Happy Monday!! Here we are at the dawn of a whole new week and I’m back in the office after a few days away.

I’ve decided that I wanted to begin my day and begin my week by making a video for you. I’ve planned to make this video for what seems like an eternity, and finally got round to it. We all know that the money is in the list, and in this video I’m going to take you on a little tour of my squeeze page and tell you exactly WHY it’s been achieving a 70%+ opt-in rate!!!

Enjoy… (and don’t forget to comment!)
Speak soon!
Marc…

So yesterday I explained why, contrary to popular belief, there is something more important than your list. BUT, your list is still important! Once you’ve got your customers and you’re looking after them (see yesterdays post!), you need a way to keep in touch with them, right? And that is where the importance of your list comes in!

So from day one, you need to be capturing leads and then communicating with your sign-ups effectively.

In fact, the list building is almost more important that a website … and you don’t actually have to own a website to start this essential process.

A well-established way of list building is the Joint Venture Giveaway. I’ve only just begun using giveaways (slaps wrist!) but I WISH I’d started years ago!! I’ve just come to the end of the first giveaway I’ve taken part in and you can the second one that I’m currently involved with here:
===> http://www.MarcMilburn.com/recommends/Valentines

Giveaways dominate in the Internet Marketing niche, but also flourish in other popular niches like Health and MLM/Network Marketing.

In this case, the Giveaway is concentrating on video training resources.

The basic process is this:

# A hosts sets up and advertises a JV Giveway event

# Contributors sign up and add their ‘gifts’ to the website … these are usually e-books, software packages, audios or videos

# These gifts are usually offered free of charge, but members have to sign up to the contributor’s email list in order to receive their gift … hence this is a ‘list building exercise’ for contributors

# After a pre-determined period of contributors adding gifts to the site, the doors open, and members can sign up and see what’s on offer

# Usually it’s a downloading frenzy, a trolley dash where you can download e-products for free … and many of them can be resold for profit

# Members are encouraged to promote the JV Giveaway, and incentives are usually given to encourage this

# Credits or commissions are usually awarded for referring people and possibly downgrade penalties if nobody is referred.

Many people sign up to Giveaway events just to help themselves to freebies, and there is nothing wrong with this.

If people didn’t do this, the marketers would not generate any new leads … so a Giveaway thrives on its ‘freebie seekers’.

However, there is no better place to be – if you’re serious about your online business and your list building – than at the front of the queue … and that means being a contributor and taking an active part in a Giveaway.

At http://www.MarcMilburn.com/recommends/Valentines there’s even a ‘Newbies Bootcamp’ which shows you exactly how to create a first listing at absolutely no cost to you whatsoever … and challeges you to sign up your first 10 referrals to convince yourself that this process really works.

Once you’re convinced about the process, having ventured nothing but your time, you can start to get really involved and get the additional benefits of taking an upgrade.

When you do this, you get text adverts and One Time Offers, as well as the ability to list more of your products.

Most Giveaways are so reasonably priced, you only have to sell one of your One Time Offers and you’ll have earned your fee back.

So, what are you waiting for?

Whatever niche you’re in, there’s bound to be a benefit in taking part in these Giveaway events.

Sign-up, at the link below, right now and convince yourself that Giveaways really are the place to be if you want to build a list fast.

===> http://www.MarcMilburn.com/recommends/Valentines

I hope to see your name at the top of the leader board soon!!

Don’t forget to leave me a comment before you go…..

Welcome to the third official blog post of the new-look blog!! I wouldn’t normally work on a Sunday evening BUT something has really wound me up and I had to write this post.

You see, unfortunately I’m writing today with a rant! (Dramatic roll of thunder, please!). That’s right, I’m going to jump up onto my soapbox and complain about something which seems to be happening more and more often in this industry. It’s really cringeworthy… and I’m quite passionate about it.

So what am I talking about? Well, we all know that “the money is in the list” but that assumes that “the list” is being used correctly.

You see, just a couple of days ago I received an e-mail which began thus:

“Hi {firstname},”

**MAJOR CRINGING**

That’s right.. instead of the e-mail including my name it simply included an (incorrect) personalisation code. Now don’t get me wrong, if the personalisation had worked, I wouldn’t be under ANY illusion that this e-mail was intended directly to me. As I use the same e-mail software that this marketer was using myself (Aweber), I understand that I was simply a a tiny cog in a huge list of other subscribers.. but I cringe as I think of them receiving this same e-mail.

In truth, I closed the e-mail and didn’t bother to read it. I suspect other people could be doing the same thing. Making this mistake could be damaging your marketing dramatically! It’s especially disturbing when you realise that all this marketer had done was to miss out the ! from the code.

BUT it gets worse…

Another e-mail that I received recently was seemingly part of an ad-swap so the e-mail copy was probably standard to the marketer who was being promoted. Now I am all for ad swaps and I think they are a fantastic way to expand your list and your customer/fan base BUT you have to be careful. You see this second e-mail finished with the words:

“Kind regards,
YOUR NAME HERE”

**MAJOR CRINGING**

It’s just simple carelessness. Just by making TWO minor changes to your e-mails, you can DRAMATICALLY increase your chances of success with your list.

So how can you fix this and make sure it never happens (again)?

Here’s my three-step personalisation plan:

1. Revise your personalisation codes for your specific autoresponder software (Aweber, GetResponse, 1ShoppingCart, etc) and make a note of them somewhere handy.

2. Use the “test” feature of the autoresponder. Send at least 1 test e-mail to yourself and make sure that the personalisation works!

3. Make sure to read through each and every e-mail that you send out before you send it.

There are many “schools of thought” which think that personalisation probably isn’t that necessary anyway. Some marketers say that most intelligent people realise that they are being “broadcast to” rather than being sent an e-mail personally. However, I still think it’s a nice idea. I get e-mails pretty regularly where people have “replied” to one of my autoresponder e-mails to say “Thanks”. Some people really appreciate the personalisation.. as long as its done correctly.

I know, I know, it probably is a fairly easy mistake to make BUT it’s also SO easy to fix.

That’s bringing me to the end of this rant so I’ll jump back down of my soapbox.

But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE… if you’re going to personalise your e-mails, do it correctly.