This is a guest post from Daniel Wagner of DanielWagner.com [by the way... he's also the laid-back guy on the left hand side of our brand new website banner...]

Whether you have 300 people on your list or 30,000, surveys are an incredible tool to find out what it is that your subscribers are exactly after.

This is very powerful as you can use this information to create more targeted products for your audience. You can’t get more targeted then to ask somebody exactly what they want, and then sell it to them.

What you will do is create a survey and through that you will ask your list a series of multiple-choice questions.

Now creating a survey is very easy. I use a company called Survey Monkey. All you do is choose the design and create the questions and they collate the responses, give you the most popular answers and essentially tell you what it is that your list wants, according to the answers they have selected.

At the time of this writing, SurveyMonkey charge around $19.95/month …but what I usually do is pay for one month, gather the responses and then cancel the following month. (Remember, you just want the data).

I usually create around 10-12 multiple choice questions. The questions you should ask really depend on the market or niche you’re in.

For example, I’m in the songwriting niche. I’d like to ask my list questions like:
• How old are you? (it’s good to know if you have more children or adults on your list)
• Are you working or a student? (this gives me an idea as to if they have any money to spend, and can help determine a price point for a current or future product)
• Are you serious about songwriting? (gives me an indication as to if it’s a hobby or a passion)
• Which instrument do you play? (perhaps I can send out a product offer relating to that particular instrument)

You can see how this information is very powerful as your subscribers are literally telling you what they want!

When you have all their responses (usually it takes around a few days depending on the size of your list) you can then create a product, such as an ebook, an audio item or a video course. Or you could even find and promote an affiliate product that suits their needs.

Creating Surveys To Make Money Almost Instantly

Here is a method that will make you money pretty much straight away – again, as long as you have a list of some sort. Of course the more subscribers the better, but in reality you can do this with even a small list and you should get a good response.

I always advise my students that they should create products and/or services based around the answers they receive from their lists. But you can actually make money with surveys as soon as the subscriber completes the survey!

So here how it goes:

• You send out an email to your list asking them to complete the survey
• They go though the survey and complete it as you requested
• They click a link at the bottom of the email to upon finishing it, and this link redirects them to a page where you sell a product (either your own or an affiliate product relating to the survey that you’ve created).

This works VERY well.

There is a strange hidden psychological trigger that occurs when you fill out a survey. If you think about it carefully, if YOU filled out a survey that agitated the problems in your mind, and then you were presented with a product that contained the solutions straight after, wouldn’t you be more inclined to buy it? Of course you would.

This works especially well if you have you own a digital product, and you offer the product at half price straight after they have completed the survey. The way you do this, is you tell them that the half-price offer is a way of saying ‘thank you’ for completing the survey and that the offer will be pulled down within 48 hours.

With this tactic you are doing two things. One, you are showing reciprocity. You ask them for a favour (i.e. completing the short survey), they complete it, you then say ‘thank you’. Believe it or not, when you say ‘thank you’, you are looking like a humble and trusted advisor.

Two, you are creating scarcity. When you go to the shops and they are selling “62 inch plasma televisions for £100 for only 4 more days”, you will probably rush off your feet and grab one while you can.

The same thing applies for your product online. If you specify a ‘cut-off’ time for your offer, you will greatly increase your conversions.

You should try to get into the habit of surveying your list every 3 – 4 months. You will not only keep abreast of their needs, but you will also make some cash in the process.