How to Set up a New List with Aweber

by Nicole Munoz

When it comes to making money online, if you don’t have a “List”, you don’t have a business. That’s why it’s so inexplicable that so many online would-be entrepreneurs put off creating a list for months – sometimes even years – while they buy special report after special report; course after course.

Your list of email subscribers gives you permission to contact people in exchange for an irresistible incentive they can get from you for free, if they part with their contact information.

Setting up a list with Aweber is so easy, an eleven-year-old could probably figure it out in half an hour. And to take any secret fear factor out of creating that all-important first list, just be aware that you can set it up in advance without having a single subscriber. Just create it and leave it sitting on Aweber until you are ready to release the URL of your landing page and web contact form to the world.

Don’t leave it sitting too long, however! If you take advantage of that “first-month-for-$1.00” trial by making your list work for you, you will have your next month’s $19.00 earned (and more) by the time your first payment rolls around.

But first things first: Let’s focus on simply creating that list…

Step 1. What You Need to Know

Knowing what you are getting into can often make performing a new process for the first time less confusing. In this guide, we are going to set up a new list in Aweber and create a “double opt-in” Confirmation email. The wonderful thing about Aweber is that it does so much of the work for you – such as providing information in every email detailing how your subscriber can unsubscribe (which you have to provide, by law).

When you create your first email, Aweber automatically adds your name, the mailing address you provided, plus a link to unsubscribing or changing subscription options at the very bottom of every email it sends out for you.

Aweber also has excellent tutorials and videos – plus quick videos at the bottom of each set-up page. Learning how to set up your own list in Aweber is not going to frustrate you or suck up too much of your billable time, though there are a few tips and tricks to making the process easier.

Step 2. Getting Ready

Before you begin to create your list, prepare the following three components:

Your landing page – where subscribers are taken upon double opt-in confirmation
Your logo, if you are using one
Your list name

You will need to assign a unique name for your list – and it will have to be different from every other list name in Aweber’s databanks. (Don’t worry – Aweber will tell you if your list name is “taken”.) One way to create an effective name is to use an acronym. For example, let’s say you wanted to call this list “My Very First Sign Up List”. You could shorten it into initials only, resulting in “MVFSUL”.

Creating your Sales, landing and download pages in advance will make your email set up go much more smoothly and logically.

Once you have these three components ready, and your product or sign up gift uploaded to your site, it’s time to begin your $1, 30-day Aweber trial – and make some money!

Step 3. Creating Your First Aweber List

Once you have signed up and entered your billing and contact information and paid your dollar, you will see an option to either purchase a $37.97 report on list-building or click the “No, Thanks” button.

Do the latter to be taken straight to list creation.

Before proceeding any further, however, check your email inbox. Not only will you find a copy of your receipt, but also an email stating “Your Aweber account is ready!”

Open it. This email contains your login details and your temporary password.

1. Return to your open Aweber browser page, and click the “sign in” link.

2. You have two choices:

Click on “My Account” to change your Password, add a security question or add any other details you wish. (Note: You can do this later.)

IGNORE the big green “Continue to your Account” button. Instead, click on the very-hard-to-see “Create and Manage Lists” anchor text.

3. In the new page that opens up, press the green “Create a List” button.

4. Replace the default list name with your new list name.

Let’s say we are going to create a list for your business “The Frazzled Freelancer”. Let’s create a list called “frzzledoptin”, which stays within the 15-character limit Aweber sets on list names: Replace the default list name with “frzzledoptin” and add a description that will help you remember what this list is for.

5. Enter your “From” address. This is what your subscribers will see, when they look at your emails in their inboxes, so make sure you identify yourself clearly. This will make your emails stand out in any email crowd – and help your subscriber remember:

Who you are
What business you are connected with

For example, if you perform the above action, when people receive an email from your new list, the “From” line will appear like this:

Including both your name and your business name (or newsletter title, tagline, etc.) will help your new subscriber instantly “place” you in her memory, whenever she receives an email from your list.

Just using your name is often not enough. Your subscriber is more apt to say: “WHO the heck is Tammy Exploda? Never heard of her – must be spam.”

Why you should always use a unique email address originating from your domain:

The email address that you specify as your contact address should be exclusive to and originate from your business domain – not from a “public” address such as yahoo.com, gmail.com or live.ca.

(Spam filters often automatically trash emails from public addresses – and so do subscribers who don’t remembering signing up! That public address often shakes the trust factor and sets the seal on the decision to delete.)

6. In section #2, Notifications, provide your own main, private email address and name, if you want to be notified any time someone joins your list. (Don’t worry: Your subscribers won’t see this.)

Note that enabling Notifications also allows people to leave you feedback or a comment when they unsubscribe. And that can be incredibly valuable information on what you’re doing wrong; and whether or not the “unsubscribe” has anything to do with you at all.

7. Save your Settings. Do this at the end of every page or (when prompted) after every section on a page.

Your brand new list, “Frzzledoptin”, is now created.

Step 4. Personalizing Your List

The next section allows you to perform three important functions in cementing your Company’s web presence.

In section #1, Company Branding, brand your company by entering its unique Name, URL and the signature you want people to see. Upload your Logo too.

In section #2, Social Media/Sharing, set up social sharing and preview your Unsubscribe page.

In section #3, Global Text Snippets, you can assign these handy text cues.

Global text snippets allow you to mark text to be globally replaced in multiple emails.

For example, if you regularly replace the code for a discount in different emails, you can designate the code text as a global snippet. This allows you to quickly replace an old discount code (e.g. “JULY”) with a new one (e.g. “AUGUST”).

For more about Global Text Snippets, access Aweber’s learn more anchor text. But for now, just skip it unless you really need this option.

Remember to Save Settings!

Step 5. Setting Up your Opt-In Email

If you are not taken to a new page after saving your settings, slide back up to the top of the Branding/Social sharing/Global Text Snippets page and select #3, “Confirmed Opt-In”.

You will be directed to the next page, which also has three sections.

1. Set up your confirmation message. Make this as straightforward as possible and don’t worry about sparkling with personality.

You can change any of the sections by clicking on the black edit button and pencil tab to the left of each field.

In fact, you can even the Subject line, “Confirm your subscription”. (Note: Aweber will automatically include the correct website link.)

Just type over the text in each section, and click to add a custom closing.

And notice how easy it is to add custom fields…

For example, if you select the {!firstname} or {!firstname_fix} field from the drop-down menu while editing your Subject section, subscriber Mary Johnston would see “Mary, confirm your subscription” instead of just “Confirm your subscription.”

One section you absolutely MUST customize is your “Edit Intro” section. You need to replace the list name that you and Aweber see (i.e. “frzzledoptin”) with your actual company or personal name that you want your subscribers to see.

So you would change default text “the frzzledoptin group” …

…to what you want your subscriber to see…

…in this case, The Frazzled Freelancer.

You can also add a custom “end” salutation and signature…

Step 6. Creating a Double Opt-In

While it’s a lovely idea just to send your subscriber straight to her download or keep it really simple and just add subscribers to your list, don’t do this. Keep the requirement setting “ON” in #2, Require Opt-In on Web Forms, so that your subscriber has to confirm her subscription.

The reason? Legal requirements under the CAN-SPAM act are strict, and if a subscriber forgets they chose to join your list (or doesn’t realize they are doing so when they enter contact info) you want to be able to prove they did, if that subscriber ever lays a complaint.

Finally, in #3, Success Page, enter the URL of the landing page your subscriber will be taken to, upon confirming.

Remember at every step to save your settings!

(Be sure to watch after each save for this icon giving you a “successfully saved” message.)

Invoicing with Zoho invoice

by Nicole Munoz

Zoho is a full office suite that synchronizes with both Google and Yahoo. Part of this suite is its invoicing service, but it is difficult to find from the main Zoho address.

Zoho Invoice is a separate service, so do sign up using the rel=”nofollow”>correct link. This is what you should see, when you CTRL+C the link just given…

Zoho’s benefits include:

Tracking
Customization with your Logo
Accepting online payments
Sending snail mail payments
The ability to automatically generate thank-you emails on payment
The ability to automate payment reminders
Android and iPhone app versions
PayPal and Google Apps integration
Bad debt accounting
Bulk printing

In addition, Zoho recently added Braintree, 2Checkout and Stripe to its payment integration options.

Step 1. Signing Up with Zoho

To register an account with Zoho, enter in the three boxes shown above:

Your business email address
Your company name
Your country

When you have done so, click on the red Sign Up button.

You will be reminded to verify your email address while your account is populating.

Zoho automatically inserts Pacific Time as your Time Zone, so you will want to press the “Change” button at the next screen.

This also allows you to add or correct other information within the new page that opens up.

In addition to regular information you’d expect, such as your company name, address, website and FAX number, this page also allows you to add custom fields that will appear on every invoice.

When you have finished altering and filling in your information, press the blue Save button.

Zoho Pricing:

So what have you signed yourself up for? Relax – a basic, one-user Zoho account is free.

Your pricing alternatives range from $15 per month for three users and 500 customers to $30 per month for unlimited customers and users.

With both paid plans, you can save “2 months cost” by paying annually. And with all plans (including the free version) you are allowed unlimited invoices, estimate and projects, meaning that Zoho has many of the advantages offered by Freshbooks.

Step 2. Getting Around Zoho Invoice

As with Freshbooks, your main horizontal menu tabs and sub-tabs will always tell you where you are.

Above that, a ticker-tape style pop-up will either tell you which function you have just completed or display reminders of any actions Zoho needs you to take.

Step 3. Branding your Zoho Account and Invoices

So next, let’s brand Zoho with your logo and colors. Simply go to the vertical “Related Settings” menu sidebar on the right-hand side of the page and select Logo and Themes.

Browse your computer and upload your logo (140 X 60 pixels; 72 dpi), much the same as you would in WordPress, Freshbooks or any other application or content management system.

As soon as your logo has been successfully saved, it will replace the Zoho Invoice logo, appearing to the left side of the “Choose File” button.

This is what will appear on your computer screen.

To make your logo also appear on your invoicing, next upload high-res, larger version (580 X 250 pixels; 300 dpi).

Also reset your theme from default to your custom colors.

Continue to scroll down through this page to select your company color theme for all web page elements.

When you have input all your text and tab element color codes, you will see your colors in your Zoho screen and on your invoices.

TIP: If you don’t know your 6-digit color codes for your website, find out instantly by opening the Firefox browser. (Make sure you have the Colorzilla add-on enabled.)

Load in your Company web page and click on the little Colorzilla eye-dropper pen in the top-right corner of your browser

Hover – do not click – over the web page sections containing the colors you want to find codes for; then (while still in hover position) glance up at the top of your browser. The eye-dropper “reads” the color code for every element you hover over, changing as you shift position.
Once you are hovering over the section you want, look up at the top of your browser to find your custom, 6-digit color code for that particular spot

Make a note of each color code for each area you hover over; then return to your Zoho customization screen to input these codes

(You can also install the Colorzilla add-on for Chrome.)

Note that under Preferences>Settings, you can also:

Choose different invoice templates
Choose templates for your estimates and credit notes
Set general preferences such as titles, discount offers, snail mail and invoice headers “and much more”

Now let’s create a simple invoice!

Step 4. Creating a Zoho Invoice

Creating your first invoice is easy. Simply click on the Invoices tab, then the “Create a new Invoice” link.

Your invoice template will open up.

Select the “New Customer” anchor text. A pop-up will appear. Fill in your customer or client information, and click the blue Save And Select button.

After inputting data for fields such as Terms and Due Date, click on the “New Item” link, under “Items”. Fill in the pop-up. Press Save And Select.

Your new “Item” now appears in your invoice – and this type of item will be available as a drop-down from now on.

Underneath your items, you will be given the opportunity to configure your online payment options by pressing the link, if you want to give your client the opportunity to pay online.

Underneath Online Payment options, add a customer Note, as well as any Terms and Conditions you want them to see. Set it as the default message on all your invoices by checking the appropriate radio buttons.

Save your invoice.

Your invoice will save as a Draft, and you can choose what other actions you want to apply to it, including:

Editing
Sending as a Snail mail invoice
Turning it into a recurring monthly invoice
Cloning it

And more…

When you are ready to send it, do so by selecting and clicking on the method link in the vertical, right-hand menu shown above.

Once you have hit your chosen “Send” option link, you will be redirected to an HTML draft of the invoice about to be sent.

Be sure to customize the message so that it:

Sounds like your voice
Feels personal to the recipient

To personalize your invoice appearance, select the “Invoice Notification Template” link.

Once the “Invoice Notification Template” opens, select and use Placeholders in the vertical, right-hand menu to personalize your invoice.

This will become the default set up for your Invoice Template.

As soon as you hit the “Save” button within the customization screen, you will see your invoice re-displayed with your edited text (edit it right within the textarea box) and your new placeholders.

For example, here we have selected the “FirstName” placeholder, and manually added a comma after it, resulting in “Dear Customer” being changed to this:

We also manually changed “You can choose the easy way out” to “If you wish” (right within the above textarea box at the same time we were inserting placeholders).

Once you are satisfied, simply press the blue Send button – and your first invoice is on its way to your client.

Importing Invoices:

Rather than clicking on “Create a new invoice” link, you can also import existing invoices in .CSV or .TSV format. Simply select the import link from the right-hand sidebar menu.

While importing, you can also alter the invoice number by turning on the Auto Generate feature – one click of a radio button within the three-step process that opens up for imports.

Step 5. Tracking Your Projects

Zoho offers ways to track your projects and costs, as well as create estimates, and more.

To track, select the main “Time Tracking” tab. You will see there are no projects to select from, but click on the “View All Project” anchor text anyway.

The message will change to: “Create a new project”. Click on it.

Select your client and fill in other details as needed, manually entering data such as the Project Name and Description, and selecting existing multiple choice options from the drop-downs available.

Be sure to press the blue Save button when you are done.

You can then manage your project by adding or creating Tasks to monitor, as well as adding or creating Users and comments.

(Note that if you attempt to add even one more user besides yourself, you will have to upgrade to a paid plan.)

Set up some measurable criteria, such as adding tasks, and set a budget if you wish. Be sure to Save.

You will be able to view your projects – and all its benchmarks such as Logged Hours – any time from your Time Tracking menu, adding tasks as they occur.

If you use Google or Yahoo, you can synchronize accounts with Zoho – so this may turn out to be your best invoicing system yet.

5 Ways to Shape Your Brand Around Your Market

by Nicole Munoz

All the branding in the world isn’t going to help if you don’t understand what drives your target customer – and who she is. Your target customer needs to be really hungry for your solutions and offerings (and willing to open her pocketbook to get them).

Understand that there is really only one reason people seek solutions: To deal with pain:

Physical
Emotional
Spiritual
Financial

And that pain can range from the merely aggravating “not fun” sort to overwhelming, life-altering pain.

Customer buy products to:

Learn something to progress towards a goal
Learn exactly how to fix a problem
Increase skill level in a niche or field
Escape

Wherever you go online, pain motivates and drives everyone. So what is your target customer’s pain? What products or services can you create that will directly help solve her current biggest problem?

And how will you let her know you have the solution?

Branding will help you achieve that. But most people go at it the wrong way: They try to shape a market round a brand, when in truth you should be shaping your brand around your market.

Step 1. Branding for the Right Customer

You’ve been told, quite accurately that you should identify the customer before creating the products. However, it’s first and foremost vital to put yourself out there in the online community so you can see who is drawn to you – and why.

Create a website.

Create a blog.

Join at least four of the top social networks.

Then see who you attract (especially through social networking).

Who you attract is going to be your current target market. And if it’s not the market you want, change your branding to attract those you do plan to serve.

Monitor Your Voice

One common reason people attract the wrong market: Using the wrong “voice”.

Your voice is the impression of personality your company conveys.

It can’t be like all the other similar companies. It must be personal, unique and stand out – even while reassuring potential customers it’s the same as competitors in fundamentally important ways.

To check your voice, analyze not only your conversational writing style, but also colors and images you use. Do they fit your target audience’s preferences?

For example, say you want to attract seniors seeking arthritis solutions: If your social posts or shares regularly deal with youthful subjects such as manga , you’re going to actively turn them away in droves:

Make Your Branding and Voice Consistent Across All Online Media

What you promise (especially without knowing it) can attract the wrong audience – and repel the right one.

What you want to do is instantly attract the people who will buy your product.

If you sell cranberries, feature cranberries.

Make sure your branding is consistent across all your sites and networks. Example: If your site shows a big juicy hamburger logo and your Facebook page background show shows raw veggies, that’s an example of voice confusion, where one online presence seems totally different from your other online presences.

That’s why establishing consistent branding practices and elements across all your online sites and networks is so important. Your branding is what makes the other kids in the park see you and instantly want to be friends. Lack of it makes you invisible.

Poor branding has them throwing stones.

And taking your branding a step further by paying attention to every detail and really nailing it means they not only want to play with you – they want to be you.

Step 2. Attract with your Logo

A logo can tell your market what you’re all about quicker than words. Even if you are a sole proprietor and one-woman show, offering services rather than products, chances are that you’ll want to create passive income (and increase your status and credibility) by producing information products one day – and that’s where your logo will be invaluable.

A logo needs to be relevant to what you provide. It needs to “speak” to your audience, as well as reminding them instantly of who you are.

A logo should be professionally designed by a graphic designer (a) experienced in logo design (b) who has also designed logos for your specific field or target market.

If your market consists of 18-35 year olds who buy your graphic novels, use a design company such as Blambot Comic Fonts & Lettering, with comic art, culture and font experience. Designers from companies such as this one will completely understand their mindset.

You can, of course, use free online logo generator apps and services such as Logomaker – but you need to know the basic principles of design as well as your target market, in order to create the best logo you can make.

Creating a logo that speaks to and reassures your niche gives every piece of content you stamp it on instant credibility – and that goes a long way towards attracting the right market.

Step 3. Pay Attention to Background Graphics

Again, across all your media – websites, blogs, social media pages and more.

The right background can tell your market instantly if they’re going to be attracted to you and your products even if you don’t use a logo.

A great example is author Joel Goldman: He writes gritty detective novels usually set within the dense jungle of U.S. cities – and his website and social site background cover art reflects that.

The book tells you he’s an author. Keywords like “Kill” in the title tell you it’s not a raw foods cookbook; it’s a mystery.

The night-time city background graphic instantly screams “seamy city jungle”. Even the color – an angry, reddish brown reminiscent of blood and smog – supports the feeling visitors get when they open the site or check out his Facebook Page. You immediately know you’re not going to read anything from the “cozy mystery” genre, where sex and violence is downplayed while the quirky (usually elderly) heroine solves mysteries with or without a cat or garden trowel.

Mystery lovers know instantly what type of ride they’re in for when they visit Goldman’s site and Pages. They either leave – or try-and-buy.

That’s great branding.

Step 4. Test, Test, Test Again…

As you adjust your branding to the target audience you want to attract, tweak one element at a time. And while you’re doing this, actively seek out more of your target audience.

See what they talk about, complain about, want, need – and love.
Find out who their niche heroes are and visit their sites. Make notes. Analyze.
Join in conversations.
Post polls in your social media.
Ask questions in your social posts that deliberately give you clues about your market’s preferences on your niche product type.

Step 5. Pay Attention to the Hottest Trends

Create a Facebook Group for your product or membership site and brand it with your new logo, Profile photo and background graphics. Get conversations going based on what your market is most concerned with.

One reason for doing this: It’s the latest hot social networking trend. It’s also one of the few feed types in Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms that virtually guarantees the right people will see every post.

The activity level of the group will tell you how on target you are. You’ll also pick up clues for products, learn what your group members love and hate, learn how they cope with problems and what they yearn for and need.

You’ll also pick up their tone and get a good idea of the demographics involved. Are you seeing Profile photos of teenagers? Women in their thirties or forties? Do they talk about children? What are their biggest challenges?

These are the topics you’ll hear about:

What they care about most
What they need the most

A dead group will tell you you’ve missed the mark. Better go back to the drawing board.

But don’t just stop there…

Create a Google+ Circle… then invite your members to exclusive Hangouts. (Yes, this is another hot trend right now.)

Create a channel on YouTube, linked with your Google+ account – and brand it with your colors, background and logo.

Then choose the “live stream” option when creating your next Hangout – and it will be recorded and posted automatically to YouTube, where you can set privacy levels to “Public” if you like (and your fellow members don’t object).

This way, you instantly get the best of not one, but two social networks (Google+ and YouTube).

And you’re now well into the habit of shaping your brand around your market.

7 Steps for Writing Compelling Press Releases

by Nicole Munoz

A well-formatted press release has 7 main components. These instructions will help you put together a useful press release for the media.

#1 – Company Logo

Add a little branding and a polished image with a small logo at the top of your press release.

#2 – Press Release Validity

“For Immediate Release”;

“For Release Before [date]” or

“For Release After [date]”

Most press releases are “For Immediate Release” and are most convenient for the media to use. If you are sending a release that shouldn’t be used until after a certain date, you may want to wait until it is ready for “Immediate Release”. Noting that a press release is “For Release Before” may put undue pressure on the media outlet and may cause your story to be passed up. The media gets plenty of press releases and they want to be able to use your release when they need it.

#3 – Contact Information

Include your phone number, address, company name, fax number, email and URL. Be as available for contact as possible.

Here’s what the contact information might look like:

#4 – Attention-Getting Headline

Write an attention-grabbing headline that includes benefit for the target audience. Remember, the media wants to know why your release is relevant to their audience, so keep their audience in mind. Avoid hype, promotional language and excessive adjectives. Be direct, succinct and descriptive.

Here is a sample headline:

#5 – City, State and Date

On the same line where you place your summary (#5), include your city, state and date of the release. These items are generally bold and italicized.

#6 – Summary

Before you get into the body of the release, write a sentence or two to summarize your press release. Make it interesting, you want the recipient to keep reading. This information is generally italicized. Answer the who, what, where, when and why as much as possible.

Here’s what a summary might look like, including the city, state and date:

#7 – Body Content

Now you’re ready to get into the meat of your story. Always keep the target audience in mind your audience and writer. Your audience may partly be the editor or report, but ideally your story should target and share the benefits to media’s audience. HINT: Adjust your release to the target audience when sending it do different media outlets.

Keep in mind that your press release is a newsworthy story. It is not an ad and shouldn’t read like one. Read through a local newspaper and see how stories about businesses are put together to give you an idea of how you might position your release as a story as well.

Your target audience is partly the editor or reporter who will be reading the release. Ultimately, however, your target audience is that editor or reporter’s readers or audience. You need to write a story that will be of interest to them.

Quotations from yourself, your customers and other experts add credibility and allow the injection of opinion into the story.

Close out the body of your release with information on how to get further information, including a phone number, email address and website URL.

#8 – Signify the End of Your Release

Add ### at the bottom of your release to indicate your release is finished. Try to keep your press release to one page.

Press Release Template

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Person’s Full Name

Company Name

Mailing Address

Phone Number

Email Address

Precise Website Address / URL for More Information

Attention Getting Headline Here – Include a Benefit for the Reader

City, Town, Date – Summary that draws the reader in to learn more. Make sure you address who, what, where, when, why and when. Be succinct, but include enough information.

Provide some relevant background information about your product/event/announcement. Make sure you include information on why this is important to the target audience. Be factual and succinct.

Add a quotation from a customer or somebody who reinforces your expertise or the importance of your announcement. Include that person’s full name and if relevant, include their credentials.

Include a quotation from yourself that says why you created the products/put together the event, etc. Having a quotation from yourself makes it easier for you to assert an opinion, while still remaining newsworthy. Make sure to include your full name and position in the company.

Finish your press release with a company summary and what you do. Include a statement that says, “For more information, please contact…” and include a phone number and email. Also include the URL of where to get more information on the website.

###

Step 1. What You Need to Know

Step 2. Getting Ready

Step 3. Creating Your First Aweber List

Step 4. Personalizing Your List

Step 5. Setting Up your Opt-In Email

Step 6. Creating a Double Opt-In

Step 1. Signing Up with Zoho

Step 2. Getting Around Zoho Invoice

Step 3. Branding your Zoho Account and Invoices

Step 4. Creating a Zoho Invoice

Step 5. Tracking Your Projects

Step 1. Branding for the Right Customer

Monitor Your Voice

Make Your Branding and Voice Consistent Across All Online Media

Step 2. Attract with your Logo

Step 3. Pay Attention to Background Graphics

Step 4. Test, Test, Test Again…

Step 5. Pay Attention to the Hottest Trends

#1 – Company Logo

#2 – Press Release Validity

#3 – Contact Information

#4 – Attention-Getting Headline

#5 – City, State and Date

#6 – Summary

#7 – Body Content

#8 – Signify the End of Your Release

Press Release Template