by: David Wood

Why get subscribers? Because it's a powerful way to let your community get to know you, to build a relationship ,and stay in touch. If your selling a product or a service, it usually takes several instances of contact before someone will buy from you. Enter the Ezine!

I sent out an update recently to my R & D team mentioning I got 1600 new subscribers last month, and one member asked how I managed it. I thought I'd share the different methods with you, too.

(By the way, to join my R&D team which is now 1,000 strong, just send a blank email to david38-28997@autocontactor.com)

Free Web Traffic

Sub'mit your sites to the major search en'gines, and if you have crafted your pages properly, you will come up near the top when people search for your key words. E.g. 'life coaching', 'motivational speaker', 'corporate training'.

Save time and get better results by getting a good software program to do your work for you, and it will train you as you go.

There are certain key things you should have in any search engine software you buy. You can surf the web and research to your heart's content to find the one that is best for you. Or if you prefer to buy the one I use and recommend, you can get the free 30 day trial version of WebPosition Gold here: 30 Day Trial Version

Multiple Sites

I have more than one domain and many of my sites link to the other domains. Part of your search engine ranking has to do with how many sites link to yours. So through multiple sites, my search engine ranking goes up. Every site you have, in fact every PAGE you have on your site, is a chance you'll be found by a search engine. More pages, linking to your home page, also increases your Page Rank with Google, meaning you come up higher in the listing.

If you REALLY want to be number one, take a look at http://www.lifecoachingstudio.com and see how they have the word 'life coaching' everywhere. Sean makes a business out of being ranked highly in the engines.

Free traffic is great - but it's not the only source...

Paid Google Traffic

I use Google Adwords to gain most of my customers. For Adwords you pay per click for certain keywords. Someone will type in, say "Life Coaching" in the Google search bar. When the search results come in, the ads on the right show up in correlation to the key words typed in. You only pay if someone clicks on the ad.

The secret for me is that the products the customers buy when they come to my sites, pay for the web traffic. As a bonus, I get lots of newsletter subscribers.

I use Overture.com too - but I don't seem to get very much traffic, and it's quite expensive.

Sales Letter

When I am writing a sales letter for a product, I use that opportunity to ask for subscriptions. For an example of how I get a subscription without altering the flow, let's use www.10supercoaches.com. I mention a few interesting 'hooks', and then I put in this paragraph:

"Before I show you exactly how these ordinary people built such successful practices, make sure you take away a free copy of '50 Power Questions to Ask Your Client'. It comes with a free subscription to my Ezine 'Mentor Monthly™', which teaches you how to coach more effectively, and gain clients with ease. (Note:I will never disclose your private information to anyone else, and you may un'subscribe with two clicks of the mouse)."

Right under that paragraph is the subscription box. The 'thank you for subscribing page' pops up separately so when they close it they are still reading the sales letter.

Free Download

Notice in the above example I am not asking them to sign up for a newsletter. Rather, I suggest a free download of '50 Power Questions', which includes a free subscription.

I'm now using this technique at a lot of my sites e.g. www.life-coaching-resource.com. In the top left I have the monthly free download as '50 Power Questions.' In order to get the free download, people often choose to get the newsletter at the same time (note I don't require it though - they CAN uncheck the box if they really want to.)

What could you put together that you can put together that will be of value to your customers?

(Or if you like, you can provide my '50 Power Questions' on your site as a free download. Just go to one of the above sites and follow the process to get the download, and then place it on your site the way I've done at www.life-coaching-resource.com )

Radio Interview

I also received about 200 subscribers from a national radio interview. National was great, but I had to get up at 4am to do it!

Have you been in contact with your local media for radio or newspaper articles recently?

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I hope these tips help.

By David Wood and Geoff Grist

I encourage you to share, replicate or forward this article as long as the author's links and copyright information are kept intact.

David Wood is a Certified Life Coach. He helps coaches, consultants, speakers and trainers to build their businesses via his popular eBook http://10SuperCoaches.com and his audio eBook at http://www.FirstFiftyClients.com. Get his new Free Download '50 Power Questions' and popular monthly eZine for clients at coaches (now over 15,000 subscribers) at: http://www.solutionbox.com/freedownload.htm

Web site: www.life-coaching-resource.com

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