Well, for those of you who know anything about building a list, you will know that building relationships is key to your success online, long term. Today, I would like to share with you how I went the extra mile (nearly 6000 miles to be precise) to meet up with one of my subscribers. I want to let you in on what 2 members here at WA discussed during an offline meeting and what positive ideas came about as a result.

For anyone that knows me, I have been a member here at WA since 25th May 2010 (nearly a year)! How time fly's when you having fun. Anyway, during this year, I moved from the UK to Hong Kong with work and have been living in Hong Kong since August 2010. Since this time I have made a concerted effort to promote WA and part of this process included building a list of subscribers. By offering the "MAD Marketing Method"[/b], I was able to gradually build up a healthy list of subscribers with whom I could connect with long after they had left my website.

One thing I noticed was that from time to time, I would receive a response to my automated emails from one of my subscribers. Of course, I would reply and this led to a series of emails over time.

For anyone that remembers the WA trial that took place recently, you will know that this represented a fantastic opportunity to connect with your subscribers and offer them not only a "sneak peak" of WA but also the opportunity to get 1 weeks full use of WA for just $1. Well, the person I had been communicating with all this time was clearly interested in this offer and decided that based on the level of trust that had built up between us that this was too good an offer to turn down and not only signed up for the one weeks trial but went on to become a member at WA.

Still, the emails bounced back and forth and then when I recently learned that I was to return to the UK for a holiday I made it known to Trine and suggested that we could perhaps meet up and have a chat over coffee as he was also from the UK. He was very keen to meet and so we set a time and date to hook up.

So the stage was set! I wasn't sure if other members of WA had ever done anything like this before outside of Vegas but I couldn't help thinking that this could only be a positive thing for all concerned. So I caught my long haul flight back to the UK and tended to a few personal family matters first and then called Trine to go through the finer details of our meeting arrangements.

We arranged to meet at the train station in Preston, Lancashire, UK at 5pm. So that was that!

I caught the train from Chorley, Lancashire and Trine caught the train from Manchester. As arranged, we both met at Preston train station. We shook hands and exchanged the normal pleasantries and then I suggested that we go grab a coffee at a coffee shop a short walk from the train station. We headed off and talked all the way there.

Now, what I want to make clear at this point is that here were 2 people who share a common interest (making money online) defying all the odds and despite the distance involved, meeting up for the first time to discuss online and offline marketing strategies. This all happened as a direct result of me building a website from inside WA, promoting WA with all that I learned at WA and gradually building an online relationship with one of my subscribers. Not to mention TRUST!

The connection made as a WA affiliate was hard evidence that creating a website, building a list and building trust really does work.

Anyway, as we sat down with our coffees outside, it made complete sense to discuss WA and each others reasons for building our own online businesses. We chatted about so many things. Connectivity, relationship building, keywords, niche and product selection. We covered the importance of creating a list and building genuine trust, referrals, developing networks with other affiliates and measuring success beyond just money. Relevancy was covered in detail, selecting products that genuinely satisfy the user and how this enables you to gain online credibility.

This discussion then led on to the offline promotional aspect of WA and other products and it was strongly believed by both of us that the offline promotionl aspects were sadly overlooked much of the time. Of course, there are all the usual offline promotional methods such as business cards, flyers, mailers, newspaper adverts etc. However, what really interested me in particular was the concept of 2 WA members meeting up in the way that we had to discuss so much in such a short space of time and the huge benefits that came about as a result.

Due to an online connection, we were able to transform it into a 1 2 1 personalised offline relationship. So the very vaid point I made during this meeting was that this meeting came about with relative ease and now here we were engaging each other in matters relating to Internet marketing and learning lots from each other. So if this was so easy to set up between 2 WA members, why could we not organise something like this on a larger scale?

This concept is very scaleable and could be massively beneficial to all WA members. Sure...we have a great incentive when promoting WA. Hit 300 sales of WA in a year and we can fly over to Vegas to meet Kyle and Carson but what about the WA members who do a great job promoting WA but fall just short of 300 sales in a year? What about the WA members who decide to promote other products rather than WA? What about WA members who are disabled or unable to fly for some reason? These members may never get to go to Vegas! These members may never get to benefit from the trip to Vegas and I personally think this is a huge shame.

So the point I raised with Trine was one that is really quite simple. Why can't WA members arrange their own meetings/conferences in their own countries. Take the UK for instance....What better ambassador for the UK meetings/conferences than Marcus. I know I would like to meet Marcus because I have learned alot from him in a year. I think if a date and a venue was set then there would be many WA members from the UK that would attend and benefit massively. If 2 WA members can do it then any number of WA members could do it.

If something like this was rolled out in one country and was successfull, then other countries could follow. Simply identify an embassador for the meetings/conferences, set a date, set a venue, set an agenda and the rest will take care of itself.

In the immortal words of Kevin Costner in the movie "Field of Dreams"...."Build it and they will come".

Cheers

Craig