RosalindGardner.com

Learn Blogging & Affiliate Marketing with Rosalind Gardner

Feedburner FeedCount: Be Patient

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The first time I installed Feedburner's FeedCount* on this blog (after integrating the Feedburner feed with Aweber) I uninstalled it almost immediately after seeing that it showed only a few hundred subscribers.

Ugh!

How embarrassing!

Especially considering that there are places on the site where I tout the fact that NPT has tens of thousands of readers.

I mentioned this ‘problem' to Anik Singal (my partner in BlogClassroom) and he simply told me to “give it a day to resolve“.

So, although the FeedCount chiclet showed ZERO subscribers when I installed it at Sage-Hearts (see screen capture above left), I was a little more patient and left it alone until the next day.

Sure enough, when I checked it the next morning, FeedCount was showing 100K subscribers (see graphic below).

Woohoo!

*FeedCount is a dynamic graphic that displays your feed's current circulation, as calculated by FeedBurner. You may customize its color scheme to match your site and choose between either an animated or static appearance.

To put the Feedburner FeedCount on your blog, log in to your Feedburner account, go to ‘My Feeds' and choose the feed that you want to Publicize. Then activate the FeedCount service (found in the left-side navigation), choose your colors, then copy and paste the code where you want the graphic to appear on your blog.

The primary benefit to using the FeedCount chiclet on your blog is to increase visitor awareness of the popularity of your blog (social proof) and thereby increase the likelihood that they will also subscribe to your feed.

Then wait for it!!

Email Marketing: A Case for Text Newsletters

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Here's a comment that I received from Ron Schmidt last week on our Support Desk…

I wanted the newsletter but I couldn't read it in the HTML code in which it was received. Please resend the newsletter. Thanks.

UGH.

I do know better than to send out my newsletters only in HTML format, but the truth is that I've gotten lazy over the past several months — assuming that everyone accepts HTML newsletters now. Well, you know what they say about assuming anything… and in this case the only *ss is me. 🙂

What is really dumb is that I often neglect to include a link to the blog entry where the latest newsletter is posted.

So, to make matters right, from now on I'll send my email newsletters either in both HTML and text formats, or as text only. It's not like that's hard to do using the Aweber autoresponder interface… it's actually incredibly easy.

And although Ron's message made a significant impression, the following email that I received just a few days later, really brought the point home…

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?><affiliate_transaction>
<kagiAffiliate>myaffiliateaccountname</kagiAffiliate><transaction_id>CH21UVFKTG4G&
lt;/transaction_id><customer_ip_address>77.195.xx.161</customer_ip_address><total_
sale_currency>EUR</total_sale_currency><total_sale_amount>23.92</total_sale_amount
><products><product_detail><product_name>ProductName__Standard_Edition</prod
uct_name><product_quantity>1</product_quantity><product_currency>USD</produc
t_currency><product_price>29.95</product_price></product_detail><product_det
ail><product_name>VAT_France_EU372000052_TVA</product_name><product_quantity>1&
lt;/product_quantity><product_currency>USD</product_currency><product_price>5.8
7</product_price></product_detail> </products> </affiliate_transaction>
<human_readable_note>You are the affiliate for a transaction that was recently processed. The above XML provides the transaction details. The affiliate fee earned from
this transaction will bedisplayed in the monthly payment data
file.vh1200</human_readable_note></xml>

My favorite part of the above email is the ‘human readable note'. Did you see it? 🙂

Anyway… point taken.

Build a List – Build Your Business

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If you don't have a list, you're not in business. Simple as that.

That's why I'm always astonished to see affiliate sites without newsletter or ezine signup forms.

Like HOW do they get their visitors to REMEMBER their sites, let alone come back if they don't get their names and numbers?

Think of it like this. You're single and out of the blue you meet a nice-looking, seemingly sane ‘prospect'. So, do you let them walk away and ‘hope' you'll run into each other again, or do you trade names and numbers?

Well, if you don't get his or her details, chances are darned good that you'll NEVER see them again.

Don't let that happen to your potential customers.

Sign 'em up to your list with an offer of an 7-day ecourse, special report or discount coupons.

Then BUILD that relationship by staying in touch with a regular newsletter.

You're developing content for your site anyway, so either write more for your newsletter, or keep some of your private label rights articles aside to rework for your newsletter.

Let your subscribers get to know, like and trust you by regularly sending out good information on topics relevant to their interests.

Build that trust and they'll feel comfortable buying from you.

Make GREAT product recommendations and they'll remain your customers for a long time to come.

Fortunately, marketing via email is basically the least expensive way to market your site.

My favorite autoresponder, bar NONE, is Aweber. I've used their service since 1998, along with many others, and I've now switched all my lists over to Aweber.

Aweber Autoresponder

Aweber Feedburner Integration

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Aweber announced yesterday that their RSS-to-email tool now integrates with Feedburner's tracking and publishing service.

By result, bloggers who use both services and convert their feeds to email newsletters using Aweber's Blog Broadcast will now see their subscriber statistics within the Feedburner interface. They will also see a spike in subscriber numbers displayed on the Feedburner ‘chicklet'.

Justin Premick, Education Marketing Manager at AWeber also predicted that “The more subscribers you can boast, the more likely new visitors are to subscribe to your blog, and the more likely companies are to want to advertise on your blog.”

This is excellent news for those of us who have wanted to connect with our Feedburner subscribers on a more personal level by customizing the email that we send out to them… and now with the help of my all-time favorite autoresponder service provider, Aweber, we can! 🙂

[tags]Aweber,Feedburner,email,rss,feed,blogging[/tags]

Holiday Greetings: Justin Makes a Great Point

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Sure… we all appreciate our clients and customers and want to send them our very best wishes for a happy holiday season.

But SHOULD we send those greetings as a separate email? Or, are our SinterKlaas, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years greetings better received as an inclusion within a regular newsletter?

Justin Premick posted a great article on this topic at Aweber, titled “Holiday Marketing Tip: Don't Send Pointless Greetings!”

Although the title reveals Justin's slant and the article justifies his reasoning, I want to add a few thoughts of my own on the matter.

One of the commenters on the Aweber blog made a good point against sending denominational greetings because not everyone on your list will celebrate Christmas. That should be SO obvious, yet how many “Merry Christmas” emails did you get last year?

In a similar vein, email marketers should also make themselves aware of when certain holidays are celebrated in countries.

Case in point.

I received an Inbox full of “Happy Thanksgiving” emails on or about the 4th Thursday of November. That would have been nice except for the fact that I live in Canada and we celebrate Thanksgiving on the 2nd Monday in October… so those greetings came about 6 weeks late.

Those marketers need to figure out how to parse their lists geographically and send their messages accordingly.

For more reasons not to send pointless holiday greetings, read Justin's article here and check out the comments.

Is Your Site Ready for Paid Traffic?

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Don't Pay for Traffic Before Your Site is Ready…

New affiliate marketers often tend to fixate on getting “traffic, traffic and more traffic” to their recently launched content sites.

However, in their rush to start earning commissions, some affiliates make costly errors when they pay to drive traffic to sites that are not yet ready for visitors.

Before you spend good money on pay-per-click advertising, the following seven (7) conditions MUST be met on all your affiliate sites.

  1. Attractive Design – Use an attractive template that provides consistent navigation throughout the site. Request ‘no holds barred' feedback from friends and professional designers through webmaster forums.
  2. No ‘Under Construction' Pages – Avoid launching until all pages are complete, or remove links that lead to pages that are not ready.
  3. Legal Notices – Many affiliate programs require that affiliates post privacy notices to ensure visitors are protected from scams and spam. Depending on site content, disclaimers and terms of service pages should be considered.
  4. About Us Page – Builds trust by telling visitors about both the business and the webmaster. Make sure to include either your photograph or, if you are shy, replace the photo with a caricature of yourself.
  5. Contact Page – The presence of contact information enhances trust in you and your site. To protect yourself from spam, use a form rather than posting your email address.
  6. Ecourse / Autoresponder Series – Create a series of at least 7 messages on a specific topic relevant to your site's theme. Link back to appropriate content pages within the messages. An ecourse reminds visitors about your site and encourages them to revisit the site. Repeat visits also improves a site's search engine ranking.
  7. Email Capture Form – Placed an signup form for your autoresponder series in a prominent position (eg. near the top of the page in your navigation bar) on every page of your site to capture leads for your list.

Neglect even one of the above-mentioned site essentials and you may be wasting your money on pay-per-click advertising.

To achieve super affiliate conversion rates, be a Super Affiliate.

AWeber Live Webinars

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Aweber logoOne of the biggest mistakes affiliates make is that they aren't building subscriber lists – and the main reason (excuse) appears to be that figuring out how to build an autoresponder series is either too much work or too confusing.

Well, no more excuses.

Whether you're just starting your site and need to know how to begin building your opt-in list, or you're want to learn more powerful email marketing techniques, you should check out Aweber's Live Webinars.

Aweber is holding one live webinar per week and those taking place over the next few weeks, include:

  • How To Get Started (x2)
  • Create and Send Effective Email Newsletters
  • Get More Subscribers With Optimized Opt-In Forms

The webinars are free and include a toll-free telephone call. Sign up for Aweber's Live Webinars today!

[tags]email marketing, Aweber, autoresponder, list building[/tags]

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