Marlon's Marketing Minute
Vol. 5, #24, June 5, 2010

Overview of This Week's Issue:

Hello,

Marlon here.

Another $100 CASH given away THIS ISSUE!

This week's article: The Power, Profits and Process of Email Marketing In 2010 (It Ain't 1996 No Longer)

People forget the simplicity of this business in the big picture.

Every day I live "the dream." I wake up. Go to my computer. Punch out an email. And have cash within minutes in my Paypal account that I can suck out when I drive down to Starbucks for a morning whatever.

But it's not quite as simple as it was in 1996. So today I talk about a few changes, a plan B, things that are critical to watch out for.

You're going to LOVE what I reveal today. And if not, I'll refund your money...oh yeah, I forget....you didn't pay me anything for this. I do it because I'm such a kind, charitable person doing my part to bring world peace and to stop the flow of oil in the ocean...or not.

THE WINNERS!

Brian: $100 for posting first

1st - John - Weight plan -- Snags "The Big Course"

2nd - Isobel - Build a new email list -- $100 cash

3rd - Wayne Buckhanan - Increase subscriber base -- Snags resell rights to Twitter Marketing

4th - Rainer - Copy of Twitter Marketing or Facebook Marketing or Parasite Hosting. Several products I've promoted recently.

Tim will email the address you posted to the blog with. Rainer, go to getyoursupport.com and tell Tim what you want.

New $100 Cash THIS ISSUE:

Later today I'll send out a link to my blog to post your response to this issue. I'm looking for you to apply ONE idea in the next week from this issue. Instructions in the email I'll send out this afternoon.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders

P.S. While others only send you cool info during their product launches, I'm here week in and week out sending you great marketing information.

This is my service to you. You can repay me not only by using the information but also by spreading the word about my ezine. Every time I send you one of these issues I lose about 80 subscribers due to email bounces.

You can help me replace those 80 people by actively recommending MMM to your friends.

A. Sponsor Advertisement

Last Chance To Snag Produce Promote Without Buying Something Else First -- I'm Taking The Sales Page DOWN!

I'm ONLY going to offer Produce Promote as an OTO to certain products. This will be your last chance to snag it without buying something else.

The class is OVER so what you get are the recordings, and all the posts and such. This is a very, very good value in my opinion.

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B. Announcements from Marlon
=============================

1. Do NOT email us for customer support

Do NOT email us for customer support. We are anxious to
serve you at: http://www.getyoursupport.com
Get Customer Support Here

We have LIVE CHAT to serve you better. Most people in this
business skimp on this. I don't. Tim is an award winning
customer service person.

2. Did you buy Big Course or Cash Like Clockwork?

These products are ONLY digitally delivered. Tim says I need
to make sure you know this. The tabbed interface to access the
products is quite elegant if you ask me and the ultimate in
convenience.

3. Quick Start For Writer's Secret Implementation Videos
available for purchase SEPARATE from "The Writer's Secret"

Lisa put sweat, blood and tears into covering all the crucial
details in these videos. You can see the videos at:
http://www.quickiestart.com

4. Ateam webinars

Good things are coming. I've just been bogged down in this
darned Traffic Dashboard which is taking forever to research
and complete. But it'll be 100% worth it for you.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

C. Main Article: The Power, Profits & Process of Email Marketing In 2010

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

When I started in this business in 1994 (more or less) and
went full time in 1996, I never dreamed I'd be writing
about the state of email marketing in 2010.

But here we go. There have been changes since "the old
days." And I want to talk about what's working right now,
today.

1. The Raw, Unabashed Power of Email Marketing

It's still true.

You wake up in the morning. You check to see how many sales
you had overnight.

You type out an email. You hit send. Minutes later you have
money in Paypal. You drive to your local ATM and suck that
cash out you made minutes before using a Mastercard debit
card.

Honestly, does it GET any better than THAT?

Let's say you're not creative or you're behind in creating a
product like I am with Traffic Dashboard (about SIX months
behind)....

You buy a valuable plr (private label rights) product and zap
it out to your list.

Money comes in. You can also promote an affiliate program
like mine that pays daily or weekly via Paypal.

Doesn't get much better than that.

2. The Profits of Email Marketing

Just as true as it was back in 1996, your income depends on
your list. I wrote a phrase back in Amazing Formula that has
become very famous, "The money is in the list."

Now, people have done every kind of variation and riff on that
statement imaginable. But it's still true.

You got a list.

You got emails.

You got money in the bank.

List + Emails = Money

How much more of an equation do you need?

Some people want a model that isn't email marketing based.
I really can't see why.

It isn't hard to write short emails. You don't need to write
books like I do! I'm a writer at heart, so I like to write.

The cool thing about having a list is it really DOES give you
the ability to get money by clicking send.

3. The Process of Email Marketing

Now, this would be a really short ezine if it were all so cut
and dried and simple. So let's get down to the nitty gritty....

a. Getting subscribers

Alas, we hit the great rub. All that talk of email marketing is
great. But I imagine if you talk to Aweber, you'd find out most
people with their service don't have more than 1,000 subscribers.

There are several routes for putting people on your list.

Of course, there is pay-per-click. I predict a lot more marketers
will start using Yahoo and MSN.

The cool thing about Yahoo is you can run your campaign without
getting slapped every 6 months. They actually WANT your money!
What a concept.

Can you imagine sending out a postcard or direct mail piece and
having the mail delivery service in your country say, "I'm sorry,
we read your postcard (or letter) and we feel it needs more content
and links to even more content, and a blog, and videos...

And even then it may not be good enough for you but if it isn't we
won't tell you why other than in the most vague, general terms!
This JUST happened to several friends of mine with million dollar
businesses via a rather well-known online advertising source.

I'll let you guess who it was.

In my opinion, the best source of subscribers is an affiliate
program. The reason is, you don't get slapped.

As long as there are web sites, forums and blogs on the topic,
you should be able to work out affiliate arrangements, even if
they are informal.

If there are eyeballs to a page, you should be able to give
someone somewhere a split of the action for sending some of
those eyeballs your way.

The best guide I have to setting up an affiliate program is
in affiliatedashboard.com. I also cover the topic in Writer's
Secret.

I'm moving all new sign ups to my affiliate program to a new
software program shortly. We have it almost all in place.

I think my affiliates will really love using it. Not sure what
I'm going to do about existing affilliates on the old program.
I don't want people getting their links mixed up. That's the
thing.

I think your affiliate software is more important today than
ever.

You can also get subscribers from banners and article marketing.

In some markets, it's going to be difficult to get the volume
of subscribers you need from banners. In others, it will be
easy.

If you do article marketing in a big way, it can also work
for you. In Traffic Dashboard, I'm going to feature an interview
with Sean Mize who is a huge article marketer and builds his
whole list just from articles.

Fascinating stuff.

Believe it or not, the good ol' fashioned viral ebook, ecourse
and brandable reports STLL work. No one teaches them anymore
because they aren't new and exciting.

That doesn't mean they don't still work.

Writing an ebook or report, having your optin form in it and
selling reprint rights still works.

The bar is higher. You can't write up crap and expect people to
promote it like the old days. But it still works.

If those people who have 1,000 on their list would start putting
out brandable pdf's, viral ebooks and reports, selling reprint
rights and pushing an affiliate program for a product of their
own, I can almost guarantee you their list wouldn't be 1,000
any longer.

If you can write problem-solving or results-getting content, you
can do this.

Another great way to build your list is with ad swaps to an email
capture page. We don't know the future. There could be more
legal concerns with affiliate programs.

If there are, I think you move heavily towards doing ad swaps
to email capture pages where there is NO exchange of money in
any way.

No state taxes.

Less legal entanglement possibilies.

We aren't at that point right now in my opinion. But I believe
you should always have a plan B in mind. I've done a few ad
swaps, not a lot.

A few of the folks on my list have complained about them even
though they were with marketers I like and respect like James
Jones, Jit, Jason Parker. I haven't done one with Flads yet,
but I'm sure I will sometime.

I'll probably do more in the future. It's not a bad deal for
you. You get a nice, quality freebie. Does that suck so bad?

b. Getting email opened

Back in 1996 my open rates were 20% routinely. Now, they're
8% to 12%, and I send tons more content than I did in 1996.

I'm taking the advice of James Jones from MicroNiche Finder
on this and sending all emails as html to track open rates,
as long as that doesn't decrease my actual clicks.

I'm doing split testing on this currently.

The point is, by tracking open rates on every email, you
can really zero in on what subject lines your readers like
and don't like.

c. Getting email delivered

You have to watch the bounce rate of your emails and ask your
service provider to investigate if your bounce rate goes up.

They claim the average email address only lasts for 6 months
now. If you don't have enough new blood coming in, your
list can shrink.

New blood is critical.

My bounce rates are higher than I feel they should be. And it's
another reason I'm at least LOOKING at other services. Although
you know, there's probably nothing anyone can do about it.

I think I'm at a 7th of 1% every time I send an email. James
Jones is half that. And I can't really explain that.

An email marketer complaining a little about their bounce rate
and unsubscribes. Imagine that! Heaven forbid....

d. Keeping unsubscribes in check

I wish email services made it easy to see your unsubscribes
in a glance. They don't.

I'm thinking about moving my customer list to Lyris because
they have killer stats, including being able to see unsubscribes.

I think that in today's environment, it's very important to
watch your unsubscribes.

e. Watching your complain rate

For some STUPID reason, a few of my suscribers double FREAKING
Opt In THEN for some bizarre reason feel a need to click the
complain button or whatever it is in AOL ....

What? Because they didn't like my subject line? Give me a
FREAKING break. I swear, they're lucky I don't have a ski
mask and a copy of the theme from Halloween!

Seriously, though. Complaints DO happen for reasons I can't
possibly understand when you DOUBLE opt in to begin with. Geez.

OK. Enough ranting. Point is, watch that stuff. Fortunately,
my complaint rate is very low....probably because about the only
real work I do each week is spending 2 hours on my Saturday
morning pecking out this puppy to you.

f. Getting conversions

Let me guess. You're sending people to a sales letter and they
aren't buying.

Want a solution?

Get 'em on your email list and send out emails 3x per week, if
not daily.

Remember, that email is only going to be good for 6 months on
average. So if you email once a month, you aren't going to get
very far.

Now, send people videos, podcasts, blog posts and other things
to get them to buy.

If you're a Promo Dashboard owner, I refer you to I think it's
rows 5 and 5 where I cover conversions.

You can't send people 3 paragraph emails that send people to
a 1 paragraph post on a blog and get sales consistently
unless you've got something really, really cheap or something
in scarce supply.

For the most part, you have to do a thorough job of selling
the benefits of what you got, presenting proof it works and
so forth.

People say, "Sales letters don't work anymore."

If that were true, Agora would be OUT of business. Agora is
a 200 million+ direct marketing machine operating both online
and offline.

If sales letters didn't work, they'd be out of business.

But at the same time, I say sales letters are only one PIECE
of what I call "The Full Arsenal."

I explain that in this video:

http://www.promodashboard.com/video

The contest at the end is NOT valid any longer.

But the CONTENT of the video is evergreen and if you haven't
seen it, you need to watch it.

Alright boys and girls. There we go. It's a wrap on this issue of
Marlon's Marketing Minute.

I don't know if you got any take aways from this or not. If
not, let me recap:

1. Email marketing STILL works, rocks and rules.

2. It isn't as simple as it used to be.

3. Watch your unusbscribes, open rate and bounces like a hawk.

4. Give your money to Yahoo and MSN for ppc to build your list
and shy away from relying so much on that other company...you
know the one.

5. Affiliate marketing still rocks.

There are more legal issues to watch, no doubt.

6. Keep ad swaps in your hip pocket as a plan B.

Best wishes,

Marlon Sanders

Marlon Sanders is the author of "The Amazing Formula That
Sells Products Like Crazy and the KING of Step-By-Step
Internet Marketing."

To get on his killer ezine list, to get cheat sheets and all kinds
of other goodies every Saturday and during the week, to get simple,
to-the-point Internet marketing know that works real world without
all the hype, go to: http://www.marlonsnews.com and subscribe

Check out all my products here:

http://www.getyourprofits.com

(SIGN UP AS A RESELLER, put YOUR reseller URL and ID where
the above link is, post this on your web site and make some
dough for spreading a killer guide everyone will want to
read.)

//////////////////////

REPRINT RIGHTS: You have permission to use the above
article without omission and including the resource box.
You have the right to insert your reseller URL for any
products I mention

=========================
D. Resources you can use
=========================

(If you want to post this ENTIRE ezine, you can replace the
following links with your RESELLER links. Get your links
at http://www.getyourprofits.com)

1. After 8 years, thousands of customer emails, thousands of
buyers in virtually every major city in the world (and
many you haven't heard of), 13 web site designs, 4 product
designs, after ebook and CD versions, after endorsements
from major marketers the world over, after hundreds of
marketers and products have come and gone, after attacks
by the world's most notorious criminals, after attempts to
put it under, there is ONE product that remains and stands
tall. There is one product that is stable.
Internet Marketing Ebook

2. Newbie Fast Start Help Kit

The Marketing Diary: Me teaching Matt daily all the
details of the Amazing Formula and Gimme system. This
contains additional insights into The Amazing Formula and
Gimme that you won't find in those products. It's
literally what I taught to Matt in his first 90 days with
me. Internet Marketing For Newbies

3. The A to Z of Designing & Building Your Web Site

Design Dashboard shows you not only the basics of doing your own design but really walks you step by step through setting up your hosting, autoresponders and shopping cart.
Web Site Design Training

This is an EVERGREEN product and if you're new to this business
you'll learn tons..

4. Promote your own products made easy

Grab the brilliant video by Adeel Chowdhry on how to mash
together stock video, stock sounds and stock music to create
an attention-grabbing, compelling video you can put on your
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Twitter out to your list.
Promote products online

6. Your Own Products?

It's the only step-by-step, A to Z system not JUST for
creating info products .... but that shows you HOW to select
product ideas using my "flanking move" I've built my business
on, HOW to do 12-product surveys with an actual example, that
gives you a tested, proven email & source with a 30% success
rate in getting interviews with experts -- PLUS, templates
that would cost your more than the Dashboard to have custom
created! Create info products

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
E. Get the Evergreen Traffic System
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Tinu emailed and says she has added new info on social media!

Most All Her Domains Got Shut Down, She Can't Get Out Of Bed Some
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Evergreen Trafffic System

Evergreen Traffic System is now sold and serviced directly by Tinu.
That link there would be a tracking link and NOT an affiliate link.

Tinu's seo stuff is BRILLIANT and evergreen. It STILL works
awesome.

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May the road rise up to meet you
and the wind be always at your back
and until we meet again
may God hold you softly
in the palm of his hand

-- Irish poem

Copyright 2010 Higher Response Marketing Inc.
All rights reserved.