This post started with a tweet…

@andrewstark Hello! looking for a mentor of shorts..can you contact me when you have some time? thanks!

— Brian Rose (@idealmind8) June 7, 2012

 

Now I replied as is the polite thing to do when you someone connects with you on twitter.

@andrewstark sorry didnt see your reply until now…themancavemag.com keep in mind its being revamped

— Brian Rose (@idealmind8) June 8, 2012

 

As you can see I always think it is important to be using your blog content to generate a list.

@andrewstark I do not, since it’s a magazine style site not sure how I can turn the list into $$

— Brian Rose (@idealmind8) June 8, 2012

 

So rather than just reply personally to Brian I thought I’d share with everyone how to turn a list into $

The hook

Now in the case of a magazine site like the mancave we have the draw of fresh regular content and a box in the top where the call to action could be as simple as “Enter Your Email To Keep Up To Date”.

This is a news based site, and the reason they attract readers is to find out about the latest news items, so by getting access to news before the rest of the readers is something that would appeal much better than a free ebook or audio interview.

Getting Paid Instantly

 Now when someone decides to join list this is the ideal chance to try and sell something. Set up aweber so that when the visitor confirms their e-mail address they are taken to a thank-you page.

I see that you don’t have paid subscription levels, but you could create a welcome video explaining what the sites does and encouraging the reader to make regular comments and help improve site interaction. If you do have a subscription offer this is the place to try and sell it, this lead is red hot for you at the moment.

Underneath this video place your hottest converting affiliate offer. Make it big and bold, tell the reader why they need to click through to the offer and buy it. This bit of virtual real estate is the equivalent of the chocolate bars and magazines placed next to the till on your way out of the shops. You know that you don’t need them, but somehow you always end up buying them.

Repeat Traffic

The real benefit to list building for a magazine site is the ability to drive instant targeted traffic. When people joined the list to be the first to hear about your new posts it makes perfect sense that as soon as you hit publish it’s time to broadcast out to the people who want to know about your content.

With more traffic it becomes much easier to monetize a site. Even with basic monetization such as adwords you will see a bigger return by having more traffic. If you can show advertisers the increasing flow of traffic with spikes when you publish a new post it means that you could sell advertising space for a higher price.

In fact almost any monetization method you can think of will make more profit if you have repeat viewers.

The Relationship

In the follow-up series you can tell the reader all about the different authors, and encourage social interaction. If you can get the readers subscribed to social media and read then share the content you’re now well into the ideal situation of viral marketing.

Also if you do want to make the reader feel really special you can do subscriber only contests, podcasts where you take the time to answer readers questions, and just generally make long term friendships with the readers.

Traditional magazines have a letters page to encourage reader engagement, you don’t have to wait for the postman to do this. With a subscriber list you have direct access to point out the best content on your site, and the chance to get live direct feedback from customers.

Summary

List building for a magazine site is something very powerful that allows you as an editor to be more in touch with what your readers. With this sort of list you’re never selling directly, unless you do have a paid subscription plan.

The key here is soft sell with normal methods of blog monetization. When you write reviews of new products put links to the best places to buy the gadgets, and don’t be afraid to use affiliate links in these situations. Have you noticed how offline magazines are now putting in QR codes, I’m pretty sure that these links will be earning someone an affiliate commission somewhere along the line.

Just remember that if you do need someone to create and install a form on your site I’m available for hire

Andrew

 

I’ve been creating video’s today for my list building course, and one of the aspects I talked about was the need to create a blog. So without further ado here’s a list of excellent reasons why you need to start a blog…

• As the graphic headline tells you, branding. With the way the world economy is heading it looks like we might all end up being self employed freelancers, so what better way to show the world who you are, and what you can do. If you haven’t already done so please go and buy yourname.com or something as close as possible if someone has beaten you to it. I know from looking at my stats that lots of traffic from this site comes from google for the term “andrew stark” so blogging is a fantastic way to control what people find out about you when they are searching.

• It’s a central hub for all your traffic. In this day and age a new must join social media site is popping up all the time. These all have profile pages that need filling out, so again building on the branding aspect you now have a constant url that you can enter and it gives you a more professional look than putting in an affiliate link. What’s more is that with plugins you can automatically post updates to multiple social media sites, and if you’re content is good enough it’s ready to start going viral.

• It allows you to show your personality. If you’re looking to create a mailing list and sell affiliate products it’s important that you have a relationship with the subscribers of your list. Blogging is ideal for this, it let’s you put down your thoughts and share them with the world, suddenly your promotion emails become friendly recommendations rather than hyped up emails that get deleted.

  I think this is a very powerful message

  

• Product Creation. I personally think that to keep a site alive you need to write a new post roughly once a week, and doing this based on a subject you’re passionate about leads to you developing new skills. For example if you decide to write a “list post” you will need to go and do some research, and this research will help you when it comes to ramping up your business and becoming a seller of information product. If you’re like me you may find writing long posts such as this is a difficult chore, so taking the plunge and creating videos posted on youtube is a fear you need to overcome. Once you do it’s another great step forward in personal branding and building up the relationship required if you are to become a successful affiliate.Lastly it’s amazing how many people are releasing a “new report” during a launch period that is actually just an old blog post that has been repackaged with an e-cover and turned into a pdf file. If you write 10 posts on a specific niche topic then you can also collate all of the content and easily sell it at the $7 price point as an entry level product to your marketing funnel.

• Traffic Generation. As you’re passionate about what you write you already spend time at niche forums and other blogs. When you post it normally allows you a link which drives traffic back to your site. Once you have a good sized bank of quality posts you can go out and start writing on the more established sites, and really leverage your ability to create content that makes you stand out as a leader within your niche.

  For example if you have chosen a niche with magazines make sure that you’re following the editors of the magazine on twitter. These people are always on the lookout for fresh content ideas, image how cool it would be to see you’re site featured in a magazine you read – talk about instant authority to new visitors

• The Ultimate Marketing Funnel. I was reading about this on several other marketing sites. When you look at the big professional blog networks they are all using their blog traffic to generate sales for their main products. For example Copyblogger sells the genesis wordpress theme, Problogger sells books and courses on blogging, and Think Traffic sells a course on traffic generation for bloggers.

  These sites all have one thing in common, they take free traffic, and become authority figures that sell tons of information products based on what they are passionate about. It’s the same for offline marketing consultants and authors. These people are all starting to blog, it allows then to keep in touch with fans, and build up anticipation of a new product.

  Whilst many of us won’t be starting a blog as a best selling author it can be used as the platform to become one.

  That my friend is the reason why I believe that everyone needs to start a blog today

Congratulations

Here’s Your Copy Of The Beginner’s Guide To AdKreator.

Please click the image to download.

Also if you have ~ 15 minutes you will see how I created the actual squeezepage within AdKreator.

This is part of my list building course Build A Quality List.

Andrew