And even put quick money in your pocket, too.
Using what I’m about to show you, you can build as many email lists as you want, make money while you’re building those lists, and do it without paying for traffic.
This system is simple, easy to implement, and requires no major writing of content – unless you want to.
Here’s how it works:
First, you’re going to need your own domain name for your own website. And you’ll need a way to make web pages.
But if you’ve never put up a site or made pages, don’t panic and don’t let it deter you – Remember, you can outsource anything you like these days.
You’ll need an autoresponder to build your lists.
And just like any good business model, you’ll need some tenacity and perseverance. You might hit a home run straight out of the gate, or it could take you a little time to get the hang of this and ramp it up.
But the only way you can fail is to either not do it at all, or give it a moment’s try and then give up.
Okay, let’s get to the meat of it…
To build a list you need traffic. Lots of it. And of course there are two kinds of traffic available on the internet – free and paid.
With paid traffic you can turn on the traffic waterspout anytime you’re willing to pay. It’s a great system once your funnel is profitable. Spend $1, make $1.50 and you’re doing great.
But in the beginning it can be downright scary to pay for traffic, especially when you don’t know if your funnel is going to work or not.
So I suggest you pay for traffic later, and in the mean time you use a free traffic method like the one I’m about to show you.
Of course, there is no such thing as ‘free.’ If you’re not paying money, then you’re putting in effort. You’re ‘paying’ with your time. Fortunately, this system is not time intensive at all.
Monetizing – this is optional, but I’m going to recommend you monetize from the very start. Why not put a little money in your pocket as you build your lists?
This also gets your new list members used to and expecting offers from you, which will increase your conversions later as well.
We’ll use CPA marketing to monetize this system. I like CPA, or cost per action, because you don’t have to create your own products. You don’t have to compete with other affiliates. And sometimes you even get paid just for leads without the prospect having to buy anything. Now that’s an easy sale.
If you’ve never joined a CPA network, check out the companion article in published earlier, “How to Get Accepted into a CPA Network.”
Okay, we’re going to be using StumbleUpon to get our free traffic. Thanks to recent changes, StumbleUpon can be quite effective at driving traffic if you know what to do.
And by the way, with 25 million monthly users, I can just about guarantee that your customers are already on the platform, waiting for you to find them.
What you need to know:
Long winded content does NOT work on StumbleUpon. No articles and no blogposts, please.
StumbleUpon likes images, which means you don’t need to spend tons of time creating content.
Think in terms of simple and quick when it comes to content creation, and you’ll do fine.
How is this possible if we’re promoting CPA offers?
One word: Infographics.
No worries, I’ll show you how to get them created for cheap in just a moment.
First, let’s look at the big picture of what we’re doing…
- 1. Find a CPA offer to promote and make sure it’s a good fit for one of StumbleUpon’s categories (or pick a category and then find an appropriate offer)
2. Create an infographic
3. Create a lead magnet
4. Set everything up and make it go live
5. Rinse and repeat
Easy, right?
Seriously, it really is one of the simplest systems I’ve come across.
Let’s get started…
1: Find a good CPA offer
You can either start by finding offers, or start by finding StumbleUpon categories. Your goal is to do a good job of matching one to the other, so that people looking in that category will want to see your related infographic.
This is perhaps the trickiest part of the sequence.
Do your research, spend some time on this, and realize you might not get it exactly right the first time or two. That’s okay, because you’re learning.
Here’s a little trick – pick a StumbleUpon category and just starting clicking to see what pages come up. This will give you an excellent idea of what kinds of content people are looking for in that category. Then find an offer that matches.
For example, a muscle building product for fitness, and so forth.
2: Create a related infographic
Let’s stick with the muscle building product trial. What do people who are into body building want to know? Maybe the top 5 body building exercises, or 5 things NOT to do when lifting weights.
Do some research on Google to get ideas and take notes. Keep in mind that you want content for an infographic, not a 3,000 page article.
Once you’ve got your content, either make your infographic yourself (if you like doing that) or go to Fiverr and hire someone.
You will likely have to pay more than 5 bucks, but it’s worth it to get a great looking infographic that captures eyeballs.
3: Create a lead magnet
While you were doing your research, you no doubt came up with plenty of ideas.
Use one of these to create a quick and easy lead magnet.
It should be something people WANT enough to give up their email address to get it.
Create the lead magnet, or hire someone to create it for you. Don’t overcomplicate this.
For our example, I did a quick Google search and found these ideas in about 30 seconds:
- The Most Hated Man in Bodybuilding – Is He You?
Body Building for Beginners – 5 Little Mistakes That Cause Massive Injury
From Skinny Geek to Massive Muscle Machine In 7 Simple Steps
Is Cross Fit Killing People? What You Need to Know
You don’t need to be a skilled writer to create your lead magnet. In fact, you can create a video, hire a writer, create an audio… it’s up to you.
What’s important is that your lead magnet be enticing enough to make people say, “YES, I want to read/watch/listen to that.”
4: Setting Up Your Funnel
You’ve got a CPA offer, an infographic and a lead magnet. Here’s what your funnel will look like:
- A: Prospect sees infographic on StumbleUpon (hosted on your website)
B: Prospect clicks on pop-up and joins your list
C: Prospect is taken to the thank you page which is actually your CPA offer
Seriously, that’s it – just 3 simple steps.
Now you might be wondering why we don’t send prospects straight from the infographic to the CPA offer.
You could, but if you do, then you’re losing money.
By building a list, you can market to those people time and time again. You can even send them the same CPA offer if they didn’t sign up for it the first time.
Seriously, if you think of this first as list building and second as CPA marketing, you’ll get the idea.
The initial CPA profits are icing on the cake. The real money is going to be in the list you build.
And by the way, there is no reason in the world why you can’t do this as many times as you like in as many niches as you like.
Hmmm, gets you thinking, doesn’t it?
Okay, here are the basics of how to set up your funnel:
Pssst… if there is something in your list here that you haven’t done before, go to YouTube and find a video that shows you how to do it. Or outsource it.
First, create a new post on your website and title it with something similar to your infographic title. Add your infographic to that page.
Second, go to your autoresponder and create a new campaign (or new list, same thing.)
Third, if you don’t already have pop-up software, go to WordPress and pick one out. Add it to your site.
Create a pop-up for your new page that offers them your lead magnet. Make it sexy and enticing – it should be too good to pass up.
Delay the pop-up so the visitor has time to look at the infographic BEFORE they get hit with the pop-up.
How long you delay it will depend on how detailed and interesting your infographic is.
You’re going to have to experiment to find just the right time. Have it pop too soon, and people get annoyed. Pop too late, and people are already gone.
Fourth, use your CPA affiliate link as your thank you page url.
Tip: Also add an autoresponder sign up box next to your infographic. This way if they click your pop-up away and then decide they want your lead magnet, they can still join your list.
Once you have everything set up, go to your StumbleUpon account and add your page.
You’re now live!
More Tips:
Since StumbleUpon is a social networking site, you’ll want to build your authority by making posts, leaving comments and sharing things.
You can begin by going to ‘trending topics,’ clicking on the speech bubble above trending items in your category and joining in on the discussions.
Experimentation is key. Sometimes your pages will get tons of traffic, other times they won’t. But the only way you can fail using this method is to give up and do nothing.
Of all the free traffic methods I’ve seen out there, this is one of my favorites. It’s fun, it’s easy, and you can make some serious CPA cash for the cost of creating an infographic or two (or 10 or 100, if you’re ambitious.)
And these pages can work for quite some time, too, driving traffic onto your lists and to your CPA offers.
Be sure to work your lists as you would any other lists. Mail often, deliver lots of value and offer something in every email.
Eventually the money you initially earn from new traffic should be dwarfed by the income you get from your lists.
HINT: Pick niches that are also good for affiliate products, such as weight loss, dating, body building, making money, etc. This way you can promote Clickbank, JVZoo products, etc., to your lists as well.
One last thing – this method should be fun. If it’s not, you’re doing something wrong.
Think about it – content creation is a breeze and it looks really cool, too. You get to promote just about any CPA offer you like. You’re list building for essentially free, while making money on the backend. And you get to spend time on StumbleUpon being social and getting ideas for your next infographic.
So go have some fun – and build your lists and make money in the process, too.
