San Francisco Chronicle » Craigslists

Here’s your magic formula for making money on the internet, whatever “type” of business you choose to start and own.

Customers X Products = Income

Now here’s something that you might not know -- Getting (creating, affiliating with producers or securing reseller rights to) products is EASY. All you REALLY need to focus on is building a “market” (aka a community, a list) and then connecting your customers with products that they need.

So when we are talking about how to Attract Customers, I don’t want you to be a “But I…” guy. Do not say, “But I don’t have a product” or “But I don’t have a business.” You WILL have a product. You WILL have a business.

The reason that I’m introducing "23 ways to attract customers" FIRST is (a) because it’s the most important part and (b) because if I started with developing products, all you would be doing is saying “But I don’t know how I will attract customers.”

Once you’ve selected your Market, you’re going to want to create a “buyers list”, people that have said, “Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! I’m interested in (fill in blank with your selected market)!” These people are important to you – they are your potential buyers and they are the people who are going to pay off your house, pay for your vacations, and pay for your liposuction IF you treat them well and like the incredible important, valuable people that they are.

OK, so now that we (sort of) understand how the free market system works, how do we get those prized possessions called “potential buyers” to raise their hands and say, “Sell me stuff”?

You are going to have what is called a “Squeeze Page” or a “Lead Capture Page” (for an example of a Squeeze Page, check out http://www.LaptopEntrepreneur.com)

Your ONLY goal with your marketing is to attract people to your squeeze page and give them enough of a glimpse of the value that you can provide, specifically with free giveaways, to provide you with their contact info. That’s the equivalent of raising their hand and saying, “I’m a prospective buyer!”

We’ll go through in detail how to set up a squeeze page and how to manage the list in future issues.

All right, enough prelude – what are (some of) the strategies for how you’re going to attract customers to your Squeeze Page
(remember, I’ll be going over each of these in detail over the next three weeks)
1. SIG FILE: Add a “Business Promoting” Signature File to Your Email

2. TESTIMONIALS: Write Testimonials and Reviews for Similar Products and Include Your “Signature File”

3. GROUPS AND FORUMS: Contribute Value to Online Forums and Groups; include your Sig. File

4. E-ZINE ADS: Pay for Advertising in E-Zines

5. E-ZINE ARTICLES: Contribute Articles to E-zines

6. BLOG: Maintain a Blog

7. SEO WEB PAGE: Create a Web Page Specifically for Search Engines to Find and Rank Highly

8. PAY PER CLICK: Use Google (or other browsers) Pay Per Click

9. OFF LINE: Use “off line” advertising – business cards, car signs, flyers, newspaper ads

10. PRESS RELEASES: Create newsworthy items and send press releases

11. WORKSHOPS: Host a free (or paid) workshop and promote on community calendars

12. CRAIGSLISTS :Post to assorted different categories on craigslists (events, groups, activities, gigs, small biz ads)

13. AFFILIATES: Recruit and leverage affiliates to do all of the above and below

14. JOINT VENTURES: Joint venture with publishers, other entrepreneurs with big lists

15. LINK SHARE: cross promote advertising by exchanging links with other web masters

16. WEB RINGS: join a web ring in your target market

17. NETWORKING/REFERRAL GROUPS: Join a BNI or networking group for “in person” recruitment and referrals

18. E-BAY: Post a product related to your market on e-bay

19. BOOK: Create a book and sell it on Amazon.com

20. TARGET: Identify prospective “thought leaders” in your field and target invite them to review your product

21. BANNER ADS: Buy advertising on the web sites that your customers frequent

22. EBOOKS: Create and Sell/Giveaway E-books filled with links to your web site (give away reseller rights)

23. CO-REGISTRATION: Get involved with co-registration programs that involve interested customers choosing which different opportunities they are interested in.

Remember that over the next few weeks, we’re going to go step by step, inch by inch over each of these ways ONCE we get you up and running with how to receive that traffic!

For the time being, review each of the suggestions above and ask yourself these questions:
A) Do you understand what the strategy is, what it means?

B) Do you think it would work? Would it produce new visitors…and thus new revenues?

C) How much do you think it would cost?

D) What’s “missing” for you to take advantage of this strategy? What would it take?

E) How much time do you think it would take?

Tomorrow, we’re going to talk about getting/developing products and how to start building (and selling) to your list.

To your Extraordinary Success Online!

Frazier O'Leary is a serial entrepreneur and the Director of Training for The Entrepreneurship Center in Alexandria, VA.

Get a copy of "How to Build Massive, Profit Pulling Mailing Lists without Spending a Dime" by visiting http://www.LaptopEntrepreneur.com

Source: www.isnare.com