How to Make Money With Your List
Your ultimate goal is to help people, but you also want to increase your bottom line. Learning how to make money with your list is essential — it’s also important that you don’t make mistakes that could cut into your profits.
Promote Affiliate Products
One way to make money with your list is to promote affiliate products. The chances are good that no matter which niche you’re in, you can find relevant products that people will respond to. These might be information products, physical products, or even services. The important thing is that you check the product yourself for quality to make sure it’s something that you will feel good about putting your stamp of approval on.
Many list owners make the mistake of simply choosing offers based upon their commission without checking to make sure it’s something that their readers can actually use. By hand-selecting what you promote, you’ll gain the trust of your list members and they will be more likely to buy from you in the future.
In doubt? Don’t promote.
Promote Your Own Products
What many list owners end up doing is creating their own products (if they don’t have them already).
This gives you ultimate control over what you’re offering to your list, as you are the one who decides what goes into the product. This is amazing, because after a while you will have gotten a feel for what the members of your list really need. This allows you to zero in on their wishes and hand-deliver them a product you know they’ll be happy to pay for.
It can also be more beneficial to promote your own products, since you don’t have to split the commission as an affiliate. This can be more lucrative in the end. Having your own product can also brand you as an expert. As soon as people see your name on a book or other product, they know that you are a serious person in your field.
Presell The Product
No matter whether you’re promoting an affiliate product or you’re providing your own, you need to make sure you presell the product.
Preselling means to warm up your reader BEFORE he/she is sent to the sales page.
That means using good copywriting skills right within your e-mail that will show people that the product that you’re recommending is one that they actually need. Empathize with the reader, and show that this is a product that can do exactly what they need it to do.
That doesn’t mean you’re going to hype the product at all or lie. You can certainly make a lot of sales without making false claims about anything. It will be easier than you think to presell to your customers if you are promoting a product that you truly believe in.
Create Special Offers
Creating special incentives and offers can help you to make sales. Your list members will be thrilled to get discounts just by being a member of your list. This strategy also makes being a member of your list special and exclusive – something they can’t get from the competition.
Here are some ideas…
Negotiate a special discount with a product owner if you’re an affiliate. Ask the owner for a percentage off, a free trial, or even an added bonus – just for your readers.
Create and offer an added bonus yourself. Provide it only to those readers who buy a product through your affiliate link. For instance, an extra report, audio, or maybe even your notes that you took when YOU went through the same course.
Drop your price just for your list members on a product that you own.
Offer Resale Rights or PLR rights to your own product – only to your list.
Bundle up other people’s Resale Rights products into a package and offer it at a steal.
Offer personal coaching only to your list members.
No matter what you decide to do, keep in mind that you need to treat your list members like gold, which means giving them offers that nobody else has access to.
If you make these offers truly special, you’ll get customers for life!
Don’t Be Afraid To Change Out Products Over Time
It can be very tempting to just leave everything as it is after you’re done setting up different products to promote in your autoresponder series. The truth is that some offers may not convert as well as you thought they would. You need to check your stats and periodically clean things out. Test different offers to make sure the needs of your list members are being met — and that you’re earning as much money as possible.
That may mean trying different affiliate offers or taking note of your list member’s feedback and creating products based around that. Even though your autoresponder series can be “set and forget,” that’s not always the best case scenario.