Can someone help me? I am having trouble keeping subscribers....

Hi everyone,

How's it going? I have been online for a few years now and I have been doing ad swaps and product launches. I am doing pretty well. Some months I'll make more than other months. My main problem is that I am having trouble keeping subscribers on my list.

Any suggestions? All I do right now is send people to this page below and then send 1 follow up email to make sure they got their download and the do ad swaps and send the subscribers free stuff.

http://internet-business-world.com/8stepsebook.html

Thanks for any help
b.super13@gmail.com

Bryan

Is this for your ezine? Sorry but your posting is not to clear, if so, I would suggest the problem as being because you're not really providing them with any content other than advertising. Obviously an ezine is techincally, one big hidden sales pitch, but you've got interact with them in order to keep them there and wanting to read more. If you don't they'll leave and you've got to interact with them so much that you can train them into buy whatever you want at whatever price point you're selling a product or service for. Let them into your world and not just about business stuff either, just be you with them, people have a knack for responding better to ezines/newsletters when they know the person sending it is "just as human as they are".

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Originally Posted by Bryan Super

All I do right now is send people to this page below and then send 1 follow up email to make sure they got their download and the do ad swaps and send the subscribers free stuff.

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This might be the problem here.

Keep your list intrigued and build a relationship with them, give them good content, and you'll find that they subscribed for a long time.

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Originally Posted by Bryan Super

Hi everyone,

How's it going? I have been online for a few years now and I have been doing ad swaps and product launches. I am doing pretty well. Some months I'll make more than other months. My main problem is that I am having trouble keeping subscribers on my list.

Any suggestions? All I do right now is send people to this page below and then send 1 follow up email to make sure they got their download and the do ad swaps and send the subscribers free stuff.

http://internet-business-world.com/8stepsebook.html

Thanks for any help
b.super13@gmail.com

Bryan

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Tell them useful information in your niche. See them as your friends but not just a Number of just a Subscribers.

WHen you see them as your friend, your style of writing will automatically be different & they can feel it.

Beside value adding content or information, you can share with them more about yourself... share your story...your personal daily life etc... bottom line: treat them as your friend.

Magic will happen...

You don't email them often enough... sometimes not emailing enough causes response to drop as much as emailing too much.

Try and write to "one person" - imagine you're writing to one of your friends. They need to see you as a friend.

Also, instead of simply doing adswaps (which are promos nonetheless), email them with a useful method, tip or story that will help them acheive the goal that they want.

I would consider the time you are e-mailing them as a factor, could be that you are popping their inbox just as they end the workday etc, and also what their intentions are when signing up? The fact is you can easily attract a bad crowd who aren't matched to your message as much as you think. There can be some connection there - just not the one you want...

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Originally Posted by Steve Benn

I would consider the time you are e-mailing them as a factor, could be that you are popping their inbox just as they end the workday etc, and also what their intentions are when signing up? The fact is you can easily attract a bad crowd who aren't matched to your message as much as you think. There can be some connection there - just not the one you want...

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That's not necessarily true, timing really doesn't have anything to do with it, although this has been a topic of debate for many years, what time of day to send, what day of the week to send, etc. etc. If you read some decent books on ezine publishing, the one thing that is constantly grilled into your brain is that CONTENT IS KING ... live by that motto, because it's true. Back in 1999 (I think) one of my first businesses was publishing and editing over 100 different ezines at various times throughout the week with two other partners. I also had my ezine, which I published regular editions of, Mon, Wed and Fri and then had a deluxe edition on Sunday evenings, which consisted of two mailings, all of my ezines were well received, but the one on Sunday evenings was the best received, becuse I delivered my secret weapon on that day and people actually looked forward to reading it. If you deliver something that no-one else has ..... CONTENT IS KING.....it won't matter what time of the day it is or what day of the week it is.

Why do you think Sunday was best? The niche?

Did open rates vary based on time/day sent?

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Originally Posted by Steve Benn

Why do you think Sunday was best? The niche?

Did open rates vary based on time/day sent?

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It had nothing to do with Sunday, I could've moved the publishing day and time to any day or time, it had to do with THE CONTENT and that's what I'm saying, re read what I wrote in my above post. As long as you follow the CONTENT IS KING rule and deliver something exceptional, it won't matter what day it is or what time it is sent out.

I'm a tell like it is person, very blunt, straight to the point and no holds barred, you can ask Mike (he and I worked together on a few projects) and a lot of people don't like that, let alone reading it an ezine, but my ezines did very well.

Hey, sure appreciate the response!

I might not be the sharpest tool in the box, but our experiences sure differ....

I've no experience with Ezines, but with emails lists, time sent certainly affects open rate for me -due to the large volume of emails my subscribers get from other people, if I send at time that people aren't checking, then it can fall too far down to get open.

I guess if people are rabidly awaiting the next email or have a low daily amount of emails then time factors less, but I can tell you, if i send to b2b subscriber late on a friday, they don't get into the office until monday - my message get's buried under an avalanche.

With the niche I'm thinking of - the subject and first few lines determine the open rate, not the actual content.

It's a darn boring niche, but the time effect seems to play a lesser role, to some degree, in all our lists...

All I can chalk it up to is higher inbox traffic volume of the subscribers and a lack of engagement compared to your ezines. Where content is king, is getting clicks on links and sales, as well as keeping unsubscribe rates low..


Maybe due to less desire to read our emails versus yours...

Okay but that's where you're "thinking wrong", sure the heading certainly is a factor of whether or not your email is opened, but if they assume you're not providing quality content, why would they open more of your emails? There's certain ezines I read, certain one's I skim through and ofcourse certain one's I just hit delete and the reason is, because if you're not teaching me something or not getting me excited about it, then why I am going to read it or better yet why am I going to keep reading it? I don't really focus on lists, because an ezine is going to give you the opportunity to get to know your readers and them the opportunity of getting to know you ... thus creating a trust factor, thus creating more opportunity to generate more sales. When it all boils down to it are you going to buy something from some random stranger on a list or from someone you have a bit of knowledge about?

You need to send them free useful information from time to time. Do not always try to sell your list something. If you include a short how to video or short report on how to do something that is actually useful your list will appreciate it.

I would recommend sending free useful info at least twice a month. And it does not always have to be a report, it can be anything as long as it’s useful to others. For example a website that provides a free great service.

This will also help your open rate when you do mail to your list.

Exactly Chris, and to add to that further when you are providing useful content on a regular basis, subscribers will say to their friends, "hey this guy knows what he's talking about and sends me tons of great info, so check him out". This is how I got into the music industry, worked for a friend, he liked my work (because there are really ZIPPO people teaching real internet marketing to musicians), then along came one of his friends, then another and now I turn people down. Same rules apply to IM.

The question is why should I open your email over somebody else?

Are you providing them with any real value other then just buy from me?

Also get one on one with your members.

Send them to your blog and give them real content and watch your list exploded.

Check out my last blog post.

http://charleskirklandblog.com/i-quit/

This post got 50 Plus comments and hundreds of emails replys back to me.

My email list went wild after I started bloging from the front porch. People really
love it. You can't get any better the people who mail you when you don't mail something.

Start blogging and being real.

Charles

Video can help a lot with this.

Search for you topic through Youtube. Follow interesting videos to more relevant videos, watch them & recommend the best. Youtube has some REALLY good stuff a few layers deep that your audience will like.

*And passing a Youtube link is much friendlier than a raw pitch.

you might want to ask yourself are you really providing good content to your subscribers?because oftenly people unsubscribe after downloading your free gift is because they think that they did not get useful information so they're disappointed.

email your list 2-3 times per week.don't email too often like everyday because it just annoys people.make it more personal.means treat them as your best friends instead of treating them like future prospects who might be buying the product you're going to pitch them.

if you don't build a good relationship with them why would they stay on your list?most people are not just subscriber to your list but also to other marketer's list at the same time.so consider amount of email they get per day.i used to get around 300++ emails per day until i unsubscribed from most of these people who only pitch their sales to me every single day.

however i remained subscribe to marketers who really deliver good content.so the key point here would be good content + close relationship.

Put a footer at the bottom informing them that this newsletter is devoted to your success, you never send without their permission, they are receiving this because they, or someone using their email subscribed, and they can unsubscribe, but keep in mind if they do, they will lose access to ALL inside tips, etc. etc. - you get the idea. It works.

Bryan ,

All email lists have an attrition rate - subscribers moving off.


You would have to compare your figures with someone else in the same niche to know if your figures are below a threshold.

New lists have a low attrition rate.

For Old lists it can be as high as 15-40% (Annually ).

People are busy and don`t want their inbox full of time wasting junk.

We all love free stuff especially if it`s high quality. So consider this when sending out an email... If you were late for an appointment and you just opened the email yourself, would you sit there and read it becuase it so good or would you delete it quickly and rush off. That`s the test you should put most of your emails through.

Hi Bryan,
The best way to keep your subscribers happy is to provide them highly valuable content for free.To do this ,you need to master two things:

1)Your Niche:
Unless you have good knowledge about your niche and topic,you won't be able to generate high quality content.So before contacting your list,you should try to gain as much knowledge of your topic as posible.It's not very difficult and you can easily master your topic within a couple days by reading related articles at ezinearticles.com and visiting top blogs and forums in your niche(use Google to find them).

2)e-mail Copywriting:
This one is as important as the knowledge of your topic.The headline of your e-mail decides your "opening rate" and your message descides how much clicks you are going to get on your links(if you use any).Always use an attention grabbing headline(use combinations of capital letters,small letters and powerful words).I have also found that detailed e-mails generally generate better results than the short ones.

I would advise you to learn e-mail copywriting before you further mail your list.There is a good course on this topic by Michael Rasmussen.You can get it for free at emailPromosExposed.com

Once you master the above mentioned two things,your response rate will significantly improve and you'll be having less people unsubscribing from your lists.
Best Regards,
Vivek

I found a couple of tools that have helped me. Google Webmaster Tools, Google Optimizer, and Aweber.

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Originally Posted by Drew Castle

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Originally Posted by Bryan Super

All I do right now is send people to this page below and then send 1 follow up email to make sure they got their download and the do ad swaps and send the subscribers free stuff.

---

This might be the problem here.

Keep your list intrigued and build a relationship with them, give them good content, and you'll find that they subscribed for a long time.

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I agree... We should build a relationship with them often enough to keep in contact with them, instead of selling them all the time.
Well, you can do this by sending them some good valuable stuff (ebook, software, video) for free.. with no string attached..

Other thing that you can do is send a greeting on every momentum (like new year, christmas, thanksgiving day, etc.)

This will make your list feel comfortable with you, and still recognize you when you contact them with your offer.. ::)

Hope this help,

-Lemy

Hey,

Start giving your subscribers some very informative content before you promote any products.

It's a sad scenario these days, almost all of us these days start promoting products from day 1.

One guru, who sets a classic examples of how you retain customers according to me is Travis - the bum marketing guy.

He sends good articles, informative ones often, doesn't promote too many affiliate products & he keeps it simple & also sends funny stuff across every once in a while. According to me, that's a way to go. We can't just keep promoting products week after week after week. Making money is important but it's about time we provide value to the customers.

If you don't have time to write articles & if you don't have money to get them written, you may well find good articles on ezinearticles.com & promote it to your list saying, 'this is something very good I stumbled upon, Must Read'

Hope this helps you get a gist

Cheers