Why building your mailing list is important

Ask any successful internet marketer and they will tell you "the money is in the list". By list, they mean their mailing list, those who have opted in to receive emails from that particular marketer. It may seem obvious to those who have been online for any length of time, but there are many websites who do not have any way of capturing visitors email addresses on their website. This means they are missing out on earning a lot more profit, for very little extra effort.

You may have heard the terms "cold list" and "warm list". A cold list is a list of subscribers who haven't been contacted in a long time, so their response to any emails would be low. However, a warm list is when the list owner has been regularly contacting their list, interacting with them and offering them a reason to stay subscribed to that list.

Having a warm list is very important, not only does it mean that any offer or call to action you send out will be given a better response, but it also means that your conversion rates will be higher. Your conversion rate is the number who actually buy or take action, divided by the total number of subscribers you send the email to. After you've had your list for a while you should know what your conversion rate is for different mailings. Knowing this information will tell you how profitable each new subscriber will be to you, as well as existing subscribers. This is the main reason building a mailing list is important, once you know what your conversion rate is, you can almost guarantee how much money you will make each time you send out a sales email.

To keep a list warm there are some things you should do, namely build trust with your list. Let your list know a bit about you, be approachable and send quality, non-sales information regularly and only sprinkle in sales emails and affiliate offers. Be trustworthy about the offers that you send out, never promote junk offers just to make a few bucks. Think long term profits from your list rather than quick profits that could ruin your long term future.

Unfortunately some internet marketers after hearing that the money is in the list, start to spam their lists with offer after offer hoping for that big pay day. It is very easy for your subscribers to unsubscribe and chances are they will never resubscribe either and it's your reputation on the line.

There are numerous ways to build your mailing list and it is important to note that by testing and measuring which methods bring the most opt-ins, you can create a highly effective list building strategy which you will profit from for years to come.

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3 Tips in Using PLR Articles

There are many ways that you can use plr, here are just 3 tips on using plr articles for maximum benefit.

1. Rewrite the article for article directories and web 2.0 websites.

Often getting started writing content can be stressful so using a plr article as a starting point can take away that stress. As there will be other people using the same plr article as you, it's a good idea to rewrite the article before using it so that it becomes unique to you, as the author. There are many different article spinning softwares on the market and once you've rewritten the article you can put it through this software to get many more versions of the article that you can use. You can then use this as content for your own site, article directories and all the different web 2.0 websites that you may be using to create backlinks to your main website.

2. Combine the plr articles into reports

If you have plr articles on the same subject, you can easily put them together, in a logical order and create a short report from it. With this report you can use it as a promotional tool to give away to new opt-ins subscribing to your mailing list, submit it to document sharing websites or sell it to your mailing list and site visitors. Before you do this, it's often a good idea to edit some of the content and personalise it so that it has your voice. Another great way to personalise it, is to create an ecover for it with your branding. Adding graphics is a great idea, you can also add related photos and images within the report to make it even more unique to you. There are lots of image sites online to find just the right images for the job.

3. Repurpose the plr article into a video

You may find that there are hundreds of people using the same plr article as you, this is especially true when using free plr articles. One way to get extra mileage out of these articles is to turn them into videos. By creating videos out of your articles you can then submit them to the many video directories available online and get more viewers for your article as well as creating backlinks to your website. It is very easy to create a video from an article by inserting the article into a PowerPoint presentation and recording the screen show with software such as Camtasia. Another way to create your video is by using one of the many video to article software applications that you can easily find online.

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How to Monetize a Wordpress Website

If you thought that selling your own products and services was the only way to monetize your WordPress website then you are in for a treat. There are many ways to monetize your site and add extra income streams that will effectively make you money while you sleep! WordPress makes it very easy to monetize your website just by installing a few appropriate plugins. It's so easy that you could get set up in less than 10 minutes.

The simplest way to monetize a WordPress website is to add an advertising plugin such as Ad Squares Widget which allows you to place affiliate banners in your sidebar or anywhere else on your template which allows widgets. Make sure that the banners you choose to appear on your website are complimentary to the existing content of your website and something that your target market would be interested in buying. Once you've had your banners up for at least a month, it's a good idea to work out which affiliate banners are bringing in the most cash from your website. Many website owners stick with the same banners all the time, even although they don't attract any clicks and purchases, be smart about it and only have banners that are actually giving you an extra income.

Many internet marketers choose to also install a Google Adsense plugin so that their ads are specific to each pages content. There are many different places within your website that you can place these blocks including the header, before and after content and within the sidebar, however you are only allowed a maximum of three ad blocks per page. When setting up your adsense channels track which ads are giving you the most revenue, change the size and placement of ads to find the combination that gives you the maximum income possible for your website.

Pay per view is another option for monetizing your website. There are several plugins that will allow your visitor to view a limited amount of a blog post and in order to read more, they need to pay a small fee. You can also use the pay per view method for videos as well, this works well if you have created a training website with many how to videos or content posts.

A step up from the pay per view model is the membership site. These are becoming more and more popular with website owners. If creating fresh monthly content puts you off then you can create a one time payment membership site, with no pressure to add regular fresh content. There are many different membership models to suit every business within every niche that you can copy if you decide to monetize your website by creating a membership site.

These are just a few ways that you can monetize your WordPress website, implement these ideas today and you could be profiting from them in no time at all.

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Why you need a facebook fan page?

There are many reasons why you need a Facebook fanpage for your business and here are just a few of them.

Facebook has over 500 million active users and if you have a local business, the majority of people within your local area will have a Facebook account. Having a fanpage is free advertising for you and it's a great way to keep in touch with your customers, using the platform that they are using regularly. If you are looking to expand your business into new markets and areas then having a fanpage can help you do this too. Facebook by it's nature encourages viral marketing, which means your information is easily shared with others which is even more appealing.

You can easily link your Facebook fanpage to your website, as well as your website to your fanpage and cross promote each other. Facebook makes it very easy to connect the two, allowing your website visitors to join your fanpage from your website as well as fans from your fanpage to click through to your website.

In order to become a fan of your fanpage they need to "like" your page. This is a little button on the top of your fanpage with the word like on it. That triggers Facebook to start showing the content that you create on your wall to show up on your new fans newsfeed. Facebook gives this information the opportunity to go viral very easily. What this means is that when it appears on your fans newsfeed they can "like" the information you have just shared, which then lets all their friends see that they've liked your status. Even better is when a fan shares your status. Sharing your status puts your information on their wall so that their friends can see it in it's entirety.

Like many other business owners you may just be using Facebook for personal use and don't want to mix your business life with your personal one. That's great because this is the whole point of Facebook fanpages. Having a fanpage allows you to post comments and network as your business rather than with your personal account.

With a Facebook fanpage you can install different applications to help you interact with your fans. You can encourage your fans to leave comments or testimonials for others to see, create events, competitions, give updated information, start discussions, share photos and videos, import your blog posts, the list is endless. Also for the more technical amongst you, you can create a "reveal tab" which is a hidden tab within your fanpage. The reveal tab is only visible to people who have liked your page. It's a great way to incentivize people to like your page because behind your reveal tab you can have links to free reports or videos, discount codes, fan only competitions etc.

Facebook fanpages are the online version of word of mouth advertising. Hopefully you don't need anymore reasons why you need a Facebook fanpage and get started with yours today.

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What Is Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site and ensuring that this ranks your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops. It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process. The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves. Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually. Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine. New sites need not be "submitted" to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.

If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues.

Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan for your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your website and make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your site traffic flow and your search engine ranking high. Normally your search engine optimization experts work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time.

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Web hosting Services and Domain names

Choosing an appropriate domain name is very important. First and foremost, when it comes to domain names, try to stay away from the silly, stupid, ridiculous or clever. Keep your domain name simple and make it something your customers can remember if they lose the link to your business website.

Take note that, while your domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go, it may also get you dropped from certain search engines. Some search engines ignore domain addresses that reside on these ‘free servers’ or on the ‘cheap’ servers.

Even if your site is recognized and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.

Purchasing domain names are not that expensive which cost about $100 and there are many companies that can register the name for you, provided it is available and has not already been used by another company.

Using one of your keywords in your domain name can increase your score on some search engines. For example, solderingirons.com could be more effective as Electric-soldering-irons.com, if that domain name was available.

You might also choose to establish more than one domain name using keywords and then link your ‘doorway’ domain sites to your primary site. But you will have to pay for each of the domain name and also the monthly hosting fees. It all depends on the type and size of your business and your competition.

Keep in mind that some search engines disregard ‘doorway’ sites. So put at least a page of content on the doorway site with some useful information and then link it to your primary site. But don’t design it as an empty page. The other reason being, you can have one, three, five, or even more email addresses that all contain your business name, and give your business a professional feel. When customers get emails from dominicstone@solderingirons.com they feel as if they are dealing with a stable, professional business operation.

No need for customers to understand how you manage all your email boxes on your domain. They just need to feel your business is dependable and reputable.

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Web Hosting Companies

With thousands of web hosting companies in the market it can be difficult if not impossible to know which web site hosting companies truly provide an excellent hosting solution at an excellent price. When you have an established domain name with a good web hosting company, you can get reports on your traffic and which of your pages your customers are visiting most often, as well as many other statistics.

Your web host will charge you a fee for monthly service that ranges from $10 or $20 to the more expensive $50.00 per month. Plan to pay between $300 and $500 per year to your web host.

Always avoid free or very inexpensive web hosting services, because you may experience bouts of server downtimes and you are likely to have significant limitations in storage, number of email addresses, FTP upload etc.

Be sure your web host can accommodate e-commerce and storefronts, wireless capability, bogs, forums, chats, online interactive helps and anything else you want to add onto your site.

Estimate what your growth needs are and ensure that this web host can serve you as you grow. The last thing you want to do is change host mid way unless you absolutely have to do so.

Check your bandwidth capability to be sure that, if your website traffic grows rapidly, your customers will not have to wait to download or view information. Three things to look for in a web hosting company are:

1. Excellent Customer Support: Your hosting provider should be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem. Ask them how long it takes for them to typically respond to your problem. A good test is to call them in the mid night to check if you get to a live, level 3 support.

2. A Sound Infrastructure: Check whether they offer a multi-homed network powered by multiple bandwidth providers to ensure redundancy. Some offer a 100% guarantee on its network availability or network uptime.

3. Financial Stability: If you're running very critical operations, you can't afford to be with a hosting company that may not be in business in a few months.

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