Learn Internet Marketing Strategies For Your Business

Yesterday was a full set of tasks!  Creating an email list with the right settings takes a bit of time, especially as we combined that with writing the confirmation email and the welcome message. Review Day 2 Here

But now that we have the list technically created, it’s easy to get it up on the web.

So today we’ll take these steps in the 30 Day Autoresponder Challenge:

• Put the webform online
• Plan the first 10 messages in the autoresponder

Copy And Paste Your Way To List Building

Getting your webform is a pretty easy step; you simply need to copy the code that Aweber gives to you and paste it on to your blog or website in the source code. (I had copied it into my new list mindmap, but you’ll also find it in the Webform tab, and Get HTML link next to the webform you want).

The script will look like this:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://forms.aweber.com/form/11/747111.js”></script>

Don’t make any changes to it; simply put it exactly where on the page you want it to show up. This is how the form I made yesterday looks:

At first, I put this form at the top of my blog, but I didn’t like the way that it looked under my header and above the title of a blog post. So I decided to make a quick change to my web form in that Take Action Revise Later sort of way :)

I made a copy of my webform in Aweber’s webform panel, and changed my new form to be a lightbox instead of inline. I then added a new headline in the webform, and changed the button text.

This process takes some trial and error for sure because when you use a lightbox, you don’t want to have too much empty space at the bottom of the box. Likewise, you don’t want to have your box too short so that a scrollbar shows up.

So after about 6 different attempts, I finally got my settings the way I want them for now; here’s my new form:

So this is what shows up on the main page of my blog, once per day, for each visitor.

I’ll do some split testing with this later, and I’ll also be changing my homepage to have the new list on it.

But that comes later on in the Challenge.

For now, this is “good enough” and will serve it’s purpose while I take other steps that are necessary first.

By the way, if you’d like to see the lightbox effect in action, open up the main page of my blog, and you may see it pop in after 5 seconds or so. If you don’t see it, I’ve made changes to it since writing this post :)

The reason I’m using the lightbox instead of hover is simply it’s extreme focus. I’ve done split tests before with lightbox vs. hover, and the lightbox has won most of the time. It works so well because the box shows up on top of the page while the rest of the page is dimmed to a dark gray. There’s no way to ignore it. Be careful though, as these can get repetitious and annoying if you overuse them, or have them pop up every single time someone loads the page. I used the setting show once per day to have a middle ground of that.

Also, when you use a lightbox or hover form, you can put the <script> code anywhere on the page. But if you change it to an inline, you have to put the code exactly where you want that to show up. Just make sure you’re pasting that code in the HTML or source of a webpage or blogpage/post, and not in the WYSIWYG editor that you’re likely using by default.

We could put webforms on any webpage we have source code access to til the cows come home, but for now, we’re ready for the next step.

Did You Get The Videos For The 30 Day Challenge?

In a moment, I’ll show you how I’m planning out my first 10 messages. However, I wanted to show you the benefits of having the 30 Day Challenge Videos to help you through this process. Each day, you are noticing how I have 3-4 steps that I’m taking. Well, instead of reading each step, you can actually watch over my shoulder as I do them on the screen.

To illustrate this, and show you how powerful this can be for your learning, I’m going to give you one of the videos now. The video below will walk you through the steps I just wrote about above (putting the webform on your website). Just click play, and the video will open in a new window.

Each of the 30 Day Autoresponder Challenge videos is split into 3-6 sections of 3-15 minutes each, depending on the step that you’re watching. If you feel they will help you learn this faster, you can upgrade your account at DiscoverAutoresponders.com. You’ll also get the entire challenge in an easy-to-print eBook with all the days in one PDF.

Now back to our regularly scheduled instruction :)

Plan Out The First 6 Weeks Of Messages

I love how autoresponders will work for you even when you’re not anywhere near a computer. I recently took a transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2 from New York City to Hamburg, Germany (so I could spend several weeks in Poland). Before I left, I set up messages to go out while I was at sea, and they worked while I was relaxing.

But your messages need to serve a strategic purpose, especially your follow up series that will go out to every subscriber on your list.

So we need to take some time today to plan out the next set of messages.

Yesterday, I wrote the welcome message and gave people a chance to see me on video (to build trust), and gave them a tip about business focus. Now I need to plan out the next messages to bring people along a pathway that continues to give them what they want, accomplish the goals I set out on Day 1, and generate reliable revenue for me.

I encourage you to plan out messages 2-10 with me today. You don’t need to write them today; that will come later in the challenge. But by mapping out what you want to say, the resources to recommend, the methods of interaction, etc., you’ll make a more logical communication path that will provide very strong results.

Of course, I use Freemind to do this plan, and I’m giving you a new map today. This map is a foundational template which you can reorganize as you see fit.

At first, I took this map and added the main ideas I want to have in each message, and what I want people to do after reading (go see a video, comment on a blog, take a survey, buy a resource, download a free report, etc.). After making the map, I realized that some things were not quite in the order that makes the most sense, so I rearranged it accordingly.

So now I have a game plan for my 2-10 messages. And since I’m spacing these to go out between 3-8 days apart, this will be about 6 weeks worth of communication! As I continue on the Challenge, I’ll be able to let my 10 messages do their thing while I continue to optimize the other parts of my list. Then I’ll plan out messages 11-20 later and give myself another 6-8 weeks of time to work on other areas of my business.

I’d like to highlight in this map how I’ve categorized what’s actually going on in each message, and encourage you to follow a similar pattern. You don’t want to spend so much time building credibility that you forget to generate revenue. And you also don’t want to send offer after offer every day.

Download This Map | Get Freemind

With this as your guide, plan out your messages 2-10, striking that balance between helpful recommendations, unexpected surprises, ideas that help your readers consume what you’re giving them, etc.

Also notice that I am using my autoresponder to get people back to my blog. So I’m leveraging content that’s already online (in this case my own, but you can always use others if you don’t have a lot of web content yet). Since I’m sending them to my blog frequently, I’ll also see an ongoing comment-fest helping to build my community.

I’m also going to be incorporating a survey. This way, I’ll be asking my readers what they want, and my follow up series will deliver what they’ve asked for. If I initially miss the mark with messages after the survey, I can go back and revise them with the data from my survey. More on that on Day 8 of the Challenge.

With this plan in place, I’ll be able to write up message #2 tomorrow knowing that it’s the first in a series that will have major effects on my business and those I’m teaching.

Bob Jenkins

p.s. As you complete Day 3, please let me know what obstacles you’re running up against, or the Ah-Has that you are experiencing as you go through this with me! I need to know you’re still on track after a busy first couple of days :)  Post your comments below…

p.p.s. I’ll be posting Day 4 on the blog tomorrow, but if you want to make sure you don’t miss a single day of the 30 Day Challenge, make sure you’re getting my update alerts via email!

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