Free Blogging Course

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I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

5 easy ways to build your list with ListHero

Here are the 5 best and easiest ways of boosting your subscriptions and sign-ups with ListHero.

Only by taking action will you get the results you deserve.

The problem is many people are just signing up as ListHero members and expecting hoards of subscribers to just be delivered to them automatically within a matter of days. Then when 30 days have gone past with only 1 subscriber they wonder where they went wrong.

The fact is as with most things in life there are no easy paths to anything worthwhile and list building is no exception. It takes consistent actions over a long period of time to achieve massive results, no matter what others might have told you. But don’t let this put you off because building a high quality list of subscribers is actually very easy once you know how, when you follow a plan and don’t ever give up.

ListHero can and will help you become successful online, but only if you follow the 5 part plan I’m about to reveal.

You better make yourseful comfortable because here’s where the tyres hit the road!

1. Create your own website or blog

Having your own website is essential to your ultimate success online, there’s no reason for not having one because the benefits are so clear. They’re easy to set up and if you’re on a limited budget you can even do this for free, so you really have no excuses.

So what should your website or blog be about? We recommend creating an affiliate review website where you review and write about the products you’ve purchased using your affiliate links within your review recommendations.

Writing reviews and recommendations is what’s called “pre-selling” and is the most powerful way of selling anything online. You see people don’t like to be sold to, yet they like to buy things with the confidence that they’ve made the right choice and reading the reviews you’ve written provides a huge amount of value to everyone. In addition to this you become seen as the “expert” in your market because of the honest advice you’re providing.

Can you see how simple this business model is? If you can read and write you can do this and you don’t even have to be the worlds best writer, all you do is write just like you speak and have conversations with your readers.

The more formal you write the less friendly you sound which is going to put people off. So write as you speak, after a while you’ll develop your own style and people will hang on your every word!

Because these are your personal reviews and recommendations of the products you’ve used no-one else can copy your unique perspective and voice.

So what should your domain name be? If it’s a review site you’re creating your domain name should be something like: www.YourNameReviews.com or www.YourNameRecommends.com. Just change where it says “YourName” for your name. This way you’re building a brand name for yourself and it’s also clear what your website is about, both very important things (and also be sure to get a .com).

Useful resources:

a) Click here to learn how to register a domain name and set up a blog
b) Click here for a free website and website hosting

Action step:

Step 1: Create an affiliate review website or blog if you don’t already have one

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2. Add the ListHero squeeze box to as many pages of your website as possible

The reason why adding your ListHero squeeze box to as many pages of your website as possible is because this is how you earn more points which gets your newsletter ad seen on other people’s websites within their ListHero squeeze box.

Action step:

Step 1: Login to your ListHero account now: Go to step 4 and install your ListHero squeeze box on as many pages of your website or blog as you can. This helps to get you more subscribers from your website and the websites of other people.

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3. Set up and create your own newsletter

So what are you going to offer those people who join your list?

You need to think about this really carefully and understand that people will be joining your list ONLY because you promised something of value and of interest to them in your newsletter advertisement.

As I mentioned above with the idea of creating a review or recommendations website, this follows over to your newsletter which becomes a way of you publishing your newest reviews or recommendations to people via email.
You simply make money by using your affiliate links within your recommendations or reviews.

This is what I mean by offering unique value to people.

Useful resources:

a) Click here for a selection of newsletter templates you can use

b) Click here for how to start a newsletter

c) Click here for your newsletter success mindset

Action step:

Step 1: Plan your newsletter: what’s it going to be called? what’s it going to be about? how often will you publish it? What professional autoresponder service will you use to help you manage your subscriptions and broadcast your newsletter to your subscribers?

Also, think about what happens with someone subscribes to your newsletter, will they immediately be sent a back issue they can read until you publish your next newsletter issue? You can do this all automatically with a professional autoresponder system (but not the one provided by your web host or free email account!).

Step 2: Choose a newsletter template. This is where you add your text and prepare it to add to your autoresponder. I highly recommend writing at least 2 issues of your newsletter in advance to make sure you have something ready to send, because committing to a consistent publishing schedule is essential. Missing publishing deadlines when your subscribers are expecting them makes you look unprofessional and unreliable, which will effect your credibility.

If this all sounds like a lot of work I’m going to tell you that it is, there are no easy routes to success, it takes hard work dedication and persistence to see the rich rewards you’re most probably seeking.

Step 3: Begin by looking through the hard drive of your PC looking for the products you’ve purchased in the past, sign up to their affiliate programs and write a review about your experience with those products you’ve found. Save these reviews you write to a special folder on your PC ready to be added to your newsletter and website.

Be sure to publish each back issue of your newsletter on your website or blog so the search engines can send you traffic their too. On those newsletter back issue pages include your ListHero squeeze box then you can turn the traffic the search engines send you into new subscribers.

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4. Use a professional autoresponder service

Time and time again I see people using their Yahoo or Hotmail email addresses as their autoresponder where ListHero delivers new subscribers to on step 5 form within your ListHero account. This is totally the wrong way of doing it!

Here’s what will happen if you use a regular email address (provided by Yahoo, MSN, Gmail, Hotmail) that’s not a professional autoresponder.

Someone sees your ListHero newsletter advertisement and decides they would like to subscribe, so they enter their email address. Minutes later they get an email from your Yahoo email address with their first message, but then they change their mind and decide that they no longer want to be on this list, so how do they unsubscribe themselves?

There’s no link to click for instant removal of their email address, there’s no postal address of the person sending them the commercial email so they can’t easily be contacted to be removed.

In fact the whole thing is beginning to smell a lot like SPAM so your new subscriber reports you to Yahoo for sending spam and your Yahoo account is deleted without notice. And you also risk having your Internet connection removed, again without notice!

For the publisher it gets even worse because without realizing it they’ve broken the law by sending a commercial email that doesn’t comply with the CAN-SPAM act of 2003 created by the Federal Trade Commission.

If you don’t believe me take a close look at this and see if you’re in compliance…
Click here for the Federal Trade Commissions CAN-SPAM act of 2003

I’m telling you about this not to scare you but to warn you that it’s an easy mistake any newbie to email marketing can make so pay close attention to what you’re doing. I’ll show you a safe and easy way to stay within the law later on.

Let’s go back to the example of the newbie newsletter publisher above, they’re using Yahoo to manage their list of new subscribers which is a bad idea from the start. With no automatic removal when someone wants to cancel their subscription they have to manually delete subscribers from their list.

What happens when you have a list of several thousand people further down the line when you use Yahoo (or any other regular email service)? I’ve got some more news for you… you’ve just created a full-time job for yourself of removing unsubscribers from your list! And yes you will get people leaving your list, just as you’ll always be gaining new subscribers, it comes with the territory, you just need systems in place to help you manage as much as possible all automatically.

Here’s the solution but first I need to ask you how serious you are about building your list of subscribers? It’s your list of subscribers that becomes your biggest asset online, you need to start as you mean to go on and not cut costs and chop off corners because you’ll regret it later on as your list grows.

The solution is to pay for a professional autoresponder service who provides you with the tools and the training needed to manage your listbuilding activities.

A professional autoresponder also service ensures you comply with the law whenever you send out an email. A professional autoresponder service takes care of anyone who wants to leave your list with a 1 click unsubscription. A professional autoresponder will make it easy for people to join your list and make every message you send out personalized with the subscribers name (if you configure it this way) which is proven to increase response.

Useful resources:

a) Click here for the professional autoresponder system we recommend you should use.

Action step:

Step 1: Sign up for a professional autoresponder service to help you manage the building of your list of subscribers (your biggest online asset).

Step 2: Create an autoresponder (once you’ve completed step 1) and load it with your first newsletter, then set it up so when someone subscribes to your list they get their first issue of your newsletter right away.

Step 3: Login to your ListHero account and go to step 7 then add your new professional autoresponder email address in the box provided directly below the text “Autoresponder email address:”

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5. Write an attention grabbing advertisement for your newsletter

This is absolutely critical to the success of your listbuilding with ListHero!

Let me say it again because it’s that important…

This is absolutely critical to the success of your listbuilding with ListHero!

Why? because it’s your advertisement that people read and decide if they want to subscribe to your newsletter or not, so you better do a great job of writing a great ad!

Recently I wrote a series of great ad writing training articles I recommend you print out, read through and apply what you learn from because out of everything else I’ve said above this is the most POWERFUL thing you need to master to build your list of subscribers using ListHero.
If your newsletter ad is boring no-one will read it and you won’t get many subscribers. Make your ad eye catching, compelling and full of benefits you’ll find yourself with many, many more subscribers than most other people.

However, this will require some work but once you master this you’ll find all your other Internet Marketing a lot easier and even more effective and profitable than before.

Interested?

Here are the links to the ad writing training articles you need to print out read, study and apply.

How to build your list with better ListHero ads

If I join your list what’s in it for me?

Emphasize Benefits, Not Features!

Push Their Emotional Hot Buttons!

Incorporating proof and believability into your ListHero ad

So what’s unique about your newsletter?

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action!

Action step:

Step 1: Read, study and put into practice all you learn in the articles above.

Step 2: Take a long hard look at the ListHero ad you might already be using and improve upon it using all you’ve learned in step 1. If you’ve not written an ad, write one now, it doesn’t have to be perfect because you can perfect it as you go on, just get it done and out there.

So there you have it 5 easy ways to build your list with ListHero, yes they are easy to do but they will take time to complete. But when you’re done you’ll have the accomplished a great deal!

1. You’ll have a website or blog where you review and recommend product you’ve already purchased using your affiliate link to direct people to the products website. Then on each page of your blog or website you’ll have your ListHero ad installed which build your list for you.
2. You’ll have an easy to remember and clearly understandable domain name that helps to establish you as an expert.
3. You’ll have a newsletter set up within a professional autoresponder so when people join your list you have something of value to offer them right away. You’ll be able to make money from your newsletter because of the reviews you’ve written that contain your affiliate links.
4. You’ll have mastered how to write an attention grabbing advertisement for your newsletter which gets you more subscribers.
5. You’ll have laid down the foundations to a potentially profitable business that you can be proud of.

All that’s left for you to do is to take action, don’t let anything hold you back because it doesn’t have to be perfect before you start. Just as long as you get started you can make changes as you go along aiming for excellence all the time.

Find yourself a diary and work out what you’re going to do each day, commit to it and you will succeed. It’s all about persistence and commitment to your goals and the belief that you CAN do it.

ListHero Top 10 Listbuilding Articles…

Here’s your top 10 list of listbuilding articles from the ListHero blog (as chosen by you)…

1. How to format your Ezine…
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/ezine-list-building/how-to-format-you-ezine/

2. “Do You Have Content For Your E-zine or Newsletter?”
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/newsletter/do-you-have-content-for-your-e-zine-or-newsletter/

3. “Build your opt-in subscriber list with every web page!”
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/build-your-opt-in-subscriber-list-with-every-web-page/

4. How To Start an Ezine…
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/ezine-list-building/how-to-start-an-ezine/

5. Your ad for your ad?
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/your-ad-for-your-ad/

6. 7 Quick Steps To Setting up Your Website and Autoresponder
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/opt-in-list-building-tools/7-quick-steps-to-setting-up-your-website-and-autoresponder/

7. You asked for it! You’ve got it!… more ListHero promo tools
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/more-listhero-promo-tools/

8. How To Bribe Your Subscribers…
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/lead-generation/how-to-bribe-your-subscribers/

9. The Importance of Double Opt-in for Your Ezine…
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/ezine-list-building/the-importance-of-double-opt-in-for-your-ezine/

10. How to build a subscriber list for free…
http://listheroblog.com/index.php/list-building/how-to-build-a-subscriber-list-for-free/

Happy Christmas from everyone at ListHero.com! 

How to Make Money from Your E-zine

What are some other known methods of monetizing your Ezine other than selling advertising space and endorsing products? There are several, all of which will produce varying results depending on the demographics that comprise your industry and list.

One of the other known methods of monetizing your E-zine is using contextual advertisements. Rather than sending out the text of the E-zine in email format, you can send an email with a link to the E-zine issue. You can then include contextual advertisements around the E-zine issue.

This method isn’t well known or practiced, but can be quite effective. Additionally, setting up your E-zine like this can also increase the back-end traffic you receive from E-zine subscribers.

Rather than attempting to get E-zine readers to move from the email to your site, you can simply direct them there everyday, so they are more comfortable with it.

One of the other known methods of monetizing your E-zine involves using expert interview issues. Each month, you can interview some expert in your field, be it a business owner, professional, or instructor – and ask him/her to give some tips and talk about his/her best products.

At the end of the interview, you can then include an affiliate link to that person’s site.

Another way in which you can monetize your Ezine is by including lists of recommended resources for every issue. For instance, you could outline some specific technique, such as creating an autoresponder series; and, at the end, you could include all of the tools and resources they should consider purchasing if they decide take this route.

If you use this technique, you will want to link to the list of resources, rather than providing a list of links in the email. The more links you have the email, the higher its spam score will be.

However you decide to monetize your Ezine, remember that your options are not limited to the most obvious or common methods; those just happen to be the easiest methods to use.

How To Bribe Your Subscribers…

A bribe (a.k.a. a bonus) is something you offer to new subscribers when they opt in to your mailing list. This bonus could be something like a special report to an audio interview or video tutorial. Basically a bonus could be anything digital that you think would benefit your subscribers greatly.

Whether you decide to give one or not, is entirely up to you. There is no hard and fast rule as to whether you should offer a bonus for subscribing or not because there are many different types of niches out there and it will be hard to determine what bonuses to give and whether giving one at all will help you and your subscribers.

Take for example:

Suppose you are building a niche around the network marketing industry.

What kind of bonus can you give that will entice someone to stay on your mailing list?

A free report on how to generate more leads?

How to sponsor more downlines?

A training call on how to prospect over the phone?

Maybe even a video with a personal message from you on how to help them grow their business?

These are powerful examples that will entice people to opt in to your list while you try and position yourself as an expert in their eyes.

How about teaching them how to make money through investments?

This could be a tricky topic because what stocks to invest in usually fluctuates over time. It is no point putting a special report telling people what stocks to buy if it is going to be obsolete after a period of time.

Unless you are giving tips on the CONCEPT of investing and the mindset and attitude of an investor (unchangeable principles), it would be rather pointless to create a special report on a niche that fluctuates a lot.

How about the dating niche? Dating niches are always full of tips on the Internet. However this niche requires you to give tips that are really practical because you are dealing with the feelings of humans. What makes your bonus so compelling that you would gain the attention of your would-be subscribers?

How about house cleaning tips? Do you think it is better to put those tips in your up-front bonuses or within your newsletter or E-zine?

Either way, these are important issues to think about that only you would know whether offering a bonus is feasible or not. Building your business requires planning and once you plan which is the most feasible route, you must act on it.

Bear in mind one thing; never offer your best information upfront unless you have something really good installed for your subscribers. You would want to save your best information for your flagship product and not to put them as a bonus.

Make anything you offer for free as a bonus (or a bribe) incomplete …with the complete information being in your paid for product.

If you give everything away, you will have nothing left and the subscriber usually doesn’t appreciate it as much because they were given away ‘free’. Customers usually value something they paid money for. So make sure you know how to structure your products well to bring in the right crowd.

What’s the quickest way to build your list and profit from ListHero?…

This is a great question! and the answer I have can be applied by anyone, in fact this one idea works even if you don’t have a list, don’t have a newsletter, don’t have an autoresponder and don’t have a website!

So what do you need?

All you need is the ability to send and receive email, no I’m talking about sending out messages to everyone in your address book or anything even close. What I’m about to reveal is so deceptively simple and so deadly powerful that you’d wish you thought of this one before.

What is it?

Simple… it’s an email signature file.

So every time you send an email message to someone at the end of your message as a P.S. there’s a personal recommendation from you for ListHero.

Here’s all you need to do…

Step 1: Watch this quick video…

Step 2: Copy and paste this text as shown above…

P.S. I’ve just discovered the fastest, easiest
and simplest way to build my list for free…

check this out…
==> (add your ListHero affiliate link here)

So there you have it! it’s ever so simple to set up and over time your results will snowball …but only if you use it regularly.

What I like about this is you just set it up and forget about it because in most email programs the signature files are added automatically.

Go ahead, login to your email program and add the ListHero sig file with your affiliate link.

By the way… I’ve just set up a blog post with 4 ListHero promo emails and 3 more ListHero sig files you can use. Click here for more promo tools.