5 Crucial Tricks I've Learned About Successful List Building...

Ok, so these may not necessarily be "tricks" by any means, but I thought I'd post what I've learned about successful list building so far that has worked really well for me. I figured it might help some of the "newbies" here...

1. Email At LEAST 3X Per Week
Why? Constant contact, with the right content keeps your readers active. I feel if you only mail them several times a week, for a few weeks, then taper off to maybe only once every few weeks you'll be toast. They will forget about you. Also, KEEP emailing them. I've landed sales of my own product ($90+) to subscribers who signed up nearly 2 months earlier.

2. Treat Your Lists Like Friends, Not Numbers
I think many people building lists forget that these are REAL people wanting REAL information from you. You don't just have a list of 100,1000, or more "leads". These are real people. These people are your own tribe. Treat them like royalty and friends, not just as people you can make sales off of. This transition in your approach with them can make all the difference in the world.

3. Train Your Subscribers To Click Links
If you build a list, at some point you'll be wanting them to click on either your link or an affiliate link and buy, right? I've found that if I "train" my subscribers to take the actions I want that the objective of making sales along the way works much better. Plus, you can do it in a less "sales-y" manner. You can do this with not just links to your own products or affiliate products, but also links to information, articles or videos that you think they will like. But don't give everything away to them (see #5 below). Make them click to find out more. Tease.

4. Understand The Language of Your Niche, and Use It
Browse the forums in your niche. Read the posts. Watch how they speak, what they speak about, and the tone and personality. Match this in your emails to them. For example, you're probably not going to use the same tone in emails to a list of new mothers as you would to a list of guys wanting to get laid. Make sense?

5. Don't Give Away The Whole Enchilada
Biggest mistake email marketers make I think. Everyone preaches that you have to give SO much content away to make them "trust" you. I call BS. If you give away all the "goodies", why should they buy from you? It's amazing how much trust you can build simply by talking ABOUT a problem vs. HOW to solve it. The pain points. Real life stories. Related content links. Heck, ask them questions and get feedback. Show that you care. Show some personality in your emails, and use "infotainment" to pull them in. Speak their language and lead them down the path to your product without shoving it down their throats.

Anyway, those are 5 biggies I think can help a lot of newbies.

Of course, there are other tips as well like...

**Making sure you're 100% clear to new subscribers WHAT and WHEN you will be sending them emails.

**Using a killer P.S. in every email. Make it an info "golden nugget" of fun that they can look forward to in every mailing. This way, they can read their way down the email to discover it each time. This goes hand-in-hand with "training" them.

**Focusing on quality vs. quantity when it comes to the size of your lists. Duh, right? Shocking how many focus on list sizes still vs. the quality of subscribers.

I'd love to hear some other feedback or tips from others on this as I am by no means an expert.

Cheers!