[For starters & newbies] What kind of challenges are you facing to get started with email marketing?

The first Challenge is obviously BUILDING A LIST.

Of course after you will face some problems about the autoresponder you choose, etc

but first BUILD YOUR LIST

with this challenge which is alo very important you will have to learn your way through that so that you are at par with yourself without any failing.

Remember a list in any business is very important necessity that you will have to consider and it is also any asset to you as an online marketer

Building your list > Setting up an autoresponder > Actual writing emails > Getting sales.

To be honest.
Technicalities is really not a problem the autoresponder that you choose will have a guide for that on how to do things and for you to understand it in the most easiest way.

Sales will come and go it all depends on what you promote. How you write your email copies and basically how targeted and active your list is.

The challenges I was facing was getting my emails opened. Setting up your autoresponder is not much of a headache as most autoresponder systems has tutorials.

Every newbie starting out has different "challenges" they have to overcome at their different stages and all of those that you mentioned are all challenges that we face.
So it really depends on which level you are at.

Being a bit more experienced now I can see that all of us walk the same path.

First it's the mindset "whoa I have to know all this?!" - overcoming the overwhelming stuff you realize you have to know.
Secondly - The technical portion of setting up your optin page and OTO
Third - Building your list - the many different methods
Fourth - Trying to write effective persuasive emails (a lot more difficult than it sounds)

If I can give one tip - try to focus on just one method, one product when you start off. You can always come back and try different products and methods at a later time.

For example - I picked Aweber as my AR, Clickfunnels as my optin page builder and 1 method for getting traffic and building it to a size that now works for me.

Also don't be overwhelmed with the information out there. Just focus on each step and continue to move forward.

I agree, I think the most difficult part to do is build a list. Of course, I don't want just any bunch of emails to spam, I want an email list who might really want to read into my email's content and in turn generate sales. I understand that the technical aspect might be a bit difficult as well but it is easier since there are available guides on how to do it.

i remember i had "getting traffic" when I was starting out.