List, List List.  All I ever hear about are email lists.  Are you sick of hearing about email lists?  Oh, I hope not, because as they say, the money is in the list.

A Week Of Posts About Lists

As I mentioned to you a few days ago, my buddy Josh Spaulding recently released a new eBook about how he manages his email list.  It is excellent, and I recommend it highly.  It's so good, in fact, that it has motivated me to take some serious action.

Starting today, I am posting a series about building lists -- here is what you can expect:

• Today (Thursday) -- This post about the importance of lists
• Tomorrow (Friday) -- A post about how you can use free stuff to build your list
• Saturday -- A post about Jonathan Leger's $7 secrets formula (for building lists)
• Monday -- A post about how you can use quality Master Resale Rights products to build your list
• Tuesday -- A post announcing my new eBook about writing eBooks ($7 secrets style)
• Wednesday -- See what the fortune cookie says about lists

The Purpose Of A Mailing List

If you spend much time around internet marketers, you’ll hear them talk about “the list”.  That term refers to their mailing list, which is made up of people who have requested to receive information from them, usually in the form of email newsletters.

For many internet marketers, the bulk of their income comes from marketing to the people on their mailing list.  A person’s list can truly be their key to success.  I know of several examples of "normal" people making a living on line using their list.

As Josh points out in New Age Email Marketing, some people mistakenly believe that the bigger list they have, the more successful they will be.  This is not necessarily the case.  There are a lot of ways to “get” subscribers, such as contests, list swaps, and even through list purchasing.  It is possible to achieve a high number of subscribers through these methods... but that doesn’t always guarantee success.

Instead of focusing on the number of people on the list, focus on the quality of the list and how interested the people are to receive the information.  A list of 1,000 very interested people will bring in much more money than a list of 10,000 uninterested people.

More important than that is trust.  Are you offering something of value (usually free information) to your list, or are you just asking them for money all the time?  Do they look forward to getting email from you, or do they hit the delete key without reading your mail?

While you think about those questions, here are some tips to help you build a great list:

Easy sign-up process

If signing up for your newsletter is a complicated process, many people will simply click away.  It’s also important to make sure the sign-up box is easy to see.  You'll notice that my opt-in box is at the top of my sidebar.  The graphics are professional, and I am asking for a minimum of information.  Some people place it at the bottom of their sites and if the visitor doesn’t scroll all the way down, they’ll miss it.  Many studies suggest that placing your newsletter sign-up box on the top right portion of your website will yield the best results.

Here is an example of easy -- an opt-in box right in the middle of a post:

Promote your list to your target market

Knowing your target market is another big key in creating a great list.  The more targeted the people on your list are, the more likely they are to purchase your products or services. That is one of the reasons that blogs are so great for list building.  People are visiting your blog because they are interested in the information there.  In that case, your target market consists of the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.  This is important.  Obviously, if you sell natural baby care products, you probably wouldn’t want to promote your list by purchasing an ad on harleydavidson.com.

Offer a freebie

Many people offer their subscribers a freebie in exchange for joining their mailing list.  I'll talk more about this on Friday, but that is exactly why I offer the Friday Freebie on MasonWorld.com.  This freebie could be in the form of an ebook, a special report, an audio recording of a teleclass or some other information product.  When doing this, it’s always best to stay close to a topic your target market would be interested in.  Going back to the example of someone selling natural baby products, a great freebie would be a small guide filled with natural baby food recipes.

Stay At It

Building a great list, full of targeted readers, will take some time to develop. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen overnight.  Over time, the list will grow and it can develop into one of your best business assets.

Did you like this post?  Why not sign up to my list?  That's the point after all.  You'll receive lots of helpful content and notification about new blog posts.  You'll get the occasional special offer.  You will never get SPAM.

Sign up today.

Are you interested in making money online, but you don't know where to start? There are lots of ways to do it. Some are more lucrative than others. Some are better for your soul than others. Want my advice? Start a blog about something that interests you and put some work into it. Create a valuable resource for that people will appreciate. Help people.

That is exactly what my buddy is doing over at NutritionHealthStore.com. My friend has started a blog about a topic that he is interested in, and is publishing helpful information at the site. It's pretty simple, really. If he does a good job creating value there, people will visit again and again. Some of those people will try the products that he recommends. If they do, he can make some money. Not much at first, but slowly, over time, he can build a real business with real customers.

But what if he takes advantage of people and recommends stuff just to make a buck? That is the beauty of the free market. People who get bad advice won't come back. Word will get out and the business will die. Luckily, my friend is a great guy and a smart business man.  He knows about the importance of trust, and will work hard to make the blog a valuable resource.

So, drop by NutritionHealthStore and say hello.  Read his article about Why Breakfast is Important. Drop him a comment and tell him what you think of the article.  Better yet, sign up for his email newsletter to get a free gift.  Oh, and tell him "Mark sent you."

Regards,
Mark

RSS feeds are cool, but to be honest with you, there are times when I get so busy it is hard for me to get to my reader. This, coupled with the fact that I am often mobile and don't have a great RSS reader for my BlackBerry means that I am never completely up to date with my RSS feeds. So, for blogs that I really care about, I subscribe by email. Email is great because I get it wherever I am -- in Outlook, on my BlackBerry, in GMail, etc. I "live in my email," so an email subscription is just the ticket for me for important things.

Now, one of the things that you always hear about email lists is that they are the most important cornerstone of an internet marketing business. Guys that are famous for information marketing will tell you that their lists are the real asset in their business. They document cases where businesses have fallen apart (due to partnership or other troubles), but were rebuilt later based on the strength of the surviving email list.

These ideas -- that email lists are part of the core of a legitimate and successful internet marketing effort and that they provide a convenience service to readers -- are why I started my own list. I have not done much with it yet, and I have no intent to monetize it any time soon. Still, I am convinced that lists are an important part of my long term strategy to provide value to my readers.

Now, you can imagine that as I am learning about internet marketing, I am paying attention to people that I have come to respect who are also successful. Note that there are many people who are sucessful that I do not respect. I have mentioned some of my favorites here before. When people I respect do things that make sense to me, I try to learn from them.

So, when Garry Conn decided to (finally) add an email list to his GCDC blog, I really paid close attention. I was one of the first people to sign up. Why? First, I am sure that the content in Garry's list will be great. Second, I expect Garry to be successful with his list, and I want to learn how to be successful with my own. Since Garry announced his list a few weeks back, I have been waiting patiently to see what he would do.

Yesterday, the wait was over. Garry published his first email to the list, entitled Blog Tips During Softball Practice. As a special treat for his blog readers, he made the first post public. The great thing was that it exceeded my expections. The bad thing is that I can already see that using Garry as a mentor for emails lists is going to be setting the bar really high for me. Maybe that's a good thing.

Anyway, I recommend that you check out Garry's post, and if you like it, I recommend that you Digg it.

Thanks,
Mark