PG is one of my coaching students. I had just asked him to tell me about the progress he was making.

He had a sign-up box on the top right-hand corner of every page of his website. It offered a free newsletter in exchange for a site visitor’s first name and e-mail address. He had a lot of quality content. And the site navigation was clean and easy to follow. He even had a search box and “refer a friend” option.

Was I upset by the striking similarity between his website and ours? Absolutely not. I was happy to see that he had copied so much. In fact, as his coach, that’s what I told him to do.

You see, it wasn’t our “intellectual property” that he was using. It was the structure of the website and the business model.

When you’re starting an online business, one of the smartest things you can do is follow a proven model instead of trying to figure it all out on your own. And if you have a coach or mentor to help you, so much the better. It will really speed up your learning curve.

Now you may be thinking that “following” another business and having someone “hold your hand” doesn’t sound fun, exciting, or original. But the fact is, most fledgling entrepreneurs who try to reinvent the wheel end up frustrated and disappointed. (There is nothing fun or exciting about spending a lot of time and money on a business and not turning a profit.)

I should know. I used to be one of those guys. But after a couple of years of trial and error, I decided to attend an Early to Rise Bootcamp. It was there that I learned about the Agora Model and met the mentors who helped me apply it.

In a nutshell, the Agora Model uses direct-response advertising to drive traffic to your website. On the website, you offer valuable information — say, a free newsletter or special report. In return, you ask your visitors for their e-mail address. Once you have a visitor’s e-mail address, you follow up by sending them additional free information, as well as offers for your products and services.

This simple model is underutilized by online entrepreneurs. But make no mistake about how powerful it is. It is the model that Agora used to grow into a $300 million a year company. The same model that turned Early to Rise into a $25 million a year powerhouse.

— Highly Recommended —

World’s Highest Paid “Bad Boy” Copywriter Discloses the Key to Boosting Income by 1000% in One Month. This “bad boy” has a secret. One that has pulled in as much as $3.6 million in sales over a weekend… $5 million in a few weeks… and $16 MILLION in a single month! He almost never speaks at events – he’s just too busy. But ETR has him for 3 days this November. But you better get in now – the price is going up soon…

—

I used the Agora Model to build my own six-figure online business. It worked for me. And it can work for you, too.

Sure, I look at other online businesses and adapt some of what they are doing successfully to my ventures. It could be a copy approach, a type of offer, or a hot new product. And I’m always on the lookout for coaches and mentors who can help me learn new strategies and techniques.

But the Agora Model is the core of my business. And, of course, I continue to learn from my original mentors at Early to Rise.

It’s tempting to be a renegade and try to do it “your way.” But the days of the Wild Wild Web are over. And the Agora Model has been proven to work time and time again.

I learned the Agora Model directly from the team at Early to Rise. And that really accelerated my progress. As I said, the quickest way to build an online business is to have a mentor or coach guide you through the process.

As an Early to Rise reader, you’ve already been getting great advice from top online entrepreneurs who have “been there, done that.”

You can learn a lot from them. But I think you’ll find that direct coaching by an expert — someone who has achieved a high level of success doing what you want to do — is infinitely better.

P.S. With my Internet Power Coaching program, I walk you through the process of growing your profitable online business using the Agora Model. I show you exactly what I did to grow my six-figure business. The official deadline to get in on the “charter class” of IPC was last Wednesday. But after some arm-twisting, the marketing team agreed to let me show make this offer again — but it expires on Saturday, Sept. 19, at midnight. To find out more about Internet Power Coaching, go here.

— Highly Recommended —

The “Hidden” Niche That Turned $6,300 into $167,460

“I’ve never seen a market like this in my 33-year career,” says industry expert Jeremy Charles.

Big players are snapping up massive chunks of this much-overlooked sector every day… (Names include Paulson & Company… Greenlight Capital… and the central banks of Russia, Ecuador, and China.)

Says Financial Times, investors are making “unprecedented” demands in this “Windfall Sector.”

Experts expect the situation to lead to panic buying… And unimaginable prices.

For nearly 20 years, Russell McDougal has been poring over the investment markets. Now, he has pinpointed a unique niche set to piggyback off the coming mania in this “Windfall Sector.”

In the past Dr. McDougal has turned $6,300 into $167,460. The “hidden” niche he’s uncovered could produce similar gains.

You don’t have to be a big player to get involved. Get in on this little-known corner of the “Windfall Sector” before the masses catch on… And you stand to create vast riches for yourself.

—

More wealth, health, and wisdom from Masterson …

There are two elements in highly successful information products: big ideas and big thinkers.

I’ve talked about big ideas many times in past issues. A big idea is something that is instantly ascertainable, instantly compelling, and easy to explain. It is also something that seems to carry a strong benefit. To have a successful information publishing business, you need to have a big idea that will bring in new buyers and keep them interested for months or even years.

Just as important is a big thinker. This insight was shared with me by Bill Bonner, the founding father of Agora. He called it a “big personality,” because he was thinking of Agora’s most successful franchise builders. They are usually people with healthy egos and a contrarian approach who think “big” all the time. They are never “sensible” or “correct,” but always a bit outlandish and provocative.

Meanwhile, I work with several gurus who don’t have huge egos or personalities. Still, they come up with big ideas like a dog comes up with new fleas.

You can start a business with a single big idea. But if you don’t have a big thinker behind it, the business will peter out. And you’ll have no one to come up with another big idea to revitalize it.

That brings me to an interesting question from one of our readers about the recent changes we’ve made to ETR. He wanted to know how we arrived at our current format.

One thing I never liked about the previous formats of all our daily e-services (not just ETR but Investor’s Daily Edge and Total Health Breakthroughs) was that they were leaderless. We had plenty of interesting contributors, but there was nobody to help readers understand how the various essays formed part of a unifying whole.

I’ve been in information publishing for 30 years, and this is something you can take to the bank: It’s always easier to sell a service if it has a guru at the top.

So that’s the first change we made. We brought in Bob Irish as Investment Director of Investor’s Daily Edge, promoted Melanie Segala to Editor of Total Health Breakthroughs, and I took the leading role in ETR.

The next thing we were concerned with was the topicality of our information. Countless tests have proven to me that readers want to know what is hot right now. They want practical, current advice.

So we introduced more news into ETR. And we made it a mandate for all the advice we give to make sense in today’s world.

The next thing we did was give priority to one really useful idea a day. Rather than give you two or three pretty good ideas, we made the decision to have one main essay.

This created a stir when we dropped some features from ETR that readers really liked. So we put them back. But we put them in after the main essay. We want you to pay most attention to the big essay because we believe it will have the greatest long-term impact on your life.

Finally, we eliminated the ads that ran on the edges of the editorial copy. We put them in shaded boxes so it would be easier for you to look at them if and when you wanted to.

That’s the story. We’re still fine-tuning. But we’ve been flooded with thank-yous and compliments from readers (see the one from Peter Wright, below) … so we know we are on the right track.

Falling asleep — and staying asleep — gets tough as you age.

At 65, you have less melatonin than a newborn. Your body’s production of the sleep hormone just dries up.

I usually sleep fine. Regular exercise helps. But when I’m having trouble, I follow Dr. Sears’s advice. He says to take a melatonin supplement. But not a pill. You get only about 1 percent of the dose on the label because your stomach acid destroys the rest.

Instead, you should take liquid melatonin in spray form. This way, it can be absorbed by your mouth’s blood vessels.

Never take prescription or over-the-counter sleep aids. Aside from the risk of addiction and serious side effects, they don’t even work. A recent National Institutes of Health study found that sleeping pills only give you an average of 11 more minutes of sleep a night. And do you really want to feel “foggy” the whole next day?

For more ways to get good sleep the natural way, go here.

— Highly Recommended —

Your Website Is the Crossroads of the World – Imagine if you could open up a store in the “Times Square of the Internet.” But instead of the 26 million people a year who pass through Times Square every year, you got 91 million “passersby” – every day! It’s very easy (and cheap) to do. And with Bob Bly’s help you could see income in just a few weeks. Read more…

—

Many readers told us they missed “The Language Perfectionist,” which was on hiatus during ETR’s format change. This weekly column, which previously ran on Saturday, is back and will appear in ETR every Friday. Just as before, Don Hauptman will grapple with thorny issues of English grammar, usage, and style; sort out conflicting rules of right and wrong; and introduce you to unusual and fascinating words and expressions.

The Language Perfectionist: A Gaggle of Gaffes

By Don Hauptman

Mistakes can be a good thing. They teach us what to avoid. The trick, though, is to learn by observing others make them.

With that goal in mind, here’s another roundup of misspellings, misunderstandings, and other misuses — all found via Internet search, but equally frequent in print:

“I just find it as ridiculous as any other hair-brained conspiracy theory.” 

Whether hair-brained or hairbrained, it’s wrong. The correct word is harebrained — that is, the brain of a rabbit. It’s true that hare was once spelled hair, but that was 400 years ago. Don’t be harebrained; spell it correctly! 

“I do have a photo of his name on the marquis of the theater where he gave his last performance.” 

The canopy of a theater is a marquee (mar-KEE). A French nobleman is a marquis (mar-KEE or, in the anglicized pronunciation, MAR-qwis).

“The people who do not have money or marketable skills — the poor, the elderly, the frail, the uneducated — fall between the cracks with no place, no role, and no money to buy what they need.”

This is a commonly garbled metaphor. Something that is forgotten or overlooked falls into or through the cracks, not between them. 

“This is unchartered territory for … presidential candidates, given the fact that the whole primary season starts … three days after New Year’s ….”

An organization that lacks a document outlining its principles and functions is unchartered. The word wanted here is uncharted. 

“Juliana, I enjoy this new newsletter format so much better than the daily newsletter which I felt obliged to peruse quickly so as to have time to do research.”

The word peruse means to read carefully, and that takes time. It’s often misinterpreted, as in the above example, as meaning the opposite: to read rapidly, to scan to get the gist. Incidentally, it’s considered pretentious to use peruse when read will suffice. 

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]

I very recently started a new Internet business in a niche market that I am very passionate about. I’ve already started to collect names to build a subscriber list – and I’ve even made a handful of sales!

A handful of sales might not sound like much, but I’m excited. Why? Because the hardest part – getting this new site set up and starting to drive traffic to it – is out of the way.

I’m using the proven business model that helped ETR triple its revenues in three years… the same model that helped ETR’s parent company explode into a nearly $300 million Internet juggernaut. So I know I can realistically expect my site to (eventually) churn out significant income on virtual autopilot.

By no means am I putting a full-time effort into this project. (And most would argue that I’m not even putting in a part-time effort.) It’s just something I’m doing on the side. Of course, that’s one of the major benefits of Internet and information marketing. You can get started as a “chicken entrepreneur“… without quitting your day job.

You, too, can create a home-based Internet business that will provide you with a steady side income. Here are the seven simple steps:

Step 1. Identify Your Market

The biggest mistake I see budding Internet entrepreneurs make is to start by trying to figure out what they’re going to sell. And that can be tough. There are hundreds of thousands, even millions, of possible products and services.

It’s more important to decide what market or niche you are going to target. When you identify your market, you will know who your prospects are, what problems they have, and what solutions they are looking for. And once you have that information, it’s not hard to find a product to sell to them.

So how do you decide which market to go after? My recommendation is to make a list of all the things you are interested in and choose from that. Why make a list and not just zero in on your number one passion? Because you want to give yourself some options. Just because you have a strong interest in something doesn’t mean there are enough people out there who share your interest and (very important) have money to spend on it.

Golfers, for example, are passionate about their game. They also have a lot of money and like to spend it on golf-related “stuff.” On the other hand, though teenage boys may be into rough sports and fast cars, you won’t have much luck selling them anything anytime soon.

Here’s the formula: Your Passion + Profitable Market = Great Niche Website

Step 2. Choose – and Purchase – a Domain Name

Another mistake that online entrepreneurs make is to try to come up with a domain name that is cute or creative. (With the popularity if Web 2.0, I am seeing more and more of this.)

Your domain name should be descriptive of your website topic and benefit-driven. Ideally, it should also include your main keyword. And, of course, it should be easy to spell and easy to remember.

A good example of a domain name that is easy to remember, easy to spell, descriptive, benefit-driven, and includes the main keyword of the website’s topic: FreeCreditReport.com.

Step 3. Put Up a Website

If you can use a word processor, you can create a website with similar software.

I use and recommend XSite Pro (which ETR includes with its Internet Money Club Independent Learner Edition ). This is one of the best website content management systems out there. Another option is to use a website HTML editor like Microsoft Expression Web (formerly Front Page) or Dreamweaver by Macromedia. These two programs aren’t as powerful or easy to use as XSite Pro, but can get the job done.

There are many other lower priced and free programs – but, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.

Step 4. Add an Opt-In Form to Your Site

When you visit any of ETR’s websites, including EarlyToRise.com, InvestorsDailyEdge.com, and TotalHealthBreakthroughs.com, you’ll notice that there is a box – an opt-in form – near the top right-hand corner.

Having an opt-in form is one of the key things that separate successful online businesses from those that fail. It allows your visitors to give you their name, e-mail address, and any other information you may want to collect.

The entire Agora Model of Internet Marketing is based on this concept.

By capturing your visitors’ contact information, you can follow up with them on a regular basis via e-mail. You can send them valuable content, build a relationship with them, and bring them back to your website to sell them products they are interested in.

Step 5: Offer a Freebie

The best way to get people to give you their contact information is to offer them something of value in exchange. At Early to Rise we offer a free subscription to the newsletter you’re reading right now.

You could also offer a free special report or some type of tip sheet. Putting one together can be as simple as coming up with 10 questions that people in your niche are likely to ask and answering those questions. It can be just 5 or 10 pages long. Better yet, unlike a daily newsletter, you only have to write it once. Then you upload it to your autoresponder (the same software you use for the opt-in form) and have it automatically sent to everyone who gives you their name and e-mail address.

I recommend using a third party autoresponder service such as Aweber.

Step 6. Drive Traffic to Your Website

There are many ways to drive traffic to your website, but when you’re starting out you’ll want to focus mostly on free traffic.

One of my favorite ways to get free traffic is by writing and submitting articles to article directories. I submit most of my articles to EzineArticles.com. (Make sure you include your website’s URL in the blurb or bio that runs with the article.)

Another good way to get free traffic is through social media marketing. Search for blogs and forums that are related to your niche and answer questions and post comments. Most forums and blogs will allow you to link back to your website. Just be sure that you are providing good content and that what you have to say is relevant to the forum’s or blog’s subject matter.

Keep in mind that most of the people you attract to your website by submitting articles and through social media will not purchase anything from you – at least, they won’t purchase anything on their first visit. But that’s why you have the opt-in form – to capture their contact information so you can keep bringing them back.

Step 7. Follow Up… and Start Making Sales

The final step is to follow up with the people on your opt-in list and start selling them products. These can be your own products or products you are promoting as an affiliate.

This, too, can be done with your autoresponder. For example, you could write a series of five to seven e-mails, each one promoting a different product. And as soon as people opts in to get your freebie, you have those e-mails automatically sent to them, one at a time, every couple of days.

You don’t want people to think they’re just going to be getting sales messages from you, so mix it up. Include some valuable content in your e-mails too. This will help you continue to build your relationship with them.

Those are the seven steps you can take to quickly and easily launch a new online business. Once you have this basic system in place you continue to build on it by learning more ways to bring traffic to your site, building a bigger opt-in list, and starting to promote what we call “backend” products.

If any (or all!) of this sounds daunting, don’t worry. I can give you hands-on help to get your own Internet business up and running at ETR’s 5 Days in July conference.

MaryEllen Tribby, Charlie Byrne, Edwin Huertas, David Cross, and I – as well as other experts in Internet marketing and website building – will be there to walk you, step by step, through the entire process.

We’ll teach you how to pick a domain name, set up a website, choose products, start driving traffic to your site, and much more. And at the end of the conference, every attendee will leave with a fully functioning Internet business that has the potential to churn out income for life.

Get all the details here.

[Ed. Note: It takes only 5 days to start an Internet business. Learn why right here.

Are you coming to ETR's 5 Days in July conference? What's the most important business-building technique you want to learn? Let us know right here.]

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Marketing guru Jay Abraham teaches that there are really only three ways to grow any business: Increase the number of customers, increase the number of purchases they make, and increase the average amount they spend on each purchase.

In the world of online marketing, this translates into getting more traffic to your website, increasing your sales conversion rate, and following up with your prospects and customers to make additional sales.

The easiest and most cost effective way to follow up with your prospects and customers is through e-mail marketing. This is why your primary objective with first-time visitors to your website should be to collect their contact information so you can build your own in-house e-mail list. You’ll also find that you’ll make more sales to repeat traffic that comes from your own e-mail list.

That’s why one of your resolutions for 2009 should be to get more traffic to your website. Today, I’m going to show you how to do it.

There are literally hundreds (possibly thousands) of ways to get traffic to your website. The way I see it, all of them can be broken down into three primary categories: free traffic, paid traffic, and what I call leveraged traffic. Let’s take a closer look at each one…

1. Free Traffic

As its name implies, free traffic is traffic that you don’t have to pay for. The main benefit of this type of traffic is pretty obvious: It’s free – and because of that, your potential return on investment (ROI) is almost unlimited.

The downside (relative to the other two types of traffic) is that it usually takes time to get a consistent, steady flow of visitors to your website, and it does take some work. The good news is that once you get it going, it builds on itself and the effect is long-term.

Here are my two favorite methods of generating free traffic …

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing the amount of traffic you get to your website from the search engines’ natural or “organic” search results. In human language, that means getting your site listed by Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines when people search for information related to your topic.

To get the most bang for your buck, you should identify the specific keywords that your prospects and potential customers are actually typing into the search engines, and create content on your website based on those keywords. Tools like SEO Book and Word Tracker will help you do this.

The idea, here, is that if you consistently add valuable content to your website, the rankings will follow.

For more SEO techniques, read Alexis Siemon’s article “Build a Rock-Solid SEO Foundation”
and Edwin Huertas’s article “Targeting the RIGHT Keywords for Your SEO Campaign.”

• Article Marketing – submitting your articles to other websites and article directories (like EzineArticles.com) – is another good way to get free traffic to your website.

As with the content you create on your website, write useful articles based on the keywords that your prospects and potential customers are searching for. Also, to get even greater visibility for your key terms, use “anchor text” with your keywords.

When submitting articles, I like to find websites related to my niche that already have high rankings in the search engines and already get a lot of traffic. Let’s say you run a business that sells stationery. To find likely websites to submit articles to, you might go to Google, type in “wedding stationery,” and make a list of the search results for that keyword. Then you’d do another search, this time for “bridal shower note cards.” You’d repeat the process for 10 or 20 related keywords. Once you have a list of top-ranked websites, contact them and offer to submit articles in exchange for a link back to your site.

2. Paid Traffic

The advantage of paid traffic is that it is immediate. Also, as compared to most free traffic, it is very quantifiable and easy to tell whether a paid traffic campaign is profitable or will be profitable in the future. The disadvantage is that it costs money, and you’ll probably experience some losses up front when you begin testing.

Here are two of my favorite methods of generating paid website traffic…

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising works in a way that is similar to SEO. When a user types a phrase into the search engine, they get a list of organic results. On the same page, they see a list of paid results – ads placed by advertisers based on the keywords that had been typed in.

Getting started with PPC is fairly simple. Set up an account with one of the major PPC networks (Google, MSN, or Yahoo). Select the keywords you want to bid on and get listed for, and write a short ad that will entice qualified prospects to click on your ad and visit your site. You can begin driving traffic to your website within minutes.

There are many factors that will determine your success with PPC, including how much you bid for the keywords, your ad copy, and your landing page copy. To make this method work, you have to constantly test, test, and then test some more. It may take some trial and error, but once you find a winning combination, you can roll it out and be more aggressive.

For more advice on how to get started with PPC, read Alexis’s articles “How a Google AdWords Campaign Can Help You Rev Up Your Sales” and “Seven Ways to Improve Your PPC Campaign.”

• E-zine Advertising can help you reach a large group of highly targeted prospects. You can find e-zines and online newsletters that are related to your niche simply by doing a search on Google. Let’s say you are in the credit repair niche. You might search Google for: “credit repair newsletter,” “credit repair e-zine,” and “credit repair e-newsletter.” Then check with the e-zines/websites that come up to see if they run paid advertising. In most cases, there will be several options, including short, inexpensive classified ads and more-expensive dedicated e-mail blasts.

Before testing an ad with an e-zine, I would first subscribe to it to see what it’s like to be one of their subscribers. Do they send out good, useful content? Do they publish regularly? And do they have ads for products/services that are similar to those you plan to advertise? If the answers to those questions is yes, then that publication is a good candidate for you.

Another tip is to look at the top ranked websites for your niche and see if they are acquiring names with any type of lead capture or subscription box. If they are, contact them to see if they would be open to running your ad to their list.

3. Leveraged Traffic

What is unique about leveraged traffic is that it has all the positives of free and paid traffic without the negatives. It is both free and immediate – and highly responsive, to boot. There are several ways to get leveraged traffic, including viral marketing and affiliate marketing. But I want to talk about my favorite form of leveraged traffic: joint ventures.

Joint ventures (JVs) give you a quick and powerful way to get traffic to your website, build your list, and make sales. It’s one of the methods I used to start and grow my online business – and it’s a key strategy for big, growing companies like Early to Rise.

While there is no one way to do joint ventures, the most common JVs in the online world involve cross promotions, also known as e-mail swaps: Your JV partner sends an e-mail to their list promoting your product, service, or squeeze page – and in exchange, you send an e-mail to your list promoting their product, service, or squeeze page.

What you will find with the kind of traffic generated this way is that not only will you get a lot of it fast, but it will be much more responsive to your offer because it comes as the result of an endorsement from your partner (assuming you selected a good JV partner). As you do more joint ventures, you’ll build your in-house e-mail list and will be able to leverage off of that to do more joint ventures with the owners of larger lists.

So how do you find a joint venture partner? It’s as simple as sending an e-mail, picking up the phone, or meeting someone at a conference or event. Introduce yourself, develop a relationship, and see if it makes sense for you to do business together. Once you experience the power of a joint venture, you’ll never look back.

For more on how to set up a profitable joint venture, read “Nine Strategies for Successful Joint Ventures” by Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby.

In this article, I described five specific ways you can start driving traffic to your website and build your in-house e-list – five of the most effective methods used here at Early to Rise. As you can see, we use a multi-channel approach to online marketing, and so should you.

I hope one of your resolutions for 2009 will be to focus on building your e-list by using multi-channel marketing. Improve on what you are already doing, and continue to learn new ways to generate more traffic, more subscribers, and, ultimately, more sales.

[Ed. Note: You can help speed your business to profitability with the five traffic-building strategies Internet Money Club Director Brian Edmondson revealed today. And you can discover more powerful, profit-accelerating marketing channels that can take your business to new levels of success. All you have to do is pick up the Amazon.com best-selling book by Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby, Changing the Channel, to get a crash course in 12 money-making secrets... and how they can turn you into a cash producer for any company you work for. Learn more right here.]

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[ETRVideos]b278ZKwTEvA[/ETRVideos]

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All other things being equal, the bigger your list, the more money you will make. That’s great news for marketers and list owners who have thousands, tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

But what if you are just getting started and don’t have a big list? Can you still make money with a small list?

The answer to that question is a resounding yes.

In fact, I personally experienced this when I first started marketing online. In one month, I was able to generate over $15,000 in sales with a list of only about 1,200 subscribers. And I built another small list (about 5,000 subscribers) that was able to generate six figures yearly.

You see, there is another key factor that determines how much money you can make with a list, other than its size. And that is the responsiveness of the list. Usually, in Internet marketing, responsiveness refers to how many people are opening your e-mails, clicking on your links, and taking action on what you want them to do (subscribing to your newsletter, for example, or making a purchase). The more people who do these things, the more “responsive” your list is.

Many things factor into building a responsive list – but one of best ways to increase its responsiveness is by developing a personal relationship with your subscribers.

The easier you make it for them to know, like, and trust you, the more likely they will be to open your e-mails, click on your links, and purchase the products you are selling or recommending.

So, in today’s digital world, how, exactly, do you develop a relationship with the people on your list?

Here are three specific things you can start doing right away to help create a bond with the users on the other end of your websites and e-mails and, thus, increase the responsiveness (and profitability) of your list.

• First, get personal.

Whenever you are writing copy for your website or an e-mail that you’ll be sending to your list, write it as if you were having a conversation with your reader, face to face. And look for ways to incorporate your personal story and your own personality into the copy.

I make my websites and e-letters personal by keeping my readers updated on where I am and what I’m doing. I also share information about my background (such as the fact that I’m a Penn State grad – Go Lions!), as well as my opinions on current news and events.

A good format is to start your e-mails with a quick personal update, then go into your content or sales message. And the “About” page on your website is a great place to share personal background information.

(Keep in mind that Early to Rise started out as a personal e-letter from Michael Masterson to a few of his colleagues.)

• Second, put a face to the name.

Be sure to have at least one photo of yourself on your website. Your readers want to know that there is a real person at the other end. See how Early to Rise does this with their Meet the Experts page. http://www.earlytorise.com/meet-the-experts/

Another good example is the way Alex Green uses a photo of himself with his two kids on his Spiritual Wealth website and at the bottom of each issue of his newsletter. A really effective “personal touch.”

• Third, use video.

Having video on your website is one of the best ways to connect with visitors (other than meeting them in person and shaking their hands). Soon enough, online video will be the rule, not the exception – because it’s not as expensive or as difficult as it used to be.

One tool to try is the Flip – an inexpensive camera you can use to record video and upload it to your website with the click of a button. You can see an example of how I use video, as well as the two other tactics discussed above, on my personal blog.

All three of these simple strategies can help you and your website stand out in a cold and crowded digital world. By taking advantage of them, you’ll quickly discover that while it’s true that “the money is in the list,” there is more money in your relationship with the people on that list.

[Ed. Note: As Internet marketing expert Brian Edmondson says, it IS possible to make serious money online, even if your e-mail list is still small. Brian - who is also Director of ETR's Internet Money Club will be speaking at ETR's 2008 Information Marketing Bootcamp this November. And he's not the only one. 11 other money-making experts have agreed to our "Internet Ultimatum." Learn how you could be making $1.2 million by the end of 2009 right here.]

But what if you’re not a graphic designer and don’t have the budget to hire one or buy an expensive graphic design program?

That’s the challenge one Internet Money Club member had last week. “Do you have some tips on how to add an attractive cover to my e-book?” she asked. “I want to learn how to do it before purchasing software or getting professional help.”

There are several ways to get professional results quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Here are the three that I use most often…

• First, you can go with a text-only design.

 That’s right. You can achieve a really nice effect without using any graphics at all. By working with different fonts and font sizes for the text, as well as different colors, you can get a nice look. Be sure to keep it consistent and utilize “white space” for a clean, professional look (think newspapers).

• Second, if you’re looking to incorporate graphics into your design, you can use graphics that are royalty free.

 Keep in mind that “royalty free” doesn’t mean “free.” Usually, you pay a small one-time fee up front for the graphic, and then you can use it as much as you like. You’ll find high-quality photos and images at a site like istockphoto.com.

• Third, you can hire a freelance graphic artist relatively inexpensively.

I’ve been able to find professionals to create entire packages for me, including website headers, e-book covers, banners, and “buy now” buttons for under $100. Look for freelancers on sites like Elance.com and Guru.com.

One important caveat…

I frequently talk with aspiring Internet entrepreneurs who have great ideas and great content to share with the world. In many cases, it’s the small things that hold them back from taking action – such as not having the perfect title for their product or not having the best looking graphics for their site.

It doesn’t matter how good or bad your websites, graphics, and e-book covers look if nobody ever sees them. The idea is not to get it perfect, but to just get it going.

Ready, Fire, Aim! Launch your website, start generating traffic, and start making sales. You can clean it up later.

[Ed. Note: High-level "secrets" to success on the Internet aren't necessarily complicated. While you can't get personal mentorship from Internet Money Club Director Brian Edmondson until the IMC Class of 2009 opens up, you can still get help to take your Internet business to the next level. ETR's team of experts has laid out a step-by-step program for creating a money-making business online. Get the details here.]

But should you give your freelancer a list of the keywords you are targeting?

That’s the question an Internet Money Club member asked last week. "I am in the process of outsourcing content on Elance. Should I give the contractor the keywords to write articles based on my keyword research?"

In short, the answer is yes.

When you write and submit articles, you want to get ranked for the specific terms your target audience is searching for. You can research the keywords your target market is searching for by using a simple keyword research tool such as Word Tracker (WordTracker.com).

When writing your articles, or having them written for you, you should focus each article around the keyword or keyword phrase you have selected. This would include having it in the title of the article, and sprinkled throughout the beginning, middle, and end of the article.

I usually aim to have a keyword density of around 2 percent. You can use a free tool at Live-Keyword-Analysis.com to check the keyword density of your articles.

Let’s say you’re writing an article on dog grooming. You may want to target the keyword phrase "dog grooming." (But stick to that one keyword phrase. Don’t try to target other phrases, such as "poodle haircut" or "dog toenail filing" in the same article.) Once you’ve selected your keyword or keyword phrase and written your article, you can run the article itself through the keyword analysis tool to determine its keyword density. If the keyword density is too high or too low, you can adjust it.

Also be sure to include the keywords you are targeting in the title of your articles – e.g., "Dog Grooming Mistakes and How to Avoid Them."

Keep in mind that you are writing for a human audience first. The search engine rankings are secondary. (You don’t want to go overboard and end up "keyword stuffing" your articles. Write naturally and be informative – and then use the keyword tools to get the most benefit from your articles.)

[Ed. Note: High-level "secrets" to success on the Internet aren't necessarily complicated. While you can't get personal mentorship from Internet Money Club Director Brian Edmondson until the IMC Class of 2009 opens up, you can still get help to take your Internet business to the next level. ETR's team of Internet marketing experts have laid out a step-by-step program for creating a money-making business online. Get the details here.]