Ebook Review: Mailing Lists Unleashed

ABOUT LEE MCINTYRE (AUTHOR OF MAILING LISTS UNLEASHED)

Lee McIntyre is a teacher who has already successfully sold digital products online in the teaching niche. Although Lee has only been trading online since 2006 he is a true success, selling 600+ copies of his first Internet Marketing ebook, Auction Profits Unleashed, during pre-launch alone. Since then Lee has launched a number of successful ebooks, a membership site and an excellent newsletter.

ABOUT MAILING LISTS UNLEASHED

Inside Mailing Lists Unleashed, Lee McIntyre explains how to go about building, maintaining and profiting from your very own email list and illustrates this with stories from his past experience and insightful screenshots. The topics Lee covers include;

- Why the traditional model of Affiliate Marketing is flawed!!

- How to automate your List Building Efforts!! - How to create a Sizzling Squeeze Page!!

- How to create an Effective Thankyou Page!!

- How to create an Effective Confirmation Page!!

- How to create your very first Newsletter!!

- How to profit from your List!!

After a short introduction, Lee criticises the traditional model of affiliate marketing. He believes the core advice is correct but the way people are encouraged to execute it is poor. Overall, Lee thinks that just looking at sales is a short-term approach. Focussing on building a list is (in Lee's eyes) a much better long-term approach. I agree with what Lee says in this chapter. By building a list the traffic you generate can be utilised multiple times and it is a much more efficient system than sending leads direct to a sales page.

Next, Lee goes on to discuss how to automate your list building activities. The best way to do this is by taking advantage of the services of an autoresponder. Lee and myself both recommend the services of Aweber because of their brilliant email delivery record. In this chapter, Lee explains in detail how to use Aweber and set up your first list. He includes some excellent pieces of information which include; how to keep subscribers on your list and how to effectively brand yourself. Overall, this chapter provides a great introduction to Aweber, particularly for beginners looking to start their first list. The screenshots are really helpful if you are struggling with any areas of the setup. However, if you are experienced in the use of Aweber you will probably be able to skip right through this chapter.

In the third section of Mailing Lists Unleashed the topic of squeeze pages (pages that are designed to collect the name and email address of visitors and add them to your list) is covered. Lee describes how he decides what to include on his squeeze pages, his 6 golden squeeze page rules and also provides some squeeze page examples. I found this section quite useful because it allowed me to evaluate my own squeeze pages critically. In particular, Lee's squeeze page rules acted as a check list for my own squeeze pages.

Next Lee goes on to discuss in greater detail how to add the web form to your squeeze pages using Aweber. Like the previous chapter on Aweber the information here is informative and the screenshots really make it easy to follow. However, it is aimed more at the beginner who is doing this for the first time. I cannot fault the information itself but if you have created a few web forms in Aweber previously you are unlikely to learn anything new.

Following this Lee goes on to cover thankyou pages. A thankyou page is the page that subscribers see after they have entered their details into the web form. If you do not create a unique thankyou page Aweber will show subscribers a default page. However, Lee believes that it is imperative for you to create your own thankyou pages because it can increase the number of subscribers who confirm their subscription. He then goes on to explain his 4 thankyou page rules which are in a similar vein to his 6 golden squeeze page rules, and as always includes screenshots of some of his thankyou pages for illustration. I found this chapter to be another informative one. It was not quite as useful as the chapter on squeeze pages but the 4 thankyou page rules were good nonetheless.

After this Lee goes on to cover confirmation pages. These are similar to thankyou pages but instead of appearing immediately after the customer has entered their name and email address, they appear once the customer has confirmed their subscription to your list. The chapter is laid out in a similar way to the previous ones with Lee explaining how to set up a confirmation page in Aweber, then listing his 3 confirmation page rules and finally providing some screenshots for illustration. Although this chapter is laid out in a similar way to previous ones I feel I learnt a lot by reading it, because at the time of reading I was not utilising my confirmation pages effectively. Reading this chapter brought that fact to my attention and allowed me to do something about it.

Once you get to this stage of Mailing Lists Unleashed you should have your automated email list building system in place (if you have been acting upon the advice as you read). Subscribers who enter their details on your squeeze page will be directed to a thankyou page. This thankyou page will encourage subscribers to confirm their subscription. Once they have done this they will then be directed to the confirmation page. All this will take place automatically without you having to lift a finger.

Now that everything is set up Lee goes on to cover the next stage of the process - creating your first newsletter. Lee first discusses how his very own Lee McIntyre Newsletter boasts a very low unsubscribe rate and a very high response rate because he does things a little differently to many email marketers. He then goes on to explain how to make your own newsletter unique by breaking a number of the established email marketing rules. Lee finishes the chapter off by detailing how to increase the reach of your newsletters and also how to make a little money with them too. Overall, this was one of the most useful chapters for me. After reading it I found a lot of areas in my newsletters which required improvement. If I had not read Mailing Lists Unleashed they would have gone unnoticed.

Next Lee goes on to describe how to distribute your newsletter with Aweber. As with all the previous chapters on Aweber, Lee provides plenty of screenshots and lots of description to ensure that the beginners can follow. The chapter is very informative but for those who have some experience with Aweber the knowledge will be of limited use.

Lee heads into the final chapter of Mailing Lists Unleashed by discussing how to profit from your list by setting up a few follow up emails (emails that are sent out to subscribers after a pre-determined interval e.g. followup email 1 can be sent 3 days after subscription, followup email 2 can be sent 2 days after that etc). Lee goes into great detail outlining what he would include in each of these follow up emails which I personally found very useful. Overall, this chapter was the one from which I gained the most. Before reading this chapter I really was neglecting my followup emails. However, with Lee's detailed instructions this was easily ammended.

In conclusion I highly recommend Mailing Lists Unleashed to both beginners and more experienced email marketers. The screenshots and detailed instructions that Lee provide make it easy for someone to set up their first email newsletter as they read. However, the little touches that Lee recommends to; maintain subscriber loyalty, increase the amount of money your list makes and make readers more responsive to you can really help enhance your email list. This ebook is not without its flaws. Lee does not cover all topics with the same level of detail. In particular, the subjects of negotiating product discounts and driving traffic to your squeeze page are only covered briefly. Nevertheless, if you want to start your own email list but find yourself lost Mailing Lists Unleashed is a good place to start.

GOOD POINTS

- Very detailed instructions and informative screenshots make it easy to implement the ideas as you read. It is ideal for beginners.

- Lee's unique ideas will make your subscribers a lot more receptive to your emails.

- If you follow Lee's instructions your email list will be largely automated once set up.

BAD POINTS

- Certain points, including traffic generation and negotiating product discounts for your list, are not discussed in a great level of detail.

HOW I HAVE GAINED FROM MAILING LISTS UNLEASHED

The most significant benefit for me was the section on followup emails. I really learnt a lot here about what I was doing wrong and what I needed to do to improve this situation.