How to Build Your List - Lesson 1

This is your first lesson on list building for profit and today we will discuss the
steps you need to take to build a mailing list and start profiting from it, so you can earn some extra cash for yourself and your family whenever you need it.

We have a lot to cover over the next few lessons, so lets get started!

STEP 1

How to Build a List of Prospects?

Did you know that it's much easier to earn a profit from a person that is already interested in what you have to offer?

Chances are, if someone has already signed up, or "opted in" to receive information from you, then they are willing to take a look at products and programs that you tell them about.

So, if you want to make any type of steady income online, the first thing you will need to do is create a mailing list of subscribers.

Keep in mind the bigger your list is the more profitable it will become, but for the purposes of this course beginning a list and getting a couple hundred subscribers will do just fine and help you begin earning some extra cash.

There are several ways to quickly build a list of subscribers. I'm going to list a few ways to start below.

If you don't understand some of the things that I mention, don't worry I will do my best to clear things up for you over the next few lessons.

And remember if you have any questions please leave a comment on this blog.

Here we go...

1. You will want to place a sign up form for your list on your website, blog, and even your "About Me" Page on your favorite social or auction website, like My Space or Ebay.

If you need help doing this it is best to check with your autoresponder service. They should have complete instructions and if you don't have an auto-responder don't worry we will go over them later in the course.

2. There are specific list building programs, such as Listopt.com and Listdotcom.com that you can use if you are prepared to put in the work of building a downline of subscribers, these can be very good.

3. You can do a joint venture. Once you have a list and you are looking to get more subscribers then you can get in touch with the owner of a similar list or ezine and make arrangements to recommend each other to your subscribers.

Keep in mind that most people don't just sign up to just one list so it could be a great arrangement for both of you.

4. Join a giveaway event. This is basically another form of a joint venture. They usually consist of several list owners banding together and offering one of their products for free to anyone who joins the event as a member.

This benefits you as a contributor by requiring all of the people that join the giveaway to give you their name and email address so that they can download your gift. These events can be very beneficial when building your list.

There are many other ways and places that will help you build your list, but these suggestions should get you started.

The main goal is to start a list of credible email addresses that "opt-in" ( which means they give you permission) so you can send offers or content to them.

Using any of the three ideas above, or better yet all of them, will begin building your list.

Out of the four ways above the quickest way to get subscribers is by joining a giveaway event.

You can find them by subscribing to free marketing newsletters and by joining specialized marketing forums such as The Internet Marketing Warrior Forum, Free Advertising Forum, or IM4Newbies Forum.

You may also want to check out JV-Network.com. This is great for finding good joint ventures.

When building your list it is a good idea to steer clear of safe lists, mlm programs, or purchasing lists of email addresses.

If you don't know what you're doing these methods can quickly get you into hot water and most of the time they just don't work!

Now let's move on to how you will collect and manage your list of email addresses. You can do this by using an autoresponder system or service.

There are two main types of auto responders that you can use.

1. A script that you run yourself from your own web space.

2 A service that you sign up for and pay a fee.

We'll talk more about that in step # 4. For now, just know that you need one to collect subscriber email addresses.

You can download a free script from Hotscripts.com http://www.hotscripts.com or any of the other script sites online. To find one just do a search for "autoresponder script" in your favorite search engine.

If you prefer not to go through the lengthy and confusing process of setting up your own mailing list script, then you will want to go through a reliable paid service such as AWeber.com, or GetResponse.com.

As a matter of fact you can sign up for a free account, so that can test out the service before you spend any money. This is a great way to get started when you're on a budget.

I know this lesson was a little long. Thank you for sticking with me to the end. In the next issue we will discuss how to find great products to tell your list about.

Keries