Posted by Valentin on November 18th, 2009 | Comments

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chapter 9

Generating Traffic: Leveraging Other People’s Lists

You are probably familiar with the superstore Walmart. It is a giant of a store that sells pretty much anything at competitive prices.

Recently, most new Walmarts that spring up are built in an area that has little or no other stores.
Since they are a huge multi-billion dollar corporation they can afford to be a pioneer in new locations.

But what is interesting is that shortly after the new Walmart is built, dozens of other smaller stores appear around that same location.

You might think “Why would these smaller stores try to compete with Walmart when clearly most people love its convenience and low prices?”

Here is the answer: LEVERAGE !

Why is “Leverage” a Key to Your Business Growth ?

 

If you are like most people you have probably found it quite difficult to start getting a lot of traffic to your new website. This is a normal problem that most marketers face every day.

Another common problem that marketers have is looking at others in their industry as competition.

It is very rare that you really have any competition.

Do I hear you saying “What ?!?!” Yes. Most of i not real competition. You need to look at them as potential partners.

Looking back at the Walmart example, why did those other smaller stores appear around Walmart?
Was it to try to compete with that giant of a store?
Of course not! The owners of those stores realize that Walmart will draw a lot of customers (i.e. traffic) to that specific location (i.e. website).
They can benefit from that traffic even if they don’t get all of it.

You can use this same philosophy when trying to build your first email list. Instead of setting up shop in the middle of nowhere so that no competition can touch you, consider using others’s resources in order to build your own business.

Ezine Advertising Is A Great Way To Leverage Other People’s Efforts

Think about it for a moment – let’s say that you are in the market of helping others to quit smoking and you have no list, but you want to build one.

After doing a bit of Google searching you find another website with the same purpose that gets a ton of visitors every day and also has been building a list for quite some time.

This is the moment to make a choice:

1. Get discouraged that somebody else is already doing what you want to do and give up.

OR

2. Contact the owner and see if you could advertise in their ezine for a price.

You could also try partnering with them, but let’s stick with advertising in their ezine.
If they don’t already have advertising you will need to negotiate some sort of price.
However, most larger ezines that accept advertising already have prices worked out.

This benefits you greatly as you are able to target the EXACT market that you want to work with.
They have already shown that they are interested, so they are the perfect match for your website.

Four Steps To Effective Ezine Advertising

1. Find ezines that you are able to advertise in.

You can run Google searches and look for potential prospects, or even better you can use this resource: www.directoryofezines.com.
It isn’t free, but it contains thousands of ezines that accept advertising, so most of the work is already done for you.

2. Create a “special squeeze page” for your ezine advertising.

If possible you should create a special squeeze page for each ezine that you advertise to.
They could all be identical except for a simple headline that says: Welcome Friends of [Enter Ezine Owner's Name].

This helps to improve your conversion rates and thus build your list faster.

3. Set up a “Top Sponsor Ad” for each of the ezines.

There are generally two types of ads that you want to use: Solo Ads and Top Sponsor Ads.
Solo Ads are where you get an entire email dedicated to your advertisement.
Top Sponsor Ads are shorter ads that appear at the beginning of the ezine.

You will want to start with Top Sponsor Ads as they are cheaper and will help you to gauge the effectiveness of the advertisement.

4. If the Top Sponsor Ad has good results, set up a “Solo Ad.”

Chances are that if the Top Sponsor ad worked well then a Solo Ad will work even better and will be well worth the money you spend.

Video Time – Ezine Advertising

Online Communities – How To Get Traffic By Frequenting Forums
Click here to watch the video

Today’s Homework

Your homework today is to find at least five ezines that you can advertise in and start an ad for at least one of them.
Do not continue the lessons until you have done so.

Valentin Hornicar and Matthew Glanfield

Tagged as: affiliate, affiliate marketing formula, list building, marketing