List Building Dominance
Damian Leon Reveals Insider Strategies From the Top List Builders In The World

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Secret Access to Hidden Products for Sale

Some people have access to secret things, things that no one else can see but them. This can be taken advantage of on an opt-in email marketing list by giving the people who have opted in on your list this access. It makes them feel special, and they think they have access to information that others do not.

I like to call this the Inner Circle or VIP effect, and also use the terminology Inner Circle and VIP quite a lot, in communication with my audience. You can do the same, multiplying your listbuilding efforts in the extreme. Everyone wants to have a feeling of importance, and that’s half the value of what you provide to them in your business. It means so much and it sets you apart!

You can really use this feeling on an opt in marketing list to your advantage. Granting access to secret pages is a great tactic but should be limited to a select few or you could have a time limit for accessing the pages. You can grant this VIP access using functionality that’s probably already available via your autoresponder.

The way it works is simple:

* You just create a directory of your main web page. This has a password. Common membership plugins for Wordpress are available for example if you want or need more intense functionaility.

* You create one login and password that everyone can use. The key is only give it to a few select people.

* Then, you have to create some useful content that you will only post in this secret directory.
* You can name this area your secret stash, your vault, or whatever you want., the concept is the same and they’ll still feel as special. The key to naming this area is that it needs to sound like something your audience will want to get their hands on, and to re-emphasize their feeling of importance throughout the process.

Letting Your Audience In On Your Elite Resources

Once you get the directory and the pages set up, put the URL of the pages into the autoresponder you are using. Write a sales page for this exclusive area and distribute it to your opt-in list. You should have other list owners you work with put it on their opt-in list also.

One extremely effective thing to remember about all of this, is a process called Expose, Involve and Upgrade (thank you to Dani Johnson for that terminology). If you imagine the psychology of dating or any other relationship, you will remember that there is a process that everyone goes through in becoming comfortable and buying into the relationship. At first phone calls, and possibly a dinner, moving on to more committed activities of course. It’s the same here. Expose, Involve and Upgrade them. At first, they opted in to receive your information and you were a bit of a stranger, but that’s quickly changing!

Now, not only have you provided them good value and content, but you’ve invited them into an exclusive VIP Elite Inner Circle. You are truly giving them a chance to become part of the family and to increase their feelings of prestige. And, for free! Now that’s 100% irresistable. The magic thing about this is that you can have this your Silver level and easily upgrade them to paid levels (eg: Gold, Platinum, etc). It works!

Concerning the initial entry into your Inner Circle, you need to get the word out there but not make it public. Remember the members of your opt-in list need to think it is a secret available only to the special few among them. They are the elite ones, the only ones on the Internet with access to this special place were you will share your closely guarded secrets with them.

Keep access to the secret pages free. This is the key in making this system work. The goal is to get as many people as you can to your secret pages, so they can buy your products and services.

However, keep in mind that you marketed this as an area to get secret tools and products only available to them. So once you get your customers to the secret pages, there MUST be something for them on the pages, and this something should be free if possible.

Your sales page should reflect that at one point you considered selling this product for a large profit, but instead you chose to share it with them as part of your secret marketing army. By being able to advertise this free product, you are able to build your opt-in list with people that may not have signed up before you made this secret offer to them.

Take your Marketing Campaign to new Heights

This market tactic works. Everyone wants to have an advantage over the competition. If you can provide them with something that will give them an edge, and they think they are the only ones that have access to it, then you have them.

All that is left to do is send out regular updates to the people on this secret opt-in list. Use the opportunity to also sell them other great info products. With this in mind, you should be able to build up your opt-in email marketing campaign to heights not previously imagined! For more insider strategies and tips, get my complementary training system below!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

There are really four basic factors that you need to incorporate into any opt-in email marketing list. Some of them, you need to address at the sign up stage and a couple of them become much more important as communications are repeated and continue over time. There’s a few things to do in opt in marketing in order to build trust and a very profitable customer base. Remember in all these listbuilding efforts that you’re building a relationship with your audience. As you build this relationship your sphere of influence will continue to expand. Here’s what to remember:

* Opt-in Speed – This is a very important factor of several stages in your opt in marketing. You need to make your opt-in form easy to locate and easy to fill out. The call to action needs to be strong and the item that they will be receiving needs to be tangible and provide an instant solution to a problem they’re having NOW.

All that’s required right now is their first name and email. Remember this is the beginning of the sales funnel, and people like to consume information as a first step in all cases.

* Visibility and Natural Flow of the Opt In Forms – This factor is also important at every stage. The first thing to think about is to make sure your opt-in form is effortless and in a simple and easy location to find, on every page where traffic is coming to. The opt in form should be on multiple times throughout the page. I like to put mine at least 2 times above the fold (eg: no scrolling required.) Once above ALL text and graphics, and once in the natural progression of the page text. The opt in forms should be so integral to every part of the page, that opting in should be just as natural as reading the page, like a continuation of the story.

This is also important at the communication level. Your email communications with your list should not be complicated messages about your niche. Make sure anyone, even people who may be very new to the niche, can read and understand what you are saying. This is of course important at every stage. Make sure your writing is clear and pertains to the niche that you’ve chosen.

* Personalize Your Opt-In Marketing Campaign – This is very important in the communication stage of an opt-in list. You must thrive to build trust and lasting relationships here. This stage of the process is the most vital to building this trust.

Remember, they have requested information initially to solve a problem they are having and will continue to have a variety of issues in the same niche, which by this time you should be very familiar with and be able to address well. Also, don’t assume 100% that you know every challenge they’re having. Instead, remember to ask through things like surveys and polls as you progress, and any mails you receive keep for reference as well as responding where appropriate. Patterns will emerge and you will tune your efforts towards that.

Of course, further personalization comes into play through autoresponder abilities like using the customer’s first name in the auto reply welcome messages and follow up emails.

These combined will turn your opt-in marketing campaign into a success. Your customers should feel as though they are only ones on the list or at least feel like you know who they are.

* Offer Your Opt-In Clients Something – What I am referring to in this topic is to be sure you make good offers that you know will interest your audience. It does no good to have a big opt-in list if you are offering them products that they either do not want or that are not related to their niche. This can be dealt with by just doing a little bit of research, and most importantly keeping the whole process a dialogue.

There are several other factors that are important in any opt-in marketing list, but I do not think you should overlook these factors under any circumstances. They are the ones most noticeable to your audience who is after all, your customer base who are in effect your audience.

Never forget that you’re a person communicating with other people, and you won’t stray too far. Make sure to grab my free report below for further tips and strategies to make your opt in marketing efforts explode!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

If you ask 25 Internet marketers what they think the best form of Traffic Generation is, you will likely get 25 different answers. One of those answers (and I would say the best method) would have to be opt in marketing and listbuilding, then communicating to that group via targeted email. I know many people would argue this point and go into other traffic methods, but I would disagree with all of them! Lol! Below are Your five top reasons why…

* Opt-in email marketing by definition is very targeted traffic, pretty much the most targeted traffic you can get. One thing you can do to make it even more powerful is to make agreements with partners in your niche. These agreements allow each of you to refer traffic to each other. This means a lot to the audience, and they take seriously wherever they’ve been sent. People sign up for your list because they are interested in what you have to offer, with the added credibility received through this referral. It works very well.

* The subscribers are already in your niche, so you do not have to sell them on the basic subject to get them to stick around. They have already opted-in and that expresses interest in the subject.  Now, all you have to do is continue to give them useful content and great offers. If you build trust, create a friendly environment, and as a result trust, buying will be a natural result down the line.

* Although you have a captive audience, don’t forget to still test your pages and always look to improve the take up rates for each stage of your process. After your traffic increases you’ll have a great amount of data to test with.

* They are a trusted audience, and they trust you. As you know a good business person must gain the trust of his customers, or they will not buy whatever he is offering. With an opt-in list, just by signing up, they have taken the first step in a long, trust-building friendship. It’s the first mental hurdle. Another way to help them move forward

* I think the major advantage of an opt in marketing campaign is the numbers. It is so much easier to build a successful list than any other way to build a customer base using other methods. The reason is that you always have that audience to communicate with when the time is right, and that trusts your opinion and looks to you for guidance and support. (Compare that with anonymous Google Traffic…. Very Cold!)

*An opt in list is your most valuable source of recurring and controllable traffic, simply put, because of its ability to build a very targeted and responsive audience that has trust in all your communications.

To be honest I don’t really waste much of my time on a million “Traffic Strategies” – lol – I simply focus on the most effective, list building traffic and JV traffic via email marketing. I suggest you do exactly the same, it works the best by far and is in fact very simple!  Take my advice on this one… Oh yes and leave some great comments!  x Damian

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Building your list and increasing your customer responsiveness should always be the TOP priority for any opt in marketing campaign regardless of the niche or other marketing strategies you’re using.

You should focus on communicating and helping clearly through well written, clear, concise, and informative articles. This is not the only way that articles can help build your list and keep your customers happy. What follows are a few of my favorite opt-in email marketing techniques for making powerful progress in your efforts in the shortest amount of time possible.

Article Marketing To Get High Traffic and Rocket Your ListBuilding

One of the most useful ways to use articles to build your list is article marketing. There are many sites that you can post articles too that get insane amounts of traffic. Remember the main article content is the foundation of the traffic process. Information and content driced the Internet, so With each of these boxes, you provide what is called a “resource box”.  This allows you to put your name, a short sales pitch, and a link to your squeeze page.

Here’s a few places you can use the same content you write once, to bring you traffic in many ways (from all directions!):

* Ezinearticles.com

* Articlemarketer.com

* Blog Networks

* Squidoo

* Facebok and Social Networks (With Opt In Form)

* PR Sites Such as PRWeb.com

* Video Sites and Using Video Syndication Tools To Send Out Content to Many Different Sites (You can easily place the article content into powerpoint slides, then record with a screen capture software).

Communicate Articles to Your Opt In List

Communicating articles to your opt in list is also a good way to build your list. As you build trust and friendships on your list, your current subscribers will recommend your list to others. Word-of-mouth marketing is still one of best and cheapest ways to get your word out.

Join a Forum for Your Niche

Also, forums are a good way to get your articles out there. Find the top forums in your niche and post your articles as threads with a sig line that has a link to your squeeze page, and watch the traffic flood in.

Articles with Information and Value

Remember, well written articles help build the reputation of your list and your website in general. With an increased reputation comes increased trust and with trust comes more profit. Trust not only builds profit, but more important than that, it builds long term relationships with people.

If all goes as planned, your articles will perform the same job a movie trailer does.  It will entice the reader to subscribe to the opt in list to see what other fantastic information you have to share with them.

Also, marketing articles is a good way to get nearly automatic targeted traffic. All you have to do is post several articles daily.  People will search for them on various search engines and article submission sites when looking for information in your chosen niche, and then be intrigued by your content and want to know more, which is where you can direct them to opt in to your list to find out more.

This is a proven system and is the way the Internet always works, people search for information first, then get involved in a process to learn more and possibly buy. At the end of the day just remember to serve people the best you can, and you’ll do really well!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

An opt-in list is considered by most to be the most valuable piece of any Internet business. But an opt in marketing list is only valuable if the list is very targeted and has responsive. So there are things you must ask yourself to determine if opt-in email marketing is right for you and how to ensure your listbuilding is targeted and responsive.

Pick a Niche You Like Promoting AND Has a Strong Market

Consider a couple of things before you even start to build a list. The first thing you have to do is decide on your niche, and stay focused. You have to choose a niche (subject area) you are interested in, so your interest remains high. Then couple that with proven research you can do in places like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, to see that what the size of the monthly searches are for terms in that niche. If there’s a high demand and people are spending money in those areas, that’s a good place to start!

Make Sure Your Niche is Profitable

I touched on this above, but it’s that important. You have to ask yourself if the chosen niche has income potential for you. Most of the time you can see obviously when a lot of money is being spent in a niche (eg: health and wellness for example). A lot of niches are more hobby niches (eg: basket weaving) and have very little money-making potential. Are you solving essential problems and high interest areas?

Once you have established the validity of having an opt-in list in your niche, you have to build the responsiveness of your subscribers. This can also be done in several ways.

Choose an Effective Presence in Forums

One way that is overlooked by people new to opt-in email marketing is forum traffic. You can gain traffic in several ways using forums in your niche. The first rule to remember is to provide good value to the forum, and only let your signature be the ad. But in the actual posting stay on topic and be helpful. Be interested in people and they will be interested in you, pretty simple really. One of the best ways is to create an eye-catching signature line for all your posts. This can work in many ways. You could just have a catchy headline that is a link. If the forum allows a banner ad, I suggest using this as your sig line.

Find the Right Forum for Your Niche

Now using this forum technique, you need to make sure the forum you have chosen has a lot of people on it, and it is as targeted in your niche as you can get. You should post on as many quality forums in your niche as you can. Post often and with quality content and comments. This is where you build your potential customers that know you are experts in your niche. Then in the sig line, you can give the chance to learn much more from you by joining your opt-in list.

Kick Your Responsiveness Into Overdrive With Interactive Formats

Why not incorporate video into your sequence sometimes, or for special promotions or content. People will love it, because they are tired of just reading text and really want to see who’s speaking with them. Just remember to keep it personal and always speak as if speaking to a single friend. Just have fun and be helpful, trust me people will love it!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Most people are not aware that there are other ways of making money with an opt-in email marketing list than offering your products and services. You can start doing the things in this article, even if you have a very small list and the benefits will snowball as time goes on.

The five techniques that follow will show you ways to increase your income, explode your listbuilding, and build trust and a healthy relationship with your subscribers.

* Place advertisements on your page: This is a good way to bring in a little extra income and also make your customers aware of products related to their niche that they may have otherwise passed up. The only thing that I can say here is make sure it is related and that your list will find it interesting and helpful

* Promote products from other sites or users: This is a big one.  Since the list was built through opt in marketing, nothing they receive will appear to be spam (as long as you keep it relevant and the tone conversational of course). You could offer your subscriber products from other sites that will be of interest to them.  Again, be sure you word these offers in a friendly, trustworthy way!

* Offer “How-to” books and manuals: These are both very hot right now in any niche.  People are seeking ways to do everything better.  By selling ebooks and compilations of your articles or blog posts, you can give them exactly what they want. By giving simple ones away you can build a huge subscriber base.

* Try affiliate links and products: This is one to use once you have a big, trust-built list.  You can offer your subscribers products that you have confidence in and are affiliated with.  Due to the trust you have built with them, they will be likely to check the offer out at least.  Simply put, that means more traffic to your affiliate products.

* Give your subscribers a chance to become partners: This is the most valuable piece of advice I can share with you on this subject because it creates a lot more than just extra income. It creates a lasting friendship that will benefit both of you and bring you both profit that was not possible before. You can offer to sell your subscriber’s products on your list in exchange for them doing the same. This will also bring you both insane amounts of traffic and list-building potential if dealt with properly.

These arrangements are commonly known as JV Partnerships and can be extremely effective. Just remember to always check out the quality of the person and the product you are considering to partner with, as your name will now be associated too.

These are just a few ideas of ways to make money from your list. If you take the time to brainstorm and apply different business models to opt-in marketing, you will discover many hidden treasures you were previously unaware of. So get out there, and think of fun and creative ways to bring in some extra profit, that help everyone involved!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Have you ever wondered if there are secrets that the elite know that you are not privy too? Ever wondered how they build a list of 10k+ with what seems like little effort?

One of the “secrets” of opt in marketing is building something larger than life in scope and reach while not killing yourself in the process! You can launch your opt-in email marketing and listbuilding to the next level if you start to think bigger.

Yes, the elite do know some things that up until this point may not have been shared with you, but that is about to change.  Here are some of the best:

* Outline your opt in list: If you have a foundational plan before you even launch the opt in list, it will make life much easier for you. If you know your sequence ahead of time and have some of the communications already written, then you can focus on building the list with traffic techniques rather than spending your time writing.

* Outsource some of your opt in list content: This is also one of the things gurus do often and most average list builders overlook. You have to do a lot of work to set up and maintain a successful list, but you yourself do not have to do all the work. Almost anything you need done on your opt in list can be done by others under your direction. Most of these services can be had for little cost. And in the end, it is worth it because the less you have to work on the content yourself, the more you can again focus on the traffic.

* Setting up a promo or bonus for your opt in list: This is also a very important thing that many people overlook. You should give something to your subscribers to keep their interest and also build trust. Trust is important for an opt in marketing campaign and this is the best way to give something back to them in exchange for signing up. By using this technique your audience will be much more likely to purchase from you when you do launch a product on your list.

* Give your opt in form due attention: It needs to be in an easy to access location.  I recommend putting the first opt in form above everything else on the page (yes even above the first text or banner, in the white space). Also, I like to put multiple opt in forms on the same page. If we’re talking about your blog or another website, it should be very noticeable and should be at the top of the page somewhere people should not have to scroll down to see it. They should see it first thing, and it should draw their eye to it. Big fat arrows pointing to it

I hope that you even use one of these “secrets” to boost your opt in page. If you do implement one or more of these things, you will have more time and energy to build a much more effective opt in list and success in the future.  And you’ll have a lot more fun and time to be creative! Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Creating a newsletter for your opt in marketing list is a very good idea and an easy way to provide content and sales information. It also greatly benefits in traffic generation and boosts your profits. Because they are viral and tend to get forwarded and spread around, they are a natural listbuilding tool too. Newsletters also do not require much (if any) investment of money and very little time.

Newsletters go a long way in building trust with your subscribers.  It allows them to see your expertise within the chosen field in a pleasing form. Also newsletters can be more easily recommended to family, friends, and colleagues. All of whom could be potential customers in the future.

If you do not have a newsletter currently in your opt-in email marketing, and are thinking about publishing one, there are a few core things to keep in mind:

* Your content should pertain to and be closely associated with your business or theme of your site. You have a site and your niche will usually not change over time, so try to keep your newsletter in the same niche and do not dwell outside of it too far.

* Make it Entertaining as well as Informative Let your personality shine through and make it fun to get your information. Don’t go over the top, but also remember people have short attention spans

* Be sure that all your content is well written, full of information, and reads easily. Your articles will make up most of your newsletter, and you want your audience to be able to understand the information you are presenting. The trust of your opt-in marketing campaign is at stake here, so don’t skip this tip.

* You should always check facts in your articles. If you do not, assume your audience will.  If they find your information is incorrect, it will cost you that customer and potentially many more if word spreads.  Face it; this is the Internet, and news travels fast.

* Be sure your information is up-to-date and fresh news. No one wants to subscribe to a newsletter that posts old information that they have already read either on your website, blog, or on someone else’s page first. Provide NEW content that will enlighten them on the subject.

* Since you are doing a newsletter through opt-in marketing, be sure that you do not include too much sales content in your newsletter.  You have your other forms of communication to deal with that.  I advise using your newsletter for content and maybe a backlink to your site or blog.  Then use the other emails in your sequence fore pre-selling and selling.  (Remember good content can always be pre-selling for you!)

A newsletter gives you the ability to keep all your subscribers informed of all the offers made by your business or company, but in a more conversational inner circle way. The main thing it does though is keep you visible and authoritative in your area, in the mind of your audience.

With a newsletter, you keep reminding your subscribers of how you’re an authority in your field and how you want to help them. I think everyone who is serious-minded about their business model should have one. Why not start one today?

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

While we sit back and watch the rest of the world put up barriers to guard their email accounts, there are also many people that subscribe to email marketing opt in lists to find like-minded people that promote products and services related to your niche. These people, the prospective audience, want to know more about your market and chosen field.

The basic element needed to covert these people from a prospective audience to a participatory audience is trust. This is key in opt in marketing, as in any relationship. When your audience can have faith in you, they will reward you with their loyalty and sales. For a strong foundation for your business moving forward and your email marketing opt in list, you’ll need to gain the trust of the audience quickly and hold it with a straightforward and warm style.

The following are four tips that you can use for your listbuilding and most importantly to build their trust:

1. Gaining your customers trust should be based on your knowledge of the niche + the extra value you add to that information- YOU! You need to provide honest informative communication with your prospects. Keep them up-to-date on the current happenings and news within your niche. But, the real power comes in when you couple your personality (If you’re funny, be funny!) and being on their side with what you know. Remember people only care about what you know when they know how much you care about them! So, be yourself and always speak as if speaking to one person.

2. Show your customers that you have important information for them. Provide them with helpful hints and guidelines that pertain to the products you are selling within the niche. You should know from collecting information from them as you go exactly what their top 5 or 6 concerns are.

3. The most important factor in trust-building on your opt in list is to be true to your customers. You do not want to over-hype products if the product cannot deliver what you promote it to do. The more satisfied customers you have, the more likely they will become buyers and recommend your list to others.

4. Always let the customers know they have an escape route, and thank them for choosing to be on your list. A little gratitude and humility goes a long way! You must show them that you are not there to force them to do anything, but to show them things that can really help them. Also, you should always provide them with a clean easy way to unsubscribe from your list if they desire, it’s their choice and people like choices!

Remember; when you get the trust of your customers, then you must do everything in your power to not lose that trust. If you follow the above advice and communicate with them in an honest and informative style, then they will stick with you. It is not about getting the numbers as fast as possible. It is about getting a stable list quickly. By using these and other techniques that I will be discussing in future articles, it can be easy and fun!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide