Building a list

[Childrenx4]

This is something that has confused me since starting my online business. We talk about building a list of email addresses. How do we do this. If someone sends me an email regarding their business, can I then in return send them something concerning my business even though I am not interested in what they have?

Is this how you build a list or is this considered spamming. What other ways are there to build a list of customers?

I have tried a couple of safelists, and I only get a lot of emails, very few hits to my site. But these are not helping me build a list.

Thanks for any input

Nancy

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Nancy,

Great question!

If someone sends you an email about their business that you didnt request, that is spam. Emailing them back with information they didnt request is spam too. You want to be careful with anything "spammy" because this can get you in big trouble.

To build a mailing list, you need to have a form on your website that invites your visitors to subscribe. You can look at the main page of this site as an example: http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com

I use a service to manage my mailing lists: Aweber. You can get a free trial if you would like to check it out: http://sswt.aweber.com . This is not something you want to manage manually for two reasons. 1) because it will be A LOT of work, and 2) because you have to follow strict guidelines so as not to get in trouble for 'spamming'.

Those guidelines include using a "double opt in" type of list - meaning that your subscriber has to verify that they subscribed to your list or asked to receive your emails (after they sign up). You also have to include an "opt out" link at the bottom of each email so they can unsubscribe anytime. Among other things.

Is the site in your Signature the one you want to build a list for?

[Childrenx4]

Thank you Lynn for that concise explanation. I have asked that question at other forums, and never got a clear answer before.

The site in my signature is the one I am referring to. As you can see I already have an autoresponder and I am getting some signups. As always I grow impatient waiting for results. I have only had that on my site a couple of weeks now, and I have over 15 signups. So I guess that isn't too bad. It will just take time.

Thanks for your response.

Nancy

[MommyEnterprises]

I would also like to recommend Aweber for handling your list needs. I use them because I can have unlimited lists just in my one account.

[Lynn Terry]

I understand impatience - I have that too

There are lots of techniques for growing your list. One great way is to give away free reports. I have a step-by-step tutorial on this at ClickNewz which you can read here:

http://www.clicknewz.com/645/viral-reports/

You have to put a little 'work' into building a list, and keeping your list "warm"... but its a great way to communicate with your site visitors and build a good relationship with them.

By the way, when I was reading your post it reminded me of when the SSWT list only had 16 subscribers. I emailed them anyway. I thought to myself... they signed up for my information, I should send it to them. Whether there are 16, 1600, or 16,000.

[tonywinrow]

Hi,

Giving away reports to build a list sounds a great idea, but where would you advertise the free report? I guess this forum would be a good starting place, but where else?

Tony

[Lynn Terry]

You could use these and also the methods listed in Step 3 on this page: http://www.clicknewz.com/645/viral-reports/ where it says "Sending traffic to your landing page".

Hope that helps!

[Deltlake1]

This forum is a great place to get your Free Report
in front of a lot of people. I also use
I have had a great amount of sign-ups come from . I offer Free Marketing Tools, the offer is in front of them for 15 seconds, and the "terms and conditions" allow me to e-mail them periodicly with updates and more offers.
Hope this helps,

Bill Bowen

[Brian Lam]

Yes I do agree with Lynn that giving out free reports is a great way. And her viral marketing methods does works.

But as a new comer into the internet marketing arena, you might like to also consider these methods of distributing your report.

Go to forums that are related to your niche and make a new post that you want some opinions for that new report of yours and give them the download page so that they can download them and given if you have put in some giveaway rights, you can set up a viral chain effect if those people love you report.

Or you might like to try going to different blog directories such as www.wordpress.com or www.blogger.com to search for fellow related blogs and post some comments to their posts and link it back to your report. You might also like to contact the blog owner for them to post up a post on your free report.

These are just some methods which you can get your report out in front of other people.

For me personally, I have my own personal list building resources that I have used for good effect. You can take a look at them here at this page:

http://www.powerlistgenerator.com/BusinessTools.html

Brian

[paulpenafiel]

I started building my list but I had to use a third party program called LSN but the site got hacked and it's not working properly and I had over 2000 subscribers, took me almost 3 years to build it now it's down the drain.

So I decided to start over again and this time I'm doing it right. A few days ago a fellow member of another forum I belong to launch a step by step formula for building list just for newbies.. The e-book is called Beginners List Formula by Mike Paetzold.

This e-book is as basic as you are going to get, for some people it's boring but for a newbie it's a great guide. I highly recommend it.

When you give away free stuff, make sure it has some value, don't giveaway ebook that's 5 years old, almost everybody has them. You can give away reports, compile 5-7 of them on same subject.

Me I decided to review new e-books that's on the market because when I was starting out 5 years ago, some books are nothing but a cash grab, just a bunch of absolute rubbish. One book I bought for $20 bucks, you know what it was all about, to buy another program for $250 bucks. Brutal !!

So when I review it people are more informed about it and can make an intelligent decisions.

If you are serious about building your own list, use a pro autoresponder account because when you use free ones they contain ads so they'll know that you are using free account and they won't take you seriously. It'll cost you $15-20 a month, I'm using Email Ace.

Some people buy it and they don't care but if you are on a tight budget you have to make sure that you are getting good value for your money.

Good luck with your list building.