aWebBiz Internet Marketing Blog

Building a relationship with the members of your list isn’t easy. The chances are good that you are competing with several other marketers who have a list in your niche, and you need to come out on top to win.

That means building a relationship, gaining their trust, and really standing out. Yes, you probably want to make as much money as possible with your list, but that often means having them trust you first.

This is your “give,” while the monetary gains they will eventually receive is your “take.”

Keep The Long-Term Results In Your Mind

If you’ve been a member of other lists you might have noticed that they seem to “use” their list members. This can really make you feel sick and used.

The same thing can happen with members who join your list. Before you send your message, always think about the long-term effects that message could have. If you’re just trying to make a quick buck, and you’re not promoting quality, it will come back to bite you in the end.

That means if you’re an affiliate you should review the products that you’re promoting to make sure they are high quality. Don’t promote something just because there is a high commission for you! The same thing applies if you sell physical products. Make sure that everything you do and the products that you promote are in the best interest of those who have subscribed.

Showcase Yourself As An Expert

The people who have signed up for your list have probably done so because they want to learn more about what you have to say. They would not sign up if they weren’t sure they could learn valuable information or gain some insights for doing so.

That’s why you should present yourself as an expert at all times. That doesn’t mean being “cocky” or giving out false information. It simply means relaying information you deem important, and knowing that the advice you’re giving is in the best interest for the members of your list.

People trust and look up to experts. Your relationship with your list will grow stronger than ever as you share your expert strategies, tips, and tricks to help your list members.

Show Your Members Real Results or Data

If you run a business that can offer case studies or data; you will get the best results by sharing these things with your list members.

For example, if you are an expert at selling items on eBay, you can show real-life case studies from your sales last week. Show people how you write your copy, price your items, and got the most out of each sale.

This works across many different types of businesses. The point is that people like to see real-time results, and they are often impressed by and respond to them.

This works very well if you are eventually going to promote a product that you have used. So, as an eBay seller, you might have read some books that helped you get to the point you’re at now.

You can recommend the same books to other people, and earn commission from them if you don’t have your own product.

Show Your Readers That You Care

One thing that should be at the top of your agenda at all times is showing your list members that you care about them. This is especially true in some niches where people are going through a difficult period in their lives. It doesn’t matter which niche you’re in, however, people are more likely to be responsive if they know that you care about their needs, wants, and desires.

By simply empathizing with them and showing that you know exactly what they are going through, you will appear as more trustworthy. It should be easy for you to do as you are an expert in the topic and you know a lot about the people in your niche. If you’re not quite sure about what they’re going through, you can always visit niche forums and read posts written by people in the niche.

For instance, if your niche is pregnancy fitness, then visit pregnancy message boards and search for “exercise” to see what questions, comments, and concerns your potential readers may have.

Ask For Their Feedback

Just because you have an auto-responder sequence set up does not mean it has to be a one-sided conversation. You can get a lot of valuable information simply by surveying your list members every so often and asking for input.

Give them some sort of incentive for filling out a survey for you (free report, audio, video, discount coupon, or free service), and you’ll gain access to what they really need and want from your list. This helps build your relationship with your readers because they feel like they are valued and that you really care about them and their needs.

How do you set up a survey?

You can simply have them reply to your e-mail messages, or you can set up a more formal poll or survey. There are many popular options out there, with one of the well known ones being SurveyMonkey.com.

Building a positive long-term relationship with your list will result in long-term profits for your business.

I was trying to think of ways to promote an offline business online without having a web site and I listed some of my ideas below. I hope it gets you thinking. 
 
If you have an offline business then you need to bring it online in order to maximize your profits. 
 
Online marketing can work for any type of offline business. I don’t care if you are a lawyer, hair stylist, landscaper, dentist, or any other occupation, online marketing will help you make more money for your offline business. 
 
This system works for any product or service. You don’t even need to own a web site to make this idea work for you on the web. All you need is Internet access and an email account.
 
Let me give you an example:
 
Let’s say you own a barber shop. Now this is a local business and you are probably wondering how you could ever use the Internet to get customers in the door. 
 
Well, all you have to do is get the email addresses of your customers. Then the next time business is slow you send them all an email and you offer them a special discount of 20%-25% off the price of a hair cut. You have to let them know when the discount offer will expire (Make it good for 7 days maximum) and let them know that they will have to call you within the next 48 hours to make an appointment in order to get the discount. 
 
This type of email promotion costs you nothing and best of all it will bring in some customers. 
 
Here’s another example:
 
Let’s say you own a dry cleaning store.  Every time a customer comes into your store you’ll get their email address because you are going to be emailing them discount coupons every week.

This way you will be able to keep in touch with your customers and keep your business name in front of them. Using email is cheaper than running an ad in the newspaper.
 
You could even take this one step further. In addition to collecting your customer’s email address, you could also collect other data from them. 
 
Here’s another example: 
 
Let’s say you own a collectibles store. You might have a free drawing for some type of collectible or perhaps for a $50 gift certificate.

To enter your drawing your customer fills out the entry form with their name, email address and there could be a list of collectibles listed that they would check off to indicate they have an interest in or they collect. 
 
Now not only do you have a database of your customer’s email addresses, you also have the information as to which collectibles they are interested in and you can make targeted offers to them by way of free email. 
 
I don’t care what kind of offline business you have. You can use the Internet to increase your profits. 
 
I hope you have gotten some ideas on how to bring your offline business online. Just be creative and I’m sure you will make additional income and best of all, email is still free!

There are basically two kinds of company names: good ones and bad ones.

Bad names are the ones that are too common, too long, too hard to pronounce or too difficult to spell. Most of the rest are good names if they describe what your company does and the name will allow you to move vertically or horizontally within your marketplace.

When naming your company you should give it a lot of thought because you don’t want to have to change it later because you decide to sell other products or you want to enter other markets.

Here’s an example:

If the name of your business was Rockwell Beds and later on you wanted to sell office furniture then you’d probably have to change your business name. So you would have been better off naming your company Rockwell Furniture from the start.

Here’s another example:

Let’s say you wanted to start an Internet business selling software and your company name was Next Level Software. Then a few months later you decided to also sell books. Well, it looks like it’s time for another name change. A better name might have been Next Level Software & Books.

You get the idea. Don’t paint yourself into a corner when it comes to choosing a company name.

It doesn’t hurt to start your company name with the letter “a.” That way you’ll be at the top of the list in the yellow pages or any online directory you might list your company.

A common, nondescript company name like Avalon doesn’t tell me as much as a company name like Avalon Cleaning Services. It’s always a good idea to use your company name in all your marketing efforts for branding purposes. And it’s going to help if your company name describes what your company does.

Short names are often better than long names because you’ll be able to use a larger text size in all your printed advertising.

You’ll probably want to check the availability of a domain name which is the same as the company name you’re considering because sooner or later you’ll want to have a web site for your business.

And with domain names, shorter is definitely better than long. When it comes to domain names you’ll always want to get a top level .com or .org domain name and not an .info or any of the others.

Finally, you always want to check to see if the company name you choose is available, legal and protectable.