list building

Apr

2008

Survey Results Part 1 – Do You Have A Mailing List?

Way back in November (which doesn’t seem that long ago), I told you a little bit about my background and also asked you if you’d complete a survey.

http://www.frankhaywood.com/mailing-list-survey/

My intention was to:-

#1 – Share those results.
#2 – Help you do something about what came out of the survey.

I wanted to do both together, but I thought the only way I could do so was if I spent a lot of time showing you how to build your own mailing list.

As I’ve been sort of busy since then (yes I know this is just an excuse), I’ve completely failed to come up with the goods and so I’ve hurt myself in the process.

See, my logic is, if I help you build a mailing list, then you’ll be in a position to promote all the lovely things I’ve got coming out this year. Or not.

It’s always up to you of course what you promote to your list, and you should never bow to pressure to promote things you don’t truly believe are worth it. I don’t, and that’s why you don’t see me jumping on every big launch.

(Okay there’s an exception, there was a big launch yesterday, and I am VERY impressed with the product and the guy behind it, but let’s save that for another time.)

So what am I on about then?

Well, there were a few questions in the survey about building a mailing list, and one of them was to rank topics in order of importance. I was a little surprised with some of the results, and over the next few days I’m going to share them with you.

First of all though, let’s take a look at the result for how important list building is to you.

I think you’ll agree that most people “get it” and you can see that list building is vital to your internet business.

In fact I’ll go a step further and say that your mailing list is your business. I believe that without one, you’re dead in the water.

Now by a nice bit of good fortune, Jonathan Paston wrote to me and asked if he could try my nickel script out. I said okay, but was there something he could do to help you and me out in return.

After a bit of chat backwards and forwards, it turns out that he has a really nice list building product (a set of videos) that he sells for $77.

After a bit more chat I got him to agree to do a nickel sale for it, starting at…

Wait for it…

Two dollars…

Yee-haa! Now that’s what I call a result. 🙂

I’ve just taken a look at the new page he’s set up for it, and he’s thrown in a couple of REALLY nice bonuses to go with it – an ebook and an MP3.

He must have really REALLY wanted to get his hands on my nickel script!

So, we’ve agreed that tomorrow he’ll launch his nickel sale at the usual time of 3.00pm GMT (10.00am EST) as that seems to suit most people.

Sidenote: If it feels like I’ve been involved in a lot of nickel sales recently (it’s only actually 3), it’s because I want to “battle test” the nickel script before letting it out into the wild. There’s one outstanding problem with it over single quotes, and one extra little tweak I’ve asked the nickel script developer (David) to make and I think it will just about be ready for public consumption. So watch out for that one coming soon.

I’ll make sure to set up the blog post with the link to the nickel sale here in advance, and set it to appear automatically at 3.00pm, so even if I get called away (like I did yesterday), you’ll still get the link at that time.

Excited? I am! I just hope there aren’t any problems with the nickel script for Jonathan tomorrow…

-Frank Haywood.

Mar

2008

Easy Money, Guaranteed

I often get a comment left when someone unsubscribes from a mailing list. They fall into two main categories.

#1 – I’m cutting down all my subscriptions. Overload!
#2 – You loser, spammer, scammer, and worse.

But every so often, I’ll get someone say something like…

“I’ve been trying for 6 months now, and all that’s happened is I’ve spent a load of money.”

Well yes, that’s one way of going about business. Give it a half hearted attempt, spend a load of money thinking it’s going to make a difference, and then give up when the magic doesn’t happen.

I blame the marketers out there that promise things like “Try my ABC system and you’ll be able to give up your job in just 30 days from now!”

Oh really! Come on! If it were really that easy, you think anyone would tell you?

They’d just keep the method to themselves and scale it up.

They’d hire a load of employees and make them do all the work for a salary, keeping the lion’s share to themselves. That’s how real businesses do it and you already know it without me telling you.

So why do so many people fall for the “get rich quick” scams? And not just once, but over and over?

There are multiple reasons, but I’ll just cover the one here today.

It’s easier to buy a product and FEEL you’ve done something to build your internet business than it is to actually DO something to build your business.

I’m right aren’t I?

I know I am because that’s exactly what I’ve done in the past.

There’s nothing wrong with buying knowledge.

It’s how I make my living, and it’s also something I do myself on a regular basis. I spend a lot of money on my own education in the form of online courses, processes and procedures I’m unsure of, books which I get from either Play.com or Amazon.com, and so on.

But once I have the knowledge, I stop buying and I start doing.

Here today, I’m going to give you my condensed 7 step course in how to make money online…

#1 – Create a product.
#2 – Put up a sales page.
#3 – Drive traffic to it.
#4 – Build your mailing list.
#5 – Make some sales.
#6 – Automate it all.

and the vital last one…

#7 – Repeat.

There’s an even more condensed version up at the top of the home page of this blog.

Product Creation, Traffic, List Building, Automation = Internet Business

It’s as simple as that.

No, it’s not easy. Real business isn’t. You already know that.

A real business is built from sustained effort. Not from buying stuff for 6 months and then giving up.

But what it is, is it’s GUARANTEED to work.

-Frank Haywood

P.S. The title of this post is a hat tip to someone who gets it so much he’s parodied it (hi Peter). Just Google it…

Feb

2008

What Have You Learned?

This week, I used a slightly modified technique that I learned from another blog, by watching that blog owner and what he did. I’ve spent a lot of money there, including a monthly service that I pay $100 / month for.

It was that service that has helped me achieve the very fast results I’ve seen.

On Monday, I posted an explanation of something I’d experienced and achieved, plus some irrefutable proof of what I was saying. I promised to share what I’d done to achieve the results I’d seen in a post on Friday.

However, I’d only share that information with people who were subscribed to my blog at the time I posted it. That was the deal. I forced no-one to take it, everyone has a choice in life. You agree?

It was free information, and extremely valuable too for those people that take action on it. Typically, it will be 1%-2% of people reading it.

Anyone subscribing after the post couldn’t get the information.

That was my plan at the start of the week.

But because I’m a softy, I decided to relent and offer the information for $10 for those people who had decided not to subscribe at the time I made the offer. And also to give 100 hours for people to do so.

I may not do that again. Oh who am I kidding? Of course I will, it’s a good idea.

Make a mental note to take action on it yourself right now. No, go write it into your business plan. Now.

I should make it clear here that I sent two emails out this week to existing mailing lists of mine, making the offer. That’s TWO chances for people to read my email and act on it.

Many people did. I’ve seen an increase of 205 subscribers to this blog in the last two days.

That’s 1.44% of my total mailing lists, excluding this blog. (There are also 36 brand new subscribers not on any other mailing list.)

Well, well. 1.44% – between 1% and 2%.

98% did nothing, or didn’t read my emails. It’s the same thing to me, and what I expected.

I don’t send out frivolous emails to my lists, I often send out good quality content, and I don’t promote every product going. So there’s no good reason for ignoring any emails I send out. I don’t send out many.

After all, these people joined my mailing lists willingly at some point, and have never unsubscribed.

Notice that these are all decisions that people are making of their own free will. I can’t force you to take actions. I can offer choices, but that’s about it.

Free will.

Some people though, believe that somehow other people are responsible for the choices they make.

This is a snippet from a petulant email I received from someone when they unsubscribed from one of my mailing lists.

“I don’t have time for games with free blog posts that are now $10 because I wasn’t sitting at mu computer when the announcement came in.”

That was the second announcement he was talking about, not the first which I’d sent two days previously. There were two chances to do the right thing.

Somehow, he thinks I’m responsible for his actions. He chose to be somewhere else on two occasions, and consequently missed out. He’s clearly annoyed that it’s going to cost him $10 to get the information that was free, and now blames me for what he did.

Why would anyone not want to take responsibility for their own life? As a child it’s understandable, but once you reach at least your teens you should have learned by then that every action you take has consequences. And that those actions are your decision and your decision alone. Whose fault is it anyway?

So, he’s missed out this time. But at least he’s on the list now. He won’t miss out when I announce a nickel sale starting at $1 for my new software in a password protected post next week will he? He won’t have to pay $97 when it goes on general release will he?

Oh. Yes he will have to pay $97. He unsubscribed.

Oh dear. Some people just don’t learn.

So, what have you learned from I’ve done this week?

Were you watching closely? Did you understand what was going on? Did you get it?

Have you realised that you could learn just as valuable information by watching what I did this week, as to the post I made yesterday?

Graham Cox did.

http://graham-cox.com/list-building-using-password-protected-posts/

Graham got it straight away, and I can see that a few other people got it too.

Did you?

-Frank Haywood

Dec

2007

Personal Coaching Programme – part 2

I promised an announcement today about my coaching programme, but rather than just jump in with both feet, I thought I’d take the time out first to explain a few things.

I’d like you to see where I’ve come from and how I’ve managed to do it in a very short amount of time.

If you follow what I’ve done in the same way that I’ve followed in the footsteps of others before me, then you’ll achieve the same benefits. It’s as simple as that.

First though, I think it’s important you know what the four key elements of my coaching programme will be, and why by following what I’ve done, you’ll be set on the road to success, but in a far shorter time than it took me.

Notice I’ve said you’ll be on the road to success. No hype here, just the truth. I could have said something like “follow my footsteps and make incredible amounts of money faster than you would have believed possible!”, but that’s just not my style.

And it’s really not necessary to do that either. You can see through fluff like that just like I can, and it’s insulting to read isn’t it?

So…

Based on MY experience and research, the four key elements to a successful online business are:-

1) Product Creation.
2) Traffic.
3) List Building.
4) Automation.

Inside each of these are other lesser items which are still important, but these are really the keys to anyones success. For instance, inside product creation and even before the actual product creation takes place, is market research. After all, it’s no use creating a great product if no-one wants it.

Each of these four elements interact with each other at different levels. For instance, you can automate the first three elements. Or you can use your list for market research to feed product creation, and then sell the product they want straight back to them.

Okay?

Now let’s take a look at where I was 18 months ago in the Summer of 2006. No product. No list. No clue. No nothing…

I had an idea of what I needed to do, but no real proof. I’d spent the previous 12 months fighting through all the crap about “how to make money online”.

And I didn’t know where to start. I had the idea of SmartDD niggling at me as I could see the gap in the market where other products didn’t fit the bill. But how to get started?

Things changed for me in August when I bought a ticket to go to a marketing seminar about 10 miles from where I live, in September. My wife was flabbergasted. She knew how wary I was of events like this, but I could see no immediate way forward without taking a chance and attending.

There I met some people who were just like me. Some had products, some didn’t. Some had lists, some didn’t. But we all had the same intent to succeed online.

There I met a whole bunch of people, some who became friends I talk to daily.

I also signed up to a… wait for it… coaching programme.

It cost me $6,000, and was the best money I have EVER spent. Even better than the $6,000 that I’d spent buying stock a couple of years or so before, and that I turned into $36,000 in six weeks.

The coaching really has meant that much to me, and accelerated my learning to the point where I actually KNOW what I’m doing, and what will work and what won’t, what the benefits and pitfalls are, and why.

But…

It still isn’t as good as it should be. Because what their programme does is to teach general marketing methods. There’s no step by step detail to follow, and that’s what I really needed, and I’m sure that’s what you want too.

There’s been nobody there for me to turn to that was prepared to get close enough to what I was doing for them to say “do this, do that”, and that’s what I was after. (I did get some of that, but from my mastermind group, not directly from the coaching programme.)

What I’m going to be doing differently is show you exactly what it is you need to do, every little step of the way.

When you have me taking you by the hand and explaining every little detail, how can you fail?

My promise to you is (and I don’t make promises lightly), that at the end of 60 days, you will have created at least one product, have an autoresponder and a web site set up, and know how to drive traffic to it.

Maybe even more importantly, you will also know what not to do. I see plenty of web sites with the same mistakes being made.

Here’s a good example… confusing the buyer.

I see sites that on a single page try to sell something, try to get a buyer to sign up to a mailing list, have links off to other products, and worse still have AdSense running as well.

What do you think the outcome is of a mess like that?

Don’t get me wrong. In some cases it’s appropriate to have a centralised site such as a blog (like this one), but you shouldn’t try to directly sell off the main site. Send your traffic to the sales page for your product.

So…

Once you know how to do the right things your success is guaranteed. And I’ll show you what to do, step by step.

On Tuesday the 18th of December at 9.30 EST, I’ll give you a link to the home page of my coaching programme. There you’ll find all the detail of the programme and be able to sign up.

There will be NO HYPE on that page.

This is your chance to start 2008 with a plan, and the proper learning you need to begin your successful internet business.

It will be the best money you have ever spent.

Tomorrow, I’ll give you more detail, and explain the marketing funnel and how it will work for you.

On Sunday, I’ll show you a video inside my Aweber account. Remember I said 18 months ago I didn’t have a list? Well 15 months ago I started building one, and about 11 months ago I realised how vitally important it was to build a list as quickly as possible.

On Monday, I’ll explain why lack of focus is killing your chances of success, and what you can easily do to fix that.

On Tuesday, well… you know what happens on Tuesday.

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts, then I suggest you sign up to my blog post notification list. You’ll find the sign up box at the top right.

Until tomorrow…