Why spend time or money on building a list?

By Patric Chan
Posted Thursday, August 19, 2004

That's a silly question, right?

If you don't know the answer and still want to make money from the internet, you're really in the wrong shoes.

First rule of thumb in making money online is to have your own list of potential customers. But don't go wasting your money buying subscribers if you are on a shoestring budget.

Here are 5 simple ways I use to increase my opt-in list:

1. Give away a free ebook/report

If you have your own product, this is really easy to achieve. Just extract from your own book some of the contents you find it interesting. Select some points and voila, you've got yourself a 20 page report. In your free book, put your website url in there. But, you MUST make sure that your free ebook is valuable. In that sense, it's not some cheap rehashed information.

If you can, allow the reader to brand the book with their own name and url. This will be a good motivator for them to pass it around.

2. Use a Co-registration joint venture strategy

Have you subscribed to a newsletter where the thank you page recommends you to subscribe to 3 other newsletters of the same topic?

That's the 'Thank you page co-registration' in action. Let others promote their newsletter on your thank you page, and in return you can promote yours on their thank you page.

3. Use Pop Ups on your site

Yes. I know. Some people say it's irritating to have pop ups on sites. Guess what? I'm still using pop ups on each of my sites because it increases my list like crazy! My advice is, put a pop up on your website to capture leads.

4. Submit valuable articles

Do you know something that you think others would want to know about it? If yes, then write an article and post it on forums and article submission websites. If you can, go to ezine directories and send your articles to newsletter owners that accept article submissions. At the end of your article, put your signature.

5. Grow your existing subscribers

I don't see many marketers do this. And I wonder why. If you have an existing amount of subscribers, you should ask a favor from them to refer their friends to your list. Look at it this way. If they are your subscribers, obviously it means they find value in your list. So, it's totally easy and fine for them to refer their friends over. All you need to do is ask!

You can create a 'Tell A Friend' script for them to invite their friends. If you can, offer them an ethical bribe like a free gift to thank them for their help of referring.

So, who says building a list without spending money is difficult?

These 5 strategies seem too simple to believe they can work. That's why, many people don't bother to use them. I use
it. I've built my list and I can guarantee you they work. All you need to do is to put in a little bit of effort.

It's time for you to build and grow your own list. Do it now. Each day you waste, you are losing money, literally.

What if, you have a list now, do you think you'll make money online quicker and more easily?

Think about it.

About the Author
Patric works with world class internet marketing gurus to build successful online businesses. Discover more insider secrets and the exact proven strategies to make money online: (http://www.internetmarketing-tactics.com)