Archive | September, 2018

When building an email list we tend to think the bigger the list, the better. “How can we increase the conversions on this squeeze page?” is an ultra-common question, and surprising, the WRONG question to be asking. What’s the right question? How about, “How do I build the most RESPONSIVE mailing list?”

Please note: I invite you to test what I’m about to tell you for yourself. In fact, I always invite you to test EVERYTHING I share with you, because that way you’ll know for a fact that it applies in your own unique situation.

And if what I’m about to share stretches the bounds of credibility, it’s all the more reason why you should test, test, test.

To get higher converting opt-ins, let’s first talk about what gets people to sign up for your mailing list in the first place. After that, I’ll reveal the biggest secret I know to getting a HIGH CONVERTING mailing list that will make you more money than many lists twice and three times the size.

What gets people to sign up for your mailing list?

1. Credibility and trust. Have you proven your credibility? Have you won their trust? More to the point, do they trust you, your information, your website, and your offer? If not then they’re probably going to leave without joining your list.

2. Continuity. Whatever brought them to the site – an email, an ad, an endorsement, etc. – must be what they find on the site. If they get an email saying there’s a free video on “Why men lie,” and they get to the website and they’re being offered an ebook on how to get more dates, then you’ve lost continuity, which causes confusion and casts doubt.

3. A great offer, or what we call a no-brainer. This needs to be something of high perceived value to them, something that feeds their need to know and offers them answers they’re looking for.

4. Simplicity. The easier it is to sign up for the freebie and join your list, the more likely they are to do so. Asking for only an email will get you a higher response than asking for email and first name. Every time you add another box to be filled out, you reduce the number of people who will sign-up.

Now here comes the surprising part. Again, test this on your own websites.

I’ve used squeeze pages for years to build mailing lists. I’ve also placed opt-in boxes on content rich websites.

Then I started paying attention to the results and noticed something funny, so I did some split testing.

Not believing the results, I did more split testing. And this is what I discovered:

Using a squeeze page will result in more people joining your list EVERY TIME, compared with skipping the squeeze page and sending your traffic straight to the content rich site with the opt-in box.

BUT – I make MORE money from the lists built from the content rich pages than from the squeeze pages.

That’s right – fewer sign-ups and more money. At first I didn’t understand this, because I just assumed that the squeeze page was capturing the same people the content rich pages captured, plus more.

But obviously it’s NOT the same people, as the split testing bears out. The people who make good customers are the ones who read some of your content, like what they’re reading and want more.

These are the people who will REMEMBER you when you email them. They’re also the ones you’ve already established some credibility with, and because of this they trust you and are more likely to buy from you.

Surprised? I know I was. If you want to test this yourself, be sure to use the same free offer in both cases. Then email both lists for at least two months, and see which one earns you more money.

There is so much misinformation out there on article marketing, I want to try to set the record straight. Granted, some of this misinformation has been repeated so many times that you may be incredulous by what I’m about to tell you. Then again, you might be one of the savvy ones who see through the nonsense of article spinners and the like.

First myth: If you post an article on your website and again on Ezine Articles (or any other article directory) then you’ve got to significantly rewrite it so that’s it’s not duplicate content, right?

Wrong.

So long as it is ORIGINAL content, as in it’s your own content (whether you wrote it or hired someone to write it) you can post the exact same article on your own website and again on the article directories. That’s because Ezine Articles doesn’t care if the article has already been published — as long as it is credited to the original author.

And as far as I know, this holds true for every article directory. If there’s a directory out there demanding unique content, then they don’t know what they’re doing. It would be like asking the Beatles for a unique version of Yellow Submarine before a radio station would play it. It’s just plain crazy.

Second myth: You should publish your article to the ezine directory first, and once it’s accepted then you should publish it to your own website.

Rubbish.

Why would you give your own original content to an article directory before your own website?

If you’re thinking it somehow helps with SEO, it doesn’t. If you’re thinking they won’t take it if it’s already on your website, see above.

You publish it to your own site first to make your site the authority site and to give your site the link juice.

Your main goal in publishing articles to article directories isn’t SEO and it isn’t getting traffic from the directory. It’s to get relevant authority sites to pick up and publish your content, thus giving you valuable backlinks and yes, targeted traffic.

Third myth: “But if other websites are picking up my article, isn’t that duplicate content?”

No. Before the Internet, when the Associated Press would write an article, that article could be picked up by hundreds of different newspapers, with each paper printing the exact same article and byline.

Enter the Internet. Just like the AP, news sites generate content that is then picked up by hundreds of different websites. Each website posts the same identical article with the same byline. It’s called syndication, and it’s perfectly fine. You will NOT be penalized in any way for it, and it can provide valuable backlinks and targeted traffic to your website.

How does Google perceive syndicated content? When a particular article appears on multiple websites, Google perceives it as being POPULAR and adds SEO weight to it, depending on how many instances it discovers. And if it finds your content on high PR and authority sites, it gives it even more weight.

So with those 3 myths officially debunked, stop being held hostage by fake news and get to work on getting your own article content published, circulated and syndicated online!

To double your revenue, we’re going to presuppose that you first of all have revenue from something you’re selling, be it your own products, resale rights products, affiliates, etc.

Let’s say right now you’re selling a $17 ebook and video course. You might be paying for your traffic or getting it in other ways, it doesn’t matter at this point.

Now watch carefully – this is a two step process. Mind you, you could simply do step 1 and ignore step 2 and it will increase your revenue. But we want to DOUBLE your revenue or better, so I highly recommend doing both.

Step 1: Build up your backend. That is, offer upsells and one time offers on all of your deals. This step alone can greatly increase your revenue, and this doesn’t have to be your own products. Go buy resell rights to products related to your $17 deal and offer those.

Now tweak your sales funnel to maximize that backend.

You want it producing as many sales as possible, and simple tweaks can sometimes result in startling increases in your conversion rates.

Step 2: Use some of your increased revenue to purchase more traffic. These days you probably want to avoid Google Ads because they’re heavily into slapping and banning, but there are plenty of other places you can advertise, such as Facebook, Bing, etc.

What’s that? You’ve never paid for advertising and don’t know where to start? Like anything new, there is a learning curve. Spend an hour a day on it and within a year you will be a bonafide expert.
Start out slowly, spending maybe $10 at a time, and work your way up. Remember, because you’ve added an entire backend to your sales system, you are already bringing in a lot more revenue than you were. By leveraging this money into yet MORE traffic, you can make more money still.

Frankly, if you’re already selling anything online consistently, focusing on these 2 simple things (improving your back-end upsell to provide more value for your customers, and expanding your advertising to reach more customers for your product that is already selling) is the only thing you need to focus on to double your income, or possibly more…