FTC Internet Marketing Regulations Shake Things Up a Bit…

Hey everyone. Today’s post is a bit of a downer in some ways. Some might consider it a good thing though. Basically, the FTC just issued some new rules that are going to have a HUGE impact on the way we do Internet marketing. It doesn’t just affect fake blogs either. It also has a huge impact on anyone who uses testimonials.

To be honest, there are a bunch of unscrupulous marketers out there who need to get a kick in the pants, and these rules provide just that. On the other hand, there are other marketers who have integrity, and these new regulations are certainly going to make things a bit more difficult for them as well.

Anyway, without further ado, instead of typing my own post outlining what is going on, I’ll just forward you to Frank Kern’s blog where he did a pretty decent job of summarizing what the FTC has cooked up for Internet marketers. Check it out. FTC Declares Shenanigans On All Kinds Of Stuff!

Creating an Email List with Your Blog

I can not possibly emphasize enough the importance of capturing your visitors contact information and building a mailing list.

A mailing list allows you to:

1)“Recycle” your traffic by allowing you to email your list with updates and bring them back to your blog over and over again.

2)Earn money by selling ad space within your newsletter.

3)Start making sales overnight by sending out a special offer exclusive to you list .

4)Do joint ventures with other online entrepreneurs who are looking to promote their new product.

5)Build an asset with real cash value.

They key to building a list quickly is giving your visitors or prospects an incentive to join your list.

After all, few people will willingly give up their contact information unless you give them a good reason to do so.

Capturing your blog visitors contact information is actually fairly simple, if you know what you’re doing. All you need to do is offer your visitors something they would want that can be digitally delivered, like an ebook, or an audio or video product.

You should have an idea of what your blog visitors are interested in because they are looking at your blog and are therefore interested in the kind of information you have to offer. But going the extra step and setting up a survey with survey monkey or setting up an ASK campaign to see what they want would be even better.

All You then need to do is find or create an information product that one of your visitors would also be interested in.

For example, suppose you have a blog that chronicles your travels across the world and divulges all kinds of travel secrets like how to save money in different places or how to avoid scams overseas, etc.

You would then need to find a travel related information product to use as a list building incentive.

To find such a product you could either search the Internet for a travel related information product with resell rights or compile one yourself.

….Or you could just go to ebay.com.

On Ebay you can find an information product with resell rights on just about any topic you can imagine in less than 2 minutes and without spending more than $2!

Offering such an information product to you visitors in exchange for their contact information will give you the incentive offer often necessary to get visitors to sign up to your list.

Remember that the faster you build your email list and the bigger it becomes, the more money you will ultimately make.