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

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Before you can understand why some prefer to use a double opt in list over a single opt in list, let’s compare the differences between them. You have the control in your opt in marketing efforts ultimately, so I want to present both sides of this to you so you can make the best decision for your business.

I’m sure you’re familiar with opt in lists. This is where you go to someone’s squeeze page, and then fill in the form with your name and email address to sign up (usually in exchange for a free gift).

With a single opt in form, as soon as you enter this information, you are on the list instantly. This is the basic way opt-in email marketing works, in its most simple form.

The Difference between a Single Opt in and a Double Opt in

With double opt in listbuilding, the new person signs up with their first name and email address, much the same as with a single opt-in.

However, instead of instantly being put on the list, you get a confirmation email from the list owner. Then once they confirm their email, they are put on the list. I know some of you are asking why would you want to do such a thing.

Well, the main issue that can arise with single opt in lists is that anyone can sign up using ANY email address. They do not even have to use their own address.

Some people do use a fake address, so they can get whatever free offer you have going, and then never look at any of your mailings. The main problem though can occur if a person chooses to use another person’s email address to sign up with.

Although this is rare, it could cause complaints with the person who’s email address was used.

Benefits of a Double Opt in List

One of the main benefits of a double opt in list is to eliminate this problem. So if someone does use a fake email, then it is no skin off your back. Because the person has to confirm their email to receive your gift, you will have a much more targeted list.

Now I know what you are thinking, what about the 25% or so of people you will lose because they either never confirm their email or just change their mind once they look at the confirmation e-mail? Well, all I can say is that the remaining 75% or so of your list will be much more targeted and better customers in the long run.

The subscribers on your list will be more engaged in the process, more responsive, and more likely to form a relationship and be customers. Using a double opt in list for your next opt in marketing campaign will increase your conversion rate and lower the amount of spam reports from your subscribers. One thing I like about it is that it gives you a more accurate view of what you REALLY have, as you know your list is truly accurate.

Some Autoresponders Require Double Opt-In

One last thing to take into consideration is that with some auto-responders they only allow you to add double opt in subscribers to your list. So if you are thinking about using one of these, then the decision is already made for you. It’s your choice, and there are positives and negatives on both sides, but for most people double opt-in can be the best option.

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

When you let your audience know that they need to act soon or the offer expires, you create the sense of urgency that turns prospects into customers. It’s needed because people will inevitably delay when they can, as that’s human nature.

Have you ever wondered what makes some listbuilding efforts become highly profitable, while others never make it?

This can even be seen in your own list, as some email converts better than others.  Several factors could of course be at play here, but the one we are going to focus on today is urgency and how to effect your opt-in email marketing campaigns.

Urgency is a key factor in successful campaigns. You need to let your customer know that if they don’t act right, then they will be missing something. In opt in marketing, you must convince them that if they do not act RIGHT NOW, they will not be getting the same offer as they would get in a few days, hours, or even minutes.

One major way to emphasis the urgency is to make it known that after a certain amount of your product will be sold, then the price will increase. You can do this by having a list on your squeeze page with the quantity available listed and then the price. For example:

·      10 Copies at $7

·      25 Copies at $27

·      50 Copies $47

·      All further copies will be sold at the full price of $97

This technique ensures that people who may put off buying the product for a day or two realize that if they wait, they will have to pay more. On the squeeze page, I advise marking through the first set of quantity and price. That way it will appear they have already missed out on the best deal, but if they act now, they will still save money on the offer.

This leads me into my next tip for increasing urgency. The words you choose to use on a squeeze page or a mailing from your audience. You should be sure you use powerful words in your copy that imply urgency. Limited time offer, limited quantity, act now, don’t miss this special offer. for example.

It’s a VERY effective strategy to use the Inner Circle or VIP mentality when communicating to your audience, because this backs up the sense of urgency. Further words like pre-release, Inner Circle, Time Limited, Etc are great here

Let them know that you only have a limited amount of your product, and you are making it available to them first. Always justify with a specific reason.

As long as you have kept all your list content useful, your customers will trust you to give them quality products. So this is were the trust and rapport work for you ten-fold. If you release the right amount of content at the right times when you make a special offer, your list will jump on it.

The sense of urgency you establish through your writing will let them know they have to act right then to get what they know will be a groundbreaking product from a trusted friend.

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

The importance of an email marketing opt in list can’t be emphasized enough, because it builds trust with your list.

What you have to figure out, though, is how to really capture the attention of your audience. One important piece of any opt in campaign is the special offers you provide through your communications. There are some things you can do to make those offers stand out and take your listbuilding efforts to the next level:

Never forget FREE and a spirit of giving builds a bond. If you give your customers something free, they will remember. This helps build rapport between you and your customer.  So when it is time for them to take advantage of your special offer, they will.  This is the one of the magic formulas of opt in marketing, that is creating a sense of obligation through giving up front.

Always remain personal with the customers. It does not matter if you are offering them something on a squeeze page or through your email marketing opt in list. Remain a person to them. Talk to them one on one.  Always pay attention to them.

Even if your whole list is set up with an autoresponder, find ways to make the copy more personal. On your squeeze page you can have your photo and a signature, so they will know who they are talking to, and feel a bond right from the beginning.

Make your Subject Lines Compelling and Generate Curiousity. Imagine if you will for a minute that your intended customer has 10 or more other opt in lists in their inbox.  What makes yours stand out?

The subject line is the best weapon you have at his point, so make use of it with every mailing.

Try to keep the design simple with no distractions when designing the layout of the squeeze page or emails for your opt in list.  There should be no other links other than the ones you want the customer to follow. Large fat arrows pointing to the opt in box are very effective.

Use the right language. This means you need to able to at least sound like an expert in your chosen niche, even if you are not. All that is usually required is a small amount of research. You need to find and subscribe to a few of the top blogs in your niche, read and post on the forums related to your niche, and ask questions. Stay on top of every aspect of your niche.

You should use as many power words as possible in your sales copy. Words and phrases such as Click Now, Limited Time Offer, Discover, Revealed, Who Else Wants To?, Click Here, Don’t Miss Out, Act Now, etc… Use these to get people’s attention and to draw them into a certain areas of your copy.

My last piece of advice is to join email marketing opt in list in your niche and see what is hot right now among your peers. Read their list carefully and be aware of anything that really gets your attention. You have to find ways to incorporate things you found that you like into your list. This will not only be appealing to you but also the list members.  At the end of the day, it is all about meeting them where they are and solving their problems, isn’t it?

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

You must master Opt In Marketing to build a profitable business online. You’re ultimately in the business of building powerful relationships with the our customers. Building an opt in list is essential to this very important endeavor. The reason is that with this list you not only build profit, but also a level of trust not possible with other Internet marketing models.

With this relationship building form of marketing, you have a chance for your customers to get to know you, and build the trust necessary for a lifetime of purchases. This can be done with regular mailings, personal correspondence, or special offers and promotions that are only available to your trusted customers, the ones that opted in on your list.  To take this further, you can create a VIP or inner circle status that makes the customer feel special. Everyone wants to have a feeling of importance. Creating such an Inner Circle will increase your response to mailings and make your customers feel special.

What follows are five tips that you can take advantage of today and immediately increase the trust level and size of any current or future opt in marketing campaign.

1) Build your trust early.  You should sell your personality first. People want to buy from people they know, trust, and like. Be happy, if your naturally reserved, ramp up your enthusiasm level a notch! Remember, people want to buy from people that tap into their emotions, and people they remember. You can then further build up this trust by pre-selling with useful content and giveaway items. Only after this trust is built up should you attempt a sales email.

2) Provide useful content. This one gets preached a lot. Unfortunately, even though it is talked about a lot it still seems not to be practiced often enough. Not only should your emails be useful–they should also be in the language of the niche.  In other words, use the tone and “buzz words” that exist in your niche that are proven to work. And don’t just provide content that is useful also make it humorous, or catchy in some way. Most importantly promote things you really believe in. Add your own unique personality, for that twist that makes your relationship stand out!

3) Provide unannounced bonuses. This is an amazing technique for building customer trust in any business model–doubly so in opt in marketing. If you are willing to give your list a report, software, or other useful item that is useful for your niche, it will instantly build trust. With that trust, comes profit!

4) Always speak to your customers as you are speaking to a friend, and just one person.  What this means is you should be prepared to talk to and/or help people on your opt in marketing list one on one.

5) Post Often. I advise posting 4 to 5 times a week. You also have to have variety in your postings. Content, Entertainment (relevant), Helpful Offers, and few surprises. Remember your communication is like a channel for them, so keep it fun.

Keep these tips in mind and your list will grow in quality, quantity, and the will to buy. Remember the key to any successful business venture, regardless if it is on or off line, is to build rapport and trust with your customer base. Do not forgot the central tenant of all opt in marketing is to create rapport and relationship. Remember people buy from people they know, like, and trust. You make a friend first and and you’ll have a customer for life!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Variety is the spice of life–and the spice of your email marketing opt in list.  You should ask yourself what is the objective of the email? How can I use them to build my list? Can I use the list to build trust and rapport with my customer relationships? Yes you can! It is all about the emails you send to the list.

Here are some examples of a few different kinds of basic email types:

Content – This is the most basic form of post you will see on an email opt in marketing list. It is just a post with content to the list. You should be sure your content is useful and writing in the language of the information product that you’re selling.

Teaser – This is a pre-sell article that gives you some information on an upcoming info product that will be available to members of the list. This type of post should give a glimpse into the product. Samples of the product can be given here to whet the appetite of the list members.

Promo – By this time, you would have built up the excitement, curiosity, and intrigue surrounding the subject matter. At this point, go for a very simple offer with a sense of urgency or scarcity, as your pre-seling would have been done up front.

Follow-up – These are the posts you send to all those members that bought your product. They are meant to follow up the sale with more personal interaction and the all important trust building.

It is then time to implement your email opt in marketing delivery system. The four emails above make up the sales process. You email the first three to your list once a day. So you build trust with content and personality related mails, and you move from there in terms of promoting helpful offers that flow naturally from this.

This an example of an email delivery system that involves ten emails. The first three are just general content emails related to the chosen niche. The next three articles are special offers and bonuses. These both build the trust of your customer and make them potential buyers. When you follow up with your customers, it shows that you care and creates the kind of rapport you need for repeat business.

Following this strategy, you can easily create a good opt in sales list that will create more sales for you at the time.  By using this variety and keeping the communication, promotion, content, and free resources, you will keep your audience engaged, response rates high, lead to amazing profits!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Getting your emails opened in opt-in email marketing is incredibly crucial to building relationships, getting sales, and moving forward in your business. But what is the secret that allows some people to have emails that get opened quickly and consistently, while others are simply ignored or even unsubscribed?

There are a few things that great marketers do in their communications which increases responsiveness.

For one, be specific in your subject lines, but leave some mystery in there too so they don’t know exactly what it’s about when and it makes them want to open your mails. On thing to be careful about is make sure that you’re not pretending to write about something, then they open and they see something else.

You can be funny, but never go overboard in this department and misrepresent something, or say it contains sensitive information (eg: account details, etc). This will ruin your trust which is essential for your relationship and long term success.

Remember, people buy from people they know, like and trust. And to gain their trust you need to gain their respect through being consistent and reliable in your communications.

Your personality will come through in your emails and communications, so whatever persona you’re putting forward, be consistent with that. Remember that people are getting to know a person through your communications and will come to know and like a personality. So, don’t be humorous one day, and sell hard the next day. It’s confusing to your audience.

Once you’re within your email body, remember that a call to action is needed. Every email should ask your reader to do something. This can be as simple as going to a blog to read more of a post, or going to look at an offer that helps meet their needs. In any case, less is usually more.

What I mean by that is that the call to action shouldn’t be a hard sell like GO NOW AND BUY.

The best way to approach it is just like if you were having a conversation with people. Use language instead like, take a look, go check it out, etc.

One thing to realize also is that different kinds of people are reading your emails. Some are more in depth, some have more time, and some are in a big hurry! Also, some people like to make decisions really fast, while others like to really read everything and think about it.

So just like you’ve seen sales letters that give the buy option early on, and continue to give more benefits below for the more slow decision maker, your emails should give the link up front, AND later down.

The reason is that some people will click right away no matter what, and some are a lot more selective. Why not please both?

So don’t pressure your readers, maintain a friendly yet sure of yourself tone, and always close the email with a final call to action.

Another thing I like to do, is under my signature, place in a P.S. The P.S. gets read a lot because many people just scroll down to the bottom to see what the deal is. That’s why the P.S. is so effective. It’s like your out of sales mode and just want to say something nice or illuminating to the person. Very effective, make this part more personal!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Building good rapport is essential to any relationship. How can you ensure that you’re starting off on the right foot with your audience in your Email Marketing Opt In efforts?

Here’s a few ways to build the way people perceive you in the marketplace, and will help them to form natural bonds with them.These natural bonds will tear down the natural resistance that all potential buyers in a marketplace have to marketers.

Remember, just as if you meet someone in a social setting, you’re probably not too interested in what they know until they know how much you care.

You’ve probably heard this, and if you’ve ever read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, you’ll see that a feeling of importance and acknowledgment is what people are after, at their core level.

Remember, whatever marketplace you’re in, the primary thing you’re selling is hope and acceptance, and secondarily your products and services.

People connect with people before they make purchases. If there is trust and good connections there, buying, selling, and the general exchange of trust will be there also. It will flow naturally, with no need for ad pounding or hitting your list over and over with promotions.

You will promote and they want you to promote. But remember, to sell your personality first and sell the trust first. Then promotion will be a pleasure and not come across the wrong way. They need solutions to their problems.

They want to spend money to get there, but they want to pay people they like for things that work. Don’t forget any part of that statement!

It’s all in the spirit of the exercise. Where is your heart? Ask yourself this before you enter a new marketplace.

So, you know where your heart should be for maximum results in the quickest time possible. But, what are some practical things you can do to come across the right way and build that trust and rapport early on?

Here are some great ways to do that:

1) Let them know your intentions up front. Put some stories and color in there, and let your personality shine through. Remember, show a little vulnerability and be a real person. Everyone knows other people aren’t perfect, so if you are Mr or Miss Too Perfect, that will lose some trust!

2) Make your interactions entertaining as well as educational. Remember again to put in things like video, audio, pictures, stories and you’ll reach so many more people rather than just text alone.

3) Be sincere, and support enquiries and questions in a friendly way. This doesn’t mean to go overboard with long emails back and forth, but do answer in a timely manner and be friendly. Remember its so much easier to retain a good person on your list, than go get new ones!

4) Make every communication a pleasure, and ensure that people are seeing quality and associating with your name or your organization’s name. Yes, mistakes will happen of course, but just correct quickly and take ALL the blame. Throw in an extra bonus for their trouble! But, know when to cut the cord too when someone is being aggressive etc.

5) Surprise and delight whenever you can.

6) Have fun! Remember it comes through on your communications 100%. People are attracted to those they want to be like, and they want to be happy. So, if you’re out of balance and tiring yourself out trying to make everything happen TOO fast, then that will come through. Sometimes less is more!

7) Remember a List is an Audience. They are people who need solutions and support, and to be cared about. Never forget that and you won’t go wrong!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

The first thing we have to remember when we are building up our processes for list building are the two main components, our squeeze page and our traffic.

If you don’t already have a squeeze page and a free gift to giveaway, take a look at convincing squeeze pages in your marketplace that you find on the Internet, that are setup for opt in marketing.

You can use them for a starting template and edit them in something like the free NVU editor.  You’ll also need to get an autoresponder account, I recommend Aweber for most people.

This article will focus on what you need to do next though, to get traffic to the page and start building that influx of people to your list.

Traffic is pretty much defined as the numbers of people coming to your site, on a daily basis.

So, why do some sites only have 3 visitors a day, while some have 300 or 3,000+?  Basically in most cases, the people organizing the starter sites don’t have a clear understanding of the basic way the Internet works to direct the conduits of traffic.

Some people say use PPC (eg: Google Adwords) and other paid techniques. This is not really fitting here and I’ll tell you why. A basic list building exercise just starting out is not receiving revenue (money) off the the opt-ins. If you are smart, your thank you page will have some revenue opportunities in there (I prefer recurring income programs.)

But, in any event, when you’re starting out in the beginning you won’t be able to justify the 50c-$3.00 per click that Adwords will cost you, and there’s no reason to have to pay that.

So, what are some more stable, and sustainable traffic methods to build your list fast?

Remember, that things will seem slow at first, but what you are doing will start to multiply and grow and will soon snowball hugely! It’s exciting stuff, I was surprised how fast it happened to me, seemingly near silence then an explosion of traffic and opt ins!

Here’s how to get started:

1) Find your top 2-3 keywords for your niche and focus on those in your opt-in page. What this means is to do basic keyword research with Adwords Keyword Tool. You’re looking for at LEAST 500 searches a month. And, then go to Google and search for these terms. Focus on ones with less than 500K competing web pages (it tells you on the top right corner).

2) Find a way to write 2 articles per day of 400-600 words, each one focused on one of your top 2 keywords. (It should appear once in the title, summary, and body of the article. It should also be anchor text meaning that the keyword should have  your site behind it as the link behind the keyword.

3) Write a resource box of at least 250 characters, which can be a generic sort of natural flow from any article. It should be like a continuation in the subject and should have your link itself at the end to get more information.

4) Publish these articles to as many article sites as you can using Articlemarketer.com, or similar article posting services. This will save you a huge amount of time.

5) Think of ways you can reuse the content and re-purpose it for PR Releases, audios, videos, blog posts, forum posts, etc. All to create more backlinks back to your site.

6) Be Consistent. If you really put 2 articles a day through the process, within a few weeks you’ll start to see real traffic to your site, and your list will begin to be built on autopilot!

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide

So you’ve decided to build a list and market on the Internet, and do it through building a list and opt-in email marketing. That’s a great step forward and I really appreciate you deciding to take action! Now, what action to take?!

I hear this all the time, and I’ve been there myself when I first started. You can be enthusiasm on fire, but without a blueprint, you’ll be more excitement than results! That’s not what we want, we want excitement AND results!

So here’s the components you really need in your first month building your business, to get that momentum you want to grow your list and business.

1) Decide on the niche (subject area) you want to focus on in your business. It should be something that’s balanced between your interests and having a marketplace too. You should also be specific enough to be able to stake your claim to a marketplace. For example if you chose marketing you would literally have hundreds of millions of competitors on the net. How about Wordpress Blog Marketing better you’d need to check that phrase by typing it into the Google Adwords Keyword Tool (just search that on Google and it will come up).

This tool will allow you to type in phrases you’re considering, as many as you want, and see how many searches are made on that term per month. That’s how many people are searching per month, so it’s a good idea of how many people will search on that term per month in the future.

Now once, you have say your top 10 phrases: (Eg: Wordpress Blog Marketing, Viral Wordpress Blog Marketing, Marketing with Wordpress, etc), go to Google.com.

Now search for each of them. See how many COMPETING results (other people’s pages come up for them). Less than 100K? Very Easy to Compete! 500K or Less? A little longer but doable. 1.5Mill or more- will take a couple of months of focused effort.

So, a smart way to go is to pick some low hanging fruit first, pick ones with 300K or less competing results say, with 500 or more people searching for it per month.

Just focus on one phrase for now, and THIS is what we will make our Squeeze page (where we collect the name and email address) about.

2) Identify your top Keyword Phrase from Step 1 (less than 300K competing results, more than 500 searches a month).

3) Go on the Internet, find Squeeze pages (pages that ask for a name and email in exchange for a gift), in your niche, that really appeal to you and would make you sign up. Find the top 2 or 3 that you can that really do convince you to sign up to get the gift. On your browser, hit View: Page Source (for Firefox, IE is similar). Save this file (hit Save As, to your desktop)

4) Download the NVU editor for free. (Search Google)

5) Open the file in the NVU editor.  Modify it, taking out any copyrighted images etc.

6) Change it up to suit your needs, and to reflect that primary keyword phrase you had. Remember to make it your own, and don’t leave any elements in which are the rights of someone else, you’re just using it as a template.

7) Find a free PLR item that you can giveaway.  (stands for Private Label Rights search Google). It should relate closely to the primary keyword phrase you found above. Examples include free report or free software.

8) If you can, change the picture of the item a bit and title, and improve the content a bit. This will increase response as it will then be unique.

9) Add Traffic Techniques to this to get visitors to your page. To learn more about this get my special report on the site mentioned below called List Building DOMINATION.

Damian Leon, YOUR Internet Success Guide