Many people under estimate the importance of building a list. It takes work and sometimes a bit of trial and error to get it right, but once you’re in the groove it’s way easy and way better than other methods.
If you look at instant results, building a list isn’t there. I think that might be why so many people don’t bother. Say you can get someone to sign up to a program, or subscribe to your list, in 100 page views. At the end of the day one person is a referral, and one person is still a prospect. Short term, it’s not as juicy.
Long term however is where the money is at. For instance this blog, I now have 9,500 subscribers. I could stop advertising today and still have all those subscribers.
On top of that I can tell you about multiple products and services over and over. So rather than sell one thing to each person, I have the potential to keep on selling indefinitely.
It gets even better, when you build a list – it’s your list! You can download it, move to a different auto-responder, whatever you want. If your auto-responder service goes out of business, you still have your list. If a site you promote goes out of business, well your referrals are their list and you lost them.
So whether you are on a team or going solo, a list is a must. And doing it properly is a must. It’s not OK to just put a bunch of email addresses into your email editor and click send. It’s got to be done properly, with the unsubscribe link, etc. Sound difficult? It’s really easy if you use a system like Traffic Wave which handles the techy parts.
The only part you’ll have to worry about is writing of the emails, and making pages that have the subscribe form. You don’t have to be a great writer to do it. The people on your list will either like your style or not, no matter who you are. So if you write the way you naturally write, you’ll stick with it in the long run, and people will see you aren’t faking it.
Then the squeeze pages part is easy. TEtoolbox lets you copy & paste the code into a simple editor. So the fear of setting it up is just a fear of something new. The tools are out there, the help is out there, just get on and do it already!
Hello Tim,
Great post! A list is a must as like you said you’ll have that list forever and can always market to the people who are subscribed.
I believe the hardest part for people and myself included is what do we do AFTER they join our list? You can’t just sell, sell. The trick is balance between giving value and selling and I think that’s where most have a rough time.
Take Care,
Chris
I agree with Chris. It’s not the required list building proceedure that a problem. It’s what to to do to nuture that list. My writing abilities leave much to be desired, and there are lots of free articles to be found but, the content usually not relavent. I enjoyed Tim’s post, and look forward to more posts on this topic. Willie
Building a list.
This is the most single thing you should be doing daily.
Sales do not matter if your not building a list. Sure, you may get “lucky” and make a few sales without doing this step but to have consistent income, you MUST focus on building your list.
There are hundreds of ways to do this.
I’ve been on-line marketing for several years now. I have several membership sites, TE’s, TAE’s…..blah blah blah.
Until I started building a list , my income was dismal at best. Most members that are in my membership sites are there as FREEBIE seekers and have not decided to take action yet.
Members that opt in to your “list” are seeking help, they are looking to get one step closer to the gold.
Now, having a list, really isn’t good enough. But is the right place to start.
After you start building your list, you will need to start building a relationship with them. Provide them with a piece of the puzzle, gain trust. And many other things, however, it is a direct communication line to your subscribers.
You really can provide value to your list .
Tim does a great job in providing information that bonds us all together. When a new product is launched, who will I buy from?
The person who has earned my trust and who has provided the most value to my questions, concerns and needs. Which is established through direct communication with my list.
This is a huge subject, so keep it simple.
YOU MUST BUILD A LIST.
You must learn how to communicate with your list
You will only succeed on line if you are not only able to build a list but actually provide Value to that list.
Tim is a great example to follow.
Thanks again Tim for the great content, I hope the girls are good
and everyone is healthy.
Overcome your self doubt and start marketing. You will make mistakes. But, you will grow into what you desire with action.
“What you think about, you bring about” Keep it simple. Stay positive and start building your list today!
Douglas J Gregory
Hi Tim and Chris, Very good post, Tim! You’re right, Chris, one shouldn’t sell and sell and sell… I plan to build a list and I don’t want to sell much “bluntly” to my subscribers… You actually don’t have too… Offer them something of real value and the “selling” process will come after even without you having to do it… Suppose you invite them to join a traffic exchange that offers free credits just for joining and also residual credits on referrals’ surfing and cash commissions on their upgrades and purchases… By inviting them to join free, you don’t sell them anything, on the contrary, you offer them something of value, i.e. free advertising… However you will earn on their surfing and upgrades/purchases for their lifetime… And I could go on and on giving you examples of this kind of “selling by not selling”… I think this is the way marketers should use their lists…
Hello Tim this is all i hear on the net-build your mailing list. You’re right, TRWV is the best servise for email marketing. I wondered several months how to do the whole set up, but when i started, everything was ok in just a day…
To your marketing Success
Ivan Golemdzhiyski
Great post, Tim, and so true.
I did a 2-part blog post on how Laura Roeder used a list she’d built through her web design business to build a following for a weekly email newsletter, and then leveraged that list to promote a free webinar about Twitter. She used the webinar to promote a web training series that she was selling, and from THAT list ended up building a new and very profitable business — and leaving web design behind once and for all, which was her goal.
Not promoting Q Web Consulting (you and I have different markets, anyway), but to help your readers better understand how Laura did it, here’s Part 1. They can read Part 2 from there:
http://qwebconsulting.com/buzz-marketing/your-backstage-pass-to-twitter-by-laura-roeder-pt-1/
When I get through the clutter of building up our foundation now that we’re using social media ourselves, we’ll be doing exactly the same thing. Big plans!!
~Michelle for New England Multimedia and Q Web Consulting
I have no problem with any of my subscribers going with Q Web Consulting ;-)
Tim, talk about timing. Mike and I will be teaching people how to use Traffic Wave and TE TOOlBOX to build their first list at 8:00 PM EST tonight
The conference is being held at http://listbuildingconferences.com
If you want to make real money with Traffic Wave you better attend because the money you make from sending emails to your list DWARFS the commissions you get by just promoting Traffic Wave
For Real. TIM!
The old cliche “The Money Is In The List”
is true today as when it was coined.
Most newbie marketers are just not equipped
like you with a blog or website to do their
own list-building.
TrafficWave is a god alternative system, except
for the FFA part.
Another great system I would recommend is Power
List Marketing. Easiest set-up I ever saw!
You just add your affiliate links to the system
and create a power-list link that adds an opt-in
page to your links whereever you promote them.
It’s free to use and includes autoresponders and
downline member mailing features.
http://www.powerlistmarketing.com/vip/5141