Expert Tips

"Bonus Swapping"...

Here's a list building tip that will put a lot of money in your pocket and create a highly targeted list of buyers...

This really only applies if you're selling a product - First understand that most buyers already know who your competitors are. Seriously, right now your next potential customer is probably also considering buying Joe Blogs' product instead of yours... It's you or them - Time to slug it out? No! Because if you put this strategy to work you will both come out winners

Simply - offer your product as a bonus if someone buys Joe product. And then have Joe offer his product as a bonus if someone buys yours instead of his. (Do it via each others affiliate links)

Now the prospect get's double the value (both products they were thinking of buying) and because of that you'll both likely see a jump in conversions.

When you get a sale referred by Joe send the buyer to Joe's bonus page so they can sign up and get his product for free. When Joe gets a sale he can do the same for you.

Ultimately this won't see you make many more sales (maybe a few) but what it will do is DOUBLE the size of your buyer list. You get all your customers AND all Joe's customers on your list (you capture their details when they come for their bonus).

Plus you also make a commission when someone, who would most likely have gone to Joe instead of you buys his product.

So if you don't get a sale (and where previously you would have made nothing) you now get a commission (from Joe) and a buyer on your list. And it works the same for Joe. Sweet eh?

Everyone wins here... the customer who just got double value, you and Joe because you make a commission and get a buyer on your lists where before you would have just lost the sale.

The hardest thing you will come up against here is finding the right partner who can see the sense in doing this but when you do it's happy days for both of you...

Just to finish this off... Now you have those buyers on your list make sure you follow up with them and have something else to sell them (product funnel) but I guess that's a whole different answer.

"The Freemium Method"...

Creating value and setting price on it.

Then set up private 'gifted' access and give it away in return for joining your list.

Most everyone likes to recieve gifts and you'll find that your conversions will increase on a 'private' gifted sign up page over just a 'everyone' can sign up free page. This therefore increases your leads into your business.

Make sure you have a good funnel system in plase for those leads in order to bring in profits for your business short term (special offers shown when they first sign up) and long term (recommended offers down the road).

Never abuse your list but also do not be afraid to mail to it often. Find what works best for you and build a relationship with your subscribers. If they expect news from you then give them news. If they expect recommendations from you then give them some.

Write your emails to your lists like you are writing them to your friend and it will show in the responsiveness they give back.

Keep your list clean, people change email address over time or no longer may want to be on your list anymore after 6 months or a year or more. Make sure it is easy for them to unsubscribe at anytime. And just remove emails that continually bounce off your list as they are not doing you any good.

Keep bringing in fresh new leads all the time to replace the ones that leave or are no longer valid. As long as you are adding more leads than you lose every day you will keep building your list.

Have patience, building your first 1,000 or 10,000 subscriber based list may seem daunting if you are at zero right now. Just keep at it and pretty soon that first subscriber will turn into another and another.

"Capture Your Visitors"...

For building - try to turn as many visitors as possible into subscribers. Pretty obvious I know!

This can be with a squeeze page or floating pop up. You can also grab subscribers before they leave with a 'modal dialog box' (Google it to get the website code).

Offer real value to your subscribers - give them a really good reason to subscribe. Presenting their subscription as a free membership is even better as it presents more value.

Now this isn't sticking to just one strategy - but having a one time offer immediately after they subscribe can be very profitable, and motivate affiliates to send you traffic if they get a cut of the sale.

And use Google Analytics to track everything - visitor numbers, traffic sources, and very importantly - conversion rates with 'Goals'. Point different traffic sources to different landing pages if you can so you can see exactly how well that traffic source converts, rather than sending all traffic to one page so you just end up getting an average conversion rate across all traffic.

And also use Google's Website Optimizer to do split and multi-variate testing, to incrementally make your website more and more optimized, thereby maximizing the number of visitors who opt in. 

"Offering Valueable Content"...

1. Offering something very valuable (report, video or product) for free that you'd otherwise sell. People are smart and they can see the value of what you are offering.

Offer something really valuable and watch your list size soar.

Tip: What you're offering should be related to "what's hot right now". For example, in 2006, it was AdSense, in 2007 it was blogging/RSS, in 2008 it was Web 2.0, and so on.

2. Offer free lite version of your software. If you sell a software, create a lite version and offer it for free.

3. Offer Free chapter(s): Offer free chapter(s) of your report or ebook. Pick the best.

For maintaining:

1. The ulatimate way of maintaining is to consider yourself building your site from scratch. So all the above.

2. Offering valuable content: articles, reports, videos.

3. Differentiation: offer people something that would differentiate you from the tousands of other lists.

For example, create a report and give your subscribers Private Label Rights or Resell Rights.

"Affiliate Programs"...

If I am to pick one, nothing beats having an affiliate program. The most powerful endorsement is having your own member telling other members. And also getting JV Partners to promote your membership site to their mailing list.

While I have e-zines, the best kind of list to build is a membership site with both FREE and PAID levels. And with a membership script like aMember, the built-in affiliate program means your members (and JV Partners) can start promoting your membership and this in effect builds your list through other people's effort and other people's list. 

"Email AdSwaps"...

 This basically involves seeking out and building relationships with other marketers who are happy to do "adswaps", where they send your offer to their subscribers and you send their offer to yours.

I have recently built a brand new optin list of 5,000 in under 2 months with just adswaps.

I've been doing adswaps for less than a year, but I've found it to be the quickest, simplest and most reliable way of increasing my subscriber base.

"Build Loyalty"...

Offer something that the people need :) People are not going to leave your list if you are providing them with something that is of use to them.

Also, keep increasing the value of your service/product. So, it could be free entry, or whatever - but keep making it better. Find out what would benefit them more, and the deliver it - and keep on delivering.

If you have created a service that just keeps getting better, show that you are thankful to your subscribers/members by letting them stay in at the same membership cost they started at. This will build loyalty, as well as encouraging them to stay on - 'cause they know if they cancel, they need to come in at a higher entry point. 

"Be yourself!"...

Don't try to play a role. Just say things that you want to say, the way you want to say. You will get followers. You won't please anyone, but you don't care. What matters is that you build rapport with your subscribers based on who you are. this is how they wil get something from you.

Not because you've got average opinion. this is exactly like with blogging. People visit blogs...for the blogger, not for the news. A list is about you.

"Qualify Your Traffic"...

If I would to select just ONE strategy, it's to get as many qualified traffic to your website as possible CONSISTENTLY. The best approach is still affiliate traffic.  

1. Tell the truth
2. Be entertaining
3. Be human
4. Be respectful
5. Provide value quickly

"Decide Why You Are Building a List First"...

There is 2 answers to this, it depends why your building the list in the first place.

No1 is still by far give away a great product to get people on your list, and I prefer a membership site to do this. It instills more loyalty that just a list of subscribers.

No2 smaller list but proven buyers can be built by allowing people to give one of your paying products as a bonus for buying thier product, its win win they get a great bonus you get other peoples buyers on your list.

"That's easy. An Affiliate Program"...

Not for the product: for the list itself. Give people a share of the income from folks they recommend to the list who subscribe.

Since it's my subscribers making the recommendations, they know the content. That lets them tell the benefit they personally get from being on the list, which is much more powerful than any paid advertising you can get.

"Give Something Away For Free"...

The most successful method of building a list for me has been to give away a free audio report in exchange for the person's contact details..

"Treat Them Right"...

Giving away a quality report, followed by targetted follow ups. I never sell at all just advise. I always make sure I use the second email as the "did you get the X ok" the amount of responses I have got from that email is amazing.

Also not to abuse the list, give quality info to them and intersperse wit the odd "review" and recommendation. they need to get to know me before they will trust and buy from me

Treat them like they deserve to be treated after all the money is in the list !

"Provide Great Content"...

High quality and relevant content attracts new subscibers, keeps people subscribed and gets you talked about. Adding a "Tell your friends about this newsletter" call to action in each issue still works too. ;-) 

"Over Deliver"...

Over delivering on great content and giving your subscribers what they want. By keeping your lists highly targetted to specific niches and giving them quality content, your relationship with the list will strengthen. Combined with this you can also be 'personable' - that is let your subscribers know how things are going with you and help them connect with you.

"Free Giveaway Events"...

I personally participate and run my own free giveaways. Giveaway events have added 1,000 of subscribers to my mailing list over the years. I have also had a lot of success with article marketing.

"Email Swaps"...

From personal experience, email swaps (also known as adswaps) are by far my favourite single strategy for building or maintaining a subscriber list. Email swaps are basically joint ventures where instead of driving traffic to a sales page, you are driving traffic to a joint venture partner's squeeze page.

In return, that person will drive traffic to your squeeze page. In general, the primary focus of these email swaps is to build your list rather than earn commissions, however, if you do a good job of monetizing your email signup process, you can actually do both at the same time. 

"Bonding Through Videos"...

Putting out a good mix of free content and good promos, giving bonuses regularly and inviting feedback. Extensive use of video also helps with bonding. I know this is more than one but seriously - this is kinda the secret to success: do more than the next guy. If the next guy is offering a bonus, you offer two. If the next guy is giving away free audios, give away free videos.