Please explain a list?

ViperChill.com is a great site that has some information on building successful lists as he's done just that. May lead you in the right direction.

Quickest way to get started is to use a company like Aweber.. that's what I use anyway. It's an autoresponder.

You set up a series of emails and it automatically emails them.. say the first email on day 1, the second email on day 5, or whatever. Saves you time and effor, and everyone gets the right emails at the right time.

You got most of it down already, you offer a freebie in exchange for their email address.

Then send them quality content, which helps build goodwill/relationship. Then send the odd offer every now and then.

It's also a good idea to segment your list and create a buyers only list.

Good luck man.

Okay... here we go!

1. An autoresponder is the "heart" of your list building efforts. It's responsible for creating those optin forms (boxes) on your website.

2. Autoresponders collect the data and sort or manage your list so you can login to your autoresponder at any time and create an email message to send out to all of the email addresses at once. (You can also automate the messages to be delivered automatically but more on that once you know the basics)

3. The first step is to get an autoresponder account. For your situation I suggest Imnica Mail (Google it). They are the most cost effective. Other companies such as Aweber, Get Response, iContact, Mail Chimp, etc. All do the same thing with a few differences in the functionality and options.

4. The second step is to learn how to use the autoresponder (There are great help videos at all of the companies I mentioned above - Go through those videos until you completely understand everything to this point. It will make it much easier for you in the long run).

5. The third step, after you get the autoresponder setup, is to take that code you generated from your autoresponder (Explained in their help videos) and put it on your website.

6. Learn about squeeze pages (also known as landing pages) by searching through this forum. You will find excellent information about conversions, how to create a squeeze page, etc.

7. Traffic is your next step... Get traffic to your squeeze page, watch your analytics to adjust and tweak for better conversions. (Look into "A - B" Split testing)

That in a nutshell is what is involved in list building. There are so many more details but learn the basics first. Then experiment.

Thanks for the replies, exactly what i was hoping for!

I shall get set about looking at some sort of autoresponder, and work through whatever videos they have to offer. Brilliant, cheers!!

Alan

Here are answers to your questions...

>> So a list - i put an email opt in on my blog, then what. what do i do with that email address? periodically send info relating to my site, with the occasional recommendation to a product, with affiliate link to the product?
When i do get an email address and contact them, if i am not promoting a product, is it simply content from the site, or related that i send?

Murtuza - The basic concept of building your list is to build relationship with your subscribers and then sell them your products and services.

Here how it goes. When a subscriber signs up to your site you give them a free gift with valuable content that solves their problems. Then you send them free content that wets their appetite and sell them your products or affiliate products that are related to your content.

Also you have to make sure that you build good relationship with your list because as your list grows your income will grow with your future products.

Once you build your list you must focus on setting up a product funnel with quality content within your follow up emails and put up a series of emails that goes out to your subscribers on a timely basis. This will keep making you money if you have more products in your funnel.


>> What is the best way to get an email address - something like 'sign up for our free ebook' - or something like that?

Apart from collecting emails in this manner, waiting for people to add it to a box on my website, are there any other ways of building a list?

Murtuza - Yes, the squeeze page model works the best. But you can also go about purchasing leads. You can go to sites like getresponse and purchase leads for 30 cents each. Also there are several coreg services like listopt that can constantly give you subscribers at 20 cents approx. and this way you can build your list super fast if you know how to convert your subscribers and make good returns out of them. The best way to go thru that route is to build your own product funnel in place with atleast 10 products so that you breakeven on your cost and also make money out of it.




>> Once the address is collected, i have heard of people using autoresponders, something again im not familiar with, but i will make myself familiar with!

Murtuza - yes, autoresponder is a service that will automate everything I have told above, your follow up emails, mailing to your list, etc.

>> If people on the thread asking who is not building a list say to start yesterday what is the quickest way to start implementing ??

Any thoughts or guidance to get on the right track fully appreciated

Murtuza - It is simple, select a niche, build a squeeze page with a free gift, start driving traffic to your squeeze page. Send quality content to your list and product offers. It is as simple as that. Test out everything and increase your backend product funnel to increase your VPL that's value per lead.

Murtuza :confused:

May I just say Alan, there's no such thing as the most basic question. That's why this place is so good. It doesn't matter how basic the question is, just ask chap and never feel bad about it.

I won't answer the question myself because, as you see, so many decent people have come along, without a groan in sight and very much answered your splendid question in depth.

You already have received some pretty good guidance here, but I thought I would mention a couple other things.

Marketing via e-mail has its pitfalls and most of those pitfalls are related to the concept of "spam" messages. The bottom line is that people do not like to receive messages that they feel are just advertisements or junk cluttering up their in-box and there are companies out there that block e-mail from being delivered based upon differing criteria.

E-mail marketing is only effective if the mail is received. So, using a third party system like aWeber or any of the others that have been mentioned makes a lot of sense because the mail is sent by them from their servers. They also enforce best practices for e-mail marketers such as double opt-in, as well as CANSPAM compliance.

There are also systems that allow you to send mail from your own server or even from your personal computer. I would really caution you about such a system because not only will you need to get your servers "white listed" with various companies and services yourself (the third party systems to that work for you) but you will also risk having your server account(s) shut down or your ISP cancel your service. Most webserver companies and ISP's monitor the volume of mail being sent and if they see you sending out bulk e-mail they will probably assume that you are sending spam even if you are not.

As far as what your e-mail content should consist of, that is going to depend upon your business and the nature of the relationship you hope to build with your target audience. Some guys have audiences that are looking for that next "silver bullet" and they will hit their list hard with sales copy offering $7 ebooks - and do quite well because that's what the subscribers signed up for and it is what they expect to receive.

The first question to ask is why each person signed-up for your e-mail list. They had a reason. If you told them that you would teach them something, you might want to follow through on that promise and teach them that something. If you offered them an eBook, give them the eBook.

Once you have delivered on that initial promise, then follow up with them. Typically you want to offer them a product or service that compliments or that is directly related to the reason they originally signed up. If you put your name and e-mail address into a sign-up form to get information about, say, how to build an e-mail list, and actually received a nice PDF report on just that, you probably would not be surprised or upset if the author followed up with you a few days later and offered an e-mail list building video course to you for sale. On the other hand, if you started receiving offers for male enhancement products you're going to blacklist or unsubscribe pretty quick.

Take a little time to think through the type of business you are working toward building and the type of relationship you hope to forge with your prospects. That will guide you in developing your e-mail follow-up series and/or broadcasts.

Good luck.

Your first step Alan, is to choose what community you are trying to help. Learn about them, understand their needs.

Then you can list build by offering them a free giveaway that meets their needs in return for providing their email. This is done using a lead capture page and an autoresponder.

Once they have opted in to receive information from you, you send them a combination of free and paid resources, articles and products that solve their problems.

Again thanks for the replies so far!

OK so i get this, sort of. To build a list you need to capture email addresses from people that are visiting your site, so clearly interested in the topic. Ebusiness tutor thanks and i already have a niche in mind and have showed it here before so happy to do again! managing anxiety or anxiety in general would be my chosen area as i am/was a nurse and know a bit about this anywa, and have a genuine passion for the area. not to say if something else paid more i wouldnt be off on that like a shot!! but i would like to help people who suffer from anxiety as it is not flippin nice and can be avoided in most circumstances! So i defiantely have an idea of the relationship i want to build.
So people come to my site - at present around 5-10 visitors per day and i think i may be top of google for the term 'managing anxiety' at present - managinganxiety.co.uk.
if people look at it now, i have in the last few hours changed the theme, made and added a banner and am working through marked samurai to decide how to find decent keywords so it is all over the place, i know.

How does this site help build up a list of say 20,000 when it gets around 10 visitors per day?

Just heard of and going to watch vids on how autoresponders soon, but never heard of a lead capture page - im guessing it is something of a pop up that offers free stuff if they give emails away- but that will be around 10 visitors and nt sure how many would do it or just click away -ill google and search soon on the capture page

I sort of get how a list would be great to email already interested people. but with a site like mine mentioned above, even if everybody that came there offered an email, we are talking hundreds over a year!

Any thoughts or input into how im going around this?

Alan

I recommend Aweber too. But definitely do full research and make sure you are getting what you need for your email marketing needs. Keep at it and best of luck!

Since you already have a blog or two, that means you already have a niche, and you've made a few sales so it's probably profitable. You just need to make sure it's a buying niche hungry for info. As far as list building, it's one of those things people put off and really shouldn't. You need a list for a sustainable long term online business.

Aside from an opt-in form on your blog offering some great free info on your chosen niche, in exchange for an email address, You should also build a squeeze page and drive traffic any way you can to it. There are all sorts of plugins out there for wordpress to redirect or popup a squeeze when people leave your blog. You should always capture this traffic because they may not come back anyway.

You will need an autoresponder to market to your list after they sign up and confirm. There are various companies out there, some cheaper then others but the more you pay it appears the functions and ease of use increase.

aweber
getresponse
mail chimp
icontact

just to name a few, they do all have great training inside to show you how to use them.

You can create free squeeze pages with say Kompozer html editor, and there are several plugins out there for wordpress as well. You will usually need a squeeze page, autoresponder, thank you page and download page all set up to drive your
subscriber through the process. The warrior forum is a great place to find info, so your in the right place!

Hope this helps a bit!

The people that opt in to your list are probably doing so because you offered them something to do that. Once they are on your list, your job is not to sell to them but to build a relationship with them based on trust. You do this by giving them free stuff and training them. Once they trust you, they will buy from you.