• If you want to be an affiliate marketer, go to clickbank.
• If you want to develop a business online, write an eBook.
• If you want to sell a website, go to Flippa.

Stop Running with the Herd

And the list continues. What you get with this mentality is called “running with the herd“. In stock investing, “running with the herd” will only get you somewhere when you are one of the first to find out about that opportunity. After too many people have jumped on the opportunity, the stock becomes “over-bought” and you will not see as much returns from that investment opportunity as the the initial buyers.

It is the same with online entreprenuership, most of these sites like Clickbank and Flippa, while they do have some gems, are riddled with low-end crappy products. This is because a lot of people on these sites have been sold the dream and think they can pump out noise and profit from it.

Think Out of The Box

To truly get ahead, you need to to think out of the box. This post was inspired by a post I read this morning from my friend, Chris Guthrie. Chris sold a website he developed for six figures. He didn’t do it through Flippa. The sale was done through an investment bank. How did he figure out he could sell a website for a premium through an investment bank? He thought out of the box. Read How to Sell a Website to know exactly how.

Mix What Works With Creativity

The lesson here is; As an entrepreneur, you need to know what works. Most importantly, why it works and the fundamentals behind why it does. This way you can be creative and put your own spin to it to make it work even better for you. The days of blueprints are over.

Image Credit: Flickr

Here you will discover how to use Facebook to supplement your marketing and to make your online business more effective. Facebook is the closest you will get to viral marketing nirvana and in this workshop you will find out how to capitalize on that.

I have also added audio interviews with Facebook marketing experts, people who have… been there, done that. You will get transcripts along with each interview.

So head on over here to get the workshop.

In this world of online marketing where there are so many scams and a 1001 ways to make money blogging, you need someone to help you cut through the crap and show how it should be done. You need a mentor that will help you figure out what you need to do in half the time. What would have taken you 5 days to figure out will be explained to you in one.

My story

I started this blog in May 2010 with a lot of high hopes. I did not want to be the run-of-the-mill blogger that would crank out post after post and comment on other blogs and not deliver value. I wanted to give something of value and make a business out of it. Then one day, I stumbled upon this post from David Risley called A Blog is Not A Business. It spoke to me personally and I added David’s blog to my RSS Feed.

The call

I had an idea for a piece of software that would help bloggers grow their email lists but somehow I was stuck in the analysis phase. I had 1001 ideas for development and marketing, but somehow I couldn’t get round to making things happen. One day I got an email from David offering a half-hour consulting for less than half the normal price. It was a no-brainer so I took him up on the offer.

Before the call, I was skeptical because I thought I would need more than a half-hour to go through all my questions. There was no need for that. In that half hour, David had given me

• actionable steps on how to release the product
• what to look out for when developing the product
• potential bugs that might crop up
• who to contact to promote the plugin
• what to give away as bonuses to get people to buy the product
• Best of all, an offer to test and promote the product

Four weeks later, which is about a a month ago. My first product Viral List was finished and ready for launch. Right now, I am in the beta-test/marketing phase. I have high hopes for the future of this product and a lot had to do with the 30 minute call I had with David Risley.

Get a mentor

In summary, trying to figure out everything yourself will only slow you down. Find a mentor that will cut your learning time in half. Your competitors are out there making leaps and bounds and you need to be on the cutting edge to succeed. You may be concerned about spending money to get help but see it as an investment in your business. You reap what you sow.

David is launching his flagship product Blog Masters Club in a few weeks (January 5th to be precise), this is your chance to get a mentor that will cut the BS and tell it like it is. I know David personally and I would recommend him to anyone. Head on over to DavidRisley.com for more details

First of all, let me give you the lowdown on what Coupon Code does for you. If you do any retail affiliate marketing with shops like Amazon and the likes, you can get great conversions by offering coupons to your readers.

There is one problem with offering these coupons though. You will need to tell the user what coupon to use at checkout and also get them to click on your affiliate link to be credited for the sale.

Make It Easy For Your Prospect To Buy

Marketing 101 says the more actions you make your prospect do, the easier it is to lose the sale. Coupon Code fixes that problem by sending the user to the retail website and copying the coupon to the clipboard all in one hit.

That is a simple marketing lesson all bundled in one plugin. This is why I admire the concept. I have used the plugin and I got it installed and set up in under 5 minutes and I must say it works great.

Here is a video demo of the plugin.

If you want to buy Coupon Code for the introductory price of $27, use my affiliate link here and you will get a FREE copy of Viral List worth $37.

Viral List has been launched. It helps you grow the number of people on your email list. More details here.

It doesn’t get any more generous than that, 2 plugins for the price of none? That’s how I roll.

Go ahead, Get Coupon Code and send me an email here and I will send over your copy of Viral List.

You can read the transcript below.

Download the transcript in .PDF format

James:  Okay, hello everyone. Thank you for listening, and welcome to the call today. On the call we meet is David Risley. He is a professional blogger and businessman. He’s the guy behind Blogmasters Club. And he’s a family man as well. You know, and we’ll see pictures of his kids on Twitter and stuff. I love reading his blog because he’s one of the very few people that tell it like it is, and actually injecting love, his personality, into what he does. So, thank you for joining me on this call, David. You know, I appreciate it. Thanks.

David Risley:  No problem. Thanks for having me.

James: Alright, David. So can you tell us a little bit about what you do, I mean just in case people don’t know about that, right, what you do online and basically how you make money off your blog?

David Risley: Sure. Well, I’ve been blogging for quite some time, probably – I lost count – every 12 years, like that. I got my start as a technology blogger, and I still run that site at PCMech.com.

James:  Yeah, PCMech.com. Yeah

David Risley:  Yeah, PCMech.com. And that basically was a geek blogger for the longest time, and then basically I think it was in 2007, I think, or maybe 2008, I decided to start Davidrisley.com. and start actually showing other people who wanted to learn how to make money with their blog do it because obviously it’s a good market. And I have been doing it for many years before that, and just nobody really knew me that way. Basically, I went on from there. And I basically make the money on the tech site, primarily the membership site that I have on there. And I do run some banner ads, and do a little bit of affiliate promotions although that particular market’s a little light in that department. And then, over on Davidrisley.com, it’s very similar except that I don’t do any banner ads. It’s all just my own products and some affiliate stuff.

James: Okay, okay. So what would you say – I know this is probably like a trick question, right – but where would you prefer to work on, PCMech or Davidrisley.com?

David Risley:  Do you mean which site do I like the best?

James: Yeah, yeah. I know you’re expecting that. Just tell me, which one do you see as your baby, like which do you prefer working on?

David Risley: These days, most of my time gets dedicated to the Davidrisley.com audience. At the PCMech.com audience, I have people that are helping me with the content over there. So I primarily, other than some occasional blog posts, I primarily run the business aspect for that site and most of my own time goes into the blogging crowd.

James: Alright, that’s good. That’s good. So yeah, we have some questions here about email marketing, right. So, let’s get right to it. So basically, you know, we always hear about people saying that, you know, building an email list is actually very important but some people may not actually understand why it is important. So, can you actually explain to us why do you think it’s important to have an email list for your business?

David Risley: Well, I mean, the easy answer would be so that you can market things to them later. But it actually goes a little bit deeper than that, you know. I’ve said it before but basically any website including a blog is essentially a reactionary medium unless you have an email list. You know, you post something out there, and it’s basically up to them to decide to check out your blog and see if you have anything to say. And so, you really don’t have pretty much control over it. However, if you have your list, then, you can point people at things anytime you want, that what really jives your community together, you know. From a business perspective, if you don’t have a way of mobilizing your community’s attention and pointing them at something, whether it’d be a product or just a blog post, you’ve really built nothing. So, it’s like super important. And it doesn’t even matter if the blogger has, you know, intentions of making a business out of it. Even if you do everything for free, you still need an email list.

James: Alright. So, it’s more of like getting that, you know, instant contact with your audience, right. Like being able to talk to someone and then, getting a response from that, right.

David Risley: Yeah. Like for example, if I post a blog post on Davidrisley.com you can usually tell just by the number of comments on the post whether I’ve emailed out or not.

James:  Oh, really?

David Risley: Yeah, usually the posts that don’t have that much commentaries because I just decided not to email my list about it. And then you know if you get posts that have 40 or 50 or more comments, it’s typically because I emailed my list. And it really just shows the amount of attention that it gets.

James: Actually I thought you get that automatically, right? Basically when you hit publish, that goes straight out to your list. That doesn’t work that way? Do you prefer to not send every post to your list?

David Risley: Yeah, I basically pick and choose. I mean, these days, I tend to send most of my posts to the list. It just kind of depends on what I’ve got going on that week. But it’s definitely not automatic. I basically made the judgment call that in order for me to build the best relationship with the people on my list, they need to hear from me personally and not have it be abut doing the work.

James: Yeah. I understand. That’s really right, because they’ll move having that personal touch basically right there.

David Risley: Yeah. And you know the other thing too, I mean, if all I did was send my exact blog post to my list, so what’s the point of coming to the site. So, I’d rather send them some type of a teaser, or something like that. Yeah.

James: Yeah, and get them to come over. Yeah. Because I was wondering, any time I actually see an email from you and I go over to the blog post, I get down and I already see like 20 or 30 comments already. Sometimes I would go, I’m actually late reading this blog or something.

David Risley: Well the thing is you came in from the list and so did everybody else. So I mean, it really, really helps. I mean if I don’t email the list, I mean that say on average, I’m going to get 5 or 10 comments on the post. But in my post today, I think it’s about to break 40 comments. It’s because I sent an email out this morning about it.

James: Alright, alright. Yeah. Actually, I saw a blog from Darren Rowser the other day. So basically he showed his Google analytics, an image of when he hits publish and when he actually sends out an email to the list, then people are going to come and read and you can basically see a spike when that happens, when he does send the email to the list.

David Risley:   Oh, yeah. It’s normal. I see the same thing.

James: That’s good. So you say, to be able to mobilize people to take action, you know, either come into your blog to read or basically come to do stuff….

David Risley: Yeah, I mean, if you look at the blog, the Internet itself, it’s reactionary. And basically, it sits there. And if anybody looks at it, they look at it, you at look something like Twitter, and there’s so much noise out there that’s really hard to say about. So, whereas most people view their email inbox as a very, very personal experience, and that adds where you have maximum attention right there.

James: Okay, cool. That sounds good. So yeah, another question comes up, right. We always hear that there is money in the list, you know. Why is that statement true and why would you say there is money in the list?

David Risley: Well it really comes down to what we’re just talking about in terms of being able to mobilize people and point them at things. And obviously if you point them at something which is going to make you money, that’s where the money is. Yeah. But also another thing to clarify and I’ve heard other people say this as well but it’s not just in the list. The money is really in the relationship that you have with that list.

James: Exactly. Yeah, that’s something I actually discovered as well. So, I mean, can you just explain to us what do you mean by that, like the relationship with the people that you have?

David Risley: Well, you want the people on your list to feel like they’ve got some type of a bond with you, basically as close to a friend as possible without the requirement that you’ve met in person. And that’s where they are going to actually react to what you had to say otherwise it’s just going to be, you know, silence when you email your list. So, you want them to know they can trust you and actually, hopefully look forward to getting emails from you. And that’s what I mean by relationship. So you know, and typically it just comes down to again, not sending out your automated broadcast and just being real in introducing a little bit of your own personality to it, things like that.

James: That’s good. Yeah. Okay, so now, let’s say now, I’ve been convinced to build an email list, right, and I want to set it up. So, what are the three things you would say I should do to go about setting up an email list for myself or for my blog for example?

David Risley: Well, the first one would be to get a decent solution to put your list on. Most of my readers know that I use and recommend Aweber. I happen to think they’re the best people out there to put your list on. Obviously there are other companies and I’m not going to speak against them because they’re probably falling, too. But Aweber just happens to be my favorite. You know I used to self-host my list in order to save money, and I realized what a mistake that was. I mean, I was sending emails out, this is for my PCMech list, and they may or may not have actually arrived in the people’s inbox. There are just so many factors and play between you pressing send and then actually getting there. You know, people spam filters, or ISP’s blacklisting your domain name for one reason to another. You never really know. So, when you go with a real list provider, all that’s stuff is pretty taken much care of for you.

James: Okay, so that’s for deliverability, right? To be sure that your emails get delivered.

David Risley: Yeah. And you know it does cost a little bit of money typically, unless you go with MailChimp. I think they offer a free account, up to maybe 500…like that. But I recommend Aweber anyway. And then, the next thing is to create something that actually entices people to get on to your list. I mean, typically, that’s just giving away an eBook. But however, you can get creative. I mean in some markets, they see so many eBooks that you’re going to have a hard time standing out with an eBook. So you know, in that case, you could do maybe a video series or maybe free access to a membership site, or you put some cool stuff in there. You know, things that you can do that are creative but you know, it’s important to give something away. Especially these days where people really are more likely to guard their email address, you’ve got to give them a really compelling reason to sign up. And you know, I see so many bloggers  say, you know, get my free tips, or you know, get my newsletter, it’s too weak of an invite. It’s not really going to work in this case.

James: Yeah, that’s a good one because I mean if you think about it, they need to have an incentive, they need to see an incentive to actually sign up, to actually motivate them to actually sign up for that.

David Risley: Yeah. And along that line is you know, let’s say, you’ve already made the thing that you’re going to give them, is you really got to sell it to them. And I’m not talking about collecting money obviously. But just like, you got to like convince them and psychologically get them interested in what it is you’re about to give them. So, you know, usually what I recommend is just to take 2 or 3 bullet points out of the thing that you’re giving them and rephrase them in such a way to where it spikes their curiosity and really makes them want to know what the answer is.

James: Yeah, because people actually don’t know that’s __. It’s actually harder to sell something that is free. Than to sell something they actually have to pay for. So, yeah.

David Risley: Sometimes. Yeah. Again, it just depends on the market as well. But people are so jaded out there these days that they just turn blind to this stuff unless you got to go beyond just putting a picture of an eBook there these days in order to get them to react.

James: Exactly. Alright. Okay, that was good. So, now the next thing is selling the opt. I have an opt-in form basically in my side bar, and no one is subscribing, you know. How do I change that? How do I get people to actually sign up. Are there any strategies? I know you’ve given us one, you know, basically giving an incentive for people to sign up. Can you expand on that? How can we implement that?

David Risley: Yeah. Well, the incentive is a big one. The second one would be just to sell it like I said before. I mean it comes into really knowing your audience and knowing what they need and want. Hopefully, I mean, most markets that are really good, you’re tapping into something that represents a real life desire that your reader has and if you can help them with that, you know, you’re off to the races. So with your free giveaway, you give to something of value that will help them with that real life thing. And then, just demonstrate that that’s the case. You know, the other thing would be placement. I mean, you mentioned a sidebar, and typically that’s a pretty weak place to put an opt-in. It doesn’t work for most people. It just happened to be the easiest place to put it, and I put them in the sidebar as well. The thing is you have to mix it up by also putting it in other places. So, you know, I put one on the top of my homepage, in the footer. I’m pretty sure that I’ve got one. With PCMech, I have one underneath the post itself. So the idea there is that, you know, they read your blog post, they get some value out of it and then you give them something to do, which is you know, get on my list. You can also use a pop-up by PopUp Domination or something like that. It does work really well. And I know a lot of bloggers, they tend to be against those types of things but there’s no getting around the fact that it works much better than typical opt-in forms. I mean the numbers don’t lie.

James: Yeah, exactly. There’s always a debate, you know, when people say it’s kind of scammy. It’s like that. But I think if it works, it does work for a reason. And I think PopUp Domination actually helps because it is classy. It looks, you know, well-designed not just like the typical popup form that you normally see out there, basically.

David Risley: Yeah, and the big thing, too, is like if you’re giving them an offer which is truly compelling, they’re not really complaining. And the other thing is what PopUp Domination or anything similar is you can set a repeat interval. So, as long that you don’t you know, bust them in their face every time they come. You know, I think I’ve got mine set right now to a 30-day interval. So, if they see it once, they close it. They’re not going to see it for a month.

James: Yeah, that’s good. That’s good stuff there. So, what about using word-of-mouth to promote your list? You know, I’m of the opinion that the best people to promote your stuff are the people that already find value in what you have already. So, I mean, getting the people on your list to say, you know what, check out these presents and free stuff. I mean, like, how do you go about in that then?

David Risley: Well, it’s really about creating something that can have a viral potential to it. You know in the blogging space, and you know, the social media is a pretty big way of spreading the word. That’s really not that way in other markets. My tech crowd, they say Twitter is a big pile of crap. So if I try get them to retweet something, it’s just the chances are not that good. Yeah, maybe Facebook. Maybe. But not just Twitter. But you know if you can create something and then enable them to spread the word of it by giving them a button to retweet it. You know, if you give them a free eBook or something, you can actually put links, encyclopedia that actually or will retweet or go write to Twitter.com and please fill out the Tweet. All they got to do is hit the submit button. Yeah. There are multiple ways to do it.

James: Enabling people like giving them options to share your stuff. That is what you would say is the good way to do that, right?

David Risley: Yeah. I mean, and then you can even go further. I mean, you can run contests. One of the requirements to enter the contest is to retweet or to share on Facebook. You know, I mean it’s really up to your imagination. You know, you could also do something where they get on your lists and then you give them something else that they retweet it.

James: Yeah. I like that. I actually have an idea that’s going on. WhichI’m actually thinking of launching in the future. But we’ll talk about that later but basically, word-of-mouth enable people to like, give them ways of sharing your stuff. That’s what you would say is the best way to use word-of-mouth to promote your stuff, right?

David Risley: Yeah. I mean, I guess the two big bullet points here would be A: Make something that’s worthy of being shared. And then, secondly, enable them to do it. You actually have to step up and ask. You know I mean you might have some people that will share otherwise, but chances are, they’re not going to do unless you ask them.

James:    Yeah. Exactly. It’s the call to action, right?

David Risley:  Right.

James: So when people are on your list, so you’ve got them on the list, and what are the ways of keeping them engaged? Because basically, the longer they are, the more valuable they become. The more engaged they are with you know contents. So, what are the ways to keep people engaged who are on the list?

David Risley: Well, probably, first I’ll talk about the way I do. And that is I make sure that I stay in touch with my list routinely, and typically I do that, then sending them into my blog. And, you know, so I try to post to my blog about three times a week right now, and sometimes more. Like I said, I don’t email them on everything. I want to make sure that I actually email my list that’s something that’s worth emailing them about. You know, it’s a matter of maintaining that consistency. My list will very rarely go a week without hearing from me. Typically, they will hear from me at least a couple of times. Yeah. It just keeps the relationship there otherwise they tend to forget. You know, I see some people who will build a list and then, they just really don’t email that much. And the problem is when you then turn around and email, then, they might be like, “What the heck is this?” And they want to get off their list. You know, the other thing is if you intend to use your list as a marketing tool, you need to, I guess, “screen” your subscribers to realize that that’s something that you do. So, every now and then, just drop a promo for something. Even if your list isn’t that big because you know, the thing is what you really want to do is make it so that they don’t get, you know, pissed with you when it comes down to actually mark or something to them.

James: That sounds good. So in the end, it’s all about keeping in touch, right. Staying, in the front of their minds. So you basically don’t disappear for like a month, and then decide to email them after a month. And they are like who is this guy talking to me right here.

David Risley: Yeah, consistency has been the other thing as value. In my case, there are some people out there who, every time they email, it’s because they’re trying to make money.

James:   Exactly. I know.

David Risley: Yeah. So, I’m big on doing that. I will email my list to make money. In fact, next week I’m going be doing that. But most of my emails are not to make money. And you know, I think a balance is in order.

James: Yeah. Find a perfect balance between promotions and content that you actually sent to your list, right there. And you also actually do inject some personality into what you say. Like today, for example, you had a post about you’re going on a diet, or you’re going to have to take a diet program. So what is that about? Is it something that you like to do, this is to show people about your life? I mean, that also helps to create a relationship or bond with people that are on the list?

David Risley: Sure. I mean, it was kind of a dual thing today. I mean, basically, you know, I’m using my audience to help hold me accountable in that whole diet.

James:   That is exciting That’s got to take some guts.

David Risley: Oh, I don’t have some people. I actually have one guy on Twitter. He comes off like he’s going to be my drill sergeant to this.

James:   Yeah I saw that.

David Risley: It’s going to be a blast. But obviously, one of the side effects is that yeah it is involving people with me a little bit more. And you know, obviously from a marketing standpoint, that helps. I can’t say that was my main reason for doing it. It’s mainly just to make sure that I don’t jump off the wagon. [Laughs]

James: Yeah, I think we’ll all be watching you. We’d be watching you David, so let’s see how that goes.

David Risley: Yeah, there was this one guy he was like, “You know you should start your thing now. And just do it in Vegas.” I mean like…

James:   And then, you were like, you can’t do it from a hotel room, right.

David Risley: We’re talking about the power 90 program here. I mean, it’s pretty intense. I don’t even have a DVD player in the hotel room. So, I don’t’ know how that’s going to work.

James: I know, I know. I guess when you come back, you can have everything from scratch and then, get on the…

David Risley: Yeah, I’ve got 2 conferences, a back to back coming up here, and when I get back from that it’s going to be you know, 100% doing that.

James: Yeah, good stuff. Yeah. I think we’re out of time. Thank you for talking to me today. I’m sure you have a lot of things going on, you know, with the Blog World Expo coming up and also the other conferences that you have as well. Yeah, so, thank you for that. You’re launching your Blogmasters Club soon, right? I mean I got…

David Risley: Right now, I don’t…Yeah I’ve got a tentative date that’s scheduled for probably around mid November right now, but I’ve still got a lot of ducks to get into a row before I hit the go button on that. But it’s probably going to be in roughly a month that I’m going to open that thing up again. And then, I’m also going to be running a membership drive into the Inner Circle while I’m on my way in Vegas, to really get that thing off the ground in a nice, strong way.

James: Okay. If people want to get to know you like the Inner Circle or Blogmasters Club, where can they find you? Where can they get information about you?

David Risley: Best bet is my blog, Davidrisley.com. And you can also go to Blogmastersclub.com. The primary thing right there now is to obtain and get the Six-Figure Blogger Blueprint which is my factual report that I’ve had for some time, and a little sneak peek if there’s a 2.0 version that is completed and that will be released when I start launching Blogmasters Club.

James:   Okay, so we’re looking forward to that. We’re looking forward to that.

David Risley:   Yeah.

James: Alright. Thank you very much, David, for speaking to me. And, yeah, I appreciate it.

David Risley:   Great. Thanks.

James:    Alright, Thank you very much, David. Bye-bye.

You can read the transcript below.

Click here to download the transcript in .PDF format if you prefer that

James: Alright. So, I’m here today on the call with Rob. He makes a full-time income online. He’s a very young entrepreneur, really, really young and that’s actually very, very impressive, very down to earth and easy-to-talk-to kind of guy. And you can see he has a lot of interviews with big names like Neil Patel, Rob Sutton and the likes. And he has also worked with Aweber one on one, so, I’m sure he has a lot of good tips to share with us today about email marketing. So, Rob, once again, thank you very much for joining me on this call. I know you’re in the middle of a launch. So, thank you for that

Rob Rammuny: Thanks for having me.

James: Yeah. Alright. So, just give us a round up on what you do online, like, what do you do as a business online?

Rob Rammuny:  Well, I’m an internet marketer, an affiliate marketer and also an email marketer. I teach people how to make money online and escape the traditional 9 to 5, to live the internet lifestyle which is creating a lifestyle which you make money from doing what you love, and you can work whenever you want, however long you want. And I do that all in my site Robswebstips.com. I do a lot of studying in internet marketing industry, product launches, specifically email marketing. I’m very knowledgeable with that. Like you said, I’ve worked with Aweber and many knowledgeable people, so I definitely know my stuff.

James: Well, that’s good. That’s good. Kindly give us, like, a maybe some information on what you do with Aweber, like, I mean, how do you get to work with Aweber one on one, for example?

Rob Rammuny: Personally, I just talk to the CEO, Tom Kulzer. He’s a great friend of mine, and Justin. Justin, pretty meek, cool, he’s the person who has helped me with the Robswebtips pre-launch and pretty much, why did I approach him mean how we’ve known each other for a long time. I approached him for the Robswebtips pre-launch, and I said, “Hey, Justin, this is what I got so far. Can you give me a rundown, give me some tips. And pretty much, he exchanged some advice, and we went from there. And I learned a lot from Justin and Tom from founding Aweber. And also, Ron Givens who’s the affiliate manager of Aweber has helped me a lot in the affiliate side of things.

James: Well, that’s good. That’s good. You know, like just talking about that, right you know, people think that when you want to approach a big name, he’s just actually very hard to talk to, right? So, basically, It’s just about asking, you know, I mean, landing an interview with a big name like, I don’t know, Gideon Shalwick, for example, right? I mean, I’m guessing all you just basically needed to do is ask them for the interview, right? What does it take to, you know, get to talk to these kind of guys?

Rob Rammuny:  Well, there’s no one trick that works for this kind of thing but usually, the simple answer is just to ask. So many people are afraid. They’re like, okay, you know, I don’t have much followers online. I’m not that popular. You’re going to say ‘no’ to me. That’s not the truth because when I first started off online, when I first started Robswebtips, I was receiving probably not even 200, 300 visitors per day. I was still landing top interviews with people like Michael Dunlop, Lisa Irby, to create a website. Neil Patel came on down on line when I still wasn’t such a big name. So, all of this is just asking people, and you’re going to get an answer.

James:  That’s good. That’s good. That’s good to know. So, let’s talk about email marketing, right? So, you know what, we always hear building an email list is important, you know. But some people may actually not know why that is important. So, can you give us some information on why do you think having an email list or building one is going to be important for your business?

Rob Rammuny:  Simply put because email marketing is pretty much I consider the essential foundation of your business and it’s like the rock. Because say, one day, you have your site and it gets hacked or goes down or something, you no longer have no essential communication to your audience. You can’t say, “Hey my site went down, blah, blah, blah.” You have no direct communication to them. So, if prior to that happening, which I really hope it doesn’t, but say it did, you have a list, right away, where you can go in and log in Aweber or whatever your email provider is, type or pick to create many email, and click send. And automatically, your email has been sent to everybody who subscribed to your list, and they’re going to know, okay, your site’s down, it’ll be back up shortly.

James:  Nice. So, it’s all about connecting, being able to connect with your audience, right? If Twitter goes down, for example, I mean, you lost all those followers So, I mean, with email addresses, you still have their contact details. That’s what you mean, right?

Rob Rammuny:  Right. Yeah, and most importantly, you have direct contact with them, like, email, I consider online is like one of the most personal things. So, once you have the person’s email, you have essentially direct communication. Having someone’s email is like having someone’s phone number. You have direct communication to them.

James:  Yeah. Definitely. Exactly. In this day and age, you know, the email is actually one of the most guarded pieces of information sometimes, you know. So, yeah, that’s good.

Rob Rammuny:  Yeah.

James:  That’s good. That’s good. Right, thanks for that. So, yeah, you know, we always hear these phrases, the money is in the list. So, how would you, I mean, where does that phrase come from? Why would you say there is money in the list?

Rob Rammuny:  Simply put, the people say the money is in the list, because email marketing has been proven over and over again and all niche is across the web that it performs to have the best conversions. So, either you’re promoting your own product or affiliate product, or whatever, it tends to have the best conversions. So, say, you have a list of 10,000 people on it, and you’re in a gardening niche, and you decided to launch your own “How to Grow a Beautiful Garden in Seven Days” product. You’re sending it out to 10,000 people. Let’s assume you have a very good opening rate 40% or 50%, while at the back you have 5,000 people opening up your email. Let’s say, you have a good 2% to 3% or 4% conversion rate, and 300 or 400 people buy your product, like $97 per product, right there, opening day is a $4,000 launch.

James:  Well, so I mean, that boils down to the fact that, you know, you have access to these people. They are reading their email inboxes everyday and you have access to that basically. That piece of their time to get to them and make that offer, right, when they need it the most.

Rob Rammuny:  Exactly.

James:  Nice. Nice. That was good. That’s good. So, okay, let’s just say, you know what, I’ve been convinced to do an email list, and I actually want to get setup. I want to start working on that right now. What are the three things that you would say I have to do to actually get setup building an email list?

Rob Rammuny:  Number 1: Have a good email marketing provider. Don’t use a free WordPress plug in. Don’t resort to some custom-made plug-in or whatever. Just invest your money into email marketing provider like Aweber, MailChimp. I think there’s Infusionsoft, iContact. There’s so many out there. They’re all great, reputable providers and they’re cheap. So, definitely, the first thing is be willing to make that investment. Second thing is to have a solid idea. Make sure you know what’s your idea going to be for your list. Are you going to opt for a free ebook, free video, free report, free webinar. What’re you going to do? What is your course going to be about, and how do you plan on getting people to your list? Which brings me to the third thing: Have a strong marketing plan. You’re going to have the best idea for an email course but if you don’t have a strong marketing plan, and if you don’t know how to drive people to your list, it’s not going to mean anything.

James:  Okay. That’s good. So, yeah. So, I mean, you said the three things that we need to basically set up is a strong email marketing provider, and ideas of what we can give away for free to get people to sign up for that list, and then, strong marketing plan. Coming back to your first point, right, a good email marketing provider, right? Why wouldn’t I want to get like a free, you know, plug-in, that works off the back of Wordpress, do I need to shell out, I don’t know, $19 a month every time to, you know, to Aweber, for example to manage my email list? Why would I want to do that?

Rob Rammuny:  Because one, Aweber has, or the good email marketing providers have one: You can easily track how your emails are doing. You can set up follow ups. You can have the ability to grow and expand your list without worrying about crashing one day because if we, like I said, back to my point, if you’re relying everything to be in your blog, then your blog crashes one day, so that’s all your email subscribers.

James:  I understand what you mean. Yeah. That sounds interesting. Yeah, go ahead.

Rob Rammuny:  I also say that start off with a good email marketing provider instead of self hosting one, like you would do it in your Wordpress blog. Because say, one day, your list does get big and you decide to switch your email list from self hosting to Aweber, or some email marketing provider, it’s going to be a hassle because you have some cheap programs. And you’re just losing all your subscribers right now because you don’t want to make that initial investment.

James:  Exactly. Then, later, when you want to go Aweber, Aweber wants you to basically get those people to opt in again. And then, if they don’t opt in, you’ve lost them basically, right?

Rob Rammuny:  Correct.

James:  That’s it. That’s it. That’s good. That’s good. So, you talked about having a true marketing plan, what would you say, is a true marketing plan to get people on the list or your true marketing plan to get, like, after the sign up, what do you send to them? What is your best true marketing plan, is it…

Rob Rammuny:  A strong marketing plan is getting people on the list and keeping them on the list. So, I’ll just go ahead and knock them both out. First thing, you have to get them on the list if you’re going to keep them on the list. So, what I recommend is having a sidebar opt-in, having a dedicated landing page because if you have a dedicated landing page, you’re able to include all the information about your ecourse, or your product or whatever you’re offering to get them to opt in and get us more information. And also say, you have people who like your course and they want to promote it. Because you have a landing page, they can send them directly to their friends, say, “Hey, this is a cool course I checked out. I recommend checking it out.” If you don’t have a landing page, that’s not going to happen.

James:  So basically, the conversions you get on that sign up or the opt-ins are actually higher when you have a landing page, right?

Rob Rammuny:  Yes, it is higher if you have a landing page.

James:  Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. So, having the opt-in form on your sidebar. You know, people always talk about banner blindness. You know, like almost every blogger these days has an opt-in form on the sidebar saying you know, sign up for this seven-part free report, you know. If everybody starts doing it, after a while, it loses its effectiveness. Do you have an idea of, you know, what could do maybe integrate the form in your content or something just to get peopl to actually stop losing these kind of conversions.

Rob Rammuny:  Oh. of course. Yeah, definitely just to get back to the banner blindness or whatever it’s called. One way just to quickly draw attention to your sidebar is write a good headline, something that’s really draws your readers in. And also, if you put like your ecover graphic on there, that’s going to lure. Adding an e-cover graphic, first of all increases conversions, and it does that because it draws more attention into your opt-in form. That’s definitely just one tip for people who are struggling with the sidebar area in the banner blindness. And I do definitely recommend adding opt-in forms to your content. As you know that I added one for the Rob’s web’s prelaunch,because I add it at the end of the content. I recommend everybody add it end of the content that is because after they get down reading your article, chances are, they’re going to enjoy what you have and build that initial credibility, say, “Okay, this dude has some good content. Let me find out more. Oh, there’s a free ecourse. Let me enter my information and get started.”

James:  Yeah, yeah. That’s nice. That’s nice. So basically, you want to, you know, ask them for their opt-in when they have basically had some information about what, like, they read your post and like what you’ve written down there. So, yeah, it’s more about talking to them exactly after the content has been read.

Rob Rammuny:  Yeah, because you’re striking them while they’re hot. They just got done reading the blog.

James:  That’s it. Let’s just strike them while its hot. That’s nice. You said very well in those words. So, what would you say about the lightboxes or the popup like? You know, there’s always this, you know, debate like it’s scammy, doesn’t look nice or it’s maybe… I don’t know. But it does come. What would you say? What’s your take on that?

Rob Rammuny:  There’s such controversy on this topic but the back of the matter is lightboxes convert hands down. They will increase your conversions.

James:  It does, I see it as well. Yeah.

Rob Rammuny:  I have lightboxes on my site and just to avoid, you know, being called a spammer or whatever, people call, you know, lightboxes spamming because it’s not because the lightbox in itself. It’s just because how people use them. You know. People always set their lightboxes to appear only once. So, like every time you click a link the lightbox, reappears, reappears. So…

James:  That’s so nasty. That was very kind of disturbing, right? Yeah.

Rob Rammuny:  Yup. So, if you have a lightbox on your site, just make sure it appears once per visitor, and you can set to appear once every seven days. In that way, it’s not intrusive to your readers, remember that. And it really takes away a spammy approach. And also there’s definitely a plug in called PopUp Domination which if you’re looking a clean-cut lightbox, that’s definitely a good resource to check out. If you‘re a designer, Aweber definitely has, you know, you can really customize your forms just a bit. So…

James:  Yes, I actually own PopUp Domination and I use on other blog I actually run. And yeah, it’s a very good tool. I mean, why I like PopUp Domination is it’s not your usual lightbox. It’s a very nice, designed lightbox. It doesn’t look like all the scammy ones that you see out there, right. So that basically sets you apart already from the rest of the people that use lightboxes, if you know what I mean.

Rob Rammuny:  Right.

James:  Yeah. That was good. That was good. People set opt-in forms, you know, in their blogs and, you know, basically they get the promise that you know just build it and they’re coming along, and people don’t subscribe, you know. What are the tried and true tactics of getting people to sign up for your email list like, you know, getting people to join your email list?

Rob Rammuny:  The tried and true tactics are 1…

James:  Let’s not say tactics, because that may sound very… You know. I don’t know, but, like, strategies. Strategies.

Rob Rammuny:  Okay, we’ll use strategies, then. So, the tried and true strategies to get people on your list is 1: Do something unique. Have a unique selling position. So, it’s like having a blog and a saturated niche. If you blog about the same thing everybody else blogs about and you do nothing different, what’s going to make your blog at noise?

James:  Exactly.

Rob Rammuny:  The same thing applies to an email list. Create a course that somebody has never done before. Do it better. Okay? So, really give them that reason. And to promote your email list and really get on the tried and true strategies, it has been proven over and over again that the more information you provide, you have a stronger chance of building a better relationship and increasing the quality of your email list. And also, one thing I see so many people do is they have like a million forms to fill out.

James:  Yeah. That does not help at all, right.

Rob Rammuny:  Right. Only get the information you need. If you only need the name and email address, only the name and email address. If you only need their email address, only need their email address. The less forms you have, the higher conversion is going to be.

James:  Okay. Alright. That’s good. You actually give us four tactics, but I asked for three. No, no, that’s good. So, that’s basically do something unique you know, do something better than the other guy you know who will deliver. That’s what we’re talking about, right? And also, the more information you provide. Talking about the autoresponder at the end, when to sign up, give them more information, more useful information on the back end of that. Is it how I took…

Rob Rammuny:  Because we’re talking about actually getting them subscribed, just let them know what’s going to be in your course.

James:  Alright. Alright.

Rob Rammuny:  Yeah, the more you reveal the higher chances you have that they will get into your list.

James:  Okay. So you tell them, “Okay you’re going to receive a course, a seven part course in this, one email every day.” Stuff like that, you know, like telling them how often the emails would come in their…

Rob Rammuny:  Yeah, exactly.

James:  Yeah. That’s nice. That’s nice. So, now let’s say we got people on our list now.
Like I mean they all signed up to our list, what are the ways of keeping these guys engaged? You know what, getting them to stay on the list because, you know, the longer they’re on the list, the more valuable they become, right? So, how do you do that?

Rob Rammuny:  Continue to provide more content than you do promotion. I have personally been on lists and I have personally heard people complain to me about lists they’ve been on that they opt in, they get the free report whatever, and after that, all the emails they get after that is affiliate email, affiliate email, affiliate email. Promotion, promotion, promotion, blah, blah, blah.

James:  Yeah. I know. What’s the deal with that? I’m subscribed to, like, tons of email lists, you know, just basically for the education as well, right? And there’s this guy, I don’t know. I’m not going to mention his name, right. When I actually did a search for his name in my inbox, like, basically all the emails from him, it’s all promotions, you know. I mean, I don’t hear from him for like two months and the next thing I hear is that, you know, what the offer is there’s this new course coming out. You know, go buy it. I mean how does that work? People actually buy from his cart. I don’t know. I don’t know how that works for him, though. But, yeah. It’s alright. Go ahead.

Rob Rammuny:  For the big named people, it’s going to pull off but for smaller named people, definitely, do more content than you do promotion. And a method I like to think about is called the Incubator Method. I learned this from a guy named Brian. And pretty much with the incubator method is, just thinking about like this. Think about email marketing like a game. For each email you send that’s pure content, you add one point to your list. And for each affiliate email you send out, you got 4 points. So, pretty much, the goal of the game is to never make sure you go below zero.

James:  Alright. Alright.

Rob Rammuny:  So, now, four content emails and one affiliate email, then you‘ll be back to zero. Then send four, then, back to zero. That way, you’re not necessarily making money so fast in a short term because you’re providing more call than promotion. You are going to make more money in the long run and, that’s definitely what matters.

James:  Yeah. That was good information right there. Like you know, you go to a bank, right. I mean, if you withdraw money from the bank every time, you’re going to get bankrupt, right. So basically, sending them content emails like depositing money in that bank. And then, when you have the affiliate email, you’re withdrawing up money from your account. So that’s a good stuff right there.

Rob Rammuny:  Correct.

James:  Nice, nice. Alright. So what would you say, To grow in number of people in the list, How does word of mouth play a role in getting people to sign up for your list? How do you get, I mean, is word of mouth important? And also, how would you make it happen if it is important?

Rob Rammuny:  Social proof is probably one of the most strongest marketing tactics that anybody can use. So definitely, I agree that a few word to social proof definitely do it. So, what you can do is either know people who generally like your course, who will just go ahead and promote it, or one day, you can send an email or something and say, “Hey, if you like this course, can do you me a favor and write a review on the blog for me? And give me your honest thoughts of the course, and how you like it.” And by just doing that alone, you’re going to get some subscribers. Or what you can do is something that’s called list exchange and pretty much what you do is you find a friend who’s in your niche, who is part of the same size list as you. You say, “Hey, I’ll send the email to my list about your list, telling them about how I like your list, and you send the email to your list telling them about how you like my list and that way is just a good way to exchange subscribers, and it really works out.

James:  So, it’s kind of like cross promotion, right. Basically for two lists. Nice. Nice. So the first point you’ve made of, you know, getting people to write about you or like, just, you know, send out or tweet about the information you have received on your list, right? Just to tell you before, you know, what if you actually give them an incentive and said, you know what, like a contest for example, you know what, write this post and I’ll give the first three winners of free ebook. Like, do you think that’s a valid way of getting people to, you know, actually do the deed of actually promoting your list?

Rob Rammuny:  I definitely think it is a good way to get people on your list but it definitely depends on what type of reviews you want. I personally strive for pure honest reviews because those are reviews that convert the best and if you do it in a contest, chances are, you’re not going to get that one person who’s going to write about review about you because they’re going to think you know, if I write my review, I’m not going to win a contest so, I’m going to overhype this email or overhype this blog or we’ll always fluff about this course and it’s thrilling out the honest truth.

James:  Okay, so definitely, you know, done for content. I can’t imagine because in the end if you get like lots of I don’t know swarming, crazy, this is a very great product reviews. That also starts to sound too unbelievable, right? So, maybe somebody is actually is helpful also, you know, to get like what side of the story. Not bad reviews, but you know, the honest, down to earth reviews.

Rob Rammuny:  Exactly.

James:  Yes, yes, nice. That’s good. That’s good. So, yeah, last question. I’m not sure if you’ve been expecting this one, right? But this is… So, how do you make money from the people on your list, like I mean, you’ve probably spoken about that earlier, right? So, how would you, what would you promote for example, to people on that list?

Rob Rammuny:  How do I make… Okay, I make money on my list from several different ways: One, I have, I mean, get on my list, you’re going to receive a workbook. And within that workbook, I have a couple of affiliate links, and they’re only affiliate links because they correlate with the book. So, that’s definitely one way I make money with my list. If any email I send out that are pure content, they might have an affiliate link in there if it’s relevant. And I send out affiliate emails, promotions to products that are irrelevant to my list, I send probably one or two a month. And I also… One technique I use is I send out free reports. And pretty much with these reports, for example, one whom is called a dotcom business guy. And pretty much, I list all the tools and resources that I use to build and run my online business, and probably 75% of the links are affiliate links.

James:  Okay, I understand what you mean.

Rob Rammuny:  But it’s an indirect way of promotion because I’m promoting new products that I used, and I’m sending you content the same time. So, those are just some of the ways that will really monetize my list.

James:  Those are kind of the best of both worlds, right? Giving content at the same time, promoting affiliate links as well.

Rob Rammuny:  Yup.

James:  Nice. Good stuff. Good stuff. Thanks Rob. I mean, I think in this interview, we’ll have a lot of really, really interesting and useful markets from that. So, before I close, you know, can you give us, like, you know, everyone down of what you’re up to, what’s next for you. I know you’re coming up with a new launch of Robswebtips, so, just give us an idea of what’s to come from you.

Rob Rammuny:  What’s to come from me? Let’s see.

Rob Rammuny:  A lot. Let’s see. I’ve partnered with my buddy, Alex, from Blogussion who designed Robswebtips. So, me and him are releasing a network later on this year which is going to be massive, and we have a contest coming. I’m planning some workshops for the entrepreneurs project and I definitely plan on expanding the entrepreneurs project. So, keep an eye on that. And also, I do have an email marketing project coming out early 2011. So, stay tuned for that.

James:  What’s it going to be called? Do you know what’s it going to be called already or?

Rob Rammuny:  No, it’s still in development stages. No.

James:  Nice, nice. That’s good. That’s good. So, where can people find you online just in case?

Rob Rammuny:  You can find me at Robswebtips.com or you can find me on Twitter.com @RobRammuny. (Spelled last name). It’s how you spell my last name.

James:  Okay. Good stuff. Thank you very much, Rob, for talking to me today.

Rob Rammuny:  No problem.

James:  Yeah. So, we’ll keep in touch. Thank you very much. Have a nice evening.

Rob Rammuny:  Thanks. You, too.

The screamingly simple solution

Then I decided to ask someone about how to go about solving it, the first sentence that came out of his mouth just solved the problem instantly. I was so pissed off that I didn’t think of asking earlier on. This is someone I was working with on a daily basis for those two odd weeks where I was pulling my hair out trying to solve the problem on my own.

This is a problem many of us face, trying to go it alone. Thinking we can find the solutions if we dig in the correct places, and then getting frustrated when we don’t find it. Sometimes all we have to do it just ask. The person you ask might not answer your question directly but he/she can give an idea that sparks a light and nudges you on the correct path.

Get your questions answered

This is the reason why I have decided to do something different on the blog today. I am going to give you the opportunity to ask your questions and get them answered.

We all know that email list building is one of the cornerstones of setting up a successful business. The question is

• Do we know how to do it right?
• How do you get new subscribers?
• How can you profit from the subscribers on your email list?

Well, I am not here to guess your questions, please let me know what questions you have on email marketing or starting up your business in general and I will setup a Q&A call where I will go into detail to answer your questions.

Special guests on this call

I will also invite two special guests to join in to answer your questions.

David Risley is a six-figure pro-blogger. He makes a full-time living off his blog and he knows this stuff.

Rob Rammuny from Rob’s Web Tips is a young, prolific blogger that knows email marketing inside out. He has personally worked with Aweber one-on-one.

So head on over to this link and ask your questions on this simple, 2 question-survey.

The deadline for sending in your questions is Thursday 7th October at 6pm EST.

So I can’t wait and I am looking forward to seeing your questions.

Analysis Paralysis

The first obstacle that normally comes up is what is called being over-analytic. Some call this analysis paralysis. When we get ideas of new ventures, we tend to over-analyse the issue. We try to gather as much information as possible and always want to cover all the bases before we set out to take action. In the book Strengths Finder, Tom Rath floats the idea that if you knew your core talents and work on them, you are more likely to succeed than when you try to be better at your weaknesses.
Entrepreneurs tend to be Futuristic which is one of the many talents in the book. Being futuristic means you always have big ideas that inspire you. This is great when you need to generate new ventures to implement but it becomes a burden when you actually want to start the implementation.

Spreading yourself too thin

Entrepreneurs also tend to be Activators. Activators know that the dreams of tomorrow are made true by the actions you take today. Taking action is good but this can generate obstacles for you when you always want to take action on all the ideas you have. If you spread yourself too thin by having too many projects going all at once, you will
end up doing none of them well.

So you know how being Futuristic and an Activator can both help you but also create obsctacles to your success. Here are two ways to crush those obstacles.

Pre-qualify any Idea ASAP

When you have an idea, it is always easy to get lost in the details and try to map out every tiny bit of it. Don’t get into that unending cycle, you need to find answers to the following questions and then make a decision if you are going to go ahead with the implentation of that business idea.

• Who is the BUYER for this idea?
• Do I have ACCESS to the buyer?
• Can I create the product/service for this idea?
• Do I need help to do it, or can I go it alone?
• How many hours of my day will this idea take up?
• How soon before I can know if the idea is profitable or not?
• Is the idea expensive to try out?
• What’s a good way to pilot the idea?
• How much do I stand to make from this idea?
• Is the execution of this idea something I want to do with my time?

If you can find the answers to these questions, it should be easy to make a decision whether the idea will be a time suck without any gains or a project you would derive joy and profits from. to find more information that expands on all these questions, please read this post. How to stop your creativity from crippling your business

Release your minimum viable product (MVP)
When you have decided on what you would like to take action on. Make sure you don’t over-analyse and try to include every feature you can think of. Map out the basic features that can be released as the first version of your product, make sure it is just enough to give value to the customer and then ship it. The feedback you will get from the market will help you improve later on . Don’t depend on your own needs to create a great product. You are probably going to get it wrong anyways. A minimum viable product is intended to give enough value to the customer, enough for them to desire more and request for it. This will stop you from releasing a massively bloated product with features that nobody will use. To discover more on how to take action on an MVP product, click here to read more.
Is this common mistake making you develop an unwanted product?

I hope this has helped you understand how to overcome these two obstacles that stand in our way of success.

I want to share a post with you here which I title, Ignore the Real World (thanks to the book Rework by 37 signals). As an entrepreneur, the chances are you have great ideas bursting out of your brain but the moment you share it with someone, they reply you with, “That won’t work in the real world”

• In the real world, you are meant to go to work for someone else.
• In the real world, you are meant to work 40 hours a week doing what you are told and your creativity doesn’t matter
• In the real world, you move up the ladder when you help “The company” achieve their goals and all you get is a pat on the back. “Thank you, because of your work, the company has made a profit of $10 million this year”, while you earn $20,000 a year.
• In the real world, you will be crazy to do what you love and earn money doing it.
• In the real world, entrepreneurs are crazy risk-takers in a cut-throat environment and only the top 5% succeed so you had better stay with your safe and secure “job”.

Screw that.

If Bill Gates had listened to the people in the real world, he would have thrown away his dream of seeing a personal computer on every desk. We would have been stuck in a time where computers were the size of warehouses and we had to type our letters on those noisy, ink-based typewriters.

If Pat Flynn has listened to the people in the real world, he would have gone looking for another Architectural job after being laid off during a recession while his new family suffered the consequences.

The truth is, we are not cut out for the real world, the only reason we stick with the real world is that we feel it is a safe and secure place to be. My problem with the real world is that I am not able to do what I love, what keeps me up at night, stuff I can think about for hours without getting bored, stuff like developing solutions to real problems and seeing people get value out of it.

The great thing about the world we live in today is that the middle man has been left out of the equation. The only pre-requisite to being successful is how much work you are willing to put into your passion.

If you are really passionate about what you do, it won’t feel like work at all. You can pretty much do it all with a laptop and an internet connection. You can post a video to the web that millions have access to without paying money to a TV network.

There is no excuse for having to waste my life for “The Boss”, that is why I have decided to get on the journey to the other world, where I can create freely, live, love and matter.

In my research, I have discovered that there are 7 pillars you need to implement to start a successful business as an entreprenuer and if you sign up to my newsletter, I will send you 7 free reports that outline these pillars. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it.

Sign up here for the Entrepreneur Blog’r newsletter and the 7 Pillars to Starting a Successful Business reports. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, I hate spam as well.

Start a Fire

or better yet, get a firestarter to start the fire for you. Have you noticed how the big blogs tend to do reviews of products just before they are launched? I have read a lot of gadget reviews, book reviews on blogs like Engadget, TechCrunch and the New York Times. These generate a hell of a lot of sales for the gadget or book in concern. These reviews are what I refer to as Firestarters, a term I first heard of through Mike Stelzner of Social Media Examiner.

Now you may be thinking, “Yeah right, How do I get the NY Times to pitch my product?”. It doesn’t have to be the NY Times, all you need is the attention of about 5 bloggers or publishers that cater to the audience your product targets.

I will get to how you can connect with firestarters in a minute but first let me explain the importance of starting fires and how this can help you break the glass ceiling and get more a flood of customers for your product.

2 Reasons Why You Need the Fire

The main reason why you need to connect with major bloggers is that they can get your message to many more people than you possibly could. I always use this analogy of the microphone. If you need to get a message across to many people, you could do it by shouting at the top of your voice but I am sure you will get many more people to listen by using a leveraging
a microphone to get your message across.

Another important advantage is you get the trust of that audience quicker and the defensive walls they have put in place are not going to keep you out. Why? this is because you are coming in through the gate and the person letting you in is someone they already trust.

I’ll give you a quick personal example, I came across a plugin that I wanted to buy for this blog called Popup Domination, but for some reason, I did not make the purchase at that point in time. Later on that week, I read a blog post from a popular blogger I follow, David Risley promoting the plugin. I made the purchase on the spot, and this happened because David Risley practically let Micheal Dunlop into my realm of awareness. Now I am subscribed to Micheal’s updates and
if he delivers on his relationship with me, I will probably end up buying more of his products that I need. Can you see how you can use this simple tactic to get customers for life?

5 Steps to Connect with Firestarters

Now it’s all well and good, you know why it is important to connect with people of influence. Now I am sure you want to know the specifics of how to go about making these connections.

1. First, you need to make a list of the firestarters you want to connect with. The good thing about the social web today is that you can easily start a conversation with almost anybody that is active on social networks.
2. Get on their radar by commenting on their blog posts, retweeting their posts, answering questions that they ask on Twitter or Facebook. There is a fine line between coming across as a suck-up or coming across as a helpful member of their community. Be careful not to come across as a suck-up.
3. Givers get. The key here is to add value. People (the nice ones at least) will naturally remember someone that has helped them in the past. If your help makes sure they open an email when they see it is from you, you are doing a good job.
4. Simply ask. It is really that simple, all you need to do is ask if they would be interested in promoting your product. People do this the wrong way round and take this step first. Well if you don’t get a reply, do not be surprised. Your email could have gone past their stream just like the 100’s of other pitches the get daily.
5. What is in it for them? While taking all these steps, you always have to make them aware of what is in it for them. An affiliate kick-back, free content for their readers, a special discount for their audience. Whatever it is, make it easy for them to lift that finger and hit the send button on that promotional email. You can even go as far as writing the email for them.

I am going to direct you to a FREE resource that helped me a lot and you can read it too. Here is a link to Dave Navarro’s library where one of the workbooks you get is titled, 7 Steps to Networking Your Way to A-listers fast. An amazing value you get for FREE. (Dave, You know you could charge for that content right?)’

As always, let me know your thoughts. What do you think are better ways to get a fire started for your product.