Archive for August, 2008
August 28th, 2008 by Melvin
There are many different resources out there that will teach you how to easily craft a 300 to 500 word press release and submit it to the various news sources. Even though creating a press release and submitting it is easy, trying to come up with compelling copy on your press releases that will capture your target audience isn’t. And we want to capture the attention of as many individuals in our target market as possible so that we can funnel them to our business and capture their information in the form of email leads. Remember, building an email list is our number one priority, and one of the ways we can do this is by creating press releases that are news worthy and compelling. If we don’t write a good press release that stirs our audience, our news will get lost in the never ending world of cyberspace. Therefore, I am going to give you 5 crucial tips for crafting a press release that will bring exposure to your business, and at the same time, build a targeted email list that will give you an income producing asset.
Tip#1 - Organize Your Thoughts
Having you ever started writing something, but failed to complete it because you eventually ran into writer’s block? This happens to a lot of people. What you need to do in order to overcome this, is compile your thoughts into an outline so that you can structure the flow of your press release. This outline will help you stick to a format when you are writing the press release. It will also help you write and submit your press release faster.
Tip#2 - Your News Must Be Worth Talking About
It is imperative that you make sure that your writing is worth talking about. If you have a topic that you feel is news worthy, then you can be assured that others just like yourself will feel the same way. Therefore, when it comes to your press release writing, you must be your worst critic. Read your press release as if you are an outside reader. Ask yourself if you would be interested in the content of your press release. If the answer is yes, then you can go ahead and submit your news to the world with the confidence that others will grab a liking to your press release as well.
Tip#3 - Let The Dead Bury The Dead
Stay away from writing about news that have already been announced. Nobody wants to read the same rehashed news over and over again. When a piece of news gets out there, the buzz and excitement from that news can sometimes die quickly. Therefore, you must be creative, and think outside the box when it comes to your press release writing. Sometimes, taking the controversial approach will create the type of news that will send so much traffic and even build a huge email list. For example, the “Death of Adsense” report by Scott Boulch of The List Virus, created so much buzz and controversy that the creator ended up building a large list from it. Controversy is what grabs a market’s attention, so go and write controversial stuff that people will start complaining about.
Tip #4 – Don’t Cram Too Much In
Make sure your press release is focused and that it doesn’t cover too much. If you put too much info and fuller in your press release, you can lose your reader entirely and even risk your chance of getting picked up by any major news service. Therefore, keep your press release on one topic and focus specifically on that topic. Remember, you only have about 500 words to make some news. So make sure you don’t waste time talking about everything in your news release. Focus on that one piece of information that is controversial and you’ll be fine.
Tip #5 – Include Your Links
Before you submit your press release, you need to make sure that you have a link to your website included within the press release. If you followed the last 4 tips above, and created the killer press release that is bound to send you a nice amount of traffic, then you need to double check to see if your hyperlink is included in the news release. It will defeat the purpose if you have so many readers picking up your press release with no way for them to go to your website to check out your information and eventually subscribe to be on your email list. Therefore, double check to make sure your link is included in the press release, and that it is working properly.
So I hope those 5 tips helped you out. If you make the effort to apply the 5 tips I just outlined, then you will surely be able to build a nice press release campaign that will give your business some good exposure and at the same time build a very responsive email list.
Tags: writing press release, press release writing, building email list, press release tips, sales copy, traffic generation, press releases, press release, list building, writing news release
August 25th, 2008 by Melvin
Pay per click marketing is getting more and more expensive as each day goes by. Because of this, a lot of internet marketers are walking away from the ppc model of traffic generation. No longer do they want to suffer the inevitable profit losses that are due to high click costs. So a lot of internet marketers as well as affiliate marketers are trying to find another option.
But to be honest with you, this is really coming at a strange time because right now, I am hearing of so many online marketers making up to six figures a month promoting affiliate offers on Google adwords.
And with the recent release of the Google Goggles, you would think that people will give Google adwords another chance. But I guess they are just sick and tired of Google.
Especially those who desire to build a targeted email list of subscribers. In adwords, it is almost impossible to get a decent amount of search traffic to an email opt in landing page due to the Slap rules.
And because of this, many list builders are looking for another alternative way to keep the traffic flowing to their website.
Even though I am a fan of generating free website traffic, I am really considering testing some other alternatives as well.
I just heard of a service called ExactSeek that allows advertisers to get top placements in their network of search engines for one low flat fee. This service will grant you 3 months of top placement for one keyword phrase in their search engines at a low cost of $12. Now if you are spending a dollar per click on adwords, then you need to consider using this service. If this service can send you over 12 targeted visitors within 3 months, then you pretty much got cheaper traffic than what you would’ve spent at Google.
According to a few sources, ExactSeek’s network of search engines siphons about 150 million searches a month….which is some outstanding news for us…due to the fact that this service may provide us a decent amount of traffic.
Therefore, I am going to run an experiment with this service to see what would happen. Since I am always focused on building the opt in list, I am going to test and see whether or not this service sends me high quality leads and subscribers. As we all know, the quality of the traffic means the world, and if this traffic sucks, then I will surely let you know.
I will give you my results in 3 months….so stay tuned.
Tags: buying traffic, ppc, google goggles, list building, traffic generation, buy traffic, pay per click, paid search, google adwords, google slap
August 12th, 2008 by Melvin
If you’ve been doing internet marketing for some time, then I am certain you have heard of the Web 2.0 property Squidoo or Squidoo Marketing. Squidoo marketing has become a popular topic among many marketers and many of us are discovering unique ways to use this tool to build our online businesses. Of course, since I specialize in the area of email list building, I will attempt to describe how you can use this new site to build your mailing list.
Squidoo marketing has been a part of the Web 2.0 category since 2005 and most internet marketers use it as a tool to funnel traffic to their landing pages. With squidoo, you are able to create a “lens”, which is a one page dynamic website, and build it around any topic or niche you are marketing in. A particular lens can pull information from various sources and place all of this content on one page for easy viewing and reading.
With that being said, one of the many good uses for Squidoo lenses is to capture interested prospects for your email list building. Squidoo, along with other web 2.0 properties, receive a ton of traffic and you can leverage these resources to direct visitors to your squeeze page. The key to having an effective squidoo lens is to provide as much quality and valuable information as you can. Since these pages are rated by other viewers, these ratings can influence how visitors behave on your lens. The more they like your lens, the more they’ll be willing to follow the links to your squeeze page.
Another major benefit to squidoo marketing is that you are able to establish yourself as a credible expert in the niche or field you are promoting. With a well developed lens, people will continue to flock back to your page for expert advice and solutions to their problems. Some individuals may even social bookmark your lens which can be another excellent way to gain further traffic. However, regardless of the reasons behind building your squidoo lens, you should always remember to make list building one of your final goals in every marketing effort.
Tags: build mailing list, social bookmarking, build email list, online business, email marketing, squidoo marketing, email list, email list building, website traffic, building traffic
August 2nd, 2008 by Melvin
People ask me all the time what I think is the fastest method for growing your email list. Well, if you’ve been following my newsletter for some time, you would know that I am an avid supporter of JV or Joint Venture Partnerships. A joint venture is an agreement between two parties to do some business together, that result in both parties being mutually benefited. In all honesty, this is the major method most internet marketers use to grow their business and email lists.
If you are looking to establish a JV partnership, I recommend looking at the top 20 websites, in the search engines, for the niche you are targeting and try to contact them. Find out if they have an email or customer list, and if they do, request to do an email ad swap. This is when you and the partner agree to promote each other’s businesses on their email lists.
But before you even do this, it is important to make sure that your joint venture partner offers a good quality product, so that you don’t ruin the responsiveness of your list by recommending a garbage product or service.
Making money with an email list is more about quality than quantity of subscribers.
So, in a nutshell, having a good joint venture or JV partner is all about making sure that you are able to bring immediate benefit to the other party. If you don’t have a fairly responsive email list, you will have a hard time securing any JV. You have to realize that your partners are running a business just like yours and if they don’t see the potential of earning some revenue from the partnership, then they won’t agree to do it. With this being said, it is important to build your email list to a decent level, about 500 subscribers, before you consider contacting a JV partner.
Visit List Building Videos for a FREE step by step video course on how to build Super responsive email list in a matter of days!
Tags: joint venture, jv partnership, email marketing, internet marketing, jv partner, build email list, how to build a list, list building
