Today’s action steps are:

• Tweak message 5 with a tracking code
• Get a free report ready for message 6
• Write message 6

Let’s jump in…

Track Effects Of Message 5

When I wrote message 5 the other day, I promoted my IM Success Library as a solution to the challenges my readers are facing. But one of the things I didn’t do was to make it easy for me to see the impact of that message on my business.

There are 2 ways to do this: use Aweber’s analytics tools and/or a unique affiliate link from my IMSL.

I’ll tackle Aweber’s analytics later, and focus on using an affiliate link today.

Since my IM Success Library is run with Butterfly Marketing software, I can create a new member inside the admin dashboard. I use an obvious name to help me know the referrals and sales are coming from this particular message: bob-message5btt2. I use that for the paypal email as well so I don’t try to pay myself later.

Then I login as that member to get the affiliate link.

Now posting a link like this is not ideal:

http://www.imsuccesslibrary.com/members/?only=793

So I’ll make a redirect to make it a friendlier link. I login to my cPanel at IM Success Library, and use the redirect option to make IMSuccessLibrary.com/silver redirect to the link above.

I also tweak my message 5 to tie in with the link, by telling them more specifically that the gift I’m giving them is part of the Silver membership at IMSL, which they get free by going through that link.

Give A Free Report

Now it’s time to give them a useful report that helps address some of the concerns from the survey.

I already have a report called “7 Questions You Didn’t Know To Ask About Web Hosting”, and I’m going to update the inside of it, and give it away in message 6.

Remember, as part of the benefits of subscribing, they’re going to get 1 free report each month. This report discusses the terminology of webhosting, the features to look for in a good webhost, and which web hosting companies I recommend. This allows me to help spread the word about Hostgator and Kiosk, which I use for my own business after years of testing other services. They also happen to have excellent affiliate programs, FYI.

When they signed up to my list in the first place, I am giving them an audio program (MP3). Now, 3 weeks into the series, they get another gift. This should help them continue to see great value in what I’m offering, and stick around for a long time to come.

TIP: I recommend you give a report or MP3 program on occasion to your subscribers, too. It’s a great way to build further loyalty. If you don’t know how to create your own free reports, I have a video-based course on that inside IM Success Library, called Discover Product Creation, which breaks down the process into 3 steps: content creation, formatting for the web, online delivery system.

Write Message 6

With my report selected I need to get it into the hands of my subscribers in message #6.

I could attach it to the Aweber message, but I find this isn’t advantageous for two reasons.

1. People are suspicious of attachments
2. Updates to the report won’t be automatic, but if I link to it online, it will always be the current version.

So I load it up to my Amazon S3 account, and link directly to it from within the email.

I’m also going to put the ecover graphic in the HTML version of the email, making sure to use the image tip in case their images are turned off. Of course in the text version, I simply supply the direct link to the file.

Message 6 includes a reminder of why they’re getting the report, and what the benefits are of reading it. I use the PS to provoke some curiosity. It’s always a good idea to hint at what’s inside, and what page number it’s on or chapter it’s in.

With message 6 finished, I now have 22 days covered in my series, and another few days to work on other areas of optimizing my list.

And in case you’re wondering, here are the updated results of my webform split test on my homepage.

The top half is the split test for my homepage, and the bottom split test is for my download pages of my member areas. Before I sent the message yesterday, my squeeze opt-in rate peaked at 24-25%. The higher numbers now reflect the source of the traffic (a well-written email before they came to the page), as opposed to standard search engine browsers. It’s also starting to show me which of the 4 forms I should get rid of.

When I create my affiliate program tomorrow, though, I know to use a variation of the email I sent to my own list since it did pretty well.

Until tomorrow!

Bob Jenkins
DiscoverAutoresponders.com

p.s. Remember, giving your subscribers extra free content of value (like a report, video, or MP3) is a great way to build loyalty and increase long term profits. Look inside IM Success Library for a number of ways to create products.

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