe your angle is that your emails have a special feel to them, created by your ease of use of your language. Maybe your angle could be that you offer a collection of free items that other marketers’ sell, and you offer them free to your subscribers. Maybe your angle is that you offer obscure and hard to find information for free or a reduced price. Find or create your angle – and then keep that angle first and foremost in your mind in everything you do for your niche list building. Why Use a Squeeze Page? As I touched on earlier, the purpose of a squeeze page is to create an exclusive opportunity for someone to opt in to your list before gaining access to your web site and the information you contain within. By using a squeeze page, you can often achieve up to a 60% conversion rate of visitors into subscribers, whereas with a regular page that includes an opt in box, you will probably be restrained to about 15% on the top end. You may think that you are losing business by not giving your visitors the option of seeing your web site before they opt in to your list. Sure, you may lose some visitors – in fact, I lose around half of my visitors – but keep this in mind – the ones that subscribe are likely the ones that are most interested in your topic. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 16 Think about this: If they aren’t willing to give you their email address, will they really give you their credit card number? The ones you lose are not your best customers. On the other hand, the ones that opt in will often buy as soon as they get to your web site, and you will have repeated opportunities to sell to them again. I feel very confident that my success online has been primarily due to my system and that involves forcing everyone who wants to associate with me at all, to opt in to one of my lists. My sales pages convert at about 1% to raw visitors, but nearly 15% of my subscribers have bought one of my two best selling books online. If they had gone to my sales page first, that percentage would probably be about 1%, but since they are on my list, and I am willing to patiently wait for them to buy from me over time, around 15% of my subscribers have purchased one of two of my books – and that is in a addition to all the other products they buy from me. That is only possible because I have my list. Sometimes you have to be simply willing to give up the visitors that will probably never buy from you, in exchange for subscribing the visitors that are most likely to buy from you. You must look at the big picture, not the immediate return. Step 3: How to Create a Squeeze Page Overview of Creating a Squeeze Page Your squeeze page should include a headline and some persuasive copy that tells the visitor what they will receive for subscribing. Your headline, like any other headline you create, should stimulate maximum interest, and is probably the most important thing on the page. If your headline is good, your visitors will read the page, and you will have a chance to subscribe them. If the headline is bad, they will leave the page without reading it and therefore not subscribe. Your sales copy for this page should be to sell your visitor or joining your list. Generally the way I will write these is to ask a few questions that are aimed at things that many people do not know or understand about the niche I am working with. Then I will list some things that I answer about the niche, in my newsletter or in a free ebook that I create for the express purpose of answering these questions and offering as a free incentive for joining my list. This free ebook does not have to be long; in fact, I prefer one that is shorter, perhaps between 5 and 10 pages. The reason I like it to be short is because people will generally © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 17 tend to read shorter things all the way through, and at the end of the free ebook I like to place a link to a paid product of mine. If the ebook is too long, they will not get to my paid offer – and I don’t make as much money. After this, I place the opt in box my autoresponder company gives me. This allows my visitor to opt in and then they receive an automated reply that includes a link to the free book. Now, in my case, the autoresponder company I use gives me the option of being able to redirect my new subscribers to any page I want, and I route them to a sales page for an inexpensive book, like $10 or so. Many of these new subscribers will immediately buy my paid book, probably as many or more as would have bought had they been sent to my sales page first. So you see that I am not just getting the subscriber, but also the sale. I am always looking for ways to monetize my subscribers. Another note on this: sometimes I will be asked the question: How do I make sure my squeeze page is search engine friendly, for example, how many words, etc.? Here is my reply: it doesn’t matter, nor does it need to be search engine friendly. You see, you are not focusing on getting search engine traffic here, you are building article traffic. The search engines don’t matter. This is one important thing: you must build each thing that you do for a specific purpose. If you want a web site that is search engine friendly, build another one. You will do far better on each one of your web sites if you have only one purpose for each – you cannot effectively get several purposes out of each of your web sites, without sacrificing the quality of each. Specific Instructions on How to Create a Squeeze Page Outline of Steps to Create a Squeeze Page 1) Find or create a giveaway product for your squeeze page 2) Create a list of benefits (not features) 3) Write a headline 4) Write some compelling copy 5) Create some bullet points 6) Create a compelling opt in line © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 18 7) Copy and paste in your autoresponder opt in code So when you are creating your squeeze page, you can just go straight through that list, one at a time, writing copy as you need to. Now, I am going to break each one of these down for you: 1) Find or Create a Giveaway for Your Squeeze Page This is an extremely critical part of the squeeze page. You have to have a free gift to giveaway to the people who opt in to your list. This giveaway product should have high perceived value and a low cost to you. Now one of the lowest cost products you can create is an information product. This information product can be an ebook (my favorite), a video, or an audio recording. Note: at this point, unless you already have a video or audio recording that you can upload, do not use video or audio. It is far more important that you spend the next few days on creating this squeeze page, than to spend it creating a video or audio. You can always change your giveaway product in the future. If you already have an ebook that you have created, or you have an ebook of someone else’s that you have giveaway rights to, use that first. This will allow you to focus your energy on creating your squeeze page, rather than creating a product. Again, you can always change your giveaway item in the future. If you do not already have an information product you can giveaway, you can create one easily using these easy steps: 1) Pull out all the articles you have written over the last few weeks. Select 5 articles that are related in topic, and yet are not repetitive of each other. 2) Take the five articles and place them in some logical order. It can be from basic to advanced, or beginning to end, etc. 3) Compile them into one document; use copy and paste to do it. 4) Create a heading and footer for your document (like this one has) 5) Write a title for your mini-ebook, focusing on features, not benefits 6) Rename each of the articles so that they appear to be chapters in your mini-ebook. 7) Create a table of contents © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 19 8) At the end of the book, place a link to your sales page (if you do not have one, you can add it later) 9) Upload the ebook into a pdf. If you do not already have pdf software, you can get five free pdfs made here: Free Adobe Trial Look for the link to creating a trial account. After the first five, you can subscribe to their service for $10 per month, or of course buy the software for yourself. 10) Upload the pdf to your web server Now you have a giveaway ebook, and if you strictly use articles you have already written as a part of this program, the entire process should take you less than 2 hours (less than that if you have created ebooks before). If you have 3 or 4 articles, for example, that will fit together well, then write some additional �chapters’ for your ebook. This giveaway ebook does not need to be long; in fact, less than 10 pages is best. The shorter it is, the more likely that someone will read it all the way through; the more they read of it, the more likely they are to continue to buy from you. For an example of an ebook that I created by throwing together some articles using this process, click here: Sample Mini-Ebook By the way, if you are in the internet marketing or related niches, and do not want to create a mini-ebook initially, I have several you can use as giveaways – just let me know. 2) Create a List of Benefits (not Features) So what is the difference between a benefit and a feature? A feature is something that the product does, and a benefit is something that the buyer of the product actually gets from the product. For example, if you are selling lawn mowers, here is a list of features and benefits of the lawn mower: © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List Features sharp blade, cuts grass quick - start starter self propelled motor brake override 20 Corresponding Benefit Beautiful Green Grass on First Pass Easy to Start Motor - No More Struggling to Start Mower Easy to Mow - No Effort on Your Part Make Stops Without Restarting Motor Now that is a simple list, and is certainly not exclusive, but is designed to give you an idea of the difference between features and benefits. Nobody buys a lawn mower specifically because it has a quick – start starter, they buy it because if it has a quick- start starter, they won’t have to mess with priming the motor, or pulling some crank. They don’t really buy because it has a self-propelled motor in and of itself, they buy because they don’t have to expend energy pushing. So one of the first steps in creating your squeeze page needs to be to create a list of features that your product has, and then create a corresponding list of what the buyer actually gets from those features. Then, only use the list of benefits in writing your headline, sales copy, and bullet points. 3) Write a Headline A headline is one of the most important things you can do for your squeeze page. The headline may well be the most important thing you do for your squeeze page. Keep this in mind, if they don’t like the headline, if they are not �grabbed’ by your headline, they won’t read the rest of the squeeze page copy. So the headline is critical. Now, writing a headline for a squeeze page is very much like writing a headline for a sales page, or any other kind of sales copy. The headline must grab the reader, and should be benefit oriented, not feature oriented. Here are some examples of compelling headlines: How to Cure Diabetes Naturally, Once and For All! How to Make Money Online as a Christian Entrepreneur How to Have Green Grass Year Round How to Lose 30 Pounds in the Next 90 Days © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 21 Do You Want to Learn the Secrets of Forex Trading? You can also use these fill-in-the-blanks examples: How to _________ in __________ (time, year, month, days) Do you want to ____________ in __________ (time, year, month, days)? How I _______________ by _________________ Do you want to ______________ like me? 4) Write some Compelling Copy This should be a short paragraph that simply describes what they are going to learn when they read your free ebook. You can literally make sentences out of each of your topic headlines. 5) Create some Bullet Points Create a list of bullet points using the benefits you came up with earlier. For example, for a weight loss ebook: • • • • Discover the secret to losing 2 pounds per week How to drop a dress size per month Secret food that makes fat melt Revealed – how to banish hunger, quickly and easily 6) Create a Compelling Opt In Line For this line, I simply tell the reader to download my free ebook. Do not tell them to opt in to your list – tell them to download your ebook. When they download your ebook, they will be automatically opted in to your list. If they do not want to stay on your list after they download the ebook, that is fine (a few will unsubscribe). But your opt in rate will be much higher if you use language that indicates they are downloading an ebook (which they are) and simply leave out any language about a list. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 22 For example: Download my free ebook “How to Lose 30 pounds Before Swimsuit Season” here: That is it! For an example of how I do it, click here: Article Writing Squeeze Page You will notice that I do not include a paragraph of script on that squeeze page, and of course I have asked you to do that. The reason is that I am using this page strictly for opt ins from people who have read my articles, and therefore page rank for this page is not important. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the search engines prefer landing pages in top ranking web sites to have some content, so that is why I have asked you to add a paragraph of content. If you are using this strictly for opt ins from a traffic source, and are not interested in having this page rank in the search engines, feel free to model it directly after mine. Just an incidental note: that squeeze page converts consistently at 65%. Keep in mind, the traffic to that page is highly targeted, and are following a link that basically tells them to click on that page to download my free ebook. Squeeze Page Builder If you do not already have software to create squeeze pages, download this: Squeeze Page Builder That software leads you through a series of questions, and when you get to the end of it, it creates a squeeze page for you. I used that software to create the squeeze page above. I recommend that you go through the menu once, even if you do not have all your bullet points ready, just to create a sample, and see how it looks. Give it a try! 7) Copy and Paste in Your Autoresponder Opt In Code Whichever autoresponder service you are using, you should be able to copy and paste the html code for your opt in web form into the code for your web page. If you are having trouble with this, shoot me an email, describing exactly what step you are getting to, and I will try to help. Step 4: How to Structure the Rest of Your Web Site © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 23 So now that you have a squeeze page on your website, what do you do with the rest of it? That depends on what you are trying to do with it. If it is primarily a content and informational web site, then you can simply create another page that will serve as your surrogate home page. You see, you need to put your squeeze page on the true homepage, because if you do not, then savvy visitors that do not want to give you their email and name can circumvent your squeeze page by retyping in the site name without the squeeze page name associated with it, and get to your home page. So to make this work best, your home page should be your squeeze page, and then put everything else on other pages. If you are selling products, you can do basically the same thing, creating a different web page for each additional product. Or, you can have two web sites, one for the squeeze page, and one for everything else, but I prefer to keep things simple and just use my squeeze page as the homepage. How to Set Up Your Email Campaign Understanding the Importance of the Feel of Your Email Campaign You must decide on a feel for your email campaign. The feel of your email campaign must be specifically geared towards the type of feeling you want to inspire in your subscribers. One thing you must keep in mind is that you cannot be all things to all people. If you are seeking to connect with advanced gardeners, for example, the language you use will be significantly different than the language you use with beginners. If you try to appeal to both on the same list, you will fewer sales than if you were to create two lists, one for beginners, the other for advanced people. So think about a feeling. Do you want it to feel intellectual, simple, fun, or serious? Whatever the feeling you choose, you must be consistent. Someone who subscribes to your list because they identify with one feeling or tone will unsubscribe if that changes. So it is far better to have multiple lists for multiple people than to try to be all things to all people. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 24 Step 5: Decide on the Goal of Your Email Campaign What is your goal online? You probably need to know that before you can think about the goal of your email campaign. Are you online to make money, to make friends, to pursue a hobby, or to share with people? In that same sense, the goal of your email campaign should bolster the goal you have on the internet. For example, the goal of your email campaign might be to educate people on some topic that is close to your heart. Or, like me, your goal, might be to convert subscribers into buyers. What do you want to get from your email campaign, your email list? Once you have decided on the goal of your email campaign, make sure that everything you do is in line with that goal. Ask yourself before you send out any email, does this email bolster my goal, or does it detract from my goal and my purpose online? Step 6: How to Structure Your Email Campaign Because every email campaign is different, and will be structured differently according to the goals you have for it, I am going to share with you some ideas for some elements of the structure of your email campaign, and also share with you my email campaign structure. First, some background. One of the theories that I read a lot about when I first got started online proposes the need to build rapport with your email subscribers before you sell them anything. This theory proposes that you send out lots of great content emails at the beginning of your email campaign and then add in sales emails as time goes by. I subscribed to this idea at first, but then I noticed that after about 5 or 6 emails – about the same time as I was about to start sending out sales letters, that my readership went down. After the introductory, rapport building emails, my readership was going down – right at the point where I wanted to start making money with them. After some research and study, I discovered that people go through a period of buyer intensity. This is a period of time when they are most likely to buy something. Here is an example. Assume that you are going to visit your long-time cousin in Florida. You and your cousin used to fish together. You have since moved to the Midwest, and no longer fish, and you also have no fishing equipment, and you are not familiar with the latest fishing equipment and terminology. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 25 Now, let’s assume that you start looking for fishing information online. You go to my fishing niche web site. You also go to someone else’s fishing niche web site. For the sake of this example, let’s assume that my email campaign is a rapport builder, while the other person’s is a salesy campaign. Now, you need this information now! You trip begins in two weeks. What happens? You buy from the other website; by the time I begin to promote anything to you, you have already bought from the other web site. Now, you may think that this is just a remote example, but I do not believe that to be the case. I think that most people search for information online when they need it, when they are most interested in buying something. So in response to this information, I changed my email campaigns so that they contained a mixture of content, free gifts, and sales letters – and my sales went up dramatically! Now, keep in mind that the bulk of my subscribers are generated from articles. This means that my typical subscriber has a stronger level of rapport with me than they would if they would if they were recruited from a pay per click ad. Perhaps if I were generating the bulk of my customers from other, more impersonal means, this would not work. But for me, it has been extremely effective. What are some other ways that you could structure your email campaigns? Any mix of the following makes for a good structure, the most important thing is that you think about why you are doing it – so you can understand your statistics when you look at them. You can include free gift emails, these build incredible loyalty. And one thing on free gifts – they must have some non-free value. If you give away free junk, it will not earn you any kudos with your subscribers. Anything you send to your subscribers will be a reflection of you and the quality of your products. Your subscribers will expect the same level of quality from your free gifts as they do whatever they pay you for. And they will assume, if your free gift quality is low, that the quality of your paid products is also low. You may think that you do not want to give away things you could get paid for. But think about this – you are getting paid for the free gifts if, as a result of the free gifts you give away, you create rapport with your subscribers and they end up buying more from you later. You can include content emails in your email campaign. Again, these have to deliver real content, not just filler. Your readers will be evaluating you and your products by the free content you deliver, so it must be of the highest quality. One thing you can do here is to offer a free excerpt from one of your paid products, and include a link to your paid product at the end of the email. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 26 The most obvious thing that you can include in your email campaign structure is referral letters. Now I call these referral letters because they should only refer someone to a web site, even if it for your own products. You see, when people read hype in your emails, and they get to the sales page and are not impressed, they will be less likely to go to a sales page you recommend in the future. Far better to get fewer click throughs and protect your list for future mailings than to get more click throughs today and lose the opportunity in the future to continue to make recommendations. Another thing that I like to include in my email campaigns is feedback emails. I ask my subscribers interactive questions, questions like: What do you want to learn more about? What is your greatest struggle in (your niche)? What is the hardest thing you have found in (your niche)? If you could learn more about 3 things in (your niche), what would they be? And then at the end of the email, I use language like this: Please, just hit �reply’ to this email to send me your answers. Now obviously you can use a web form or a survey form to do this, but I like this method because it is nice and simple and creates a feeling of personalization that doesn’t come from a survey. Step 7: How to Write Your Email Letters One of the keys to writing strong emails is to imagine that you are indeed writing to a person, a very specific person. One way to do that is to imagine that you are writing this email to a friend, a very specific friend. Write it like you are writing it to him or her. If that is too difficult, ask a friend to subscribe to your list, and then it will be real – he or she is on the list, and they will be reading your email – write it to them! This will make your emails better immediately. Although I am not a proponent of some special structure in your email, I will give you a raw structure. You see, I think that when emails are truly effective, they are written to a specific person, but they are also personal. They will not always follow some set structure. Think about it, when you write to a friend to tell him or her something that happened in your day, do © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 27 you use a formula? No, you tell them what happened, maybe ask a question or two – and then end the email. So why not do the same thing with your subscriber list emails? Often, that is exactly what I do. I ask a question, tell someone that they can learn something from clicking on a certain link, give the link, and end the email. That’s it. Nothing special. Other times I might tell a story, and then give a link. I switch up the structure of my emails, and the content. You see, I am writing to real people, so I must vary the email structure. If you are writing to your best friend, you wouldn’t have the same structure every time, would you? And neither should you here. Now, here is a sample structure, one that can, and should, be deviated from – to make your emails unique. 1) Headline (Title) – something exciting, yet accurate, to get the readers’ attention. 2) Intro – I often ask a question �do you know how to build a big list?’, for example. 3) A story – I will often tell a short story about a problem I have had and how I solved it. 4) Another question – for example, do you want to learn about how I did it? 5) Call to action – for example, check this out and see what you think: 6) A closing That is pretty basic, and you can leave off any of those parts on any email you want – you certainly do not want to have the same boring format every time you send out an email. How to Write Content Emails Generally with a content email, I know that my response rate is going to be low, so I am not really trying to get clicks, although I will usually put a link back to me at the end. A great content email might just be an article that I have written. I will use the title of it for the subject line, then I might use language like this to lead in: Dear {!firstname_fix}, I have recently written something I thought you might like: © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 28 Or I might just lead immediately into the content. As long as the content is good, you can use either method, if it is not, you should not be using it! Remember that this email is just to build rapport; I am not trying to sell anything here. What I want is for my readers to like and respect me so that they will buy from me in the future. How to Write Free Gift Emails Generally with a free gift email I will simply write the following: Dear {!firstname_fix}, Here is a free gift for you: Or Here is something I thought you could use (100% free) The nice thing about free gifts is that people really appreciate them. Sometimes if I have been sending out a lot of sales or referral letters and my list responsiveness has gone down, I will send out a few free gifts to spark things back up – and sales usually go back up! One thing that I have started doing with my free gifts is creating backend offers. So what I will do is set up the download sequence the same way as if I had sold something, except that the product is free, and after they click through to get the free item, they get copy like this: Thanks for accepting my free gift. Here is the link to download it: (download link here). But before you download it, please check this product out; I have been able to secure a special price just for you: At this point, I place the sales letter here. The conversion rate on this sales letter, although lower than if I had sent them directly to this page, is still better than the 0% conversion you get if you send them directly to the free gift. And one thing that is nice about the free gift is that the open rates and click through rates are a lot higher, so you get a lot more exposure than you do with a normal referral letter. Another thing that has worked quite well for me has been to write a short free report (4-7 pages) on the topic of one of my paid products. At the end of the free report is a link to my paid product, with script like this: If this report has been useful to you, you might like my (name of my product). Click here to take a look: (link to my product). © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 29 How to Write Referral Emails When I say referral email, I mean just that, even when it is my own product. You see, the email is not the place to sell the product, although sometimes I do. The email is the place for rapport and communication. So I simply refer my reader to take a look at a sales page. I let the sales page do the selling – that is why it is called a sales page. For my referral page, I will often ask a question, for example, �have you been struggling with (your niche)?’ I have found something that might work nicely to help: (link to sales page). What I have done there is come across as helpful; even if they don’t like the sales page, they will still appreciate that I sent them to it, thinking of them. In that way, I get the click, but I also preserve the relationship with my subscriber. If you try and sell in the email, then the subscriber feels as though you are selling him or her with your email campaign, and will often unsubscribe. Although a few unsubscribes are fine with me (I figure that if I am not getting any unsubscribes, I must not be aggressive enough), I do not want to lose buyers because I have been too aggressive. Once again, I simply let the sales page be aggressive for me. How to Write Feedback Emails In these emails, I am attempting to do two things: 1) Create rapport by stimulating conversation and 2) Find out what to write my next book about. Creating the rapport is extremely important to me. Used correctly, I believe that feedback emails create incredible rapport and can lead to multiple sales later on in the relationship. The feedback email might look like this: Dear {!firstname_fix}, I need your help! In a constant effort to improve what I send to you, and how I can best help you (niche verb) better, I have a couple of quick questions for you. Please just hit �reply’ to this email, and send me your answers. This will help me a lot…thanks in advance. 1) What is the most difficult thing you have found in (your niche)? 2) What types of information are you looking for from this newsletter? © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 30 3) What is one thing you want to learn more about? How to Create a Feeling of Relationship with Your Subscribers One of the important things here is to remember that you are dealing with real people who have real needs, have real feelings, and will be spending real money with you. It is easy, once your list gets big, to think of people as just an email or a name or even a number. It is easy to think of things strictly in terms of how much the aggregate spends everyday. But the only reason they spend money with you is that they need what you have, and unless you are the only one online to have it (and you probably aren’t) you must build a personal relationship with each person on your list. Now that may seem impossible to do, especially if you have a list of 5,000 or 10,000. But there are some specific things you can do to make that happen. The most obvious is to use your autoresponders’ personalization feature, so you can address the email to the person’s first name. If you can, have the feature capitalize their first name and do not use their last name. The next thing to do is to write as if you are writing to one individual. Do not use terminology like “you all” or “all my subscribers”. Use the word “you” when writing to your subscribers. Write as though you are writing to one person, not many. Another thing you can do is to ask questions of your subscribers. Ask what they want to learn about, ask them if they have any questions you can answer. When they write you, answer each and every question personally. Now, you can use a mass format for this. Use language like this to do it: Wow! A few days ago I asked you (whatever you asked them) and I have received an incredible response. Please forgive me for not answering these personally, but I thought that the answer to your question was pertinent to everyone. So here are the questions and my answers: This will create a feeling of community and relationship, especially for those who did not even ask any questions. They will see that others are very involved in your list, and that will give them the credibility they needed to see before buying from you. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 31 Step 8: How to Make Sure You Are Making Money With Your List Unless you are building a list just for the fun of it, or for educational purposes, you are probably thinking that you want to monetize your list. With this in mind, not only should you structure your entire campaign in such a way that you are always looking for opportunities to make money, you should always be thinking about how you can monetize something you do. Just to give you some examples, here are some places where I make money on my list: 1) Once someone subscribes to my list, they are immediately sent to a sales page that says this at the top: Thanks for accepting my free gift (or subscribing to my list, whichever is most accurate). A confirmation email has been sent to your email address; just click the link in the email to verify your address, and you will be able to immediately download the gift. While you are waiting, please check out my new book �(name of book)’ My conversion rate on this page from referred sources is around 5% and probably between 2 and 4% on article traffic. I create free ebooks and include links to my other products. I include links to my other products in books like this. I give away free items and give the opportunity to buy something, too. Many times, when I sell something, I immediately give the purchaser the opportunity to buy something else. After they have paid for the first item, they get to a page that says something like: Thanks for purchasing (name of product). To download it immediately, click here: But, before you do, take a look at this incredible offer – discounted just for you: Then I place a sales page to a different product here. How Often Should You Mail? © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 32 This is a much debated topic. Very few marketers agree completely on this, and in fact, probably the frequency should be different for different lists. One of the keys is consistency. If you are going to mail once per week, mail once per week. If you are going to mail three times per week, be consistent about it. And if you are going to mail once a day, you must mail everyday. The reason for this is that different people will respond differently to different frequencies, and will unsubscribe if they do not like the frequency. So if you start out mailing daily, you will get unsubscribes because of it, and then if you change to once a week, you will have lost subscribers who would have tolerated once a week mailings. And vice versa, if you mail only once a week, you will have some people who forget who you are, and then if you change to mailing more frequently, they will unsubscribe. So just recognize that whatever you do, you must be consistent, and you can expect unsubscribes. Do not take them personally. You should generally mail only as often as you have the time to create useful content or offers. If you are working this business part time, a few hours a week, you cannot mail as much as someone working part time 30 hours per week. I personally mail everyday, and some subscribers get several emails per day from me, because they are on several lists. I have the ability to do this because I work this business fulltime, and have the time to create new offers, in addition to writing multiple articles and books like this. Do I lose more to unsubscribes than average? Probably. Do those that stay on my list buy more from me than if I mailed twice a week? I think so. But the key here is that I have the time to do it. Never set up a mailing schedule that is more frequent than you have time to maintain. How Much Money Should You Make Per Subscriber? This is also an age-old (at least as old as the internet is!) question. Many marketers promote $1 per month per subscriber as a good number to shoot for, and I tend to agree with them. Others feel that 50 cents per subscriber per month is also a good number. I personally, although I would be satisfied with $1 per subscriber, am currently over $2 per subscriber per month. I think that it is as high as it is because I am primarily using articles as my main form of subscriber recruiting, and because I am actively cranking out new books regularly. If I were to slow down that pace, or slow down the article writing, I think my number would go down. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 33 Keep in mind, that although my average is above $2, I have some lists that are at or less than 50 cents per month, so a lot is dependent on the source of your subscribers. Keep in mind that the purpose of this book is to teach you to list build using articles, and that should allow you to attain higher than average revenues per subscriber when done correctly. How to Write Articles for List Building I believe that when you are writing articles for list building, you are utilizing a significantly different mechanism than if you are writing articles to just get your name on the web or to disseminate useful information. You are literally writing the article with the firm intent of getting interested people to click through to your squeeze page and give you their name and email address. That is your purpose. Why You Must Write Your Articles With List Building in Mind If you do not write your articles with list building specifically in mind, you will not get as many clicks to your squeeze page. You see, when you write articles for just about any other reason, you want people to get all the information they need in that one article. But not so, if you are using the articles to list build. You want people to feel two things when they finish reading your article: 1) That you delivered really good, helpful information, and 2) That they want to read more. So you have to have a balance of really good information that answers their question, yet leaves them hanging, so they feel like there is more information needed. If you do not effectively do this, you will have people read your article, appreciate the information, and yet not subscribe to your list. But at the same time, if you do not give them good, solid information, they will not feel you have enough information on the topic to warrant them joining your list. As you write articles and work specifically towards making this balance happen, you will be able to do this more effectively. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 34 Step 9: How to Decide What to Write About I am assuming at this point that you know what your niche or topic is and that this section is designed to help you decide what you should write in regards to your niche or web site topic. Start with your niche or topic, for example, gardening. Then make a list of things that people might want to know about gardening. For example: How do you garden? What climates are good for gardening? Do you garden differently in different climates? What types of things can you grow in the cold climates? What types of things can you grow in the hot climates? Notice at this point how I am building a number of questions around one subtopic of gardening: the climate. You can probably think of 20 or 30 more questions related to just the climate. Now for a change of subtopic, for example: tools for gardening What types of tools do I need for gardening? What are the easiest tools for gardening? Are there different tools for different plants? Where do I buy quality tools for my gardening? What are the top three tools for gardening? And again, you can add many more tool questions, especially if you are in the gardening niche and understand gardening (I am not, and don’t). Now you should be able to easily think up 20 subtopics for your niche, similar to the two I suggest here for gardening. For example, in the gardening niche: © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 35 Temperature Color Brand Soil Weather Time of year Part of the world Seeds Plants Vegetables Fruits Obviously this is a partial list of all the subtopics for the gardening niche. Come up with at least 20 for your niche, then write at least 10 questions to answer for each subtopic. Next, write an article about each question…just given this scenario, you will have 200 article subjects ready to write! Step 10: How to Structure Your Articles so That People Will Click Into Your Web Site After Reading the Article As I have mentioned already, one of the big keys when you are writing articles and you want people to click through to your website, you have to both answer the question they are asking, and give them enough information to see that you know what you are talking about, and that they like your style, and yet you have to leave them hanging at the end. Now, one of the things I find that really leaves people hanging is simply the exclusion of a concluding paragraph. Most people are accustomed to reading an introductory paragraph, then some substance, then a concluding paragraph. But when I write articles, instead of getting a concluding paragraph they get, instead, my bio that starts off with something like: To read more on this topic, click here: So they are left hanging, and then I give them a way out: they can click through to get more information. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 36 Step 11: How to Write a Title Your title is extremely important, and must be compelling. It must drive the surfer online to click into the article to read it. It must therefore be specific about what it is going to address, because the surfer is looking for specific information. Keep in mind, if they do not open your article, they will not read it, and if they do not read it, they will not click through to your web page. So the title is critically important. Now, not only should the title give specific information about what the article will cover, it also needs to have very specific, keyword-oriented language so that if someone is searching the internet or an article directory for specific information, they will be able to find your article. I like to begin my title with the keyword that someone might use to find my article, if they are interested in the article topic. For example, if I am writing an article about deep sea fishing, my article title might read like this: Deep Sea Fishing – Fishing Equipment Hazards and Warnings Now that is a very highly targeted keyword rich article title. If someone types in something like deep sea fishing hazards or deep sea equipment warnings, I might get a click into my article. These are very targeted readers, as should be most of your article readers. You see, the more highly targeted is a reader, the more likely they are to be in the buying stages, and not just surfing aimlessly. Now after the keyword beginning, I am very specific about what the article is going to cover. Now, one thing that is very important here is that your article actually answers or addresses the question or specific topic in the title. That is a credibility issue. If the reader does not think you have been honest in your title about the article, they will doubt your credibility when it is time to subscribe or buy. Step 12: How to Write the First Paragraph Although I have included this first, because it occurs next in the article, if you are just getting started, it might be easier to write the body of your article first, and then write the first paragraph afterwards. This allows you to �cheat’ by alluding to the points in the body of your article. Then you can add an introductory sentence, create a transition line into the main points, and you are done. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 37 But if you write it first, you can write it like this: Write 1-3 sentences introducing your idea. For example, in keeping with the deep sea fishing equipment topic, my introduction sentences might look like this: Deep sea fishing, although lots of fun, and generally safe when done correctly, can be fraught with danger when the equipment used is not correctly inspected. It is important to have your deep sea fishing equipment inspected regularly. Next, I might list the things that the equipment needs to be checked for. After that, I will include something like this: Here are the steps you need to take to make sure that your deep sea fishing equipment is in safe condition before you leave the dock: Step 13: How to Write the Body of the Article In the body of my article, I am going to address each of the main points that I alluded to in the introduction. If you are writing the body first, pick 3-4 main ideas that the reader can benefit from knowing, that are directly related to your chosen article title or topic. You can either write a paragraph for each one, or list each idea in a bulleted or 1,2,3 fashion. One note on making your article keyword rich: Although I am not a big proponent of spending a lot of time keyword optimizing articles, one thing that is easy and helps with keyword density without making the article stiff is to begin each point with the keyword or keyword phrase. For example, 1) To keep deep sea fishing equipment safe.... 2) To inspect deep sea fishing equipment…. 3) To maintain deep sea fishing equipment…. In this way you are using the keyword phrase without making the article unwieldy or unnatural. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 38 Step 14: How to Write the Conclusion to the Article Now, if you have been reading of all this book, and not jumping around you know by now that I do not generally use a conclusion to my article. But if you feel the need to… Here is how to do it. Start with a sentence that summarizes your main idea, then follow with summaries of each of your main points, then add one more sentence that finishes things up… In all reality, though, if you are writing articles for list building, leave the conclusion off and go directly to the compelling bio. Step 15: How to Write a Compelling Bio One of the most important things in writing a compelling bio is to immediately, while the reader is fresh from reading your article, give them a really good reason to go to your squeeze page. Here are some ideas of how I do it: To download my new free ebook on deep sea fishing equipment, click here: To take a look at more articles just like this one, click here: To read my free report, �Taking Care of Deep Sea Fishing Equipment’, click here: To subscribe to my free course �Deep Sea Fishing Tricks and Techniques’, click here: Notice that I do not begin with: Sean Mize is an accomplished deep sea fisherman and has won numerous awards for his huge and unbelievable catches. They already know that I know what I am talking about after reading my article. If I don’t know what I am talking about, no amount of self-acclamation is going to change that, and if they already know from the quality of my writing…what do I gain? The key here is, I want them to immediately go to my squeeze page while they are hot, while they are really interested in my topic, not after they get bored by my self-praise. At the end, I might put something like this: © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 39 Sean Mize is an accomplished deep sea fisherman who has been teaching fishing for 10 years. Notice that this line about myself is much more modest than the earlier example, and gives the reader a reason why I might be able to help them…not that I have received awards, but rather that I have been teaching for some time. Obviously, you have to adapt it to meet your needs, and it is often helpful to write out many potential bios, and then start eliminating those that don’t feel good. Remember, the process of article writing and list building is as much an art and works on the feelings people get when they read your articles, as it is a science that appeals to people’s needs. If it doesn’t feel good when you write it or read it to yourself, it might not to anyone else, either. On the flip side, do not let that hold you back, especially if you are overly critical of yourself – just write something, follow the patterns in this book, and you will get better with time. Formatting Your Articles For Maximum Readability If you are using the techniques described in the previous sections, you will already have a pretty readable article. To make your article even more readable, add breaks after every few lines. So for example, if your introductory paragraph has 5 sentences, but each sentence is 3 or 4 lines long, break that into 5 paragraphs. Do not worry that it is not technically correct…it is far more important online that it is easily readable. If your paragraph has 8 lines, perhaps split it in two – find a natural breaking point, even if the subject will still be the same, and add a line between the sentences. This will keep the article easy to read – remember some people will not read the entire article; they will just skim the first few words of each paragraph, so you want it to be easy for those people to get a feeling for what you are writing about. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 40 How to Submit Articles So That You Get Subscribers Step 16: Where to Submit Your Articles Although you can search the internet for article directories, and there are probably over 500 working article directories, I am including a list of article directories to which I have submitted in the past. Now, my personal recommendation is that for the purpose of list building, you are far better off writing multiple articles and submitting them to the first 4-7 article directories on the list, than writing a few and submitting them to all the directories. The reason is that the traffic on the first few article directories in this list is significantly higher than probably all the other directories combined, so your time is probably much better spent writing additional articles. The only exception to this is if you are writing and submitting articles for the purpose of creating backlinks for search engine optimization (which is not the purpose of this book, or this system). In that case, you are better off writing a few articles, altering them slightly, and sending them to many article directories. This will gather you more backlinks to your web site, but this method will not really increase your traffic unless you are able to achieve something like a top ten search engine ranking in a reasonably high traffic keyword. Again, for the purpose of the system in this book, you should only submit to the first few article directories on this list. Ezine Articles Search Warp Go Articles Article Bank SG Web Design Article Dashboard Article Marketer Article Sender © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 41 Isnare Idea Marketers Christian Notepad Christian Article Bank Article Alley Article 99 Business Tool Chest Content Articles Freezinesite Ezine Plug Eclipse Articles Articles 365 Articles Submit Add Article Article Boy Digital Women Articleson Article City Web Pro News Author Connection Free Articles Search Articles Base Jesus Works © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 42 Boconline Connection Team Article Motron Articlesrus Article Leader Tips The Article Library Article Host Relationships Article Library Writers Pen Article Directory My Do Little Add Me Decision Web Systems Articles Galore Article Database Archivex Ht Mega Articles Business Highlight Lead Articles Link Snoop Pure Directory Sir Look Article Zilla © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 43 Buzzle Easy Articles Article Warehouse Main Street Mom Press Article Article Depot Amazines Article Hub Content Desk Article Teller Article Capital Urban Christianz Step 17: How to Submit Your Articles When you first get started submitting articles, you will need to create an account with each of the article directories to which you wish to submit articles. Because of the prevalence of spam article submission, most of the article directories will require that you respond to a confirmation email before you can submit any articles, and some of those emails can take 30 minutes or more for you to receive. So the easiest thing to do is to go through the list of article directories, signing up with each one, assembly-line style, then go to your email and answer each of the confirmation emails, again assembly line style. Next, once you have registered with all of them, you can go back and start submitting your articles. Once you have written the article, you can pretty much copy and paste each of the parts into the various forms required by the article directories, and just keep in mind that the first few that you submit will take longer to submit than they will once you know exactly what each directory requires. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 44 Step 18: How to Test Article Directories for Effectiveness Because I am big tester online, meaning that I test just about everything that I do to make sure that I am not wasting my time, I create duplicate squeeze pages and use a different one for different article directories. This allows me to track the traffic that goes to each squeeze page to determine how effective a particular article directory is for my purpose. I also use different autoresponders for each of my squeeze pages, so that I can also test the conversion rates of the different article directories. I think that one of the main reasons that I have been able to succeed so quickly online while others have not is that I am a pretty stringent tester. I believe that everything can be tested, and that everything that is going to be effective will be effective pretty quickly. Now, for article writing, it can take a few weeks and a few dozen articles before you have clear indications of success or failure with a particular directory or process, but no more than a few weeks. Unfortunately, I get emails regularly from people who are still struggling with something online that hasn’t been working for a year or more. Although you must be committed to the long term process of internet marketing if you are going to be successful, you must not spend too much time on something that isn’t working. That is not to say that you cannot continue to make adjustments, especially when you are just getting started and are learning, but if a new traffic source or article directory isn’t pulling in a few weeks…it probably never will. Now one thing that you can do when you are testing, is to always be testing multiple things at one time, then you will have some things that do better than others, and you can drop the poorer things and add in new things, rather than testing and eliminating one thing at a time. When I first got started online, I would test as many as 10 different traffic sources at one time, keep the best few, make changes, add more, and keep testing. As you know by now, my current emphasis on article marketing has been due to the phenomenal success and income I have received via articles and article submission. How Many Articles to Submit As many as you can! I have submitted around 900 articles, and since about my third month online (it takes some time for the search engines to do all their work and there is definitely a lagged effect when writing articles), my income has been proportional to the number of articles I have published. I honestly believe that if I had only written 500 up to this point, that my income would be half what it is now, and my greatest regret is that I have not written 2000! © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 45 Obviously, if you are new to this, those numbers are probably scaring you. Your first article might take you a few hours to write, so you will be hard pressed to imagine writing 500! But once you have written a few, you will get to where you can write a few an hour. If you are not used to typing, your typing will improve just by use, and you will be able to write faster over time. I currently can crank out about 7 articles per hour – but it has taken me a few months to get to that point. By the way, if you are a 2 finger typist….and you are serious about writing online….take a typing course. Without being able to type, you will have a hard time cranking out enough articles in a short enough period of time to make it worthwhile. Another option is to invest in speech recognition software that will transcribe your words into a word processing program. I have not used one, so I cannot recommend one, but if you cannot type efficiently, you should look into speech recognition software. How Frequently to Submit Articles I have only included this section because it gets asked….but I like to submit my articles as soon as I write them. Another way to do it is to save all the articles you write from one day and then submit them, assembly line style. How to Find Hidden Articles in Your Existing Works This option of creating articles may not jump right out at you, but if you have been in internet marketing or your niche for long, and you have written any kind of reports or books, or have been answering people’s questions in forums or via email, you may have a number of articles in your possession that just need some polishing up for the article purpose. A lot of times the answers you have given people to questions in forums online or via your own email, make great article content. You may need polish up some grammar or add an introduction, etc., but when you are first getting started it can be nice to have some quickie articles you can get posted without a lot of work involved. The same goes for anything else you might have written like reports, ebooks, or autoresponder content – just adapt it to articles and you are ready to go. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 46 How Long Should Your Articles Be? For the purpose of generating clicks to your squeeze page, my opinion is that the articles should be as short as possible. In my opinion, the shorter the article, the faster the reader will get to your bio and links, and the faster they will click through…before they get bored and click out of the article. So what is that length? Well, most article directories require at least 250-500 words, so I will write mine to the shortest length that the majority of article directories will require – just check the current length requirements for each of the article directories to which you will submit. If you find that you cannot cover a topic in less than 700 + words, consider breaking the article into two parts, part one and part two, or name each of the two parts appropriately according to their respective content. Advanced Article Marketing/List Building Techniques Step 19: Create Additional Autoresponder Campaigns By creating multiple autoresponder campaigns, you can test using different email campaign structures on your subscribers, and measure which is most effective at producing sales. You can also use different autoresponder campaigns to separate mini-niches of subscribers who might have different needs. For example, with the gardening niche, you could have an autoresponder for beginner gardeners, an autoresponder for experienced gardeners, and even autoresponders for specific types of gardening or plants. This allows you to more tightly target the individual needs of specific types of subscribers, and when done correctly, can produce much higher sales. © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 47 Multiply Your Niches Perhaps you have chosen a niche which, although profitable per subscriber, does not have enough demand to create a full time income. The answer to this is to have several niche web sites and email campaigns. By having multiple niches, you can more effectively target smaller, undermarketed niche areas which many fulltime internet marketers might turn away from. However, because of the reduced competition, you can often charge more for your products, and this can often more than make up for the size of the market, especially if you have several niche markets like this. Step 20: Cross Sell Your Subscribers One important area of profit online is cross selling to your customers. Cross selling occurs when you sell subscribers or purchaser of one particular niche or niche product something in a related niche. For example, your niche might be vegetable gardening, and perhaps you can cross sell your vegetable gardening customers a fruit gardening product. Or perhaps you have puppy dog web site; a cross sell product would be a kitty cat product. You can either produce the cross product yourself, or become an affiliate of another internet web site and earn a commission selling the cross product. Step 21: Create Your Sales Funnel With a sales funnel, the idea is that you introduce your customers to bigger and more costly products as they purchase your less expensive products. For example, you can use a free product to induce potential subscribers to join your list. Once they join, you might offer them a $17 product. Then, once they have purchased the $17, you can introduce them to a $47 product…and so on. Now, you can either create your own products, or find quality affiliate products that offer increased commissions to you. Your sales funnel might look like this: © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 48 Free ebook (6 pages)………..free Ebook (40 pages)…………...$17 Advanced Ebook……………$47 Advanced Ebook (different topic) + CD set………..$97 Complete course in your niche (with CDs and workbooks)…..$497 To create products that sell for even more than that, you can create consulting programs, complete niche kits and training programs, or seminars (these can range from $997 to $10,000). Creating Long-Term Streams of Income With Your Subscribers The sales funnel discussed in the last few paragraphs, when done correctly, can enable you to create long-term streams of income with your customers. The key here is that you have to make sure that everything that you create or represent is of high quality. Your subscribers will stop buying from you if they buy something that doesn’t live up to the sales page. Be creative about thinking of ways you can upsell, cross-sell, and back-end sell your customers. Many of my customers have bought many different products from me, both my own, affiliate products, and products of others’ that I have sold. Once your list ages, and they have bought much of your own products, it may become beneficial to come up with multiple affiliate programs that can help you maintain your income. Of course, consistently recruiting new subscribers is a great way to continue creating income, and creating new products for your existing customers is also a great way to maximize your income. Note From the Author As you should be able to tell quickly from reading this book, I am an avid article marketer and list builder, and I have done what many online have been unable to do…break past the $1000 per month barrier. My third month of consistently applying the techniques I have shared in this book I created $3840 in online income, my fourth month income was over $5500, and this month should be about $7000 (I am at $5600 today and it is the 20th of the month). Can you exactly duplicate my success? I guess the better question is, will you do what I have done? I work 50-60 hours per week, writing, testing, and building squeeze pages, writing articles, writing books, and communicating with those on my list and in my © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com How to Use Article Marketing to Build a Responsive and Profitable List 49 coaching program. I have written 900 + articles. I have written 9 ebooks, including this one. I am still writing multiple articles, and I am very aggressive with my list. So if you do what I have done, I believe you can duplicate my success. If you do more than I have done, I imagine you can do more. And if you do less….you get the point. My deepest and most sincere advice to you is to settle on something and do it. Test it. Improve it. Monitor your success. Know where your profits come from. Too many people online jump from get rich quick program to get rich quick program, losing money on each one. I do not believe there is a get rich quick program online that really works. Making money online is work, just like any other legal method of income. The one nice thing about online income, however, is that you can do something once, and it continues to make you money. For example, with articles, you write them once, submit them once, and you can get traffic for years. With this book, I am writing it once, but I should sell it hundreds or thousands of time….possibly for years to come. So internet marketing is hard work….but in my opinion, well worth it. Now, get out there and start writing articles! To your article marketing and list building success, Sean Mize © Secrets of Internet Success and Sean Mize www.secrets-of-internet-success.com
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