Think for a moment of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

First we have the Biological and Physiological needs. These include air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sleep, etc.  This is the first step someone has to satisfy before they can move on to the next step.

Safety Needs which include protection, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

Belonging and Love needs such as family, affection, relationships, work group, etc

Esteem needs like achievement, status, responsibility and reputation

Cognitive needs including knowledge, meaning, self-awareness

Aesthetic needs like beauty, balance, form, etc.

Self-actualization such as personal growth and self fulfillment

And

Transcendence where you help others to self-actualize

Every need a person has is included in this list. So think about the list of names and people you’ve put together for your products, the people who trust you to give them tips on what to do and how to get it done. Where do they fall? What need are you actually meeting, or is it a combination of many of these needs all rolled into one.

I can tell you this, the mindset of someone who doesn’t have the most basic of needs is completely different from someone above that. They are consumed with meeting the needs of their body so they can stay alive. Most people will do whatever they can to keep from being homeless and starving.

In fact, the level someone is on at any given moment up to a certain extent rules their thoughts and actions. It is to these needs that you must look if you want to do more with your list than collect a bunch of names.

Think about it. Are people going to buy from you if you are trying to solve problems on a level they aren’t on?

Of course not! They won’t even look because you aren’t on the same page as them and their thoughts are ruled by something completely different.

So how do you go about knowing what their needs are?

To understand where a person is and what they need you have to understand what level they’re on and how you can help them climb to the next level. Say that you’re selling an information product. This would generally put them on the cognitive level with all the other levels below them. They aren’t completely gone from their psyche. Understanding that you can touch on how your product will give them more knowledge about the subject, help them spend more time with family, give them more stability, allow them to buy their dream car, etc. Touching on the other levels subconsciously reminds them where they’ve been. They know what those other levels are and part of their mind still dwells on them.

In the city where I live there are often homeless people who sit on corners asking for money. Some of them even come up with clever signs that just make you want to stop and hand out the cash to them.

Often you see someone with a sign saying they’ll work for food. Over the last few years these people have gone from one or two to dozens. There is nearly always someone sitting on that corner and it’s rarely the same person.

Tonight though, I saw something different. I was driving in my car and noticed two men on opposite corners. One of them had a sign that said Homeless, Please Help, God Bless. The other was far different. Instead of being scruffy, his clothes ragged, he stood in a suit with a bottle of window cleaner and paper towels at his feet. On his sign it read Single Father Having a Hard Time. Will wash windows for $1.

Instantly I was more drawn to him than the other man. In a few simple words he’d reached out and told me all that I needed to know. He’s a father. I don’t know what’s going on in his life but it’s obvious he is desperate, willing to do just about anything to keep his kids fed, clothed, and with a roof over their head. And most of all he isn’t a beggar. Instead of saying he’d work for food he came up with a plan, a plan which would give him the money he needed.

It made me start thinking about the lists we build. Your whole purpose in building a list is to build a relationship with people so they know, like, and trust you. Your end goal is to make money, and their end goal is to get the things or the knowledge they need. You send emails out to them making offers, but so many of us make the same offers as everyone else. Alone you get a few hits just like the beggar who sits on the corner, but when the other person moves in, offering something more valuable, revealing who they are in nothing but a few words, your customers switch.

I don’t know how many people stopped to get their windows washed, but as I watched this play out I knew more were stopping by him than the homeless man for he had instantly given more worth to the offer. He was willing to work for it.

The world is constantly changing, some things stop working and new ideas are thought up to reach prospects. Perhaps you have come up with one of these brilliant ideas, but more often than not someone else comes up with them and you catch on too late to take real advantage.

There is a solution for that…

Some time ago I was working on a new project. It wasn’t as wildly successful as I’d hoped it would be, in fact I was having a very hard time getting it to do anything. The old ideas weren’t working, and the supposedly new ideas were being used by so many people they were flooding the market, diluting the pool and becoming pretty much useless in a matter of weeks.

I knew the product was good. I’d used it myself multiple times and found it helped in more than one area, but that didn’t seem to matter to anyone. They just weren’t buying this fantastic product.

So I started thinking. Somehow I had to change the way I marketed, and if the old ways weren’t going to work for me than I had to come up with something new, something that I could grasp hold of BEFORE everyone else realized what was working.

I landed on a very simple system that I’m going to share with you…

Some people are wildly successful with copywriting only because they’re using a big name. Everyone knows them and wants to work with them. Others are quietly successful. Now in truth they are no less successful than those big names, they’re just not as well known, but they still make money every day, they still could take that vacation to the Bahamas on a whim, and they still have all the perks. Finding them is a bit more difficult, but their name will come up, they leave ripples behind them.

It is these people I want to tell you about. They frequently come up with brilliant strategies for marketing, changing the game for everyone else. They’re at the front of the wave and by the time everyone else realizes what they’re doing and jumps on board they’ve moved on to something else.

If you can’t be the first in line make sure you’re the second.

I obviously am not going to come up with every brilliant strategy in the world, so instead I chose to pay attention to the leaders and now I’m going to share how.

Step 1:

Everyone has heard of studying the masters. That’s exactly what I did. They all have email lists. JOIN THEM.

Step 2: Read the emails. You have to pay attention if you’re going to know what’s working now. Set aside time each day to read the emails of these masters. As you study the work they do you’ll notice how they trigger the impulse to buy.

Step 3: Follow the leaders.

When you study the marketing campaigns of leaders you’ll be able to implement those same campaigns in your business and stay ahead of the pack.

When you first start out building a list that’s all you think of it as, a list of names and emails that you can use to make money. Many people do just fine with this, making the list grow and earning thousands of dollars.

But I want to tell you a secret…

A secret that can help you make more money than you ever thought a list would….

It’s a secret that’s so simple anyone should be able to see it, but life gets in the way, and your thoughts shift away from it even before you brush against the idea. It’s a secret that millionaires give out for free, and yet until you truly understand this one little secret you won’t understand how to turn that few thousand dollars into millions with the same list.

The secret is this:

Your list is more than words on a page. It’s more than a list of addresses.

Any idiot can write words down and call it a list. My three year old frequently writes “lists”. It’s what those words mean that makes all the difference.

Behind each name and address there is a person with their own dreams and aspirations. They really don’t care what you want. They aren’t on your list to help you make money, give you success, or see your dreams come true. They want that for themselves. They’re on your list because you have something they want.

It’s that simple.

Think for a moment about the process of buying and selling. If you don’t want something or don’t know what you’d use it for you don’t buy it.

You’ve given these people something they want in exchange for their email address. It gives you an insight into what they’re actually looking for, whether that’s a slimmer waist, a big house, or making money. It is their dreams, goals, and problems that led them to you. All of those people on your list have at least one thing in common. They are interested in what you have because it gives them one of those three things.

So you want to turn a few thousand dollars into millions, start focusing on what their dreams, goals, and problems are. Once you start giving them what they truly want the money will flow in without any questions asked. They already know you have something of value to offer, and if you are willing to help them get what they want, then they’ll reward you for it. It’s just a matter of placing yourself in their shoes and serving their needs.

Don’t believe me? Look around. The highest paid people are those who serve others by the millions, and their greatest gift is they understand what the people on their list need most, even when those people do not, and they know how to deliver it.

I was thinking the other day of all the lists I’ve opted into. Every day my email is hammered with offers, tips, and that One Big Secret that supposedly will make you rich.

Here’s my secret: I never open a single one.

Yep, not one.

Okay that’s not quite truthful. I save them for later when I have time to open them and study them (a time which never comes by the way). Life gets hectic and before long it’s months later and no longer relevant to the situation. Most of their links don’t even work anymore.

There are the few that I have to open RIGHT NOW. One of those was an email informing me of a cash commission, I was not amused to open it and find out they’d been lying since there was no money in it. I unsubscribed immediately. The few others have been clever, witty, and absolutely interesting to me, but they weren’t so far in that it became gimmicky. You’ve seen them, you know what I mean. In truth the ones that I pay the most attention to are the ones that actually provide me with free information not once but EVERY TIME.

Playing your prospects, telling them something that isn’t true will get their attention but once they see through it you will lose people and those people will never trust you again.

So do not EVER send emails to your list that are outright lies.

Writing those clever witty headlines for your email increases their chance of being opened. People want to read things that are entertaining or pertinent to current events or what they want to know. Copywriters tend to spend a lot of time on this but you may not be a copywriter or want to spend hundreds of dollars on every email.  So learning to build headlines for yourself is a must.

When you’re writing to your list make sure the headline is pertinent to the information or product you want to sell.

Let’s say I have an exercise tape I’m trying to sell. I’d start brainstorming.

What’s going on around me?

What’s the latest news?

What would catch my reader’s attention and get them to open this email?

Why did they join this list in the first place?

What interests my reader?

Once you’ve answered these questions take elements from them and put them together.

3 secrets that will make you feel like you can travel with the Lego Man to space.

Also make sure you always use ACTIVE wording. No past tense. It isn’t as compelling.

Sometimes the best headlines are the most straightforward.

Learn 4 easy tips to shave off a pound a day.

Things like that.

If you ask yourself these questions your headlines will be brighter and have life to them that catches more people’s attention.

So you have a product you want to sell. You put your website up, get all of the copywriting in place, make sure you have that perfect squeeze page. You’re ready to make money.

But…

What happens once people start buying from you?

If you want them to buy more than once, or multiple items, you need to build a list.

One of the simplest ways to do this is by placing an auto-responder that automatically subscribes them to an email list once they’ve bought something, or better yet they give you their email in exchange for something FREE.

There are many auto-responders out there such as Aweber, GetResponse, and Infusionsoft. The most frequently used and most well known one is Aweber, but it really doesn’t matter which one you use as long as it serves your needs. There’s even a few that you can have an account up to a certain number of subscribers for free, but if you intend to build a large list choosing an account you pay for is the wisest way to go. If you go over your number of subscribers on the Free account you then have to transfer them to a paid account and this can take many hours as most paid accounts only let you enter so many emails in by hand every day.

Having an auto-responder in place makes it not only possible to keep in contact with your clients, but gives you the opportunity to sell more things later on.

Think about it this way. Someone comes to your site. They subscribe to your list, taking a free report on how your product can help them. Now automatically on your list you send them an email at least once a week giving them tips and offers on more products. They buy something else and keep coming back over and over again knowing that your products do exactly what you say they will.

Congratulations!

Instead of selling a small product once you’ve gained a repeat customer that will bring in money to your bank account over and over again.

See what a list does for you?

It’s not about one sell, but multiple sells that continue on as long as you keep up with your list.

So set up your site, build your squeeze page and make sure that you have everything ready, including the auto-responder and the follow-up emails that go with it.

In nearly every book you read on marketing they say “People buy from those they know, like, and trust.” Obviously you want people to buy things or you wouldn’t be reading articles on how to build a list, do copywriting, or make money. It’s a given that you want the end result of money flowing into your bank so you can take a vacation, help others out, buy a new house/car/whatever you want.

But do you know how to make that happen?

If you’ve read any of my other articles you know that building a list is one of the easiest ways IF you can get that list to buy things from you.

When I first started out I knew building a list was essential, so I started. I put the squeeze page together, wrote out the sales page, even put up a free e-book to entice people. I got subscribers but not one sale.

Not one!

I was frustrated, discouraged, not sure if what I was doing would actually work or if I was being lied to.

Then I realized my list didn’t know me, so they couldn’t like me or trust me. If your list doesn’t hear from you and learn that the things you offer are worth their time they aren’t going to give you their money.

For the people on your list to know you, you have to send emails out to them. These emails can’t just be trifle either, they have to have something of worth in them or before long they won’t click on your links and then they’ll unsubscribe and your list will shrink.

You can include:

• Tips about the subject
• Ideas for doing something
• Paragraphs about yourself that relate to the subject material
• And, of course, links to your website and the product your selling that will help them sell their product.

Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it?

That’s because it is. Placing these things in your emails allows your prospects to get to know you. Before long they think of you as the authority and will buy what you tell them to because they know you wouldn’t sell them junk.

Which you would never do.

Selling junk is one of the fastest ways you can go to have your prospects never trust you again. They’ll unsubscribe, they won’t recommend you to any of their friends, and they’ll never NEVER buy from you again.

So many people try to make this more complicated than it really is. Now I’m not saying it will be easy. Like any relationship it takes time and work. People aren’t automatically going to trust you, especially not with all the people in the world who sell them worthless stuff.

Luckily with use of the internet and services such as Aweber you don’t have to build those relationships one at a time. You can send the same email to 100,000 people and you are still building a relationship with each one of them.

Take the time to do it right and even if it’s slow it will work out.

Writing articles that bring you traffic and build your list is actually quite easy. First you have to know your topic. If you’re working in exercise than you need to know about exercise. You need to know the ache and burn of your muscles as they reach their limits and move beyond. It’s only after you reach this point in exercise that your muscles gain strength. Until then you are only maintaining what is already there.

That’s like a lot of things in life. You have to push yourself out of your comfort zone before you get better.

Articles are no different. If you’ve never written on before then it’s not going to be as easy as it is for someone who’s written a hundred or thousand different articles.

There are several steps to good article writing that make people pay attention.

1. Have an idea – You can’t write an article about nothing and expect it to get good results. You need an idea. Often I sit down (I already know what my market is, what area I work in) and write out a list of everything that comes to mind for that subject. Even if I don’t know a lot about that certain topic I still write it down, for I can find the information I need later. Each new idea sparks more and before long you have a long list of possibilities to write about, each one capable of turning into a full blown article that people will actually want to read.
2. Write it out – Writing may not come as naturally for you as it does for others. It’s a process that takes some time to learn, but here’s the greatest part, you can learn how to write well absolutely FREE.  Start paying attention to other articles, study the ones that keep you enthralled, read daily and before long you’ll saturate your mind and begin to have the words flow without too many hitches along the way. Practice writing every day. Like with everything you’ll ever learn it takes practice to do it right. Michael Jordan didn’t shoot slam dunks the first time he picked up a basketball.
3. Go through it and check for spelling errors – I’ve seen too many articles that are rife with spelling errors and wrong words that shouldn’t be there. It is seen as unprofessional and often stops people from reading the entire thing. You’ll lose customers if you have too many errors.
4. Make sure to bold or underline the keywords in your article. This helps with SEO and will allow people to find you through a simple search of the internet.
5. At the end place a line or two that entices others to visit your site.

Your articles don’t have to be perfect, but they do have to have good content that brings people to want to see what else you have or they won’t visit your site. Articles are a great way to bring in traffic. Just make sure they’re relevant, interesting, and informative.

Every ‘guru’ and expert will tell you that you need to give away something free to bring traffic to your website. It’s so well known that even the fresh newbies have heard it at least a dozen times. But few actually go about telling you how to build a cohesive report, webinar, or e-book.

I’m sure you’ve heard about taking your articles and placing them together into a report. I don’t know about you but if I just copy and pasted my articles the reader would quickly become confused. I didn’t write those articles to flow one into the other for the most part and so they don’t.

Big surprise there.

There’s also the suggestion that you can take your comments from forums and place them in your work. I’ll agree that some comments out there are fantastic, but again they’re only segments and pieces on a subject that don’t give you a full picture. Often you have to read several different threads to understand what is really happening with that subject and sometimes not even then.

The first time I tried to build something for free all of these suggestions only left me frustrated and confused. I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do or how to make it worth reading. I refused to so much as think about copying someone else’s work and throwing the same information out there as everyone else.

What good would it do?

It wouldn’t help you, and it certainly wouldn’t help me.

Every successful millionaire I’ve ever talked with has spoken of content, and not just any old content that isn’t worth the paper it’s on, but content that reaches out to people and HELPS them. They told me to stop worrying about making money, and SOLVE someone else’s problem. The money would take care of itself.

I trust them.

After all they’re the ones making all the money.

So I went searching for something that I was good at, REALLY good at, that I knew inside and out so I could write that free report.

Slowly the idea began to form in my head. It percolated there for weeks slowly taking form as I went about my normal every day stuff.

Then it came to fruition.

I took some of the suggestions of articles and old comments and took the IDEAS from them, forming it into an outline that flowed from one point to the next, all based on my OVERALL idea.

Once I got going it was actually easy.

It can be for you as well.

Here are the steps to take.

1. Come up with an idea that is based in your niche where people are having a problem.
2. Create an outline with 10-15 points that will solve the problem, make sure they all tie into the main idea.
3. Write each section. It’s no more difficult than writing an article especially if you know that subject intimately. Each section is its own little article, they just happen to tie into the next one.
4. Tell an overall story throughout the process, bring one thing in that ties every section together.
5. Review.

Follow the above steps and you will find that you have a twenty or more page report or e-book that is actually WORTH claiming as your own.

To be able to write well and learn how to entice people to read visit copywritingxtreme.com

Responding to your prospects’ emails is another way of connecting with them on a deeper level. We can probably all remember when we were brand now to online marketing and needed help with some of the smallest things.

I know that it would have been extremely valuable to me to have someone I could have asked a question and received a reply. Instead, days went by before I could move on. Be the person the people on your list can write to with their questions and you will build a list of loyal and raving fans. You need to establish this as part of your business model from the very beginning, because we are not expecting anyone to be open to receiving emails from us. By telling your list to hit the replay button and tell you what’s on their mind, you are opening yourself up to taking your relationship to a whole new level.

Imagine your list feeling like you are the one to ask before they make a purchase or other major decision for their business. I believe this can also be enhanced through teleseminars. I still offer a free call each month for people to ask me anything they want or need to know. During those calls I answer all questions, give advice, and recommend my own and affiliate products and services.

When people hear our voice they feel like they know us, and this gives us the opportunity to connect with them. It’s all about the relationship, so build that relationship with your list through your emails and teleseminars. You must also have a strategy for connecting with your list by responding to their emails. I like to establish some rapport by asking them more about their niche and what they do online. I then answer their questions with specific details.

After that I am more likely to recommend a product or service to them, or to tell them more about my own coaching program. This may take a day or two and several emails back and forth, but it is worth it in terms of building a long term relationship that will be beneficial for both of us. Although this technique is not scalable as you build your list and you get busy, it is still an excellent way to reach out to your prospects during your first two years online. Some of the people I now work with in joint ventures were those I connected with in this way over the past few years.

From writing back and forth I came to know more about them than I could have otherwise. How someone does one thing is how they do anything, so respond to those emails and see what happens in your Internet business.