First:  Build your list.

You need to have a list to maximize the make money online long term and to monetize your site.   Your list is specifically targeted to your market. When building a list target a market with customers that want to grow or learn.  Sometimes people are searching online and just want something quick.

When I shop at Amazon, it is because I am looking for something specific.  I want a particular book and I want it now.  I am not interested in the advertising Amazon sends me in emails to try and sell me a related item. That’s just me, I am sure their targeted marketing is part of their marketing plan. Their email marketing strategy must bring in money or Amazon wouldn’t continue the practice.  But what Amazon’s marketing strategy does do for me is to keep their name in front of me.  When I read a book recommendation online, what do I do, I click over to Amazon, place an order, go back to my work, and expect the book to arrive in a few days. 

I am interested in internet marketing and I have joined many, many lists over the years.  But I only read two of lists I have joined on a consistent basis. The only two newsletters I still read are by two marketers I perceive are trying to add value to my life.  Translated they give me more helpful information than others and every email is not trying to get me to buy their latest affiliate product.  Oh yes, they offer me products and opportunities, some I buy, some I don’t buy.  I don’t mind them trying to sell me on something because they have given me enough value that they have earned my trust. That trust is then turned into profit.

Conventional Wisdom -  (while I don’t always agree to conventional wisdom this is what is being taught)

1.  Capture email addresses. The place to place a offer for people to opt in to your email address is above the fold.  Above the fold is the top section of your web page so people don’t have scroll down. 

2. Use a squeeze page to capture emails.  A squeeze page means you craft an offer for your customer, an example may be a free course, but before your visitor can download the free course, you require their email address.

(The reason convential wisdom doesn’t always work).  When I come across a squeeze page I usually give a junk email address. I reserve a junk email address for any situations where I am squeezed to give an email address.  The exception to using a junk email address is the situation where I have purchase a product, I will use a main email address that I check daily.  I want to make sure I get the receipt.

3. Perfecting the bribe on your squeeze page.  Use an emotional trigger that will induce emotions that influence people to take a specific action.  The emotional trigger we see all the time is fear of loss.  The product or page we are looking at says this is only available for a limited time, we may even see a counter counting down.  We know we must act now to avoid the fear of having to pay a higher price later. 

4. Give a reason to opt in. A reason it something you trade like a video, a report, a course, ebook, or something of value that encourages a visitor to opt in. Videos are perceived as a higher value.  Don’t ask for too much information.  Studies have shown the greatest response comes by asking for just an email address.  The second highest response comes from asking for just two pieces of info, name and email address. Asking for more information decreases your response. 

5. Confirm the opt in.  Aweber is the most popular list software used on the web.  When you set up your list, you choose to have your visitors confirm their request for your emails.  When a person has to take an action and click on a validation link, it shows they are choosing to accept your email.   This completes the opt in process. 

6. Promise to kee your customer’s emails private.  I always moved when someone says, "I hate spam too, I will never rent or share your email with anyone period."

One of the reasons I have a Market Samurai ad on the right sidebar of this blog is they have perfected the opt in offer.   When you give them your name and email address Market Samurai in return gives you free access to their software for a limited time, valued at $149.00.  They also give you 4 how to videos.  Once you get their software they send you emails to assist you and challenge you to buy their software.  If you want to see how effective they are try giving your email address and taking advantage of their free offer.

For more information on targeted internet marketing

Targeted Internet Marketing

 Why does one internet marketer fail and another internet marketer become successful? 

Eugene Ware a marketing expert from Noble Samurai sates success is decided before you build your first page.  The foundation of an online business is research. The two key factors of success are the market you choose and  the keywords you target.

First Key ingredient - Relevance of the keywords 

You pick a niche to target. Then we ask, what are the words that your niche is searching for?  We then design our content to the needs of our customers. Targeted internet traffic is the key to sales. We target keywords relevant to our customers search phrases.  And relevant to our website, reports,information, and the specific products we offer. Relevance simply means we zero in on the customer’s interests.

Second Key ingredient - Find keywords that generate sufficient traffic

Ninety percent of all keywords have insufficient traffic to generate sales.  Eighty percent of all traffic generated from a search comes from the fist 10 sites listed on the results page. The goal is to optimize articles to compete on the first page of the results. Any site securing a link in the top ten of  Google has put effort and work into the research process.  Search engine optimization (seo) starts when your know your customers. You can’t just choose unique words because they appeal to you, we are targeting words that our customers will click through to visit our site.

Third Key ingredient - Study your competition

We need to know who we are competing with  the keywrds we have chosen.  You don’t want to compete against the strongest competitors. I find Market Samurai  to be one of the best tools to teach how to find targeted keywords and to study  the strength of the competition. One major reason people fail online is they jump into an affiliate market without examining the competition.

Fourth  Key ingredient – Measure the Profitability of a keyword. 

If you aren’t using a tool like Market Samurai you can go to Google Adwords and check out the profitability of  keywords.  Google puts a value on them.  We can use Google’s valuation to find the most profitable words.  Internet strategy targets profitable words that result in increased traffic and sales.   I love a quote from the home page of market Samurai, " Stop doing internet marketing the hard way! Target profitable niche markets with pinpoint accuracy." We are searching for words that are proven to produce sales.

In Summary targeted internet marketing strategies are:

1. Finding words relevant to the targeted niche 
2.  Make sure those words generate sufficient traffic
3. Choose the words that have an acceptable level of competition
4. Target the words that have a high profit potential.

Study the market to help customers. Build your business the right way. When you provide services that enrich your customer’s lives - then they will give you their trust.  Be one of the online companies that demonstrates you are interested in giving value to your clientele.

Excellent service creates customers that will gladly give you their email address for your future marketing campaign.

A. Enabling you to build a list of buying customers
B. Target potential buyers that will read the newsletters you send
C. Build prospects that allow you to contact them  – instead of relegating your email to their spam folder where most advertising copy belongs
D. And when you call them to take action, their trust will allow them to buy the product offered

Market Samurai one of the most effective tools on the web. When you visit their site, check out their dojo training, it is the best marketing course I have found online. An important lesson to observe at their site-  they understand how to create value for those visiting their site.  They have the right to charge hundreds of dollars just for the training on their site, but they give their internet marketing courses away free of charge. If you want to check out their software Market Samurai will give your the rights to use it for 14 days, their download form only requires a first name and email address.  That’s because it is good business to build relationships with visitors and that turns visitors into buyers.

For more information on targeted opt in email

Internet Marketing Experts and the Path to Greatness

If you are looking for someone who promises you to make millions while spending only 30 minutes a day in your spare time, look somewhere else. If you want to achieve greatness in your field, you will need to take the same road experts like Warren Buffet took. Buffet is famous for his discipline and spending hours upon hours of studying financial statements.

This web site is my journeyas we search out true internet marketing experts, individuals that have developed a high degree of skill and knowledge in the art of producing online profits. Experts like Eugene Ware of Noble Samurai, he was once part of a group that made $570,000 online in 37 minutes and another promotion made $960,000 in just 3 weeks.

‘What it takes to be great’, an article that was a result of a number of studies asking the question, Are some people just born to be great in their field, or is it something else, some knowledge that average folks can use to become great. There’s good news and bad news, the good news is excelling is not a consequence of innate gifts.

The good/bad news is the key to greatness is an enormous amount of hard work. I once talked to a professional musician who played in major symphonies in the United States. His perspective on becoming a professional musician was – it takes about eight hours of practice a day for the first years but then you can cut back to practicing six hours a day.

The article used an example of a group of violinists, the top tier of violinists had averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice (more about deliberate practive in a moment.) the second tier of violinists averaged 7,500 hours of practice, and the bottom tier averaged 5,000 hours.

Deliberate practice – not just any kind of practice. Most people when learning something new learn very quickly at first, then the learning pace slows down eventually stops.; Rare are the people that continually improve in a skill over the course of their life.

An average golfer might hit a couple buckets of balls using every club in his bag but someone who is deliberate in their practice will hit 300 balls with a 9 iron and not quit until he gets 10 shots within 6 feet of the pin. Some studies sited the ten-year-rule, if you want to become world class in your field it will take about 10 years of intense work.

I spent (or I should say my employer invested in me) approximately $40,000 obtaining a degree in Business with a concentration in E-commerce. The reason I chose my degree – it was the only degree that offered a concentration in E-commerce. I wanted to learn everything I could about marketing online. I spent 6 years of my life pursuing that degree while I working full time. I even graduated summa cum laude (that is a fancy word that had to be explained to me, it means I got pretty good grades).

The problem was after 6 years I had become like the majority of my teachers. I had become someone who could put together masterful business plans, parrot marketing and business concepts, but had no idea how to make a living online. Yes, I had learned allot, some awesome networking classes and a good foundation to read code, I may have been on the road, but it was the long way to becoming proficient online.

The question isn’t whether you were born with a certain aptitude for internet marketing. The question is how bad do you want it? Do you want to become an internet marketing expert bad enough to become deliberate in your pursuit of your dream.