List Building 101: Theory and Mechanism

Last week I wrote about some list building facts and why anyone has anything to do with marketing on the Internet must build a list. This week I will explain how mailing lists are built. The information in this article are very basic, so if you are an advanced Internet marketer you might feel like you already know most of this.

The theory behind all list building mechanisms is the same as selling and trading: “You give something and get another thing in return”.

In list building you give your product, and you get the contact information of the receiver. You could also get some money as a price for what you are giving, and some times you just get the contact info.

Now I would like you to reflect upon the theory above and see how it applies to almost any thing you bought or downloaded on the Internet. All free reports, ebooks, software, and any downloadable material on the Internet requires that you “register” or “subscribe” or “opt in” to a list of some kind in order to access the download link (or activate the download).

And anything you buy requires that you submit a payment method that includes your contact information. Have you seen all of the “make money online” products on ClickBank? They are not there only to make money on the purchase itself, it’s more about building a list of proven buyers.This list will be used in the future for promoting high ticket products related to making money online ($2000 and up).

But building a list is not all about getting a huge number of people into your mailing list, it’s way beyond that.

If you sign up to a newsletter or a mailing list and for any reason you are not happy with what you are receiving, why would keep getting these emails? You’ll definitely opt out (unsubscribe) from that list. Right?

So, the other part of building a list is keeping your subscribers happy. Not only that will keep them longer in your list, it will also make them actually open and read your emails.

You don’t want a list of 1,000,000 subscribers who never open your emails!

And that’s why you need to plan for your list-building process at least 1 year ahead.

In the following articles I’ll write more about what to give your list, how to give it to them, and how to keep your subscribers happy. So stay tuned and come back often.