Work at Home Productivity Tips –

Over the years that I have been working for myself, I’ve seen one large, looming habit that has surely reduced my success.

That is the habit of being scattered. This habit seems to permeate every level, big to small. It is a result of consistently not being consistent.

I have trained for and begun multiple careers – nutritional consultant, freelance writer and admin assistant to name a few. I’ve begun various MLM businesses – Watkins, Avon and Discovery Toys are the first that come to mind.

Then there began the tendency to not quit one to do another – but to try to do more than one. I don’t know which was worse!

Inside of that, I also have realized a pattern of skipping to and fro – to improve things – inside of the same business. (this is much different than testing, tweaking and tracking, an important part of improving any business model)

The one business that I really have stuck with for over 6 years has seen 3 going on 4 complete web design overhauls, each one loosing pages and SEO listings in the process.

I have acquired 3 separate URL’s for the same business site. listed in various places over the net, so much for branding!

Maybe worse of all, I have moved my email list at least 4 times.

The net result of this completely bad move is loosing a whopping 95% of subscribers who probably today would be receiving my newsletter. Is there anything more frustrating than spending hours putting a newsletter together that is going out to less subscribers in 6 years instead of more? I think not! (don’t try this at home)

Find a mailing list provider who is independent of your web host or any thing else that you may have set up so that you can keep your list in one place no matter what.

The one that I highly recommend and am using now (for the second time – moving the first time was another one of those lift foot and kick self moments) is AWEBER.

It gives you complete freedom to mess with anything else that you want with no worries of loosing your list as well as great customer support and many other features, there is sooo much you can do with it.

The good news for you is that you can benefit from my experience. If you pay attention to the following tips, it could save you years of hard work down the drain.

To recap – when starting your biz, try to do these things

1. Choose 1 core URL that will be your base and remain unchanged

2. Update your site and logo if it is necessary, but do it right the first time and avoid a lot of hassle down the road. CSS or Server Side Includes is a must – I am also going to be using wordpress to accomplish this result with an easy to use content manager built in, but that’s another story.

3. Park your list. It goes without saying that you should have one (right?) Put it somewhere that you will never, ever, have to move it. Ever.

What’s all the fuss about moving a list anyway?

Because every time you do, you loose a ton of subscribers. They either don’t see the resub info, they forget, they leave it and then forget or decide they’ve got too much mail – who knows! But moving a list is the kiss of death to a lot of hard won subscribers.

In the internet world, subscribers = $ so don’t underestimate the importance to your business – online or off, one of your biggest assets is a stable mailing list (and it is much more fun when you don’t feel so alone!).

Recommended Resources

#1 auto responder/list service – AWEBER

Learn to make $ with your list – LIST AND TRAFFIC – JIMMY D BROWN

I’ve been a member for over a year and can say that Jimmy gives more than your money’s worth. I haven’t even scratched the surface yet of his ideas (but I can say that I consulted his info in order to format this article)

List and Traffic

– Jan Ferrante

[tags]online business success, mailing lists, online marketing, autoresponders[/tags]