Getting Started – 8 List-Building Tips

There's no point in putting out a great newsletter if you don't have a list of people to send it to. Building your list is an ongoing process, and here are a few ways to get started:

1. Provide a free gift, such as an e-course, a special report, an e-book, or a tip sheet. Nowadays people aren't going to hand over their email without getting something else valuable in return. You or your virtual assistant can set up your autoresponder or shopping cart program to deliver this gift once a visitor has submitted their name and email.
   
2. Make sure you have a sign-up box on each page of your website; you never know which page people will land on. Also, make sure the sign-up box is "above the fold" so that visitors don't have to scroll all around to find it.


3. Create a separate landing page on your website that's dedicated to your newsletter or free gift. Include a description, testimonials, a sample issue or archives, and of course your sign-up box.
   
4. Promote your free gift and newsletter on your blog, in your email signature, and on the business cards and flyers that you hand to people in person.
   
5. Have a sign-up sheet or basket to collect cards when you're speaking or when you attend a booth at a trade show or fair. A nice touch is to send an email with a personal invitation to join your mailing list, adding a link to your sign-up page. This may get a better response rate than someone receiving an "opt-in confirmation e-mail" a few days or a week after the event took place.


6. Submit your newsletter to sites such as BestEzines.com. Use the URL of your newsletter page (see #3) versus your home page.


7. Submit your individual newsletter articles to free article directories such as EzineArticles.com, Ideamarketers.com, and ArticleDashboard.com. You can also try an automated online service like SubmitYourArticle.com. This is a great task to offload to your virtual assistant. When you submit articles to these sites, you'll not only increase traffic to your website but will also attract new subscribers for your mailing list and improve your website's ranking with the search engines.
   
8. Join a joint-venture opportunity. I joined two joint venture promotions in the last two weeks and even though June is only half over, my list has already grown like wildfire! To set up your own joint venture campaign or promotion, you can partner with others who offer complementary products and/or services, put together a web page of free offerings, and then promote it like crazy.

Growing your list takes time but the investment is well worth it as you begin your relationship with your subscribers.