How to Build a Huge Opt-In List as an Affiliate

How to Build a Huge Opt-In List as an Affiliate
Copyright © 2006 Anik Singal

One of the biggest mistakes I see affiliates making
everyday is that their building a short-term business where
they just make a small living one sale at a time. If they
stop running ads today, their business would shut down!

The strategy we’re going to discuss now will allow any
affiliate to build a long-term business. This strategy will
allow you to upsell your visitors for expensive services.
Even more importantly, by using this strategy you’ll soon
become recognized as an expert in your field and making
money will be all the easier!

So what is this strategy?

You guessed it, it’s building an opt-in list, a
newsletter or ezine.

By having an opt-in list you’re building a customer base
instead of just small sales! You can sell the same customer
over and over without having any more advertising costs.
You build a trust with your readers that allows them to be
loyal in doing business through you affiliate link!

So, as an affiliate, how do you build an opt-in list?

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How to Build the List
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The simplest way I have found is to start deferring all of
my traffic that I pay for to an opt-in page. After the
person opts-in, have them land on a thank you page where
you pre-sell them for the affiliate product.

So, you’re probably already building traffic to your site
now, instead of sending that traffic directly to your
affiliate link, send it to a page that has an opt-in.

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How Should My Opt-In Page Look?
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The next most popular question is how to make the opt-in
page look. Believe it or not, there actually IS a strategy
behind this. Your page MUST be small, short and to the
point. This means that you should NOT have a long sales
letter type page to get them to opt-in.

Your entire opt-in page should fit in one screen with NO
scroll down bar. Have a strong headline, 5-6 bulleted
benefits and then a nice big opt-in. You’ll be amazed at
how high the results can be.

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Quick Ways To Generate Traffic
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The point of this article is not to teach you how to drive
traffic to your website, but here are 5 really quick
techniques to use so you can test what you just learned.

1. Article Submissions - Submit articles around the web
regarding your niche and have your biography link go to a
opt-in page. You’ll be amazed at how well this technique
works in building a list.

2. Pay Per Click - The easiest way to immediately begin
getting traffic. Send all of your paid traffic directly to
the opt-in page, then have the person land on a page that
pre-sells the product they were looking for. Make sure to
test this, sometimes your conversions on the front-end can
fall, but they increase over the long-run.

3. Ezine Ads - I have found Ezine ads a great way to
quickly and cost effectively boost my list. Write an ad
promising a free membership or information and send
the traffic to an opt-in page.

4. Viral Marketing - This form of marketing takes some time
to kick in but can be extremely effective! Other people
will spread your message and your message will have links
to your opt-in page.

5. Linking strategy - This option is a bit more work, so
only use it once you have tested and know that you have a
winner. Start trading links with related websites and you
will see a great boost in traffic.

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Conclusion
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In conclusion, make sure you understand that you should be
building a long-term affiliate business and not just
something that makes you a few dollars on one sale. If you
ever stop advertising, you want to be in position to still
have a powerful business. Building a large opt-in list will
also position you as the expert in your niche.

Finally, remember to make sure that your opt-in page fits
on one computer screen and is small. Always test the page
by quickly driving some traffic.


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Anik Singal is founder and CEO of Affiliate Classroom.
Anik developed his own affiliate system that helped him
earn over $10,000 in just 60 days working part time. If
you want to learn this unique method, click here for a
free e-course:
Come And Learn And Earn At The Affiliate Classroom