Monday, December 8, 2008

To Make Money Online You Have To Build Your List Now. Here's How

By Daniel Hatcher

Many people just getting started in internet marketing do not realize the critical importance of building a quality opt-in mailing list. They think it is enough to be making sales from their salespage. While it is good to make sales directly from your site, you will lose a large percentage of your future customers if you fail to build an opt-in mailing list.

Obtaining a list allows you to keep in contact with your visitors and build a relationship with them. If properly done, this can convert a high percentage of your prospects into customers. So what does it take to build a great list quickly and easily? Here are some useful tips:

* Offer incentives when possible for people to leave their name and email address. Having an incentive program is an effective way to get people to opt into your list. Offering a special report or free e-book is a very effective and easy to implement. To get the best results, it is always helpful to give them something for signing into your list. This tip alone can easily double the number of sign ups you have.

I see many people trying to build a list without offering any kind of incentive for signing up which can be a huge mistake. Incentives are so easy to create that it only makes sense to offer one. Anything with a high-perceived value that you offer free will help boost signups significantly. I've test both ways of list building and I must say that offering incentives will give you far better results.

* Include a privacy policy. One of the main reasons people do not opt-in is because they are afraid they will be spammed. This has been a major problem on the Internet for years. Everyone abhors spam. If a prospect has any reason to suspect that you will sell their email address to others they will simply not sign in. Give them a guarantee that you will not share their email address with anyone whatsoever. This will end the worries of people who are concerned about that. After I added one I saw over a 60% increase in the number of sign-ups I was receiving. It's amazing that a simple thing like this can make that much difference.

* Create several tightly targeted lists. Few people realize the power of a targeted list option. It depends on what you have to offer on your site, but this is something that if it can be used will greatly affect your opt-in rate. One of the lists options could be for periodic updates, another could include "how to" tips that your prospect would find helpful, while another could be for a newsletter with ongoing information. No matter which option they choose, you will still harvest their email address.

Think about what your market might be the most interested in and offer that information or access to it on your site. A visitor may have little interest in your general announcements mailings but be keenly interested in your newsletter. If you do not provided several options that person would have signed up for nothing. Two or three options are plenty. If your visitor has not found something that interests them in your two to three choices they are probably at the wrong page anyway.

* Make all your lists double opt-in. Double opt-in allows people to first sign up on your site, and then activate their subscription via a confirmation email. There are plenty of good reasons to have the double opt-in format. Number one, it will take away any chance of being labeled a spammer and secondly, you can show proof that people actually did request your emails.

Also, a double opt-in list will generally have higher quality readers, rather than those from a singe opt-in list. The reason for this is because since these subscribers are interested in your messages enough to reply to the confirmation email, they are much more serious about what you offer. Therefore, they will be more responsive to what you have to offer when compared to those who half-heartedly sign up for your list without a lot of interest. Having a high quality list is absolutely critical to making substantial sales.

By putting the tips mentioned here into use you would be able to build a large, high quality list in a short amount of time. I have used all of these methods and they work very well. I am confident that they will work for you as well.

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