What makes you subscribe with email?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
My point exactly. Since I'm not searching for anything, there is nothing that anyone can offer me that would get me to opt-in to their list in the hope of receiving something of value to me. I am not your intended audience.
Obviously, or why bother with all of that? Again, since there is absolutely nothing I am going to buy, being directed to a sales-funnel is a waste of everyone's time. Like I said, I'm old, I make enough money with what I do, I'll be formally retiring soon and I thank the powers that be that I don't have to engage in the endless and usually fruitless pursuit of new ways to make money.

We're all different and spend our lives in different ways. I'm fortunate that I have created my own income stream that I've been employing for decades and started in long before there was something called the Internet. That's the only benefit to old age that I can think of. I don't do Facebook, have never tweeted, have never built a list, scaled up. rinsed and repeated, blogged, done any SEO, believed to achieve or taken part in anything that the world of IM has to offer. Truth be told, I always thought that 'split-testing' referred to a trial separation from my girlfriend.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to stop working, only because I do not know what I would do all day. I live in a house with a dock and in 18 years I have never dropped a fishing line in the water. I bought a Donzi 'Sweet 16." How many time can you drive around the lake? For me - about a dozen times was enough. Done with that. I enjoy working, but since I no longer have any personal pursuits or ambition I only work for others, to help them achieve their goals. I enjoy that very much. Since I have everything I want and need, there is nothing left to buy, so income is just accumulating money - something that has never fascinated me. I have always thought that money is made for spending, not collecting.

I'm down to my last formal client and the income from his business is simply too lucrative to walk away from in relation to the amount of work and time involved. It has afforded me an opportunity to help family and friends, the local animal shelter, a private, local, veterans outreach program and buy a few toys like new computers, audio/video equipment and my currently hospitalized Bimmer convertible which I hope to spend the summer driving all over the tri-state area.

The big dirt nap is right around the corner for me. If I were younger and looking to make my mark, I'd be doing what you're doing and building what you have built. The only thing I have any interest in building at this point in my life is an excellent Philly cheesesteak, which I'll be doing in around 6 hours. Other than that - nothing. I've earned that right. Except for brief periods caused by mental or physical health issues, I have worked my whole life. I used to believe that work was all there was and that it should be how you measure your life. I no longer feel that way. I know better, now.

I did not mean to cast any aspersions on what you are doing, or to denigrate it in any way. You are doing what you believe is proper for your life and the goals that you have set. That's to be commended. My only point was that I have no interest in subscribing to anything for any reason. I'm not looking for anything. I am blessed. My cup runneth over. :-)

I certainly wish you all of the success you are seeking. :-)

Cheers. - Frank

This is my first time replying to anything on this forum and so I have a comment and a question.

I've been learning about IM for a number of years and am now starting to build a business and I am using a free eCourse as a list builder, so I am curious to hear from more experienced people if I am going in the wrong direction.

Personally, I have subscribed to a lot of email lists over the years in order to get a promised free report or some other type of resource. What happens then is that eventually, I am getting 100 emails every day and I have a big cleanout (which I did again just yesterday) and I unsubscribe from as many of them as I can. I usually maintain the ones that do offer useful content. The ones that are selling something in every email never get to send me more than about 3 emails.

My mindset has changed in the past few days (not sure why) and now I am a lot more selective and reluctant to hand over my email address on the promise of a freebie. I have a hard drive full of free reports and stuff that have been offered as an incentive to sign up and I have looked at hardly any of them, so I have decided to stop going after the freebie.

So - to my question. I have created a free eCourse aimed at newbies, teaching how to set up a Wordpress blog on hosting in a bid to enter the affiliate marketing field as a way to earn a bit of extra money or to eventually replace your full time income if you're prepared to put in the effort. I am now in the throes of experimenting with different ways to get eyeballs onto that course and subscribers into my list. Should I be doing things differntly? Or is the newbie market one way that still works with a free course as an incentive to sign up?

Thoughts?