aWebBiz Internet Marketing Blog

There are some common errors that people who are new to list building tend to make. In fact, some of these are mistakes that experienced marketers make time and time again. Correcting these mistakes can mean the difference between having a solid, unbreakable relationship with your list and having a list full of people who simply delete your e-mails and unsubscribe.

Pay close attention to these do’s and don’ts to ensure your list is a success.

Don’t Buy Leads

If you’re just getting started online, buying leads can be very tempting. Don’t get lured, though, into the seemingly easy strategy of buying leads. While this can work to a certain point, it is not going to give you the responsive list that you want.

When you buy leads, the people who you get on your list have likely never heard of you and most of them probably don’t want to hear from you.

On the other hand, when you build your own list from scratch, you’re talking to people who are warmed up to you already and who are a lot more likely to buy. Buying leads, for the most part, is a waste of money.

Don’t Spam People!

It can seem awfully enticing that all you need to to make money is send an e-mail. This leads certain people to the dark side. Of course I’m talking about spamming. Even if their intentions started off good, spamming is highly tempting, and the laws can be confusing.

Spam is when you send unsolicited e-mails to people, and is actually against the law to do. The spam law states that you must make sure that you make it easy for people to unsubscribe from your list (a link at the bottom of the message is best) and that they have subscribed in the first place. You are also required by law to include your postal address with all messages that you send.

You can read the law here:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/business.htm

Building a relationship may take longer than spamming, but the profits will be far greater in the long run.

Don’t Put Off Building a List

Many people think that they can put off building a list until they are more “established” or until [enter your excuse reason here]. This is a mistake. Even if your traffic is low and you’re brand new to online business, you need to build those relationships from the very start.

If you ask established Internet entrepreneurs what their biggest regret is, many of them will tell you their regret is that they did not build a list sooner. It doesn’t matter what your online business is – selling ebooks, offering a service, affiliate marketing, creating adsense sites, ecommerce, blogging, or direct selling – you need to build a list.

Build a Relationship First, Think Of Money Later

We’ll dig into this tip in a lot more detail later on, but it’s important to understand it right now as well. You need to focus on the relationship building part of your list first, and think about the monetary aspect later.

Sure, you want to make money, but if all you do is hit up your list for money, you’re going to get a lot of unsubscribes and make some people angry. The chances are good that they signed up for your list in order to get something out of it. Whether it was an e-course, a free e-book, information, coupons, notices, an audio, or something else, they expect to receive a lot of value for being a part of your e-mail list.

If you provide this relationship first, the money will come.

Be Consistent

There are many business owners who build a list and then don’t do anything with it. They allow their leads to get neglected. All this does is cause your list members to forget they’ve joined your list in the first place, and it causes you to lose potential income.

When you do decide to send a mailing to your neglected lists, a much higher number of people will choose not to open your e-mails, mark your emails as spam, and unsubscribe. You don’t need to e-mail them every day (that’s actually a bad idea) but consistent effort is what will build the results you’re looking for.

Do you want to improve your email marketing skills? If so then register for the free webinars below.

Free, Live Email Marketing Webinars ~ Become an Email Marketing Master

There must be some reason why some Tweeters on Twitter get so many of their tweets retweeted.

Do you ever wonder why more of your tweets don’t get retweeted?

A retweet or RT happens whenever your tweet on Twitter is retweeted by other Tweeters. In other words, when you tweet (posting a message on Twitter) and then other Tweeters (other posters on Twitter) retweet (forward your post to others) then it is called a retweet.

For example, if my original tweet was this:
awebbiz  ~ Reliable and low cost hosting service ~ www.awebbiz.com/hostgator.htm ~ [Please RT]

A retweet (RT) by other Tweeters would look like this:
RT @awebbiz Reliable and low cost hosting service ~ www.awebbiz.com/hostgator.htm ~ [Please RT]

There are advantages to having your tweets retweeted:

• Many people who read the retweet (RT) may decide to follow you or click on your link.
• It makes you look as if you are knowledgeable, or as I like to say, “You are in the loop,” when people are retweeting your tweets. This often encourages other Tweeters to follow you and/or retweet (RT) your tweet.

So how do you get more people to retweet (RT) your tweets?

The 4 Best Ways To Get More People To Retweet Your Tweets:

1. Use a numbered list or use specific numbers:
- 10 Ways You Can Get More Traffic to Your Web Site
- How You Can Lose 25 pounds in 30 Days
- 30 Writing Tips That Will Improve Your Writing
- The 3 Things That Your Headlines Must Do If You Want More Sales

Your tweets should be like a headline. The best tweets will target the reader’s self-interest.  Curiosity in your tweet also works well.

Your reader wants to know:
“What’s in it for me?”
“What benefit will I get from the information in your tweet or if I click on your link?”

2. Include the words “You” or “Your”:
People who read your tweets will have more interest in them if the tweet is about them. If the tweet targets the reader then they will be more likely to RT your tweet if they thing the information is valuable.

3. Include a link:
People seem to be more inclined to RT your tweet if there is a link included. You can only say so much with a tweet that contains 140 characters. So having a link to a web site or a blog, where someone can find more detailed information that they are interested in works well.

4. Include this in your tweet:
[Please Retweet] or [Please RT]

Including [Please RT] in your tweet acts as a call for action to be taken by your reader. People like to be told what to do next.

If a person has taken the time to read your tweet and perhaps they visited your web site or blog, then they may feel obligated to “pay” you back for the great information you provided. The easiest way for them to “pay” you back is with a RT of your tweet.

Try using the suggestions I have provided and I guarantee that you will get more retweets of your tweets, which means you will be getting many more followers than you are getting now.

There are many people who think that in order to rank highly in search engines, they need to stuff their keyword in their article an excessive amount of times. This is definitely not the best way to attract readers or get traffic to your website.

The search engines are also getting smarter and they know when you’re trying to game them.

It is much better to weave your keywords in more naturally. This will serve both the search engines and your readers. There is no set keyword density that works well, but many experts suggest you stick to around 2 to 5%. That means for every hundred words you would include the keyword about 2 to 5 times.

Remember — the search engines can tell if you’re trying to stuff your keyword in your article. Their main goal is to provide a good user experience for people who use their search engine, and your main goal is to get people to your website.

It makes sense, then, that you would strive to provide good content that the search engines will like and that people find useful when they visit your website.