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The one asset that is considered to be the gold in your online business is your email list. I constantly tell my clients that their #1 goal at events and primary call to action in their online marketing strategies should be to asking people to join their list.

The best way to get people on your list is to create an effective opt-in form on your website. An opt-in form is a sign up form on a website that asks for key pieces of info, like email address and name, for example, in return for sending the visitor something of value, like a free report or ezine subscription.

What are the criteria that need to be considered in the design of this form?

1. Page Placement. On what page of your website should your opt-in form be placed? That's easy -- every single page of your site. Most people erroneously believe that every visitor will come to their website through their home page. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because every page of your website is a possible landing page, ensure that someone can opt into your list from whichever page they are taken to within your website. In fact, about 60% of my traffic comes to my site through one of the articles I have written, and so I have my primary call to action -- an opt-in box for my ezine -- visible on every page of my site.

You can even add this strategy to the checkout process when someone makes a purchase from you. Add a check box to join your list to the checkout page of your shopping cart, ask the purchaser to opt-in to your list via the thank you page your purchaser is sent to after purchase, or include the request in the email autoresponder follow up that the purchaser is sent post-purchase.

Another place to insert your opt-in form is at the end of any articles you have on your site or your blog. Create some short (1-2 sentence) sales copy that ties your content in with an offer to opt into your list. If the visitor liked what he read, you'll catch him at just the right moment to want to opt-in to your email list.

2. Location on Page. Marketing wisdom says that the best location for an opt-in form is the upper right corner of a page. Regardless if it's on the right or the left, the opt-in box definitely needs to be "above the fold", to use an old newspaper term, i.e. in the top of the page that's immediately visible on the screen so that the visitor will not have to scroll down to see the opt-in form.

For maximum impact, the opt-in form needs to stand out and be noticed. Putting the opt-in form into a box with a bold outline or eye-catching color will help, as will creating a graphic icon that the visitor will immediately see, like an image of your ezine or your special report or bonus ebook. In order for your visitors to take action, your opt-in form needs to be the first element on your page that attracts their attention.

3. Type of form. There are two basic types of forms you can use for your opt-in form: an inline form and a popup form. The inline form is the traditional form you see on many websites that request the visitor to fill in his email address and name, for example. The pop-up form, or pop-over form (which is unblockable by pop-up blockers), is disliked by many people. However, from my experience, the pop-over form (one that slides onto the page from the top or side of a page or one that jumps into a page and bounces a bit (also know as a hover ad) is very effective, provided it is used properly.

Your best strategy is to use a combination of the two forms. Make sure that your inline opt-in form in present on every page of your site, and use the pop-over form selectively throughout your site only on certain pages. Don't ever use the pop-over form by itself, as having that repeatedly appear in front of your visitor is a sure way to annoy him and cause him to immediately leave your site.

4. Opt-in Benefits. Why would someone want to part with his name and email address for you? Your visitor is seeking the WIIFM (What's In It For Me) factor. There has to be a very compelling reason for your visitor to part with his name and email address these days. One way to get that information from your visitor is by offering a free email newsletter, but even today that's not usually enough. In order to get a visitor's attention today, you have to up the ante and offer a free report, ebook, audio or video, or ecourse that helps the visitor solve one of the pressing problems that led him to your site.

In order to build that trust and confidence and further bolster your opt-in success, let your visitor know your privacy policy, or how the email address will be used; set expectations for how often and on what occasions he will receive emails from you; and what happens next in the signup process.

5. Information to collect. How much information is a visitor willing to give you? For many years simply an email address was considered adequate, but with the advent of broadcast services that have well-developed features that let you personalize email broadcasts, you may want to request additional info. At a minimum, get the first name and the email address of your visitor. If direct mail marketing or telemarketing is a part of your future business marketing strategy, you may want to collect mailing address, city, state, zip, and phone number as well. However, if you make that information mandatory, you may lose many opt-in opportunities. If you want to collect this extended information, put asterisks on your opt-in form to denote which fields are mandatory (like name and email address) and which are optional. You'll be surprised at how many people will give you their mailing address just because you asked for it.

6. Post-form process. Create an online video or one-page tutorial with screen captures to walk your subscriber through the next desired steps in the opt-in process. Most visitors don't want to think, so if you can take them by the hand and show them step-by-step how to get on your list, they will happily follow along and do as you ask. This is especially helpful for newbies who may not have experience in joining lists.

With an effective opt-in form and opt-in process, you can exponentially increase the size of your lists in a very short time. Then, you have a ready and willing list of potential clients to whom you can begin to market your expertise, products, and services.

Copyright (c) 2007 Donna Gunter

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com.

At the end of each Article Marketing submission is a bit of author information and marketing copy known as the resource box or bio box. This is the key to turning the potential energy of interest you've created in your article into the kinetic energy of sales, name recognition or website traffic - whatever you're engaging in article marketing to achieve. There are three main components of a resource box:

• Author name and brief professional information.
• USP (unique selling proposition), laser marketing statement or some other form of short and snappy sales copy.
• A call to action with links.

In addition to being finely tuned individually, each component of your resource box needs to be an integral part of the overall finished product, pull it's own weight and move the reader steadily toward taking whatever action you want him or her to take. In total, your resource box should be no more than 2 or 3 sentences long. Less than that and you risk leaving out important information. More than that and it becomes a solid mass of text that will be skimmed over by the reader.

Here are 5 tips to help you create an effective resource box:

1. Know what you want from your readers. What do you want your readers to do once they've read your article? There is no right answer to this question, but there are wrong ones. And the worst possible wrong answer is "I don't know." The whole point of Article Marketing is to generate content that results in a specific action. Have a clear purpose in mind when you write and make sure that purpose is reflected in your bio box copy. And don't forget to update your box as your offers and information change. An out-of-date bio box is better than nothing, but not by much.

2. Know why your readers should care. Your readers are busy. They have jobs, families, hobbies, friends, a 3-month TIVO backlog and the attention gravity well that is the Internet, all vying for their time at once. If you want them to initiate any action on your behalf, whether that is clicking through to your site or downloading a resource, you have to give them a reason to bother.

3. Ask for the action. Don't just put a naked link out there by itself. And don't use boring, "Click here for blah blah blah" link text. Yawn. Instead, create descriptive link text that clearly indicates what's at the other end of the click and that compels the reader to click through. One marketing truism is that pain has a stronger effect than reward on the human psyche. So a pain-point call to action like, "Are you flushing money down the drain by overlooking these 12 commonly missed deductions? Find out in this special free report!" will always outdraw the reward-based version, "Drop by my site and download my free report on 12 commonly-missed tax deductions." (PS - don't put a period/full stop after a link. It can mess up auto formatting of the link on the user end. Just double space and start the next sentence normally.)

4. Be specific. Unless you only write in one exceedingly narrow topic targeting the same, equally narrow market, don't create a one-size-fits-all bio and slap it on every article you write. Have several resource boxes that target specific niches within your Article Marketing strategy. For example, if you specialize in tax advice for small businesses and solopreneurs, then create a bio box for both markets plus one for general interest pieces, and use them according to which market the topic of your article is targeting. Doing this means that you can prescreen readers and direct each prospect to precisely the right web page, resource or product for them.

5. Less is more. Mark Twain once wrote, "I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I didn't have time to make it shorter." It takes time, skill and lots of practice to turn 200 words of rambling information into 3 sentences of tightly coiled laser-marketing copy. Nonetheless, it is a skill you should work hard to perfect. Don't make your reader sift through a ton of chaff to find a cup of wheat. Present them with an already prepared, warm-from-the-oven marketing cookie in a perfect bite-sized portion.

All of the quality writing and insightful content in the world won't do you a bit of good if you don't follow through with a dynamic and compelling resource box that leads to a specific call to action. Without it, your article is just so much dead-end copy. Interesting, sure, and probably quite informative. But not much more than that.

Take the time to craft your resource box with care and intent. Remember to go back and update it regularly with new offers and fresh information (see if your directory will do a "find and replace" to exchange the old resource box for the new one on existing articles). Make your call-to-action clear, compelling and specific. Then finesse and trim and tighten it all up until all you have left is a pure, concentrated shot of Article Marketing rocket fuel, ready to boost your business into the stratosphere.

Author Info:
Soni Pitts is a professional freelance writer and editor, with experience that ranges from short web articles to full-length ebooks and beyond.

"Need professional quality writing, but hate to write - or just don't have the time to do it all yourself? Don't let less-than-perfect writing skills or a tight schedule leave you at a loss for words. Query writer (at) sonipitts.com for a free consultation, samples and a quote."

If you are looking to be successful at internet marketing it is important you have the right plan, structure and tools in place. This article outlines seven things you need to succeed at internet marketing:

1. A target market with a big problem

Research is so very essential when you are looking to succeed at internet marketing because without it you have no idea who your target market is and without knowing that you have no idea who you are targeting your advertising too and without knowing that you are sending out messages that are not hitting a mark.

You need to decide on your target market and then discover what their problem is, what is it they need to solve and how can you help them with that.

2. Customers who buy from you over and over again

You want to make sure that once you have your target market that you have a variety of products that you can sell to them so that you don't have to keep finding new customers for new areas. There are people who work in this way but it is hard work because you are effectively starting again with each new area.

A website or blog

With the amazing changes in blog templates it's possible to create a blog that looks like a website without the hassle that having to maintain a website needs. To succeed at internet marketing you need a base to promote from and that base could be a website or a blog and it can also be both. You never have to limit yourself to just one either, three blogs all with different templates and providing slightly different information is a great way to get yourself noticed.

A product

You can't succeed at internet marketing without a product and it doesn't have to be your own. Find digital products that you can sell as an affiliate marketer or try drop shipping physical products. You might prefer to promote a membership site or develop your own information products that you sell. There are a number of opportunities so it is important that you find one that works for you.

A list

Succeeding in internet marketing without a list is not impossible but it does make your job much harder. Having your target market and then getting customers from that market who buy from you over and over again is the best way to succeed. I didn't start to make a living in internet marketing until I started to build a list.

Traffic

Of course you can't build a list if there isn't anyone visiting your site. Getting visitors to your site and then converting those visitors to buying customers should always be your ultimate goal. Using article marketing, press releases, social bookmarking, blogs, social networks and all those online resources will mean that you can get a lot of your traffic without having to pay. Of course eventually using pay-per-click advertising is still an effective way but it is not as essential as it once was.

A Winning Attitude

Marking and mindset go together if you want to succeed at internet marketing and you should never underestimate the benefits of a winning attitude. It may not make you money in itself and it will not guarantee your success but it will get you though the tough times and negativity will almost certainly cause you to fail. You need to keep going in the face of adversity but you also need to know when to walk away! You need to believe in your ability to set a goal and achieve it but you also need to know when you have set yourself too high a target.

So there you have it, the seven things that I believe anyone needs to succeed in internet marketing. If you start with those as your focus it will be difficult for you to go wrong and if you are struggling at making money online you might want to look at which of those seven are currently missing for you because adding them may make a big difference to your internet based business.

Diane Corriette provides free information on easy and low cost ways to make money online at http://www.womeninternetmarketers.com/easy she also shares her internet marketing mistakes at http://www.myinternetmarketingmistakes.com Join the Women Internet Marketers social network to connect, learn, share and network with other women running an internet based business http://www.womeninternetmarketers.net