An Easy Plan For Setting Up and Adding A List To Your Website
by: M. Johnson
Everyone is always debating adding a mailing list or not to a site. Like anything there are two sides to the argument. Those who use them and make money with them. Or those who think it is just too much work and too expensive.
First off, a mailing list is great because you are recycling your traffic. You get people to come back and read more of your stuff time after time. You aren’t stuck in the getting traffic mode. Without a list, you need to always work on new traffic. First time visitors. They visit and they are gone never to find your website again.
An example:
May 2010- your efforts to get traffic get you 1000 visitors – 5% may even bookmark your site. 50 potential return visitors(but how often do you return to a bookmarked site? I have 5000 and I rarely return)
June 2010- your SE/Advertising efforts get you 1200 visitors – maybe 70 bookmark you
July 2010-SEO/Advertising gets you another 1200 visitors – maybe 100 bookmark you So far in 3 months you have slow growth in visitors and about 200 bookmarked(potential returners)
Now lets look at using a list on your site.
May 2010- SEO/Advertising 1000 visitors 50 bookmarks PLUS 10% opt in to get your free guide = 100 subscribers+50 bookmarks thats 100 people you can get in touch with at anytime and 50 bookmarks(potentials).
June 2010- Seo/Adverts get you 1200 visitors. Thats 70 bookmarks + 120 new subscribers = 190 people
July 2010- Seo/Adverts get you 1200 visitors. Thats 70 more bookmarks + 120 new subscribers = 190 people
Do you see the value of a list. You don’t have to advertise to reach these 480 people anymore, they are on your list. You are recycling your traffic from months ago. And it is almost free. Autoresponders are cheap for what they provide.
Don’t you think if you sent something good to these people, they would check it out? They trust you enough to let you email them. Now if you just send them promos, they will quickly unsubscribe so you have to help them out with lots of free advice and tips. But you can always have a short promo at the end of the email.
You can start talking about a common problem. Offering your take and what you do. And showing them something that solves that problem.
In a year, your list can grow to thousands of targeted individuals who ARE INTERESTED IN YOUR TOPIC.
Add a ONE TIME OFFER after the opt-in and now you can have affiliates send traffic to you as well!
Still not interested in adding a mailing list to your website? Just don’t care about return visitors? It looks like a lot of work?
Building a new opt in list is very easy to do. Probably take you one day to get one up and running.
I know what you are thinking. I can setup the list and opt in box but what in the world would I write all the time?
This is simple if you make it simple.
Building an opt in list Easy:
1. Get an autoresponder – I use aweber but listwire.com is free. Don’t worry about the price, we are talking about $19 a month until you get a big list. And a big list will make you more than that over time. Way more.
2. Look at your niche and find something you could offer as bait to get the opt in. A simple report or two that are unique(your own ideas) Don’t waste time with junky resale rights or PLR that has been out a long time. People will see that you are just passing off others books and ideas. (not good for trust or looking like you know what you are talking about)
Just write a couple 10 page reports of your own based on the most frequently asked questions you see in any niche forum or even on Yahoo Answers. Make sure they answer peoples questions with good tips and advice.
OK, you have an autoresponder and your free reports.
Now you need to get or make some great looking cover images. Get someone on the warriorforum to make them for $20.
3. Setup your autoresponder campaign.
a. build a simple opt in form to add to your website. “FREE GIFTS – Get these 2 reports that answer______________ and _____________. Just for my newsletter subscribers. No obligation, Unsubscribe at anytime.”
include a link to more information(you will add a page just for promoting the optin.)
b. set up your confirmation email and welcome email
Keep it simple and tell them a bit about you and what you will be providing subscribers. Tease them with upcoming information and special reports and videos every week for free.
c. Upload your reports and the graphic covers to your server and then add the images to your optin form.
d. grab your opt in form code and add to your site above the fold. Either left or right sidebar or front and center.
e. Add a salespage for your free offer. Make this a short one page salesletter with lots of benefits and your cover graphics. The free reports are what people are signing up for.
No one really wants a newsletter or being on a list. They want that freebie if you sell it well. Even a freebie needs to be sold if you want a great opt in rate.
Ok! It’s all set up.
Now you just need to add some content to your autoresponder.
No need to write 50 emails now. Relax. Get it setup and send traffic to it until you start getting subscribers.
What to add as content? People freak out about writing a weekly newsletter but it is easy. This doesn’t have to be a huge 10 page guide. It can be as simple as a short what you have been doing, what you learned last week, stories about your niche. Cool things you found.
Still no ideas?
How about linking directly to your new posts? Linking to new videos you found? Linking to great bookmarks you bookmarked last week. You are the expert on your niche so share things you find interesting and useful. You are writing good articles and posts, aren’t you?
Share them with your subscribers. They aren’t coming back and visiting every day so you are updating them with your best pages for them to visit.
Short paragraph about what it is and how you found it. Link to it. And don’t be afraid to make some of the things you link to affiliate link products.
One of the great things about an autoresponder is that aweber will track the links for you and it hides your affiliate link automatically. Just don’t make everything an affiliate product.
See how easy this is. Your newsletter is simply new pages on your website or new articles you have on the article directories. Tips and cool things you found last week. Tools and products that will help them.
As long as everything is directly related and helpful, your subscribers are going to like to read it each week.
Now, you can send all the information in the email (keeps it more private, nobody can scrape and steal your best ideas)
Or you can keep the email short and just link to your latest newsletter page on your site. Make a newsletter archives page on your site and add the new edition every week.( will get SE traffic )
This is really simple to do and doesn’t take much time at all.
And now you are building a list. Which is an asset you can actually sell. The bigger it gets and the longer a subscriber stays, the more opportunity you have to make money with recycled traffic.
With a good sized list, when you want to promote a new offer you simply write an email and click send.
No building a new site, blog farm, getting backlinks or writing 100 articles. The list gives you direct access to consumers!
So here are the steps again:
1. Get autoresponder service
2. Get Two or more free reports written
3. Get graphic covers made
4. Set up your autoresponder campaign
(optional- use the custom thankyou page link when setting up your campaign options and send them to a related affiliate link right away)
5. Upload your reports and graphics
6. Write a quick salespage for your optin list
7. Write a confirmation and welcome email
8. Get autoreponder opt in form code and add to site and salespage
9. Test autoresponder to make sure it works
10. Start promoting your opt in page
That’s it your list is setup and ready for business. Watch for signups and the conversion rate. Test different things on your opt in box and opt in salespage to improve conversions. Different headlines, submit buttons, benefits, colors and even different cover images. Only change one thing at a time.
What about content?
Once a week write a quick one or two page newsletter with cool things you found, new posts/pages on your site, new articles of yours or ones you find interesting, new videos you want them to watch…etc. anything useful.
Mix and match, a promo this week, no promo the next week. Always good content. If you send a promo, send them tips on using it and why it helps so much. Only recommend good stuff.
Don’t ruin your reputation. Don’t copy and paste affiliate emails (rewrite them in your own words) You aren’t a guru yet and don’t have a constant stream of thousands of new subscribers 
Hope this article helps you get your own lists started. At the very least get that opt in form on your site. See how many subscribe and then start adding content.
One key is to remember they are people like you with needs and wants. Deliver Value and people will stick with you. Ask them for feedback.
