Create Residual Income and Growth with Autoresponders
You hear people talking about creating sales funnels and autoresponder series all the time, but the amount of people that actually take the time to set one of them up is few. Why is this? Most likely because it takes time and work to put together a quality autoresponder series, and many blogs and web sites don’t wan to put up the investment cost for the hosting of their list.
Let’s crush the thought that mailing list hosting is too expensive, and also get you started on the path to creating your first autoresponder series!
First of all, mailing list hosting may seem like it can build up in costs, but if used properly you will make several times your investment back in no time. For years now I’ve been using Aweber, and they are currently running a promotion where the first is only $1 for hosting. After the first month, mailing list hosting will go to $19 a month, and increase over time along with your list size. $19 a month isn’t a lot, and it’s less than a dollar a day. Even if you are only getting five to ten signups a day to your mailing list, this is awesome for long term growth.
Setting Up Your Autoresponder Series
Once you are setup with your Aweber account, you will have access to all of their amazing features, one of them being an autoresponder/follow up feature. This means that you can setup a series of emails to be sent out every time someone signs up to your mailing list on your site. These series do not cost any extra money and they can be sent out as many times as you like. In addition to autoresponders, you can also send out one time mailings to everyone on your list whenever you like.
I won’t get into the basics of setting up an autoresponder with Aweber, as it’s all pretty simple and laid out on their site. Instead I want to focus on what you should be writing about in your autoresponder and laying the structure out for you to follow.
Depending on the concept of you blog, your email series can be on anything. For the sake of discussion, let’s just say you have a finance based blog that helps people manage their finances or introduces them to new ways to make money with business opportunities online. When using an autoresponder, you can setup a schedule for how often you would like your mailings to go out. In the example below we are going to schedule mailings to go out every other day, then after the 9th day we will move towards a weekly mailing.
This is how you might want to lay out your autoresponder series with a finance based site.
Day 1 – Welcome to Newsletter (thanks and info to expect)
Day 3 – Recommended Top Blog Posts
Day 5 – Exclusive Interview with Financial Guru
Day 7 – Top Credit Cards with Low Interest Rates (possible affiliate links)
Day 9 – Best Sites for Free Tips to Improve Credit Score
Week 2 – Report on How to Check Credit Report Online
Week 3 – Report on Home Mortgage and Refinancing
IMPORTANT: The success of an autoresponder series is to provide quality information and stay in touch with the reader, you don’t want to try and push sales letters down their throats. Give your subscribers real life examples of what you are using or sites you are reading online to get quality information. In between your free updates and informational mailings, you can then include recommended products or services, which you could use affiliate links in, or trying to sell your own services or products.
The setup above is just an example, and can be recreated for any niche or site type. It would be easy to setup the same process for a make money online or blogging site, which would cover the following:
- Why You Need a Blog of Your Own
- Setting Up Your Web Hosting
- Getting a Custom WordPress Theme
- Creating Your First Product
- Selling Your Established Blog
The most important thing is to create quality content, then focus on making an upsell somewhere along the way, or getting them to your web site or blog content where it will get them started into the sales funnel.
The great thing about creating an autoresponder series for your site is that you will keep making money and building your list day after day. Just 10 signups a day will give you over 3,500 subscribers per year. Then each of those 3,500 subscribers will receive your autoresponder series… even if only 1-3% convert, this will easily pay off your initial list hosting investment.
TIP: One of the best ways to get people to join your newsletter or mailing list, is to offer them something in return, even if it’s just a free report or wordpress theme. How many times have you subscribed to a mailing list form when it just says “Join our list”? That sounds so boring and dull… offer something your site readers to make them WANT to sign up!
As mentioned, creating an autoresponder series for your site will take some time and effort, but it’s one of the best ways to monetize your traffic and keep building up your list and roi over time.
Join Aweber for $1 to build your autoresponder now.
That was a really good article – I was wondering which autoresponder to use – thanks!
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Very helpful post to consider! Its true that setting up your autoresponder sequence may be the best long-term strategy you can have for your online business. When you are just getting started with your Internet business, you will probably think of your autoresponders as simply a way to get information out to those who join your list or purchase a product from you.
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@andre you can start using free autoresponder by tiping 'free autoresponder' on google..
if you are Indonesian, I prefer to use https://mulxim.com
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Hi Zac, I've been using Aweber for years. I signed up on the yearly plan a while ago. I think the prices have gone up since then, but I am still getting the good price I did before.
I had someone call me once to switch to their autoresponder service. They wanted to charge more and they didn't have a way to import my current autoresponder series. So I said no.
Aweber has been around for a long time and I think they are worth sticking with.
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Thanks for this!
Nice post there zac. As most of the online gurus say “the money is in the list”
Plus if you have a big enough list you don’t even need google!
I don't like with Aweber appearance? Didn't look professional.
I've been using getresponse and they're so good. Building an email list is the best thing to happen to any blogger. Thank you.
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Great post, very helpful!
Yeah really nice introductory post on Autoresponder series. I never used Aweber, because after the first month they charge more money. I currently spend money on Hosting and my domain only. So I feel quite hard to buy Aweber software. But someday I'll use aweber and for that day, i will need more information on managing, creating mailing lists and feeding them too.
See you Soon!
Shyam
I agree with Rudy, I think iContact looks much more professional. Great post Zac but what would you do after the series runs out? Do you suggest posting a fresh article on a new page, following my sites' theme, and sending an email to my list with a teaser portion and link to the full article? How do I stay "Original" enough so they do not unsubscribe, while still making occasional sales.