You take every possible precaution to ensure that you are a profoundly ethical affiliate marketer. Then you show up at work one day to discover that you’ve been reported as an email abuser and you’re blocked. It actually gets worse: You are contacted by your email service provider and informed that you’re booted out from further campaigns since a major ISP has blocked all of the emails originating from the server they used to send out your missives. They have hundreds of fuming locked-out clients and everyone is pointing fingers at you.

Send out 50,000 perfectly ethical emails: receive at least 1 abuse report

That may seem like the ultimate email marketer’s nightmare, but unfortunately it does happen… and it can happen to you. Industry statistics show that whether by error or by mistaking the “report abuse” button for an unsubscribe function, you can count on at least a couple of abuse reports per every 100,000 recipients. Since it is not at all unusual for one of the larger affiliate marketers to send out at least that many emails per month, the detonator clock is ticking.

The abuse report doesn’t hurt, but pile them up and you’re blocked

As these abuse reports keep piling up at some point some ISP is going to pull the trigger. Think of it as sand clogging up a water pipe. A single grain of sand isn’t going to affect the flow, but keep dumping sand down the drain and the water will soon stop flowing.

Ways to avoid the dreaded block

• If you didn’t receive direct permission, then don’t send the email. Just because an individual is your customer and has paid for your affiliate product does not equate to permission to be on an email list.
• Never purchase any list, even from a subsidiary or collaborative affiliate marketer.
• Keep your permission records as safe as your grandpa’s gold watch. If you’re ever confronted with questions on a customer’s permission you should be able to access it all and quickly.
• Look the part. Your design and content should speak of your professionalism, ethics, and flair. If you send out emails with cobbled-together graphics and English so bad it makes text-speak seem like fine literature, then it’s going to look like a phish.
• Make your unsubscribe link one of the most prominent features on your email. Place it at the top if you have to.
• Be clear about what your subscriber is getting and provide exactly that. If your customer has signed up for a monthly newsletter that translates to 12 equally spaced emails per year: It does not mean that you can slip in an extra one for Black Friday, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day!

Confirmed opt-in is your best friend

Confirmed opt-in, sometimes referred to as a double opt-in, is an affiliate marketer’s best email buddy. Your subscriber has to validate their email address before being placed onto the list. They receive a verification email which they can click on to confirm that it’s their address and they requested the newsletters. Not only will this process keep your affiliate marketing lists cleaner, it also provides proof for suspicious ISPs that your customer really did subscribe!

Hal Licino is an award-winning freelance writer, the author of several books, and a frequent contributor to an email marketing blog run by Benchmark Email, one of the globe’s email marketing services.

© JonathanVolk.com - A Blog about Making Money Online, 2011.

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One thing I have been thinking about is the importance of social media. Is social media becoming the new way to communicate with your following?

If so, are things like Facebook fan pages, twitter, myspace (lol……), etc the new “email list”?

I wanted to see what YOU thought… answer the poll below!

© JonathanVolk.com - A Blog about Making Money Online, 2010.

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They can be thought of as deceptive due to the fact that the reader often thinks they are reading legitimate news from a news website. Here is a common example of what one would look like (blurred text to prevent copying):

Here is an example of a one in commercial form I saw while watching the 6pm news.

The other day I got this email from one of my favorite electronic retailers, Tigerdirect.com.

Ok… so it’s not exactly a farticle, but you get how they’re using a similar news format style… and I like it!

For those who are looking for a laptop, an email like this might be the thing to push them to get one. It makes the reader feel like overall laptop prices are dropping (which they are) and moves them to action.

Traditionally farticles are used to try to deceive users but this type of marketing is a great example of using it in a less spammy, yet still effective method. Bravo TD!

© JonathanVolk.com - A Blog about Making Money Online, 2010.

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I got a lot of feedback about it and people were asking for more specific details about getting started.

4 Steps To Get Started With Email Marketing

Step 1. Email Service:
The first step to doing email marketing is to have an email service. This service is used to capture and store your emails. It also allows you to send email with a high degree of deliverability while still being CAN-SPAM compliant.

My email service of choice (and many others) is Aweber. Aweber has a $1 free trial and is, in my experience, the best solution for email marketing. No headaches, really easy to send emails, etc.

Without an email service like Aweber, you can just about forget doing any sort of email marketing. Too many reasons why to list.

COST: $1 Free Trial

Step 2: Put The Aweber Email Capture On Your Website
There are a lot of ways to capture emails on your website or blog. The most common way is to offer a newsletter or incentive of some sort.

Popular incentives include a free eBook, guide, or even a video. The reason why they are popular? They work really well!

You’ll notice I give away a free (high quality) affiliate marketing guide on this blog as an incentive.

COST: Hire someone to write or spend the time yourself (best option IMO).

Step 3: Use Popup Domination

My friend, Michael Dunlop runs popup domination. This is the popup you see above and has been a HUGE part of how I have been able to capture so many emails.

It basically puts the email opt-in right in front of every NEW visitor so you have the highest chance of capturing that person’s email before they read, bounce, or do anything really. Aweber has this option but the difference in conversion rate from using awebers templates and this are actually pretty impressive to see. I can’t give you exact numbers, but my opt-in rate HAS gone up since implementing it.

Popup domination includes: 7 (amazingly beautiful) themes, 10 button colors, exit popup (options), works with Aweber perfectly, etc.

Now, before you think I am just trying to pitch you another piece of software… this software is used by some huge names because it really does work.

I use it, Ryan Lee, Yanik Silver, Kate Buck, Jim Kukral, Adam Horwitz, Alex Shelton, Jason Moffatt, Yaro Starak, James Schramko, Gideon Shalwick, David Risley, Zac Johnson, etc.

Here is another example of another popular website using popup domination:

Zac Johnson and I use the same theme, but there are 6 OTHER themes to use that work well. You can see those here.

COST: $47

Step 4: Watch the Webinar With Brian
Last Wednesday, I recorded a webinar with an expert at building email lists and monetizing them. It has some GREAT information on how to get started with email list building, things you need to know, tricks, tips, etc.

I highly recommend you check out the recording.

To access the recording, go to my free affiliate marketing guide page. Inside, you get access to the webinar recordings with Brian on email list building as well as some other webinars I have done in the past!

COST: FREE!

There you have it! 4 easy steps to getting started!

© JonathanVolk.com - A Blog about Making Money Online, 2010.

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You know… one thing about email marketing is that you have a real asset that makes real money and is nearly 100% profit. I absolutely love that.

Email marketing is one method of marketing that I have purposely left off my blog while I perfect my methods and learn the strategies that work for me. So many affiliates just don’t GET IT that I prefer to keep the upper hand that I’ve been having over them.

Truth be told, email marketing is becoming more and more a part of my affiliate marketing strategy and has helped me to earn a very sizable chunk of revenue this year. One of the people who proved the importance of email marketing was my dad. If you don’t know… he’s owns a group of niche ecommerce stores that do extremely well.

A big part of his strategy includes email marketing and most people simply don’t understand it… so he is able to completely dominate the niches that he is in. He’s the biggest company in his niche by far.

In fact, he doesn’t have a huge email list even… but because he understands email marketing, each time he sends an email or two, he generates crazy revenues. Sometimes as much as mid 5 figures in sales in a FEW DAYS. Not too bad for the cost of the web server and email list software.

(Maybe now you’ll understand why I have not said too much about it… )

Learning Email List Building

Any ways… I held a webinar this last Wednesday with Brian. Brian is an expert at building email lists and monetizing them and has actually consulted with some major companies about it.

I got a TON of requests to record the webinar so I did and I am offering it for free on my affiliate marketing guide page!

Simply go to that link, enter your email, confirm your email, and you’ll have access to that webinar, plus all the other ones I have done in the past. Truth be told, there is some REALLY good content here.

If you want to make your business a long term sustainable income source… you MUST check out this webinar and possibly follow up with Brian’s course ($67 / month) on email list building.

Enjoy!

Check out this Car Cover Website.

© JonathanVolk.com - A Blog about Making Money Online, 2010.

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Trust me… if you’re serious about learning how the online business truly works… you don’t want to miss it!

To Register

To register be sure to be on my email list. I will send you the registration link before the webinar.

The seats are limited to 100 people… and the last filled up extremely fast, so be sure to show up early!

© JonathanVolk.com - A Blog about Making Money Online, 2010.

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As much as I hate to say it, affiliate marketing done in the way that is taught by most affiliate bloggers, myself included, is basically arbitraging paid traffic. Buy traffic low, sell high. Makes sense, works extremely well.

The problem with this business model is that you generally build no real web asset. Once the traffic source that you are buying from changes policies, competition comes in, etc, you lose that oh, so sweet, cash flow. It doesn’t matter if you were making $100,000 per month way back when… if you only ever arbitrage traffic.

One of the ways you can build an asset is to build an email list. It might sound easy… Throw an email capture up and send out random crap every once in a while to your list… but it’s really a lot more complicated than that.

That’s why THIS WEDNESDAY, September 22nd, I am holding a list building webinar with my friend Brian. Brian is an expert at building email lists and will be teaching how to properly build and monetize your email lists.

This is certainly a part of the business that I am learning and really am looking forward to learning in this webinar!

Register – Only 100 Seats

This webinar is going to be limited to 100 seats again – although more people can register so registering does not guarantee your spot. You’ll want to come early to ensure you get the spot and can watch live, ask Q&A, etc.

To register, you must be on my affiliate marketing guide email list. To get on, click that link, enter your name and email and confirm your email.

Once you’re on the email list, I will send out a registration link the day before the webinar right to your email.

See you at the webinar!

© JonathanVolk.com - A Blog about Making Money Online, 2010.

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In fact, in my years of internet marketing, I’ve met a few mailers and I was unable to learn much from them because they keep it all so secretive. (I thought that all mailers were just mobsters and you had to join their mob to learn or something… )

So all that to say, in dealing with affiliate marketing, email marketing has been the most difficult for me to learn; I would certainly not consider myself an expert on any level in this area.

So when I heard that Joe (who is an emailer who I have heard about before) decided to start an emailing coach program, I was really excited!

I’ve heard of emailers dropping a single email and making $100,000 in a single day. Not spammers, legit operations.

In fact, I fully discovered the power of having an email list when my dad launched a new product and made mid-5 figures in a weekend… all from people who had purchased from him before. Had he not had the email list, it would have been dramatically different.

What is the Emailing Coach Program?

The emailing coach program is a monthly subscription program similar to PPC Coach.

Essentially it’s an exclusive membership forum that includes a set of monthly training guides.

I went ahead and read through the entire first month and to be completely honest, it has answered so many of the questions I have had about things such as:

• What software should I use to email my lists?
• How should I generate my lists?
• How can I email and not get in trouble from can-spam laws?
• And a lot more… (Suppression lists, things to look out for, etc)

Just recently Joe finally launched the service and if you’re a serious affiliate looking to start emailing, I highly recommend it.

How Much Does it Cost?

Right now Joe is offering a $1 free trial and it is definitely worth checking out!
Click here to sign up.

© JonathanVolk.com - A Blog about Making Money Online, 2010.

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