Recently there has been a lot of buzz about two things:

1) The first has to do with regular email getting sent to your spam folder.  Some free email services such as Yahoo are receiving complaints that double opt-in email is being sent to straight to the spam folder.

This has caused concern and speculation about the role of email marketing in the future.

Personally I think list building will stay the same and am not worried about any immediate changes.  Having said that, I am also interested in new ways to build relationships.

2) This leads me to item #2 which has to do with Facebook.

I am sure you have heard of it.  It doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon so I have decided to jump aboard.  It’s possible a service like Facebook could be the list of the future.  A place to interact with customers, clients, potential JV partners and friends.

I see Facebook as a tool to build relationships — very similar to list building.

So, what do you think…Is Facebook “the list” of the future?

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A squeeze page is the main tool in your arsenal for building a profitable email list. It’s your first chance to build trust with your visitor. Therefore, it’s important you get it is as close to perfect as possible with the end goal to have your visitor become a subscriber. For this reason, I’ve put together my top 11 squeeze page tips to help you get fast results.

1) Your squeeze page should load fast. Avoid adding too many graphics as it will slow down the loading and you risk losing your visitor’s attention while waiting for it to load.

2) Develop a headline that grabs the readers attention. Creating a great headline doesn’t usually happen on your first try. You may need to test headlines and decide which one gets the best results.

3) Create bullet points that generate interest and desire for your visitor. Like the headline, bullet points should be tested and adjusted based on your results.

4) Experiment with long versus short squeeze pages. I have found different niches respond better to one type versus the other.

5) Create a squeeze page that looks appealing to your visitor. The cleaner you present your page the better the results. By clean, I mean the forms and tables are aligned correctly, the fonts are easy to read and the color combination of the page is pleasing to the eye. If in doubt, ask a friend to look at it and have them give you an honest first impression.

6) Make an offer to your visitor that is believable and desirable. People often will use the following statement in regards to how your offer should be presented: “make an irresistible offer that they can’t refuse”. The problem with this statement is it often leads to hype and you make an offer that you really can’t live up to. consequently, you have lost your subscriber once they realize you can’t live up to the hype you created. In addition, you lose all credibility. Make it a believable offer for something a person would want and you will get good results.

7) Design your page so the opt-in form is easy to see on your page. No matter where you subscriber is on the page they should be able to see the opt-in form. If you use a long style squeeze page, you will need more than one opt-in form on the page. Having multiple opt-in forms is good strategy if needed.

8) Everything in the wording on your page should be designed to build trust. Remember, if you are trying to build a relationship with your soon to be subscriber, you need to build trust first.

9) If you do use a graphic, keep it simple, relevant and not distracting. Some people like to use their photo on a squeeze page which can add credibility and trust.

10) Once your squeeze page is done, try a sample email through the entire process to make sure it works. Sadly, one time I set-up a campaign and got about 100 click to my page but no subscribers. Confused and my ego bruised, I checked my opt-in form and realized I made a typo in one of the last changes I made after I had tested it. The moral is to check it all out even after the slightest change.

11) Choose a quality autoresponder service that is known for a high rate of email deliverability and protects your from spam complaints.

Bonus Tip) I can’t resist and need to add a bonus tip. Consider adding privacy policies, terms and contact information at the bottom of your page. The majority of your visitors will never look at this but its presence ads credibility and trust to the subconscious mind of your visitors.

Double Bonus Tip) Since you read the whole post, I am throwing in a double bonus tip for you. The tip is: Try, Test, Tweak also known as “Triple T”. Regardless of what I tell you or anyone for that matter. Trying and Testing is the only way you will get real feedback on what works. I have had “experts” tell me one of my squeeze pages breaks all of the rules and I should change it, only to find it converts at a very high rate.

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Ok, you’re ready to build your email list and are wondering what tools do you need to help you. Here are my top 3 items that I recommend:

1) To create a squeeze page, you will need software or a service to help you. I recommend a software product named Xsitepro. It make creating a page easy and painless.

2) You need a host for uploading your web page. I have used Hostgator for years and have been pleased. The service is reliable and comes with a lot of features.

3) Last bust not least to build your list, you will need an autoresponder for capturing the the visitor information that comes to your squeeze page. I recommend Aweber for the autoresponder service.

Bonus) If list building is all new to you, I recommend you join Tyler’s List Building Club. There’s not cost and you get a free list builder report valued at $49.

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I try a lot of traffic methods and will often share the results with readers of my newsletter at Tyler’s List Building Club. The question people on my list frequently ask me about has to do with traffic exchanges. The most common question is whether they work or not.

First I will define what a traffic exchange is. A traffic exchange is a site where you agree to view other websites in exchange for people looking at your website. There is a point system tracked like money in a bank account. You get points for every site you look at and you spend points every time someone looks at your site. In theory, this is a great idea and it would seem like it should work.

In addition to the free method of exchanging clicks, there are enhanced versions where you can pay to get more people to view you website without having to look at as many sites or in some cases, you can pay and avoid looking at sites at all.

There are two flaws with traffic exchanges.

Number one. People are rewarded by looking at as many sites as possible to earn credits. This way they earn points so other people will look at their site. This means there is a good chance most of the traffic never even looks at your site with any intent of reading or learning about what you have to offer. This is the very definition of low quality traffic.

Number two. If you want to play in this arena, you have to have a different message to your visitors to even get the slightest results. You have to be bold and quick with your point to catch their attention. This in itself is probably not a huge problem but I ask myself this question. “Do I want to change my marketing style to generate low quality traffic?”

My answer is to that question is no as I would rather focus my time and efforts on higher quality traffic methods.

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Many people are hearing about how bad duplicate content can be for your online business. However, there are still some people who are asking the question “What is duplicate content?” In this article, we hope to explain a bit about what it is and how to ensure that your sites or articles do not contain it.

I do not mean that the whole page or article is copied word for word. In fact, only a small amount of the text can be similar for it to be considered to be a duplicate of something else.

Submitting the same content to numerous websites in order that you can get more traffic to your site is one of the main causes. When you are submitting details of your site to numerous directories then ensure that the details you submit are different for each one.

The best thing that you can do when you are registering your website with any directory is to first produce 10 to 20 different detailed descriptions of it. Then as you register with each directory randomly select a description to use when submitting the sites details.

Another way of avoiding this problem within a site is with the use of a duplicate content checker. There are plenty of these available online and all it requires is you to enter the URL of the site that you wish to be analyzed. Within a matter of minutes, you can see if there are any problems and if so, make the necessary changes.

For many people knowing what duplicate content is and how to avoid it is essential to their online businesses. Luckily, with the invention of programs such as DupeFreePro and other types of checkers these issues can easily be avoided in the future.

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When you start to build a list, you will find it is tough to get everything right. Here are 7 sins that if committed too often (some forgiveness is possible) will have your subscribers racing for the unsubscribe button faster than a policeman drives to a local donut shop to meet his buddies for coffee.

The number one sin and by far most important is forgetting that subscribers on your list are actually people.

The second sin is blasting the people on your list with offer after offer and claiming each offer is the next great thing. To take it a step further, the really bad sinners pitch offers twice a day.

Sin number three is telling the people on your list you aren’t going to sell them anything and then “pitch” them something in the same email.

The fourth sin is promoting the same product everyone else is promoting without making any effort to differentiate yourself.

Sin number five is about fake urgency. Creating urgency by making a limited time offer can be a successful strategy but it becomes a sin when the same offer is up two days after it “expired”.

The sixth sin is trying to sell people on your list a high-ticket offer before establishing a relationship with them. To drive the point home — ask yourself this. How often have you handed a stranger on the street $3K because they have the next great service or product?

The final and seventh sin is a constant pitch of products with no common theme or focus.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, we all make mistakes and generally speaking people on your list can be a pretty forgiving group. So, it all comes down to this, treat the people on your list right and you will be rewarded.

Courtesy of: Tyler’s List Building Club

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One thing to remember and rarely is discussed is that all traffic is not equal.

Let’s say you want to build a list of people interested in dog tricks.

It’s important to understand your results will be dependent on the traffic source.

In other words, a visitor from an article on dog tricks is going to have a different frame of mind than a visitor from a pay per click ad.

My tests have shown this to be true and I often share these studies with subscribers on my list.

So if you have an interest in list building, testing your traffic and different traffic methods check out my site at:

Tyler’s List Building Club

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Take a second to picture the following scenario.

You are standing in front of a microphone with millions upon millions of people staring at you. Every eye is on you and your next action.

You choke and you get hammered by the guy with the accent. You belt out a good one and you are a true rock star.

Now, that’s pure pressure.

Let’s roll back the camera though. Think about the effort that person put in to get in front of the microphone. Think about the amount of time they invested to be in front of the bright lights. The effort and risk is not something most ordinary people are willing to take. Sadly, it’s the truth.

As with a lot of things in life, if you really want to excel and do great, you have to lay it out there.

Building your list is no different.

If you want to succeed, everything you do has to be your “A” effort. If your going to drive traffic to your opt-in page, you need to put maximum effort to get that traffic to go exactly where you want.

Once the traffic gets to your opt-in page, you need put in a serious effort to compel your visitor to join your list. This includes a nice presentable landing page with a great offer and testing the process until you maximize the conversion process to the extreme. Try to cut corners here and your opt-in conversion rate will show it.

But you’re not done with the list building process. Even after your subscriber jumps on board your list, you still need to win them over like the Idol has to win over the judges and audience.

Like a good movie, my story has a happy ending. If you do all of these steps correctly, in the end you will be crowned The List Building Idol and you will have the bank account to prove it.

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One of my favorite movies was Glengary Glen Ross with Alec Baldwin.

In the movie, Alec Baldwin was a tough as nails sales manager. He coined the term “ABC”. It meant “always be closing”. He used the term frequently throughout the movie. Constantly pounding and barking in the heads of the sales people to close the deal.

Guess what?

There is a similar term that you should embed in your head as it directly relates to building a list. It’s a powerful concept that you should understand and apply to your list building tactics today.

I call it “ABT.” It means “Always Be Testing.”

This one term literally separates the winners from the losers. Now I realize you may not exactly know what to test and how to test. Frankly, that’s a common problem so don’t feel bad.

To give you some examples, testing could include:

1) Where your traffic is coming from and the quality of it
2) Components on your opt-in page
3) The entire conversion process from interested party to new subscriber
4) The choice to include graphics or exclude them

You are probably thinking that there is an overwhelming amount of things you can test. And it’s true - the number of things you can test is virtually endless.

And that’s the rub or in less fancy words - the problem. People often get so confused by testing - they just decide to avoid it all together.

But that would be a bad move. So in my grizzled Alec Baldwin voice I say to you - “Always Be Testing.”

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