On Your Marks… Get Set… STOP!
When it comes to properly setting things up to build your list, being first off the blocks is the wrong way to go about it! Think of the tortoise and the hare here…
In this case, the tortoise will win the race every day because they’ll take the time to do things in the right order, and maximize their return on the time invested!
The hares all rush off and do too many things without thinking!
For example, the first thing lots of hares will do is get a domain name! They’ll go and get hosting organised, and maybe even sign up with an auto-responder service…
But most of the time, they will not yet have done any of the research needed to determine what NICHE they are targeting, or the type of product they are going to promote.
Despite that, they’ll start with generating traffic to get people to their new web site, and set up some sort of squeeze page to capture email addresses, but won’t put too much thought into the conversion process, wasting a lot of effort because their visitors will leave just as quickly as they came.
These hares are so concerned about list “building”, that they won’t have much of a useful plan as to what they’ll actually “do” with all these email addresses they are collecting.
In short, the hares will probably “do” all the things they need to do…
- They’ll do it all totally out of sequence…
- Without taking the time to work out the processes involved that are relevant to their target market, and
- Without understanding what is required at each step.
Sure you are going to need a domain name, web hosting, auto-responder service, squeeze pages, and learn how to do basic HTML and FTP… all of that!
But don’t be a hare!
Take a little bit of time to plan and research what you need to do BEFORE you jump in so you don’t severely limit your chances of success!
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2 Responses to “On Your Marks… Get Set… STOP!”
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I have already done all the above. Where can I go from here? I am spinning my wheels. I have no list of my own. I have joined Advertyze that sends out 5000 e-mails a week for me and I have gotten 1 click to my site in three weeks. Can you advise me on what I can do next?
Pat S
Hi Pat - Sorry about the delay in approving and responding to your comment - the notification got totally buried in my email program! I’ve just GOT to set up effective filters to trap these important notification.
What to do? Time to go back to basics and do some serious re-thinking!
A GREAT place to start right now is to head over to the free training that’s starting next week (Sept 9 2008) at 16 Steps to Success!
I did this course earlier this year (eight weeks, two free webinars every week) and it is really great for newbies, and even for those of us (like me) who have been around for quite a few years.
My personal comment on those services that “blast” out emails for you - as you can see, they don’t work too well at getting people to your site.
But once there, what realistic offer do you have to convert your visitors into subscribers? If it’s the “offer” you’ve got at the web site in your link above then I think I can see why you’re getting a limited response… Is it a solution to a very important need, or are you just adding more noise in an already overcrowded market?
Seriously, try out the 16 Steps Course - it really is free - apart from 2 by 2 hours a week to “attend” the webinar training and any “homework” you do
Cheers
Stephen Spry