One important strategy that’s outlined in Everything I Know About Making Money on the Interweb is called Cross-Pollination Marketing.

There are a few different elements to this business / marketing strategy.

One of them addresses the fundamental problem that:

• Most people in one industry simply follow the herd, implementing all of the same strategies of the leaders in that particular industry.
• Failing to test or even examine in the first place, winning strategies from other industries, leads to a loss of many significant revenue/traffic/profit opportunities.

One example is adding a newsletter to your blog. Not just a Feedblitz subscription box that allows users to get auto-emailed your blog posts, but a full-on newsletter that you send custom (non-blog) mailings to periodically.

Very few bloggers take advantage of this unique possibility — to form a tighter bond with their readership by sending customized mailings to them every so often.

Internet Marketers are Like Pornographers

Are you familiar with the meme that the p0rn industry always lies on the cutting edge — that whatever they are doing, other industries will eventually do 1-2 years later?

Well, it may be true to some extent. But Internet Marketing also fills that role.

The philosophy of the best Internet Marketers is to test, test, test — split-test, double-blind test, headline test, font color test, header-graphic test, background-color test, submit button test, etc, etc.

The best of the best are all pros at testing; many second tier marketers simply copy the formula of the best.

That’s why all of their sites look the same — gaudy headlines, 30 point fonts, abundant use of yellow hi-liter, etc.

If you think they are stupid because their site looks so ugly — the joke is on you!

Chances are, their site looks that way because it converts the best. Even the guys at the top still derive 100% of their profits from the meager 1-3% who actually purchase their products. (netting hundreds of thousands on these 1-3% alone)

Applying Internet Marketing’s Combined Knowledge to Your Blog

First, Signup for AWeber. (aff. link; highly recommended)

Next, brainstorm something you might be able to offer your readership — perhaps something unique that you’ve written or that will add value to their lives or business.

Create two pages:

1. Newsletter Signup Page - try to jazz it up a bit. Make a decent case for why anyone would actually want to sign up for your newsletter or gain access to your free product they get when subscribing. Example Here.
2. Confirmation Page - if you’re offering something that they get in return for subscribing, place the download link here, or add a simple Thank You for Subscribing page otherwise, perhaps with links to your best articles. Sign Up to see an example.

It took a few hours to setup the newsletter; with very little marketing we’ve already received over 7 signups in a single day:

…

After a few months you’ll have several hundred to a thousand subscribers; people who would have otherwise vanished into the noise that is the the blogosphere.

A Few Newsletter / Autoresponder Tips

What’s the #1 word people love to hear? Their name, of course.

Some good newsletter headline examples:
Lisa, Welcome to My Newsletter
Lisa, How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog
Lisa, Have You Heard?
Lisa, Oops.. I goofed.

Either following one of two fairly well-known tactics: offering benefits or producing intrigue in the reader’s mind.

Also begin your newsletter with the recipient’s first name, such as:

Lisa,

I stumbled upon an incredible secret recently.

Of course, replace “Lisa” in the above examples with the provided AWeber macros.

More Newsletter Resources

AWeber - unlimited newsleters for $19.95 a month
Six Autoresponder Tips

ps. But Wait!?! I thought Email Was Dead. Long Live RSS!

Not to be glib, but to those who say that email is dead and RSS is the future — that may be true, but have you spoken with your mother lately about RSS?

Casually tell her to visit your blog (no, it’s not an AOL keyword) and simply subscribe to your RSS feed.

Wait for the hommina hommina audy audy Whaaaaa? facial expression.