In the previous lesson we looked at how to segment your list, and we’ve spent the past eleven lessons looking at how to build your list and cultivate a relationship with your subscribers.
But it’s all for nothing if your subscribers never open your email and take action, so that’s what we’re talking about today…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
1) Getting subscribers to open your emails
2) Getting subscribers to click the links in your emails
-Sole objective is to get the subscriber to open the email.
-Use the news (ie. Yahoo headlines)
-Get headline ideas from Digg.com
*Must be related to the content of the email message. (Do not bait and switch)
-Use the word THIS.
-Use mystery.
-Personalize it or Depersonalize it.
-Make it LOOK personal/informal.
-Use RE:
-You must change them up frequently. If you use the same tactic repeatedly it loses effectiveness.
-For the past decade marketers have been saying Tuesday and Thursday are best.
-A study by AWeber showed Sunday and Saturday had the highest open rate.
-Weekdays vs. Weekends depends largely on your niche/market.
-Business people generally check their email FIRST THING in the morning.
-I’ve found 3:30AM to 8:00AM is usually best for me.
-A study by AWeber showed 8:00AM was the best time, and 3:00-4:00AM was the worst.
-Use the scheduling feature on your broadcast emails. Test it on your follow-up emails.
-ALL of the above can and should be tested. Your niche may be different, and it’s EASY to track your results in AWeber.
-I’m often a contrarian. Most marketers in my niche don’t mail on weekends, so I often do…. and I sometimes mail in the evening.
-If you send at the same day/time, your subscribers will recognize the pattern and EXPECT it.
-I usually use multi-part MIME.
-Don’t send HTML only!
-Plain text has slightly higher deliverability, however…
-Deliverability of multi-part MIME is comparable and…
-Multi-part MIME has the advantage of formatting the HTML.
-HTML allows you to BRAND yourself.
I try to keep spam assassin score below 2.
-Keep your email short
-Put a link above the fold
-Give the link a couple times (I usually use 2 or 3)
-Use a P.S. with a link (occassionally)
-Add personalization to the links using AWeber tokens.
-Alternate anchor text and plain URL’s (only applies to HTML version of your multi-part MIME)
-Good copywriting gets clicks. Keep working on it, and if you stink… outsource it.
-See lesson #69 for more info about segmentation.
-Bottom line is you’ll get more opens and clicks if you send more email.
Action step:
1) Implement strategies to increase your email open rate, and click-through rate.
*This particular action step must be done on a regular basis.
Soon we’ll be talking about web traffic generation, but first we need to talk about tracking in the next lesson.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂
Have a great day!
Hi Eric, thank you so much for the very informative lessons so far. Did I cought up with you now? There is no lesson 71… I mostly follow your lessons for the technical aspect, which is what I enjoy as I cannot seem to get over my aversion to sell things, I am still hoping though.
Of course I wanted to write: “Did I catch up?”
Hi Eric i was wondering if you know where i can find a step by step guide or ebook (for free) on how to startan online auction business like ebay or getafreelancer etc..
Thanks love your videos really helpful.
Practical information. Easy to understand. Nice way that give informative ways in business.
Are you talking about starting an ebay-based business, or starting your own auction site like ebay? Or a freelancer site like rentacoder?
Yes you caught up to me 🙂
Hi Eric
Lesson 70 was the last one i received. I haven’t received any for a couple of days now.
Please send me the rest. I will really appreciate it.
Regards Alma
Im thinking of starting a site like rentacoder but i dont know where to start.
wow I’m really impressed with your blog you have some awesome stuff! what can you tell me about the 20 Ready-Made Online Businesses
Hi Eric,
I know this isn’t your forte but what do you think of network marketing in comparison to affiliate marketing? I’m really hurting for some passive income right now and could use some more advice
If you’re familar with the website “template” concept, this basically takes it the next step and gives you totally preconfigured pages with monetization. It’s not meant to be a “complete” business or a total solution by itself, but it can be a good shortcut for getting some monetized sites online.
In my opinion affiliate marketing may give you a greater chance of success.
Some people make a LOT of money with network marketing, and you’ll hear many people tell you it’s the greatest thing (because they’re network marketers and they want you to sign up in their downline).
Both types of business take real work to build. Those who find success treat it like a business and not a hobby.
I like affiliate marketing better for a few reasons. For one, you can build it in such a way that you’re building your OWN business rather than someone else’s. Instead of putting a bunch of money in your sponsor’s pocket (and the owners of the company), you can put more profits in your own pocket.
Instead of being dependent on a particular company and their product line, you can branch out and market products and services in an unlimited number of industries as an affiliate.
And instead of having to cold call customers and/or exhaust your friends and family, you can tap into a virtually unlimited supply of traffic on the Internet.
On the other hand, if your forte is recruiting people to join your downline, network marketing might be a good route for you. The way to achieve freedom through network marketing is to get enough people under you that you don’t have to work anymore.
The way to achieve freedom through affiliate marketing is to scale your business so that you make enough money to retire after a few years of work, or else outsource it and let others run it for you.
I would start with a business plan (and all the other stuff I cover in lessons #2 through 17. Vision, goals, etc.)
Beyond that, it depends on your resources and strategy. If you have a lot of resources and plan on risking a significant amount of capital, I would start by hiring some top notch programmers in your chosen programming language for the site.
If you want to start small and take an easier route, then I would recommend using a prewritten script as a template for the site. A good place to find such a script would be http://www.hotscripts.com/
Find one that fits your needs for the site as closely as possible, then you can hire a coder on a site such as Rentacoder, Odesk, or Scriptlance to customize it to your specific needs.
Wow I did not expect you to reply so soon or so thoroughly. I appreciate it very much you are quite the intelligent man! So I am an 18 year old who just graduated high school. I have so far tried my hand at regular stock trading, forex trading, one network marketing company and I bought your pro trading course but have not done much with it yet. I also attended an intensive millionaire minds seminar in Colorado. I would like to do affiliate marketing, however the most experience I have is a web design class I took in high school (outside of your lessons). I did find a network marketing company that extremely decreases recruiting costs through a strategy I haven’t found anywhere else (I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement or I would gladly tell you about it). I am willing to work 20 hours a week on either network or affiliate marketing, but I don’t know enough about affiliate marketing yet to make an educated decision.
I know this is asking a lot from someone who doesn’t know me and is as busy as you are but would you be able to take a look at this company I am considering so that I can receive an outside opinion?
…..I need to learn a lot more about affiliate marketing thank you for your time and attention 🙂
I replied to your post but I don’t see it did it not go through or something?
In today’s realm of internet marketing, affiliate marketing, and Network marketing you can find a blend of all three. Like the use of a funded proposal and the addition of affiliate sales by incorporating them into your Aweber follow up. I was first introduced to the world of internet marketing through this very blog over a year ago Eric. I purchased one of your Options Trading products and that one purchase lead me down a rabbit hole of learning how to truly leverage the internet. I appropriately named my first blog rubenstips.com. I believe this is my first time writing on here but I must say thank you. This blog has lead me to where I am today and I’m very happy to say that I’ve been able to quit my job because of the (great) money I make in my primary business. None of this would have been possible if I would not have stumbled across your website. Thank you Eric.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Yes, I agree with Eric, xSitePro is so intuitive and easy to learn, especially the last version is awesome.
Wordpress has a little longer learning curve, but you learn to blog as well, Ver 3 which is out of beta now, includes Multi User! So is highly recommended.
So, happy 4th of Julay my friends
Regards
Michaela
http://squidooeventlog.com
I have stopped getting lessons at number 70, please please tell me i don’t have to sign back up and start at the beginning! please can you fix it so i continue from lesson 71. many thanks
Hi Eric, Thankyou for another great lesson!
I’m just curious, in your experience are the only people making money on the internet, those selling ‘make money on the net’ products?
Hi Eric,
Over the past year or more I have been privileged to stumble across your lessons to assist me to negotiate the maze of building and creating internet businesses. Your lessons have provided some extremely valuable tips and I am very grateful. I have purchased a number of your products and now proudly have a handful of sites ready to make money…
Will you be covering how to get your first customer? I am reading anything and everything to understand internet marketing and it appears that the following strategies are the way to start to find the first viewer/customer:
Social Bookmarking/networking, ie. join Facebook/Twitter etc
Submit Aticles (Ezine etc…)
Tell everyone you know and meet…
Post some YouTube Videos and link them to your site
Comment on Blogs/Forums
I dont know anyone else who knows anything about selling products on the net so JV-ing is out at the moment… and SEO is a little complicated for me as a newbie to marketing.
Will you cover these above strategies and more, or can you make any further recommendations… Thankyou Rachel Johnston
My opening rates have been increasing but conversion rates have been declining, have been doing the same mareting to same list… what do you think about creat a new list and shedding some dusty baggage? good idea?
Great post by the way
John
Hi Eric,
What an inspiration you are to the rest of us. I wish I could do something like that. Has it always been a dream of yours to help in this way?
It has been said that the internet is an evil place that should be avoided. Yet seeing this has made me realize that God is good and the internet can be used to help a lot of people.
Thanks for sharing that Eric,
Steve
Eric,
I need to find your friend who deals with the optioms market? how do I sign up again to work with him?
Your spamhaus/spam assassin advice was good Eric and I agree with you on too many links being spammy. I will try a PS and see how that works!
Maybe you are thinking of my friend Dave, who is an options expert:
http://tradingprosystem.com
http://dailymarketadvantage.com/special
Absolutely, thanks!
It’s a good idea to always be making new lists and sub-lists.
Some people ditch their unresponsive subscribers, and there are very good arguments for doing so.
But I don’t think you necessarily have do ditch your less responsive list, just keep making fresh ones too.
Glad to hear it. Yes, I will be covering those things and more. I’ll be covering web traffic in depth very soon.
Regarding JV’ing, I do recommend going to an internet marketing seminar and meeting people there.
No they’re not. The “make money” niche is a very good niche, although pretty saturated. But I know of people making money online in every niche imaginable, and in many different ways/business models. Keep in mind, making money on the web is not a novelty sort of thing– it’s a matter of building a business, and there are many kinds of businesses.
Cool, keep up the good work Ruben!
Sometimes it takes me a few days to moderate the comments (or longer if I’m on vacation).
I wouldn’t be able to give a qualified assessment of the company. But my advice would be the same regardless of the particular network marketing company. I think you (particularly at your age) would be better off focusing on building your own business, rather than someone else’s. And building a web-based affiliate marketing business would provide you that opportunity.
Hey Eric,
Do u still think that email marketing dose give any benefits in promoting and populating our products…
I really think that Email marketing popularity had cut down a bit infront of adwords and adsense
Thanks
I do still think email marketing is still #1 over all other web traffic methods for this business model.
Great lesson Eric,
Thank you:)
I am not so sure about RE: and those tactics – short term gains stand for long term loss in my book as your subscribers wise up to your tactics. Try curiosity rousing headlines – what makes people buy newspapers? Write headlines like that!
I would like to order the beta tester product. The timer on the page the product was offered indicated it would be available today. I am dissppointed I can not order it and hope you will re-release it after bugs are fixed. Thanks.
Hello John,
We’re sorry you missed the first round of beta testing. The good news, is it will be available in the near future again. There is still some more work to be done in the mean time.
Thanks Eric, for explaining these tips so clearly. I am a Aweber subscriber and do read their articles from time to time and implement their suggestions. You tips came to me as a reminder, urging me to take action right NOW. Thanks again. To begin with, I will focus on my head lines.
Very good series Eric, you are the MAN! so far I’ve been following your lessons and learning and clearing up this whole subject. And I have some areas I want to develop, which I am pretty behind, but I have a better idea of how to go about it. Nevertheless, I want to make it so I can hire you as a consultant. We’ll see.
Hi Eric,
Thanks so very much for these very timely and informative tips. I have already utilized a lot of your suggestions and I will be purchasing a few of your suggested items in the near future. Once again…THANKS!
Another great lesson. Thanks Eric.
Eric,
It is now quite evident that List Building is the ‘gold’. These are strategies that I am sure few are taught and never know how to build or right their business if it begins to falter.
As always, your usual level of excellence -:)
Nedra
Eric,
Thanks for the tips on emails.
I am a lot clearer about where to go to get ideas for good email headlines, best dates to send emails, frequency and how many links to add in one email.
I have a good take away of adding customers name on web links and mixing it up!
Keep up the good work!
Nnenna
Isn’t this against CAN SPAM? I thought you weren’t allowed to put “RE:” or “FW:” because it’s misleading that you actually have an email relationship.
Hi, Eric I love your tips, but my worry is this since I started this kind of online business,I’ve never have something droping in my account or maybe I still don’t understand the logic online? Where maybe can I start with your tips?
Hello Kym,
Your messages are only sent to people who have double-opted into your list. If they don’t like your subject lines or attention getters, they may unsubscribe at any time.
Hello Joseph,
Generally, it’s best to start at lesson #1, and progress forward through the lessons.
Is there something that you are trying now? Affiliate marketing, selling PLR content, etc.?