List building for dummies

List building is the number one way to grow your internet business and the more I learn, the more I realize the power of the list. in this ‘list building for dummies’ article I will explain:

• why a list is so important,
• the tools you will need to start building your list,
• what to get in place before beginning your advertising and
• some methods for building your list.

Why is list building so important? 

I have already covered some of the reasons why we would want to build a list in another article “how to build an email list for free“. Here are a few reasons why building a list is so important for any online business.

1. Having a list means not relying on Google, paid adverts, blogging or other means of traffic generation. Once you have a list of subscribers you can build a relationship with them by writing to them and offering value any time you want. Once you have a list you have your own traffic source. You no longer have to rely on ranking articles and blogs on search engines, enticing people to come and visit your blog, or pay for adverts to get people to your blog. With constant algorithm changes and many competing websites, it can be very difficult to rank your content and get visitors on a regular basis from the search engines.
2. You can build a relationship with your visitors. People may visit your website and never return. Once they have subscribed to your list you have a ‘captive audience’ in that, so long as they remain subscribers, and you offer them a reason to, you can send them to your blog at any time, whenever you publish some new content – or send them to offers and products.
3. You can build your list and control the flow of traffic to your website. Without a list you are at the whim of the search engines for your visitors. Or, you have to pay for your visits through advertising. With a list you can build your audience over time and control the size of your audience.
4. In short, building a list puts you in charge of your advertising and traffic flow. You can determine the size of your audience through your traffic generating methods.

The tools you will need to start building your list

1. Its a good idea to have a blog or website if you don’t already have one. This is a way to find people whom you can add to your list. You can also add people directly from advertising from a number of various sources.
2. Get a landing page to direct visitors to your list. Get 30 day free access to this landing page software here. A landing page is a much simpler way to get people onto your list than by sending them only to your blog/website. A blog has a lot of information on it and several actions can be taken once a visitor lands on your blog. A landing page has only two options – leave the page or subscribe with an email. This is how to start building your list.
3. Get an auto-responder program like Aweber. The program will talk you through how to use it with a series of videos.

What to get in place before beginning your advertising

Its a good idea to get a few things in place before beginning an advertising campaign. What are your goals and how fast do you want build your email list? What is your advertising budget? These questions will help you get a realistic idea of the amount of time and money you can afford to spend on building your list and the time it will take to reach a certain number of subscribers. If you don’t have a list at all, getting your first 10 subscribers is a good start. Once you have done this you can build on the tactics you have used to create a larger list. Start small and take regular action to build your list consistently. Over time you list will grow and so will your income.

1. Have a product to sell. It’s all very well having a list but you also need to have a product which can turn your list into cold hard cash! You need a product to sell. If you haven’t got one then you can check out this program which allows you to take advantage of high ticket products which you can promote as part of your list.
2. Know you audience. Building a list of thousands of people is no good if they are only interested in your free gift at the start of the opt-in process. Tens of thousands of these people will still make you zero! You need to determine who you want on your list. Make your opt-in page appropriate for these kinds of people. Target the kind of people you want with your advertising and copy. Offer something which would be beneficial to your target audience in exchange for their email address. Giving away free gifts which are unrelated to your product is an example of what you shouldn’t do because you are building a list for the wrong kind of people.
3. Make the time each day to take another small step, and keep going. It can be so easy to give up on building your list because it will take time before you start to see results coming in the form of sales. Give value first and work on your list building every day.
4. Set a list building goal. Know in advance how many people you are aiming to get onto your list and work towards this number. Start with something you think is achievable and increase it as you become more proficient.

Some methods for building your list

Once everything is in place and you have your emails set up, your products ready to go and a landing page to get your visitors emails, you will need to start advertising and creating content. Take a look at some free methods of generating opt-ins in my article “How to build an email list for free“.

1. Create adverts on Facebook. Facebook is good because you can target a specific audience right down to their age, interests and various other demographics. Make sure you also tailor your advertising copy to suit your specific target audience.
2. Use solo ads. Solo advertising can be a good way to attract a lot of visitors to your landing page. You are basically paying for someone who already has a list to send your link out to that list and get them to opt in to your landing page. As with Facebook adverts the idea here is to sell products on the back end and recoup your advertising spend.
3. Advertise on YouTube. You can create and promote videos on YouTube and link your videos to a landing page to find subscribers. Creating quality videos is the best way to get people to opt-in, since there are so many videos on YouTube and a lot of the publishers are asking for subscriptions to their channel. Take a look at this article on “How can I make money on youtube“.
4. Create content on your blog. Creating content is a simple and cheap method which many bloggers use to find visitors either through the search engines like Google or through Social Media sharing. Have an opt-in form on your website and offer something which your target audience will value in order to hand over their email address! Make sure you target long tail keywords and go for the less competitive keywords in order to rank on the search engines and get found. See this article on finding long tail keywords.

To learn more about the various advertising methods available on the internet you can subscribe to this course which teaches you all aspects of marketing on the internet.