By Claude Pelanne

List Building

Why You Need a List

One of the basic tenets of any internet marketing program is that customers rarely buy on the first visit. As a matter of fact, it is commonly accepted that it takes seven contacts before a prospect turns into a paying customer. What this means is that you need to establish a relationship with your prospects and keep in touch by offering useful information or help as they make their decision to buy.

How do you do that? You do it by putting your prospects on a list and keeping in touch. The customer list or mailing list or whatever you want to call it list, is your ticket to sales and revenue.

Database List

The creation and building of a list is an essential step in building your online affiliate business. Any affiliate online program you choose to join should have your list building in mind by offering you promotional tools and sales products designed to solve a problem or satisfy a need. If you have a list of a few hundred or a few thousand people you can communicate with, imagine the business you can draw if you have what they want.

Build a Relationship

Having a list is not all about constantly pitching a product or service. If there is anything irritating and certain to draw anger, it is the constant barrage of sales promotions many people feel assault them when looking on the web. It is far more important to build a relationship and draw a balance between giving away free information that can help your prospect and offering a paid product or service that meets a real need they may have.

To build a good relationship, a weekly newsletter or email can serve you well. By offering information with no strings attached you will build trust and confidence in your list members that you are a reliable and trustworthy resource. When they buy, they will buy with comfort and reassurance that you have their success in mind. In fact, you have their loyalty. That is the key to success to any affiliate online program.

Useful Information

What kind of information should you provide? How about valuable tips, case studies, interesting testimonials from real people, and stories from you own experience that can help them decide how to move forward? Once you start weaving stories and examples of success that they can relate to, you will have a dedicated pool of believers who will buy from you willingly and with confidence.

How do you Build a List?

Begin with what your market research tells you and write a free special report. Design an eCourse or eBook to give away in return for your customer signing up for your newsletter. It will help build a list of names and email addresses. Create a newsletter sign up form on your Web site or Blog to grow your list. Promote the benefits your customers will get from getting the weekly information. Explain clearly what they will derive from the free reports and eBooks you will make available.

Once you have a good idea of what is driving your customer on your list, write articles about the subjects they will want to know about. Distribute those articles to Article Directories and in your author biography, include a back link to your Web site or Blog or to your newsletter sign up page.

You can also try posting in classified sites such as Craigslist or Adpost, to promote your free newsletter or Ebook.

Conclusion

These are some of the ways to build a list. Remember to use discretion and balance when contacting your list. People today are bombarded daily with SPAM and promotions so they are extremely sensitive to being sold and over sold.

If you take the time to get to know your customers, you will build a relationship that will get them to make the buy decision based on trust and confidence they have developed for you. That is the best path to prosperity you can hope to build.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

About the Author: Over the past 20 years Claude Pelanne has worked in a series of startup ventures including some of the first commercial webcasts. He is an internet marketer and serial entrepreneur. Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include the resource box. For tips and resources to get into internet marketing visit cpelanne and claudepelanne

Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=297015&ca=Marketing

Originally posted here: Affiliate Marketing For Beginners: Want to Succeed in Online Affiliate Marketing? Build a List!

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What is MLM? MLM stands for Multilevel Marketing. According to en.wikiepedia.org: MLM is designed to create a marketing and sales force by compensating promoters of company products not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of other promoters they introduce to the company, creating a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation in the form of a pyramid.

Many think of MLM’s as a “pyramid” and associate that with illegal dealings. Some MLM’s are not what the doctored order and those are called “pyramid schemes or ponzi schemes”. However most MLM’s are just an extension of a companies marketing division.

Think about a typical business structure. You have the Business. Then you have the Marketing Department. In the marketing department you have sales associates that are employed by the company. Their job is to sell the product or service to customers for the company. The sales associates are paid a set salary and benefit by the company no matter how successful they are or are not in acquiring customers.

Now think of an MLM structure. You have the Business. The business has a marketing department. The marketing department’s purpose is to acquire independent associates who in turn acquire customers for the business. The customers acquired results in revenue for the company. The associates are paid based on the revenue generated from the customers.

If the independent associate does not acquire customers they are not paid. However if the independent associate grows their customer base resulting in more revenue and then expands their downline of independent associates who grow their customer base the profits can be very handsome. The benefit to the independent associate is the potential for a lucrative income. The benefit to the company is low overhead and no expense of a traditional marketing department with a set number of associates employed by the company. With independent associates no benefits or salaries are paid. The independent associate in an MLM is driven by shear income potential. The more associates in their downline and the larger the customers base the larger the income potential.

Is this a good idea for a starting a niche business? It can be. Most MLM’s already have an established system if followed can be profitable to the marketing associate. But there are no guarantees. There is work involved and most new entrepreneurs are not good fits for MLM’s. MLM’s are not a “Get Rich” quick scheme which many naïve entrepreneurs are looking for.

A few examples of well-known MLM companies are Pampered Chef, Pre-Paid Legal, Mary Kay, and Avon. Most people do not realize these companies are MLM companies.

With any business you need to be passionate about the business. If you love Avon products but hate to conduct home parties, talk to people, and handle the orders then that obviously is not the right business for you. Most people who introduce you to a business opportunity are family, friends, and neighbors. If it sounds great but you don’t believe the opportunity is for you just say so. They’ll understand.

When considering any business venture you must research the business and be willing to do a lot of work in making your business successful. There are really no free rides but there are great opportunities.

What is Affiliate Marketing? - Affiliate marketing is a cooperative effort between merchants and “affiliate’s” for one particular result. Affiliate marketing is very popular with many Internet entrepreneurs. As an affiliate they have an opportunity to offer some product or service from merchants to earn some extra or additional income from their website.

There are many niche businesses that their entire purpose of existence is affiliate marketing. Marketing other merchants products or services to the masses. This can be very lucrative if you pick the right niche. Again it boils down to a niche.

The Affiliate Marketing Secret is a “free” 20 page eBook on how to make money in affiliate marketing. By no means does this eBook cover everything but gives you the basics to affiliate marketing. Check it out and see what you think.

Affiliate Marketing is a win-win situation for both the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant through their affiliates are able to market their products and services to a wide spectrum of people at minimal cost. It is free advertising and promotion in most cases until the potential customer purchases the product or service. After the agreed upon result is achieved the merchant is then responsible for paying the affiliate an agreed upon amount for the action the customer took.

The action could be a click to the merchants website, an Opt-In form completed on the merchants site directed through the affiliates site, or the purchase of a product being offered by the merchant directed through the affiliates site. There are many ways to be paid as an affiliate based on the merchant’s affiliates agreement.

Where do I find merchants with affiliate programs so I can offer them on my website? Great question. Do a search in your favorite search engine for affiliate programs and review. It is easy to get draw into the hype and offer as many products as you can find. This will only lead to despair. Remember it all again boils down to your niche business. The products or services you offer should be based on your niche business and the niche market you are marketing to.

Here are just a few affiliate sites you can check out. Clickbank, Commission Junction, eBay Network, and Amazon.com have affiliate programs. Are these all? Not exactly there are more on the net but you will have to weed out the ones that do not fit your business.

Check out more articles on affiliate marketing and niche business ideas throughout this website.