Eight Basic Opt-in List Building Techniques To Grow Your Business

There are many articles, ebooks and white papers written and
available on the Net that deal with building your own opt-in
mailing list and how it can help build your business. Here
are some first hand reflections on how I am building my
subscription base for my ezine, Home Income Quarterly E-dition.

I started with a personal list of associates and customers
that numbered about 350. As of today I have a subscriber
base of 11,000+. Actually my subscriber base is over 12,000
but I have always had the policy of maintaining a higher
base than I actually had. The primary reason I have this
policy is to insure that my paid advertisers receive what
they are paying for. Each time I do a mailing of an ezine
issue, there are always 200 to 400, sometimes more that are
undeliverable. This can be due to email systems or sites
being down, email boxes being to full or other reasons.

Here are some steps that I took and still use to build and
maintain my list.

1. Easy Sign Up Throughout Your Site

Post a subscribe link or box on every page of your site.
I have over 150 pages on my sites and I never know from
which page someone will enter the site. Having the link
or signup box on most pages will increase your chances
for new signups.

2. Create A Separate Ezine Page

Eventually I uploaded a separate page just for my ezine.
Check out my example at http://www.homebizlink.com/newslt.htm
This way I was able to put a signup box on some pages that
subscribed them by email directly, or I used a "Free
Newsletter" link that went to my ezine page above where
they see a good description of it, some comments from
subscribers and an offer of a free ebook about starting a
business on the Internet.

Another good reason to have a separate page for your ezine
is so you can submit it to the major search engines all by
itself with some specific and targeted keywords.

3. Give Away A Free Sign Up Bonus

Giving something away free is a good incentive to get
signups. It can be an ebook or special report that is geared
to the topic of your site and business. If you set up an
autoresponder or download page, you can make it all automatic
so that you don't have to keep sending the freebie out.

4. Signature Files

Another easy and free thing to do is to create a signature
file with your ezine information and subscription links
similar to the one at the end of this article. And you should
set your email software to send the signature file on every
email message you send out. Once people become subscribers
then you can start building a relationship with them and
offer your products and/or services.

5. Write Articles

If you can write articles, you have an excellent vehicle
to get additional subscribers. I write about one article a
month and send them out to over 300 ezines that have an
interest in my topics. The article is always picked up by a
certain percentage of the ezines immediately or for future
issues. Sometimes five or ten ezines pick it up immediately
and the circulation can total in the hundreds of thousands.

This is all free advertising since you have your little five
to eight line ad/bio at the end of the article. It is a great
way to build your subscriber base. In addition, if the ezine
you get published in archives your article to its web site
you get extended free advertising.

6. Ezine Directories

There are 1000's of free and paid directories where you can
list your ezine and get new subscribers. Do a search at
google.com for "ezine directories" and there will be enough
listings to keep you busy. I try to post at new ones whenever
I get a chance. You might want to keep a listing for yourself
of where you post so you can update the listing as your ezine
grows.

If you would like a list of some ezine directories, just
send a blank email to: ezinedirectories@123respond.com which
is one of my autoresponders and you will have it in a couple
of minutes.

7. Trade/Exchange Ads

Another good way to increase your subscriber base is to
trade/exchange ads with other newsletters. Once you have built
up several hundred subscribers, you can start trading ads with
other publishers.

8. Pay Per Subscriber

I have also used the pay for subscriber services a number of
times too, paying anywhere from 10 cents to 24 cents per
subscriber. Make sure that you are getting opt-in subscribers
rather than opt-out. These services are called co-registration
services where a person signs up for some free service or item
and can also signs up for ezines. The opt-out service signup
page has the check mark already in the box and a lot of people
signing up aren't aware or miss that they are also signing up
for the ezines. This can cause a lot of unsubscribes and
probably some nasty notes. I stick with opt-in which means that
the person has to check the box for the ezine they want to
subscribe to.

I am currently using a service which is double opt-in meaning
that they check the box and then receive a confirmation message
they have to return. Then I receive the name and email address.

Those are some of the basic techniques that you can use to
build your opt-in list. Your own list can be a goldmine for
your business. It allows you to keep in contact with present,
former or future customers. Building a list is an ongoing
process if you want to keep growing.