SorenJordansen.comInternet Marketing Revealed, Reviewed & Discussed

Based on last week’s survey results, I’m now ready to start my article series. Hopefully I can help you kick start your internet marketing career. If you did not see the survey results, you can find them here. I’m going to focus on helping you get started building a profitable list, and today I’m going to talk about “how to set up your squeeze page and monetize the sign up process”.

The purpose of this series is provide you with a step-by-step blueprint to internet marketing success. It will be based on the actual survey results, and thus targeted towards the “newbie”. But every step is critically important to the whole process, so don’t assume you “know it all” and think you can skip things - Unless you are already wildly successful in internet marketing, you want to take action and implement these steps today!

Don’t Dig For Gold - Sell Shovels

This is where most people get it wrong… They jump from program to program, searching for that one push-button system that will make them rich. They are digging for gold in the vast world of hype and scams. What savvy marketers realize is that the real money is in teaching the millions of opportunity seekers how to make money online, and selling them the tools they need to do so. Just look at this article - if you think about it - I’m selling shovels right now, based on what the survey told me the gold diggers need.

Not entirely sure what this shovel selling talk is all about? Ok, here’s your first assignment: Read this sales letter from Russell Brunson and pay special attention to the part about selling shovels, (I’m not asking you to go buy the course - although it is good).

Step 1: The Tools You Need

Before we get started setting up your list building system, we need to make sure you have the 3 essential tools in place. Without these it will be impossible for you to build a profitable internet marketing business. Based on the survey and comments I realize that most people would like to get started for free. Unfortunately there are always start up costs associated with starting a business. Throughout this series I will recommend the tools and services I use, but I will also strive to give you a free alternative (if there is a decent one out there)… Ok, so here is what you need:

Auto responder: this IS the most important part of your business. It is where you will collect your subscribers and email them. Your auto responder will likely account for over 90% of your online income - this is not where you want to cut corners. Here’s what I recommend: AWeber is hands down the best service. It’s what I use and recommend - and it will be the auto responder of reference for the rest of this series. If you really want a free auto responder you can grab one at Email Aces (scroll down to the P.P.S. and click the link) - Be aware that you will be limited as to the size of list, numbers of emails and campaigns you can have, and they will place 3rd party ads in your emails (nothing is ever truly free).

Hosting: you need somewhere to host your pages. I use and recommend Zoot Host from Jon Atwood. Great service and very affordable. The small standard package will be more than enough for most list builders.

Ad Tracking: You need a way to track your ads. There is a gazillion ad tracking programs out there, but it is very important to use one that lets you track your conversion rates. I use and recommend Hitsconnect (you want a partner membership, so you can do conversion tracking). If you want a free service you can grab a Goto-Pro free trial here, however it’s a lot harder to use than Hitsconnect.

Step 2: What Kind Of Shovel Are You Going To Sell?

Next thing you have to do is find your hook, also known as your ethical bribe (usually an ebook, video, audio file etc.). This is what is going to convince people to part with their contact info, and subscribe to your list. Your squeeze page needs to convince then that you have information they need, and that they can only get it if they sign up -  Your hook (or gift) must have enough perceived value to make this happen.

But before you pick your hook, you need to think about why your are building a list. What are you going to write about? What are you going to sell to your list? Your squeeze page and gift needs to attract the people who are interested in your topic - not much point in having a traffic exchange ebook as the lead in, if you are mainly going to write about, and sell blogging stuff. Check out the defining your offer article from Mike Paetzold for more info.

Your list can have a broad internet marketing appeal, we do all use a wide variety of products and services - but you are best off if you focus on one niche (inside internet marketing). Establish yourself as an expert on that, and then build from there.

There are a ton of membership sites where you can find something to give away on your squeeze page. Resale Rocket is one of my favourites. If you use Instant Squeeze Page Generator to build your squeeze page, they already have a selection of gifts in there you can use.

If possibly try to find a gift that you can rebrand with your own affiliate links. Having your links in hundreds of ebooks sitting on people’s desktops can potentially create a lot of sales over time. Just one of those extra little income streams, as people trip your affiliate landmines.

Even better… consider writing your own ebook or creating your own product to give away on your squeeze page. That gives you full control over what you want to promote in there - but more importantly the hook is unique, they haven’t seen it before, and they can’t get it anywhere else. Having a unique gift will usually increase your conversion rates. If you don’t want to write your own ebook, you can go to something like elance.com and get a ghost writer to do it for you.

Step 3: Set Up Your Squeeze Page

Time to set your squeeze page… I recommend that you keep it short so everything is above the fold (means they don’t have to scroll). The squeeze page has only one purpose and that’s to collect subscribers, don’t dilute your efforts by including banners and links to other thing, it will only hurt your conversion rate. Here are the key components of a good squeeze page (don’t leave any of them out):

1. A strong attention grabbing headline - this should force them to stop and read your page but also instantly point to the benefits of signing up.
2. A couple of bullet points with details. Don’t list the features, list the benefits
3. I nice image of the gift they will receive
4. A strong call to action
5. Your opt-in form, remember to change the standard “submit/subscribe” button to something sexy. People don’t like to submit and subscribe - but they sure do like to “Click Here For Free Instant Access!”
6. A little blurp about keeping their details private.

I have just created an example squeeze page to give you an idea. You want to create something very similar to this: See my example squeeze here.

If HTML is a foreign language to you, I recommend that you use this free website builder, it comes with some great tutorials and some good bonuses you can use to build your squeeze page. Alternately you can use something like Instant Squeeze Page Generator, where you can point and click your way to a good squeeze page.

Finally… when you create the opt-in form for your squeeze page, you will (almost always) have the option to redirect them to a thank you page. Don’t leave the standard AWeber page up, use this feature - Here’s what you can do…

Step 4: Monetize Your Thank You Page

Your thank you page is a prime piece of real estate. By signing up, people have just demonstrated that they are interested in what you have to offer - it’s time to test that commitment towards a sale. This is your first chance to monetize the list building process (aside from any links in your gift) - but unfortunately it’s a step that most people miss. With a little bit of testing and tweaking you can often turn a profit on the thank you page alone. Here are some of the thing I prefer my opt-in forms to re-direct to:

1. A one time offer: There’s a free service called OTO Goldmine that will let you create one time offer within minutes. Here’s an example - it took me two minutes to set up and they even host the OTO for me (and deliver the products). Notice how I’m both monetizing my thank you page, and telling them to go check their email for the confirmation link.
2. If there is a good product directly related to my gift, I like to send them straight to the sales page. They have already demonstrated an interest in the topic, and taken action on the offer. They are hot prospects to send to the sales page. I’ve found that this strategy works best of you can find some low cost products e.g. $7 reports or some good free to join sites, with good converting one time offers e.g. Butterfly Marketing sites.
3. Or you can use a co-registration service like Advertising Know How - You will be showing ads for other people’s ezine on your thank you page, and in exchange your ezine will be shown on their thank you pages. While this won’t earn you money directly, it will likely boost your list building by 20-30%, making you more money long term. When I’m sure that my follow up series is making money, I prefer to use co-registration on my thank you page, but…

The bottom line is that you have to use something, don’t leave it blank - pick one of the strategies above and monetize this prime piece of virtual real estate.

Step 5: Get People To Confirm Their Subscription

Now that they have signed up for your list, and you have presented them with an offer of some sort - You want to make sure that they click the email confirmation link so you can continue to send them emails. Here are a few changes you need to make to your AWeber “Verification Message” (found under List Settings => Verified Opt-in).

Change the subject line to something like:

{!firstname_fix}, Confirm To Download Your “Gift Name” Report…

Change the verification message (Intro) to something like:

Hi {!firstname_fix},

Thank you for requesting your free copy of my
“Gift Name” report. Before I can send you the
download link I need to make sure I have your
permission, so…

Please click the link below to go to the download page…

Finally AWeber also has a feature called the “Confirmation Success Page”. Don’t ever leave this blank, this is another piece of real estate you can monetize. I like to use OTO Goldmine here, especially if I’m using the co-registration on the thank you page. Here’s what I do…

1. I log in at OTO Goldmine and create an offer like this one
2. I make the “no thanks” link go to my actual download page
3. And I then put the link for the OTO in AWeber, as my “Confirmation Success Page”

As you can see this serves a few purposes. First of all I will hopefully make a sale, but the page also tells them to go check their inbox for an email from you (a nice habit, we want them to get into) - and finally the “no thanks” link will send them to the download page as promised.

Step 6: Optimize Your Download Page

This is pretty straight forward, but very important. You want to keep people happy, so provide them with clear instructions (step-by-step if necessary) on how to download your gift. Your download page is also another piece of valuable real estate, where you can present them with an offer. It works best if it’s a free to join thing (that pays you if they buy the OTO) - make it look like an extra bonus to their download. Here’s a download page example.

Step 7: The First Email In Your Auto Responder

This one is very important, and you want to accomplish a few things with it:

1. Give them the download link again in case they missed it - especially important since you used the “Confirmation Success Page” to send them to a one time offer.
2. You want to make them another offer. You are building a list because you want to make sales, you might as well be upfront about it, so people know what to expect (that way they won’t be offended when you try to sell later on) - Again, people who just signed up are the hottest prospects on your list, and you want to cash in on that.
3. You want to hint at what is coming - make them curious, so they look forward to your next email. And let them know that you ARE going to send them more emails.

Here’s my suggested template for your 1st auto responder email (of course you would need to change it to fit your campaign):

Subject: Thank You {!firstname_fix}, Here’s Your Download Link

Hi {!firstname_fix},

Thank you for requesting the “Automatic Money
Machines” Report. Here’s the download link again,
in case you missed it on the confirmation page.

=> Download Automatic Money
Machines Here!

And if you haven’t already, I *highly* recommend
that you sign up for Affiliate Cash Secrets. It’s
my #1 recommended resource for affiliate marketers.

=> Affiliate Cash Secrets

Thanks again {!firstname_fix}. I’ll be in touch shortly,
with a powerful tip that can easily triple your affiliate
income + an extra free ebook for you.

Have a great day,

Soren Jordansen
www.Soren Jordansen.com

You Have Got Work To Do!

So that is my basic step by step guide for setting up your squeeze page and monetizing the sign up process. What you need to do now, is go through all the steps and get your whole squeeze page system set up and properly monetized. Even if you already have a live system, you probably need to go back and tweak it a bit in order to optimize and monetize (catchy phrase )

What’s Next?

I’ll get to work on the next article in this series, it will detail “How to write a killer follow up series and how to make money from it”. Should be good, so stay tuned for that… If you are on my list you will receive and email as soon as I post the next article. If you aren’t on my list you can sign up at the top right of this page (and you can also subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed).

Got Any Questions Or Comments?

Please leave a blurb below if you have any questions about some of the steps, a comment on the article or maybe a suggestion for the coming ones. Thanks for reading - I hope you found the information useful.

Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.