Mailing list segmentation is the process of classifying e-mail addresses in your database according to common key characteristics. Segmenting a list allows an e-mail marketer to properly target subscribers with the right content and offers that are more likely to build relationships and lead to conversions later on.

Here are some ways to segment the thousands of e-mail addresses in your list:

1) By Interest Group – A topic or theme is inherent in every squeeze page. It’s the basis of everything in that page from the headline, the copy, the freebie that you’re giving away and the purpose of the campaign itself. Knowing what kind of rewards attract which kinds of people will allow you to segment your list according to specialized areas of interest. For instance, a marketer selling SEO tools can segment a mailing list of SEO professionals into on-page SEO and off-page SEO interest groups, allowing him to laser-target customers with the right content and offers.

2) Geography – Asking for ZIP codes in your squeeze page is an easy way to segment users by localities. If you’re using Google AdWords to drive traffic to squeeze pages, you can target them down to the city level to make sure that only people from locales that you want to target are drawn to your squeeze pages and mailing list.

3) Order Data – Tracking and filtering the orders of your customers can help you determine their buying habits in your online store. This means you can group e-mail addresses into people who favor certain products and target them with content and offers that are strongly relevant to their buying patterns. For example, if you can identify a subscriber group that frequently buys baby products form your store, shooting them an e-mail when you have a baby product promo will likely yield a nice sales spike.

4) Age – Asking for age before a user is allowed to download a report or view a video is a good way of making sure that your adult material doesn’t end up in the inboxes of minors. Seriously, age can be a good thing to know about subscribers especially if you’re targeting a certain demographic.

5) Gender – Asking for gender along with an e-mail address is not a very intrusive thing to do. It helps you segment your list and send specific content to gender groups. This works great for apparel and boutique online stores; it helps you avoid sending offers of boxer shorts to your lady subscribers.

6) Split Test Results – When an A/B split test yields a result of 70-30 or closer, it tells you that there’s a significant portion of your market that prefers to be communicated to in a certain way. A classic would be a test I did where one squeeze page was billed as “advanced Internet marketing tips” while the other one was labeled “basic Internet marketing tips”. More people went for the ‘advanced’ one but a good number went for the ‘basic’ one. This gave me the idea to create separate mailing lists for the two groups.

One group clearly felt that they were in a more advanced class than the other. Therefore, I should write distinct content and present distinct offers to each set of e-mail subscribers. Knowing how your audience sees itself is an underrated selling indicator, but if you can ‘read’ your market’s mind, you’ll have a better chance of building relationships and selling products to them.

Those are the most vital segmentation points that you should know as an e-mail marketer. For more Internet marketing tips, visit Andy Jenkins Blog

I quote directly from Owen Smith and Ranjit Binning’s welcome e-mail for members of their PLR Assassin site:

“We at PLR Assassin are absolutely thrilled to have you as a member of our site and trust that you will enjoy what we have to offer you, no matter the level of your membership.

Our goal is to not only create a very satisfying experience for you but we want to make sure that you find everything you need and when you need it. There is a reason why we consider ourselves as the Elite source for PLR!

No other site on the Internet has ever offered such a wide range of products as PLR Assassin! Not only do we provide professionally-created e-books and reports with dynamic sales letters and high-quality graphics, we also provide videos, software, articles and music and we are growing daily!

Hundreds of products are uploaded monthly across all categories. For our Exclusive VIP members, we offer even more hot-quality products including professional articles, exclusive eBook packages and SEO reports.

It pays to be a member of PLR Assassin and you will see first hand why we are the future of PLR. You will also have full access to our forum where you can get in touch with the very people who are not only creating exclusive products but also those who are stocking our virtual shelves with amazing products across all categories.

Every week, new videos, web templates, software, e-book packages, articles, graphics and music tracks are made available for you! So stick around, enjoy your stay and enjoy all of our hottest products and make sure to check back every little while for new products making their way onto PLR Assassin!

Also, why not introduce yourself on our forum? We’d love to know more about you and hear what you have to say about our site and what you’d like to see in stock!

All the best from the PLR Assassin Team!”

In my last article, I shared with you my observation that a common strategy for small businesses is to undercut the competition by charging lower prices.

And I explained in detail why that’s a terrible strategy…

In a nutshell, you work your rear end off for very little pay. You never get ahead financially. Your customers think you are worth as little as you charge them.

I suggested that your pricing should be high…and fall in the middle of the top third.

Which means that if the lower third of service firms in your trade charge $50 to $100 an hour, the middle range charges $100 to $150 and the highest-paid charge $150 to $200, you should aim for $175 an hour.

“But how can I command such a premium fee?” you ask. “Why should clients pay me up to three times or more the fees my competitors charge?”

Good question. And here’s the answer…

Specifically, there are at least 5 strategies I can think of that can enable you to get the premium pricing you want to command.

1. SELL A DOLLAR FOR A QUARTER.

Superstar marketing consultant Jay Abraham likes to ask prospects, “If I give you a dollar, will you give me a quarter?”

In other words, prospects have no problem paying the price you ask…as long as your product or service saves or makes them money many times in excess of your fee.

Therefore, if you can demonstrate a huge return on investment (ROI) from your service, you can command a huge price.

2. WORK AN UNDER-SERVED MARKET NICHE.

There are some markets everyone selling your product or service is going after.

Consequently, these prospects can pick and choose which vendors they work with…and to a large extent, the price they agree to pay.

My friend DW is a copywriter.

But unlike most of the copywriters you hear about who work for the big direct marketers—newsletter publishers, nutritional supplement makers—DW works a niche where there is virtually no competition: construction companies in New England.

Despite an oversupply of copywriters in other markets, DW’s prospects are thrilled when they discover a copywriter specializing in their trade…and gladly pay hefty fees to DW for his marketing assistance.

3. BECOME A RECOGNIZED GURU IN YOUR FIELD.

Most management speakers get around $3,000—and often less—for a one-hour speech.

Tom Peters gets something like $30,000 or more.

Does he get paid 10 times more than other management speakers because he knows 10 times more about managing a company or because his advice makes his clients 10 times more money?

I doubt it.

His fee is 10 times higher because he is a recognized guru in management…largely because of “In Search of Excellence” and his other best-selling books.

Want to get paid top dollar?

Become a recognized guru in your field.

3 ways to get started: start writing your book…write a magazine or newspaper article…publish a content-rich Website.

I have an audio program that can show you many other ways to quickly establish yourself as a guru in your field.

4. ADD VALUE

My friend DH is a top copywriter selling information products.

He gets huge fees to write direct mail packages.

But after DH writes your DM package, you get something else most other copywriters don’t give you—an extensive memo outlining other marketing strategies you can use to sell even more of your product.

If you were to pay DH separately for this consulting advice, it would cost thousands of dollars.

But he gives it to you free when you hire him to write for you.

People don’t mind paying more—as long as they get more.

DH gives them more.

5. SHIFT SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN YOUR FAVOR

The #1 reason why businesspeople charge too little is that they need the business.

The secret to overcoming this?

Keep your pipeline of leads full—at all times.

Generate twice as many leads as you think you need…and you’ll always have more work than you could ever hope to handle.

There are many ways to generate leads: classified ads, small display ads, Yellow Pages, cold calls, direct mail, pay-per-click advertising, organic search etc.

To discover more ways you can produce a flood of sales leads all year long, click here now.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

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Here are 3 things I’ll bet you didn’t know about Tony Shepherd’s Affordable Mentoring Newsletter:

1. Tony is dedicated to ripping back the curtain and showing you behind the scenes of his six-figure business each month…including exactly where his income comes from, the failures as well as the sucesses, not to mention the stuff that upsets some marketers.

2. After helping over 500 people set up their own online business through his personal coaching, home study courses and now his Affordable Mentoring Newsletter, Tony knows exactly what works and what can be torn up and burned (despite what the ‘sheeple’ still bleat about in the forums)

3. Each month you’ll see EXACTLY what methods Tony has used to generate REAL online income, BUT you MUST read the warning on the page below first—this is NOT for everyone.

So for a limited time, this is your personal invitation to subscribe to Affordable Mentoring Newsletter for less than the price of a cup of coffee every month.

No matter how valuable an e-mail message is, if the subscriber chooses not to open it, then all the efforts pushed creating it go to waste.

One fundamental fact to remember about e-mail is that their subject lines can determine whether they should be opened or not. This is because it sets the subscriber’s expectation as to what he/she should see upon opening that e-mail.

Here are a few power tips to remember when writing that e-mail subject line:

1) Catch the reader’s attention – Like a newspaper’s headline, try to make your subject line catch as much attention without misleading your subscriber. Making it interesting enough to read entails more than just fancy words, go straight to the point.

2) Identify yourself – Introducing who you are in your subject line is a matter of courtesy. This also makes your email hard to ignore once you’ve built a good reputation toward your subscribers.

3) Make it Worthwhile and Specific – When making a subject line, make sure that it resonates with the subscriber’s interest and at the same time, fits the overall message of your e-mail. Again, never mislead a subscriber by making vague statements. One good example would be to have “useful tips on e-mail marketing” as your subject line, then have the entire message feature your helpful tips on e-mail marketing.

4) Don’t use Spam words – Use spam detector software for this purpose. While it’s true that the word ‘free’ is a powerful word that can trigger spam filters, if open rates are high enough and if you’ve got a good track record with your subscribers, it won’t get filtered. Also, there’s a ton of resources from the Internet that can shed some light on the most common spam words.

Here’s a nice resource on what spammy words and phrases to avoid.

5) Keep Testing – One test result isn’t enough to determine a subject line’s success. Keep testing on other variants of your subject line so you can determine which factors work best for a certain demographic.

6) Avoid SCREAMING TEXT – Using all caps in your subject line is often viewed as a desperate attempt to catch attention. This gives the impression to subscribers that you are screaming at them and it plants the seeds of doubt in a user’s mind about how credible you are. True professionals don’t need to scream; they just deliver calm, powerful messages.

7) Personalize it – If your mailing service has the feature of matching first names with e-mail addresses and incorporating them into subject lines, you’ll have an easier time with personalization. Studies have shown that seeing your name in the subject line makes you look longer at it. This means that you have that instant attention-grabbing edge, increasing the chances of a subscriber opening the e-mail.

For more Internet marketing tips, visit Andy Jenkins Blog

Have you found TIME to learn more about millionaire entrepreneur mentor Ali Brown’s complete “Millionaire Time & Productivity Secrets” course? If not, you may need this course more than ANYONE else!

One of Ali’s early mentors, Dan Kennedy, defines productivity as “the deliberate, strategic investment of your time, talent, intelligence, energy, resources, and opportunities in a manner calculated to move you measurably closer to meaningful goals”.

But according to Ali, most entrepreneurs work the other way around. We get swept away with the little things daily, running the hamster wheel with all the busy stuff, and often what happens is that GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES pass us by.

Well, Ali’s goal with MTPS is to help put a stop to this behavior. In fact, Ali actually promises that in her MTPS course, you’ll learn how to free up 5 HOURS a week to actually work ON your business, enjoy time off, or whatever you choose. That adds up to 260 hours a year! What is that worth to you?

MTPS is a 4-part live telecourse with Ali plus a special BONUS Q&A call, where she will deliver 101+ of her personal strategies for getting the RIGHT things done…in LESS time…with MORE grace and ease (especially with tips for women!). There’s no glossing over ANY details in this information-packed course.

And remember, you still have a few hours left to save your spot for MTPS at the special low price of just $197. So get ALL the details and sign up here now.

We don’t want to be too flashy when it comes to e-mail, nor do we want to be too plain. We want to have just the right stuff that our subscribers need in order for them to trust us. That said, what we say and how we say it are BIG factors in determining how our relationship with our subscribers turns out to be.

Without further ado, I present you with Power Tips on writing that e-mail:

1) Direct, compelling subject lines work best – Depending on the kind of business you have and the impression you want to create, make your e-mail subject lines catchy but still relevant to your e-mail’s message. Since you want to build trust with your subscriber by giving him valuable content, you can use words such as “useful tips” or “secret tricks” in your subject line.

2) Write practical and useful content – How To’s, a list of tricks, a guide on strategizing, or even a video demonstration are all great ways to build customer trust. This type of content enriches their knowledge, allowing them to relate perfectly to your messages when you pitch relevant offers.

3) Base your e-mails’ moods according to list segmentation – List segmentation refers to determining a single profile of each type of subscribers you have in various different lists, so you can connect with them at the same wavelength.

If a major segment concerns starting Internet marketers at the age of 16 or so, make e-mails that appeal to their youthful selves. If they’re older and more experienced than that, then be a little more sober without losing the persona you’re trying to project in your e-mails. You can also verify this through continuous testing.

4) Make your message short and concise – When it comes to e-mail, most people’s attention spans drastically go down. Long messages tend to disinterest or intimidate potential customers, which could ultimately result in their unsubscribing from your list. It’s important to hit them fast and hard with the information you want to share. Start with a solid outline and use bullet points to drive your message across.

5) DON’T YELL AT YOUR SUBSCRIBERS – Nothing says “spammer alert!” quite like screaming, all-caps text from the e-mail subject line right down to the body text. This is an eyesore and it cheapens the look of an e-mail, resulting in most users reporting a message as spam. Do yourself a favour and don’t even think about doing this in an attempt to grab some attention.

For more Internet marketing tips, visit Andy Jenkins Blog

Photoshop Secrets Revealed is a brand new tutorial series for the budding Photoshop artist. You will learn what it takes to edit and manipulate images that will keep visitors glued to your sites!

Even if you have very little experience with Photoshop, you will learn the basics and be well on your way to saving money by being able to use your own images for your sales pages.

Most companies believe that to increase sales, they must spend more on expensive advertising. While this can work, there is a better (and cheaper) way to increase sales. Simply improve your process for capturing and converting leads.

The first step is to find a way to attract leads to your website by offering something of value. This can be as simple as writing a free report and offering it to visitors in exchange for contact information.

Once you’ve captured the lead, the real work begins-the work of following up to convert that lead into a buyer. If you are not currently adding leads to a follow-up system, you may as well flush your marketing dollars down the toilet. Why? Because 80% of the people that visit your website are NOT ready to buy today. If you simply cherry-pick the 20% that are ready to buy, you miss out on a huge opportunity!

You see, the remaining 80% of leads will be ready to buy within a year, but only after they’ve been exposed to your message multiple times. By keeping in touch with those future buyers through systematic follow-up, you develop strong relationships. And because the majority of small businesses don’t follow-up, you’ll stand out from the competition and maximize your chances of being selected when leads are ready to buy. Just think about the impact that would have on your sales!

Marketing automation tools like Aweber give you the tools you need to capture leads online and follow-up automatically until your leads are ready to buy. The best part is, this automated follow-up boosts sales significantly without increasing your advertising budget.

Tony Sanders banked over $1 million in sales selling a tiny small e-book on….

Ready for this?

FARMVILLE!!!

(Farmville? WTH! Can you believe it?)

He had no sales video…no upsells…

YET he was able to generate over a one million dollars in sales in one year.

Just 1 single damn e-book.

The weird part? HE HAD ZERO JVs.

The scary part? He’s telling everyone how he did it in Clickbank Gamers.