What Do You Mean You Don't Have A List???

The other day I ran an analysis of my income streams. It's something I do every month to keep a handle on where my money is coming from month-to-month. A stat from the March analysis really jumped out at me...

I made almost $4 per subscriber on one of my smaller email lists. It has less than 600 subscribers, but they are very responsive. The key with this list was seriously overdelivering good info early on. I didn't try to sell them anything until they'd been on the list for several emails. I also made the list very targeted by giving away a useful report on a specific topic. So the make-up of the list is highly targeted by interest.

You really gotta get into list building! Sure, it takes some work to set up and you have to keep in touch with them pretty regularly. But the payoff can be very nice.

Just think it through before you build the list. You'll need something to get people on your list. So either write a short report or get some high quality PLR about your topic. It doesn't have to be anything super special. Just good basic info that you give away in exchange for a person's subscription.

Next, you need a simple little opt-in page. Keep it very short, just highlight the benefits of your report, and make sure the opt-in box is above the fold on the page. Promise not to spam, etc. Don't overthink this part. Short is better than long. Only hit the main benefits to the reader of getting the report and being on your list.

And finally, the most important part of this... when you email them, make sure your first few emails are really full of great free info. Knock your new subscribers' socks off with amazing stuff! You'll win their loyalty. That is how you get $4/subscriber every month.

Of course, you'll need a high quality product (or more than one, even) to sell to them later on, but you can work on that as the list is being built.

This is simplified, yes, so if you're an experienced list builder please don't trash this for its simplicity. I just want to help newer people get started. You can add in things like OTO (one-time offers) and upsells and all the rest later on, when you're more experienced.

For now, just stop waiting to get your list started. Use common sense! Treat the people on your list like real people who you value. Many of them will become repeat customers of yours for life! So be extremely nice to them, especially early on when your relationship is just getting started. If you do that, you'll be rewarded many times over!

But you have to get started! Stop coming up with reasons not to do this.

John