Email for Profits: can you make money online, from home?

Have you been struggling to find a way to build your very own business on the Internet? If you’re like me (and countless other people around the world) you’ve likely tried your hand at just about everything to crack this whole “getting money online” code only to be dealt a harsh reality time and time again.

There are different channels for making money online. All you need is to identify which channel works best for you. The first channel is the traditional one where an entity sets up a business from scratch and uses the internet as a means of getting customers.   These are big companies with sufficient resources to manage production, web design and marketing and distribution.

However, thanks to advancements in technology and global connectivity, you wouldn’t need all that. You can set up a simple business or even a massive business with very minimal capital as a low as $100 or even cheaper than that. 

Besides, setting up a business online has been simplified so much that you do not need to have programming skills to launch and manage a website.  In this article, I will share with you how an ordinary person can set up an email marketing business.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations. This is the traditional definition of email marketing.

But I want us not to view it us ‘sending commercial messages or advertisements’ but sending ‘offers’. The definition of an offer is an act of putting something forth for consideration, acceptance or rejection or something suggested or proposed. Unlike an advertisement or commercial email, an offer is more polite and creates an emotional attachment between you the sender and the recipient.

 Email for profits I would call it, involves you the solopreneur sending ‘an offer’ to your audience (email list/subscribers), offering them something that would be beneficial to them.

How do you begin?

The starting point is when you do your research and identify an audience you wish to target. You can do your research on Google or connect with successful email marketers to get guidance or if you’re lucky, get this crucial information from your daily experiences. 

1. This, in email for profits, is regarded as finding a niche. This step is twofold. Firstly, the solopreneur identifies a need of the targeted audience and secondly, he or she identifies possible solutions. For example, through research may note that many do owners find it hard to select relevant food for their pets. You could offer a review of various dog foods on the market and help your audience make an informed decision.  This is where emotional attachment between you and the audience comes in. Your audience will develop trust and faith in you because you shared with them a valuable resource.

Remember, your research should also include the profitability of that niche. Choose a niche where you wouldn’t struggle to get clients. Google is the starting point for getting industry heads up. 

• Once you have identified your niche, identified a need and a solution, the next step is setting up your automated email for profits business. If you get your strategy right from the word go, you wouldn’t take too long before you begin profiting.

So let us delve right into it, shall we? When you build your email list there is a simple formula that you’ll follow each and every time. Here’s a diagram to show you exactly what’s happening:

So let’s break down each part of this process so you can easily see what is happening.

Traffic:

 Traffic can come from just about anywhere, but here are some things we currently do to generate subscribers on our list.

i). Facebook Fan Pages – That’s right can build Facebook fan pages and literally siphon people onto your email list in the process. It’s completely stealth and 100% targeted.

ii. Facebook Ads – You can also write super targeted ads and show them to the right people on Facebook. This generates high quality traffic and of course great subscribers for our business. Newbies require orientation on this.

iii. YouTube – YouTube’s advertising platform is quite robust and it really allows you to find the right videos and the right target audience to build our list.

iv. Solo Ads – This is a pretty simple concept. Two marketers get together and “swap” email promotions for each other to help build their list. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

v. Digital Publishing – You can publish free resources (digital e-books or explainer videos) almost every single month and share them online (on you channels or other platforms) , and generate new subscribers. This gives your new subscribers a great value right out of the gate.

 Optin Pages

Optin pages are pretty simple they are designed to get the visitor to simply enter their name and email address so they can be added to your auto-responder.

Auto-Responders

Auto-Responders are where the real magic happens for your email marketing business. This is where all you’re subscribers are stored and all your emails are sent out to your list. There are many different companies that provide this service; however, my top 3 choices for sending my emails are Aweber, Get Response and GVO.

Profit Center

So how do you actually make money from the emails your sending out? If you have your own digital or physical products to sell that’s great! These can become your personal profit center. If you don’t have your own products, that’s ok too. There are many different affiliate networks full of products you can promote to your list.

Looking at this diagram here what point do you think the most successful email marketers on the planet focus on? Most people I am sure guessed TRAFFIC. Everyone seems to think traffic is the biggest obstacle to building your list, but it’s absolutely not. There’s tons of traffic on the Internet and as marketers we’re always just manipulating the traffic to do what we want for our business. The big issue is that most people fail to realize one major change that’s happened online.

Most People Are Accessing the Internet on Mobile Devices. There are some shocking statistics when you start researching this and it directly affects you and your business. Depending on where you read online you’ll find that most estimates show about 60-70% of people online are accessing the Internet from a mobile device. Can you believe that? The Internet has once again changed and we have to now realize people are accessing it from smaller devices and they aren’t necessarily sitting stationary at a desk. People are on the go… mobile…and you’ve got to plan for that!

The Part Where Most People FAIL Is – The Optin Page.

 Take a look at the this image and you’ll see what a standard optin page looks like and what’s required for someone to actually join your email list. Many issues can arise when using a standard optin page just like this one. These are just a few of the issues that arise now that most of the traffic on the Internet is on a mobile device.

i) People enter FAKE email addresses – As an email marketer your spending money to send traffic to your optin page (remember the diagram I’ve shown you earlier) and when someone gets to your page and enters a FAKE email address it cost you money, but brings you absolutely nothing in return, ever.

ii). People enter SECONDARY email addresses – Now I want you to ask yourself this question do you have more than one email address? You likely said yes and if you did that’s ok, most people do. One thing email marketers hate is when people enter the email address they never check into these optin pages. After all if people don’t check their email how can you ever earn any commissions?

iii) People make TYPOS – Yep believe it or not we are human and we make mistakes! Especially when we are on the go trying to type a long email address into a box on our cell phones. Many email addresses entered into these optin pages are simply spelled wrong leaving you unable to ever reach that person again.

I am talking about NEVER getting a fake email address. Never getting a fake name. Never getting a typo. As you can see building your list isn’t exactly rocket science, however, building a GOOD list is better than building a BIG list. That’s the one thing you absolutely must keep in mind as you build your business.

OPTIMIZING YOUR EMAIL PROFITS

I’ve learned over the course of my career as an Internet Marketer that the key to massive success can be summed up in one single word “Optimization”. Optimizing what you do is the key component to taking your success and profits to the next level.

Sending Emails – Optimization Points

 Sending an email is pretty simple; however, sending an “optimized” email can yield far better results. There are many factors to consider when you’re sending an email to your subscribers:

Open Rate – This is the percentage of people who open the emails you send to them. It’s pretty clear if you can increase your open rate you can make more revenue from each email sent. Generating revenue from your email marketing business all starts with getting your emails opened. Imagine sending 4,000 emails and getting no opens! The profit process for email marketers once an email is sent works like this: As you can see from the picture the entire profit process breaks if your subscribers don’t open your emails.

 Remember if you’re building your list and not focused on quality subscribers you’ll likely see a bad open rate, which in turn means your business doesn’t generate a lot of revenue or success. Focus on quality but not quantity.

Next article: How to make $1000 commissions over and over again.