Link Building versus List Building...which one makes you the most money for your time?

[runfast]

There are two ways to increase your Internet Business:

1. Link Building
2. List Building

Link Building:
You spend a lot of time linking your website to articles, classifieds, Craigslist, and etc. Try to reach as many unique visitors as possible. Continue to build more websites and more links. Rinse and Repeat.

List Building:
You build a list, come up with new articles and products, and try to lure your list customers to buy or visit your sites.

Personally, I buy what I want and unsubscribe after a couple of emails. My question is "Do list customers actually click on a link thru an email and BUY a month after they signed up on a Squeeze Page? Does Opt-In work for you? Am I different because I hate getting emails that don't pertain to my immediate needs?

I'm trying to manage my time...
Should it be spent building Websites and building Links?
Or is it wise to build squeeze pages or forms so I can build my list and send out email blasts?

Thanks in advance for your opinions

[LB]

Link-building is a shotgun approach the depends on other sites and search engines to support your business. You can lose it all at the whim of Google.

A list is an asset that will benefit you for years to come.

[Michael Motley]

Link building will usually lead to greater list building (if you have a list setup on your page)

And you dont sell to your links...you sell to your list

[Mukul Verma]

I think whichever you master would work best.

Link building help me get 50K+ visitors a month, no lists

However there are people who have a lot less traffic and make more with lists.

So choose one (or both) and master it would lead to the most money.

[yesacpow]

Both are necessary in Marketing.

But if I have to vote I would say list building is the most profitable.

I just recently start building a list and it is really amazing to send out an email and then check to see you have a ton of sales as a result.

Building a list is very important. You have a ton of subscribers that you build a good relationship with and they will love you and buy from you on demand.

Note You Must Provide Quality.

[dvduval]

I consider your ability to build a list closely related to how well you have done building quality links to your site, so generally link building would be the greater priority for me.

[diamondseeker]

If I had to choose I would take list building. However I do both and believe they work together. The link building brings traffic to the opt in for the list building

[Dean Shainin]

I've always used both hand in hand. One helps the other...Most links go to a squeeze page.

But if I had to pick one it would be list building for long term profits.

Cheers,
Dean

[runfast]

Thanks for the feedback. It was great to hear that list building does work. I thought most customers were like me who unsubscribes as soon as we get a subcription email.

So now I'll start working on giving out a Free Ebook/Audio Program squeeze page since thats the easiest way to get people to start signing up.

[John Hocking]

That is kind of like asking which is more important Food or Oxygen.
You won't last long with out having both.

Link building is important to create a steady stream of visitors to your website.

List building is important to extend the lifetime value of your visitor.

Most people will not buy one the first visit. It takes an average of 7
visits to build the trust.

If you can get them on the list, you can offer products and services related to the reason they joined the list. The current offer my not convert, but the next one could.

Originally Posted by runfast

Personally, I buy what I want and unsubscribe after a couple of emails.

The trick here is offer real value in your emails. Offer tips and Tricks related to the topic and tie them in with an offer that expands on them.

If they unsubscribe from then list, how is that any different then someone visiting your site and clicking away?

[virginia_culp]

It's often asked .... concept A vs concept B ... which one of these is better?


But truly there are hundreds of elements that make an online business successful. I don't personally think that a "one person operation" can do it all and wear every hat successfully. So for that reason you'll find that answers vary. It's also true that some answers are a rehash of someone else's opinion.

Forum marketing vs twitter marketing are different. Both are important for most marketers. But there are TONS of people who are successful using only one of the two.

Ginny

[runfast]

Originally Posted by John Hocking

That is kind of like asking which is more important Food or Oxygen.
You won't last long with out having both.

Link building is important to create a steady stream of visitors to your website.

List building is important to extend the lifetime value of your visitor.

Most people will not buy one the first visit. It takes an average of 7
visits to build the trust.

If you can get them on the list, you can offer products and services related to the reason they joined the list. The current offer my not convert, but the next one could.



The trick here is offer real value in your emails. Offer tips and Tricks related to the topic and tie them in with an offer that expands on them.

If they unsubscribe from then list, how is that any different then someone visiting your site and clicking away?

I liked your response. I've been able to make money by promoting affiliate products. None of these sites had a squeeze page. Because I didn't want to waste time doing something I didn't believe in or didn't know how to approach it.


I'm running 3 offline businesses and don't have time to look at every subscription email. That is why I posted this question because I thought that most are like me. I have quite of bit to learn on how to build real value online. So far it looks much easier to build relationships offline than online. Thanks again for your feedback.

[dndoseller]

I work on building content and links...

and let the list build itself.

I do nothing to promote the list except put it dead center above the fold in the header.

[kamilrazak]

yeah.. I use link building to build my list. it's a bit slower depending on your keyword but when you've got that place you want in the search result. then, my lists is building itself.

[nicholasb]

I don't see why you cant do both, I have a system designed to get me opt ins while ranking top 3 in google for almost all of my keywords

who says you cant do both

[nick1123]

The short answer is that you need to do both.

If you're just starting out I would focus on building links so that you can get traffic to build your list. As your list grows I would suggest spending time cultivating a good relationship with your readers by giving them content and information that they want.

If you follow the 80/20, which is to give good free content 80% of the time and sell to them 20% of the time, you should be in very good shape.

[Teddy Garcia]

You want to build your list without a doubt.

It is by far the best converting traffic you can get provided you've created a relationship with them and communicate regularly without every communication being a pitch for something.

However, the easiest and cheapest way to build your list is by building links to a good landing page that gets them to optin in exchange for something of value.

[Hasan Barbary]

I see the consensus seems to be "Do both", and I do; but I have a follow-up question:

where does the oft-quoted "it takes an average of 7 emails to convert" statistic come from? Is this just IM conventional wisdom?

It's obvious that follow-up is necessary, but I mean, really, are there any scientific market research white papers that have concluded the # is 7?

I'm just asking because in my previous life I was a database programmer & IT consultant, so I'm a little skeptical of ALL statistics.

I believe a firm answer would be revelant to the OP who asked "...which one makes you the most money for your time?" What if, in a given niche, most subs decide after 3 or 4 contacts? If we knew that we could shift gears & not chase diminishing returns.

Better ROI per unit time is something we could all use....

Any thoughts on the "7 Emails Theory?"

[FredericoVilaVerde]

Originally Posted by Hasan Barbary

where does the oft-quoted "it takes an average of 7 emails to convert" statistic come from?

I think I first read about it in 2002 in this ebook
by Yanik Silver called "Autoresponder Magic".

If you make a search I think you can probably
download and find that ebook.

Originally Posted by Hasan Barbary

Is this just IM conventional wisdom? Any thoughts on the "7 Emails Theory?"

I don't have any thoughts on the theory,
... but I can show you my tested PRACTICE!

Last year... little niche with 6,226 opt ins in
Aweber and I run about 25 messages in that list.

By the end of the year when I checked the results
from using follow-up versus not using it, the results
were simple:

The thank you pages (offers a LEAD sees after
an Aweber sign up) generated 58% of the affiliate sales.

And our Aweber email follow-ups generated 42%
of the affiliate sales.

Talk about leaving money on the table
for having no follow-up...

Regards,

Frederico Vila Verde

P.S. And yes, I have MANY evidence that people
buy even a long time after they join your list.

[runfast]

P.S. And yes, I have MANY evidence that people
buy even a long time after they join your list.[/quote]


This is what I was looking for....thanks

[Max Ramocsai]

Even though I don't do too much email marketing I'd have to say that list building is probably going to give you the most money for the amount of time put in. The reason why I say this is because with list building you have the potential to make substantial amounts of money in both the short and long term.

You could direct thousands of targeted visitors to your squeeze page with paid advertising within a few days (or less) and then present them with a OTO as well as sell to them over and over again over time. You could also create a nice content site around a targeted niche and then drive traffic to the site with SEO in mind using list building as a form of monetization. This would be a long term strategy using list building.

Link building is always going to take a decent amount of time and work in order for you to see any amount of profit. Yes, you can make just as much money with pure SEO (I know this first hand) but I think that list building offers more flexibility as well as more security since it is an asset that YOU control.

[jbode]

List building is more important than link building as far as I'm concerned...

Many niche's are not suitable for list building, but there are plenty of niches that can make you good money from list building.

I like list building over link building for several reasons:
As soon as you have a decent list, you have something that you can leverage to grow much faster than a high traffic website, through JVs and other methods...

You're in control of your traffic (your list) not the search engines... I've lost rankings and traffic from search engines and if your not willing to constantly get new links you're risking losing that as well.

With a list you can simply send traffic to your site without having to spend time getting links for that site or page.

With a list you can expose potential customers to an offer several times which greatly increases the chance at making a sale or sales.

With a list you can allow your subscribers to get to know you and trust you, if you provide value to them, they are much more likely to buy from you.

Offer continuous value and you will be rewarded with a great following of loyal subscribers, unmatched by link building alone!

[debra]

You really need both. Outsource part of it if you need to.

Look at it this way:

Link Building builds your business.
and...
List Building sustains your business.

Originally Posted by runfast

There are two ways to increase your Internet Business:

1. Link Building
2. List Building

Link Building:
You spend a lot of time linking your website to articles, classifieds, Craigslist, and etc. Try to reach as many unique visitors as possible. Continue to build more websites and more links. Rinse and Repeat.

List Building:
You build a list, come up with new articles and products, and try to lure your list customers to buy or visit your sites.

Personally, I buy what I want and unsubscribe after a couple of emails. My question is "Do list customers actually click on a link thru an email and BUY a month after they signed up on a Squeeze Page? Does Opt-In work for you? Am I different because I hate getting emails that don't pertain to my immediate needs?

I'm trying to manage my time...
Should it be spent building Websites and building Links?
Or is it wise to build squeeze pages or forms so I can build my list and send out email blasts?

Thanks in advance for your opinions

[bestIMtools]

List building! Not everybody is like you that buys and then unsubscribes...a Lot Of people will remain on your list and you can market them until they buy, die or unsubscribe.

[Laura Varon]

Think of both as stacks of flyers.

Link building is like putting up as many flyers as you can. You tape them to lightposts, nail them on trees and generally put them wherever the law permits and anyone can see and take them.

List building would be more like neatly piling the flyers, putting them in a place where they are visible and decorating the area with a "take one!" notice.

It's your choice, really, and it depends on what type of business you're running.