Internet Marketing Fundamentals III

OK, you are new. Everyone started sometime. To begin with you need to do two things: find a niche market and develop a list. I bet you have heard, read and seen that a few times. One item you will need to start on your road to success is an autoresponder (AR).

There are dozens available in the marketplace. Some free, some expensive. Some for a one time fee, some for a monthly fee. Some companies have limited services, some are all encompassing. But really there are two types. One type is installed on your computer as software. The other is a third party unit, meaning that you can access the program but it does not work from your computer. For the very new, this is starting to sound like gibberish, I apologize. The distinction is important. As you get busier, you will send emails to your prospects. If you do that from your computer, then you are responsible for any spam complaints and you must resolve those type of issues with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). If you cannot satisfy the ISP, then they will terminate your contract and you will not be able to access the internet through that ISP. OK, there are many ISP's, that is true. But it gets worse. The ISP's talk to one another. If you get one angry with you, then there is a chance that you will have difficulty getting any reasonable access to the internet.

Relax, the solution is simple. If you use the third party companies, then it is their responsibility to deal with the spam issue and the ISP's. They will certainly give you a set of rules to follow which reduce the possibility of spamming to a minimum. But the important point is that they are responsible for that spam complaint nightmares.

I am a great believer in the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) Principle. I strongly recommend that you arrange for an autoresponder that is third party.

The important factors in choosing an AR are:

1. reliability
2. reputation
3. ease of use
4. ability for user to customize
5. cost per month

Two third party type AR companies have histories of reliability and are very popular with the internet bigshots:

• Aweber
• GetResponse

Both are subscription type expenses, meaning there is a fee due every month. Both are inexpensive at less than $20 per month. Both companies have excellent deliverability statistics. What this means, is that they deliver almost all of the emails that you schedule. Now if you are new, you probably are asking, why would they not deliver all of the scheduled emails. Well, the internet is an unusual place. With all the different players at different levels in the technical matrix it is not unusual for some emails to not be delivered for no special reason. Could just be a hiccup, could be the ISP was having a bad day, who knows. There is less of this with AWeber and GetResponse. Both programs are customizable. They both have excellent tutorials. There are many free or inexpensive ebooks, videos and courses available which will help you build an autoresponder sequence of emails. This is critical in your marketing efforts. The best teaching videos I have seen so far are by Michael Rasmussen, a very successful internet marketer.

I will leave you with several important strategies. Briefly here is the sequence of events after someone opts in on your lead capture page:

• prospect fills in name and email address on lead capture page
• AR directs prospect to a Thank You Page
• AR sends out a verification email to prospect asking them to confirm their email address and subscription to your list.
• Prospect gets the verification email and hits the verification link.
• After hitting the verification link, prospect is directed to a confirmation page.
• AR receives verification and sends out first message which should fulfill or begin to fulfill the 'ethical bribe'. This really is the welcome to my list message
• AR sends out second message with content about the niche, there are links to offer in the message.
• AR sends out third message, more content about the niche, also links to offer in the message.
• AR send out fourth message, all about the offer: features, benefits, close
• It gets less clear after the fourth message, usually one goes to more niche content but a different by related offer in that niche.
• and so on

The most important points here are the following:

• you want a targeted list, always use the double opt in format, that is the verification email from the AR to the prospect. This ensures that the prospect truly is interested in receiving your messages.
• the prospect stays on that list, getting different offers, until he buys one.
• when the prospect buys the offer, he is moved to a customer list with a different set of messages.
• the welcome message timing is immediate.
• messages 2, 3 and 4 should be one each day.
• after message 5, should increase the spacing, this depends on many factors including the types of offers and the niche.
• you have the ability to put an offer on the Thank You Page.
• you have the ability to use the confirmation of verification as another place to put an offer.

Arrange for an AR, and start using it so that when your list has grown you are competent at using the AR to deliver messages to your list. Hope this helps.

Mapping out your success with William 'Mike' Anderson 1021 Lake Charles Drive Roswell, Georgia 30075 mikesbizzz@yahoo.com http://themikeandersonsite.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_Anderson