Building A List

I am sure that you have heard the saying “The money is in the list.” Well, this is only partially true. It should actually say: “The money is in the responsive list.” If you want to succeed in an on-line business, you must have a list of subscribers interested in what you offer. You could have a list of 100,000 subscribers but if they are not responsive to your offers, that list is virtually useless. On the other hand a small list of 4000 responsive subscribers can generate a decent income for you. One of the advantages of growing a list is that you can promote to that list over and over again through email marketing. There are 3 methods by which you can build your list; 1. Buy – Purchase leads. This method is not recommended but is included for completeness. 2. Share – Join list building co-ops. Again, this method is not ecommended primarily because it is not effective and only benefits the owner of the list building co-op. 3. Build – Offer something valuable in exchange for your visitors’ contact information. This article discusses only the last method which is the best way to build a list. BUILD A LIST YOURSELF By building your list yourself, you will only attract those who are interested in receiving e-mails from you. Since everyone has opted in to your list, you will decrease the chances of being accused of sending spam. In order to entice someone to give you their contact information, offer something of value that your target audience will be willing to trade their contact information for. This could be a report, e-book, audio, video, transcript of a teleseminar, etc. Be sure to make the offer something that your target audience wants. No matter what else you do on-line you need to be constantly building a list and that list needs to be responsive. 1. The first thing you will need in order to grow your list is a professional autoresponder service. I personally use and recommend Aweber as do many successful on-line marketers. Check out Aweber at: http://donna-suggests.com/Aweber 2. Create a squeeze page to capture email addresses. 3. Send USEFUL information to your subscribers every week. Just because you have a list does not mean you should send promotional e-mail after promotional e-mail. If your subscribers don’t get any benefits from being on your list, they will soon click on the unsubscribe link. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t send promotional e-mails to your list as you should or your business will soon fail. But when you send a promotional e-mail, send something that will benefit your subscribers not just something you’ll make money from. 4. Drive traffic to your squeeze page. Always use a squeeze page to capture your prospective customers’ contact information BEFORE sending them to your sales letter. Studies have shown that 80% of your buyers will not purchase your product until the 5th to 12th visit to your website. After someone leaves your website the chances of them returning are very slight. By not capturing these users contact information, you will lose the opportunity to present your offer again. Offer your potential subscriber something of value in order to entice him/her to give you his/her contact information. Your “bribe” should be something useful and relevant to the product you are promoting. Offer a multi-part e-course or a rebrandible report in exchange for your visitor’s personal data. An e-course will keep your prospect in your sales funnel for the length of the e-course while a rebrandible report will be viral, therefore bringing more prospects to your website. Once you have started building your list, remember that the people on your list are actual people and not just a name on a list. Treat them well, and you will win their trust. Once you build a large list of subscribers that trust you, you will be able to make money anytime you want 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Here is a list of the most common ways to build a list. PLEASE NOTE: A list building link could be a link to your newsletter, to an e-course, to a special report, etc. – Writing Articles: Write and then submit articles to e-zines and to article directories. Include a resource box at the end of your article with a link to your subscription form. – Signature Files: Always include a signature file in very e-mail you send. Your signature file should include a short promo with a link to your subscription form. – Forum Postings: Frequently post to forums relevant to your niche. Include your list buildiing signature file at the end of your message. – Advertise in newsletters and e-zines: Purchase list building promotional ads in newsletter and e-zines. – Ad Swaps: Exchange list building ads with other newsletter and e-zine publishers. – Web 2.0: Use web 2.0 sites to build your list. – Recommendations: You can get subscribers through recommendations by other list owners. – Testimonials: Submit testimonials for products or services that you use and like. Visitors to the product’s or service’s sales page will see your testimonial and will click on your link. When you include your link in your testimonial, the link should be a list building link. – Viral Marketing: Create a viral report or e-book then allow everyone to give it away. Always include a list building link. – Blogs: Include a subscription form on your blog. This could be a subscription for your newsletter or for a notification list whenever you make a post. PLEASE NOTE: Always include something promotional on your blog. You may want to recommend a product at the end of each article, make your blog a review blog, or include products with your affiliate links in the sidebar(s). – Etc., etc., etc.ist I am sure that you have heard the saying “The money is in the list.” Well, this is only partially true. It should actually say: “The money is in the responsive list.” If you want to succeed in an on-line business, you must have a list of subscribers interested in what you offer. You could have a list of 100,000 subscribers but if they are not responsive to your offers, that list is virtually useless. On the other hand a small list of 4000 responsive subscribers can generate a decent income for you. One of the advantages of growing a list is that you can promote to that list over and over again through email marketing. There are 3 methods by which you can build your list; 1. Buy – Purchase leads. This method is not recommended but is included for completeness. 2. Share – Join list building co-ops. Again, this method is not ecommended primarily because it is not effective and only benefits the owner of the list building co-op. 3. Build – Offer something valuable in exchange for your visitors’ contact information. This article discusses only the last method which is the best way to build a list. BUILD A LIST YOURSELF By building your list yourself, you will only attract those who are interested in receiving e-mails from you. Since everyone has opted in to your list, you will decrease the chances of being accused of sending spam. In order to entice someone to give you their contact information, offer something of value that your target audience will be willing to trade their contact information for. This could be a report, e-book, audio, video, transcript of a teleseminar, etc. Be sure to make the offer something that your target audience wants. No matter what else you do on-line you need to be constantly building a list and that list needs to be responsive. 1. The first thing you will need in order to grow your list is a professional autoresponder service. I personally use and recommend Aweber as do many successful on-line marketers. Check out Aweber at: http://donna-suggests.com/Aweber 2. Create a squeeze page to capture email addresses. 3. Send USEFUL information to your subscribers every week. Just because you have a list does not mean you should send promotional e-mail after promotional e-mail. If your subscribers don’t get any benefits from being on your list, they will soon click on the unsubscribe link. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t send promotional e-mails to your list as you should or your business will soon fail. But when you send a promotional e-mail, send something that will benefit your subscribers not just something you’ll make money from. 4. Drive traffic to your squeeze page. Always use a squeeze page to capture your prospective customers’ contact information BEFORE sending them to your sales letter. Studies have shown that 80% of your buyers will not purchase your product until the 5th to 12th visit to your website. After someone leaves your website the chances of them returning are very slight. By not capturing these users contact information, you will lose the opportunity to present your offer again. Offer your potential subscriber something of value in order to entice him/her to give you his/her contact information. Your “bribe” should be something useful and relevant to the product you are promoting. Offer a multi-part e-course or a rebrandible report in exchange for your visitor’s personal data. An e-course will keep your prospect in your sales funnel for the length of the e-course while a rebrandible report will be viral, therefore bringing more prospects to your website. Once you have started building your list, remember that the people on your list are actual people and not just a name on a list. Treat them well, and you will win their trust. Once you build a large list of subscribers that trust you, you will be able to make money anytime you want 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Here is a list of the most common ways to build a list. PLEASE NOTE: A list building link could be a link to your newsletter, to an e-course, to a special report, etc. – Writing Articles: Write and then submit articles to e-zines and to article directories. Include a resource box at the end of your article with a link to your subscription form. – Signature Files: Always include a signature file in very e-mail you send. Your signature file should include a short promo with a link to your subscription form. – Forum Postings: Frequently post to forums relevant to your niche. Include your list buildiing signature file at the end of your message. – Advertise in newsletters and e-zines: Purchase list building promotional ads in newsletter and e-zines. – Ad Swaps: Exchange list building ads with other newsletter and e-zine publishers. – Web 2.0: Use web 2.0 sites to build your list. – Recommendations: You can get subscribers through recommendations by other list owners. – Testimonials: Submit testimonials for products or services that you use and like. Visitors to the product’s or service’s sales page will see your testimonial and will click on your link. When you include your link in your testimonial, the link should be a list building link. – Viral Marketing: Create a viral report or e-book then allow everyone to give it away. Always include a list building link. – Blogs: Include a subscription form on your blog. This could be a subscription for your newsletter or for a notification list whenever you make a post. PLEASE NOTE: Always include something promotional on your blog. You may want to recommend a product at the end of each article, make your blog a review blog, or include products with your affiliate links in the sidebar(s). – Etc., etc., etc.