If you've spent any time dabbling in the world of online marketing, chances are you started out just like the rest of us. Naive. You were lured by every push button magical software and solution under the sun only to find that it took actual hard work, money and time to achieve success even in the online world, and that there were no real push button solutions...or are there?Well, that definitely seems to be the case after you've been scammed, screwed, and ripped off several times by the so-called "gurus" selling their hypey products. But if you take a closer look at what they are actually doing NOT what they're telling you to do or actually selling you, you will find your answer.The answer is an EMAIL LIST. That is the backbone of ALL six, seven, eight figure and up marketers I know. And you've probably heard this before “the money is in the list”...and it's 100% true. But it's also in the relationship you have with that list. However, chances are that even though you've heard this repeated over and over again, you have no idea what you need to do to actually build your own. Well, in this short guide I'm going to share with you all the essential tools you need.The cool thing about an email list is that it requires so few moving parts to manage, and provides the greatest amount of leverage for your time. And time, as quoted from The Millionaire Fastlane, is your most precious asset.The greatest thing a list provides you is leverage. With a list you basically have an audience aka influence at the push of a button, hence, what I consider the only simple, scalable and sustainable push button solution online. And it doesn't require any more effort on your part to send a message out to 100 people than it does to 10,000 people with a list. And a list is your asset. You don't have to worry about Facebook, or Google, etc. changing their terms and killing your business overnight. You own your list and you have full control over whenever you want to message them aka print money on demand.So, knowing that, what are the absolute barebone essential tools that you need to build your own profitable email list? There are so many tools, softwares and products out there pulling you every which way, however, there are only a handful of tools you need to create your own email marketing empire and I'm going to tell you what those are and the exact ones I recommend so you don't have to waste time sifting through all the possible options.
Now, these tools and recommendations are specifically for online marketers looking to get into the make money online niche.
#1 Autoresponder
The first tool you'll need in your listbuilding aresenal is an autoresponder. The purpose of the autoresponder is to capture email addresses of leads and potential customers. This is the tool that allows you to communicate with your audience. You can schedule out whole email series of content to send to your list as soon as they optin. Autoresponders also have several other features that help automate and give you more leverage in your marketing. Autoresponders are a recurring charge and personally, I used to be all against recurring charges. I was more of a one-time fee person. But, an autoresponder is an absolutely crucial tool for building an email list, and once your list becomes profitable, the tiny expense of your autoresponder will no longer be an issue. I recommend GetResponse, because they have a 30-day free trial, they're extremely user-friendly and have a simple to navigate graphical interface. The customer service is excellent, their pricing is affordable, and they integrate with most popular plugins and tools designed for Internet Marketers.
#2 Squeeze Page
The next essential tool you will need in your listbuilding arsenal is a squeeze page. There are literally dozens of squeeze page tools and plugins out there, but I prefer LeadPages, because you don't have to mess around with learning hosting, domains, etc. You just plug in your autoresponder, click a few buttons to create your own already tested high converting squeeze page, and you're up and running. The purpose of the squeeze page and why it's called that is to “squeeze” information, ideally an email, out of the lead, in exchange for some form of value like a PDF, interview, video tutorial, etc.
#3 Offer
The offer on your squeeze page is very important. It has to be compelling enough to get the user to give you their information. So it needs to be something of seemingly high value. This is going to vary from niche to niche, so a great way to get ideas of things your potential customers might be interested in is to find places they hang out online and see what they're talking about. Also, you can check out magazines on your subject to see what the popular topics are and offer a simple solution to solve that problem. If you're in the Internet Marketing niche, a good resource for ideas is WSODownloads.
#4 Traffic
This is very very important. Traffic is the lifeblood of your business. And what you are doing online IS a business. If you don't treat it like one, you will delay your success. And, as with any business, if you have zero traffic, then there is zero potential for customers. And if you have zero customers, you're not making any money. Now, just like everything else, there is good and bad traffic. You need to put your offer in front of users who are interested in what you have to offer (targeted traffic). If you're in the make money online space I recommend TheTrafficSource as a solid resource for targeted traffic that will also allow you to scale your business quickly.
#5 Tracking
This last one is crucial. This is something that most marketers avoid all together, but you should discipline yourself to do early on...and that is track EVERYTHING. If you're not tracking what you're doing, from the clicks and traffic you're getting, to the lifetime value of your customers, you're basically just shooting in the dark with a blindfold on. Having a successful business is all about knowing your numbers. If you know your numbers you know how much you can spend and how much you should be making. The best and most affordable tool I have found for tracking clicks and conversions is ClickMagick. And if you do any sort of affiliate marketing or launchjacking there are dozens of other features that are packed into ClickMagick that you're not going to find with any other click tracking solution.
BONUS Recommended Tools
One of the most valuable skills that you can have as a marketer is the skill of copywriting. Being a master copywriter basically gives you a license to print money. Knowing how to write effective sales copy and get users to take a specific action is how millions are made online, whether it be through long form sales letters or engaging video sales letters.Now, when you first start out, you're likely not going to be a badass copywriter, so here are some great resources to help you change that.CopyHour.com
CopyHackers.comAnd here is how it all fits together...
First, before you spend any money, decide on your niche and offer. After you have that, go get your autoresponder and squeeze page tool. From there you can start driving traffic to your squeeze page. Ideally you want to have some sort of funnel set up when the user opts in. Sure you can just collect an email and give them their freebie incentive. But eventually you want to get to the point where either through your initial customer funnel or in your backend autoresponder followup series, you're calculating the ROI on your leads. Ideally you want to eventually make enough from the customers and traffic you are buying to cancel out the cost of the traffic, thereby making your traffic and customers FREE. And once you build up your funnel and get a little more confident in your marketing, you can start tracking and split-testing offers and how well your squeeze pages convert.
And then once people are on your email list, you can send them whatever you like. I would recommend a mixture of value (non-sales messages and content) and product recommendations (this is your ATM machine). If you're in the Internet Marketing niche, a great place to find high converting offers to mail to your list is JVZoo. And here are a few great places to discover new ones about to be released:
MunchEye.com
WarriorJV.com
JVNotifyPro.com
Hopefully you found this short guide helpful. For dozens more of the best tools, resources and softwares for Internet Marketers visit IMSource