Arsenal

Build Your List, Build Your Business

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Welcome to part 2 of my exclusive money making series.

Today I want to start talking about my favorite subject… List building!

There  is is actually a lot more to this subject than I can cram into one blog posting but i’ll try and go over the basics to start with as much as I can.

If you are reading this chances are you have already tried promoting some kind of online business or affiliate program.  I am guessing you probably figured out  how to get some traffic but for some reason you aren’t getting many sales… if any.

Not as easy as you expected, is it?

Well, you are not alone.  Even people who are promoting free affiliate sites can have a hard time getting sign-ups.  That’s because most people don’t know them or trust them enough to join.

Trust is very important!

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:

“All things being equal people would rather buy from someone they know and trust.  All things NOT being equal… people would STILL rather buy from someone they know and trust”.

So how do you build trust?  Well, it does take some time…  and it usually takes a lot longer than the time it takes for someone to read your site.

In fact, here’s what usually happens.  Someone visits your website, they read your offer and think “sounds interesting, but i’m not ready to commit to this right now”. So what happens?  They leave and probably never come back.  The time and energy you spent getting them to your site was wasted.

That’s where the autoresponder comes in.

Your autoresponder is the single most important weapon in any Internet
marketer’s arsenal because it let’s you follow-up with your prospect days
and even months after they leave your website site.

The way it works is that you offer something of value to the people coming to your website in exchange for their email address.  Your offer can be a free ebook, a newsletter, software, or almost any other “digital” product.

When your visitor fills out the form on your site their info is sent to your autoresponder which then begins sending out a series of pre-written emails to them.  These emails can be used to tell your subscribers more about yourself and your business while providing them with more free information that they can use which compliments the free product you first sent them.

Hopefully over time your readers will get to know you and even look forward to the emails they receive from you.  Once they begin to trust you it makes it much easier for you to recommend paid products and services that you can earn commissions from later on.

Another great thing about autoresponders is that once you have your emails series setup you can practically set it and forget it.  If you wanted to you could set it to send an email a week for the next 5 years and it would do it for you.

Compare that to sending someone directly to your website where you only have one chance to get a sale.

Unfortunately good autoresponders are not free.  That’s one of the few things that you are just going to have to bite the bullet on if you want to succeed in this business.  Expect to pay about $20/month for a good autoresponder.

I recommend using either Aweber or TrafficWave.  Aweber is considered to be one of the best and includes a lot of advanced features.  TrafficWave is a more affordable alternative that will definitely get the job done.

Both autoresponders offer 30-day trial memberships so there is no reason not to try them both and decide which one you like the most.

Ok, I think that’s enough one day.

I’ll be posting my JV giveaway events listing tomorrow and Ryan Hogan is about to launch a new product so look for my next post in this series early next week.

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Taking the Plunge with Traffic Wave

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I’ve said many times before that a professional autoresponder is one of the most powerful weapons in any successful Internet marketer’s arsenal. Over the past few years Aweber has become accepted as the king of autoresponders based on their features and more importantly their excellent delivery rate. Until now Aweber was the only autoresponder I would personally recommend but it looks like now I will be making the switch to Traffic Wave.

I actually joined Traffic Wave once about 6 years ago. At the time I think it was an FFA site with an autoresponder feature and some kind of income opportunity that I didn’t really understand. I joined because I thought I could make money from it and of course I didn’t so I quit.

Over the years I have seen various programs pushing Traffic Wave as a way to make money.  Because of this I always assumed that’s what it was… an income opportunity with an autoresponder tacked on to make it appear legit. I even expressed this opinion at NMF a few months ago and was surprised when the owner of Traffic Wave, Brian Rooney, showed up to dispel this myth and prove that Traffic Wave is a real autoresponder with delivery rates that could compete with the best autoresponders out there.

I kinda forgot about it until a few weeks ago when Jerry Reeder and I got into a discussion about Aweber’s new form builder and the possibility of switching to Traffic Wave to offer a simpler solution for our readers. When Jon Olson decided to make the switch to Traffic Wave live on TrafficExchangeLive last week we both took the plunge with him.

I’ve spent the last few days playing with Traffic Wave and I am happy to say that it has improved from where it was 6 years ago.  Improved a lot!  Traffic Wave is the real deal.  From what I can see Traffic Wave offers all the features as Aweber along with a very accessible owner who understands the needs of Internet marketers like myself.

The price is a big factor too.  When I joined Aweber I must have locked in a monthly subscription price which is roughly the same as Traffic Wave.  At some point Aweber changed their pricing based on the size of your list.  I guess as a long-time member I was exempt from the price change because based on the size of my list I should be paying an extra $50/month at Aweber.  Traffic Wave on the other hand has a flat monthly fee no matter how big your list gets.

What makes my decision to switch to Traffic Wave really interesting is that Traffic Wave is also an mlm complete with a forced matrix and fast track bonuses.  A few years ago I stated that I was done promoting these kinds of programs because instead of trying to sell good products you always end up pushing the opportunity.  When people fail to make money with the opportunity they quit and the whole thing falls apart.

Traffic Wave on the other hand is a real competitive autoresponder service that I am happy to use and recommend with or without the income opportunity.  The fact that I can make a lot more money with it is just an added bonus.

I don’t personally have any problems with Aweber.  I still think it’s a great autoresponder.  But when it comes time to recommend an autoresponder based on price and features I will have to go with Traffic Wave now.

I haven’t started promoting Traffic Wave yet.  I’ll probably start by updating the links in some of my ebooks and adding it my downline builders.  Once I get a few referrals then i’ll probably start pushing it a little harder.

If you have been on the fence about getting an autoresponder now would be a good time to join Traffic Wave.  I can’t promise that you will make thousands of dollars a month just from being in my downline but if you choose to use Traffic Wave to build your list you can feel confident that you are getting a professional autoresponder service that will become the backbone of your business for years to come.

Sign up now to get a free 30-day trial.

Click here to visit Traffic Wave