PROMOTE YOUR WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET FOR FREE OR VERY LITTLE COST-HERE'S HOW!-PART 3
by S. Hunter
In this, Part 3 of our ongoing series on web site promotion, we are looking at e-mail; specifically e-mail lists. An e-mail list is simply a list of e-mail addresses of people requesting information on a certain subject on a regular basis. One of the most common forms is a newsletter or an electronic publication of some type. A house e-mail list can be compiled and sent out as often is warranted. It is a strategy often employed by publishers and businesses to send out e-mail to customers or prospects. E-mail lists provide the advantage of involving very little time and labor but are an excellent vehicle for free promotion. Tell everyone that you are offering a FREE newsletter [briefly describe whatever it's about to indicate value and it will help increase traffic to your site too!
We DO NOT suggest that you purchase a bulk list of e-mail addresses simply because despite assurances from the seller, the names are NOT people who want to receive your information. The names and e-mails addresses are sold and resold having been stripped off newsgroup postings and generated by software programs that strip off e-mail addresses from web. In fact, in Internet circles, this practice is called spamming and is frowned upon, discouraged and some have lost their connection for abusing the Internet. We have received reports from many people who have paid an "e-mail blast" service to send their message out to 10,000 e-mail addresses. What they got was a lot of headache; the e-mail responses received were bogus and the results were clearly not worth the expense. Better and more effective is to create your own subscriber based e-mail list from your web site.
This allows you to distribute useful information to people who VOLUNTARILY ask to receive it. To create your own e-mail list here is what you will need to do.
1)You will need software to manage your house e-mail list. We recommend using a listserver program that automates the management and distribution of your list. You can get details on an excellent listserver program at ww.incor.com. The cost is under $400 and saves you both time and money, especially if you are used to the post office emptying your pockets each time you send product/service information out by regular mail. Once you've purchased your list server you can e-mail your information, as much as you want, as often as you want, to those who've requested it without paying a dime more!
2) Next, set up a structure or overview of what you are going to send to people on your e-mail list. Determine how often you will send it, how long it will be, what you will include that will be useful to people, and other pertinent information. Make sure that what you are going to send out is of some value to the recipients with a combination of ads, information, tips, special offers, opportunity information etc. Let your own purpose and creativity be your guide, but do put some thought into it. Afterall, if you don't offer people valuable information they will simply unsubscribe from your list.
3) Start creating a list of e-mail addresses that you will send your electronic newsletter or message to. You can place a "subscription" area on your web site where people who would like to receive your newsletter subscribe by simply entering their e-mail address. You will need to compile a list of e-mail address of people who have expressed an interest in receiving your information. Whenever you are talking to a customer ask if they would like to receive your free newsletter. If they would tell them where to go on your web site to subscribe.
Warning: if you routinely add e-mail addresses of people who have NOT asked to be put on your e-mail list, be prepared for a lot of responses from people who will demand politely (sometimes not politely) to be removed from your list. This is definite misuse of what a listserver is intended for, that is: to offer subscribers a choice of whether or not to receive.
Note: The newsletter that you reading right now is sent out using a listserver. We compile the content of our newsletter and then publish to our list. Total time, about 1 hr to put together the newsletter and about 10 minutes to send it out. Total cost to send the newsletter out to 5000+ subscribers - Zero! Use our newsletter as an example to give you some ideas for publishing your own online newsletter.
4) Now announce your free newsletter everywhere you advertise, in print, in free classifieds on the Internet... everywhere. Tell people what they will get in your newsletter and why they MUST have it. Too, you can offer FREE publicity in your newsletter. This might be a free ad, a site review, anything you can think of. Tell interested prospects to visit your site for instructions on receiving this free offer. This is also a good traffic draw. Aside from the traffic you generate to your site, you'll be on your way to creating a house e-mail list allowing you to keep in touch with customers and prospects alike. (You didn't think that we publish this newsletter just for the fun of it did you?) We obviously have some business interest or we wouldn't do it. We publish it as a web site traffic generation tool; so we can maintain contact with visitors to our site; and to keep customers and prospective customers alert to the fact that we are still here. You can do this too with your own newsletter!
Sandi Hunter is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com
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