And when it comes to email marketing, the average value of each subscriber is about $1 a month. I don’t know where that standard came from, because I’ve had lists worth $250/month a subscriber.

Most mailing list software programs require your users to “opt-in” when porting them over to a new program. So even if you were using iContact and had everyone double opt-in to your list… and even if you have proof of this, most mailing list software companies will require your subscribers to do it all over again.

You want to avoid having to go through the experiences of having your mailing list re-opt in all over again whenever possible. No matter how good or responsive your list is, you will lose at least 50% of your list, but probably more like 75% or more. It just happens for a whole variety of reasons.

That said, you want to pick an email provider that is affordable, but has all the features you need now and ones that you think you will need in the future. Here are some things to think about…

1. Do they require double opt-ins
2. Are entry level, teaser rates attractive, only to have very high prices when you have a big list
3. Is there an ability to segment your list and easily move buyers to a separate list
4. Are there limitations on the number of lists you can create, emails you can send
5. Can you create unlimited autoresponders that will put new subscribers into an automated mailing sequence
6. How good and easy to reach is support
7. How easy is it technically to work with
8. Does it integrate with payment processors, such as PayPal, to remove unnecessary steps for potential buyers

These are just some things to think about. Each mailing list software company has their positives and negatives, but the three big ones are iContact, Constant Contact and Aweber. Aweber, in my opinion, is the better of the three. They have the support and all the features you need to manage a list, but most importantly… the emails you send will actually reach the subscribers inbox. That’s critical!

Its probably why the “Big Dogs” use this email management program – because it has such high success rates in getting people to actually read your message.

Here’s their form to get a free test drive and check it out…

There are some great tax benefits to being a website owner, Internet marketer and blogger that could, in itself, make it all worth while. Even if you wanted to keep your day job and blog every once in a while to enjoy some of these tax incentives, it would be all worth it.

Before I go in to some of the tax deductions a blogger can enjoy, let me put the disclaimer out there… I am not a CPA or an attorney. I’m not recommending anything here other than suggesting to talk to you accountant about the possibilities of some of these deductions.

So, here are some things that I’ve been told can be deducted, depending on how you run your business:

1. My All Time Favorite is just about anything you buy. How? Let me say this… owning a product review site has many benefits. For one, you could earn a commission for every time someone purchases a product you review on your website. Secondly, you need to try out the product yourself to give it a thorough and unbiased review, right? Maybe now you want to start that electronics review site to help people make informed decisions about their next TV, cell phone, Xbox and digital camera.
2. Your Bills: As a sole proprietor or managing member of your home-based business, you use a certain amount of space and energy of your house for business. That means part of your mortgage or rent, electric bill, property tax and other expenses can be deducted as business expenses.
3. Are You a Media Company? If so, you probably need cable TV, high-speed internet, the latest computers and other media related equipment.
4. Education: Education materials that help you learn your business and become a better marketer can be deducted from your income tax. That means ebooks, your Blogging to the Bank membership, and conferences you attend. So now you not only learn the secrets to making money online, but in actuality these programs are virtually free.

And you don’t have to be a full-time Internet marketer in order to take advantage of some of these tax deductions. If it’s something you do in your spare time, with the intention of building a business that produces a profit, you can enjoy not only the income you can make from your blog or website, but all of these other great benefits. That’s what makes this industry so exciting!

Of course if you already know what you’re doing, then you know a six-figure business in 2-3 months with little effort.

How to Start a Blog for Profit…

Make Serious Cash With Blogging to The Bank

I for one, have been guilty of hitting the refresh button, double checking that all my links work correctly, and wondered where the day went. When I waste and entire day looking at stats, I get really disappointed with myself. I consider it negative work… not only did I waste time, but absolutely nothing got accomplished to move my business forward. No matter how many times I check my stats, I’ll make the same amount of money at the end of the day. Hitting the refresh button does not make income grow — marketing does.

So what does that mean?

1. Turn Off Email: When you sit down to work, check your email and respond to anything urgent. Then shut it down and don’t check it again until you are done marketing. Email can wait, but the more time you put off marketing your business, the more damage you are doing to yourself. This includes instant messaging. Get your priorities done first.
2. Quit Checking Stats: This is the biggest time suck out there. Check your stats over and over again does nothing. If it keeps you motivated, find a different way to motivate yourself, such as a picture of a big pile of cash. Check your stats once, and again when you are done working. That’s it.
3. Stop What You’re Reading: Everyone thinks there is a big secret out there that nobody is sharing. By reading forums, blog posts, and ebooks, you may learn a few things, but do this in your spare time. The Internet rewards people who work at building their business, and reading blogs is not considered building a business. Just do it and learn from doing. You’ll get way more out of that than any blog can teach you.
4. Start With Most Effective: You have to think long-term and short-term for you business, but think about what you can do that will not only immediately have the most impact on your business, but will have compounding results. Writing a new blog post, for instance, is probably a more long-term strategy. Optimizing your ad placements is a more immediate and compounding task. Not only will it help you make more money today, but the 20 minutes you spend will help you make more money for a long time — over and over again.
5. Optimize Existing Traffic: There are two main things you can do to make more money. Get more traffic, or find a way to squeeze more money out of your existing traffic. The later is probably the most effective method that Internet marketing gurus are experts at. It’s a lot easier to find ways to make more money from the people already visiting your sites that it is to get more people to come to your site.

As you work, try to keep efficiency and productivity in mind so you can make yourself as valuable as possible. Ideally you want to make the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time. One way to do that is to use your time effectively. Then, once you start making the big bucks, you can hire a couple employees to do the work for you.

The idea behind this is that if you create thousands of blog pages, you’ll be able to dominate the search engines for long-tail keywords and get tons of traffic. You build your blog, throw up some AdSense ads, turn on the switch, and in a couple months you’ll start seeing traffic. The idea is that as more and more content publishes, your traffic will increase as well.

Where does the content come from? You can set it up your auto blog to pull content from article sites, popular news sites, and you can even scrape it from other blogs. I’ve even seen automated blog software programs that will take the content and rewrite it so that it appears as purely original content.

What’s the Problem with Automated Blog Content?

While it might work now, it won’t last forever. Google’s primary goal is to filter out spam, and this most definitely classifies as spam. In fact, it’s probably copyright theft as well, in which case Google can block your site from being listed as well.

I’m sure Google has already figured out a way to detect these automated blog or will soon.

The bottom line is if this is your business model, you can be sure to fail. It might work for you for another 6 months or even a year. But eventually your blogs will disappear and your income will drop to $0.

Here’s another thing… building an auto blog is not marketing. If you want to make serious money in this business, you have to develop your ability to market online. There have been many easy ways to make money by “gaming the system,” but they always come to an end. If you used your time developing skills rather than trying to take advantage of short-term, minute profits, you may actually be able to make serious amounts of money. Not your pitiful $100,000 a year.

If you must pollute the Internet with garbage (and I’m not saying that I didn’t use these money-making methods when I first started), do so in conjunction of building a real business. And do so knowing that your site will get banned, and possibly your web hosting ip. That means anything other site you start that is someone linked to you will also be banned.