I like these three:

1. Article marketing
2. Video marketing
3. Forum marketing

In terms of targeted traffic, they all rock (if you do it right). But it can be a bit slow if you're all about the numbers. I just don't really like doing ad swaps. I know they work and can grow your list fast, but it just seems like you're sharing around the same core of subscribers (at least in the IM and MMO niches). I like to get fresher "blood" into my lists, and I'm willing to sacrifice speed and size for motivation and serious targeting.

As an example, I have a list that's under 900 people and I just finished #8 on a leaderboard for a fairly big product launch. I beat out some marketers with lists 10X that size (and more). It's more about trust and relationship than it is size, at least in this niche.

So I'm comfortable writing articles, shooting videos, and participating in forums to drive targeted, motivated visitors to my squeeze pages. For me, slow-and-steady wins this race. I take my lists very seriously. They're the heart of my online business.

John

I agree with zeus66 with his top 3. Some say that article marketing is dead but i'm seeing pretty steady results with my efforts. If you want to see article marketing work, your best bet is to create 5-10 articles a day for your niche. The top 5 article directories allow up to 20 submissions a day, so this isn't even the max that you should write.

Video marketing is good too and this is definitely would i what recommend for a beginner. Video is an excellent way to boost conversion rates and i would advise trying to create 5 new videos a day also. This may seem much for someone starting out, but internet marketing is tough, so this is what i recommend.

Step 1 - buy your list.

Step 2 - you're done.

Some sites that tell you that they dont sell info are just plain lying to you. You can find opt-in data to buy.

My top 5 article directories are:

- Ezinearticles.com
- goarticles.com
- ideamarketers.com
- articledashboard.com
- articlesbase.com

With ezinearticles definitely being number 1. I take a look at my traffic logs and see that out of all of my article directory traffic, the bulk of my traffic comes from these sites. All of my articles are 500+ word articles. I keep it like this because I keep in mind that ezinearticles can revoke your platinum membership status if your article quality declines.

With video marketing, i primarily stick to Youtube. I upload my videos in FLV format (about 3 MB) each, and they upload super fast with pretty good quality. I tried uploading in .avi format and the file sizes are around 150 MB. With the FLV format, i can upload up to 10 videos at one time - and it isn't slow nor hurt my bandwidth limit.

I like to use a blog with an optin form on the sidebar and the bottom of EVERY post.

Also have separate page with no sidebars that is a dedicated squeeze page, so you can send direct traffic there (eg articles).

In my opinion. I really like Forum commenting coz I can promote my site at the same time I can gain so much from different awesome people about their professional opinion.

anyways you can outsource them if you really want that edge.

Check my sig (free link cloaker) it's a brilliant way of building a list. (Slow but steady)

Giving something away of value can be hugely beneficial, it's surprising how quickly it all builds up

Kim

I agree with Jhon Mc Cabe, trading value for their info is the way to go, nevertheless I like
speed furthermore this is what I do:

1.) After market research, bid for some very specific phrases on adwords.
2.) Create infoproduct (usually an ebook) solving this problem.
3.) Send the traffic to a landing page.

Am I the only one that pays to build his list in the beginning?

The rest always goes for free?

Excellent post. First time finding it and well just great insights to build my list. Right now here is what I am doing for one of my clients.

She is offering Live Seminars for future clients. I just create a customized Landing Page for her and we are using aweber and PPC with Google.

That is giving us a great conversion rate in people opt-in for the FREE seminar and we are hopeful that more of them are going to Join the Program after the Live FREE Seminar.

So probably what I am trying to say, is Use Landing Pages for giving Freebies and capture people's information and continue marketing to that list until your convert them to customers.

Never had much success using videos hosted somewhere. Bad CTR despite having strong call to action at video end. I know quite a few get a lot of traffic from videos, but the question in our context is "do the visitors sign up"? Think about it- if somebody sees a video he/she is likely in a "I want to be entertained" mood. For signups you need visitors in a "I have a problem and want to solve it" mood.

Traffic from articles converts best for me, because I presell in the resource box (as in "to get your free xxx and elminate yyy forever, click here". By far best traffic providing article directory is still ezinearticles.com.

Second best traffic source is search engine traffic (very long tail).

Nevertheless, search engine traffic is the best for me. If you have authority sites and put up a new page on a subject your site is about, it is indexed in seconds and (nearly always) automatically on page 1 of the search results. Add some link building and you cement yourself on position 1.
The time to get a new page up and the time to write and submit an article are roughly the same- so plastering the authority site and building further authority rank with new pages makes more sense then providing new content to an article directory. Traffic from nearly all articles dries off anyway (some survive though).
This is of course long-term thinking, for short term traffic articles are great, especially if published on ezinearticles on the weekend. A paid account with them is worth it.

Websites are only a tool to get subscribers, that means if somebody clicks on a search result he/she gets a very enticing opt-in offer targeted at the audience.
You need to give away your best stuff for free to get the opt-in, then give away even more great stuff and sell the advanced stuff later.

Also, I am transparent to Google by using Analytics. There is nothing to hide because I provide regularly updated fresh content that gets the audience motivated to get their problem solved. So people read it and click through links on the site- what Google wants to see.
At least, I think big G wants to see good rankings in factors like number of pages visited, time stayed on the site, high percentage of returning visitors etc. to boost you in their results.

The easiest way to get returning visitors is tell your list you've just got a new, exciting page up and that they should check it out. This will help your rankings, what will help you build your list... a perpetuum mobile.

Facebook Fanpages and Invites to Fanpages revolving around games by Zynga.

1) PPC - Be prepared to blow money to start with, do your research, discover buying keywords, test, measure, small groups of words, lots of different Ads
2) Article - 300 word article a day on Ezine Articles, pick a keyword, get three more from google wonder wheel, be sick on the page in 300 words ranting about your point
3) Twitter - Learn how to do it properly, research, micro niche, search.twitter.com, scale, rinse and repeat

That has taken me about 3 years to learn all this BTW....I do a lot with video but not really mastered it to a level of measured success

Give away software where the software registration is also an opt in to Aweber. I had software written that is essentially a browser in a Windows form without the top URL visible etc. The first time around it will open a nominated web page with the Aweber form in as part of the software registration. The next time it gets opened it will go to a page with some functionality developed on top of Google's search and adwords API (traffic stats, competition etc). The software is download without opt in but the first time you run it you have to opt in.

Michelle from Crowd Mountain gave away similar software a couple of months ago

My top 3 methods:

1. Get your own product up and selling for between $7-15. Get a HOT converting salespage (10%+). And then get as many affiliates as you possibly can. Keep in touch with your affiliates and get them to continually promote for you. Collect the names and emails of each of your customers.

2. Create another salespage selling your product exactly the same, but add a coupon form where visitors can enter a coupon to download your product for free. Find other people selling products in your marketplace and allow them to offer your product for free as a bonus on their download page. Give them their own coupon code that they can pass on to their customers. If you can add a OTO that your partner will earn commissions from this will increase the likelihood they'll offer your product as a bonus. This strategy will enable you to build a list of BUYERS without them having to buy from you.

3. Pay for solo ads and participate in ad swaps with other list builders in your market. By far the quickest way to increase your list size. But don't overdo the adswaps, your list will get bored of them, and then they'll get bored with you.

James

For me, buying 2 solo ads got me close to 900 optins. It did cost me about $400. But considering how much you must pay for 1 optin using Google Adwords, it's a lot cheaper and faster. Highly recommend it.

Joe

1 - Twitter

2 - Blogging

3 - Facebook

RB

We Generally do

Article Writing and Submission
Social Bookmarking
Forums

For few keywords on our site and for clients site we are on good ranking.
Also we will soon start with Blog commenting, Image and Video Marketing. Hope to get more benefit from those.

1. JV Giveaways
2. Forum Marketing
3. Creating & Selling Products

They all work for me, but Selling products is my favorite as you get buyers on your list and I also get the non buyers with an exit pop. Some of which buy in the future.

Sell Products #1 ->

1. List instantly filled with Buyers
2. Assuming the product's good, easy to promote to JV's/Affiliates who will promote the product and fill your list with more qualified buyers stat.
3. Rinse repeat

Though I don't do list building myself, but here's what I have learned so far -

1. Create a stunning Squeeze page!
2. Give something valuable in return of subscribing! Something which others are not sharing!
3. Interact with them regularly,

1. Media buys like solo ads, ppv, and buying ad space direct from website owners

2. Co-oping with a jv partner

3. SEO

I used to do a lot of ad swaps... I prefer buying traffic instead these days.

I can't believe that press releases haven't
been mentioned.

I've had a lot of success building targeted
lists by issuing a press release that announces
the publication of a new/controversial report
on my topic.

It's well worth paying for a wide distribution
through services such as PR Web.

John

Jason's post has just reminded me that I
should have mentioned affiliates!

As long as you set it up properly, you can
add a lot of new subscribers to your list
when you pay affiliates per optin.

Alternatively, add an exit pop to your sales
pages and credit affiliates with sales made
through your autoresponder.

John

Offering freebies like ebooks is one great way of getting lists then take care of them with useful contents. Don't spam them with offers all the time make it 80-20 and with your list you will start making money online.