- Tony C.

Dear Tony,

List brokers are people who recommend and rent out other people’s e-mail lists for a commission – and there are lots of them. To find reputable brokers who provide good service, I suggest going to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) vendor search website (thedirectmarketingsearch.com). This site allows you to search for DMA-recommended brokers.

Lists are typically rented on a CPM (cost per thousand) basis. If, for example, the price quoted by the broker for XYZ list is $50 CPM, it would cost you $250 to rent 5,000 names on that list through the broker. But chances are she’s marking up that CPM by 10 percent to cover her commission. Which is why it’s sometimes better to go directly to the source – the list owner. That way, you can send your ad to the list you want without paying the broker’s commission. In this example, you would pay the list owner $45 CPM ($225) to send your ad to the same 5,000 names.

How do you find good e-mail lists without a broker? Here’s the approach I recommend. Do a Web search for websites related to the kind of product you’re marketing. Let’s say you’re marketing a health product. In that case, you’d look for health-related websites. When you find one that looks interesting, sign up for their newsletter. That puts you on their e-mail list. When you start receiving e-mails from them, pay attention to what you’re getting. Does the newsletter advertise products from other companies… or only its own? Are they sending separate e-mails recommending products from other companies? Are there repeat advertisers? 

Just as important is to make sure you are receiving useful editorial content in addition to the ads. Take Early to Rise, for example. Yes, we do send you e-mails that sell and recommend various products. However, we also send you a newsletter that is packed full of valuable information, seven days a week. Because of this, you trust us as a sender – and you open the e-mails we send… including ads for products being sold by other companies.

Now suppose we stopped sending the newsletter, and every e-mail we sent was an advertisement. After a while, you’d probably stop opening them. The same is true with websites you might want to advertise through. If the only thing they send people on their e-list is advertisements, you can assume that not too many people are opening them… let alone buying anything from them.

When you find a website that sends out good content and you’d like to test their e-list, contact them directly to ask for rates. But before you do the deal, here are two questions you should ask:

1. What is the average open rate for third-party mailings? (How many people on their e-mail list open the e-mails sent to them by outside advertisers?)
2. What is the average click-through rate for third-party mailings? (How many of the people who open those e-mails click on the link to the advertiser’s offer page?)

The answers to those questions will help you see what you are actually paying for – no matter how big the list is.

Let’s go back to our XYZ example, where you can rent 5,000 names from the list owner for $225. If they were to say the average open rate for third-party mailings is 10 percent, you could assume that 500 people would open and see your ad. And if they were to say that the average click-through rate for third-party mailings is 10 percent, you could assume that you’ll be paying $225 for 50 people to click through to the offer page on your website (though they wouldn’t necessarily make the purchase).

The answers to those questions can also help you determine if the CPM the list owner is charging is reasonable.

Let’s say you have determined that you can make an average of $15 for each person who clicks through to your offer. So if you get 50 click-throughs, you can expect to bring in $750. In our XYZ example, it’s going to cost you $225 to bring in that $750. Good deal. But if the list owner wanted $1,000 for 5,000 names, you can see that you would be making a really bad deal. You wouldn’t be able to break even, even if everyone who clicked through to your offer bought your product.

Most reputable e-mail list providers should be able to provide you with the answers to those two questions. They also should be able to provide you with a detailed report after your ad is sent, detailing exactly how many people opened the e-mails with your ad, and how many people clicked through to your offer page.

Your success is never guaranteed. But if the results of that report don’t match the average numbers the list owner provided you with, you can oftentimes get them to give you a free mailing or another bonus to make up the difference.

- Patrick Coffey, ETR’s Director of Internet Marketing

[Ed. Note: Send your questions to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com. Include your full name, your hometown and state, and the ETR team may answer you in an upcoming issue.

And for step-by-step instructions on starting your own Internet business, get ETR's Magic Button program. Click here to learn more.]

I’ve always enjoyed the holidays. It’s my chance to show the important people in my life how much I care about them. And I take pride in giving good gifts. There’s nothing that feels better than seeing someone’s smile light up the room as they unwrap my present.

Last Christmas, I decided to get my little sister her very first cellphone. (I think she was the last 16-year-old in all of Florida without one.) And it wasn’t just any cellphone. I splurged and bought the hottest Motorola on the market at the time.

I knew the gift was going to be a winner, but I wanted it to be a big surprise. So I also bought her a pair of jeans from her favorite store in the mall and put the cellphone in the pocket.

On Christmas day, I presented her with my gift, and she quickly opened it. She seemed really excited. After all, the box was from her favorite store. But before she could pull out the jeans, I reached into my pocket and called her cellphone. When her jeans started ringing, she grabbed her new phone and gave me the biggest hug imaginable.

Recently, I was on a teleconference call with Bob Cox as part of ETR’s Total Success Achievement program. During the call, we talked about gift giving and the holidays, including what makes someone a good gift giver. And it occurred to me that there are a bunch of similarities between good gift givers and good marketers.

After thinking about it for a while, I came up with two rules that you can follow to not only become a better gift giver, but also sell more products to your customers.

Rule #1: Understand Your Prospect

Making sales and giving gifts that people love both start with the number one rule in marketing: Understand your prospect. So the first question you need to ask yourself – as a gift giver or as a marketer – is: "Who am I buying for / selling to?"

If your little niece Anne is a tomboy, you don’t want to get her a Barbie doll in a pink dress. And your coach potato uncle Tom won’t get much use out of a mountain bike.

This is an important rule that most marketers know but still ignore. They confuse "popular" with "wanted by everyone." That Barbie doll might be the hottest toy of the season, but that won’t make Anne want to play with it. And though that tax preparation guide is your colleague’s best-selling product, it’s not going to interest your e-mail list of dog lovers.

Understanding your prospect is the key to getting her a good gift or offering him a product he’ll jump to buy.

The best way to find out what your prospects want is to ask them. What are their hobbies, interests, likes, and dislikes? It’s easy to get on the phone with your niece… or shoot an e-mail to your customer.

Often, your prospects will tell you exactly what they want. ("I want a new baseball glove." "I want a product that helps me train my new puppy not to bark.") But even if they don’t tell you, you’ll still get an idea of what they might be interested in. You just have to listen to what they say… and maybe do a little reading between the lines. ("I really love baseball, and the Little League season starts in two months." "I got an adorable new dachshund… but his yipping is starting to annoy our neighbors.")

From this information, you can start to understand your prospects’ wants. Then you can put yourself in their shoes. ("If I were an 11-year-old girl who loves to play baseball, what would I want?" "If I had a new puppy that wouldn’t shut up, what would I want?") By doing this, I can guarantee you won’t buy your niece that Barbie doll or offer your dog-loving customer a tax preparation guide.

At Early to Rise, we often survey our customers before we begin to create a new product. Our Internet Money Club, for example, came out of a survey we had sent to ETR readers about their interest in Internet marketing. From the survey results, we found that they wanted a comprehensive Internet marketing program that would cover all the details of starting an online business. Many of them told us that though they’d found good ideas in some of our other programs, that didn’t solve their main problem: not knowing how to start an online business from the very beginning.

Because we took the time to listen to our prospective customers and come up with a product that would solve that problem, it’s no surprise that the Internet Money Club sold out in a matter of weeks.

Rule #2: Focus on Wants Instead of Needs

Even if you do a good job of getting to know your prospect, you can fall into a big trap. In fact, it’s one of the biggest mistakes both marketers and gift givers make. And it happens when you focus more on what your prospects need, and not on what they want.

Now, this can seem counterintuitive. You may think that if Jimmy needs new underwear and tube socks, he must surely want them. But I can guarantee that what he wants is that new Xbox game. Likewise, you might think, "If this product is something my customers need, surely they must want it… or at least see the benefit in it."

We’ve fallen into this trap ourselves. Take, for example, the marketing campaign we created for a program called The Instant Entrepreneur. Everyone in the office thought the concept was great – giving start-up entrepreneurs all the forms, tax information, legal requirements, etc. they would need to start a business.

But we released the marketing campaign… and it fell flat on its face. It was probably our single worst product launch EVER in terms of sales.

When we evaluated the campaign, we realized we had made the "wants vs. needs" mistake. What our prospects wanted was a quick and easy way to get a business going so they could supplement their income. Sure, they needed the information in our Instant Entrepreneur program… but it wasn’t what they wanted.

Are you making this mistake in your business? And are you falling into the "wants vs. needs" trap in your gift giving?

Fixing this problem is fairly simple. And it goes back to Rule #1. Understand your prospects. Listen to them. Get to know them. Find out as much as you can about them. And then give them what they want. Don’t presume that you know better. What you think is good for them is not always going to be something they’ll want as a gift… and it’s not always going to be something they’ll pay for.

To have a more profitable business… and to see pure joy on the faces of the people you give gifts to… just follow these two rules:

1. Understand your prospects.
2. Focus on their wants instead of their needs

[Ed. Note: Patrick Coffey is ETR’s Director of Internet Marketing. Discover one of the most profitable "hidden" Internet income opportunities around in the Secrets of Easy Internet MoneyCD series.]

I hear comments like this all the time from Internet entrepreneurs and e-business owners just like you.

Getting your website listed on Google using AdWords is a way to drive targeted traffic to your website instantly. With AdWords, you choose keywords for your ad – and when people perform Google searches using those keywords, your ad will show up on the right-hand side of their search results.

But choosing the right keywords can be tricky.

There are thousands of Internet articles, forums, blogs, and e-books devoted to "mastering Google AdWords" – some better than others. But I’m going to show you how to do it in three easy steps.

There are more than 387,000 Google AdWords advertisers, and new people are jumping on the program in droves. I think it’s fair to say that most of them are unsuccessful – meaning they end up spending more on their Google AdWords than they generate in sales.

That’s because most new advertisers shoot for the moon – and try to secure the top keywords at a premium. You see, Google AdWords are offered in an auction format. The most sought after keywords (like "loan," "mortgage," "hosting," "ring tones") are placed up for auction, and the highest bidder receives the TOP spot on the right-hand side of the search results pages.

Click-through costs for top positions in Google can be as high as $100 per click. So if your advertising cap is $300 per month, your account would close after a measly three clicks. You can see why most AdWords advertisers walk away shell-shocked.

But you can get listed on Google AdWords without breaking the bank. Here’s how:

Easy Step #1 for Mastering Google AdWords: The Money Is in the Middle

Instead of trying to secure the top spot and paying a premium for it … shoot for the middle.

Sure, most of the people searching Google (or any engine, for that matter) rarely look deeper than two or three pages. Which means if your AdWords ad is on page 4, 5, 6, or 70 of the search results, you’ll probably receive very little action. (Not many potential customers will click through to your page.)

What’s more, most of the advertisers "at or near the bottom" of the AdWords ladder typically stay there or drop out. And guess what? Advertisers "near the top" of the AdWords ladder usually drop out too – because it’s just too costly.

That’s why you need to aim for the middle of the cost-per-click range.

When you place bids for keywords in the middle range, the chances are very good that your ad will move up the totem pole (without any added expense) when advertisers near the top drop out. And many times your ad will be featured on the FIRST search results page, right next to the Big Spenders.

Easy Step #2 for Mastering Google AdWords: Getting Rich From Research

Most people don’t have the time to research keywords. They develop a list of words off the top of their head, or they receive help from people who have no Internet, search engine marketing, or direct-response expertise.

If you want to separate yourself from the 387,000+ Google AdWords advertisers, you’ll need to do some basic research on the keywords that you want to purchase. But fear not. There’s an easy way to do it – and it can even be a lot of fun.

There are hundreds of keyword research tools and applications on the Internet. Two of the better ones are Wordtracker and Keywords Analyzer.

I like Google’s Zeitgeist. This tool will show you the most popular Google keyword searches in several categories.

Another tool I like is Overture’s Keyword Selection Tool. (Overture has been bought out by Yahoo. However their keyword selection tool is still active.) This is not perfect. It’s only a gauge of popular keyword search terms for the previous month. But when you combine it with Google’s Zeitgeist, it’s pretty powerful.

You’ll want to select keywords that already have huge search traffic – not words that you think will have huge search traffic. That’s where your research comes in. Once you’ve studied which words are drawing the most traffic, you’ll have a better idea of which keywords you need to use.

For example, let’s say you’re selling watches – and, by the way, the word "watch" received more than 529,287 searches in November. How do you tie your keyword ads to current popular search traffic?

Let’s take a look at the top 10 keyword searches in Google. For the week ending December 9, they were:

1. James Kim
2. Pearl Harbor
3. NASA
4. Randy Newman
5. Alessandra Ambrosio
6. Taco Bell
7. Pirates of the Caribbean
8. minimum wage
9. Rich Rodriquez
10. America’s next top model

You might be able to work with some of these top-ranking keywords for your product. For instance:

• Pearl Harbor watches
• NASA watches
• Pirates of the Caribbean watches
• America’s next top model watches

Keep in mind that straight keyword ads work too (watches, designer watches, cheap watches, specific watch brands, etc.).

After you’ve selected your keywords, you’ll need a headline for your ad that stands out from the masses. The objective is to drive traffic to your site and close the sale.

That brings me to writing headlines.

Easy Step #3 for Mastering Google AdWords: Headlines Make ALL the Difference

Google AdWords allows space for three lines of text – a headline, the body, and your URL.

The URL should describe your product: GreatWatches.com, DesignerWatches.com, DesignerWatchesCheap.com … or something like that. People won’t always bother clicking your ad – they’ll type the URL right into their browser.

The body should offer an immediate benefit, like "Look the Part" or "Lowest Watch Prices."

There are thousands of approaches to writing Google AdWords headlines. Enter a few of the top keywords listed above into Google and you’ll see what I mean. Just make sure your headline grabs your prospect’s attention – and doesn’t let go until he clicks on your ad.

Ask yourself which headlines are working for your competitors. Which headlines do you see repeated week after week after week? The reason most AdWords advertisers continue running the same ad is because it works.

If you can make it work for your product or service, come up with an unusual or newsworthy headline that will stand out from all the other possibilities staring at your prospect. (Do a search on Google news for ideas.)

For instance, you could try these Google AdWords headlines to sell your watches:

• Avoid Designer Fraud
• Watch Huckster Arrested
• Designer Watch Ripoffs

Once you’ve mastered Google AdWords, you’ll get plenty of prospects clicking through to your website. Then it’s up to your site to make the sale. Make sure your website copy flows naturally with your Google AdWords ad … and you’ll enjoy huge profits.

[Ed. Note: Why not make starting your own Internet business one of your goals for 2007? With ETR's special End-of-the-Year Biz Op Bundle, you'll have everything you need to get it off the ground - and make it hugely profitable.Order now. This special deal won't last long.]

Collecting lists of e-mail addresses for qualified prospects.

Once you can do that (and today I’m going to show you how), you immediately have an incredibly valuable asset: a database of potential customers you can market to, as often as you like, for almost zero cost.

Having an in-house e-mail subscriber list gives you access to an ongoing conversation with people who like and trust you. They have asked you (opted in) to send them specific information that will enhance their life or business in some way.

When someone asks you to send him information on a regular basis, he’s much more receptive to your sales pitch or marketing promotion.

Here Are the Top 10 Ways to Build an E-Mail Subscriber List:

1. Purchase advertising in e-mail newsletters, e-zines, discussion lists, and blogs that have a similar audience.

This is typically the last place entrepreneurs will go because of the expense. But you can reach tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, of targeted subscribers instantly for only a few hundred dollars. Publishers are often eager to work with people who pay in advance for advertising.

2. Write articles.

Writing articles that are published to a large targeted audience is a great way to obtain new subscribers. Simply include the URL to your sign-up page at the end of your articles. You can submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and the GoogleBase. Publishers are always looking for articles to run in their e-zines, websites, and newsletters.

3. Submit your e-zine, discussion list, newsletter, or blog into the top search engines and directories.

If you don’t have a Web page devoted to your publication and the opt-in process, it won’t get crawled by the top engines.

4. Use e-zine announcement lists to promote your e-zine.

E-zine announcement lists give you an easy way to promote your e-zine on an ongoing basis. Most of them are free, but the best ones charge a small fee and reach a much larger, targeted audience. A couple of the better announcement lists are Ezine-Universe, SparkList, and List-A-Day (which is a review site). You can find hundreds of others by searching Google.

5. Swap ads with other e-zine and newsletter publishers.

This usually only works if you have something of value to share. If you have less than 1,000 subscribers on your list, ad swapping won’t appeal to most publishers. But you could provide articles, content, research, or some other needed service in exchange for promoting your publication and sign-up page to their audience.

6. Create an e-book and use it as a bonus for subscribing to your publication.

This is one of the most overlooked areas for building an e-mail list. An e-book can be a few pages or up to a couple of hundred pages (or more). But an e-book has a high perceived value – especially if it’s written "on demand" or addresses a hot current topic or idea. You can distribute your e-book free of charge across the Internet or on sites like ClickBank, with a view to increasing the size of your subscriber list. Be sure to include your opt-in page URL throughout the e-book.

7. Swap recommendations with other e-zine publishers.

Advertorials are hot! You could recommend another publisher’s e-zine in your own words to your subscriber base in exchange for them doing the same for you. This becomes an even greater tool when your subscriber lists are in the tens or hundreds of thousands.

8. Post a sample issue of your e-zine, newsletter, or discussion list on your site or with an autoresponder.

Sample issues are a great way to build subscriber lists. If people like what they see, they’ll usually subscribe. You can submit issues of your newsletter to the GoogleBase and other content libraries.

9. Use your signature file to promote your e-zine.

I don’t know how effective signature files really are, but almost every publisher uses them. A signature file simply promotes your e-zine on all of your outgoing e-mails. You can also add these files to your posts to discussion lists or online forums.

10. Place free ads in other e-zines.

Many e-zine publishers allow their subscribers to place free promotions in their publications that they feel are of value to other subscribers. Powerful ad copy is a must. Don’t waste words. A powerful promise and benefit with a link to your sign-up page usually works fine.

An Insider Secret for Building E-Mail Subscriber Lists Quickly and Easily

Launching a search engine or directory is one of the fastest, easiest, and simplest ways of building an e-mail subscriber list. It’s also one of the most closely guarded secrets.

Think about it.

People submit their websites, articles, images, videos, and other information into Internet search engines and directories without hesitation. What’s more, people are usually very receptive during the submission process to receive additional information if they think it will help their business or increase traffic to their website.

So it makes perfect sense to offer a newsletter, e-mail bulletin, update, or e-zine that meets this demand.

For example, MS developed a general-interest Internet search engine that excluded adult-oriented websites. He figured that when people submitted their URLs into a search engine, they might be responsive to other methods and tactics to promote their sites. So he launched an e-mail newsletter that’s built around search engine optimization, marketing, tactics, and promotion.

In order to submit your website URL into MS’s search engine, you have to agree to a strict privacy policy (which clearly states you will not send spam). Submitters also agree to receive a weekly e-mail newsletter on Internet marketing tactics. At last count, MS had more than 655,000 opt-in subscribers on his list!

Launching a search engine or directory is NOT as hard as it seems. A search engine is simply a website with a database, coupled with some type of searching technology (like Verity). If you research the topic on the Internet, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find – and how easy it is.

The bottom line is that people are much more receptive to "opt in" to your newsletter or e-zine if you give them something of value – like enabling them to submit their URL or website information in a search engine or directory.

Another insider method for building an e-mail subscriber list is to launch an Internet search engine or directory and provide an opt-in subscription box during the submission process.

Finally, you can purchase opt-in subscriber lists from reputable, established publishers and Internet entrepreneurs. The keywords are "reputable and established." If a publisher has been mailing an e-mail newsletter or e-zine to an opt-in subscriber list on a regular basis for more than two years – in the industry, that would be considered "established."

But a word of warning with regards to buying opt-in subscriber lists: You might want to include an addendum that stipulates mailing to the list for three months before any agreement is final. This will protect you should the majority of the addresses be undeliverable and/or everyone decides to opt out.

There you have it – the best ways to build an e-mail subscriber list quickly and easily.

[Ed. Note: Join Patrick, Michael Masterson, and an elite team of the nation's leading online marketing experts this October at ETR's Info Marketing Bootcamp: Making a Fast Fortune on the Information Revolution. Come with an idea for your start-up business or existing business ... and leave with a rock-solid marketing plan for transforming that idea into a lasting stream of income.]