PUBLISHER: Willie Crawford willie@williecrawford.com
P.O. Box 636, Valparaiso, FL 32580
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This newsletter is sent only to those who subscribe to
it. We keep copies of all subscription requests on file.
Subscribers used the form at: williecrawford.com or joined
through the Lead Factory services. Lead Factory puts
forms on targeted website and sends us thousands of highly
responsive, opt-in subscribers. For more information on lead
factory visit: http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/tk.cgi?subs
Unsubscribe instructions are at the bottom of the issue ;-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Top Sponsor Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Increase You Website Conversions Dramatically!
The entire key to making more website sales is your copy. Most
websites don't make any sales because the copy stinks! Here's
the 32-step system, used by many top copywriters to guide you to
incredibly effective web copy. Ask any great copywriter that you
know and he'll tell you that he writes using a formula or system.
Discover the one many of them use by visiting:
<a href="http://PowerCopywritingForTheInternetByBobSerling.com">
http://PowerCopywritingForTheInternetByBobSerling.com
</a>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Top Sponsor Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editorial:
This issue features 2 articles. The first is by Ben
Silverman and rang so true of my own marketing efforts
that I just had to share it with you. I urge you to
look at your own marketing efforts and see if you are
overlooking any hungry, obvious markets.
Don't Ignore The Melting Pot
By Ben Silverman
I was listening to the radio this evening and heard an
interesting report. The latest U.S. Census Report indicates
there are 38.8 million Hispanics living in America as of
July 2002. That's almost a ten percent increase since 2000.
Hispanics have replaced African-Americans as America's
largest racial minority -- if only by a slim margin. And
while the Hispanic population has seen explosive growth,
Asians were the fastest growing minority group in America in
the past two years. America is more of a melting pot now
more than ever.
Minority media (I don't like the term) is on the rise. There
are publications aimed at every racial, ethnic and religious
group imaginable. In a city like New York, there are dozens
of foreign-language newspapers and magazines. At the corner
deli, the one newspaper that consistently sells out is not
The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Daily
News, The Wall St. Journal or Newsday - it's the local
Polish-language newspaper.
I was interviewed once for the paper. I was dating a Polish
girl and her friend was a reporter for the paper. She was
doing a story on Poles dating non-Poles. The funny thing
about the interview is that they mentioned what I did for a
living. I was working for an Internet company at the time
and the next thing I know I start getting all kinds of
emails from people with a lot of Z's in their last name
telling me how much they liked my company's website. After
that incident, I pushed our PR people to reach out to
minority publications. Unfortunately, they didn't.
I heard all the excuses.
"They're not our target audience."
"There's a language barrier."
"Why limit ourselves to a certain audience?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Middle Sponsor Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How Do You Earn $1 Million A Year Working From The Comfort
Of Your Own Home - With No Employees? That's just one of
the things covered at The Internet Marketing How To Workshop.
Now you can learn from Tony Blake, Stephen Pierce, Armand
Morin, Gary Knuckles, Ramon Williamson, Bob Silber, Fred
Gleeck and Willie Crawford. Grab the 16 hours and 40
minutes of power-packed how to on 9 videos today. Visit:
http://InternetMarketingHowToWorkshop.Com
now
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Middle Sponsor Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was not a happy camper. These people were our target
audience, I argued. They're consumers and that is all that
matters. Language barriers can be broken down easily - -find
someone who speaks the language and hire them as a
consultant (or get an intern for a short-term project). And
it's not limiting ourselves to a certain audience, it's
expanding our audience.
Another argument I heard was that the PR people didn't know
how to tailor their pitch to a minority audience. What
needed to be tailored? It's the same pitch. This point was
driven home when I did an interview for a publication
targeting gay readers. I asked the reporter if he wanted me
to talk about gays in business or something like that. I
thought the guy was going to kill me. It was a stupid
question for me to ask. The interview covered the same
ground as any interview I'd ever done. It just so happened
that the magazine's target audience was gay. Gay, straight,
bi-sexual -- whatever my orientation happened to be, didn't
matter. It was a story about an interesting, albeit an
obviously ignorant, person.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of media outlets aimed
at minorities. There are television networks aimed at
African-Americans, Hispanics and soon Arab-Americans. There
are magazines targeting everyone from women (technically
still considered a minority) to Jews to people over the age
of 55.
For instance, Modern Maturity (recently renamed AARP The
Magazine), published by the American Association of Retired
Persons, is the largest circulation magazine in America.
PlanetOut, an online community aimed at gays with plenty of
content and PR opportunities, recently became profitable --
something a lot of online companies aimed at the "general
populace" have never been able to do.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Jeremy Pepper -- a young PR
guy who recently launched his own PR firm. He happened to be
online while I was writing this so I asked him his opinion
on the subject.
"When doing a test market run for a consumer product the
team needed to land more interviews for the launch, so I
decided to target the African-American newspaper for
Indianapolis. The editor was so happy to be invited for an
interview with a company spokesperson that it dawned on me
that most PR firms ignore minority magazines and
newspapers," Pepper said.
That's a nice PR story, but it's also a sad commentary.
Thinking about this topic has caused me to take a look at my
own media list. The entire list is comprised of reporters at
mainstream media outlets. There's no one at any
Spanish-language publications and no one at media outlets
that target African-Americans. No wonder I haven't gotten
any ink in months.
------------------------------------------------------------
Ben Silverman is a business columnist for The New York Post
and the publisher of the soon-to-be-relaunched
DotcomScoop.com. This article is from PR Fuel, a free weekly
newsletter on public relations produced by eReleases
(http://www.ereleases.com), the leader
in press release
services for small businesses. Archived articles can be
found online at: http://www.ereleases.com/pr/prfuel.html
Copyright (c) 1998-2003 eReleases(TM) (MEK Enterprises LLC)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**** Ad Contest ****
Each week we select one subscriber and give them a free ad
in this ezine. To enter simply copy the top sponsor ad and
email it to: willie-36782@autocontactor.com
This weeks winner is: Rick Yost
Rick, send in your 60 word or less ad, formatted to 65
characters per line and we'll run it as soon as practical.
The ad is subject to our editorial scrutiny as we are picky
what offers we present to our subscribers :-)
**** Ad Contest ****
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Featured Article:
My Favorite List Building Techniques
Copyright 2003 By Willie Crawford
You hear over and over again that "the money is in the
list." Most of us know intuitively that if we had a big
list, running a successful online business would be easier.
The question practically everyone has is, "How do I really
build a large, responsive list?"
It's very important that you acknowledge that not all names
on you list are equal. How responsive your list members are
depends upon how well they know you, how long they've been
list members, and how they joined your list. Let's
briefly look at a few of my favorite list building
techniques.
Buy List Members - I sometimes purchase subscribers through
services such as Lead Factory. This is a relatively fast and
effortless method of building a list. These services
display your sign-up boxes on high traffic websites, and the
description you've written entices subscribers to sign up.
This method can produce a lower quality lead than many of
the other methods we'll look at.
When you use a service like this, it's essential that you be
very specific as to what they are signing up for. Tricking
someone to join your list is just plain dumb. As soon as
they join your list, I recommend sending them a recent issue
so that they see exactly what they subscribed to. This
should solidify the relationship more. However, if they
unsubscribe after seeing your first issue, you've also saved
yourself some headaches later :-) Send that first issue
directly from the welcome autoresponder. You can see the
system I use for doing this at:
http://profitautomation.com
Fre-e Gift During Interviews - This is fast becoming one of
my favorite ways to gain quality subscribers. Whenever I do
an interview for radio, newspapers or any media I ask if I
can give the listeners a fre-e gift. Since the the
interviewer is put on the spot (if the interview is live),
they always say yes. Even if it's not live, they are very
likely to say yes because they are offering their audience
something of value.
Prior to any interview, I look for something I know that the
audience will be interested in. Then I set up a special
autoresponder so that they can email in and request this
gift. The autoresponder will often be the interviewer's name
or the name of the show, so that it's easy to remember. The
autoresponder message tells them to visit a page on my site
to claim the fr-ee gift. On this page I give them a download
link for the fr-ee gift and ask them to join my mailing list
too. If these are people who've enjoyed an interview with me,
they are very likely to subscribe. These are great, quality
subscribers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sponsor Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You Can Get Domain Registration For Under $8 Per Year!
You no longer need to pay those rip-off prices offered
by your web host. You can re-register, transfer, and
buy domains in minutes - all using a hassle-free system.
Check it out now, it will save you a lot of money!
<a href="http://williecrawford.com/domains/">
http://williecrawford.com/domains/
</a>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sponsor Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Exchange Endorsements - Offer to recommend their ezine to
your subscribers if other lists owners will do the same for
you. Only do this with owners of top quality list though.
You only want to make this type of recommendation
infrequently, and you only want to recommend an ezine that
your subscribers will be very pleased with. Ask the other
list owner to put the recommendation in their own words since
their readers recognize their writing style. We're speaking
here of a recommendation in an issue or two of the ezine.
You can also exchange recommendations on your "thank you"
page. After a person has just finished signing up for an
ezine they are very receptive to signing up for other ezines.
They're just in a mood for subscribing. There are scripts
that you can use to allow them to select from several ezines
listed on your thank you page. It is very important that
they choose which ezine they subscribe to because otherwise
you're setting yourself up for complaints.
Arrange with a few other publishers to set up this thank you
page recommendation system. You'll all help each other grow
your lists.
Write Articles - This is one of my best long-term list
building strategies. I have nearly 100 articles that I have
written over the years. These articles are now in ezines
posted in website archives, in ebooks, in article
directories, and in offline publications. People who read
these articles, and click on the link in my resource box for
more information, are great subscribers. They know I provide
quality information so they are likely to stay subscribed
for a long time. Even if every one of your issues is not
top quality, they will remain subscribers because they know
that you generally provide great information.
Writing articles and getting them in the search engines is
a great way to create thousands of pointers to your site
and to your sign-up form.
Subscribe Boxes On Every Page Of Your Site - On many of my
sites, my main goal is to get new list members. If that's
the case, you want a subscribe box on every page of your
site in a very conspicuous place. Don't allow the
subscribe form to detract from your site if it's primary
purpose is to accomplish some other task such - as making
a sale. Consider that new visitors may never surf across
your site again, unless you have a way of reminding them
of who you are and where you are. Give them many
opportunities to join your list on their first exposure
to you.
These are just a few quick ways to build your list. I have
seen and used many others. When looking at list building
activity, make the sign-up process pleasant for you new
subscribers. That will make them look forward to receiving
each issue more. Don't do things to get people on your
list who don't really want to be subscribers. A small list
of people who actually read your email is much better than
a huge list where no one reads your messages. You list
will actually grow faster if you get the right subscribers
because they will stay subscribed.
Willie Crawford has been teaching others how to build an
online business since late 1996. Frequently featured in
radio, magazine and newspaper articles and interviews,
Willie teaches the average guy what the top marketers are
doing but seldom talking about. For example, Willie
demonstrates the power of automated residual income through
his system at http://ProfitAutomation.Com
Test drive it now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bottom Sponsor Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You Can Organize Your Internet Business Activities And Get
It ALL Done - Here's The Tool That Will Save Your Life!
The Internet Information Manager. It is a desktop
application that allows you to track all of your projects.
It allows you to effortlessly track and access all of your
contacts, websites, affiliate program information, newsletters,
ads, articles, search engines, ebooks, banners, etc. With the
click of a button you can access any part of your
cross-referenced database
Never waste time looking for your notes or important
information again! This tool will add hours to your day.
Download a copy now at:
<a href=:http://wetrack.it/budgetware/af.cgi?2">
http://wetrack.it/budgetware/af.cgi?2
</a>
You'll thank me for this one ;-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bottom Sponsor Ad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you found this ezine valuable Please forward it to a
friend who could use a little help with their online
business :-) Tell them they can subscribe by visiting:
http://www.williecrawford.com
YOUR INFORMATION IS NEVER SOLD, TRADED, OR SHARED WITH
ANYONE!
----------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~