If you don't have a list, this will help you.

If you do have a list, it'll clarify your thinking.

I realize this is a shorter MMM than you're used to.  This is the Marlon's Marketing MINUTE edition.

The full-blown MMM PDF's will shortly turn into a $17 a month membership.  There will be additional value added in the form of a FB group or forum where I'll post content and videos.  I'm debating the group vs. a forum.

The reason for this is that your business needs to adapt to the current environment.  And I want more consumption and exposure for my newsletter.  Affiliates aren't going to promote a free newsletter.  By going to a paid model and adding more value, you win if you care about value other than free.

And I get more exposure for the Gospel of Marketing by expanding the reach via affiliates.

My current plan is to have a short  Marlon's Marketing Minute somewhat like this for free each week vs. the long, paid pdf's.

Or I might do 1 PDF a month.  I honestly haven't made up my mind yet.

I fully realize a few customers will feel I done somebody wrong by not continuing to give it away free.  At the same time, others will see it as they got a $200 value each years for the past 7 or so years or $1400 FREE. And they'd be appreciative of that fact.

There are 3 basic ways to build your email list:

1.  Paid advertising

For most new people, this will end up being a waste of money.  You haven't figured out your target audience, message and media to reach them.

If you have the money to burn, it's not a bad choice.  But most people don't.

I won't say you can't start small and scale up.  People do all the time.  But they're outliers or exceptions.  Most people aren't willing to risk even $500 on ads.  In fact, a lot don't want to risk $100.

Most of the people I know who succeeded at paid ads burnt through at least a few thousand dollars first before they figured it out.

Let's say you test 5 ad angles, 5 images and 10 interests. That's 250 adsets to test right there (5 x 5 x 10).  If you spend $10 a day per adset, you can see, that's a pretty substantial budget.  Even $5 a day.

2.  Content marketing

Youtube videos, blogging, podcasts.  These are all viable ways to build your list if you can stick with it 6 months to a year.

They absolutely work.  But the results come slowly.

3.  Affiliate marketing

Selling your product through affiliates.

This method costs you nothing upfront.  You pay only after sales are made.  If you put up affiliate prizes, you have a potential risk there.  But you can create "no-risk" ways of doing that.

The great thing about affiliate marketing is it can blow up a lot faster than content marketing.  And you don't have the risk of paid ads.

Here's How It Builds Your List

Everyone who buys goes on your email list.

Not only that, at least some will consume your product, which tightens your bond with them and increases the chance they remember your name when you send them emails.

You'll make at least some money upfront, so you're getting paid to build your list instead of going out of pocket as in paid ads.

You get a faster result than content marketing.  It's also a bit more a sure thing. With content marketing, people may or may not watch your videos. You may or may not get Google to show love to your blog posts.

You don't need big launches. 

You can build a very successful business off of small launches.

If you bought the Productivity Hacks $5 I promoted, you saw how Kevin does 2 launches a month to build his list.  Each launch may only sell 250 to products on average.  But the consistency and frequency makes up for lack of volume.

You can read the issue I wrote on it here.

And yes, I know you have no idea what you'd do that many launches on.  Kevin does monthly checklists and outsources them.  Last week in Fast Track we did a bit of brainstorming and discussion on things you can launch monthly like this using outsourcers.

The short version is templates, software, checklists, cheat sheets, video trainings, plr and much more.

You can also collaborate with others who have products and just handle the marketing.

The point is, you don't need big launches to build your list.  Consistency counts.

What I've discovered is most people won't take action.  They'll debate this forever mentally and wilt when it comes to taking action due to different types of internal resistance.  

I discuss how to overcome this here.

Best wishes,

Marlon

PS:  I realize for many of you, $97/mo. for the Fast Track doesn't fit in your budget.  So I've come up with a new version of MILCERS (pronounced Milkers as in Milk the Web) -- Marlon's Internet Marketing Lifestyle Club.

Milcers is all about:

1.  Create Income Streams
2.  Put them on full or semi-auto pilot
3.  Live the Internet lifestyle

How To Get My Monthly 25+-Page Newsletter
AND a Monthly Live Training For Only $1.19 a day.
With a $1 Trial To Test It Out

1. If you want to grow, build, improve or enhance your business, the new Milcers private site can make that happen for you.

2. If you need to get money rolling in the door right NOW then you need to get going YESTERDAY and your keywords of the day are going to be "STAT", "FAST", "NOW" and "GET RESULTS". If you need money coming in, if you need to get the cash flowing, if you need to get things rolling along then the new Milcers private membership has got lots of help for you.

Coming Soon!

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