Just about every self styled Guru will tell you "the money is in the List", this has been a catch phrase used for nearly a decade now, but what they fail to tell you is how to effectively extract that money from your list.

To start with we need to look at the list itself sure all lists look alike but there are vast differences in how those lists are obtained, some are procured natuarally made up of friends or contacts made through social means, others are the direct result of visiting your site or a partner site and gathered through a subscription form, then there are those gathered by other people on your behalf (affiliates), the last group are the lists gathered by companies specializing in give away events in exchange for the right to send mail to those accepting the gift/s or conduct mining operations to extract email addresses from websites (illegal ).

The last group is commonly a purchased list, you pay a small fee and recieve a list of thousands of email addresses which you are assured are all opted in and useable, often the company will claim they check their list regularly and clean dead mails for you, nothing could be further from the truth.

Using a purchased list is very dangerous and in truth these lists should be avoided under can-spam regulations a subscriber has to double opt in to your mailings this means that they not only have to fill out a subscription form but also need to confirm that subscription through a special link send by your mailing software.

Rarely companies conducting list sales bother with confirming subscribers and even if they did the subscriber has agreed to receive mails from the company gathering the subscriptions, they have not agreed to receive mails from the thousands of marketers conned into buying the list and this puts you at risk, (the current fine for spam is $16,000 per spam mail sent) it should be noted that Most bulk mail companies do not allow the use of purchased lists, so save your money and avoid this type of list.

The other forms of email lists are slow growing they can take years to obtain any size where you are likely to need a huge mailing ability, this can be sped up by offerring a reward for subscribing but it must be remembered that many will use a disposable email just to receive your free gift and 5 minutes after they have received that e-book or software the email account has been deleted, (this is also why purchased lists have a lousy conversion rate).

Having obtained a list of subscribers many will set about sending out regular mails and the frequency you send at will affect how effective email marketing is for you, too many mails sent to your subscribers and your list dies or your blocked as a spammer (it only takes 1 complaint to have your mail server blacklisted), too few mails and your subscribers lose interest, the content of those mails is also very important, if you make it just about Joining an opportunity or purchasing a product your conversion is likely to be low, a much better response can be obtained by making the email informative talking about why the offer deserves more investigation with a link to a web page of detailed information often works better than some hyped up dialogue pushing the recipient into joining or buying on impulse.

Generally mail outs should be restricted to 1 mail per subscriber per week however some lists will tolerate 2 or even 3 mails a week others will only accept 1 mail a month, you need to find the balance that suits the majority of your subscribers and returns the best response.

The key to converting your mail outs into cash is to keep the mails informative and interesting, never pushy or demanding, a good mail leaves the reader wanting to know more or looking for that next mail.

One method used many years ago was to take a popular novel or book and post a chapter to subscribers every week including a simple link and description of the product sale in the signature of the mail, (a popular use of this was the first harry potter book).

What ever method you decide to use the bottom line is to tailor your campaigns so that your mail frequency and content is acceptable to your list and that it is better to have 100 avid readers and people willing to buy from you than 100,000 readers that send your mail straight into the junk mail folder.

Do your ads suffer from low conversion rates?, do people seem to pass them by and click your competitions ads?

The reason could be your ads are boring !.

Now you don't need to lash out and hire a copywriter or a flash advertising firm because the fix is very simple, the reason your ads are under performing is they lack imagination, most people when they write out an ad believe they have to describe what they are selling in as few words as possible so tend to simply state the facts however facts have a tendency to be boring sure buyers will want to know what they are buying but your not going to be able to fully explain anything in just a few lines so you need to use that space to get people to where you do have the room to give buyers a complete and thorough run down on the product.

Lets say your product is a vacuume cleaner of the bagless variety and your going to sell each unit for $80, Now most would format their ad like the one in example 1.

Example 1.

Vacuume Cleaners For Sale
Bagless New with warranty
powerful $80

http://link to shopping cart.com

This ad might get a little attention and provide a few sales but a majority of people seeing this ad would not give it a second look, our second example on the other hand grabs attention and inspires curiousity as shown in example 2.

Example 2.

Super Filth Fighters For Sale
Bagless But Not Gutless
These Domestic Super Heros will
Fly Through Your Cleaning $80

http://link to product page.com

This ad has the attention grabbing information that makes the reader curious so they are more likely to visit your product page, here the trick is to ensure that the theme set by the as copy is carried through on the sales pages this re-enforces your ad and leads to a much higher conversion rate especially when backed up by suitable images.

Place your entries for the June-July contest here please

welcome to the competitions section where you should post your links to your entries please remember to include the competition you are entering as there may be more than one running at the same time.