Day 14: You have mail...
Today was supposed to be all about mail, however you know plans only last as long you are planning them... There are a couple of things that I want to follow on from Day 13 first, and then we'll talk about mail.
Twit It Away Update...
I am currently talking with the twitter team, I have to make tweets editable by the user so will be changing up some code tonight as well introducing a couple of extra bits and pieces (like the featured products on the right sidebar for those sites/products that I just think are exceptional). Also I've let my designer lose on the design so it will also be looking a lot prettier soon...
Statpress Visitors Update Error
If you upgrade Statpress and Wordpress to the latest versions which were released at nearly the same time Statpress V will vanish from the Admin menu. The developer is aware of this and is looking for a fix at the moment, I am waiting to hear back on an estimated timeframe at the moment.
Even though the menu item is missing you may still be able to access Statpress by changing the URL in the address bar to yourdomain.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=statpress-visitors/statpress.php
I will keep you updated as and when I learn more.
Plimus Product
Something I see being asked a lot is now that now we have approval for our plimus products, is how do we start making money with them?
A lot of products on Plimus, Clickbank etc do not have banners within the affiliate network site. Instead it is generally accepted that banners are provided by the product creator. These may be accessable through a website URL provided in the product description, or by an Affiliate Link at the bottom of the product page.
If they do not have a affiliate section with pre-made banners you are generally free to create your own. Alternatively even easier is writing a review post specifically about the product and putting the affiliate link as a "Click here to get xyz for yourself now". In fact pre-sells work wonders on the conversions for most products, kinda like our best books for... post.
Google Plus - The new social network...
As with everything google, the initial beta stage is invite only, get yourself on the list for the next newest hottest social network to launch... (Circles have amazing power...).
- Goto http://rfurl.net/gp
- Sign up
- Wait for google to invite you... I don't know when this will be so don't ask

I know its long, however it'll be worth it as it is where the buzz is going be once they go fully public!
Setting up your mailing list
There are several email/newsletter/autoresponder companies out there, however for White Hat sites like ours I believe there is none better than MailChimp. They offer their service for free up to 2000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. However they are not for spammers or people doing BH as you will get banned so fast!
- Goto http://rfurl.net/mc
- Click Sign Up Free, enter your details, click Create My Account and then confirm your email address.
- Once you have confirmed your email address you need to log in, it will ask you to enter your name and address. Then in the box below enter your website title as the company and your website address. Select your industry in the list and create a security question/answer. Click Finish Signup
- It'll give you 3 steps to get you started, click on step 1 - Create a subscriber list. Enter a name for the list, your website name in default from name, and your website email address in the from email. Remind people they joined from your website... and click save.
- It'll take you to a success page showing your new list, under the create button there is a button called Create Signup Forms, click this. In the page that opens click onto the Share tab, there is a small button on the right saying "Create HTML Code for a small subscribe form". Click this.
- It will give you a sample of how your form will look, and if you scroll down give you code to copy/paste into your site.
- Go to your Wordpress Dashboard->Pages->Add New
- Use "Newsletter" as the title, enter a brief description of why people should sign up to your newsletter. In the top of the page editor there is a HTML tab. Click this, goto the bottom of everything that is already there and paste in the code you copied from MailChimp.
- Publish the page and preview it in your browser. Then test signing up to your newsletter.
P.S. MailChimp have their own awsome video tutorials here:
http://mailchimpacademy.blip.tv/ - Would recommend you take a look!
How to sign people up
A list is useless without subscribers, however there is always great debate on the best way to build a list. Obviously each email you send may potentially cost you money, so you want to get subscribers that interact with you and that are interested in what you have to say.
There is great debate about the best way to do this, I personally like giveaways and competitions with prizes related to the niche to give a email list a great head start. However you can also offer people a free special report for joining your list, and the great thing is this is just another (longer) article of around 1500-2000 words. Make sure you use a larger font and use double line spacing to spread it out over more pages, after all a exclusive 10 page training programme sounds better than a 2 page training program.
Alternatively you could even set this up to be delivered in parts through an autoresponder (more on this below). In order for someone to do something there has to be a percieved value (i.e. you are doing the challenge because you percieve it to make you money). Have a think about what you can give to encourage your users to join your list.
Twit It Away Thank You Page
I would highly recommend that you add a Email Signup form to your TwitItAway product download page. Use something like "Signup to my email list to be notified about other great products"...
- Goto Pages, and edit your Thank You page
- Goto MailChimp and copy your signup form code
- Switch to the HTML view in the same way you did for your Newsletter page, scroll to the bottom of the code and paste your Signup form html in.
- Click Update Page.
Autoresponders? Should you use them and when?
An autoresponder is a method to schedule emails to be sent automatically after a certain time has passed from a previous action or email. They were all the buzz back when I first started, however now they have a really bad name for Black Hat stuff.
Using an autoresponder on a White Hat site can work, however if you want to go down this route be prepared to put some work into it. The easiest type of auto responder to create is a training or how-to guide. Lets look at an example for the Best Football Goals.
If we pick a title like "12 Week Training Guide to Improve your Football Skills" we are implying that it is value because it is a 12 week guide, it's related to our niche, and they only get it by signing up to our autoresponder list. The beauty about autoresponders is you can create them as you go, so each week you can add another email to the autoresponder. And the email is basically just an article sent by email...
Moneytizing an autoresponder is easy, you simply plug an awsome clickbank/plimus/amazon product every few emails. If you've given the reader 3 or 4 weeks of quality content then you will have also built up some trust, and recommending a awsome product that you think will help them will benefit you both.
There are times where you should avoid autoresponders like the plague however, personally I will never use an autoresponder with CPA offer. Or for sites where I cannot provide at least 12 weeks of content at 1 email/week. No autoresponders for making money because then your just trying to be a guru (and we all know I hate guru's). No autoresponders for adsense sites.
Summary
Today has been slightly condensed as I am still working with twitter to negotiate acceptable terms for Twit It Away usage. Obviously I will keep you updated on this, and hope to have a suitable resolution soon.
In terms of Day 15 which was scheduled to be a live seminar, I am wondering if it may be most appropiate to hold this on the Saturday or Sunday to allow those with work commitments or dodgy timezones to attend? I was thinking something like 5pm GMT this Sunday? Let me have your thoughts!