Yep. Everyone tells you it’s simple and easy to build a list. So let’s find out if it’s true.
There are many ways you can build a list.
- you can buy a list (but how do you know those people have agreed to be ‘sold’, in other words you better make sure they optin to you or you could find yourself in breach of spam laws).
- you can do a deal with someone else and cross promote each other to each other’s list (so how do you do that if you don’t have one? hmmmm)
- you can agree to do a co-registration thing where when people sign up to one person’s list they end up on other people’s list as well (now I know how my inbox has been swelling)
- you can put a product into one of those Giveaway promotions (although if people are clued up they will give a dud email address or one they rarely use)
I’m sure there are other ways but it boils down to two types – buy/rent or do a deal with other people. They work. You WILL get email addresses and maybe even names. The question is, what is the quality of that list?
Far better, and more reliable, is to build your own list.
Ok, it may not be quick but you can control that to a great degree.
Yes, to get people on your list you will need to exert some effort and be diligent.
But it will work.
When I started I had no one on my list. Now I have a database (aka list) of over a thousand. Not huge but it’s building and they are all people who signed up to ME. So they already know who I am and hear from me regularly.
Tell me what do I need to build a list?
Want to know what to do to get people onto a list that’s all yours? In essence there are three things you need to build a list. And when you get these happening right, and work them, then it’s like dominoes. Everything starts to fall the way you want it to!
- something to offer people
- an opt-in form
- an autoresponder system
Let’s break that down … tomorrow.