August 6, 2008

Make Money Online for Free From Your Opt-in Email Marketing

by Daniel Hatcher

You have heard over and over again just how valuable your opt-in email marketing list is but have never done anything to monetize it. This is like passing up and opportunity to make money online for free! But finally it has sunk in and you want to do something about it. However, it is at this point that you also come to understand that you have some gaps in your knowledge about just how to do that. You may have even tried some things that you have heard work but have not found it to help you make money online.

The fact is that you may even be in the position of losing money. You might have found that even though you started with a large opt-in email marketing list that you don't have that many that actually buy from you. You have found that trying to make money online for free is harder than you thought at first.

You chose a topic that is popular and you just knew was going to rocket past all sales records ever set, but you find yourself wondering why that didn't happen. The most common mistake people make is simply diving in without a plan or a clue. Simply having an opt-in email marketing list and writing to them regularly does not mean you will sell them all on the first try.

There are some simple things that can be done for those who have started an opt-in email marketing list and have failed to realize a profit from it. You can turn things around and make your opt-in list profitable by doing a few simple tweaks to your approach. Here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list or rejuvenate an old one.

1) Your prospects need to trust you. If you spend all of your time pitching them on your product or service, they will quickly tire of it and opt out of your list. Provide them instead to a healthy diet of valuable content. All of which you offer to them for free. If they see you as an expert that helps them with some aspect of fixing a problem they have, then they are more likely to listen to your when you recommend your product or service. Your value to your reader increases with every bit of useful information that your provide… to help them make money online for free.

2) Join forums from competing sites as well. Provide helpful and meaningful advice and recommendations. When you feel that people trust you, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your opt-in email marketing list. Friends are always good customers. Put up a link to your site so that they may be able to see what your business is all about.

3) Provide solutions to a problem or challenge that your readers will likely have. Most people are surfing and looking around on the internet for things that will help them. If you are the one offering solutions via your opt-in email marketing list, whether that is some product or a service, they are more likely to not only subscribe to your site, but become a customer as well. Remember, facts tell, solutions sell.

There is one fundamental truth when it comes to marketing and sales online. People will only buy from someone they trust. You build that trust by making yourself valuable to them. You make yourself valuable by identifying and providing solutions to their problem or challenges.

There is one thing you should always keep in mind about marketing and what motivates people to buy. "Pain Sells." People everywhere and in all walks of life respond to pain. They either want to end their pain or avoid pain. One of the best business models I have discovered is to offer people a way to make money online for free.

Building a profitable opt-in email marketing list does not happen overnight. There is much to do in preparation for presenting revenue generating ideas and products to your opt in list. Make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and view you as a source of valuable information and they will be willing to buy from you when you, the expert, present solutions to their problems.

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Filed under Internet Business by Daniel Hatcher

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