You now have a bonus!

It doesn’t matter whether you have created just a simple tip sheet or a full 5 week course. You now have, in effect, a mini-product of your own!

Concerned at all about adding affiliate links to Squidoo lenses, Hubs, Ezines, Forum posts or anything for that matter?

Well, now you don’t have to be! Just point people back to your site or blog and get them to opt-in to your list via your bonus offer!

Likewise, with Social Bookmarking sites like Twitter and Facebook or Digg, Propeller and Reddit.

No more slaps, for spammy content!

I was going to write a little section about each of these but I now don’t see the point as I’m sure you get it already.

Whenever you submit to any of the free method sites just link back to your own site mentioning your offer.

“Free guide on ___________________”

I’ll add some more examples in the finished guide but I’m sure you get my drift.

A couple of other traffic generating methods are worth mentioning though, before we wrap up.

PPC marketing. This could possibly considered an ‘advanced’ technique in that you would be paying for traffic directed towards a free offer (your bonus) in order to get people to sign up to your list. You would then hope to make sales off the ‘back-end’. It’s not technically difficult, if you understand adwords, but it obviously carries risk. However if you have already tested that your list converts to buyers, the extra traffic a PPC campaign will bring could well be worth it in the long run.

List Swapping. This marketing technique is unique to list builders. And note, I am NOT talking about selling your list on to spammers. Rather if you come across something, a guide or a tool, that your list would like… you could send them over to the owner’s site where they opt in to their list to get it.

If you can arrange for this to reciprocal, all the better!

OK, I may do another post on some odds and ends and maybe some more tips. But it’s likely I’ll leave those for the actual guide.

If you have any comment or questions on this series of ‘List Building posts, please feel free to add them.

I’ll aim to get the completed guide available within the next couple of weeks and I’ll let you know how you can grab it.

In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed the series, got something out of it but above all that you have taken action!

Broadcast messages are ‘one off’ messages. They are not part of your mail message follow-up series and can be sent out at any time to all or just part of your list.

That last point is important. It may not always be appropriate to send out details of a new product offering or a new bonus you are offering to everyone on your list, particularly those who have just signed up.

In that case if you are using Aweber or Getresponse, you can split your list into a subset and only send out a Broadcast message to part of your list.

(I’ll cover the actual mechanics of doing this in the finished guide itself.)

It is much easier to sell something to your list via a Broadcast message but that is not the only reason for using them.

Remember, first though, you need to create a good relationship with your list via your mail message follow-up series. They are then more likely to open your Broadcast messages.

You can use Broadcast messages to:-

• Let your list know about a special offer. We did this successfully with the recent 7 Day $1 Trial of Wealthy Affiliate
• Important News. We let our list know when a new ANC niche report or bonus is available.
• A cool tool you have found. We did this recently with Google’s Wonder Wheel thing.
• Often you will send out a broadcast about something and then add it to your follow-up series. We did this with Potpie’s Squidoo 101 guide.

You can be more ‘salesy’ in your broadcast messages provided you are adding value. Telling people about a short-term special offer isn’t a hard sell at all IMO. You are doing people a favour. I mean, what would they think if you didn’t tell them about it!

Broadcast messages also confirm to your list that you are ‘on the ball’. That you are the source to turn to for the latest news, gossip and offers.

Don’t overdo them… but it really does depend on how ‘happening’ your niche is. If hot topics and offers arise regularly don’t be shy to tell your list about them. They’ll thank you for it!

A good tip with Broadcast messages is to split test your headlines. Which simply means that you send out the same mail to your list but half of them get one headline and the other half a different one. In this way you’ll develop a good understanding of what works best for your list.

Do Broadcast messages work? You bet! I’ve given you some examples above of when we have, successfully used Broadcast messages but you need to work out the right balance and frequency of these messages for your own niches.

In the next post we’ll look at how you can drive traffic to get people on to your list…

Let’s start with your first mail. This one should be fairly easy. A simple welcome message that includes your bonus (the one you created to get people to opt-in in the first place) and a thank you for signing up. And that’s it! I wouldn’t put any links or sales pitches in this mail at all.

The only thing I would do is put a signature link under your mail at the end like this:-

Dave B / Thad
AffiliateNicheClub

This gives them an easy option to re-visit your site if they wish.

(Note: I’ll cover more ground in the finished guide on how to structure double opt-in confirmation messages and what you can do with your ‘Thank You page’ after they opt-in.)

Now it gets more interesting…

One crucial thing to remember is that it’s all very well having a list, if they actually open your mails!

There are a number of key points to take into account here:-

You must add value. The content of your mail message series must obviously match what you have a promised. So, if it’s a five part course you give them that, if it’s a weekly newsletter or a series of tips you give them that. Provide your list with free valuable content and don’t try and oversell to your list. If you consistently add value your list will continue to open your mails.

Don’t spam! This may seem obvious but you may not always be aware that you are even doing it. You see the definition of Spam varies from person to person. We’re not going to debate that here but one thing you can do is make sure that your customer’s ‘email clients’ don’t think you are spamming them. Yes, that’s right. All the major email clients like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Windows Mail have their own spam filters. They look out for certain words and phrases and the presence of links in all incoming mails.

If you are using a good autoresponder like Aweber or Getresponse you can check each mail, as you set it up, for it’s ‘spam score’ and make adjustments accordingly. This is a very important test, don’t miss it out… otherwise you will have people on your list who simply never receive your mails.

A tip here is to add a brief note right under your opt-in form like this:-

(NOTE: Please add support@affiliatenicheclub.com to your ‘Contacts’ or ‘White List’ so you have no issues receiving the report.)

Don’t bombard your list with mails. Some of the ‘Gurus’ will tell you to send a mail out every single day. Unless you have promised a free 7 day course I would not do this. It does depend on the niche and what you are offering but I would think once a week would be a good rough guide. Remember, you may well be sending out the odd one-off broadcast message as well so don’t overdo it. At the same time, if you send out mails too infrequently your list will simply forget about you. Don’t let a list go cold!

Don’t hard sell to your list. I know it is incredibly tempting to stuff your mails with product links but this really is counter productive. People will get turned off and unsubscribe. For your mail message series just provide free useful information. Now, that information might be about a product that has helped you along the way. Fine… but pitch it like that… not ‘go here and buy this now!’

Again, it depends on the niche but try and and send at least 3 or 4 ‘informative’ type mails to every one ‘salesy’ mail.

Grab ‘em by the headlines! You should think of a mail subject head line in much the same way as you would an article title or even the first line of an adwords ad. Your subject headline must grab people’s attention and make them want to open the mail. You can use call to action phrases like ‘Grab this’ or ‘Sign Up’ . Using words like ‘bonus’, ‘limited’ or ‘free’ can work well. As can questions or implications of success.

OK, we’ve covered the basics of setting up your mail message series. That’s the regular series of mails that will go out on autopilot to everyone that signs up to your list. In the next post we’ll look at the unique case of sending out one-off ‘broadcast’ messages as these can, and should be, handled differently…

It is crucial for you to offer your potential customers an incentive for them to opt-in to your list. This is taken as read in the IM niche and IMers are almost immune to it. Nonetheless you pretty much have to do it.

But it is equally important in any niche. People love to receive freebies! So, in exchange for their email you need to offer something in return. Not only must you offer something but you must be able to deliver it and it must be of good quality. Something they can’t easily get elsewhere.

We’ll talk about the types of things you can offer in a moment. But let’s first stress the importance of delivery. This is not an issue if you are using a good autoresponder service like Aweber or Getresponse. If you are offering a short guide or just a list of tips these should be included in your first mail response after opt-in.

If you try and manage your list manually you are bound to fail at some point and if you fall at the first hurdle you are out of the race. Another reason to avoid the free autoresponders.

So, let’s have a look at some of the things you can offer and how you go about obtaining or preparing them.

During your initial niche research you should actively seek out things that people are looking for in addition (or complimentary) to your product or service offering. This could be just answering some basic questions, a top 10 list of tips, a short additional help guide, some ways you have found a product useful, etc.

In other words, look for something that can add value to your product or service offering.

These series of posts are an example. I’m going to wrap them up into a free bonus guide for our ANC list. I could just offer it as bonus for people who join ANC but I want everyone to have it because I think it’s that important.

Another obvious example if our Free Bonus Niche Report that people can get just by signing up via the form on this blog. This is in effect a sample of what’s on offer to people who join ANC.

Make sure that wherever you place your opt-in form you have compelling wording around the form that clearly states what people are getting when they opt-in. Again, look at the example on this blog.

So, what things can you offer?

Merchant bonuses. These can be the easiest of all. Perhaps you can offer discount coupons or the merchant themselves may offer affiliates bonus guides, etc. The drawback with these is that other affiliates will be able to offer the same thing.

Bonus Guides. These don’t have to be large… just 3 -5 pages. Get OpenOffice (it’s free) and you can easily turn your mini-guide into a PDF.

Bonus Courses. If you can produce a slightly large bonus guide, why not break it down into smaller chunks and offer it as a 7 day or 5 week course. ‘The Big Cat Strategy‘ (available free on the right) was originally delivered in modules over 5 weeks. This has the advantage of also writing your first messages for you and will keep people on your list as they await the next lesson.

Free Chapters. This is more applicable to people with their own products. Simply send out the first chapter of your ebook. But as affiliates it could be possible to approach the merchant and ask them to let you do so. They may already do this and be willing to let you do the same.

Tip Lists. Probably the simplest to do. Just come up with a list of tips and include those in your first mail.

Newsletters. People love to be kept up to date with the latest trends and happenings in their niche. So, if you are really involved and interested yourself, this can be a great way to go.

Free Software. People love tools and gizmos, so if you can find a free one applicable to your niche, offer it. Even if you just provide a list of places people can get stuff from, you are adding value.

Advice / Interaction. Be careful with this one but it can be really powerful. You could offer to give ongoing advice and support in your niche. Whilst this might sound daunting, you could potentially gain a real insight into exactly what your customers needs and desires are.

Your niche research should provide the answer to the best thing to offer and where possible, in forums, etc just ask people what they want. Once you have even a very small list you can ask them also.

Don’t be daunted by creating a bonus. You could outsource the creation of a mini-guide or buy some PLR articles but initially just have a go yourself.

Remember, once you have created a bonus you can use it in a multitude of different ways that will more than pay back the effort you put in to create it.

In the next post we’ll look at your ongoing mail series, its content and frequency…