If you engage in any form of Email Marketing you probably read the same things that I do about it all:

• Email Marketing is dead.
• Safelist Marketing is a waste of time.
• Email Ad Blasters are a scam.

And yet I know of several Internet Marketers, MLMers and Network Marketers that continue to make their livings almost completely from the contacts and sales that they generate from these specific sources.

So who is right?!

Actually, both are!

In spite of the fact that a core group of marketers build their businesses this way, this fact remains:

The vast majority of people using any form of Email based marketing never even get their emails opened!

The reason is as simple as it is maddening...

Their Subject Line, or Headline isn't doing it's job!

Ok, so the question now is not difficult to identify. What is the role of the Subject Line?

Fortunately it is just as easily answered.

The only thing the Headline needs to do is get the recipient to open that email! If the recipient opens the email, then the Subject Line or Headline has completed it's task!

Writing an effective Subject Line requires that you focus your efforts on just this one aspect. If the Headline does not motivate the recipient then it has failed...

To accomplish this, you should rarely if ever use the prewritten Subject Lines provided by the programs or products that you are promoting. These end up being so overused that most of your readers will just pass them over.

Your Subject Line should jump out at the reader and tell them not just what your subject matter is about, but it should let the reader know that if they DON't read your email, they will miss out on something they cannot get anywhere else!

It is no secret in the IM community when a major launch occurs. Most of us are so inundated with emails about the newest/best/greatest service or software title since sliced bread that we are relieved when it is over. But ask yourself: Which of these emails do you end up opening?

Invariably it will be the one that approaches the subject from a different angle. You will get at least a dozen with IDENTICAL Subject Lines. You may open one of these, but not likely more than that...

You will need to study the product or service that you are promoting and look for a feature that is both important and overlooked in the provided marketing materials. This is usually easier than it sounds. It is best if this is something that solves a problem that you are aware of, or even have struggled with yourself.

Explosive headlines work well too. Exploit a perceived controversy, or create one. A very successful technique is to state that the product or service being promoted "Is Guaranteed Legal" or other copy designed to make it sound more controversial than anything else available.

Get the recipient to feel that they will be missing something if they don't read your email and it will get opened.

The next step is getting the prospect to click one of the links inside. But that is the job of your sales copy.

We will discuss that next time...

Jimbo!

Regular readers here will probably have noticed that the programs that I recommend via the banners in the sidebar are heavy on products and services that will generate targeted traffic. It should be no surprise since the largest part of what we do as either affiliate marketers or to promote our own products is motivated by a need to get more eyes looking at out websites, offers, blogs, Squidoo lenses, HubPages...

You get the idea.

And of course you could drive yourself crazy chasing every new gizmo, gadget and application promising you and unending supply of folks clutching their credit cards tightly as they rabidly visit your site. Many are good but just clones of each other. Others are so overpriced as to be ridiculous.

Time to take a step back, breathe deeply and approach targeted traffic generation with some balance and most of all a plan...

I approach traffic generation as simply as I can so that I know from day to day exactly what tasks I need to perform. I do the things first that create not just the fastest traffic but the most, and longest lasting.

1. Yep, as much as many of you hate doing it, Article Marketing is my number one priority. I write two 450 to 500 word articles almost every day.  The power of doing this is like compound interest. It just keeps building, and will create targeted traffic like nothing else.  The best method for this is to write about a problem you faced and talk about it being solved without really mentioning the product of service that you want them to eventually buy.  Then at the end, in your resource box, or as a postscript place the link to your offer, as well as to your blog or site that is general to the niche.  I publish my articles two ways.

• Free Traffic System - Here I get my "spun" article posted to 30 blogs of my choice based on keyword selection.
• SE Nuke - This is a membership site with an amazingly huge suite of tools that covers an amazing array of traffic generation techniques.  It will spin your articles and publish them to numerous article directories.

2. Video Marketing becomes more and more important every day.  I personally don't do as many unique videos as I should, but there are a number of ways to easily create very effective videos without being any kind of production whiz.  Todd Gross has a program called Presale Videos which is a monthly membership site with dozens of videos, mostly starring Todd himself.  Each video promotes a specific affiliate product.

I also use other people's videos in my blogs and webpages by "scraping" the video using the FireFox Download Helper Plugin.  It include this with a word of caution.  Only use videos you have permission to!  I prefer to upload a video I will use to my own YouTube Channel in order to take advantage of any additional traffic I may be able to acquire.

I also put together some of my own little slideshow videos using Windows Movie Maker which comes with most computers these days.  There is a new product out there designed to turn your unique articles into videos called Article Video Robot.  It is a pretty slick service and will make your look pretty professional, but the concept of reading your article over a slideshow really requires nothing but Windows Movie Maker and some royalty free images.

I upload my videos to several sites using TubeMogul.  It allows me to simultaneously upload to a number of sites at once. A real time saver.

3.  Viral Traffic Services - Again there are many of these out there.  I have been using the new program Traffic Python with absolutely fantastic results.  It is really a carbon copy of Web Traffic Juggernaut, so use either one.

4. Email Marketing - This is a combination of my own lists and several different and very specialized Web 2.0 Email and Ad Blasters.  Be sure you are sending quality content and not just ads.  Another good use for your articles and videos.  In the case of both my autoresponder and the blasters, I prefer to pay once up front and not have a monthly fee for either service.

5. PPC Advertising - Most of you already know I am using Keyword ESP PPC Software.  This automates all of my PPC Advertising and creates more time for the rest of the methods.

6.  Consistency - This is the most important ingredient of all.  I try to do something with each of the above Traffic Generation methods every day.  I can't say I always succeed, but the effort creates enough consistency to steadily create the traffic I need and increase my sites rankings at a very acceptable pace.

I will talk at greater length on each of these methods in future posts.

Eat A Peach!

Jimbo

With the proliferation of programs like those of Frank Kern and a slew of others, the PPC (or PayPerClick) method of driving traffic to your websites and affiliate landing pages is front and center for many internet marketers.  Whether you are currently using PPC marketing techniques or have yet to take the plunge, weighing the risks against the rewards is important.

The rewards may seem obvious to many, but let's be clear about them:

• Targeted Traffic - Whatever traffic you get as a result of PPC campaigns will be targeted by your choice of keywords.
• Unlimited Traffic - Maybe not actually unlimited, but PPC campaigns can be the largest traffic source of any kind.
• Statistics - You can easily track which of your PPC campaigns are working and which are not.  The very nature of running PPC campaigns mean this happens almost automatically.  This can be fine tuned, and should be.
• Controlled Costs - You decide what you are willing to spend for a visitor for each and every one of your keywords, as well as setting a Daily Budget for each of your PPC campaigns.

There are obviously more benefits to using PPC advertising campaigns for targeted traffic generation, but we will stop there for now.

As with most things in life, the Pros and the Cons on a given topic are closely related.  Consider these risks regarding PPC marketing and you will see what I mean.

• Targeted Traffic - If you go too narrow in your keyword choices, you can end up with such a small amount of traffic (or even none) that it becomes nearly impossible to meet your sales goals, or even to analyze the results statistically.
• Unlimited Traffic - This means that your PPC campaigns will be competing with the big boys, and these battles can get more than a little nasty.  Carefully monitor your campaigns, and if you see something that smells funny, talk to and account manager with whichever PPC search engine is involved.
• Statistics - There is so much information available that many get Analysis Paralysis.  You need to strike a balance that allows you to MAKE decisions, not hinder them.
• Controlled Costs - If you don't control both your keyword bids, and the daily budget of each and every one of your PPC campaigns, you will find that you have either eaten up all of your profits or spent your entire savings on what will most likely turn out to have been largely useless traffic.

On whatever topic you care to discuss you will find that the best course you can follow is one of Balance.

A favorite saying of mine is that "Nothing is as Good as it seems, and Nothing is as Bad as it seems."

This is doubly true of the realm of PPC Advertising.  Venturing into this arena can be richly rewarding, or disastrously costly.  The only way to ensure a positive experience is to educate yourself on these issues extensively, or pay someone to run your PPC Marketing efforts for you.

Eat A Peach!

Jimbo

Many of us have made a lot of sales using email blasters and ad submitters to reach a broader audience with our offers. These were a great way to overcome the lack of a large email list of prospects. Lately many have noticed a marked decline in the response rate from these kinds of services.

The one thing you can always count on with Internet Marketing is change. There has been so much already written about the emergence of Web 2.0 social sites that I won't bore you here. It is important to understand that this shift to social websites, and social marketing techniques are at the heart of the lack of response being had from email blasters and ad submitters.

The long and the short of it is that what is needed are new types of blasters and submitters. The needed services are built around specific social websites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

There are certain features you should always look for with email blasters and ad submitters, and this hasn't changed any with the new services.  Look for services that only charge you one time for lifetime access.  It is also preferable that you be allowed unlimited submissions as opposed to once daily or even weekly submissions allowed by some services.  Text as well as HTML emails and ads should also be permitted.

Check out the services here:  My MacroNet Tools

They have all of these features and much more...

Enjoy!

and as always:

Eat A Peach!

Jimbo!