I’ve spent much of the last month developing a physical product to offer to my list and to new subscribers.  I also created a related upsell, a downsell, and sales pages for all three.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been following my own sketch of PLF from how I’ve seen recent IM launches go — minus the affiliates.  There is a lot of buzz from the list, and I’m hoping the launch will go well.

My intention is to use the profits from the launch to drive further traffic – originally I was going to purchase articles, but after reading a recent post on the Warrior Forum, I have another idea…

More details later.

The launch (actually it’s a pre-launch special for my “loyal newsletter subscribers”) is scheduled for tomorrow at noon Eastern.  Wish me luck!

I’m running sites in several niches and have been writing articles like a madman.  Many of the articles are for my own use, and some have been written to sell – either in PLR packages for on a contract basis for individuals.

I finally got things clicking with my list-building.  I’ve added 380 subscribers in a week and have had several sales.  If I can continue at this pace, I think I’ll be very happy with where I’m at in a few months.

I knew that it would have a slow start, but I’m not real pleased with the clickthrough rate from my bio box on my ezinearticles articles. I’m going to write a couple of different versions and do some testing to see if I can improve the clickthrough.

I’m happy with the conversion rate on the squeeze page, but since I’m not getting many clickthroughs yet, the number is statistically insignificant. I’ll have to wait until I have more traffic before I can accurately measure and test my squeeze page.

I’m still writing and posting articles.

I then started writing targeted articles for the marketing.

So far, I have 10 articles written and posted, each one optimized for the keyword combinations I’ve found.  I also began the process of building back links to the articles.  Going forward, I intend on spending one day writing new articles to one day building back links.  If I feel like I’m getting behind an either area, I’ll adjust the schedule.

I’ve also joined a team at Tagzilla.com to try to get some assistance with the social bookmarking for back links and Google ranking.  So far I’ve tagged several articles from the team that needed it, but haven’t seen anyone look at my articles.  I’m sure given time there will be a response.

I’m going to offer a free report and a free newsletter.  I haven’t written the report yet, but considering the amount of research I’ve done up to this point, it should be pretty easy to do.

I won’t be able to do real testing of the squeeze page’s effectiveness until I start getting traffic, but I wanted to make sure it was in place first so that I don’t lose a single customer.

I’m shooting for one article/newsletter every four days for my subscribers. I could have done one per week, but this should push the return up just a bit without being so frequent to seem “spammy.”

The articles are all full of great content, so the subscribers should stay happy.

Next I’m going to work on the squeeze page.

After I finish writing, I’ll try to find affiliate products that mesh with some of the articles.  I’ll shoot for an ad in every third or fourth article and see how that turns out.

Often in IM forums, you’ll see someone who’s doing well say that they wished they’d done ____ with their first project.  I’m making an effort with this project to do as many of those things as I can before the customers start rolling in.  We’ll see how this strategy works out.

Right now I’m working on an autoresponder series.  I already have an account with Aweber.  Again, most experienced Internet Marketers highly recommend starting with a real autoresponder service right out of the box, so that’s what I’m doing.

I’ll keep updating this series as I work through the process, and hopefully I’ll be able to post some success stories in a couple of months.

One last note: I’m in a highly-competitive  non-IM market.  So far I’ve found ten great keyword combinations within this market that I should be able to dominate.  Wish me luck!

Frequently I see new IM’ers make comments that make me think the most common misconception is that a niche is tiny. For example, you might see a post like the following:

I’ve found a great product that will help Caribbean spearfishermen increase their catch by 20%. I have a page up with a link to the sales page, and I’ve been doing article marketing for a couple of months, but I’m not getting any sales.

For Internet Marketing, the word niche refers to a very targeted subgroup of a market. It doesn’t have to be tiny. It has to be hungry. “Wedding Planners” would be a more likely candidate. You’d just have to figure out what they’re hungry for.

Here are the steps that you should take when starting a new site or area of focus. If you don’t work through these steps in order, you’ll often be spinning your wheels and won’t see the results you want.

• Market – Locate a hungry market. Ideally you’re looking for a decent number of people with a specific need that they will pay to have met. In the example above, the spearfishermen would certainly like to increase their catch by 20%, but it’s way too small of a market to try to target.
• Traffic – After locating a niche, start working on driving traffic. If you’re using PPC, this step will entail research. If you can’t advertise cheaply, it might be a dead end. If you’re using article marketing, go ahead and start writing and submitting articles (only submit each article once at this stage) to test what kind of traffic each article can pull. If you can get a measurably consistent amount of traffic, you can move on to the next step.
• Conversion – Find an affiliate product that closely matched to your niche’s need. Build a landing page that “reviews” the product or otherwise points the visitors to the product. Of course, at this stage you could also develop a free multi-part course or newsletter and direct the traffic to a squeeze page instead to start building a list. The key though is to eventually put a product in front of this traffic to test how they respond. The traffic from each niche will convert differently. Of course, the articles and landing page can help condition traffic to buy, but sometimes you’ll find that your niche just isn’t a buying group. If not, go back to step one with another niche. If they are buying, you can move on to the final step.
• Product – Develop your own product(s). If you’ve used a squeeze page to build a list, you have a market for your product as soon as it’s developed. To come up with a product, you could write an eBook, develop a training course, rebrand someone else’s physical product, or just sell them a real product that you distribute or that is dropshipped. I prefer the electronic media because it’s the easiest to automate and has a high return. That doesn’t mean that you can’t get a higher return with physical products, you just have to work harder to find a high-return physical product.

Finding a profitable niche can seem like an insurmountable task to new Internet Marketers. However, if you follow the steps listed above, if you discover that your idea is a dud, at least you will have done it at the beginning of the process rather than after spending months developing something that wasn’t going to sell.

I’ll be exploring each of the steps above in more detail in future posts, so please check back if you’d like more information.

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him. Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece. I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

• The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.
• List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?
• List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

Tom Kulzer, CEO and Founder of Newtown, PA based AWeber Communications, Inc. an opt-in email service provider. With 7 years managing opt-in follow up and newsletters for small businesses, email deliverability is an integral part of day to day operations. Learn more: http://www.AWeber.com and http://www.DeliveryMonitor.com