While you can certainly build a business on the Internet without having a list, a list will provide you with a lot more flexibility and options.  There are benefits to having a list…

* You don’t have to start over and find new people to sell to. You already have a ready-made group of people who have decided that they want to hear what you have to say and have probably already bought from you.

* Typically, if you’ve built a targetted list and treated your subscribers well by sharing valuable information (as opposed to continually promoting to them), the bigger your list, the more money you can make.

* If you are an affiliate marketer, having a responsive list can help you to become a Super Affiliate, which not only equates to more income – it also means that you may have a chance to win cool prizes in affiliate contests. Being a Super Affiliate also means that you can becoming sought after for large launches.

List building however, requires bringing traffice to your website. Here are some ways to get traffic and build your list.

1. Give them something for free. This is the obvious way however, make your free item something other than the usual pdf ebook.

Consider creating a podcast (mp3) with an expert, or even yourself sharing some great tips about your niche. You can also have someone interview you and record the interview to give away. Another idea is to create a video demonstrating a ‘secret technique’ or discussing some of your strategies in a visual way? If your software developer, why not give away some software in exchange for their email address?

2. Post on your blog regularly – using your chosen keywords. Try this – write a blog post (with good content and keywords) every day for 2 weeks and check your traffic stats – you should have more traffic! Do You?

3. Giveaway events are another way to build your list – make sure you create an opt-in page so that you can get the email address.

It’s important to make sure your offer is something that stands out in the sea of all the other Giveaway offers.

4. Build a Squidoo lens or Hub Page and point people to your site. Squidoo lens and Hub Pages are fun to put together, and relatively quickly to make. Take advantage of it and generate some traffic to your site.

5. Write articles and submit them to directories like Ezine Articles. Be sure to use your chosen keywords to the article and create an author resource box that will encourage people to click through to your site. Create articles that have great content and are informative – the content doesn’t have to be your best writing, but it should still be good.

6. What forums exist in your niche? Join a forum (or 2 or 3) and set up your signature to graciously promote what you do. The way (and when) you set up your signature block completely depends on the forum – make sure you read the Terms of Service first. When creating your signature, remember to ‘sell a benefit’ and get readers curious enough to click through.

7. Ad Swaps are certainly an excellent way to grow your list fast and effectively. Find another business in your niche that has a similar size list (or similar response) and send each others offers of a free item to your own list. The key is, to plan your swaps with offers that will appeal to your niche and not to do it too often, as you will ‘desensitize’ your list.

8. Twitter is another great resource to help you generate traffic to your site. A well written, 140 character tweet can entice people to want to know more and click through. For more information on how to use Twitter to drive traffic to your site, pick up your free Twitter Blog Magic report.

9. Pay Per Click advertising can be an effective way of traffic generation. A well designed AdWords campaign will be seen on a number of others people sites – and increase your reach incredibly. Spend some time developing your AdWords campaign to make sure you pay the ‘right’ price for the advertising.

10. If you like to write and you have something valuable to say, guest blogging is a good way to go. Blogging on your own blog means you have your readers, blogging on other people’s blogs (preferably higher traffic blogs) means you have their readers too, and these people will see your name AND your link.

Building traffic to your site, and list building, requires work from you – it doesn’t happen overnight and whilst you can outsource a lot of the work, understanding the basics will definitely help you. Building your list will most certainly help you create a sustainable, and profitable business.

About the Author Charly Dwyer

Charly has more than 30 years experience in the IT industry ranging from hands-on technical, to high-level business management, Charly has installed and configured computing equipment and has managed business contracts in excess of $25 million dollars.

As a result, Charly identifies the best way to integrate solutions and technologies for the most cost effective way to achieve a businesses outcome.

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  1. Thanks for the post! People are crazy for not using more Twitter.Twitter is 100% the way to goI use Mass-Follow.com to submit my articles to like 400 places

    1. Hi Lynn,

      Thanks for the reply – I don’t recommend the use of any Mass Follow service to anyone. I’m confused how using Mass Follow will also submit your articles to 400 places – but maybe I’m missing something.

      I do have to reiterate that whilst the idea of having lots and lots of followers is enticing – you really have to ask yourself, what use are they if they are only following you, because you follow them? Are they really your target audience? If not, it would be like going down to the shopping centre and speaking to yourself.

      Consider why you want to use Mass Follow type services….

      Charly.

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