w/my site using Hostgator w/wordpress. I just wanted to thank everyone that has helped me get rollin. I found a good tutorial just to get me started on my site. Lisa "someone" has a youtube video I am using, or used today. Had about 1/2 hour on there and had too much I had to do the rest of the day. That is going to be hard, just getting time to spend with the tutorials and learning how to build my site I am still very excited though and even found one of my photos (into photography) that will work in my header. Anyway, just saying hello to all and hope your day went well or is going well!! Thank you again, Denise
Thanks EZ, I am frustrated this a.m. and just wanted to go back and bookmark the tutorial and would you believe I cannot find it now Maybe you can recommend one, send me a link? This was so easy and step by step through Wordpress. Some of them are hard for me because the "instructors" voices are hard for me to understand/hear. I will just work on homework but I want to be ready to go again on my tutorials at least on my breaks Denise
Just wanted to mention again how important it is to build your List. If you build a quality List this will really help set you up for the long haul in this industry.
Do you mean my mailing list of friends etc.? I actually have one with I think about 40 names that I can safely send my info to, all pretty much friends and family. I don't think I am there yet though iotg, I can get myself overwhelmed if I don't take this one step at a time Denise PS I do appreciate you bringing it up though. And anything more you want to tell me about the "list" is welcome here. I will just print it/copy it for when I need to do it. PSS I just happened to think that the "list" you may mean is of the affiliate programs out there? I do have 6 or 7 of them to contact as well. Just not sure what list you mean, help!!
Hi Denise, The List I am referring to is a List of names and emails of people that are interested in your niche and what you are offering. Please see this post I pasted below. I originally wrote this post to you in response to a thread you started. Please read this over and let me know what questions you have. "Hi Denise, Yes, I am talking about offering something for free to get people to sign up. This can be an affiliate product or a product of your own. Find a niche that you know about, like, have a passion for, etc... (make sure your niche has a large enough audience though. Do some keyword research, check forums in that niche to see what people are asking/talking about, google your niche, etc...) Then you can find somethings of value (stuff you create or stuff others have created that you have the rights to give away) to give away in exchange for peoples names and email addresses. Some of the most popular things people give away are eReports, video courses, etc... Just make sure it is something of quality and related to your niche. You give away this stuff in exchange for someones name and email address. Once they do this your auto-responder will automatically add them to your list. You offer the gift(s) at what is called a Squeeze Page. The whole point of a Squeeze page is to get people's names and email address. This is not a fancy website or anything like that. Many people add to much content to their squeeze pages. You just want to say enough to get the message across and you can add a video if you like explaining the products and all the benefits. I like video marketing and find it very powerful. I am currently converting many of my emails that I send my list to video messages. Video helps with conversion ratios in my opinion. I created my squeeze page in WordPress. It's easy to use and it's free. Within Wordpress you choose what is called a theme for your website. You can choose free or paid themes. There are themes to help build a squeeze page like Optimize Press. (I can go more into this if you have any questions.) You need to get hosting though and that's not free. I use what is called a double-Optin method where once someone signs up to my squeeze page they are greeted with a thank you page asking them to go to their email where I have sent them a message. Don't worry, the autoresponder (Aweber) does all this for you. You just need to set it up one time. After the person goes to their email they will open the email I just sent them and click on a link to confirm it was them that opted in. Now, some people use this method and others use what is called a single opt-in where they don't need to go to their email to confirm. I like the double opt-in because while you don't get as many subscribers as a single opt-in you build a list of more quality, less chance of a spam complaint, and depending on your autoresponder company they will charge you more money for a larger list to manage. So you want to make sure your list is of quality. Once someone clicks the confirmation link then they will get a download page to access the free gift. Aweber is an autoresponder company. There are different companies besides Aweber but I find that Aweber is great company and I like them. I think they provide the best service for the money. I'm sure everyone has their own opinion though. Inside Aweber you set up what is called a "follow up" messages. These messages are emails you preset to send out to any one who signs up. You could have months and months worth of emails ready to go. Aweber will send them out as you desire. Aweber also has unsubscribe links at the bottom of every email which is good so that way anyone can unsubscribe if they want to which helps lower the chance of any spam complaints. With an autoresponder company it is easy to manage lists of thousands of people. You can also send out broadcast messages which are one time messages to your list. It's basically up to you and how you want to set everything up. I would suggest calling Aweber and asking them any questions you have. They are very helpful. Now, I want to make one thing clear. I am talking about an autoresponder company. Please don't get confused with the autoresponder settings in many email clients. These just respond when your out of town or busy. I am talking about using an actually company who's focus is on helping you manage your list and to grow your list. Some things I would like to point out are... Always provide value, constantly ask to see if anyone on your list needs help, send them free products, tips, advice, etc... Always look to help. Don't always try to make money from your list and don't treat them like an ATM machine. By looking out for them and helping them you will build trust and a good rapport. Now, as you do this you can send out products for sale related to the niche they signed up for. The larger and more loyal your list the more money you will make. This business model does take time and won't happen over night but it will set you up for the long run. This is a method to creating a successful online business built to last. I hope I was able to answer your questions. If you have any more please let me know, To your ultimate success, Kevin" [Post edited. Bold changed to italics for easy reading - Admin]
Oh, I remember this now, I didn't read it all though and thank you for writing it, plus, resending it to me. I will read it now Kevin!! Denise
Ok, I read it all and it is excellent Kevin, just guess it was a timing thing that I didn't the first time you posted. I sincerely appreciate you stressing this issue "again" to me. I snipped the whole thing and am printing it out so I can follow your lead and take care of this when it is time. I already know a couple of things I could offer for free. My site/niche is nuts-4-nutrition.com. I really am nuts about nutrition and have been a regular, well-known member of myfitnesspal where I have learned so much about healthy, eating habits and exercise. I wanted to narrow it down, a lot though, so I chose nuts because I thought not only are they an excellent food but there is such variety. I am also into cooking and I use many of the nut-oils in that which I will also expound on at the site. I can go a long way with this niche as far as things to write about etc. There are also some great company sites where they have the affiliate program. I just googled "nuts affiliate programs" and got a good list to write to about joining when the site is ready. So I wandered off-track there a bit but I love making videos and I have made a couple of me talking people through, and performing exercises using bodyweight only. Things like pushups etc. I follow an instructor that works with our special forces teaching them how to exercise using no weights or gym equipment(nothing new but he has taught me to vary the way I do the exercise in order to increase or decrease the difficulty). This is, naturally, so they can workout if they are stationed in some tent in the desert of Afghanistan or wherever. I have turned a few people onto it since some can't afford expensive, gym memberships or, in-home equipment. My workouts I've learned take all of 30 minutes Oh no, you got me started!! I have to blame you Kevin since I don't want to think my ramblings are my fault Just kidding with you Ok, so when it is time to get folks signed up so I can send them updates, I am going to use the info you have shared with me. I think Aweber sounds wonderful and an autoresponder company sounds priceless! When I visit a website, I enjoy a free offer. I also totally appreciate a site that makes it EASY to find the unsubscribe button so I want that for my list as well. When I feel like I am really important to them, not just a name on their list, I just naturally want to support that site anyway I can. It only makes sense that I want the people on my list to feel the same way about "my place". I think it is called hospitality don't you Thank you again Kevin! I am so impressed with the help people give out here, asking nothing in return. It makes me want to help others right back! Denise
I'm glad you found this helpful as I am always happy to help. Make sure you do your keyword research to determine there is a large enough audience for what ever niche you decide. Sounds like you have "Nuts" picked out and I agree you can do a lot with this. I am not in this niche but I think it would be a good one. There are many ways to see what people are asking about or what is in demand. Many people use Google Keyword Tool and stuff like that which works great and I recommend it but here's an outside the box strategy that may help as well. Try to find places where people in your niche are talking. For example, research nut or health food forums. Visit active ones and take a look around. Try to see what people are talking about. If you start to see some common question then do more research on it. Forums and places where people in your niche are talking is extremely useful. You can take this information to publish your own articles, blogs, write a eReport to give away. You want to provide an answer for what people are looking for. Of course there's a lot more to this so if you have any more questions please let me know. Hope this helps, Kevin
Thank you Kevin, it is very good to know you are here to help me I only managed a bit of work on my color scheme today. This will be a very slow process for me as I have so much homework to do as well. I know I mention that a lot but that is a priority, no matter how much I want to spend time with developing my new site Talk to you later Kevin, and thanks again Denise
I wrote quite a bit lastnight Kevin, after researching different types of nuts and their nutritional value. The more I read the more I will be able to provide quality content, with some of my own style of writing. I'm seriously thinking about eventually doing a short video. I was wondering how much people would like seeing that, sort of, really knowing what I am like and see if I can manage to sound smart, LOL!! I have so many ideas but the basics today are content. From what I read on these forums, it really is about good, solid information for people. Not tons of boring stuff to read but just enough denise
Yes, you always want to provide valuable content. This is always important. Videos are great. I highly recommend video marketing. I use video marketing in my online business and it has made a huge difference. One of the best recommendations I can make is to find a mentor. Finding the RIGHT mentor is so important. Hope this helps! Kevin
But if you are going to build a list in the make money online niche, then I would not go on this path. Years ago it was a good idea but today with so many of them, you would be better off to just send people to a sales page or a video sales page. You don't need a list to do well online in the make money online niche. You just need real and responsive visitors who are interested in what you are offering to them.
Glad you found the info you need. This is one of the reasons I'm putting a fun and engaging, in depth video series together right now about how to get a website online. It will be in step by step sequence so people like you won't have to be searching high and low all over the internet to gather the info required. This can deflate anyone's enthusiasm fast! Good luck.
