That's a very bold title, and even more impressive because I DO get all of the subscribers I want on a continuous basis. How can this be true and how do I do it?
First of all, I do have limits on the number of subscribers that I want. How many subscribers I desire on a list depends upon the purpose of that list. I hope that you build your lists the same way. Many online entrepreneurs just build lists as large as possible without any real concern for how qualified the list members are. They reason that if they get enough email addresses and names someone will eventually buy SOMETHING. What you should really be shooting for is lists of pre-qualified members... those really interested in the purpose of your list.
If you build pre-qualified lists you don't need lists as large because the lists will be so responsive. It won't seem like your mailings are "shots in the dark." You won't have the problems that plagues so many lists such as:
- People
signing up with throw-away email address which they soon abandon.
People will want to make sure they don't miss an issue because they
are genuinely interested in your list topic.
- People who sign up for ten times as many ezines as they can possibly
read. These subscribers don't know what they are looking for and
therefore aren't your ideal subscribers. You want to attract mostly
subscribers who know and want exactly what you have to offer.
But how do I get all of these highly targeted subscribers? It is through a number of throughly tested systems which I put in place and let them take on a life of their own. I'll share a few with you.
The first system that I put in place is that I have a subscribe box on virtually every page of my websites. However, I don't want just anybody subscribing. Therefore, the teaser near my subscribe boxes tells what type of subscriber I am looking for. Far too many people have subscriber forms that just say "join our list." To further ensure that my subscribers know EXACTLY what they are signing up for, I have sample copies of my ezines posted on my sites for them to preview. Also, as soon as they signup, the welcome essage has the latest issue included. This reassures the subscriber of exactly what he will be getting and shows him what to anticipate with each weekly issue. If the ezine isn't what the subscriber expected, he only needs to click on the unsubscribe link to remove himself.
Many people have a signup box on their site, but not many make sure they are getting targeted subscribers. This just leads to a lot of bounced emails and angry people who forget that they subscribed. Highly targeted subscribers grow your list faster because they stay longer. A more responsive list doesn't need to be as large to provide you with all of the business you can manage!
A second system I have implemented on my site is a customized list building tutorial. Site visitors take a survey and are provided with a tutorial based upon their answers to a few questions. The page featuring the survey also tells them that they will be added to my subscriber list where they will get more priceless information. This works like magic. I just need a few links on strategic pages pointing to the survey and I get a steady trickle of new subscribers automatically. If I were not getting enough subscribers through this system, I would probably add a popunder box pointing to them survey.
A third system that I use to get new, highly targeted traffic is that I actually BUY them for some purposes. For example, I have a course I offer from my site. I get new subscribers through a service called Lead Factory. Lead Factory sends me new subscribers through popup boxes on high traffic sites. The subscribers are highly targeted because my invitation to get the coures is very specific. They know exactly what they are getting and so I get the exact subscribers I want. The beauty of this system is that I can control exactly how many people are taking the course at any one time. Why would I want to limit the number of subscribers? Because many of the subscribers email me with questions and feedback as they take the course. If I had too many subscribers to the course it would become impossible to keep up with the email. I want to keep up with the email because by communicating with my course subscribers I turn many of them into loyal customers.
The
subscribers to the course are also invited to become ezine subscribers
and over 90% of those completing the course do subscribe. So this
system continuously feeds highly targeted and
loyal subscribers to my ezine.
A fourth system that I use is that I write ezine article regularly which I submit to ezines, article directories and article lists. All of these articles have resource boxes which bring the reader into my site on the exact landing page I desire. Which page they are brought into the site on depends upon the article's topic. This is key to getting that highly targeted traffic. My articles are published on many other websites, so each article becomes a mini-system which continues to bring in new site visitors and subscribers for YEARS. The same is true of my article and interviews published in ebooks.
These are just a few of the many systems that I have in place which bring me thousands of new contacts regularly. Each system is implemented in such a way that once put in place I need take no further action. Many of these systems were conceived after I read Paul Myers' incredible book, The Amazing List Machine. Using techniques from this book and those I brainstormed after reading this book several times, I honestly have all of the subscribers I want. If I increase the subscribers, contacts, and leads much more I would be forced to hired additional employees. That wouldn't be such a bad thing except that at some point I would exceed the span-of-control that I feel comfortable with. It would force my business to turn into the type of enterprise I don't want since I built an online business to afford me more leisure time :-)
If
you have not already read Paul's book, I consider it essential
reading. Grab a copy by visiting:
http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/tk.cgi?paul
If you want new subscribers SUPERFAST you absolutely MUST check out LEAD FACTORY. I most recently added just over 11,000 new subscribers using this service. They were highly targeted subscribers and I know I will recover 30 times my expense. It is very important that you know the lifetime value of your list members before you use a service like this though. A simple way to approximate this is to divide how much money you think you earned through your list over say 2 years by the number of list members you have. This approximates how much each member is "worth." This is very simplistic but gives you an idea of the most you should be willing to spend to attract new list members.
Check
out the highly recommended Lead Factory at:
http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/tk.cgi?leadfactory
If you struggle to get new subscribers, I have just shown you how to get all of the new subscribers you can use. The key is that they need to be highly targeted. Set up a number of systems similar to mine and you will find that your list building challenges are solved!
If
you'd like to see my survey system in action, go to:
http://williecrawford.com/build-list.html
© 2003 by Willie Crawford