Why You NEED to Establish Your OWN List of Contacts

You can buy advertising in multiple ezines, or on multiple sites, and reach a lot of people, right? Sure, but unless you buy repeated advertising, how many times do you reach them? Once. Even with repeat advertising, it's still not going to be a long term situation. The simplest fact of Internet marketing is this: If you have your own business, You NEED to establish your OWN list of repeat contacts. Make no mistake, there is real power here. Having your own list of regular contacts is THE KEY to Internet Success whether anyone wants to admit it or not. You know all those claims you've seen about people making spectacular amounts of money in short periods of time? What they fail to mention when they tell you about such claims is that the person already had one of two things set up for themselves. One, a bunch of proven, effective advertising contacts, and the money or position to buy or trade for a huge amount of advertising all at once. Or two, a large, previously established list of contacts. Contact lists can be gained either through administering a program that is based on the collection of email addresses, (opt-in or safelist programs, FFA posting sites) or through the POWER of Ezines. While the administrator of the opt-in list or FFA site, and the Publisher of the Ezine gets EVERYONE'S contact information, no one else that posts, joins, or subscribes gets this privilege. The greater advantage, though, goes to the Ezine Publisher. Opt-in lists and FFA sites are joined by people interested solely in posting their opportunity or ad. Ezines are read. That is their purpose, to be read. Therefore, the ezine publisher will have a better response rate from his contacts than the opt-in list or FFA site administrator. Ezine subscriber lists are EARNED lists that will continue to be EARNED by producing useful content, and therefore will have better responses. So, how do you use that POWER to your advantage? Retain Contact With Visitors The simplest advantage is that offering a free ezine subscription makes your advertising more cost effective. By simply getting your site visitors to leave you their name and email, you retain their contact instead of losing them after they leave your site. Repeat Advertising By keeping subscribers on your list, you can re-expose them to your opportunity indefinitely. You don't want to overdo it to the point of annoyance, but you can at least mention your business, and occasionally promote through business updates or classified ads. Attract Offers From Others As you build your subscriber base, and particularly if you list your ezine in the ezine directories, you will begin to receive offers from others wanting to promote to your list. Often, you will be offered commissions on sales, or free products or services in exchange for promoting the business or product of the person making the offer. This can be a good thing. However, in order to maintain a good reputation for yourself, you must be critical in what you decide to promote. If you promote everything that comes along, your subscribers will recognize this habit and tend to not care or even distrust your recommendations. If you study the offers and only promote the ones that can be beneficial to your readers, you will receive better responses. It's a matter of building a good reputation. If you recommend good, you'll get good. Offer Advertising as an Exchange You can then make offers to others as well using your list as a bargaining tool. Place a value on your advertising, and then use that value in trade with others for things you want or need. Be fair, give good deals, and you can build powerful relationships with others that can become beneficial to you both now and in the future. Create Good Business Relationships Use your list to build good business relationships, particularly in the beginning. To start with, while your list is small, you won't really sell ads anyway, so give them out freely. Most everyone will accept a free ad even if they know the list is small, and they will remember that you did it for them. This will put others in a good frame of mind toward you for the future, when you may need a favor or help with something. NOT RECOMMENDED It is possible to 'rent' your subscribers out to other advertisers. I DO NOT recommend this. This has to potential to make people mad and possibly hit you with spam charges. Your subscribers have signed up to receive YOUR ezine, not others ads. If others want to promote to your list, make them buy an ad or make you an offer to promote for them through your ezine. Don't just hand over your HARD EARNED list! Developing your own list has clear advantages over merely promoting to lists established by others. Not to mention that the sending of email to subscribers is free whereas effective advertising on other's lists most often is not.