Not sure why you should care?

Then you have probably missed my introductory Test Tube article on Twittollower, the service that builds your list of Twitter followers automatically (in my test tube articles, I put various tools/software/strategies to the test on my main web sites, and report the results to you!).

This service promises to add a minimum of 2,000 niche-targeted followers to your list each and every month. This, at an introductory cost of $67 per month, rising to $99/month after the first 200 participants.

I subscribed to the service to determine several things…

1. Does the Twittollower service deliver the volume of followers that it claims?
2. Do these followers appear to be niche-targeted as advertised?
3. Do those followers respond to my “tweets”? Build my business? Deliver traffic in a cost effective means?

Once I got to playing around with the Twittollower service, Twitter, and “tweeting”, I quickly realized that it would be very difficult to assess the true value of the Twittollower service and make general, wide sweeping statements about its effectiveness/ineffectiveness based on my experiences.

In the lingo of my science-based supplement review site UltimateFatBurner.com, this is a “n=1″ experiment. These results may not be applicable to you – no more than the guru who is preselling the Twittollower service based on his/her own positive experiences. In other words, this is my UNIQUE experience and yours may be different – depending on your audience, its demographics, your offers, the effectiveness of your “call to actions”, your tweets, your niche, etc, etc.

Keep this in mind as you follow along with my experiences…

1) Does the Twittollower service deliver the volume of followers that it claims?

Absolutely. In the month I remained subscribed to the service, my brand new Twitter account obtained 2953 subscribers, and as you can see here, it has generated another 600 followers or so, in the few days since my cancellation…

2) Do these followers appear to be niche-targeted as advertised?

It’s almost impossible to tell.

Sometimes, the “twitter” handle is indicative that your new follower is targeted to your niche, but most of the time, it is not. For example some of my recent followers are “bitchogram”, “metroscreen” “hotelsreviewed”, “onlinesalsa”, “redhottips4u”, “janetjackson5″ and “beabillionaire”. Certainly nothing here to indicate these new followers are the slightest bit targeted to my niche.

At the same time, just because their Twitter handles are not indicative of that, doesn’t mean they do not have such an interest.

I can, however, attest that the Twittollower algorithym does have a glitch or two. I was none too pleased to find for instance, that I was “following” “yourdailyporn.”

Not only do I highly doubt that this “tweeter” is interested in what I have to offer, but who you follow is readily available for perusal by your audience on Twitter. Having porn related material in the list of people you follow is hardly what I would describe as a positive “brand building” exercise.  It undermines your credibility and calls your integrity into question. I was lucky to catch this one, but since Twittollower generates so many leads, if you’re not actually checking each and every one of newly generated followers, some will slip by.

Not good.

3) Do those followers respond to my “tweets”? Build my business? Deliver traffic in a cost effective means?

This is probably a better measure of whether Twittollower delivers the targeted followers it promises. And since it was recommended to start a brand new Twitter account for use with the service, I was able to compare its performance against the already-established but rather pathetic account (28 followers as of today’s date) set up for UltimateFatBurner.com.

And the results? These two charts from Hootsuite tell the tale. First, the chart for the original UltimateFat account (click here to view full size image in a new window)…

And next, the chart for the brand new “dietpillguru” account (click here to view full size image in a new window)…

As you can see, over the same 30-day period, Tweets to the existing account received 65 clicks, while those sent to the new one generated a mere 84 clicks. Considering that the new account had 20 times the number of subscribers of the established one within a week of its inception (now a whopping 150 times as many!), this is hardly a rousing endorsement. It’s pretty pathetic, but it confirms what I suspected – real targeted followers are the ones who are “wowed” by your great content, products, services and so on, and sign up to receive your updates from your web site.

As you can see, this is neither an efficient nor a cost-effective way (about $0.80 per visitor to date) of driving traffic or building a business – at least, it certainly isn’t for me.

So why did the service fail so dismally for me?

From what I can tell, it could be any number of reasons…

My “tweets” weren’t compelling enough: At the beginning of this experiment, I read a lot of tweets to get a feel of what sort of material was flying around the “tweetosphere.”

In the end I settled on a blend of material that inspired curiosity (i.e. “It’s a bit hard to believe that Microsoft hates fat people…” “Are millions really wasting their time jogging?”, “Cheat your way thin? Really?”) or a deliberate “call to action” (i.e., “You HAVE to check out “The Ab System” if you’re looking to get lean, mean, and save big too!”, Download our newest publication “Dirty, Rotten Tricks; Supplement Company Lies That Cost You $$$” FREE:”).

Neither worked particularly well in generating interest with my followers.In most cases, I made a deliberate attempt to avoid making tweets that appeared as crass marketing messages, since many Twitter users find such things offensive.

I didn’t send enough tweets: Since I’m not an active Twitter user, I’m not really sure of the accepted protocol of tweeting. In other words, how many times will my followers tolerate a message for me in a day?

I experimented with 1-3 tweets per day; once in the morning, once at lunchtime, and once in the evening. As far as I could tell, the frequency of my tweets or the time of day they were sent made no difference at all.

I didn’t spend long enough establishing my credibility: At first I thought this might be an issue but then it dawned on me…”… how can I establish my credibility if people don’t take the time to follow up on the links included in my tweets?” I have yet to be convinced that one can build huge amounts of credibility 140 characters at a time. People need to go the extra step if they are to assess the value of your offerings. And if they don’t do that… you’re done.

The demographic of my followers is not ideal: Are the people using Twitter who are interested in my niche the same demographic as the visitors to my web site? I know that for the section on fat burners, the largest majority of visitors is middle-aged women.

Are my followers comprised mostly of middle-aged women? Somehow, I doubt it. Still, it hardly accounts for the fact that virtually none of my tweets received much of a response – even ones that elicit a natural curiousity (i.e., “It’s a bit hard to believe that Microsoft hates fat people…”)

My followers just weren’t all that interested in what I had to say: Ultimately, it occasionally comes down to this – sometimes, the people you are trying to reach really could care less. Perhaps I haven’t been doing anything wrong, and it’s a simple matter of the fact that my followers are not targeted, and therefore not interested.

By now, you’re beginning to see the problem; there are a LOT of variables which can be factored into the equation to account for the failure (or even its success for that matter) of both Twittollower and the use of Twitter as a marketing medium. While Twittollower certainly delivered on the number of followers it promised, how targeted they really are is difficult to assess with any real degree of accuracy. In my case, I have a hard time believing they were extremely targeted – my results give no indication of that at all. But I need to be fair.

Do I have other concerns about marketing with Twitter, and services like Twittollower in general?

You bet.

As services like Twittollower grow in popularity and marketing with Twitter becomes more prominent, the tweet “signal to noise ratio” is going to increase substantially. Even in this experiment, about a quarter to a third of the people I received Tweets from (usually as a result of being added to their follower list) sent some sort of marketing message. In other words, they were using Twitter to promote their own interests – just like I was – and were unlikely to be responsive to mine.

As this percentage grows, expect Twitter users to become less and less responsive to any marketing message of any sort. In other words, “tweets” originating from people outside an established network of friends, family and colleagues are likely to be viewed with great suspicion. My gut feeling therefore, is that there’s a very limited time line for effective Twitter marketing, even if your business seems perfectly positioned to benefit from it.

Secondly, isn’t Twitter largely something enjoyed with cell phones? How many people are able to browse a large text-based web site easily and effectively on a cell phone or PDA? Seems to me that if that’s the case, my business is definitely not ideally suited for a Twitter marketing strategy.

I had several goals as I embarked upon this quest. First, I wanted to continue to build the UltimateFatBurner.com brand, by driving new visitors to its high quality, researched content. Second, I wanted to increase revenue by sending visitors to reviews of affiliate products I recommend.

I was unsuccessful in both counts. However…

I suspect using Twitter as a marketing medium could be very effective, but I also suspect it depends on your offers, and more importantly, your demographic. If your business appeals to a young, hip, “permanently-attached-to-their-cellphones” audience, then using Twitter and (even Twittollower), might make sense to you.

At least for the time being.

Build hundreds, even thousands of targeted backlinks to your web site in minutes by using software that “searches out” blogs targeted to your niche, and automatically submits your comments (and your link). Some of these software services claim to be able to randomize your material, thus submitting numerous, but all entirely viable versions of your comments to the various resources.

Riiiiiiight.

If you think this is a viable way of building links, let me provide you with a real life example. As you know, I run a successful online business in the sports/weight loss supplement niche (with UltimateFatBurner.com & Real-Customer-Comments.com). Both of these sites make use of the WordPress platform to some extent – as a content management system, and to leverage the power of visitor comments to build fresh and relevant content. And yes, we have a honest-to-goodness blog which is updated daily.

So not only am I a passionate internet marketer, the fact that I manage several successful web sites allows me to comment on certain promotional strategies from a different perspective – from the other side of the coin, so to speak. In other words, not only do I get to investigate automated comment software, I see the end results directly.

And it ain’t pretty.

This morning, whilst perusing the previous evening’s comments, I came across a real gem. It was submitted by some genius named “Sam” in an obvious (but ridiculous) attempt to build links to the “Master Cleanse Diet” web site (the post in question thoroughly debunks the entire detox/cleanse fad that’s “in vogue” at the moment).

Of course, Sam himself (herself?) did not actually write this, but instead is using some automated software service which is scraping text from already approved and posted comments and serving them up in garbled mess. Here’s the comment…

“LOL – surface, flatbottom if it did “work” (at both aim) before, it sounds rattling much equal the lard crept stake on again. If that’s the containerful, such a programme is no fitter than your characteristic, “yo-yo” diet syndrome. What’s there to crow virtually?

I’ll response my own converse here: it has nada to do with the results. It has everything to do with making sure everyone knows how “disciplined” he is.”

Uh-huh. Can you tell me what that means exactly? Yeah, me neither.

If you check the post it “scraped”, you can see the resemblance, but you’ll notice the difference – Elissa’s comment makes sense in the context it is offered. This, on the other hand is garbled crap. The software has pulled some material from the post, and then apparently, inserted some randomized text to do what, exactly? Fool the moderator?

Which really makes me question why people invest in this stuff. Consider…

• How many really good, quality blogs do you know of that are not moderated? Uh-huh. And how many moderators are going to allow a post like the aforementioned to go live?
• If blog/comment posting software is only useful for posting links on “un-moderated” blogs, how much value are such links likely to deliver, anyway?

The reason why software like this sells is the same reason fat burners and weight loss supplements sell. They both offer a quick, easy, and appealing solution to a task people perceive to be tedious. In this case, the software automates the link building process. For the weight loss supplements, they promise to eliminate the hard work and smart decisions that lie at the foundation of any successful weight loss programs.

In either case, there is NO easy solution. Obtaining quality links that will actually help the link reputation of your web site is a “hands on” process. I’ve written about the value of posting quality material on theme-related web sites and blogs. It’s a worthwhile endeavor to be sure, it just ain’t a quick one.

And while there might exist “scraping” and “comment posting” software that actually compiles bits and pieces of approved posts into something that better resembles the King’s English, there’s one thing I can guarantee you…

Such a post will never, EVER see the light of day on any blog of value. The question then becomes…

What’s the point at all?

If you’re an affiliate marketer struggling to eke out a living on the Net, no doubt you’re doubly frustrated by the near daily bombardment of affiliate money making “opportunities” – all seemingly sent by some recently penniless college drop out who now earns millions working a couple of hours a day from an idyllic beachfront mansion.

Truth is, if you’re not making money in affiliate marketing, there’s probably a good reason for it.

Back when I started promoting affiliate products, I failed miserably too.

And I continued to do so until I discovered the key to earning referral income on a regular basis, as well as the trick to a high conversion ratio.

Before I continue, let me put one thing into perspective; while earning income – even making a living from referral programs – is well within your powers, only a select few marketers are going to get to enjoy those huge 4 and 5 figure Clickbank checks featured so prominently on the sales pages of the affiliate marketing gurus.

With that out of the way, let’s have a look at the most common reasons why most affiliates fail…

1) No Traffic: Promoting affiliate programs from a web site that does not have a solid base of traffic yet is a lot like putting the cart before the horse.

Suppose you have a page that PREsells some product or another. Let’s assume for every 100 people that arrive to that page, only 10 click through to your partner’s site. And suppose your partner has not-unreasonable 0.5% conversion rate. Theoretically, that means you’ll make one sale every 3 weeks – if the page in question receives 100 targeted visitors per day. Hardly enough to make you rich.

Unfortunately though, sheer numbers and conversion rates are no guarantees; you may never earn a referred sale, a fact likely attributable to the other factors outlined below…

2) You don’t know the products: In order to PREsell any product or service effectively, you need to be intimately familiar with it. That means you have to own it. There’s no other way to speak authoritatively about it, and your visitors will pick up on that instantly.

As an example, check out this diet review I did recently on UltimateFatBurner.com. Here’s the thing; whether this particular program interests you or not, there is one thing you can be sure of – that I have read the program and am familiar with it.

Arguably, it takes a LOT more time to do this than simply post a link.

I had to read the manuals and listen to the accompanying audio tracks. Plus write the review, so we’re talking an investment of several hours. But a review like this does generate referral income, and when you consider that it will continue to generate income as long as there is interest in the program, this really leverages your time. At the time of this writing, I figure this review has paid me back about $75/hour of time invested. And it has only been up a couple of weeks.

To put it another way, suppose we both sent 100 visitors to the sales site in question; you from a text link (”check out this great diet”), and me from my in-depth review. Who do you think will get the higher conversion rate? Uh-huh… moi.

3) You don’t know your audience: One of the most common mistakes made by newbie marketers is to make referrals based on the size commission payouts and  the strength of the various program’s abilities to convert visitors into customers. If you go to the ClickBank MarketPlace, for example, you’ll see there is all sorts of data provided to assess each merchant’s abilities to do just that.

But here’s the thing; in order to convert visitors into customers, you need to present them with products that meet their needs in a very specific way. If you don’t know who your audience is, and what it is they are after, you can’t provide them with “just the right” product. And that product isn’t necessarily the one that pays $50 per sale and on average converts 3% of its visitors.

You’re probably thinking… this is obvious. I know who my audience is.

Maybe.

It’s not as obvious as it seems. Back when I get started out with UltimateFatBurner.com I had a lot of people approach me about promoting exercise programs, online personal training, and membership sites where the goal was to track various parameters and get fit, and so on. To me, such programs were a perfect fit for my audience. They also reflected my own bias which was that diet and exercise – not pills – are the key to weight loss.

After all, my audience was definitely overweight. There were investigating options to lose weight after all. So I decided to promote some of the programs. I either purchased them or got memberships so I could review them and speak from a position of authority. I wrote my reviews, published and promoted them, and gave them prominence on the site.

The result?

Epic fail. Zero. Nothing. Nada. Nyet. No sign ups, no conversions, and ZERO commissions.

Puzzled, I scratched my head and re-reviewed all my PREselling material. It just didn’t make any sense. I had done everything right. I was familiar with the products and services in question. I was fair and balanced. Yet my audience could care less.

What the heck was going on?

It took me a little while to realize what it was: there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with my PREselling efforts.

But there very definitely was a problem. I’d transferred my bias (that diet and exercise is the best way to lose weight) onto my visitors, and failed to see their real needs. The fact that they were visiting my web site and reading diet pill reviews meant they had weight to lose, sure. But it didn’t mean they were interested in diet and exercise. In fact, almost the opposite; they were looking for the quick fix.

No wonder they weren’t interested in such offering! As you can imagine, this changed everything!

4) Un-targeted traffic: The less targeted your audience, the less likely you are able to divine their needs and wants and present them with products or services of interest. Simple, right?

5) You’re not taking this seriously: I know what you thinking; “this guy is an ass, of course I take this seriously.”

My first question to you then would be… are you making a real effort to PREsell your recommendations? Or does referral consist of a link that says  “click here”? Then I’d ask…

“…do you own the products or services you are recommending to others?”

If not, you are not taking this seriously. How you can expect others to purchase on your recommendation if you haven’t purchased the product / service yourself?

I’m not trying to be harsh here, but this is one of the fundamental and inarguable laws of affiliate marketing. Many newbie affiliate marketers don’t want to spend any money because they are afraid their investment will not pay off in referral commissions. The problem is, if you don’t purchase the product, you will never earn commissions – it’s the perfect Catch 22.

Frankly, not spending a few dollars is a poor excuse indeed. You need some “skin in the game” to qualify your commitment to the model. Without a financial investment, it’s WAY too easy to do all the wrong things and not put in the effort. After all, you’ve got nothing to lose… except your time, of course. Honestly… ALL successful affiliate marketers own the products they recommend.

Sidebar: There are always exceptions, of course. Some super-savvy marketers use low-cost pay-per-click ads to drive targeted traffic to relevant offerings; this is the only way you can side-step owning and knowing the products you recommend. Unfortunately, you still need cash to pay for the ads, and you really need to know what you are doing to select the right keywords to target the right audience. Otherwise… no conversions.

So if you’re not taking this seriously, maybe its time to do so. After all, what other business can you start with a few hundred dollars?

6) Your referral does not appear genuine: Nobody expects every product to be perfect, or to address every need. Your recommendations should be genuine. This includes pointing out the flaws in the product, should there be any. Your visitors aren’t idiots, and they may be wary of overly-enthusiastic recommendations that appear to be made in the sole interest of obtaining a commission.

For example, check out this review on UltimateFatBurner.com. Although I love the diet program itself, sometimes it gets a little long and tedious. So I make sure my audience knows what they are getting into. If they decide it’s not for them, I’ve saved them time, money and effort, and as a result they are more likely to respond positively to some other product.

7) You are not 100% focused on the needs of your visitors: If you are pursuing this business model because of the visions of dollar bills dancing in your head, you need to step back and re-evaluate things.

Becoming a successful affililiate marketer means your focus is on your visitor. It is about providing them with the right solution, even if that solution pays an 8% commission instead of a 40% commission.

You haven’t established a bond of trust with your visitors. This ties into #7. Being focused on your visitor means they will begin to trust you, and trust is another critical element of affiliate success. Your visitors need to feel confident that your recommendations are both credible, and made in their best interests. The best way to establish your credibility is with high quality content.

9) Your recommendations are all over the place: I still see it on occasion; recommendations for products that address back pain mixed in with links to deals on iPods, plasma TVs, DVDs on dream interpretation and so on. If you are guilty of this, stop immediately and re-read #3 on this list. Your recommendations must be in tight accordance with the needs of your audience.

Alrighty then… there you go. If you’re failing with your affiliate marketing attempts now you know why. Make a commitment to both yourself and this monetization model. Done properly, nothing leverages your time or pays out like affiliate programs do!

Good luck!

The C-T-P-M acronym was, to my knowledge anyway, first coined by my old boss, Ken Evoy of SiteSell.com. It very concisely “verbalizes” one of the most effective means of building a successful, long term online business.

C-Content: Create high-value, in demand content relative to your niche. Do the appropriate keyword research to come up with a list of highly profitable keywords (i.e., keywords that have a high demand – plenty of searches performed – and relatively little supply – a small number of sites coming up for these terms). Create quality content targeting these specific keywords.

T-Traffic: Such content, especially when it is based on sound keyword research, brings targeted, qualified visitors to your web site.

PREsell: Once the visitors arrive, your exceptionally high quality content material establishes your credibility and builds a bond of trust, so that you may now PREsell those visitors…

M-Monetize: Introduce your PREsold visitors to your various offerings, depending on your monetization models. This can include your own products, products you’re affiliated with, your eBay auctions, your Adsense ads, etc, etc.

Explained so simply, you may be thinking… “well, DUH! I’m using that same strategy myself.”

Yep. You may be using C-T-P-M yourself without even knowing it. My UltimateFatBurner.com is a C-T-P-M site, although I’d never heard of the concept when I began the site.

Nonetheless, the true beauty of C-T-P-M is that it makes it easy to determine what it is you should be doing, at any given stage in the online business building process. You’d be surprised how may newbie marketers skip the C-T-P and move directly to “M”. Yep, they are focused on how they are going to monetize their site’s traffic… long before it has any traffic.

Until you have a steady, daily stream of  visitors your site will earn you exactly ZERO, so all efforts searching out the ideal affiliate partnerships are a complete and total waste of your time.

Another common mistake is to focus on traffic building strategies (i.e., the “T” element) before the site in question has enough content to warrant driving traffic to it.

I’m a huge fan of the C-T-P-M process. In my opinion, using it as a guideline is the best option for the majority of individuals who are looking to generate revenue from the Internet.

Why? Let’s address the reasons…

• The C-T-P-M process is sound, plays by the rules, and will yield success if you stick with it. It allows you to build a resource which you have the opportunity to sell later if you like (over the years, I’ve had numerous 6-figure offers for my UltimateFatBurner.com web site).
• The C-T-P-M process is a practical, longer term approach to building a business. Why is this beneficial? Because unless you happen to have a background in advertising, business, or marketing you’re going to need to learn the “online marketing ropes.” And there’s a lot to learn. Building a business slowly allows you to learn as you go. Smart strategy. You’ll make less mistakes, and waste less money.
• The C-T-P-M process keeps you focused. When every guru in the world is offering some way to turn your computer into a magical cash magnet, C-T-P-M keeps you on the right track. Online, it’s easy to get caught up evaluating the merits of various money making schemes, and it’s easy to succumb to “paralysis by analysis.” Yep, you’ll be so overwhelmed by the options, you won’t be able to decide which path is the right one.
• The C-T-P-M process is cost effective. Let’s face it; if you want to drive traffic to your web site, you need to either pay for it (which can be expensive, depending on your niche) or have the Search Engines send it to you for free.

The C-T-P-M process is also the process followed by user’s of  SiteSell.com’s popular Site Build It! software. If you’re interested in learning more about C-T-P-M, and how you can put it to work for your own online business, click here!

That’s OK. You CAN write great content. More importantly, you HAVE to. Sure, there are options for outsourcing content creation. For example, you can hire a writer from Elance or Guru.com, publish syndicated material on your web site, or buy PLR (Private Label Rights) articles. You can even use public domain material.

While these are acceptable supplementary sources of content (although I am not a fan of any of them and I will discuss why in another post), they can only be that; supplementary. You have to be the one to communicate your knowledge, your passion and your personality directly to your visitor, and your customer.

Of course, if you’re running a huge company, you have people who can do this for you. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, a senior, or a recently laid off employee looking to the Internet as a source of income you have to do it yourself.

Like I do. So…

The million dollar question is, “how do I write to communicate?”

Good question. Here’s my top tips for communicating effectively on the web…

1) Start writing now: Seriously. As with everything else, practice makes perfect. The more you write, the better you get at it.

2) Turn off the T.V. and read more: Refamiliarize yourself with books, and put the boob-tube on hiatus. As you read, be cognizant of the flow of the words, and how they work together.

3) K.I.S.S.: Yep, “Keep It Simple, Stupid” applies here too! Most people read at a grade 6-8 level. So you really don’t need to concern yourself with constructing long, intricately crafted sentences. All you need to do is get your point across effectively. That’s it, that’s all. Don’t try to impress people with your prose.

4) Read your material aloud: This is an easy way to isolate and identify any potential rough spots in your copy.

5) Keep your sentences short: Like this one. And the one directly preceding it. If there’s a common newbie writing issue it’s tying multiple streams of thought together with the word “and.” In fact, anytime you use the word “and” ask yourself – does it really need to be here? Can I simply end this sentence, and start a new one? Or do the two points really need to be tied together? This is something I always try to be aware of myself, since I’m prone to using lengthy sentences if I don’t remain focused.

6) Have a “bookworm” friend review your material: You’ve probably have at least one  friend who loves to read. It’s time to strain that friendship to the breaking point. Ask him/her to review your material, and provide feedback.

7) Learn from the best: Paul Myers is the author of the TalkBiz newsletter. Jack Forde is a professional copywriter who publishes the “CopyWriter’s Roundtable.” I highly recommend you subscribe to both these publications. They contain superb content (of course), but more importantly, they are exceptionally well-written. Both of these guys are masters of using, short, impact-laden sentences. Kind of like the opposite of the one I’m writing now.

Read, absorb, and pay close attention to how these guys do it.

Get a little help: There are some great – even free -resources that can help you hone your skills. I highly recommend Ken Evoy’s free Make Your Content PRESell! (In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m proud to say I did play a small role in putting this document together). Download and read it now!

9) Try some dictation: When you speak, it’s likely you have no problems communcating with friends, collegues, and prospective customers. Try dictating your content, and then transcribe it.

10) Use lists when appropriate: You can get around having to worry about perfect sentence structure by providing some of your material in list format.

11) Speak TO your visitor/prospective customer: Try to imagine talking directly to the person who is reading your words. Do not speak “at” them. Instead, imagine them sitting right there, just on the other side of the computer monitor, hanging on to your every word. Write almost as if you are involved in a conversation.

12) Don’t be afraid to show some personality: Online, you’ll find a lot of material that is delivered without any “personality” at all (there are some rare occasions where this is appropriate, of course). It’s easy to differentiate yourself from your competitors by letting some of your true self shine through.

13) Have your material re-written: It could be that writing is not your thing. You are, however, still the best person to communicate the core of your message. You may just need someone to massage it, grammatically. You can find folks at Elance or Guru.com who can do this for you. It should be pretty affordable; if the copywriter does not need to do any research, but simply re-write your material, it’s a relatively straightforward task.

One last word of advice… don’t give up! Writing is an acquired skill. YOU can write to communicate effectively. And that’s all you need to do. Very few of us have the skill set required to craft the next great novel. And that’s OK… we don’t need to.

You CAN do this.

Sadly, very few of these folks are using their lists to build rapport, or to “give something back” to their customers. So many of the newsletters I read contain absolutely no material of merit. There are a few exceptions, of course, but so many contain nothing but blatant “pitches” for one product or another.

Someone told these folks…

“The money is in the list!”

… and they followed it out to the extreme.

Sure, I am subscribed to many lists as a result of some purchase or another. So yes, that qualifies me as …

• Being receptive to a certain type message.
• Being open to purchasing online.
• Having some disposable income.

However, the folks who e-mail me constantly with marketing messages are missing a couple of things.

First of all, the fact that I bought something from you does not instantly establish your credibility with me. Often a sale is a result of an affiliate’s recommendation. Sure, that affiliate partner does transfer some of the trust s/he has established to the merchant in question, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s not the end of the story. Now YOU need to demonstrate your credibility to me.

Second, how seriously do you think I take your promotions when I receive several every week? I have absolutely no problem with being introduced to great products when I know the promoter presenting them is doing so in a genuine effort to address my needs. But when I’m bombarded with promotions on an almost daily basis, it’s hard to believe this is the case. After all, you haven’t taken any time to get to know me, and you have absolutely no idea what my needs are!

Third, when you promote every product under the sun, your recommendations quickly lose impact. They become meaningless and impotent.

Fourth, I get tired of being regarded as nothing more than a potential meal ticket.

Fifth, and most importantly; if you’re not going to provide me with something of value, I will tire of the aggressive marketing. I will stop reading your newsletter, and eventually, I will unsubscribe.

It’s a simple and fundamental tenet of marketing online…

Give, THEN Take.

Give. In the form of high value, useful information. Which, I might add, further establishes your credibility and builds a bond with your subscriber.

Once you’ve done that, only THEN can you…

Take, by presenting me with high value, relevant, in-context recommendations, for which you earn a commission.

This is how you do it.

It ain’t rocket science.

Want to see how its done? Check out Paul Myers’ (from TalkBiz) newsletter and follow his example.

Seriously.

This is the most important lesson to learn for anyone interested in building and effectively monetizing a mailing list.

Is it marketing acumen? A huge opt in list? Numerous joint venture partners? A keen hand at the fine art of SEO? (Search Engine Optimization).  Efficient utilization of social media tactics?

Nope. It’s none of these. It’s trust.  Or more definitively, the establishing of trust between you and your audience. It is, without a doubt, the most important element in building a successful online business.

That’s more the case today than ever; not only is money tight, but the number of people offering an “instant Internet cash riches” solution for “just $39.99″ has exploded. Whose offer is genuine? Who knows?

Without trust, your business is doomed. As an affiliate, for instance, your product recommendations will not be heeded. Selling your own product? You’ll fare no better. Monetizing via advertising? Visitors will not return to your site, and they won’t click on your in context ads while reading your material.

So what really is “trust” when it comes to the Internet? And how do you build it? The answer?…

It’s addressing the best interests of your customers/visitors. It’s ensuring their needs are first and foremost in priority, and not your need to generate revenue.

Practically, it’s knowing your products, your audience and their needs and being completely up front and truthful about everything. Believe me, this is still relatively rare on the Net, and doing so will immediately differentiate you from your competitors, regardless of your niche.

On my UltimateFatBurner.com supplement review web site, for instance, that means deconstructing product claims, and revealing the supporting science (or lack therof) behind each product’s ingredients.

The majority of my competitors do not do this; instead they wax lyrical on almost everything, and earn huge commissions on referred sales. In the short term, they make tons of money; in the long term, they jeopardize their business, as none of their visitors will ever heed a recommendation again.

Some might argue that there is an almost unlimited customer base online, and you can alienate a large percentage of people without doing damage to your business.

I disagree.

Not only is such practice morally and ethically bankrupt, but you’d be surprised at the damage a couple of jilted customers can do by posting negative comments at various forums and blogs. Bad word of mouth can spread like wildfire online.

Building trust means that your visitors will heed your recommendations if and when you make them. It takes longer and  it’s more work, but it’s immensely satisfying. And, in today’s tough economy, where money is tight and everyone and his or her dog is offering you the opportunity to get really rich, really quick, it’s trust that separates the successful from the failures.