• Give Away A Free Product To Help Build Your List •
• Internet Marketing Strategy That Isn’t Hard To do •

Maybe you’ve heard of a “giveaway”; maybe you haven’t. But I’m here today to encourage you to think about utilizing this opportunity as yet another way to add names of interested prospects to your mailing list. Notice I said “interested”?

By this I mean, in a giveaway event, you are actually offering a FREE downloadable product of some sort. Could be an eBook, a software program, almost anything you can think of that you can offer for free. It can be something that you produced or wrote yourself, maybe a product that is rebrandable, etc.

In order for interested people to get your freebie, they must first opt-in to your email list. So, you end up with another person who just might want to purchase one of your offers you’ll be making via your EMAIL CAMPAIGN … and they end up with a free product that grabbed their attention. This is, in the best case a win-win for both of you.

Plus, the fact they were interested enough to want to download your freebie, hopefully increases the likelihood that they will have an interest in the niche targeted products you will be promoting in future mailings.

I highly suggest you get signed up and very comfortable using an autoresponder email service. The two top ones in the industry are GetResponse and Aweber  In order to be successful with an email campaign, and your list building, you’ve just got to have an autoresponder email service at your disposal.

Here’s A Real Example

Alright, since many of you reading this are brand new to the concept, I’ll share with you a real example of a giveaway that will soon be ready to be opened up on April 1st:

This giveaway, Firesale Magic Giveaway tells interested participants: “112 Marketers Are Giving Away Over $5936.00 Worth Of Ebooks, Software, And Scripts for FREE - With Absolutely No Catch!”

As an internet marketer who is VERY interested in building up a quality mailing list, I have joined this giveaway. I am a newcomer to giveaways. There are lots of them out there, and sifting through the ones worth getting involved with versus the ones that aren’t worth your time is not an easy task. In my case, I trust the advice of my marketing mentor to guide me to the ones I should consider becoming involved with.

So then, I can say to you that I feel comfortable in referring you to investigate this giveaway, if you are so inclined. To learn more and sign up (it’s all FREE remember), click here: Firesale Sign-Up  

Remember, it’s not yet open to the public to get the freebies, but it is open to those of us wanting to be included as a vendor.

I’ll be posting lots more on giveaways, my experiences, and such.  So please stay tuned!

• The Challenge: Get Qualified Names For Your Email Marketing Campaigns •
• The Answer: Free Giveaway Programs Help You Create Free Email Lists •

The cry goes out from all new internet marketers, “How do I build up a mailing list of quality prospects if my website or blog isn’t getting a lot of traffic yet? I’m brand new. What do I do?”

I can empathize, as I didn’t start my internet marketing career with thousands of targeted names to send out prospecting emails to. (Heck, I didn’t even have ten!  LOL)  Of course, hardly anybody does, so don’t feel bad at all if you are facing the daunting task of building up a list.

You can’t be a successful online marketer if you don’t have a marketing mailing list at your disposal. Plus, it’s got to be targeted to your niche. You cannot try to stab in the dark with your email campaign and expect to really be successful.

As example, if your niche is gardening, you certainly can’t expect to make very many sales if you send out a promotional email about the latest and greatest affiliate ID cloaking tool.  However, if you were trying to sell the greatest new eBook on how to make beautiful bird houses you’d certainly be in a position to have a much better chance to make lots of sales. 

So, as with most everything in internet marketing, the same applies to your email lists … targeted lists to targeted niches = greater options to make $$-sales!

So, Here’s A Helpful Idea To Create A Free Email List

Having a responsive mailing list is not only the fastest way to internet marketing success, but it is the most profitable way to use your time, no ifs ands or buts.

We’ve all heard it before, “The money is in the list!” OK … so how can you start to build your list? 

Even if you only have three names on your list, there is HOPE!  Here’s how:  you get involved with a free list building program.  There’s a lot of good ones out there, but I personally use List Bandit to help with my list building.

Why don’t you go and check them out … remember I told you it’s FREE. Yes, you will have to sign-up to get to the information, but this is PROFESSIONAL level stuff … this is not some flaky internet marketing fly-by-night program.

I’m going to be blogging a whole lot more about list building, because once you’re proficient at your SEO techniques to start getting those high rankings, you’ve won a small part of the internet marketing battle! Another big chuck of the battle is building up a list; enticing visitors to your site; getting those people to know you, trust you and then hopefully … start making purchases from you!

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. I’ll explain more about how to best utilize programs like List Bandit in future posts.

• Savvy Internet Marketers Depend Upon Autoresponders To Simplify Their Life •
• Don’t Be Like Me … I Balked At The Idea & Boy, Do I Regret Not Using One Sooner! •

Autoresponders are one of the most widely used promotional tools on the Internet.  If you’re not aware of how valuable a time saver and how incredible a client contact system autoresponders can be … then please read on.

Having an efficient means to follow up with your potential and/or existing customers is a MUST!  It amazes me how many people just “don’t get it” when it comes to utilizing the marketing power an email autoresponder system can give them.  But, err … I must admit that in the early stage of my internet marketing endeavors, well … I was “one of THOSE people”.  Yup, I didn’t think an autoresponder was too necessary. 

I thought they were really meant for the “big boys & girls” of internet marketing who had huge email lists and had products to keep sticking under people’s noses.  Really, I did. 

But Then One Day … The Lightbulb Came On  :-)

I published an eBook, The Hypertufa How-To Manual, in response to the scads of “can you answer my questions” emails coming in from one of my websites.  I’d been saving all those email addresses in my Microsoft Outlook program.  Well, I had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds stored there.   I was enthusiastic because I had a “mailing list” that would serve me well in the launch and marketing of my new eBook.  And for anything else I wanted to use that list for in the future.

Egads, was that assumption ever a mistake ….

I quickly learned that sending out pre-launch notices, ”special discount” emails and such was a big hassle.  I couldn’t send out one huge group email because my ISP couldn’t handle it, so I had to take extra time to break up each emailing into smaller “send to” groups. 

And when I received bounced emails, well if you use Outlook you’ll understand it when I say it isn’t necessarily a quick task to find the email that needs to be removed from your list, if you’ve got as many as I had. 

Plus, I soon found that I needed three different lists of emails for three slightly different mailings (called campaigns in most autoresponder systems).  So removing bounced addresses, updating, etc. became a chore.  

Yuck … I Was Wasting Time That I Could Have Been Spending In More Profitable Ways

Needless to say I decided it was time to get signed up with an email autoresponder system and move into a more efficient way of handling my growing internet business.  I did a lot of research and came down to two choices, Aweber or GetResponse.  I initially signed up with Aweber, due to the fact I knew a few people who were happy with it.

Well … I don’t claim to be the sharpest-tool-in-the-shed, but geez .. I’m also not the dumbest, either!  I didn’t see anything easy about getting it up and running, and I didn’t find their tutorials too helpful, so one day when my frustration level was at an all time high, I called and asked for my money back.  It was immediately refunded with no questions asked. 

Then I took a deep breath and plunked down my money with GetResponse.  Though still not a frolick through the woods as far as being extremely user friendly, it WAS easier to set-up and figure out compared to Aweber.  So, I give GetResponse two thumbs-up and recommend it to my SEO clients (who are very happy with it, BTW).

Let Me Highlight The Benefits of An Autoresponder Email System    

Savvy internet marketers keep sending out emails trying to entice you with their new products, or sending you their weekly newsletters, as examples.  They know that they need to keep their services or products IN FRONT of their contacts faces!

Did you know that it can take up to 7 times contacting someone before they purchase a product - it’s true!  There are so many people out there trying to make sales without doing something as simple as setting their marketing on auto-pilot.  Thank goodness I’m not one of those people anymore.  ;-)  And don’t you be one, either!

If Your Sales Are In A Slump, Do What All The ‘Gurus’ Do … Consistently Follow-Up With Your Potential Customers!  Keep Your Products or Services On Their Minds.  It’s Simple And It’s Effective!

So let me get down to telling you what you have to look forward to with an autoresponder system.  I will refer to what I am able to do through my GetResponse system (other systems may vary):

• Unlimited follow-ups
• Complete import and export features
• Send a broadcast email to your entire list all in one shot
• Attach files to any or all of your autoresponses
• Track your leads and responses
• Your choice of 19 different domains names to send from
• Send HTML-enhanced messages
• Your own “confirmation” screen
• Selective broadcasting
• Block unwanted email addresses
• Bounce-back management
• Full activity reports via email
• Free, unlimited technical support
• much, much more!

I believe GetResponse is a very affordable option to anyone’s autoresponder needs.

So what are you waiting for?  You owe it to yourself and your online business to at least take a look at what GetResponse can do for you.  And you can try it for FREE. I encourage you to check it out!  Why not?