To construct a prosperous online business you need to build a list of targeted opt in email prospects. List building is the precursor to email marketing. Without a list you have no one to send emails to. The type and frequency of the emails you send to your list comprise email marketing and it is best to learn how to build a list first then how to market to that list. The back-end portion of consumer email marketing is just as important as the list itself.

In this article you will learn the basic tools needed produce and administer to a responsive email list.

There are those that will offer to sell you targeted email lists. For instance, if you are selling something tangible or not, buying a list of eBay email addresses might not be a bad idea.

STOP, it is a very bad idea simply because they were not given to you by the owner; but you already knew that. I’m sure you also knew that emailing people from a list you purchased could violate the CAN-spam act of 2003.

Yes…it is considered spamming when you solicited someone through an email address that has not been willingly given to you by its owner.

List building is going to take planning, research and patience on your part because the type of list you build will prove to be either a waste of your time or a big payoff for the products or services you are marketing. The essential aspect of your email marketing campaign needs to be your Landing page.

Sometimes called a capture page, squeeze page or sales page; a landing page is the first page your prospects come to when they click on your link. Your landing page will make or break the start and/or progression of your email list. A landing page can be a squeeze page with brief to the point adcopy that drives prospects to do your bidding. It can also be a sales page that promotes a product and asks the prospect to “purchase now”.

I suggest you start with the use of a landing page with a no cost offer to entice prospects to opt-in to your mailing list.

Make sure the content on your landing page not only encourages visitors to signup but that it also is directly related to what your selling or offering.

Before finding a market to build your list around you need to ensure you have reliable email marketing software that is well known and respected in the Internet marketing community. Also known as a follow up autoresponder; if you do not have a list I suggest using Aweber.com. On the other hand, if you have an existing list an convert to Aweber, Aweber requires the entire list to opt-in again. As a result, you could lose some of your existing opt-ins in the process.

If you currently have a list I suggest using ListBuildPro.com. ListBuilderPro allows you to place their code on your website and integrate it with your current subscriber list.

I do not suggest using a free email autoresponder. There are many low cost autoresponders available however you need to be sure that you compare features and do not underestimate the features you may need in the future.

Email marketing software allows you to:

…have prewritten your marketing newsletter ready to go when someone signs up.
You can also set the time when you want each letter to be sent.
It has anti-spamming filters that allow you to see if most spam blockers will consider words and phrases of your email to be spammy.
It shows you where your users opted-in from.
Obtain information from their f.a.q.’s and contents that help you to get the most out of their many features.
Set up sales channels where you can track your conversions.
Segment your incoming opt-in list.
For instance, if you have a Golf niche, you may have men’s and women’s Golf apparel. Your opt-in can be setup to have customers specify via a checkbox what they prefer. Based of that information the software puts their email information in the appropriate category which has your prewritten emails on auto pilot.

For web hosting I use Midphase.com but there are other hosting services that are just as reliable for around the same price.

Remember, your landing page and no cost offer is used to entice targeted prospects to sign up to your marketing newsletter. You will make your marketing campaign easier to administer if you have the email marketing software and at least 5 newsletters set up and ready to go when your market signs up.

Building a responsive opt in direct email lists can boost your businesses exposure. Also, building lists can be your core business in multiple markets. Email marketing in multiple markets has the potential to earn you thousands of dollars per website per month.

I ended up in the small incense bazar at Indra Chowk crossroads in Kathmandu, as I remembered a number of incense sellers from previous days of wandering around the city. The simple wooden booths were simple and functional with no frills. Western tourist generally never buy anything here, as it is a local bazaar for Nepali people and not in a tourist center. It has some proximity to Durbar Square which used to be the Hippie tourist center in the 60′s, but few tourist stay there now. The tourist center had moved some years ago to the Thamel neighborhood across town and Durbar square was being slowly abandoned.

Be that as it may, I preferred to stay in the Durbar (Palace) Square area because of the old King’s palace and magnificent Pagota Temples. It is atmospheric beyond belief although a little funky with no real quality hotels or restaurants. I’m always willing to sacrifice comfort for culture, so it’s only Durbar Square for me.

The incense sellers didn’t speak english, but that has never been a barrier to making a deal. There are many tribes in Nepal with different dress & languages. These groups regularly converge on Kathmandu to find things in the market bazaar to take back to their villages. Hense sign language is commonly used for bargaining in the bazar. I had become familiar with it.

I had been in Nepal for a couple months. By this time, I had also learned a few thing about barter and could get the price down a bit with the old walk away technique. A Nepali seller in the bazar will never miss an opportunity for making some money from a customer. He will put on the most sad face, look depressed and say that he’s losing money, but in the end if you walk away you will get your price. Generally about 10 convincing steps will do.

Don’t worry, they never loose money. It took me the longest time to figure out that it was a bargaining tool for them to faint loss.

The great advantage that I had was Nepali’s are convinced that westerners can’t bargain, so when you walk away they really believe you are leaving. In truth, I’m sure I have never made a deal as good as a Nepali person could, but I do better then most westerners. Bargaining is an art and very enjoyable to most bazar sellers.

Westerners fail to realize that bargaining is a social institution, not just to make more money on a deal, but because they enjoy the game. It test your merit and resolve, not to mention acting skills. A good bargain will often attract a hundred or more spectators in the market place especially if it involves a westerner. We are a source of non-stop entertainment.

I picked out a number of different incense varieties to try. All of them were Tibetan. A large portion of Nepal was Tibet historically and the cultures are well blended especially after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Now large number of Tibetan refugees living in Kathmandu. There are also some major Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Nepal like Bodinath & Syambu Stupas that have been there for centuries.

As it is, Tibetans seem to be the producers of most of the incense and that what I wanted anyway. Here on my first trip to Nepal I had a cornucopia of crafts and exotic product to choose for export. How does one decide? What would I specialize in?

The answer was simple. It came from a intuition and a commitment to the Buddhist precept of ‘Right Livelihood’. I wanted to follow my Dharma (natural life direction) and do something that related to my life. I therefore decided to focus on exporting Tibetan Sacred and Ritual items which were attuned to my Spiritual practices. As a long time meditator involved in Eastern Spirituality, it felt good to focus on Buddhist oriented merchandise and nothing was more basic then Tibetan Incense.

I took the incense samples back to my humble room in the City View Hotel (which didn’t have a view) and burned them over the next few days.

Tibetan Incense is very different then Indian Incense. I’ve seen them make Indian Incense. You may be surprised to know that the main ingredient is cow dung on a wood stick. Yes, cow shit! It is used as a bace for Indian incense and then you dip it in a perfumed oil for the aroma. The oils are often derived from synthetic chemicals.

In contrast, Tibetan Incense has no stick. It is pure herbs from the Himalayan mountains. When you burn it the scent is spicy, not sweet. The herbs are chosen for specific Spiritual Qualities that they invoke, rather then for aroma alone.

Some of the herbs in Tibetan Incense are for clearing a space of negative influences. Other herbs are to create a calm feeling for meditation. The most popular one these days is the herbal Tibetan Healing Incense formula that was found in the ancient Tibetan Medical Scriptures.

Almost all the incense samples I choose from the Bazar had merit, so I ordered several dozen of each variety. In fact, I ordered so much that I had to employ a couple of porters to carry the incense back to my export agent for packing.

It’s funny how it worked out. The first time, I hired a couple of old men with skinny legs to carry these big bundles. I bargained them to about 10 rupees (5 cents) to carry the bundles about a mile. No, I’m not a cheap skate, that was actually their normal rate.

When we got to the cargo I paid the porters double, which strangely enough freaked them out and made them very uncomfortable. A cultural mistake on my part and confusing to them. Weird, but true. Don’t mess with people cultural reality. In Nepal, people know the value of a rupee and it’s not to be thrown around lightly. It was a lesson for me. These were hard working men and they didn’t expect a handout or tip. I think I insulted them.

As the incense business grew I was finding more creative ways to bring the incense to my cargo agent. The next time I hired an ox cart and rode a top the pile of incense like a Maharaja. It was fun, but a bit embarrassing.

Finally, as our quantities grew, I came up with the idea that they could deliver it to the cargo agent. Why didn’t I think of that sooner? I also started having the cargo agents pay the vendors, rather them me carry around loads of cash. People in Nepal do not use check or credit cards. Things were getting easier.

A few years down the road, a Tibetan friend of mine named Sonam told me to visit Lucky Incense Store in the Thamel to buy Tibetan Incense directly. This small narrow space turned out to be the source of Tibetan Healing Incense.

Up until now all of my business had been through the cargo agent who bought from the street bazar vendors. I never thought of looking for the source. Another oversite on my part, as I was now importing thousands of packs of incense on a regular basis.

Lucky Incense was run by a father and son team. The son would run the shop since his english was good. He was a cheerful and pleasant Tibetan boy about seventeen named Tsewang Norbu. His father was kind of a suspicious dour gentlemen with a weary looking face. I explained to his son that I was actually the biggest buyer of the Healing Incense and would like to go directly with him.

Tsewang was happy to reveal that his uncle Pasang Yonten Arya Tendi Sherpa was the Tibetan Doctor who actually found the Healing Incense formula in the ancient Tibetan Medical Scriptures.

I placed a large incense order with Tsewang and had to explain convincingly to his father that I was ‘for real’. His father didn’t expect such good fortune and was refusing to believe that I was the person responsible for selling so much of there Tibetan Healing Incense. It was interesting for me to see how much a person can color there reality to not accept good fortune, even if the name of their shop is “Lucky Incense”.

Tsewang gave me the address and email of his famous uncle. I was thrilled to be able to contact Dr. Arya to find our more about how he discovered Tibetan Healing Incense.

Upon, my return to America my first business was to contact Dr. Arya. He had previously been in Dharamsala, India working & studying at the Tibetan Medical Institute of the Tibetan Government in Exile. Now, Dr. Arya was practicing Tibetan Medicine in Italy. I sent him an email to ask for his story.

Dr. Arya sent me a cautious reply wanting to know more about me before consenting to tell me about his self. I didn’t bother with any business or marketing credentials to glorify our success with his Healing Incense. He was a Tibetan Doctor, so what does he care about business?

I wrote him details of my Spiritual credentials. I told him of the years of daily Meditation and Buddhist studies. I gave him the website to look over and told him that we contribute to many Tibetan relief organizations.

That satisfied Dr. Arya and a rich tapestry of his life unfolded through magic of cyberspace. Here is a brief summary:

Dr. Pasang Yonten Arya Tendi Sherpa was born in a village called Dolpo in Kyidong Valley of Tibet in 1955. He escaped to Nepal over the dangerous mountain pass of Rasuwa Ghiri when he was only 10 years old in 1965.

Dr. Arya’s traditional Tibetan education and Buddhist Spiritual practices were under the Tutelage of the Enlightened Master Geshe Gowo Lopsang Tenzin. As he grew older and more accomplished his master sent him to study at the Tibetan Medical Institute in Dharamsala, India where the His Holiness The Tibetan Dalai Lama has his residence.

In Dharamsala, Dr. Arya studied the Tibetan Healing Arts with his new masters: Prof. Barshee Phuntsog Wangyel, Dr. Jamyan Tashi and Lady Dr. Lopsang Dolma. By the age of 23 he attained a degree in Medicine and Astrology and then went to advanced studies in Tibetan Pharmacology. It was here that he discovered the formula for Tibetan Healing Incense while studying the ancient Tibetan Medical Scriptures. Tibetan Healing Incense was born.

Dr. Arya went on to write books on Tibetan Medicine and founded The New Yuthok Institute of Tibetan Medicine in Milan, Italy in 1999, where he now resides and works. He is an amazing person and has instrumental in bringing the wisdom of Tibetan Culture to the world.

As for our part, we redesigned the package of Dr. Arya’s Tibetan Healing Incense to make it a little more distinctive. The original pack was very plain with small block letters as if it came off a shelf in a pharmacy. We only made simple tasteful changes to the package design. We wanted to maintain the Tibetan Healing Incense original character and not glamorize it in a Western marketing style.

Our marketing program could be summed up as happenstance. I knew a couple of people in the Incense business. One was Incense Works in Hawaii and the other was Prasad Gifts in the Midwest.

I went to see David the owner of Incense Works while I was on vacation. David is a laid back old hippie with a great business sense. He had developed the largest incense wholesale business in America and still lived in paradise on the island of Maui. You got to admire his style!

We visited his warehouse in the Kahalui industrial park on Maui. David was an amiable open minded person and we struck a deal. I think David is one of those people who bases his decisions on personal relationships. Stopping by to see him made it easy for us to connect personally. It made all the difference. We were very like minded people and happy to do business together.

Incense Works has sold the Tibetan Healing Incense & others ever since to around 3000 stores. David once told me he could get the incense directly and he has lots of other suppliers for similar product, but the reason he buys from us, is that we make it easy. On another occasion, one of Incense Works managers passed on a comment that David told him. He said, he likes us because were plain “Good People”. I think that’s an honorable reason to work with someone. I wish we all had the same motivation to put relationships ahead of pure hardcore business.

How many times has some one done something wrong and tried to explain that “It’s not personal, just business.” What kind of world have we created from that philosophy? It’s it time to reverse that idea and make all business personal, dharma oriented,….. and as Buddha prescribes in his Eight Fold Path to Enlightenment: “Right Livelihood”

Prasad Gifts was a bit more reluctant to do the Tibetan Incense. They told me “no” initially and I have no idea what changed their minds. I accepted that “no” and that was the end of it for me, but I think I must have mentioned that Incense Works of Hawaii was doing well with it.

Buddhist non-attachment makes it easy to be very casual with no hard sell. I think that’s probably what opened the door for us at Prasad. We let existence happen and pretty soon got a call back with a big order for Tibetan Incense.

Sometime being a non-aggressive Buddhist businessman mays seem self defeating. It may not seem like the fastest road to success. It may even seem counter productive, but I guess that it depends on what kind of success your looking for. Letting go is not much of a marketing plan, but it works pretty good and was really stress free.

If you believe life is a struggle, then maybe fighting is your dharma, but I don’t think that’s true for most people. It’s just the world has conditioned us to struggle. We have an opportunity now to take it to a higher level.

Prasad Gifts distributed our Tibetan Healing Incense to about 2000 stores and it was very well received.

Tibetan Healing Incense is now the most popular Tibetan Incense in the world. It outsells every other type of Tibetan Incense two to one.

It did not get that way through clever strategy or manipulative marketing. It got that way through following Dharma and practicing ‘Right Livelihood’. How short is life and how precious time. Consider using it in a new way.

All the Sages, Saints, and Prophets say the same thing: You Create Your Own Reality. We all have an opportunity now to be successful and fulfill Dharma. We don’t have to sacrifice who we are to survive. Buddhism says that it is all inter-related. I have discovered this to be true in my own life and business success. All of existence is backing you when you work with natural law. The universe is just waiting for you to say “Yes” and then the doors will start opening.

Tashi Delek (Good Luck in Tibetan)

I am the original Himalayan Trader. I go to Asia to do adventure travel, meditation, & trading. The Himalayan Traders is from the ‘Small Is Beautiful’ lifestyle philosophy. In Buddhist thought, Right Livelihood is considered essential for the layman’s spiritual path. As a Buddhist layperson, I have tried to embody this ideal through The Himalayan Traders.

Most of the injuries that many Banks are currently suffering from are self-inflicted. Financial institutions have been holding onto more foreclosed property than it is obviously healthy for them to own. It now seems painfully apparent this is because Banks do not have a clue about marketing and how to sell the very real estate that they were so hasty to reposes.

Trying to deal with most banks about their owned properties has been like some weird form of a cloak and dagger game. It seems that most Bankers find some sort of perverse pleasure in avoiding the very thing that they need the most BUYERS.

You see the banks have made it is almost impossible for the average buyer with interest to contact them about the very property that they are sitting on and need to sell. Even though this Property is obviously doing the banks more harm than good most financial institutions refuse to deal directly with individual buyers.

Larger financial institutions have not wanted to be bothered with the individual investors. They have sought to repackage groups of multiple properties into large portfolios to be resold to institutional investors. Maybe that is all that their staffs know how to do but it is time for them to change focus.

Many Banks have acted too high and mighty to deal with the individual investors. While they have shunned the small investor they have wasted precious marketing time and now look to the government for a solution

One can find the banks identity and address from town and city records but there is never a contact person to direct inquires to. An interested buyer cannot call these institutions and submit an offer and receive a call back. An interested buyer cannot write to these institutions and receive an answer about how to purchase the property in question. There is usually no way to have any dialogue whatsoever about the very real estate the financial institutions need to sell. It’s as if they actually do not want to sell. They do not want to be bothered with the little guy only the other giants of the industry. This attitude or strategy does not appear to have proven wise.

Some of the Bank Real Estate Owned departments utilize the services of the Realtor community. From what I have seen of the properties either the Realtor was trying to hard to impress the banks in order to obtain other listings from the banks or the banks are unrealistic in their appraisals of value. Either way the pricing I have seen has been completely out of line and this is not the time to be unrealistic.

The Banks need someone in house to see the properties, accurately price the properties and then concentrate on marketing the properties to each and every buyer they can find. Marketing over the Internet is simply not that hard to figure out.

The enormous difference between the RTC in the 80′s and the New Bailout bantered about this September is the Internet and the potential it creates to reach millions of individual buyers. Will the banks embrace this Internet marketing opportunity and liquidate their real estate holdings to each and every qualified buyer?

In my new book LISTING REALTORS ARE OBSOLETE. USE THE INTERNET TO SELL YOUR PROPERTY AND SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN COMMISSIONS I explain many of the changes and conflicts of interests that take place and have a negative impact on the sellers of real estate and how so many Realtors are actually counterproductive and harmful to the Seller’s cause.

I have more than 25 years experience in the Real Estate Industry as a Broker, Builder, Developer and Investor. I have bought and sold many, many properties directly without the use of MLS or listing Realtors. In fact I have sold entire subdivisions with very little involvement from the Realtor community and I can show you how to use the Internet to sell your property without wasting your money on a listing Realtor.

Sellers do not need the negative outdated services of listing Realtors. I will show you how to work directly with buyers and cooperate with the type of Realtors that are entirely worthwhile, the buyer’s agents. My 12 PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL ONLINE PROPERTY SELLING is available online for free at [http://www.AskJamesJoseph.com] so be sure to get your free copy.

So many people work in an office. Every day they see the same people and usual social pleasantries are exchanged, “How are you? “What about this weather?” “Did you hear the news this morning?”

We skim across the surface of our lives as we don’t have a deeper personal relationship with the people we work with. We don’t talk about anything that personally affects us and it would be prying to dig into the things that really matter for others.

A sick mum can be talked about but the worry that something is not working with a relationship, or with a child, it’s often too much, we need to keep those things private.

In a work relationship there is always the worry that your information will be betrayed. I don’t understand why people in organizations are so political and so difficult to work with. Office politics means you always have the feeling that you’d better watch your back.

It’s a hard way to live.

There is another way to work. The basic principles are different and the outcomes can be very different.

If you can move into a work environment where your success is not threatening other people, where the Leadership is trying to help you because your success is their success, where people who perceive themselves as being beneath you in the organization are not trying to pull you down but are trying to get themselves higher and, in the process are helping you do better.

It sounds a bit like a fairyland but it is the way that direct sales, Multi Level Marketing ( MLM ), or Network Marketing works if it’s done properly.

When you start with a company that has an MLM style Royalty payment you do so because you like the company, believe in the products but, most importantly, you have someone that you are happy to work with. YOU get to choose who it is you work with.

You will be doing direct sales and talking with customers and prospects. It’s a bit hard to get around the fact that the direct sale industry means you have to sell things. If you don’t want to be involved in sales and talking with people then this is not the industry for you. If, on the other hand, you like personal contact, like talking with people, and get pleasure out of seeing people getting benefits from your products then maybe you should take a good hard look at the direct sales industry.

Many of the big direct sale companies who distribute their products through independent distributors pay a good commission on personal sales. That can often be up to 50% because the company is not carrying the overheads of traditional companies and the company is not paying a retainer or a wage to sales staff. The company only pays on production so it can be generous in paying a profit share to you for each product you sell. If you are good at what you do then this sort of company structure can be very lucrative.

The other aspect of this sort of business is that strong interpersonal relationships are formed. As you build your own skills you are encouraged to put together a team of your own. You learn what to do and you teach it to your own people. Once they establish the skills then they can make some money for themselves and gather other people to work with them. Each member of your team will be helped to build their own teams, and so it goes, until you have a huge network of people you are working with all round the world.

Obviously this is a good way to make money but it goes deeper than that. You hear the “old timers” talking, and see in films, about how people who have been serving overseas together in the armed forces form deep friendships. They can be out of contact for years and then, when they meet again, the time falls away and the experiences are as fresh as if they happened yesterday.

I have pondered on this. My belief is that this is a part of a life changing experience.

When there is something that happens in your life that brings fundamental change and takes your life in a completely new direction then you do not forget it. The people who go through the experience with you will always be special to you.

In the direct sales industry you can take someone who is trapped in a job, hating the work, frustrated with life in general, and show them new ideas, give them new hope. You can offer an opportunity for them to take control of their lives and to be free to choose the life they dream to live. If you work with them through this time then deep bonds will be formed that can last for the rest of your lives.

Working in this manner can make you a lot of money. That’s great. It can also make you a lot of friends, people who have improved their lives immensely and who will always remember that you helped them to get started, and you helped them when it all new and confusing.

Direct sales is a method of business you but it can be about lifestyle and people and living a life that you enjoy.

To find the sort of people you can expect to share great experiences with, and who have shown good leadership skills in building their own and their team businesses, simply look for people who have successfully been running their Direct Sales business for ten years or more. Because if they have been successful, and their team has stuck by them for all these years, they must be doing something right!