Building Your List

What is list building?

An internet marketer’s list is simply a list of people who have agreed to subscribe to it in order to get something of value from the marketer. A common way for a marketer to get people on her list is to have a sign-up box on her website or blog and offer a freebie; such as tips, insider info, a report, an ebook, a newsletter, or an ecourse. The people who sign up will get the free download product and the marketer will get their email addresses.

Once you have a list you can do all kinds of things with it. Some are good ideas – sending pertinent free information, helpful advice, discounts on products, heads up on market changes, honest product reviews, etc. And some are bad – sending nothing but promotion after promotion, twice daily emails, and non-relevant info.

Why should you build a list?

A good solid list of targeted, interested, hungry subscribers can be your bread and butter. It’s common knowledge in sales circles that it takes, on average, seven contacts with someone before they’re willing to buy from you. Sending quality information for free to your list is a good way to gain their trust and sell yourself before you try to sell your product.

A list of people who have already bought from you is worth gold. Since they’ve bought from you once, they now trust you and know what kind of quality and value you produce. They’re more likely to buy from you again and you don’t have to work it as hard as you do with a list of people who have just met you.

Offer a valuable freebie ? Build your list ? Send free high quality info and also market your products or affiliate products to your list ? Success and an income from marketing on the Internet.

What skills do you need?

Number 1 hands down; you need an autoresponder for several reasons. You need the double opt-in feature that an autoresponder has so you are compliant with the anti-spam laws. You also need the autoresponder to send out (blast or broadcast) your emails to everyone on your list without creating additional work for you. In addition, you will want the autoresponder’s ability to send out your email series. For example, you can set up your autoresponder to send the first email immediately after they sign up, the second one to go out 2 days later, the third to go out 5 days later, etc. You might have an ecourse you want to go out daily.

You will need to learn how to write effective emails to make your list subscribers happy and to help you with your promotions. There are do’s and don’ts about what to send and how to send and you should learn what you can about building and maintaining lists.

What other strategies work well with list building?

• Outsourcing any of your needs; article writing, changing blog themes, researching, building websites, graphics, etc.
• Setting up a website
• Good sales copy
• How to get traffic
• Selling affiliate products
• Web 2.0
• Doing audio interviews
• Using PLR for your opt-in
• Mentoring or coaching

I do want to mention that some people will unsubscribe from your list. It’s hard to not take it personally, but think about the people who are still there – they want to be on your list and are going to be your best customers!

Tags: Articles, List Building, List Building Article