It’s easy to make heavy weather about building a mailing list in order to make money on the internet. There are courses priced at eye watering amounts to download; you can attend expensive seminars hoping to find the magic bullet; there are endless posts on forums about techniques that might deliver thousands of visitors. The information overload is overwhelming. So here are five easy steps to achieve your goal: making money online.
First, imagine that your mailing list is your real estate. Sure, it may be only a bare plot of ground at the moment, but think of your mailing list as your house, and a house that you want to sell. Because your mailing list is selling to your readers.
First – what condition is your “house” in? How good is the roof, exterior walls, and so on. Likewise, how does your mailing list look to your reader? Are your emails formatted attractively? Do you take care over the content? Does it look good? To be frank, are you proud of it?
Next, is your “house” priced correctly? In terms of your list, are you giving your readers a quality offer? Now, you will be the judge of what level of product offer is right for you. Give-aways are a proven way to gain opt-ins and reader loyalty, but make certain that they offer value. Check out quality freebies on marketing forums; search your hard drive for good products that you have lying around with MMR or PLR rights. But don’t offload cheap stuff just because you feel under pressure to provide a freebie.
Third, what is the plumbing like in your “house”. By plumbing, I mean the autoresponder messages that you set up. Take care to test, test, and test again to ensure that your messages do not contain ‘firstname-fix’ errors, that the opt-in system works correctly, and that the download page is linked properly. Why not personalize the templates that may be provided by your autoresponder service to make them more user-friendly?
Fourth, does your “house” have quality neighbors? Is it in a desirable neighborhood? When it comes to your mailing list, you want to consider carefully the recommendations you make, or the web pages that you point your readers to. If you are trying to position yourself as a source of quality material and tips for people who make info products and you point them to a web page that screams “scam” at them, you are going to be in trouble.
Finally, is your “house” well looked after? In other words, do you care for your list? Do you send emails regularly? Do you treat your readers with respect? Do you honor the commitment they have made to you? A reader who has opted in to your list is a nugget of gold whose loyalty needs to be earned every day.
Did I say easy steps? What I have described is straightforward: quality layout, content, offer, systems and referrals. But, like a toddler’s first, faltering steps, they aren’t necessarily always easy. It takes practice and perseverance to get it right, but if you commit to delivering quality, day in and day out, you will build a mailing list that will make you money, week in and week out.
My best to you – James Gladwin
