Are You Backing Up Your BIGGEST Asset?

By Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen"

Have you ever accidentally lost an important file on your computer? Perhaps your computer crashed (again) or your cat sauntered over a dooming sequence of keys. Remember that little pang in your stomach you felt when you realized that file was gone for good?

OK, now imagine losing your entire e-zine subscriber list. Did that pang just get a bit more intense? (Ouch!)

"Master List Builder" Joel Christopher asked several Internet marketing gurus the question, "If your office was burning down and you could save one thing, what would it be?" The unanimous answer among all of them was, "my list"!

Your list is your goldmine. It's your pool of warm prospects and clients with whom you've taken months to build a level of credibility and trust. They're your ticket to a steady stream of income.

It can take years to build a large collection ofopt-in subscribers. But they can disappear in a flash if they're not protected. So, are YOU backing up your list on a regular basis? (Be honest!) If not, let's get you started today.

If Your List Resides on Your Computer...

If you send out your e-zine or e-mail promotions from your own computer, you MUST make backing-up your list a daily habit. And by "backing-up," I mean saving your list to a disk or location other than your hard drive. For example, you can save your list to:

1) a Zip disk (you'll need a Zip drive)
2) a CD (you'll need a CD burner)
3) a floppy disk (these don't hold much data though)
4) an external hard drive (these are less expensive now than they used to be)
5) a secure, Web-based file storage service.

I currently use option 5 for my computer files. The service I use is called I-Backup and there are many others out there, starting at as little as $3 per month. I prefer this option because I have so many large files on my computer that I'd have to backup my files to several separate disks or CDs. And because this method is so EASY, I'm more likely to follow through and back-up my files on a regular basis! I also like I-Backup for traveling, as I can upload files that I'll need to access on the road. This way I don't have to bring disks with me.

If you use a type of list management software that resides on your computer or your own Web server, such as Broadc@st or MailLoop, it can probably schedule automatic backups for you. See the program's help files or contact their support center for assistance.

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