How not to pick up chicks with your website

I wanna tell you a true life story about list building.



A story of suspense.



Intrigue.



And, yes, romance.



(Well, kind of).



Anyway, last summer I dated a woman who was curious about what I do

for a living. One thing led to another and... yada yada yada... she

wanted to see my website.



Most chicks would ask about this eventually.



But, I always put it off for as long as possible.



Why?



Why not show off my email skillz?



Because I didn't like chicks "Googling" me right away.



(Ogling me was fine, but not Googling).



And the reason why is thanks to a blog post I wrote about an

Internet marketer who called me a "psychopath" to his list last

year. (Since then I've learned he pretty much thinks practically

everyone who teaches marketing -- except himself, of course -- is a

psychopath). Anyway, I guess I tripped an SEO switch or something

on my own site. Because at the time, if you typed my name in

Google, "Ben Settle psychopath" appeared on the drop down list of

suggested keywords!



Gee, thanks Google.



Luckily, I eventually learned it worked to my advantage.



But, that's a tale for another day...



Where was I?



Oh yes, the website.



Anyway, so she finds my blog and, 7 seconds later, says what

probably millions of people online say to themselves when landing

on a site such as mine:



(And I even say sometimes too...)



"Ugh. Pop ups."



She was, of course, referring to my light box pop-up on my blog (a

script generated by aweber), where the entire screen turns black

except for the form to opt in.



It IS quite obnoxious and annoying.



But, it's also quite profitable, too.



In fact, a few years ago I took it down (foolishly caring about it

annoying people). And, after a few months -- since I didn't pay

attention at all -- I did the math and saw I'd lost at LEAST 300+

subscribers, not to mention hundreds of more potential opt ins. And

as stoopid as I felt at the time for giving into social pressure

("your pop ups annoy me"), it taught me a very valuable lesson

about websites.



A lesson I never hear anyone else talk about.



A lesson you, my fledgling, can benefit from.



And that lesson is:



"The ONLY purpose

of your website

(with RARE exception)

is to build an email list"



It's not to brand yourself.



It's not to display your products.



Or educate people.



Or show off your skillz.



Or even to impress chicks (gasp!)



Those are important, but they aren't the purpose of a website. At

least, not in my way of thinking. (The RIGHT way of thinking).

Instead, it's to get as many quality people onto your email list as

you possibly can.



And why is that, you ask?



So you can continually market to them over time.



And guess what?



If you go in with that attitude ("the ONLY purpose of my website is

to build my email list") you will find yourself doing things to

automatically build your list with just your existing traffic.

You'll also start realizing how foolish most other marketers are

with their multiple outbound links to social media sites (building

OTHERS' lists, instead of their own). Frankly, after my pop-up went

back up, not only did my opt-ins shoot back up, but so did my

sales. And it still pains me to this day how many potential sales I

lost due to talking myself into thinking my pop-up annoyed people.



Anyway, end of story.



What???



That sounds great, but you want to know HOW to build a list?



For that, see the December "Email Players" issue.



Back issues are for sale to subscribers.



And, just last week I got this testimonial for it:



"Your list building tips from the December issue

have been great. I implemented all but one last month...

and I've seen a healthy uptick in list signups --

all from existing traffic."



Don't worry, it's ALL simple stuff.



So simple, even a goo-roo fanboy can do it.



Here's where to subscribe:



http://www.EmailPlayers.com



Ben Settle









Ben Settle

Email Specialist

Settle, LLC

www.BenSettle.com



Copyrighted & published by Settle, LLC.



All rights reserved.





Settle, LLC | P.O. Box 437 | Gold Beach, OR 97444



To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit:

http://www.aweber.com/z/r/?TAwsrCwctCzsnKycjAzstEa0jOyMzIysrJw=