I’ve been using a method for those who join my email subscriber list lately (thanks to the idea that I picked up from Derek Helpern of SocialTriggers.com).

I have been asking my subscribers in my very first email to them to do one thing right after they get the email, to respond to me with their biggest pain points in their businesses.

This is a quote from one of my most recent valued subscribers:

“Thanks for your nice message. As you are asking, I am pleased to answer: in my business, I am struggling in finding an effective and results oriented approach. Giving information is easy on the Internet. Now being paid for this service is much more difficult and I do not have the keys yet to generate an income on the Internet.  Thank you for your help.” 

So with that being said, I wanted to break down (as much as someone can do in an email) the steps in getting this problem addressed:

“Giving information is easy on internet. Now being paid for this service is much more difficult and I do not have the key yet to generate an income on the internet.”

Ok, so let’s start with this part of the question:

“Giving information is easy on the Internet”.

Yes it is.

In fact providing information that someone else doesn’t have is the KEY to making money online.

Tweet-e-riffic Quote:

“Making money is about 75% valuing your own time and energy enough to put a price tag on what it is you are providing, and 25% knowing the logistics to building your list.“

First ask yourself: What is my niche, and is there a market for it?

Then start creating content from the expert position in your field.  Your main and overall goal is to GET LEADS.

This is where building your subscriber list comes into play.  That should be your biggest goal.  Building your email list.

Many people say:

“Yeah that is all well and good to say, but how do I build my list? “

So with that question looming, I wanted to offer up 4 options to where you should add opt-in boxes to funnel your traffic into your list.

Here are 4 List Building Funnels!

1. A Single landing pages:  A one page website that only gives one option of signing up to ones newsletter is the traditional method for list building.  Those landing pages or squeeze pages as they are called have forms on them that are hooked up to your email service provider (autoresponder) that allows you to market to those people later. (A great source for creating awesome landing pages is Optimize Press (a super simple WordPress theme that makes your page creation a synch.)

Usability tip:  If you are thinking to put comments into your opt in page consider rethinking that idea…don’t give your viewer too many ideas.  Give the viewer the one option of opting-in or not.

2.  Using Webinars for lead generation:  Similar to a single landing page there is only one thing that should be done on this page and that is register and sign up for the Webinar.  Using an automated/Live webinar software such as EWP makes doing this set up super easy to not only get them registered for a webinar but also gets them into a lead nurturing Webinar campaign. Click Here for More Info.

Usability tip:  Have a video on your webinar page suggesting why someone should opt in (please note that you should also do this for your landing pages as well)

3.  Blogging for list building: There are certain techniques for getting leads via blogging.  Often times ones blog has a lot of choices.  Ways to guarantee that you can get registered users from your blog is to:

Usability tips: 

a.  Blog often and staying consistent with your blogging.

b.  Have opt-in boxes at the end of all of your articles.  You want to make sure that you are showing your reader where they can always get more info from you, and a way to get updates and even discounts on certain things…

c.  Make sure you have call to actions in your articles suggesting as to why someone should opt-in to your blog.  Every article should have call to actions and the more creative you are with that the better.

Call to Action Suggestion:  Have a quote that you prompt your readers to copy and paste for them to re-tweet.

I use Thesis them for my WordPress blog.  Click Here for More Info.

4.  Video Players with Opt In Boxes:  This is one of my favorite options.  There are a few video players in the market place that can be used as lead building machines to where you can add an opt-in box INSIDE of your video player.

Here are 3 in particular that I personally love…and tried.

Different Players

a.  Easy Video Player:  This video player is owned by my buddy Josh Bartlett and is a great tool with not only the awesome feature of embedding an opt-in box into the video player, but the EVP dashboard can show you analytics about your video, along with a/b split testing and more.  The great thing about this software is that it integrates with your own Amazon S3 hosting.  Having your videos hosted through a paid service is really the only way to protect your content.  Click Here For More Info.

b.  Lead Player:  Is a new player on the market, which also has the opt-in box feature however, it uniquely integrates with YouTube.  This player is awesome due to the fact that you can use your YouTube videos or other peoples YouTube videos adding your own opt-in box at a designated time in the video.  The only problem with this player is if you have proprietary video content (such as paid video content in a membership site), YouTube hosting is not safe.  Why?  Because YouTube could cancel your account at any moment.  Until you pay for your hosting your content is not safe.  I still love this player for getting more leads and using YouTube’s viral traffic!!!! Click Here for More Info.

c.  Wistia:  Wistia is a self-hosted video player.  This is an awesome option due to it’s sleek look and super fast load time.  The only downside is that it is an expensive option with a monthly payment.  However if you are a serious business that uses video in your marketing, this option might just be the perfect solution. Click Here for More Info.

Usability tips:  Have a recorded interview video that stops midway and shows the opt-in box prompting users to opt-in to get more of the interview…(think creative)

Remember what our subscriber said?

“…and I do not have the keys yet to generate an income on the Internet.  Thank you for your help.” 

So what is the ‘key’ to generating income online?

Answer:  Building your list.

I hope this article was helpful in seeing 4 different solutions for setting up opt-in campaigns to start building your list.

Tweet the heck out of this quote below!

“Making money is about 75% valuing your own time and energy enough to put a price tag on what it is you are providing, and 25% knowing the logistics to building your list.“

In this spirit of this article, please sign up below to get free tips and tricks on building your list and business online…