Life comes at us hard. We all can attest to that. So what I have to share today takes a stand against modern day slavery. Okay, maybe that’s a bit much? But how else am I to explain it?
We either spend all our time working for some corporation that “capitalizes” from our time and effort spent serving their needs, or find ourselves unable to work due to poor economic reasons or “unsatisfactory” backgrounds.
My point?
We spend too much time making others rich… when we should be making ourselves! Below I’m going to show you how to break those chains. Those same chains I myself had to realize needed to be broken in order for me to truly be happy. To truly be “free.”
List Building
There is no real value or point in having an email list if you do not actively build it. Not doing so will only lead to much frustration, low post view counts within your chosen analytics reporting, and no active social or comment engagement.
People online are just like those in real life, this means you must actively “engage” them as you “build” with them.
This requires you understand the To-Do and Do-Not’s of list building as outlined below.
Double Opt-In
As noted in a recent Whitehat Affiliate Marketing post, double opt-in must be used in today’s email marketing efforts. From Google’s “promotions tab”, to not using SMTP authentication, IP reputation along with delivery rates can be greatly affected in a variety of ways. By choosing to have your leads confirm their subscription to your email list, you’re not only ensuring they are using a valid email address, delivery rates will be much higher overall as well.
In most cases, you can at minimum expect a 10 to 20 percent open rate, simply by choosing to use double opt-in vs. single opt-in. Many may argue that single opt-in works best for them, however, the studies don’t lie.
If looking to be worry-free, save yourself the headache of a frozen email marketing account down the line. Even worse, having your IP blacklisted.
Retargeting Visitors
Visitors come and go. Seriously; In that order.
So why not have a way to send them back to those same pages they checked out before? In most cases, they did not read or complete that piece of content. Or maybe they did and forgot to subscribe to your newsletter? In any event or lack thereof, we would love it if they would.
This is where using services like Facebook’s Custom Audiences really can make a huge difference, whether looking to gain traffic or new subscribers, the options are there.
In its prime, retargeting has been known to provide super high conversion rates when looking to gain quick masses of subscribers to your email list.
Even if looking to boost your traffic, there are numerous guides available showing how to positively leverage Facebook for high traffic gains.
Freebie Offers & Lead Magnets
If lead magnets are the new landing page, then freebie offers are like Ford. My point? Use them… use them often! Just like Ford’s take on the pickup truck, for example, it has been proven time and time again that freebie offers higher opt-in rates.
So why would you miss out on all those possible leads or even better subscribers to your latest newsletter?
Such possibilities can easily be gained by simply adding an exit intent pop-up or landing page for a free eBook download to your website. Many people find themselves wishing this was implemented way further down the line. Don’t wait until the traffic comes to get such things sorted out.
Do yourself and/or your business a favor and offer visitors something worth their time, such as a worthwhile case study or a blueprint to some issue they may be running into.
Providing something that can only be used in specific situations should be saved for use via lead magnets. Lead Magnets offer the chance to provide your visitors an extra bang for their opt-in, going hand and hand with the great piece of content it has been added to. A great example of this would be offering a lead magnet of 10 top web 2.0 websites within a post on your blog about building SEO-friendly backlinks.
Although this small bit of information may seem small or incremental to you personally, think about how long it took for you to research and find it.
By cutting that gap of time for your audience and providing their sought after solutions, they more than not are willing to see what other pieces of content you may have to offer.
Affiliate Marketing
As any real internet marketer will admit, affiliate marketing is a great way to earn a commission from your blogging and/or social media efforts. This especially becomes true when not having the start-up funds to create and produce your own products that customers will enjoy and benefit from. It allows data to be collected to see what interest your audience the most as well.
There are just so many great benefits to affiliate marketing if you take the time to learn proper ways to promote your offers and remember to respect those being sold to.
Gaining Traffic to Offers
Speaking of those being sold to, getting traffic to offers happens to be the spark that will eventually ignite the flame (conversions). Without it, you will never see any commissions.
There are numerous ways this can be done, but in order to see the biggest impact, you must position yourself as an authority on whatever subject your product offers cover. Doing so will allow for many things to take place. Most notably, however, it will allow for your audience to gain exposure to what is being offered in a genuine way. A way that instills trust, brand loyalty, and fandom that will help spread the word.
Conversion & Click Rates
Once traffic has started to flow and all your lead capture, automation, and RSS feeds have been delivered on a consistent basis, it’s time to optimize those conversions via click rate and open rate data.
Taking that extra time to see what emails and opt-in forms are performing the lowest will make all the difference in the long run on how sustainable your income will be.
Starting out can be tough, but with some great A/B split testing and delivery time management, your conversion and click rates will slowly rise in no time at all.
Analyzing & Collecting Data
Once you have really gotten the basics down packed and are seeing steady income, it’s most definitely time to analyze what is working and scale using that data collected.
A great example of how this collected data can be formed is by adding a segmentation to your email list. Taking the time to ask new subscribers what they are truly interested based off 4 subcategories centered around your blog or products website can make all the difference. Now those new subscribers have the ability to only see content that is geared toward them via your automation emails being delivered. Something so advanced yet so simple is really all it takes to take your conversion rates to the next level and provided a great lasting income if done correctly over time.
“Living off the List”
For many aspiring marketers, SEO’s, & bloggers, living off their email list would be a dream come true. That’s the thing, though, this dream can become a reality as long as you take the time to follow the correct steps. This means not skipping steps, such as ordering cheap backlinks off Fiver or spamming other blogs for referral traffic. Taking the time to learn and grow will create a very compound effect, longevity.
Being Your Own Boss
Just think about it for a second…
How would it feel to make a day’s income while your sleeping? Or to wake up and start working on a new project you decided you’d like to complete?
Well, all those things can be true and so much more! Unlike any other profession I’ve seen, blogging and especially affiliate marketing allows you the freedom to make the money you desire. It takes time, patience, along with investment personal and financial, but in the end, the rewards are well worth it.
Over to you
Armed with your new found affiliate marketing success, what would you like to do with your long-term commissions? Or maybe you have “Insider Secrets” that could help us all get there with you? Feel free to share your thoughts and much more in the comments below! And if you liked this article always remember: “Sharing is Caring”!
The post Living Off the List: The Successful Affiliate Marketing Lifestyle appeared first on GetResponse Blog - Online Marketing Tips.
No comments:
Post a Comment