My Last Newsletter of 2009

I recently published my final internet business newsletter of 2009.

Take a look at my December 2009 Internet Business Newsletter and you will find:

- Monthly Internet Business Idea Spotlight - Make Money from Writing
- Feature Article - 7 Reasons Why I Love Being an Internet Marketer
- Monthly Freebie Corner - download 2 FREE EBooks
- Feature article - Can you really make money from Blogging

If you are reading this I hope you enjoy the last few days of 2009 and I will be posting again in 2010!

How to Build an Opt in Email List

When you have an online business, one of the most important things you can do is learn how to build an optin in email list. It is not as hard to do as some people think it is. You just need to know how to build a mailing list effectively.

Here are the most important steps that you need to take to build your mailing list:

1. Find a Valuable Freebie to Offer Your Subscribers – If you are going to capture the name and email addresses of visitors, you should offer them something for free, but be sure it is something of value. The first step is to find the free item that you will be giving away and ensure that it is something people will want. It can be a report, software, free business tools or anything else that they would willingly give you their information for.

2. Build a Squeeze page or lead capture page – The next step is to build a lead capture page or squeeze page. This is just a simple page where you offer the freebie, provide the reasons it is a good idea for them to sign up for your newsletter and then put a capture form from any auto-responder on the site. Here is an example of a lead capture page.

3. Create a Newsletter – You need to sign up for an autoresponder account such as GetResponse and start setting up a newsletter or ezine. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but again, provide free articles, resources, videos and many other things that people will want. This will encourage them to stay on your email list after they have received the freebie offered to get them there. Send out a newsletter once a week, every two weeks or even monthly to keep in contact with the people on your list.

4. Market Your Squeeze Page – This is a vital step to take once you have done the other steps. If people don’t know about your squeeze page, they will never sign up. You have to market your page, just like you do your online business. This is the only way to get people to sign up and the more ways you use to market, the faster you will build your list

Hopefully this will give you an idea of how to build an optin in email list. The sooner you get started, the sooner you can start growing your list until it is one of your most powerful business building tools to use.

You can read more tips on how to build an email list here.

Free EBook - 30 Ways to Get Free Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less

I just released a brand new FREE EBook called 30Ways to Get Free Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less.

Traffic is one of the things that most affiliate marketers and website owners struggle with. This book simplifies the traffic generation process by giving you a list of different things you can do that don't cost money or take too much time.

I wrote this book in collaboration with 4 friends and fellow online business owners - Ken Troyer, Jeff Schuman, Cynthia Minnaar and Jeff Casmer.

If you want to download it, just register for my free home business newsletter using the box on the right hand side and you will get instant access to my bonus page, which includes over 15 different valuable bonuses including this one.

7 Reasons I Love Being an Affiliate Marketer

The majority of people don't love their job, and I fell into that category myself just a few years ago.

Today I was thinking about how great it was to be a work from home affiliate marketer and how lucky I am not to have to drag myself into an office to do a job that I don't particularly enjoy.

So I have put together a few reasons why I LOVE working from home full time as an affiliate marketer. Hopefully this will inspire you if you are aiming to start or grow your own home business.

1) You don't have to get up too early in the morning - not everyone is a morning person and when I worked full time in an office I found it a struggle to jump out of bed at 7am, especially in the cold dark months of winter. Now that I work for myself I can set the alarm just that little bit later and if I don't feel like getting up, there is always the option of the snooze button.

2) You can work ANYWHERE - as long as you have a wireless internet connection and a laptop you can work wherever you like. I can work in my home office, I can work on the sofa while watching a movie, I can work outside in the garden when the weather is warm (not often here in Scotland) or I can take myself on an "extra vacation" and do a little bit of work each day.

3) You are the BOSS - it is great to be the boss of yourself, rather than have to report to someone else. In my time I have had one or two evil bosses (no names mentioned here). Now if I want to go on vacation, take some time off for an appointment or do the work I enjoy the most rather than the work someone else wants me to do, I can just ask myself (and "yes" is usually the answer!).

4) You Get Fast Visible RESULTS - when you work for a large company it is often difficult to see the direct results of your work. In my work as an affiliate marketer I often see the results of my work the following week or even the following day. A change to my website, or a promotion can result in new signups and sales, which spurs me on and motivates me to do more of the same.

5) You Earn Money while Asleep or on Vacation - the beauty of having websites is that they work while you are asleep, out socializing, on vacation, or when you just don't feel like working. I love logging in in the morning to see these commission emails. I also love coming back from vacation to find that I have made the same amount of sales while I have been sunning myself on a beach.

6) No Worrying about Stock, Inventory or Payment Processing - with affiliate marketing you just have to promote a product using your special affiliate link. You don't need to worry about stocking products, accepting payments, processing credit cards or supporting customers. This is all done by the vendor and you'll often receive 50% commissions for your efforts!

7) You Can do Something you ENJOY - I am very lucky that I love my job. Most of the time when I sit down to do some work, I am looking forward to it and I have fun while I am doing it. There are affiliate products in every niche market that you can imagine, so it is easy to find a subject that you enjoy and turn this into a profitable business.