I thought this would be kind of a cool topic since I used to wonder the same thing.

You probably see it all the time, including from me.

Every few days (or maybe everyday), some marketer is telling you about how this new website is going to blow you away and change your life! How come emails are always stuffed with this stuff anyway?!

So here’s the real truth…

The reason we’re always touting the newest launch is that marketers do NOT want to promote junk! You wouldn’t want to spend an email talking about a junk product and being negative, when there are so many great sites out there you could be talking about in a positive light.

Sure, it means bigger profits, but it always means you’re sending your subscribers to something good, and long-term they will be thankful for that.

For example, I know some of my customers constantly join programs I recommend, and I’m hoping it’s because they trust I have their best interest in mind. I’ll never promote a product I feel won’t help my subscribers, though of course I’ll make a mistake from time to time.

If you adopt this philosophy, in the long run you’ll make more money too. Because when your customers trust you, they’ll join the sites and buy the products you recommend!

So yea, I just thought I’d share this little tidbit with you the next time you see a bunch of people telling you about the next “hot” new launch. I know I used to think these guys were all just doing this for some big fat commissions. And I’m sure some of them are, but also understand that most trusthworthy (keyword there) marketers also understand that they need to refer you to quality programs. So when something really good comes out, that’s why you see all these people email about it. It’s because it probably is really that good.

I really recommend you try doing this with your mailing lists too.

If you’re not building a list yet, go here and get all the tools to help you start building one. It’s my own site and it’s free to join.

Quick Announcements From Solomon

• Just wanna send out a quick shout out to you for adding some very helpful comments on my last blog post. It means a lot and seeing activity like that will SURELY keep me active and sharing info with you!

• Woo hoo, so EliteSafelist hit 5,000 active members. I’m really proud of that since the site is still pretty young and it’s already larger than many of the older, established safelists out there. If you haven’t joined yet, shame on you! But it’s ok, you can still join now by clicking here

• Viral Ad Store just launched. Although the name is kinda funky, it makes sense once you know what’s unique about it. It’s a viral list builder from Mike Purvis and Greg Hickman, the same guys behind The List Auction, which is (in my opinion) one of the best list builders out there. So far, Viral Ad Store is already getting me incredible results … I don’t have the exact numbers handy but at the time I wrote this, I’ve gotten something like 50 signups to my various lists since it launched. Obviously these guys know what they’re doing. Join here, I highly recommend it.

• Resale Rights Hosting launched as well, and I’ve got to say this is an awesome idea. Have you ever tried setting up a resell rights product to sell? Well it’s a PAIN! Resale Rights Hosting has taken care of all of that stuff for you. You could literally be selling resale rights products in minutes. They’ll even give you a 30 day free trial just to check things out. If you’ve been wanting to sell stuff like ebooks, videos, and software but have been intimidated by the technical side of things, then you have to check this out.

• So I got today’s article topic from one of your fellow blog readers, and hey I thought it was a good suggestion! Thanks Richard!  I’m actually going to split it into two posts, because I think each deserves it’s own so you get the most out of it.If you want to recommend a topic, you can use that blue box on the left (skribit) to request for particular things for me to write about.

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Main Article – Flood Your Blog With Traffic … At Will!

Blogging has been a recent phenomenon that’s taken the internet by storm.

Some people do blogging for fun or to make some extra cash. Some people even make their entire living just from blogging!

I want to make a disclaimer that I’m not some blogging “guru”, but I am always reading and studying internet marketing. Naturally, stuff like blogging comes up fairly often, so I’ve read quite a bit of stuff on blogging and marketing online.

With that said, there are a ton of ways to get traffic to your blog. There’s SEO (search engine optimization), blogging communities (technorati, mybloglog, etc), social networking, blog commenting, blog directories, and tons of other stuff.

They all work! For me personally, I’m all about getting the MOST results for as little effort as possible.

This is how *I* drive traffic to my blog with one simple method…

BUILD YOUR LIST!

That’s it! In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say this would be my answer for most struggling internet marketers.

First let me reveal how I do it, and then why.

1) I create a squeeze page where people can opt in to my mailing list. I’ll usually offer something of value to them, like a free ebook or membership.

2) Then I send traffic to that squeeze page using traffic exchanges, credit based safelists, and viral list builders. I also kind of (as in almost never) do other stuff like social networking or blog commenting, but only if I’m really…really…. really bored, haha. If you’re in a niche outside of Internet marketing, find hotspots where people from your niche would go like forums, popular blogs, and social networking groups.

3) I also naturally get search engine traffic without even doing fancy SEO stuff. If my blog is about internet marketing, I’ll tend to always use keywords about internet marketing anyway, so either way I still get traffic from search engines without any extra effort. But of course if you do your keyword research too, you can enjoy even more free traffic.

4) Then when I make a new blog post, I tell my mailing list subscribers about it.

And that’s how I get traffic to my blog.

So why do I do it this way?

First, it doesn’t take me any extra effort to promote my blog, because I’m always building my mailing list. And YOU should be too. Click here for my recommended autoresponder.

It’s also a good way to remind people that your blog even exists. Lets face it, we’ve all got busy lives and sometimes things will slip our minds. You don’t want people to forget about your blog, so it’s always nice to send them a little friendly reminder and let them know when you put up a new post.

Promoting your blog to your list is a GREAT way to build a relationship with your readers. Sometimes people want to know that you’re more than a marketer, they want to know what kind of person you are. Sending them to your latest blog post with actual info is a nice change of pace from just emailing them whenever you want to sell them something.

Using a list also makes your blog “Google Slap Proof”. Huh? Basically every now and then Google changes their search engine algorithm (basically a math formula). I’ve read SO many times about people who have spent months or years optimizing their websites/blogs to get on the first page of Google. Countless hours of hard work … and then *SLAP*, Google changes the formula and you’re now listed on like page 10…

Well guess what, if you have a mailing list, it doesn’t really matter where your blog ranks in the search engine! You just send out an email like you’ve always done.

And the best thing about this method is that it doesn’t actually take me any extra work. If you do have the time, then sure go out there and do that extra stuff I listed for more traffic to your blog. If time isn’t quite a luxury you have yet, then you might want to give my method a try.

I know I covered a lot of stuff today and jumped around a bit, so if you have a question, just leave a comment and I’ll try to get ya an answer.

This is actually a two part series. Next time I’ll tell you something else about blogging and how it can make you extra cash.

In the mean time, here’s my recommended action steps for more blog traffic:

1) Build a squeeze page to get people to join your mailing list. You can make them for free at Instant Squeeze Page Generator if you’re not sure how to do it.

2) Whenever you make a new blog post, let your subscribers know!

See that wasn’t hard was it?

So how are you getting traffic to YOUR blogs?

Free traffic websites like credit based safelists are powerful ways to advertise, especially if you aren’t good at getting website traffic.

I don’t really like doing stuff like writing articles, SEO, link building, social bookmarking, adwords, and all those other “traditional” traffic methods. Don’t get me wrong, they work, but those methods aren’t quite for me.

I got my start thanks to free traffic websites and I’ve discovered secrets from some of the best in the business.

In case you don’t know what a credit based safelist is, it is basically a membership website where you exchange emails with other members. When you sign up, you get to email other members. And in exchange, they get to email you. Members have an incentive to read your emails because they earn credits for viewing your website.

Today I’m going to share with you my stupidly simple formula for successful advertising at credit based safelists.

What do I mean by successful? I mean anywhere from 5-20 signups or opt-ins every time I send out my mailings.

So here’s the basics of it…

First, you need to build your mailing list. They either need to be signing up at your websites or on a professional autoresponder like Aweber. This is the key, because once someone is on your mailing list, you can email then whenever you want. Is there a new program you want to tell them about tomorrow? 3 months from now? If they are still on your list, you can tell them about it!

It’s like having cash on demand.

Second, you need to track your advertising. You need to know where you are getting your sign ups from. It’s not enough to just mail randomly to every safelist. I know exactly where I get my sign ups from, so I don’t waste my time at programs that don’t produce results.

For example, there are a couple of safelists where I could spend over an hour clicking for credits, but it only gets me about 1 sign up per mailing. In that time, I could click for credits at several programs that get me much better results.

But wait, couldn’t you just join the programs with the most members? Membership numbers don’t always equal results. The most important thing you want to know about is activity, and tracking your advertising helps you gauge that information.

And since you’re here, I’ll give you some real insider info. There’s a few programs that outright LIE by inflating their membership numbers. I won’t call them out by name, but sadly they are out there.

If the 3 reasons above aren’t reason enough to track your advertising, I don’t know what is. =)

Finally, use squeeze page or splash pages for your credit link URLs. Here’s an example:

http://elitesafelist.com/splash5.php

What you want is a short page, that quickly explains or gets the interest of the member. Think of it like a billboard. It doesn’t have to have fancy graphics like I showed you above. I’ve seen some squeeze pages that look “unprofessional” but pull in tons of opt-ins.

If you just follow these 3 tips, you’ll find your results at credit based safelists explode. Let’s get an action plan set up for you:

Step 1) Sign up for an autoresponder so you can build your list. One of the best in the business is Aweber:
=> Click Here to Join Aweber

Step 2) Track your advertising using Hitsconnect. You should ugrade to the highest level so you can track where your sign ups are coming from:
=> Click Here to Join Hitsconnect

Step 3) Create some splash or squeeze pages. There’s a few services you can use. Most of them are free to join, don’t require much or any knowledge of HTML, and have a bunch of other features I won’t mention here.

With Instant Banner Creator, you can make professional looking images for free, including splash pages:
=> Click Here to Join Instant Banner Creator

Instant Squeeze Page Generator is just like it sounds, it helps you create squeeze pages fast just by filling in some forms. They even host products that your opt-ins can download when they sign up for your mailing list:
=> Click Here to Join Instant Squeeze Page Generator

TE Tool Box is a service created for traffic exchanges, but you can use it for safelists too. They have a nice little editor inside so you can create splash and squeeze pages without knowing any HTML.
=> Click Here to Join TE Tool Box

Step 4) If you aren’t on my mailing list yet, sign up now and you’ll get my free guide to successful advertising at traffic exchanges and credit based safelists. Just go to my blog and you’ll find an opt-in box in the upper right hand corner.

Step 5) If you’re looking for some good quality credit based safelists to join, click here for the top rankings list from Traffic Hoopla.

Don’t forget to leave a comment while you’re here!

Recently I’ve been telling you about JV giveaway events. Knowing what great lead generators they are, I recently dipped my hand into the giveaway event waters to see how many opt-ins I could get to my mailing list.

Here are some observations about what I knew BEFORE I participated in my first JV giveaway event:

1) I knew people were building massive lists through these events, but these are all from big name gurus. I wanted to know how well it works for the “average” internet marketer without a 20,000+ mailing list.

2) I heard that the unsubscribe rates are very high for these events. But some notable people like Willie Crawford says that’s not true if you take proper care of these leads.

3) I didn’t really know what I should give away, but I heard that unique products are the best stuff to give away.

So I ended up joining two giveaway events as an upgraded contributor, Russell Brusnon’s Birthday giveaway and the Friday the 13th giveaway. It’s important to note that my upgrade did not give me additional points at Brunson’s giveaway event, but I did get points (that improves my gift rankings) at the Friday the 13th event.

I sent out emails to all of my lists, nothing compared to the efforts I put in when I help someone with a launch.

After that, I pretty much didn’t do anything except sit back and observe. My gifts weren’t anywhere close to the top. Despite me just doing a quick test run, I managed to pull in 143 leads in just 10 days. My gifts are on page 5 and 6 of the Friday the 13th giveaway (very small event) and my gift was so far down on the Russell Brunson even I got bored and stopped looking for it!

Here’s the facts:

• I was on page 5 and 6 of the Friday the 13th event. A decent ranking but less than 2,000 people joined this one.
• My gift was so far down on the Russell Brunson I got tired and stopped looking for it! Despite that, it produced the majority of my opt-ins.
• My gifts that were unique and created by me got a lot more clicks and sign ups. But I’d still be happy just giving away some high quality giveaway rights products to build my list.
• Despite contrary belief, I got only 2 unsubscribes during this 10 day period.

Even with my limited experience in this area, I managed to do in 10 days what most people take months to do! I can only imagine what kind of numbers I would’ve gotten if I had put in a real effort to refer more people.

If you’ve been looking for another way to build your business, JV giveaway events are an incredible resource that you should be using.

One of the oldest and biggest JV giveaway events around is the Easter JV Giveaway, and it’s right around the corner. This is a once a year opportunity to explode your list.

If you want to build your list fast and easy, here’s what you should do:

Step 1) Click here and Join the Easter JV Giveaway Event as a Contributor

Step 2) Strongly consider upgrading, because you’ll get some awesome extras and points that you can use to boost the rankings of your gifts. That means a bigger list and more opportunities to make money.

Step 3) Look through your collections of ebooks and find something good to give away (I know you got’em!). Make sure you have rights to give it away.

If you really don’t have anything, or want to give away some great ebooks branded with your affiliate links for free, get your free membership here.

Step 4) Enter your gift into the Easter JV Giveaway event and start promoting on launch day!

What’s your experience been with giveaway events? Leave a comment and let us know!

If you’re on my mailing list, I’ve also given you a few other resources that will help you earn more money from all these hot leads you’re gonna get. Join my mailing list so you don’t miss out on anything else!

Usually everyone talks about how fast you can build your list with giveaway events. And I can’t debate that! But no one ever talks about how awesome these events are as a regular member.

In case you don’t know what a giveaway event is, here’s the quick recap. This is a special event, usually lasting from about 1-4 weeks, where a bunch of marketers give away tons of free products like ebooks, videos, and software. The only catch is to get this stuff, you have to opt-in to each person’s mailing list if you want that person’s freebie.

The benefit for you is that you get a free product, and for them it’s having a bigger mailing list.

There are all kinds of awesome stuff that you can get at these events.

But the big tip I really want to give you is to stay focused! It is so freakin’ easy to just start downloading every product left and right. I used to do that and it was a big waste of time for me.

The big problem is that you could be wasting your time downloading all this free stuff that you will never, ever use! You need to focus and find the products that you believe will directly help your business.

Another thing you can do is look for trustworthy names.

Maybe a marketer you trust is giving away something. Or maybe someone is giving away a product that is created by a marketer you know. Then you might want to give that a try since you can trust it will be a good quality product

And of course, you can build your list very quickly by becoming a contributor.

Bottom line, whether you are the owner, a contributor, or a member, this truly is a win-win situation for everyone involved. If you haven’t tried a giveaway event yet, then I hope you take some time to check them out.

Today’s Action Steps:

1) Join a giveaway event site. Here’s two going on right now:

=> Happy Friday the 13th giveaway

=> Russell Brunson’s “I am getting old” birthday giveaway

2) Look for stuff that will help your business or stuff from people you trust. Don’t bother with the rest of the stuff.

3) If you want to discover how you can build your list fast and easy using giveaway events, get the secrets straight from the pros. I’m a member here and it’s free to join.
=> Discover JV Giveaway Secrets for Free

Have you been using JV Giveaway events for your business? How’s your experience been? Leave a comment below!

Something absolutely nutty just happened. One of the most valuable services I’ve ever used just added a bunch of powerful features AND decided to make their service free.

It’s called Hitsconnect.

When I first started using traffic exchanges and safelists, I was literally surfing for hours every single day trying to build a business. Maybe you can relate to this. At the end of the day, I was exhausted but I felt good that I was accomplishing something, building my list, blah blah blah!

Then I learned about Hitsconnect and how to track my advertising properly. I discovered that some of the traffic exchanges and safelists that I used daily were not getting me ANY signups! Sure, the sites looked great and there was something I liked about them, but if it isn’t getting me sign ups or sales, I am wasting my time… and you could be too!

I also discovered that one of my squeeze pages was actually converting 3 times better than all the rest of my ads, which allowed me to explode the growth of my lists. I also started discovering which traffic exchanges and safelists were getting me the best results, which let me focus my advertising on the best websites using only my highest converting ads.

When I first started, I would be excited about getting 1 or 2 sign ups to my mailing list in a day. Now my list grows by as much as 50 people in a single day while doing less work than ever. This is thanks to Hitsconnect.

Hitsconnect is a fully featured webpage rotator, banner rotator, and conversion tracking tool all in one. Hitsconnect has saved me so much money and time it’s ridiculous. And I know it can help you too.

Think about how much time and money you can save if:

• One URL advertises all of your favorite programs. No more updating your urls everywhere.
• Just one URL rotates all of your banners. No more adding new banners to tons of websites. Just go to Hitsconnect and let it do all the work for you.
• You know exactly which programs get you the most sign ups and sales, so you don’t waste your time.
• Track your URLs at your own domain name
• And MUCH More!

Hitsconnect does all of this and you can join for free.

The conversion tracking is only for upgraded members. I’ve managed to get you a huge 40% discount at Hitsconnect if you upgrade using the link below. I was actually told that the discount is supposed to be 30%, but when I visited my special link, I noticed it was actually 40% off

Just in case, you should sign up and upgrade right away if you want the discount.

You can visit the salespage to get a better idea of what Hitsconnect does, but to get the discounted upgrade, you need to sign up directly from the link below:

Ok, well the results are in on my audio squeeze page! In my previous blog post, I boldly claimed that my voice is incredibly boring, and apparently I was right!

I took my highest converting squeeze page (rotated at safelists and traffic exchanges) at the time and made an exact copy, except I added an audio to it that plays automatically. Here are the stats:

Squeeze Page without Audio
Displays: 4357
Optins: 55
Optin Percentage: 1.3%

Squeeze Page with Audio
Displays: 3469
Optins: 37
Optin Percentage: 1.1%

Click Here to Listen to my audio. (Opens in a new window)

Although I’d prefer to test with at least 5,000 page views, the conversions have been consistently better for the non-audio squeeze page for the last few thousand displays.

So what is the lesson to be learned? Does this mean that audio squeeze pages don’t work?

The people I heard this tip from have experienced incredible increases in conversions by adding audio to their web pages, so why not me?

Well, keep in mind I did this audio myself, and I am NOT a professional. The people who I know have experienced strong results with audio did it with a professionally created audio.

The real lesson to be learned today is not that audio works or it doesn’t work. Instead, take from my experience that if you are going to do something, do it right and get it done by someone who knows what they are doing.

It took me about an hour of my time and thousands of credits to see if my audio would increase sign ups. With that amount of money and time I invested, I could have easily paid to have a professional do it!

This goes the same for just about any aspect of your business, whether it is website design, graphics, or programming. Focus on your strengths and the things you enjoy, and leave the rest to someone who specializes in their field.

Don’t make the same mistake I did. It will save you time, money, effort, and will give you the freedom to make your business even stronger. 

Well I’ve been hearing so much great things about how audio and video increases conversions, it’s about time I gave it a try. I’ve been pretty busy lately, studying new things so I can expand my business, but I finally found some time to try out an audio and see how it converts.

I’ve been rotating some new squeeze pages in my favoriate traffic exchanges and safelists, so I took my best converting squeeze page, added some audio, and am letting it fly!

I’ve heard some great numbers from many of peers, hearing about conversion increases of anywhere form 15 – 300%. So I can’t wait to see what my own test does for me.

And if my results don’t turn out that great, my excuse is that my voice is one of the most boring voices you will ever hear on a squeeze page! And that is not a joke!

The title really says it all! For those of you on my mailing list, you already heard about Soren Jordansen’s new e-book, IM Success Formula. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to write much because I was gone for the weekend!

Click Here to download IM Success Formula

To put it bluntly, for those of you struggling to build your list, this is the ebook you’ve been waiting for. IM Success Formula literally takes you by the hand and teaches you how to build your list the right way.

It teaches you everything from beginning to end, including how to create an effective squeeze page, how to monetize the sign up process, get traffic to your website, and how to create a killer follow up series.

Building your list is the best way to make a living online, and that is why every expert owns a massive list. But as you can see when you sign up for someone’s list, they are always incorporating creative ways to earn more money off of every sign up. IM Success Formula shows you how to duplicate that formula so that you can create a stronger income for yourself in the future.

I can’t believe this is even being given away for free, however I hope you value this like a $197 manual, read it, and apply it. It will make a world of difference in your business.

Click Here to download IM Success Formula

After you read the report, visit the official website (link is inside the ebook) to learn how you can earn money from this report.

Oh and one more thing, I’m releasing my own report soon (in a few hours actually), so be on the lookout for that!