Hey gang,

Here’s a brand new plugin that quite simply you really must start using on your blog.

In short this little app allows you to cloak all links you want to from any of your blogs.

More on My New “WP Link Cloakinator!”

As Internet marketers many of us have lists of optin subscribers that we have built.  Some of our lists have been brought in recently while others may have people on them that have been around for quite some time.  I want to talk about the age of those lists and how that comes into play with where, what, when, and why we market to them.

More on Ah yes, your mailing list IS key…but what type is it?

Anyone involved in marketing knows that the more targeted you can be when selecting your list of prospects, the higher your conversion rates.  This is called matching the message to the market.

More on Behavioral Targeting – Do You Use It Or Even Know What It Is?

He related the breaking point to rising insurance costs (you know the ones… health and automotive that continue to increase well beyond inflation regardless of whether or not you have even dipped into their reserves).

More on Break point in the Internet Business World

The volume of messages hitting consumers these days (not even taking Spam into account!) can be quite staggering.

I’ve read at times that email marketing is dying and we as business owners need to look at alternative vehicles through which to reach our market.

This is largely due to the increasing level of competition within the consumer’s inboxes.

Then I read an article like the the most recent Marketing Sherpa piece I received and I see that the oposite CAN be true.

The article is a case study (like all Marketing Sherpa pieces) of how an online business converted their email marketing efforts from double to single optin… and thrived siginificantly.

You can read the article by visiting Marketing Sherpa where it will be available for the next 10 days.  After that you have to pay for access.

Now, on the subject of Marketing Sherpa, if you aren’t familiar with them… you need to be.  Founder Anne Holland has created an incredible resource and thriving business.  Their business model alone is very worth investigating.

Basically, they produce reports covering a variety of aspects of marketing.  These reports they make available online for free for 10 days.  As I said above, after that you have to pay for access.  In the process they establish themselves as a "go to" agency for research and information and they pull in tons of prospective buyers.

Subscribing is free and you can pick and choose which areas of marketing you wish to hear about.

I urge you to become a subscriber now.

Onward & Upward!

Sam Knoll

More on Single Optin may not be all that bad…

The postings for this thread varied substantially in terms of how frequently people clear themselves out of the many lists we all find ourselves a part of.  Soe people were claiming they clear them all out monthly (with the exception of one or two they really like) while others claimed to do it a few times a year.

I was drawn to this post because it fit with exactly what I’ve been doing recently.  I’ve been taking myself off of the vast majority of the lists to which I subscribe because frankly I just can’t handle all of the email anymore.  

In the process of unsubscribing I discovered that I have been on some of these lists for years.  Now, those are not the norm. 

The majority of the lists I was on were the result of me opting-in to one membership site or another so I could see what sort of copy they use, what their one time offer and/or backend offer looks like and what sort of emails they send out.  In short, I join so I can study them.

A few years ago it seemed that all list owners were pretty focussed on sending out content as well as promotions.  These are the marketers who see the TRUE value of each subscriber (and probably know things like the avg number of purchases their customers make, the visitor value, the optin and sales conversions for their sites etc.) and work hard to hold on to those valuable subscribers.

What we seem to be running into now is a new wave of marketers who are quite happy to make an offer (usually giving something away), build a big list of relatively low quality optins, and then mail out nothing but promotional emails to that list.  They build a big list and then beat it to death.

How many times can you do that before people get wise and stop subscribing?

One of the reasons I started this site was so I could share content of value on a wide range of topics.

Yes, you will find some things for sale here and I may promote something I believe in from time to time.

You will also find product reviews here.

More on Spring Cleaning in December?…