Welcome to the first part in my five-part series on getting as much free traffic as possible. There are several resources you already have that you can manage in such a way that you boost your traffic. So first up, lets start with your list. Think first about what your list is. It’s your first contact, and it contains pretty much everyone that’s passed through the system you’ve set up, from the freebie hunters, to the people that didn’t know what they signed up for, those who had friends that signed them up for a joke, and of course those who are going to progress through the circle and make you a whole load of cash in several different ways. It’s the most numerous of all the five resources, and is also in this instance of the lowest quality as compared to the other four, however is essential if you want to fill the higher ranks.
An Important Tip.
Keep in mind that it’s not always possible or even in your best interests to subject a particular resource to this type of cross promotion. This is especially true for your more valuable money-makers. The reason being is that they can be lost, just like any other resource, but when you take the regular customers who have spent many thousands of dollars on your products in small numbers, compared to a large list that have yet to spend, it’s much more devastating to lose one or two percent of your big spenders than it is to lose one or two percent of your freebie seekers.
What To Do With Your List
So, getting started here, what do we want to turn your list into? Well, everything really. Your lists are there for one thing, and one thing only, and that’s to act as your own media outlet, and increase your other four resources. (something that many businesses miss). Turning your list into customers and long- term customers is quite straight forward. You’ll be sending them announcements relating to your new products and services. It’s as it should be used, and most often is.
Two more extremely profitable things that your list can do that people rarely ever seem to catch hold of (even more profitable than making direct sales) is build your affiliate base and on top of that build your joint venture base. First up the affiliate building. The reason is, who in their right mind would promote, and in fact spend the two most important things (their money and their time) on promotion when they’re not going to make any cash out of it directly.
The sooner that you, as an business-person, online or offline can see how important it is to look beyond immediate profits from ad campaigns, the sooner you will start to make some real money. I guess it’s overlooked by so many simply because in today’s age of the internet, everyone wants something right now, they don’t want to wait. The longer it takes to carry out, the more they overlook it as something that won’t be an immediate fix for their situation.
Building Your Affiliates From Your List
One thing I do want to say to you now is, if you have sixty-five, seventy, eighty percent, or even more to give away through your products’ commissions, don’t be afraid to tell people about it. Not so long ago in fact, maybe two or three years prior to writing this report, there was a spate of big affiliate commission sites popping up that offered anywhere from 80-100% commissions that did incredibly well on the resource building side of things simply on the basis of promoting their high commissions more than the product itself.
So whatever you do, don’t think that gaining affiliates is all about that little button at the top of your sites with 80% for affiliates written in big letters. Hey, we spend money to promote free products to build our lists all the time, why can’t we do the same for our affiliates? Well we can, and to be honest, one good affiliate is more valuable than a hundred subscribers, even a thousand subscribers in my eyes, for the simple reason that they may have an audience of tens or even hundreds of thousands on their lists that they’re willing to give you access to. Imagine the resources that would land in your lap, and the power you’ll have for future promotion when a few ads like that start to go out.
Turing Your List Into Joint Ventures
Now as far as turning your list into joint ventures goes, this is a pretty easy but also open ended and rather variable in results until you actually see what these people are capable of further down the line. Similar to previously, when we talked about gaining feedback from your list you can in the same way, gain joint ventures from your list, again, as in the above example with the affiliates, this is often far more widely used, and for good reason.
I urge you once again, not to relegate your joint venture prospects to those who visit your website, and the individuals you pick out through the top performing affiliates, but to actively seek them through your list. The reason we’re doing this is simply because there’s a good chance someone will be out there that won’t progress down your line of resources otherwise. If they’re experienced, have a big list of their own, or the ability to get in touch with your target market, you’re going to miss out if you’re not telling them that you want their services.
For example, an experienced marketer that subscribes to a selection of lists to keep up with what’s going on around them, may happen to subscribe to your list where you’re selling an info product. He or she won’t buy your how-to product, because they’ve got their system set up already and it just so happens, that they only promote their own stuff to their own lists, unless it’s a joint venture (this is very common among the big guys by the way) They won’t buy your big product for the same reason, and they won’t be joining your affiliate program for the above reason. He or she is a heavy hitter with a big list, but you’re missing out. These are the people you’re aiming to cater for here. It’s not good if you’re leaving massive holes like this, because you’re missing out on some massive profit potential. In fact, as we speak the majority of marketers out there are very obviously leaving these types of holes.
The problem with joint venturing through a list at this stage is it becomes kind of a lottery if you’re not careful. You can’t just send out a mailing asking for anyone with a list over ten thousand people to contact you for higher commissions, because then everyone else feels cheated and you may alienate some potential affiliates. In general terms joint ventures should be a private thing, the deal will also vary from person to person, depending on your product, their list size, what they want in return and what you can grant in return. The best way to go about this is to keep it that way. Don’t do a mass mailing just requesting joint ventures for the reasons above, we can’t do that for this particular resource.
What I’d suggest you do instead, which you should be doing with your list anyway, is carry on as your normally do, sending out your un-intrusive surveys to help with your research and find out as much info as you can about the people on your list, for something in return. For example a short valuable report that you’ve written on your area of expertise. In exchange you’re getting vital info that not only allows you to tailor your ads to your list providing a better response rate, but at the same time you’re building up a picture of who the good joint venture prospects are. Once you’ve done that, you can go through the results you’ve collected, and pick the top performers, the knowledgeable, and the people with the most resources, and contact them individually.
To Sum Up…
So you see, your list is your first contact that you have with your customers and the potential is there to turn them into the other four resources further up the food chain if done as above. If it’s related to your business, and other people should be seeing, reading, using, buying or promoting it, your list should know about it at least once, in it’s unspecialized, most basic and standard form. Leave them in the dark, and you’re missing out on potentially thousands, tens of thousands in profit, or more.
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