How do YOU build your list?

Banned 9 years ago

I get about 75% of mine from article marketing, i.e. by having articles (originally published and indexed on my own sites) re-published in other places, where the targeted traffic I want to attract is already looking/reading, including websites, ezines, newsletters and print-media magazines/newspapers.

I get another nearly 20% of it from Google (not because I want/need that traffic, which doesn't produce much income for me, but just because high rankings tend to be a side-benefit of being accredited by Google as the authoritative site from which so much content has been widely re-published on other relevant sites.)

I get the remaining 5% or so from a variety of other sources including forums, question/answer sites, referrals from existing subscribers, etc. etc.

All the traffic lands on a content-rich opt-in page of a small but content-rich site. The primary purpose of all my websites is simply to collect the visitors' email addresses, but I don't use squeeze pages to do that, any more, because I always earn less from the lists, if I do.

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nik0

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

I get about 75% of mine from article marketing, i.e. by having articles (originally published and indexed on my own sites) re-published in other places, where the targeted traffic I want to attract is already looking/reading, including websites, ezines, newsletters and print-media magazines/newspapers.

I get another nearly 20% of it from Google (not because I want/need that traffic, which doesn't produce much income for me, but just because high rankings tend to be a side-benefit of being accredited by Google as the authoritative site from which so much content has been widely re-published on other relevant sites.)

I get the remaining 5% or so from a variety of other sources including forums, question/answer sites, referrals from existing subscribers, etc. etc.

All the traffic lands on a content-rich opt-in page of a small but content-rich site. The primary purpose of all my websites is simply to collect the visitors' email addresses, but I don't use squeeze pages to do that, any more, because I always earn less from the lists, if I do.

.

Thanks, I notice that forum marketing is also a very small percentage btw and hard to scale that obviously.

Do you use any tools for outreach like BuzzStream or GroupHigh, or perhaps platforms where bloggers and publishers are able to connect?

I did a bit of research today, GH is very expensive at nearly $10k/year, BuzzStream is doable but I found a new one that's free as it's in beta, named Ninja Outreach so will give that one a try.

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Alexa Smith

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by nik0

Thanks, I notice that forum marketing is also a very small percentage btw and hard to scale that obviously.

Yes - I also find forum marketing, overall, a bit less easy and productive now than it was when I started. I think there are two main reasons for this ...

(i) There are far more marketers around now, and perhaps collectively of a lower standard, and forum owners are accordingly more sensitive to what they're doing and quicker to take action against "trespassing" on their virtual property;

(ii) There are also more marketers (like myself

) who run their own forums, partly/primarily for their own marketing purposes, and don't want anyone else doing any marketing there at all.

Originally Posted by nik0

Do you use any tools for outreach like BuzzStream or GroupHigh, or perhaps platforms where bloggers and publishers are able to connect?

I don't. I've just about heard of BuzzStream, I think, but never heard of GroupHigh.

I stay well away from "blog networks". Some of the well-known ones have had their own sites de-indexed by Google, and their users have had their own sites penalized. you'll know better than I do, but I think Google takes a really dim view of anything that can come across as "guest-blogging for the sake of backlinks" and they think it's designed to try to manipulate their ranking algorithms?

.

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nik0

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

I don't. I've just about heard of BuzzStream, I think, but never heard of GroupHigh.

I stay well away from "blog networks". Some of the well-known ones have had their own sites de-indexed by Google, and their users have had their own sites penalized. you'll know better than I do, but I think Google takes a really dim view of anything that can come across as "guest-blogging for the sake of backlinks" and they think it's designed to try to manipulate their ranking algorithms?

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I also just ran into GroupHigh last night when I was doing some research, seems to be quite popular with the larger "whitehat" SEO agencies.

I know about MyGuestBlog that was taken down not so long ago and most don't live a long life indeed, think of ALN in the past, all user submitted blogs. There was only one issue with these and that was the quality of the posts and the right to accept or refuse an article, no idea if that was an option at myguestblog though. But even then, most people submit crappy blogs so there needs to be a high level of moderation to pull it off.

I just signed up for PostJoint, they need to manually approve me first, and users can't submit any site into their network that they want. They pretend to be quite strict with their approval rules though that could all be a mask of course. I have to find out for myself and the best way to test it is to see if it actually drives traffic, if I want links on high PR domains I am better of posting on my own network where I'm the only one who's in full control.

So let's see...

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discrat 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

I get the remaining 5% or so from a variety of other sources including forums, question/answer sites, referrals from existing subscribers, etc. etc.

Alexa,
Interesting. I am assuming this must be Forum marketing in other non-IM Forums outside WF that you have Niches in ?
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- Alexa Smith Banned 9 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by discrat
  
  Alexa,
  Interesting. I am assuming this must be Forum marketing in other non-IM Forums outside WF that you have Niches in ?
  
  Oh yes, sorry ... I should have said, of course: I'm not involved in any IM-related or MMO-related niches at all.
  
  .
  
  Thanks
  
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SK123

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

The primary purpose of all my websites is simply to collect the visitors' email addresses, but I don't use squeeze pages to do that, any more, because I always earn less from the lists, if I do.

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Alexa, from the above, how then do you make them give you the much needed email addresses if you have realized from experience that Squeeze pages are no longer much effective? So, what model do you now use (which has now given you a higher ROI, so to speak). Thank you.

..SK

Thanks
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Alexa Smith

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by SK123

Alexa, from the above, how then do you make them give you the much needed email addresses if you have realized from experience that Squeeze pages are no longer much effective?

With a prominently incentivized opt-in on the content-rich landing page of a small but content-rich site. So I have an opt-in page, but it isn't a squeeze page: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post9319964 .

(And this post explains the testing I did that has led me to adopt this policy instead, having originally started off - like so many people - by using some squeeze pages: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post7939758 . I'm not, of course, trying to suggest that "squeeze pages did't work for me": simply that I do significantly better, financially, this way, even from smaller lists.)

.

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rileydxf

9 years ago

Oniko, the number one secrete I learn about building a website is fresh and new content, as often as possible. Google still loves content. Good luck man

Thanks

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quadagon

9 years ago

Over the years I've tested and changed my sales funnel but quickly moved away from squeeze pages and saw a dramatic rise in earnings. Now i am not saying that this will be suitable for everyone but its my process as taken from the point a person has clicked on a ppc adverts.

the advert itself address a need in this example pet Griffin training. The advert will be along the lines of '3 ways to train your pet griffin'. Obviously better than that but i am wanting to target someone searching for 'how to train a griffin'.

Once she clicks shes taken to griffinschool.com/3ways and a page which has the headline 3 ways to train your griffin. The use of the headline reduces friction and allows her brain to stop worrying about being in the right place.

The openning paragraph i use to establish my authority and credentials by letting her know that these 3 tips come from my bestselling book 'How to train your griffin in 30 days' which is available here for just x amount.

i then provide the three tips abridged from the book.

at the end i thank her for taking the time to read my tips and wish her the best of luck with her griffin and if she needs any further help we do provide griffin training classes. i then offer as a thank you for being a responsible griffin owner a voucher code for my book.

after she clicks on the buy button shes taken to a sales page which sells here the book and at the bottom is the buy now button.

she goes to the cart adds the voucher code and is advised that we would like to give her more tips on griffin training if she would like to opt in.

she downloads the book full of tips on griffin training. now the book isn't really just a book but a very elongated sales letter which while educating on griffin training puts across the value of professional griffin training clases. This is done through the use of testimonials and case studies which each overcome a common objection to griffin training classes.

Included in the book are links to extra content which again sell the idea of training school. Again just to give an example there is a video of someone at home struggling to teach their griffin and then a testimoinal from a past student then footage of good griffin.

At the end of the video is a special offer only for those that have read the book.

Naturally there's more at each stage but this is the best list building method I have currently in use.

Remember always be testing

Eric

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I've got 99 problems but a niche ain't one

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Enfusia

9 years ago

I'm in 3 niches primarily.

I have many squeeze pages per niche so that I can target segments of that niche.

As an example (this is NOT one of my niches): Let's say I was in the dog as a pet niche.

I would build a squeeze page on Puppy Training, one on How To Select The Perfect Puppy, another on What Vet Visit's Does Your Dog Really Need And Which Are Required By Law etc...

They would go onto separate lists and at a certain point the pupy group would be put on the begining of the teenage dog list and the teen list would merge with the seniors list etc...
So, all those series are used to max potential.

My traffic is mostly PPV, video, content syndication and a little social media but not much on that one.

Patrick

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nik0

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Enfusia

I'm in 3 niches primarily.

I have many squeeze pages per niche so that I can target segments of that niche.

As an example (this is NOT one of my niches): Let's say I was in the dog as a pet niche.

I would build a squeeze page on Puppy Training, one on How To Select The Perfect Puppy, another on What Vet Visit's Does Your Dog Really Need And Which Are Required By Law etc...

They would go onto separate lists and at a certain point the pupy group would be put on the begining of the teenage dog list and the teen list would merge with the seniors list etc...
So, all those series are used to max potential.

My traffic is mostly PPV, video, content syndication and a little social media but not much on that one.

Patrick

I can understand PPV would work better in combination with squeeze pages then with a normal opt-in page.

I have the feeling that people who click banners are more impulse clickers and might be gone just as quickly, even if it's only cause they don't like the theme. Why? Cause they probably see the banner when they finished reading the post and had other plans (read another post on the same site) or at the start of the posts and thus distracting them.

Alexa does mostly content marketing, where people are in a relaxed phase reading a piece of content and see a link that highly relates that they can click and follow / read at the same pace.

I suppose relevancy plays a large role between the choice to go for a squeeze page or opt-in page. PPV / banner ads are always less relevant of course, few exceptions perhaps.

Care to share some conversion numbers from banner to squeeze page? I tried it in the past to advertise my SEO service on web design blogs, the conversion was at a terrible low 0,2% if I remember correctly, it was only $2/1000 views so that came down to $1/click, which wasn't too terrible of course if I knew how to convert them lol.

Thanks

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nik0

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by quadagon

Over the years I've tested and changed my sales funnel but quickly moved away from squeeze pages and saw a dramatic rise in earnings. Now i am not saying that this will be suitable for everyone but its my process as taken from the point a person has clicked on a ppc adverts.

Makes sense, when I saw a squeeze page in the past I didn't know I would be able to unsubscribe at some point so I always used a throw away email address that I never checked.

The marketers behind those squeeze pages are the cause of that of course as I was multiple times spammed to death and thus very wary when giving out my email address to a squeeze page.

When you read some content that helps and makes you have faith in the author you'll likely want to receive updates and thus give your best (or one of...) email address, completely different than being forced by a squeeze page.

Thanks
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myob

9 years ago

Nearly all of the traffic for building my lists has come either directly or indirectly from targeting other people's lists. I used article marketing for driving direct traffic from online/offline publications which already had a subscriber/readership audience similar to my targeted demographics. For example, articles syndicated in niche-relevant ezines, websites, blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, etc, were the primary drivers of highly convertible traffic. Quite often, some articles would go viral which resulted in additional networks and referrals. This was essentially the only traffic method I've ever used for many years, as none of my sites have ever ranked anywhere near the waterline in the SERPs.

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nik0

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

Nearly all of the traffic for building my lists has come either directly or indirectly from targeting other peoples' lists. I used article marketing for driving direct traffic from online/offline publications who already had a subscriber/readership audience similar to my targeted demographics. For example, articles syndicated in niche-relevant ezines, websites, blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, etc, were the primary drivers of highly convertible traffic. Quite often, some articles would go viral which resulted in additional networks and referrals. This was essentially the only traffic method I've ever used for many years, as none of my sites have ever ranked anywhere near the waterline in the SERPs.

You run ecommerce sites?

Content / article marketing seems to be the best converting but also the most difficult / time consuming way of driving traffic.

It does work kind of the same as link outreach so have to experiment a bit on that front as it covers SEO and traffic at the same time. That's why I asked if you run ecommerce sites, they are a hell to rank, especially in 2015.

Other reason could be that you're just in a very competitive niche of course like finance or real estate.

Thanks
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myob

9 years ago

Originally Posted by nik0

You run ecommerce sites?

Content / article marketing seems to be the best converting but also the most difficult / time consuming way of driving traffic.

It does work kind of the same as link outreach so have to experiment a bit on that front as it covers SEO and traffic at the same time. That's why I asked if you run ecommerce sites, they are a hell to rank, especially in 2015.

Other reason could be that you're just in a very competitive niche of course like finance or real estate.

The sites are content-rich and designed only for lead generation and incremental prospect screening for one or more of three ultimate outcomes: highend flagship products, joining my MLM business, or executive-level marketing consultation services.

Except for some nominally-priced affiliate products for list-building, there has seldom been any other products offered directly on my websites. All other affiliate product marketing campaigns are through lists or referrals to deep internal landing pages; that's it.

The competition in all of my niches has always been much too fierce for SEO, and IMNSHO it can be effectively nullified by using more direct online/offline communication channels, especially in 2015.

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nik0

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by quadagon

Over the years I've tested and changed my sales funnel but quickly moved away from squeeze pages and saw a dramatic rise in earnings. Now i am not saying that this will be suitable for everyone but its my process as taken from the point a person has clicked on a ppc adverts.

the advert itself address a need in this example pet Griffin training. The advert will be along the lines of '3 ways to train your pet griffin'. Obviously better than that but i am wanting to target someone searching for 'how to train a griffin'.

Once she clicks shes taken to griffinschool.com/3ways and a page which has the headline 3 ways to train your griffin. The use of the headline reduces friction and allows her brain to stop worrying about being in the right place.

Seems the relevancy plays a good role here again, PPC can be a lot more targeted than PPV, though with massive campaigns it would need a lot of optin pages to make the text in the add match well with your landing page.

Thanks for your response, learning a few important details here if I don't draw the wrong conclusions

Thanks