Lessons, Tips and Tricks for Making Money With Interviews

I’ve addressed this issue in a previous post here, but wanted to give you an update.

First, a few definitions for those new to the subject:

Single Opt-In Email Form: the subscriber enters their email address, clicks submit and is then taken straight to the free content or thank you page. They are now subscribers and no further action is needed on their part.

Double Opt-In Email form: the subscriber enters their email address, clicks submit, and is then taken to a page that tells them they need to check the email box they just entered. The email service then sends that email address a confirmation email containing a link that must be clicked in order to join the list. If they don’t click the link, they never get subscribed and never get the free content.

Double opt-ins, while growing your list more slowly (because a certain percentage of subscribers will never click on the confirmation link) result in a cleaner, more responsive list because you don’t acquire bogus email addresses or 3rd or 4th tier web-based email addresses the owner never checks. It also ensures someone isn’t getting subscribed to a list without their permission.

There is a compromise though and it’s the behavior we’ve settled on that works well for our lists.

All of our lists are double-opt in, but the confirmation link in the first email takes the new subscriber directly to the promised content. It’s the most “friction-free” way we know to both confirm the subscriber’s address AND take them to the content in one click.

The trouble with most standard double opt-in strategies is that it adds one unnecessary step to the process and it truly hurts their ability to grow a great email list. The standard Aweber double opt-in process goes like this:

1) User subscribes
2) User gets sent a confirmation email that must be clicked
3) User clicks that confirmation email link and then is told they have to wait again to get content in another email
4) User finally gets email with the link to the content or the content attached (which is email #1 in your auto-responder chain)

That step 4 is what can really kill your list building efforts - eliminate it! Why should your subscriber have to take action and then wait AGAIN to get yet one more email before they get your content?

In my opinion, that’s simply asking too much patience and effort from your subscriber.

Thankfully, the fix is simple. In Aweber, you can specify the page that your user gets taken to once they click the confirmation link. Instead of taking them to a “thank you, now you have to wait again” page, make that URL the link to a page on your website that contains the promised free content.

They will still get your first email in the follow-up series (that likely takes them to that same page) but that’s OK. The user gets to your content one step faster and you get the full benefit of a clean, responsive and double opt-in email list.

building your list, email marketing, list building double opt-in email marketing, single opt-in email marketing

I received an email question today about our follow-up emails in our auto-responder series at Aweber. One of our awesome readers here at MemberCon joined several of our email lists on our membership sites just to see how we do things.

She immediately noticed that we don’t personalize our emails with the subscriber’s first name like many of the “gurus” do. Why not?

Good question and there are several reasons:

1) We don’t ask for the subscriber’s first name on our opt-in pages because the conversion rate for people who actually sign up is lower when you do (or I should say, when we do – others may have different stats but from what I hear it’s common across the board). The more information you ask for on your opt-in page, the lower your conversion rate will be for that page. In order to achieve the highest conversion rates (views vs. actual completion of the form), we ask for one thing and one thing only: their email address. Even one more field – something as simple as asking for a first name will decrease your conversion rate significantly.

2) Personalization was awesome and cool and unique when the technology was first available, but in the years that have passed since it was the cool thing to do, everyone knows the email wasn’t written just to them. Initially, conversions and clicks and opens on emails that included the subscriber name went through the roof. That just isn’t the case anymore. And since it doesn’t help conversions (see #1) we simply don’t see the need anymore.

3) There are too many chances for it to get screwed up. How many times have you received an email that started exactly like this:

Dear {first name},

I wanted to tell you about….blah, blah, blah (Where the sender somehow mistyped the fill-in code that was suppose to insert your first name but instead the raw code is the only thing that was inserted.)

——or——

Dear Chris

I wanted to tell you about….blah, blah, blah (when your name isn’t Chris)

——or——

,

I wanted to tell you about….blah, blah, blah. (where the first name area was blank where the software was suppose to insert it)

I’ve received emails just this week with all 3 of these mistakes. Anyone on the planet who still thought the guru was emailing them personally now knows that isn’t the case. Bottom line, there are just too many chances for error in inserting the first name and when you or the software screws up, it’s embarrassing.

So there you have it. All the reasons we no longer personalize our autoresponder emails. If there was a minor reason #4, it would be that it’s simply one more line of text to read before they get to the “meat” of the message and the link we want them to click.

Anything we can do to get them to that “take action” link faster is a good thing.

Of course, I welcome your opinion on the matter!

building your list, email marketing autoresponder services, Aweber

If you’ve followed Membercon for any length of time, you know Emile and I love to talk about the tactics and strategies that have failed as much as we do about what led to success (maybe more).

We’re constantly tweaking, adjusting, deleting and adding to the emails that are in our autoresponder chain at Aweber. Our email follow-ups have become the single-most important tool we have to bring a prospect in and convert them to paying members of our sites.

A few weeks ago I snuck in a new email at around #6, meaning they received it about two weeks after joining our list. The idea was this: we’ve given them some great content and pointed them to some great resources on our site. Let’s show the subscriber we know what they are feeling and can relate their place in the learning curve. Our sense was that most people who joined our email list for our online trading membership site were relatively new and would appreciate a “we’ve been where you are” type of email that then also invited them to become members and join the community.

Within 3 days I knew we had a problem. Unsubscribe rates doubled for this specific email number and it quickly became the leader as the email that resulted in the most unsubscribes of all the follow-ups for that week.

Part of the unsubscribe issue was that it was the first “all pitch, no content” email in the chain so that accounts for a lot of the unsubscribes. But there were just to many on a percentage basis for that to have been the only reason. But it also genuinely pissed people off. We started getting some nasty email replies – not good (I’ll share a few of them with you in a moment just for kicks).

Here’s the email in full and then I’ll tell you why I think it didn’t work…

Ok, I assume you listened to the interview I sent a few days ago. Let me make a few more assumptions – this time about you: You’re smart. You know you have what it takes to trade well, you just need some good information from someone who knows what to do.

Perhaps you’ve even traded a bit – and lost some and made some. But…you just can’t seem to get consistent – as in month after month of gains. You feel like the market seems to know when you enter a trade – and loves to reverse right after you get in.

When you do get a winning trade, you exit too early or worry that you’ll give it all back if you stay in much longer.

You’ve tried all the “guru” free trials and it hasn’t helped much.

How am I doing so far? How did I know? Because I’m describing myself just a short time ago. Then I decided to talk to a few traders who were consistent.

And it made all the difference. It finally clicked. It’s not hard, it’s not complicated, and it makes perfect sense when you hear these traders describe it.

Sign up now with TraderInterviews.com – I’ve even slashed the price for you:

http://www.TraderInterviews.com/traderinterviews_signup.php

Call me or email me anytime.

All the best,

Tim Bourquin, Co-Founder
Trader Interviews
(direct email): tim@traderinterviews.com
(direct phone): 1-949-348-2590 ext. 15

P.S. How much longer are you going to wait to find the perfect trading service? This is what you’ve been looking for!

http://www.TraderInterviews.com/traderinterviews_signup.php

Our intentions were good. I honestly thought that by describing the state of mind the subscriber was probably in, we would generate goodwill and a few sales from folks who understood that we “got them.” That may have been the case for some people, but what we found out is this:

People don’t like being told how they feel – no matter how right you may be.

I think people said to themselves, “Dude, you’ve emailed me 6 times and you think you know me? You don’t, so don’t assume you do!”

They were right. Even reading it now, I somehow get a flash of “We’re better than you but if you become a member, you can be as good as us.” It’s not something I felt when I wrote it and it definitely wasn’t meant that way, but stepping back I can see it plain as day.

The lesson learned: certainly we can all make assumptions about our subscribers and write emails and offer products that help them achieve whatever goals they have. All the surveying in the world can get you close to the facts, but ultimately you’ll have to make some assumptions to fill in the blanks. But in most cases, stating that fact outright just makes people feel you are taking liberties with the relationship and acting like a know it all.

This may be a perfect case of, “Do it but don’t say you are doing it because no matter how you say it, it won’t come out right.”

And the email replies? Here are a few:

1) “You know what they say about “assume” – it makes an ass out of you and of me!” (of course we’d get that one)
2) “This isn’t me at all actually, and I’m a little annoyed that you think so…”

Plus a few others with colorful language, to say the least.

So obviously that email is now gone from the follow-up chain. We’ll keep testing, tweaking and trying. It’s the only way to improve and hopefully our experience here. You never know which emails will work and which ones won’t until you give them their chance on stage.

email marketing autoresponder chain, Aweber, marketing assumptions

Last week I mentioned we were changing our first email to all our lists to be more direct about the fact that yes, we will be offering paid products occasionally along with our free tips, tricks and content.

Our sense is that while many people understand that joining a list means an occasional sale pitch for the products of the website owner or their partners, many do not – or at least appreciate a direct statement to that effect in the beginning.

In part, the emails now say something similar to this:

Here it is: we’re going to be emailing you ideas and tricks we use but never publish on our blog. And we’ll explain it in a step-by-step way that you’ll be able to understand and use them on your own website right away to make some coin (or euros, pounds, dollars, pesos, etc.).

That’s what makes our list so valuable to subscribers.

But we’re also going to introduce you to products and services we think are top notch and worthy of your attention and dollars – things we’ve bought ourselves.

In other words, we’re going to ask you to buy stuff too.

So if capitalism, grandma’s apple pie, or marketing offends you, you’ll want to find that unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email and put yourself out of your misery right now. Go ahead, we’ll wait….

So are we seeing more people click the unsubscribe button at the bottom of that email? The answer is YES. Not a lot more, but before we implemented the more direct text, very few unsubscribed after the first email. But, interestingly yet not surprisingly, less people are unusbscribing, percentage-wise, on the first sales pitch email that comes around email 6. This is across the board on all our sites.

So we’re just getting rid of non-buyers sooner in the follow-up chain. Which is A-OK by us. If there is no chance they are ever going to buy something then the sooner they are off the list, the better.

This is all based on just 6 days worth of data, but I think it’s encouraging and wanted to update you.

email marketing, list building email marketing

My recent interview with content creator and online marketer Rob Booker got me thinking about the first email we send to subscribers for our various niche content sites.

One of the things Rob said was that the trick to keeping subscribers on your email list, even while you are pitching something, is to set the stage early and simply tell them to expect it.

It’s a simple idea. Manage your subscriber’s expectation right up front and when the sale pitch comes, they won’t be surprised. Even with this website, which focuses on on how to make money online with content, I just assumed that our subscribers knew we would pitch them occasionally. This site is about making money, right? So isn’t it obvious that we’re making money ourselves? No, it isn’t.

Even though we haven’t pitched much to Membercon list yet, when we did about a month ago, we still got replies saying something to the effect of, “Hey I thought you were giving us free info – what the heck?” I take full responsibility for that – we never said straight up that we would be occasionally asking subscribers to buy something.

So, to make sure we are managing expectations of our subscribers right up front, this morning we changed the first email to what you see below. Using straight talk and a bit of humor, we’ll be doing this with all of our sites going forward.

It’s a bit like how Zappos.com offers new employees $2,000 to quit after the training program. They end up with committed employees who understand what they are getting into.

Let me know what you think. Does this do the trick? How are you managing the expectations of your list subscribers?

Well howdy doody! You found our secret mailing list. Welcome to the
potluck and party! The secret handshake lesson comes later…

Glad you decided to leave that boring “internet marketing guru”
party at that website down the street. Their stories are getting
pretty old, don’t you agree?

Leave your car keys in the bowl next to the door, because you’re
about to experience the intoxicating sounds, tastes and smells
of real online success.

Let’s get something straight right away. Can you handle the truth?

Here it is: we’re going to be emailing you ideas and tricks we use
but never publish on our blog. And we’ll explain it in a step-by-step
way that you’ll be able to understand and use them on your own website
right away to make some coin (or euros, pounds, dollars, pesos, etc.).

That’s what makes our list so valuable to subscribers.

But we’re also going to introduce you to products and services we
think are top notch and worthy of your attention and dollars – things we’ve
bought ourselves.

In other words, we’re going to ask you to buy stuff too.

So if capitalism, grandma’s apple pie, or marketing offends you,
you’ll want to find that unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email
and put yourself out of your misery right now. Go ahead, we’ll wait….

Still here? Wonderful! You’re in for a real treat. Stay tuned for the
next email and get ready to finally make some real money online by
selling content.

You can call or email us anytime.

All the best,

Tim and Emile (brothers and all-around good guys)

——————————-
Tim Bourquin | Emile Bourquin
MemberCon | Interview Income

30251 Golden Lantern Suite E-358
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677-5993

phone: 1-949-829-3049
email: tim@membercon.com
——————————-

Each of our sites will have a similar email so let them know that while we are going to be sending them great information, we’ll also be asking them to buy things we trust and feel are worthwhile.

I’ve been in this game long enough to know that when I sign up for an email list, I’ll be pitched occasionally. But it’s not obvious to everyone, so I want to make sure we make it obvious!

email marketing, selling content online internet marketing, online marketing