Bootstrapper Notes

How to Build a List of Subscribers

If you are trying to build your own list, it can sometimes seem hard to actually get subscribers.  I was approached by someone this week, asking me to help them build their list - it was an interesting technique so I thought I would share it with you.

Basically this guy sent me an email in regards to my site that deals with dogs.  He said that he had a newsletter for dog owners and was approaching other people with products in the dog niche. 

He said instead of just promoting my site as a one shot deal, he wanted to put two emails into his autoresponder series "forever" so that all new members of his newsletter would receive the pitch for my product. 

What he ask in return was that I add two emails "to the end" of my series to promote his newsletter landing page.  I thought it was interesting that he asked to be added to the end of my series, because then he could capture a all of my list.

He said that over time I would benefit from the growth of his list, as his list will grow as other publishers like me pitch his newsletter.  He hopes to have 10,000 members by the end of the year.

I subscribed to his newsletter just to see what it was like.  It was good, and yes, he does pitch mostly ebooks to his list, along with plenty of free information.

I thought this was an interesting idea, but I have not decided if I want to participate yet.  He even game me one of the two emails that he would like me to use.  This guy is smart, but I just wonder how many others have decided to do this.

The biggest problem I see with it is that I am basically helping a competitor. 

Please share your thoughts on this idea!  I would love to hear what you would do.

Why you need your own list - Part One

I want to share two things that I have done this month that really reinforce the need to start growing your own list of subscribers, or start monetizing them.

Part One

I have a list of around 9,000 people that have dogs.  As you have probably heard, there is a big dog food scare hitting the country right now.  So I noticed that there is an ebook at Clickbank called "Dog Food Secrets" that discusses the dangers of commercial dog food.

I really don't hit this list with tons of sales pitches, I mostly send them information articles (see Part 2 of this series), and pitches to purchase my two dog related ebooks.

But yesterday I put together a broadcast email pitching this ebook and tying it into the current scare hitting the country right now.

Here are the stats right now from Aweber - just 24 hours after sending the email:
9,733 emails sent
159 (1.6%) undeliverable
1,719 (17.7%) opened (remember this probably does not include text based email)
992 (10.2%) clicked thru to the offer

I have had 7 conversions so far - just 24 hours later.  This one email generated an additional $222.95 in revenue for this month.  When you add this to the Adsense income that I generate every month (see part 2), you can see that this is a very healthy income stream.  As the list grows, so will my income. 

It is almost impossible to calculate the ROI of your advertising spend when you factor in all the ongoing income you will get every month for the life of the subscriber.

I only wish I had started building my lists much sooner!

Part 2 of this series I will discuss how I generate substantial Adsense income every month from my list - stay tuned.

Turnkey Ebook Site For Sale

I have decided to try and sell one of my ebook sites.  After talking with my accountant, I need some cash for taxes!  I have not marketed this site since last summer.  It did okay while I was marketing it, but I simply did not have time to tweak it for maximum ROI.

You can get all the details over at Site Point (direct link to auction)

 

Let me know if you have any questions! 

Email Marketers Forum

As you know I have had much success over the last 12 to 14 months building lists and selling ebooks.  One of things I have always struggled with is exactly what to do with my subscriber list. 

How do I market to them?
How often should I contact them?
What about spam complaints?
etc., etc., etc.....

Well, I have just joined a brand new forum where those of us that use a list building as a major part of business strategy can now get together and swap ideas.

It is just getting started, so there are not a ton of posts.  Why don't you help change this, and head on over to the Email Marketers Forum and start making some posts!

I will definitely be stopping by there on a regular basis.  I wish Mark success with this new site, I only wish I would have thought about this myself! :)

19pages.com - the tool for the master plan!

If you are an Adwords user, you have probably heard that quality score is playing a big role in the cost of your clicks these days.  One way to get around this is to have more of a site than just a landing page/squeeze page.

I found a cool tool that I plan on integrating into some future projects.  The tools is called "19 pages" and was developed by Mark Wielgus over at 45n5.com.  "19 Pages" is basically a totally free mini-site development system.  Write your articles, choose your template, and publish - very quick!  He figures that a mini-site consists of 19 pages, and would tend to agree with him.  You can pick it up for free over at http://www.19pages.com.

Here is how I plan on using this neat little piece of software in the near future using Adwords and Clickbank products.

Plan Version 1.0:

• Get 19 reprint articles pertaining to my niche or ebook that I am promoting.  Load them up into "19 pages", modify the template, and publish.
• Create my squeeze page using the same basic template as the site, and create a "terms", "privacy policy", and "contact us" page.  Link the squeeze page subtly to the "19 pages" site.
• Create the autoresponder sequence to pitch products to the subscribers, but also to send them to specific pages on the site increasing my Adsense revenue.

Plan Version 1.0b:  create unique content for the site - not sure if the quality score will see the reprint articles as duplicate content and grade the site down or now - time will tell!

The other thing I might do is to use the $7.00 Report method with this model.  For instance, once a user subscribes the "thank you" page will be a $7.00 report that I created for this niche.  What I might do is make sure that I am getting subscribers before I spend time creating the $7.00 report.

Maybe I will even share this as an example with all of my wonderful readers when I get it done - or a $7.00 report! :)

Working tonight!

Wow, I have been on complete vacation for a week now!  My kids are on spring break, and I took the week off from almost all internet activities.

Tonight I have been posting reprint articles to my blogs and scheduling emails for them thru my autoresponder over at Aweber.  I know have 20 days worth of emails and posts qued up to maximize my Adsense earnings!

I spent time getting ahead on these posts tonight, so that I would not be bogged down this week working on these details.  I really need to get my next product going, and start planning the launch.  I hope to have the product mostly completed by late next week, and get started on the launch.

I have been studying the Product Launch Formula, and I have a decent handle on the process.  I still need to really plan the launch to get the biggest bang for the buck. 

I need to start working on new niches to expand into.  My next post will talk about this....

Free Resource Report - Mike Filsaime Review

I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you all know about a new report Mike Filsaime, call the "Resource Report".  It is basically a list of all the tools and resources that Mike uses on a daily basis.

I picked up a couple of nuggets that I will be looking at for my next project.

You can pick it up here for free!  Get yours now.....

Purchased Product Launch Formula

Okay, I broke down and purchased Product Launch Formula.  I have been wanting to get it for months.

The main reason I did it is because I have two products I want to launch in the near future. 

The first of the products will be a nice big infoproduct that will be promoted to my first site I started Dec. 2005.  As of right now I have have 20,311 people on this list (includes customers and newsletter subscribers).  I plan on this product being either $47 or $67 for the ebook format.  I MIGHT make it a physical product and go up to $97 for this version - don't know yet.  I have been assemblying all the ebooks for this product over the last couple of weeks.

The other launch I hope to do is still in the very early stages, but it will be in the commercial real estate area.  As some of you know, I am a liscensed Architect, so I have a ton of experience and contacts in the real estate development circle.  I have started laying the ground work to put together a series of telephone interviews that I will record/transcibe and create a nice infoproduct out of it.  The first step here is to start building the list, which is what I am working on right now - building the lead capture page, etc.

I also might do some small launches to my dog list, but I am not sure what yet.

My package should arrive tomorrow, and then I will get busy studying!

New Squidoo Lens and other news

A couple of days ago I set up a lens to promote my new dog questions site over a Squidoo.  This was something I had never done before, and it is very interesting.  With just a couple of days of work, I am already in the top 50 in my category.  I have even had a couple of visitors come to my site thru the lens.

My articles that I posted on Ezinearticles are also bringing in a few visitors a day.  A few of the articles have been posted on sites, and have been indexed by Google as well - building up the back links!

The biggest news of all is that I currently have 24 pages indexed by Google, and traffic is starting to flow.  Googlebot is all over the site everday - which is a very good sign.

I have also found a list of RSS directories, and have started working my way thru the list submitting my feed.