This week

How To Build Your Opt In List On A Shoestring Budget by John Colanzi

Quick Tip

Greetings,

This week, John Colanzi offers some ideas on how to build an opt-in list of subscribers - a very desirable state of affairs. And Pamela Geiss offers a quick look at the differences between the concrete and the virtual worlds of business.

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Kind regards,

Jennifer

How To Build Your Opt In List On A Shoestring Budget
by John Colanzi

There's been a disturbing trend the last month or so.

I'm seeing many publishers shutting down their ezines and
others who've mentioned doing the same in private emails.

These are publishers who have been around for some time.

The problem is not their newsletter, many of them are
excellent. The problem seems to be the changes taking place
on the net.

I wrote about the ad scammers some time back and they're
still up to their old tricks.

<> Fake Addresses

<> Autoresponders

<> Accounts that bounce within a week

<> Subscribing and unsubscribing, over and over.

Many fine ezines have gone the way of the dinosaur, rather
than continue having their time and efforts abused.

Looking for a way around this problem, I decided to look
for a simple way to build an opt in list, and cut down on
the hit and run scammers.

It's not fool proof, but it's been working so far. It's cut
down on my bounces and unsubscribes.

There's only one way to subscribe to my ezine. If I get any
of those bogus subscribe requests that tell me how much
they look forward to reading my newsletter and by the way
here's their free ad to save me time then
I know I've got a scammer. They've joined some program
that gives them a canned spiel.

So how can you build a list and avoid some of the
headaches?

The first thing I did was set up a simple page telling who
we are.

Next I added a list of bonuses.

Finally, I added a subscription form.

Once they've subscribed, their bonuses are emailed directly
to the address they supplied. This guarantees the address
is real and it won't bounce.

How long does it take to set up a simple page like the one
I used? 10 or 15 minutes.

So how has this simple page worked out?

<> No bounces

<> Only 1 request to be removed

So save yourself some headaches and spend 10 or 15 minutes
to make your life easier.

Wishing You Success,
John Colanzi
PS: If you'd like to see how simple this page is visit:
http://johncolanzi.com/freeware.html


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Here are some great little puns, sent in by Ted:

Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.

If you take a laptop computer for a run you could jog your memory.

Once you've seen one shopping centre you've seen a mall.

At shoe stores they believe there's dignity in de feet.

A music store had a small sign which read: Bach in a Minuet.

Quick Tip

Virtual vs. Concrete (c)2001

Pamela Geiss

What is the difference in running a business in the virtual world as opposed
to running one in the concrete world? There are many differences.

1. The first and most obvious difference is that you don't have to buy or rent a
separate building for your business. You don't have to hire a staff to help
you - at least not in the beginning. You don't have to put up signs. You save
by not having to pay extra utilities. You can even use your own home phone
line. Just with these differences, you have saved yourself quite a great deal
of money.

2. Another difference is that you have the ability to reach people all over the
world with your virtual business. Of course, you have that ability in the
concrete world also, but you have to have a product you can physically ship
all over the world and the funds to do expensive advertising on television
and other global venues. On the Internet, advertising is extremely cheap when
compared to concrete world prices. For example, a quarter-page ad in a local
newspaper can cost at least hundreds of dollars, depending on the
circulation. In ezines, you can advertise for as little as $2 an ad!

3. You can reach a lot of people in seconds on the Internet. In the concrete
world it takes a lot longer to get things moving. You can even target your
advertising on the Internet, something that is very difficult to do in the
concrete world.

So, obviously there are a lot of advantages to running a business on the
Internet, but what are the disadvantages? The biggest drawback to running a
business on the Internet is the impersonal nature of the Internet. You can't
walk up to a new or returning customer, shake his hand and welcome him into
your store. You can't ask if they need anything or if they have questions.
Sure, there are ways to have somewhat of a personal experience with programs
like Human Click (R), but you can't be the one to start the exchange. The
customer has to "approach" you. Plus, you can't be at your computer 24 hours
(although you may come close!) a day, and the Internet is open 24 hours a
day.

So, what does the fact of the impersonal nature of the Internet mean to the
business owner? It means that he's going to need much more traffic to his
site to make sales. Advertising is all about numbers. Assuming first that you
have a quality product or service, the next thing you need is traffic to make
those sales. Your conversion ratio of browser to seller is going to be lower
on the Internet than it is in the concrete world largely because of the
impersonal nature of the Internet. Therefore, you can expect to spend more
for advertising, because you have to DO more advertising to get more visitors.

Don't despair, however, because if you add all the expenses you DON'T have to
run that business on the Internet, you will still come out ahead of what it
would cost you in the concrete world. So the Internet business is still the
best bargain around today!

Pamela Geiss is the owner of LotsaPerks. She specializes in targeted traffic,
targeted leads and targeted banner advertising. She also has a free
newsletter. Visit her today at http://www.lotsaperks.com

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