How to Profit from Your Mailing List

As you may know, the size of your mailing list can reflect the size of your profits. Your “mailing list” is the group of people that have signed up to receive your mailings, which can be a newsletter, e-course, or any other email.

You can set up a mailing list through an autoresponder service, such as Aweber. Once you register for the service, you can set up a mailing list and preload various emails that will be sent to the people that sign up to receive them. Your autoresponder service will give you a bit of HTML that you can add to your website or blog. When people click the link, they will be added to your list. As soon as they are added, they will start to receive your mailings.

To maximize your profits, you will want to have several different lists, and you will want to stay in touch with the people on your lists regularly. For instance, you may have a general newsletter list for your website, as well as lists set up for the specific sections of your website.

If your website focuses on children’s products, you may have a section devoted to toddler-sized clothes, a separate section devoted to early elementary age children’s clothing, and another section devoted to tween clothing. Set up a mailing list for each separate section. You don’t need to have a separate newsletter for each age bracket; however, having these separate mailing lists will allow you to send news and advertisements that each list would be interested in.

For example, if you are a retailer for various products relating to children, you can send an email with some information about toddlers directly to your toddler list. Include your link for a product that they may be interested in. You may notice that your conversions go up, as you are no longer sending parents of older children links to products focused on toddlers. You will be able to send each specific group links to products that they will find most helpful.

The time frame that you use to stay in contact with each list may vary. If someone signs up for your general newsletter list, they may expect to receive a newsletter each week or month. However, if someone only signs up to receive updates for a specific section on your website, they may get irritated if you send them an email every single day.

Use your best judgment when setting up your emails. You will want to stay in contact with them regularly enough so that they do not forget you, but you don’t want them to feel harassed, either.

If you are sending your mailing list regular updates about your site, and including helpful information, you will see that your profits will increase.

Autoresponders

Autoresponders are automatic e-mail response programs. They have become one of the most essential tools for Internet marketers, affiliate marketers and other who do a large amount of business on the web.

The autoresponder program will send pre-entered e-mail messages instantly to people who request information from a website, newsletter or online merchant. One of the most common uses for autoresponders is to create a learning course to inform and educate potential customers about the benefits of a business or product.

Autoresponders also allow Internet business people to effortlessly follow up with their clients from time to time.

I recommend the following autoresponders:

• Aweber (my personal choice)
• Email Aces

So, Why Are You Sending Me Email With Clicks.Aweber Links? Are You Spamming Me?

In a word: No.

One of my clients alerted me tonight about complaints going around embroidery Yahoo groups. Apparently, someone, received emails from a wedding organization out of California.

The email thanked the recipient for registering on their site, though she doesn’t remember doing so. She was concerned because the URL in the link inside the email looked like this:

clicks.aweber.com… followed by several letters and numbers

With all the spam we receive every day, I can understand why she was concerned — and I’m glad that she asked. It’s usually not a good idea to click links in an email when we have no idea where it came from or whether or not the source can be trusted.

In this case though, I can say that I am familiar with Aweber. I am a subscriber to their mailing list services, which I use to manage my “Seven Secrets to Starting A Successful Online Business” ecourse, my Watersweb Biz Tips newsletter and my new Free WAHM Stuff newsletter.

I can tell you that the clicks.aweber link is actually Aweber’s built-in tracking system. When the list owner adds a link into the email she is creating, she has the option to checkmark a box to track whether or not the recipients of the email click the link. She can then determine whether or not her message is reaching her target market. I know “tracking system” sounds like Big Brother, but all it does is help the list owner decide if her marketing campaign is effective or not.

Also, Aweber requires all their lists to be Verified Opt-In, which means that not only do you have to sign up for the list on someone’s website, but you also have to click a link inside a confirmation email before you will receive anything else.

I am thinking that the confirmation email is what the Yahoo group member received. She may have signed up for a list on a website, or maybe someone signed her up. In either case, by doing nothing, she will NOT receive any more emails from that list.

Of course, since I know that people aren’t trusting these re-written links, I don’t think I’ll be using their tracking system again. My client just left my list because she thought that I was sending her weird stuff. (Actually, it was just a link to my Presenting Your Products ask campaign.)

Here are some tips to help you decide if you should click the links in an email

1. Do not sign up for lists, unless you trust the source.

2. Do not click links in the confirmation email unless you trust the source AND you want to continue receiving mailings from the source.

3. If the list is from Aweber or Email Aces or Constant Contact, there will be an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. It is safe to click the unsubscribe link that the company automatically includes in the email. You can read more about the unsubscribe link that aweber appends to messages at http://www.aweber.com/faq_messages.htm#21

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below…