Depending on what it is, you either replace it or fix it.

I am talking about business here so, the answer is you fix it. In internet marketing, when something isn’t working, you change it.

Take list building. We have all been told from the very beginning that the money is in the list. Internet marketers build an email list to have prospects or leads to market to. The idea is to monetize the list either by selling your own products or an affiliate promotion.

There are a few ways that this is achieved but, for the purpose of this post, let’s talk about the traditional way list building is done.

Step one is that we choose a niche to operate in. After we have our niche, we then begin to assemble an audience or followers on social media.(remember, at this point we are newbies and may not have the resources to use paid advertising for targeted leads)

While we are building our audience, we begin to work on our lead magnet and squeeze page. We buy some PLR, try to alter the cover image the best we can from the PSD file and change up the writing a little. I say alter the image as best we can because, odds are that as a new marketer, graphics is not exactly something we are very good at. It can be outsourced, sometimes you can find a graphic artist that will do the job for a reasonable price or you can us Gimp, it is free, PhotoShop, expensive for a new marketer that hasn’t even got an audience yet, or one of the free online tools for editing PSD files. They all have a learning curve.

Let’s say we have the lead magnet completed and uploaded to where ever you are going to store it. We then try our best to write compelling copy to convince everyone in the world that they must have our lead magnet and why. Then we create our thank you page and write something like thank you for signing up here is your download and we install a download link.

Now we are ready to build that huge list and get rich so we post our squeeze page link everywhere we can. However, as time goes by, we realize that the email list isn’t growing, or it isn’t growing very much or fast.

What do we do now?

The first thing I did was to change out the lead magnet. I used a different piece of PLR, created a new ecover image, and tried again. The results were basically the same. Why couldn’t I build my list? I was using a quality ecover software, I still use it today it is that easy to use and very reasonably priced.

Back to the drawing board. I am not getting anywhere with my list building so, what is the problem? If you have a mentor and pay attention, you learn more about internet marketing the longer you are involved with it. You gain knowledge and only need to take action on that knowledge.

If you create a product to sell, obviously in order to make sales and keep your customers happy, it needs to be a quality product that solves a problem or offers a solution for something they are trying to achieve. Therefore, your lead magnet must also be something that is worth selling and solve a problem.

I took to social media and began asking questions. I started doing some research. Since I am in the IM/MMO (make money online) niche, I asked what the marketers “pain point” was. Basically, I wanted to know what problem to address with my lead magnet.

Then it was time for the cover image. I still used the software I use for the others but, I didn’t try to change a PSD file and upload it. I used a background that is included with the software then went to a stock image. I used a free online tool to remove the background in the image and uploaded that to position on the cover. Don’t get me wrong, this was not a quick 10 minute job to write this report and create the image. I did some research to write an original report and created many images. I posted each image in a couple of coaching groups I belong to and my own. I took the feed back to heart and made changes to the images until I arrived at the final one.

Then it was on to the squeeze page. When I was posting the trial images, one member of my FB group made a suggestion for the title. When I saw it, it struck me that it was a little long for a title but looked like it would be effective copy for the squeeze page. She graciously gave me permission to use it. I then had a much better looking squeeze page without all the amateurish copywriting on it. With a squeeze page, less is more.

The end result was that in only a week, my new list was larger than the one I had been working on for a few years.

Remember what I said about learning more the longer you are in this industry? It is all trial and error. I began with a standard squeeze page with an opt-in form right on the page. I received a lot of subscribers on my list. The only problem was that they were not real subscribers. My form asks for a first name and an email. When I would look at my list, instead of emails I saw website addresses. (I use a single opt-in). In a conversation with aWeber support it turns out that they were bots. My solution, thanks to my mentor, was to have the form open in a popover window. No more bots.

The final change was made to my thank you page. I removed the download link and replaced it with a link to a paid offer. After all, internet marketers build a list to make money right? Give them a chance to become a customer when they join the list. Send the download link to them in an email.

What I want you to take from this is, don’t be afraid to make changes when you aren’t getting results. Don’t be afraid to ask for opinions from other marketers. Mostly, find a reputable marketer that is there to help you build a real business for a mentor. There are many out there. Find one that resonates with you. You are building a business and that does require time, work, and investment for the tools you need to do it.

Like always, if you found this post useful, or know someone that might benefit from reading it, share it to your social media.

Comments are always welcome and you can leave a comment below.


    2 replies to "What Do You Do When Something Is Broken?"

    • Mike h

      Good read Thanks David

      • David

        Thank you Mike. I try to provide good content.

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