We’ve gotten some AWESOME questions about using surveys.  If you haven’t gotten a chance to put yours in ye, you can do that here.

One question we’ve gotten a number of times is,

“I’m just starting out–I’m a “newbie.”  I don’t have a list.  Where should I start?”

Well, that’s a REALLY important question.

Let’s make it a little broader:  How do you get the information you need to make money, if you don’t have a list?

The first step is to figure out exactly what you’re trying to do.  Do you have a clear picture of your target market?  That’s always the first step, whether you’re doing a survey or not.

If you don’t have that clarified, then your first step is to describe that market very clearly.

• Who are they?
  
• What are their characteristics—are they male or female?
  
• How old are they?
  
• What do they do for a living?
  
• How much money do they make?

Once you know who your target market is, then the next step is to look for some information that’s already out there—that’s free data.

There are enormous sources of data out there, from the census bureau to the Pew Trust to data archives.

One of the things we’re doing in MySurveyExpert is showing people where to find these sorts of data and how to use them.

• We’re also going to be collecting data IN the MySurveyExpert community, building aggregate data that online marketers in our community can use.
• That will be another source of what we call secondary data, or data someone else collected (which means you didn’t have to do the work and spend the $$ yourself).
  
• And these will be the first aggregate data of this sort collected inside the online marketing space.

If you want to collect data yourself and you don’t have a list, sources like these can help a lot.

But you shouldn’t stop there.

• Look around in your niche—could you form a partnership with another marketer and collect data from his or her list?
  
• If you’re putting together a product that isn’t a direct competitor of theirs and you can share the data, they might be willing.
  

If you think this way, you can probably come up with lots of ways to get information.

Another way to start to get information is to do just what we did, put up a Traffic Geyser lead page.

• You can use video and other forms of social media to drive traffic to that lead page; the answers to the questions will start to give you information about what your market wants to know.
  
• From that, you can build a list AND create your first product!
• And we’re putting a super cool system together right now that will let you do a “twist” on surveys to get information and give people feedback they can use.
  
• This could be your first product, right off the shelf.  It should be available in just a few weeks, so stay tuned!

We have special resources for folks who are just starting out in the MySurveyExpert system.  To get them, go here.

You probably knew that surveys are an awesome way to create a product, but did you know they can also create your autoresponder series or e-course for you?

Absolutely!

One of our big goals at MySurveyExpert is to help members who are just starting out with online marketing “get off the starting block.”  So here’s an example of what we’re doing:

One of our newest MySurveyExpert members was having trouble getting an autoresponder series created, so I decided to help him out by showing him how to make it super simple.

You can take the quick and easy Product Creation Survey that we include in our new product, “Turn Surveys Into Cash,” and create not only your new product but also an autoresponder series that will help sell it.

Here’s how:

With a product creation survey, you can find out

• EXACTLY what your customers want in a product,
• how they want it delivered,
• what they’ll pay for it.

It’s the quickest, easiest, most profitable way I know to create a product.

But don’t stop there–use that same survey to create your autoresponder series or an e-course that you deliver through your autoresponder.  Here’s how:

Take that same idea or topic and just boil it down to 8 key points.

So, if you’ve found out that your customers want to know how to use clicker training teach a dog basic commands, then you want to write out an e-course (autoresponder series) that teaches  your customers how to do ONE PIECE of that.

In this case, we could write out 8 short lessons on how to use clicker training to teach a dog to sit.

Then write an introductory lesson at the front and a “summing it up” lesson at the end, and voila–you have your autoresponder series or e-course.

• One important point:  In that “sum it up” lesson, make SURE you include information that tells them EXACTLY where and how to get more information on using clicker training to teach the dog to stay, come, etc.–that’s how you lead them to the product or service you’re selling.

So you see how EASILY you can get multiple uses out of that product creation survey AND help increase sales of your new product or service.

And remember, we’ve made it SUPER easy to do these surveys with our Product Creation Survey template–one of 10 templates in our new product.

To find out more, go here.

And remember, if you have a question about how to use surveys in your business, we’d love to hear it!

The White House recently announced the launch of a new website, data.gov, that will bring together more than 200,000 datasets from the federal government.

These raw data can be downloaded and analyzed by any user.

What’s the big deal?  For online marketers, government data can be incredibly useful for getting information about a wide range of markets.

The site will also offer widgets that can be embedded on websites or blogs, or in social networking profiles.

We’ll be tracking the availability of datasets on the site and providing information, as well as some analysis, inside the MySurveyExpert membership site.

You’ve given us some AWESOME questions in response to our video offer and contest. (And if you haven’t put a question up yet, go here: http://www.siteproweb.com/survey-question to put a question up, get 20 free videos, AND a chance to win a cool prize!)

Several of you asked,

How can I get people to respond  to my survey?

That’s a REALLY important question, because it’s ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to get as many responses as possible to a  survey.

Why?  Because it increases the chances that your sample–the group of people who respond–will be representative.

In other words, you want the people who respond to look as much as possible like your customer base as a whole.  The more responses you get, the better the chance that you represent your customer base well.

So how do you do that?

Some of the videos we’ve put up will give you some useful information about this, but here are some of the key things.

To get response:

1. First and foremost, you get response by showing your customers “what’s in it for them” in taking your survey. It needs to be ALL about them, so that they see why they should spend time and effort to give you information.

2. You do that in many ways, but 2 of the key ways are to (a) offer incentives for taking the survey (such as, everyone who takes it gets a free report AND a chance to win something cool, like an iPod) and (b) designing the survey so that it reads as if it’s about THEM, not about YOU and how YOU can make more money. If you do that, you WILL make more money, because you’ll get the information you need.

3. Write a good survey! If you learn how to write clear, effective questions, to make your survey a conversation, and to report results to your customers and show them how you’re using the data, they’ll learn over time that your surveys are worthwhile. That takes some skill, but you’ll be surprised how fast you can learn to do good surveys, particularly with the simple recipe we’ve put together.

4. Send multiple invitations to do the survey.

5. Show your customers how you put the information they give to work to give THEM more value.

There are just some of the techniques we’re teaching.  To get the whole system, go here.

Here’s the “Quick Start Guide” that we’re including with our new product. It will give you a great overview of the awesome system that will let you put surveys to work making money for your business, with a minimal investment of time and money.  To get the system, go here.