Dear Subscriber,

Welcome to the 3rd edition of my newsletter.  Sales of my e-book have been good.  I truly hope that it provides valuable information for everyone who reads it.  I did create an extra resource- I created a spreadsheet that can be used to track when you posted to the safelists and when you can post again.  There is a link to access it at this page: http://www.yourhomebizguide.com/downloads/blogging-resources.html

If you don't already have my e-book, you can get it at: http://www.yourhomebizguide.com/my-ebook it is a very affordably priced resource for free advertising AND how to make the most of your free ads.

I have had many people asking questions about e-mail marketing, leads, autoresponders, etc... - so I thought I would make that the topic of this week's newsletter.

Best wishes,
Liz Martinez

This Weeks Article:

What You Need to Know About E-mail Marketing- Before You Start Your Campaign

I'd like to start out by saying that I personally do not think that e-mail marketing is as effective as it used to be.  By e-mail marketing I mean- purchasing leads who have supposedly requested information about a home business and then sending them messages or your "ad" in hopes that they'll join your business.  This used to be somewhat effective, but like many things in the world has been severely abused and is no longer a very effective method.  That is not to say that it is completely ineffective, I just personally do not choose to pursue this form of advertising because I do believe that it can be expensive.

Now some definitions:

auto-responder: an auto-responder is a service that will "capture" someone's name and e-mail and any other information you'd like to receive from your subscribers- these are used to manage/capture your "list."  The auto-responder will then send out e-mails to these subscribers however you set them up.  You can create a series of messages to go out every other day from the day the person subscribes for several months.  Or every week, or however you choose to set it up.  You can subscribe to an auto-responder service such as Aweber (I have personally had good success with this company but there are others that are good such as GetResponse).  The other option is to purchase software that runs through your hosting account.  You would need a hosting account large enough to host your website and hold the script-- most of the companies that sell/produce the software will install it on your account for you, so you don't have to know how to do that.  You'd just need to manage the account and know how to use the software.  A note for using your own hosting account, you'll want to check with your hosting company to make sure that they allow the auto-responder in their hosting accounts.  Each of these options have pluses and minuses and you'll have to decide for yourself which is a better option.  Personally, I would suggest starting out by using an auto-responder service

Bulk Mailer: I am separating an auto-responder from a bulk mailer- but many times people don't separate the term and always use the term auto-responder.  To me, a bulk mailer is a service that will allow you to upload purchased leads into their system and send messages to them.  Many auto-responder services, as I described above, will not allow you to import or upload your own leads to their servers they will only allow you to "capture" the lead and then send messages to them.  The reverse is also true, many "bulk mailers, as I have described them, do not include an option to "capture" the lead and then send a series of messages to them.  The problem with many bulk mailers is that there servers or IP addresses have been blacklisted and the messages never get through to the intended recipient's e-mail account.  they probably don't even make it into the junk mail or bulk mail folder.  This is a result of the systems being abused and of too many messages being sent from the servers at a time.  This is also one of the reasons that the auto-responder services don't allow leads to be imported into their servers.  No one wants to use an auto-responder to send out their messages if none of the messages are getting through to their list.

Before you do any bulk mailing you need to understand some very important parts of the SPAM rules.  You are not allowed to send e-mails to someone unless they have specifically requested to be on your list or to receive information from YOU.  It is not enough that they requested information about a home business from somewhere else.  In order to be SPAM compliant, you would have to send ONE e-mail to the person or list and ask them to "confirm" that they do want to receive information from you or "opt-in" to YOUR list.  This makes them a "double opt-in" lead meaning that they filled out a capture form somewhere AND confirmed once more that they want to receive information - that makes them a "double opt-in" lead.  If I understand the rule correctly, it doesn't matter if the person is a "double opt-in" for SOMEONE else, they STILL need to specifically agree or ask to receive information from YOU.

I believe that the only "safe" way of doing MASS e-mail marketing is through safelists.  You will never be accused of spam using a safelist.

I hope that this has answered some of the questions that you might have had about e-mail marketing - please note that I am considering e-mail marketing to be different from sending messages to your list- e-mail marketing is sending messages to purchased leads.  I have personally experienced the "power" of the list and it is truly as good as the gurus say it is.  If you generate a rapport with your "list", you can get a very good response from them because they trust you.

Until next time have a prosperous week!

Liz Martinez