Flogging Dead Horses.

Holy cow! You actually get it!

So many marketers have this backwards and try to sell sell sell, and they never provide any value.. Yes, you're right. You must provide value first and build a relationship and then sell on the backend. And building a list and funnel is the perfect blueprint to do this online!

Personally, most of my funnels work this way:

Provide value via a video on Youtube or blog post (I do drive paid traffic to my blog posts to speed up the process there but Youtube is an AMAZING source of free targeted traffic if you make value driven videos). Then mention a free video that will provide some sort of wanted value to your niche. Have them opt-in to your list for access. Continue sending them awesome value driven content through your autoresponder and then hit them with the old "hey, if you've liked everything else so far, you might like this too". Obviously this is done in a value driven, non-spammy method like a very well constructed sideways sales video.

But to get back on track and answer your questions. I use aWeber as my autoresponder because it's a very simple and extremely reliable email platform to use for newbies and veterans alike. I use the optimizepress plugin on wordpress to set up my members area. And I use Lead Pages to create my squeeze pages and funnels. I find these 3 programs to work really well together.

Just some ideas and suggestions to get your brain flowing

Don't wait 3-4 months to monetize.

One possible method:

1. Create a free product.
2. Create a free course to deliver your product over 3-4 days.
3. Setup a squeeze page.
4. Create a paid product.
5. Drive targeted traffic to your free course.
6. Monetize the free course by offering the paid product.

The paid product, in this case, would enhance the free course but is not a necessary purchase.

There are hundreds of ways to approach what you propose. The above is just one, and of course it's quite a bit more intricate than the 6 steps indicate; essentially, though, the 6 steps describe one way of doing this.

GRM

Great stuff on what JakeStatler mentioned.

What I like is that you've identified pets / cats as your chosen niche and more importantly, because you've kept cats for many years, you'll have lots to share about it. Brilliant!

One thing I'll like to add is be patient with yourself as you build up your business. Too many people ruin themselves and their business because they're impatient.

All the very best buddy!

Set up a wordpress blog (preferably on your own domain, so use wordpress.org), and start posting quality content on a regular basis.

Then start building your list offering something of value, like PDF report, video, or even a mini-course solving a popular problem your visitors have.

The next part would be to drive targeted traffic to your site.

And the last part is monetization.

But behind all those steps must be massive value creation.

It depends a bit on what you are selling and how you are selling it when you say "physical products". Are you selling via FBA (Amazon), your own e-commerce site or as an affiliate?

Building a list would be similar to digital products. You would get sign-ups through a squeeze page (you don't need a whole blog) and facebook (you can get plugins that let you put a squeeze page and get opt-ins directly from facebook).

If you have your own e-commerce site you can put a sign-up form there too.

You need to find an incentive for signing up. It could be a helpful ebook like "10 Kitchen Design Tips" if your physical products are kitchen related, for example.

Or "Sign-up for our weekly blow-out specials every Thursday" if you have an e-commerce site offering steep discounts on Thursdays.

Since you would be selling physical products your autoresponder follow-up sequence would be a combination of useful information, "How To", specific product promotion and reviews and announcements of any specials or discounts. You can use it for feedback and surveys to find new products and ideas.

You would use the list as a built in source of warm traffic to drive to your offers, facebook page, e-commerce site, etc.

You need to understand your sales funnel and then design an opt-in process that best fits what you want to do with it.

Once you know how people enter your "funnel" and make you money you can set up a list designed to send traffic to the sales process.

If you have an ecommerce site you would build a relationship with your list in order to send traffic to your product sales pages. If you are an Amazon affiliate you would use your list to send traffic to your affiliate site (not directly to Amazon- they don't allow affiliate links in email).

Selling shouldn't be an afterthought. Information and useful content is important but the focus should always relate to improving your business and more sales.

It is better to write a "How To" list that also happens to promote products you sell than a "How To" list that gives free alternatives to what you are selling.

Mahlon

Edit: Wow, look at all the amazing and fast responses. Newbies should note how the OP asked the question!

Well worked out.

You could actually remove the word "physical" from your comment above and it would still be equally valid: there are plenty of valuable, high-quality digital products which not many other people are promoting. (Including some in your niche.)

Be aware that the realities of promoting physical products in such a fiercely competitive market as "cat care" may predicate that you'll have some geographical/locational issues. (Just one example: if you wanted to do that through the Amazon affiliate network, you'd need to sign up separately to several different Amazon-owned companies in order to avoid limiting yourself to commission payments earned on sales to residents of one country only.) It would be a striking limitition, given that the web's international, effectively to "select one country only".

That's overwhelmingly likely to be so - yes.

I don't use WordPress, myself. But the answer to your question is that you don't have to use WordPress (though it's undeniably a good choice, for many people), and if using it, you can do "either of the above". You can use WordPress for "just an opt-in page", for "the blog on the site", for "the whole site", or for "a site that comprises a blog and nothing else". You can install WordPress in the main directory, in a subdirectory, in both (or of course in neither!).

It needs to come across to the subscribers and visitors as something of an afterthought, perhaps, rather than to be one.

You got that right.

I'd advise you to design your website ensuring that its primary purpose (whether it appears this way or not, to the visitors) is to collect the visitors' email addresses, and don't lose sight of that objective.

Here are six posts/threads which, between them, will give you enough of an overview of email marketing to get you oriented ...

What are the essential things to know about list building?

Lists: How Long to Presell - Averages

Website or squeeze page

Where to get reports to give away on opt in page?

Autoresponders vs. Broadcasts

Sick of Emails Not Being Opened?

Good luck!

.

Seems like a lot of very helpful advice in here, much more helpful than mine is going to be, but since you seem to be one of the decent marketers I would still like to try help.

Firstly, well done on actually knowing how good modern day internet marketing is done. Being able to offer real advice to people while building up your image and reputation is easily the best way to do things. You already have the attitude to be very successful, now you just have to do it!

Here is what I would do in your situation. Set up a wordpress site that is half blog half amazon affiliate site (with other affiliate networks and links where needed). Put your knowledge and experience to use by writing helpful articles, then spread these articles around your social marketing circle. Put your affiliate links and products in relevant articles (or even review posts).

Although I don't have any experience with list building, you always want to get your website and content up first. No point asking people to sign on to your list when they don't know what you have to offer them! Show them that you can actually help them, and they will happily be on your list.

Good luck!

If this is what you've been doing then it's not surprising at all that you haven't been successful.

I can tell you, without any hesitation, that information marketing does work, and it works extremely well, if done correctly with high quality products that are in demand and that solve problems or desires.



I couldn't disagree more! If you're in business and your purpose for being in business is to make money, selling should be your first concern - never an afterthought.

Certainly providing useful content and building relationships are important pieces of the money-making puzzle. But if you don't focus on selling as your main objective and charge, you're going to keep failing no matter what you sell and no matter what market you enter.

If you don't sell, you have no chance of making money. Period

Steve

As mentiopned above in this thread FBA is a way to sell physical products on a very high traffic site with huge buyer traffic. It is somewhat different that the traditional free content / list building / blogging method of online marketing. It is something you may want to consider as an additional income stream for you.