Help For Veterans

You remember MacGyver, the TV series, right? If not, MacGyver was the super-smart agent who could do anything with his ingenuity. He didn’t believe in guns or violence when it could be avoided. OK, so what in the world does MacGyver mean to you, as an Internet marketer?

When it comes to you and your online business, all you need is a bit of ingenuity when it comes to the MOST important activity you can pursue – lead generation. Having a big, responsive list is what will make the biggest difference in your business and your income online.

The first thing you need to do is to sign up for an online autoresponder account. There are stand alone programs you can buy that make it seem far less expensive, but when it comes to deliverability, security, and ease of use, the online autoresponder just makes more sense. They have your back, too, in case any spam complaints arise. Autoresponders also give you the code for an optin box that you’ll use to collect names and addresses for all your lead generation projects.

Anyway, this is a very important tool that you need to have. Why? So you can build lists of names and email addresses. These are the people to whom you will send awesome information so that the folks on your list can come to know, like, and trust you. Then, they’ll accept the product recommendations you make and spend money. It also gives your a captive audience for any product you create in the future.

Here are some interesting ways that you can create buzz and be collecting names and email addresses for your list:

1. Create a squeeze page: Of course, this is the number one tool for lead generation. Offer potential subscribers something really cool for free and they will sign up for your list.

2. Blog: Add an optin box to your blog as soon as you install it. Once this is in place, you’re ready to start blogging every single day. Consistent posting is the secret to building a large audience.

3. Facebook: Set up a fan page at Facebook and add an optin box there. Tell all of your friends about it and ask them to become fans. The more fans your page has, the more folks who will come to look, if only from curiosity, and if you engage them, they’ll sign up for your list.

4. Tweet: Be sure to have a Twitter account. Give people lots of great information and get them re-tweeting your posts. Every now and then, like once a day, remind people of your free offer on the squeeze page, add your URL, and let your followers sign up for your list.

5. Social bookmarking: Bookmark your squeeze page in all the social bookmarking sites that make sense, like Digg, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Reddit, etc. Be sure to write a good comment–like a subtle sales message–for your post so that people will be intrigued.

Tellman Knudson, CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., is a master list builder and well-known for his List Building Club. Tellman teaches students how to build a successful online business. Create your successful business from his step-by-step videos at: http://www.sendaemailaday.com/lbc

Most people don’t think on an Internet scale. With megabyte to terabyte to petabyte to who knows what’s coming next, the Internet is forcing us to think on a much larger scale. In terms of lead generation, this is exactly what we need students to understand… you need a MUCH bigger list than 1,000 people to do make much money online.

This is why you need to start thinking lead generation the minute you touch down. Your first task is to get an autoresponder service, and you should be thinking “online” autoresponder service. Why? It may be a little pricier than buying your own software, but the online services do much more of the work for you. They send out confirmation messages, allow you to broadcast to all of your lists at once, and they house the names and email addresses of everyone who signs up for you. But the biggest benefit is that they have your back if someone claims you’re spamming them. The service can provide the date, time, and IPN address of the person complaining, so that there’s no question that you’re in the right.

The next thing is getting your own domain and hosting account so that you can set up a squeeze page. This is nothing more than a short sales letter, telling people why they should sign up for your list. You might want to include an ethical bribe or a “give away” here so that you’re giving people something of value in exchange for their information. The squeeze page will have a great headline, no more than about three to five bullet points, outlining the benefits of your free offer, and an opt-in box, which you create through your autoresponder service.

Then, you send traffic. Think of every way possible to get people to your squeeze page and signing up for your free offer. You can start a blog, write articles and press releases and on and on. Just keep people coming to the page and signing up for your free offer.

Once you have a list, you want to take care of them. Send them interesting information. Give them things, like special reports, software, or other free offers in your niche that they can use. The key is that they’re gifts in your niche. If you’re in the golfing niche and send people information on quilting, it just won’t work.

But you also want to start marketing to people, and you can do that in your autoresponder follow-up message series. Address a problem that people are having in your niche, and at the end of the message, offer them a product that solves the problem for which you can get an affiliate commission.

Here’s where the size of the Internet comes in… You need a huge list to quit your day job, probably 20,000 people at least. But the bigger your list grows, the more money you’ll make, just playing the odds.

So, you’re online and you want to make a ton of money overnight, right? You need to step back and check yourself, my friend. It’s not going to happen. You can absolutely, positively make a lot of money, but you have to do things right. And, if you make two fatal mistakes, you’ll probably never succeed.

The first mistake is to neglect lead generation. You may not think this is imperative, and that’s understandable, with all of the “get-rich-quick” programs out there. They have attractive young men and women convincing you that you don’t have to do a thing, that you can get rich while you sleep, and that they’ll do all of the work for you.

Don’t believe them!

Your first goal online… always and forever… should be lead generation. You need a list of people with like interests to send good information to so that they come to know, like and trust you. This is how you make sales online. Without the trust, people are naturally skeptical, and you’ll find it very hard to make any money at all.

You have to set up a squeeze page and send traffic to it. You need to put an opt-in box in every place you are able, such as at the top of your blog, on your profile at MySpace, on a Facebook fan page, and anywhere else it makes sense to do so. You should look for lead generation opportunities everywhere. And be building that list and your relationship with them.

So, that’s the second mistake — not keeping your list happy. You need to give them things. Send them great information or cool tools that they can use in their own businesses. And you have to be sure that whatever you send to them is within the realm of your niche.

For example, if you’re in the quilting niche, don’t send them information or offers about Internet marketing. They won’t be interested, and what will happen is that many of the people on that quilting list will just unsubscribe. You’ll have to start gaining their trust all over again.

Having a big list is great because, even when the economy is in a downturn, you’ll still make money. Some of the people on your list will still have jobs that they’re interested in getting away from and will spend money if you can help them to do that. Or, they have a hobby that they’ll pursue no matter how bad things get. You just have to decide who you want your list to be and then do everything you can to start growing it bigger and bigger and bigger.

Tellman Knudson, CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., is a master list builder and well-known for his List Building Club. Tellman teaches students how to build a successful online business. Create your successful business from his step-by-step videos at: http://www.sendaemailaday.com/lbc

Lead generation is the most important aspect of Internet marketing, though many new marketers miss the significance. Online, you’re selling to virtual strangers. There’s no human contact, except for words on a screen, unless… You build an army of people who know, like, and trust you, and who will seriously consider the recommendations you make to them. You do this via list building or what many call “lead generation.”

Here are 10 simple steps that you can take to increase your list building power:

1) Buy a domain

Domains are inexpensive (you should pay no more than about $10 a year), and they give you an identity on the web. Think of short names for your domain, names that people can remember and easily type into the address bar of their browsers.

2) Get hosting

Sign up for a hosting account where you can set up your own website. There are thousands of hosting companies out there. You want to look for one that has large bandwidth transfer built in; room to grow, meaning it allows you to host several domains; and that allows you to set up MySQL databases.

3) Transfer your domain to your hosting account.

You must set your domain name system (DNS) or “name servers” where you bought your domain so that they point to your hosting account. Your web host should give you this information when you open your account with them.

4) Start a blog

The quickest way to have a presence online is by installing a blog. A WordPress blog is preferred, due to its user-friendliness and it’s ability to be customized. You may think that setting up a blog on a hosted site, such as WordPress.com or Blogger is the way to go… it’s not. They won’t allow you to do any type of commercial promotion.

5) Get an autoresponder

Whereas a stand-alone blog is best, a stand-alone autoresponder is not. Find a hosted solution that will warehouse the names and email addresses of the people on your list, and allow you to send follow-up messages to them or message them any time.

6) Put an opt-in box on your blog

Now, you’re ready to begin your lead generation program. Create an opt-in box, where people will enter their names and email addresses, and install it in a widget on your blog.

7) Blog every day

Lead generation is almost guaranteed when you build a large blog readership. If you’re posting quality information every day, or if you’re adding videos and audios that help your niche to learn something new or to engage their imagination, you will get people signing up for your list. The trick to getting a large blog audience is to blog every single day.

Tellman Knudson, CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., is a master list builder and well-known for his List Building Club. Tellman teaches students how to build a successful online business. Create your successful business from his step-by-step videos at: http://www.sendaemailaday.com/lbc