Archive for January, 2007
If I look at my life three years ago and compare it to my life today, I can see that I’m a lot more organized and not as stressed, even though I have a lot more responsibilities, including two children and an online business.
If I had to give one reason for this, I’d say it was my obsession with lists.
In my handy dandy day planner, I’ve started writing down daily, weekly and monthly lists.
I also have a whiteboard that I write down immediate things that need to be done. I don’t allow myself to erase anything until I’ve done it. And since I hate to have my entire whiteboard cluttered with things to do, I do them so I can erase them and see nice white space instead of black scribbles.
Not everybody is as anal-retentive as I am, so you may not need to have lists plastered all over you house on sticky notes, but I think it’s a good idea for anyone to have some sort of list with important tasks that need to be done.
It helps keep your life organized. And when your life is organized, you’re not as stressed. Stress is a very bad thing and has numerous unpleasant side effects. Being a work at home mom can create even more stress.
It’s important for your kids, your business and yourself to eliminate as much stress as possible. My solution is lists.
I write down everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, on my lists.
Pay bills, do laundry, write and distribute an article for my site, publish another blog post, phone the bank, etc.
By getting those things out of your head and onto paper (or a whiteboard), you’re eliminating the possibility that you’ll forget about it. Now you can clear your mind and focus on other things.
I have a system set up for each list and a separate place for each category. It’s working well for me, but everyone is different. I would suggest you set up what works for you. Maybe some post-it notes on your monitor will do the trick. Maybe you need to carry your day planner with you at all times. Just find out what works best for you and start making those lists!
January 31st, 2007
If you haven’t signed up over at List and Traffic yet, now would be the best time to do it or you’ll be missing out on some information that I couldn’t even put a value on.
Jimmy D. Brown, the owner of List and Traffic, is doing some early spring cleaning and he’ll be removing all the material from his site except for the current month’s information.
As soon as he made this announcement, I went over straight away and spent twenty minutes downloading every article.
I can completely understand why he’s doing this. Number one, there is just too much information to sort through for a new member. When I first joined, I was overwhelmed by all the articles. I’m still going through them and learning from them.
Number two, there are many members who join, then cancel, then join again a few months later and download the previous materials for the months they’ve missed. It’s really not fair to those of us who remain members every month, so this is a way to eliminate that.
So, if you join List and Traffic before February 1st, you can still take advantage of the wealth of information Jimmy has. After that, you’re SOL my friend.
If I could pick only one product to recommend to people, it would be this one. The information Jimmy sends out every month is invaluable if you’re trying to build traffic and subscribers. What I’ve learned from him has changed my life, literally!
The strategies and ideas he provides can’t be found anywhere else. So head on over so you don’t miss out.
Learn how to drive gobs of traffic to your site and start building a huge email list.
January 29th, 2007
What’s better? Text or HTML newsletters?
Think about it this way, when you send a friend or family member an email, how do you write it? Plain text, right?
On the other hand, HTML can be more eye catching.
From a technical perspective, text emails are better because they have less chance of getting caught in spam filters.
From an aesthetic perspective, HTML emails are better because you can include graphics, change your font and colors and make it look the same as your own webpage. In Aweber, you can also track open rates with HTML messages.
The answer is: there is no right answer. It’s all up to you and your personal preferences. It’s also worthwhile to do some testing to see which version your subscribers prefer.
If you already have a subscriber base, try sending half of your subscribers an HTML message, and the other half the same message in plain text. Track your clickthrough rates and conversion to see which works better for you.
January 17th, 2007
Marketing online and through email can be a tricky business, especially if you’re fairly new to the whole process.
One thing that should never be tolerated however (regardless of how ‘new’ you are in the business) is SPAM.
In a nutshell, SPAM is unsolicited bulk email.
Spam is sent through many different ways. Some people use their own email software like Outlook, and others use more sophisticated software that can handle thousands of email addresses.
It really doesn’t matter how you send it, if its unsolicited and its bulk, then its spam. No exceptions.
Here’s an example of spam which I’m sure many subscriber list owners are tired of.
Jane has a list of 200 subscribers for her interior decorating website. Out of these 200 subscribers, 17 of them are using her email address to send her emails as well. Those 17 people are spamming Jane. They signed up for Jane’s newsletter, not the other way around.
It doesn’t matter if their emails are related to Jane’s website, its still regarded as spam because she never opted in to their lists.
If you’re one of the people who do this, please stop now.
You lose your credibility by doing this. Instead, build your list with a reputable service like Aweber (you can read my Aweber Review here) and ALWAYS comply with the CAN-SPAM act.
January 14th, 2007
OK moms (and dads)!
If you’re just starting out with your online ventures, please read this before you continue.
I’ve been seeing so many of the same mistakes when I visit new sites. It’s the typical affiliate banner splashed everywhere on every page.
You may have heard that making money online is as simple as starting a website and joining some affiliate programs.
Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s not that easy.
Generating an income online is extremely hard and it takes a lot of determination and hard work. There have been a lucky few who made it big within their first few months, but from the stories I’ve heard, the tactics they’ve used have been a little shady or else they already had some ‘guru’ connections to help jump-start their sales and traffic.
So, if you have one of these websites with nothing but affiliate banners, stop reading this right now and go take them down. I mean it. Take them off right now.
Now that you’re back, here’s what you do.
Pick a topic or theme - It doesn’t do any good to put up banners for a million different products. It’s better to focus your attention on one specific genre like shoes or gardening.
Now write about it - Search engines love content, and obviously so do internet users. Take the time to write something that makes sense to your readers, not something stuffed with keywords for the search engine’s sake.
Become an expert in this field - Provide your readers with really good quality information. You can use affiliate programs as recommendations within your content, or you can set up a newsletter and promote them that way. If people trust that you know what you’re talking about, they’re more likely to purchase from you.
Promote like crazy - There are plenty of ways to market your website. You can use article marketing (my favorite), forum posting and advertising just to name a few. Try out one thing at a time and track and test it. If it’s not working, try changing something or move on to another method.
Stay consistent - Regular updates and fresh content are great for search engines and visitors alike. People can tell if your site is stale, so make sure you’re making the effort to keep it current and maintain your reader’s expectations.
If you can develop a regular routine and spend time doing all these things each day, you’re sure to have more success than if you just stick up some banners. It’s going to take time, creativity and some long hours, but if you can hang in there, you’ll be glad you took the time to do it the right way.
January 11th, 2007
I’ve been using Aweber for quite a few months now, and I absolutely LOVE it!
I wish I had made the decision to sign up long ago. I really feel like it took my business one step further. I feel secure in knowing my subscribers information is safe and that my messages are being sent out.
There are tons of features with Aweber, but I’ll list a few of my favorites:
Once you’ve signed up for Aweber, you have an unlimited amount of autoresponders. You could have 3000 different lists if you wanted.
Tracking features include HTML open rates and clickthrough rates on both HTML and text only messages. This is extremely important information to have, and a lot of autoresponders don’t offer this.
You can send out broadcasts to your subscribers, or load messages into the autoresponder where you would set the intervals at which they get sent out. I do a combination of both.
Information from your subscribers is all carefully stored and you can use that information to help you determine their demographic. You can view which URL they signed up at, date and time they were added, and their country, region and even what city they live in. Some people might not need all this information, but if you’re targeting a very specific group of peope, this can be extremely handy.
The web form generator is really easy to use. You can create an in-line form, pop-up, pop-under, exit pop-up or pop-over/hover forms. If you’re not sure which type of form to use, you can use the split-testing feature Aweber provides to see which works better.
Aweber also provides lots of detailed reports that include all the information you need for your email marketing campaign. If you’re not testing and tracking anything, then you’re missing out on sales and traffic.
The Aweber blog is updated regularly with really useful tips on how to make the most of your autoresponder and your list. Even if you don’t use Aweber, I would still recommend you check it out. http://www.aweber.com/blog/
What I think is really important is the help section. I’ve yet to have a question that couldn’t be answered within their documentation, but if you do happen to have a question that isn’t answered, they provide live help desk support during business hours.
The downside to Aweber:
There is a bit of a learning curve when you first get started, but it should only take an hour or two of messing around before you get the hang of it.
http://mamasontheweb.com/Aweber.php
January 10th, 2007
