List Building - Getting People to Respond

You kept hearing about list building, but you never truly realized the power behind it, until you heard about someone's wild success with email marketing. So, you learn everything you think you need to know about email lists and you start list building. But you still haven't made dime one, though you followed the experts' advice to the letter. In fact, you're losing money. You're paying for an autoresponder and maybe even co-registration, and you aren't making enough money to pay that back. You're beginning to wonder, Why am I list building at all? What did I do wrong?

Maybe you didn't choose your niche carefully enough. It's a common mistake. You market in a niche that you're passionate about, but it also has to be a niche where people are actively searching for terms related to it online. Nobody shops for Porcupine leashes, no matter how much you love porcupines. But here's the thing... Even if you did the legwork to figure this out, having the right niche doesn't mean that the people on your list will instantly buy from you. You need to build a rapport with your audience. Here are three tips to help you get your list jump started:

1) Give the people on your list useful information or free products from your niche that help improve their lives or businesses, and they'll like you. Continue to do this over time, and they'll trust you. Writing articles and placing them in directories is another way to gain your list's trust. Articles tend to build your reputation as being expert in your niche, especially if they help to solve some problem. Join forums, too. You'll be better prepared to understand what people in your niche want, and if you stick around and answer questions in the forum, you'll boost your esteem in the niche even higher. Only after people on your list trust you, after you start building a reputation, will they starting spending money.

2) Be sure you sell products and services that people actually want. If you try to sell cat toys to dog owners, you won't sell many toys. Any product you offer should pertain to the niche you've been list building around, and you have to make sure they're great products. You need to buy them and try them yourself. If you sell a bad product to the people on your list, you'll lose a lot of credibility. Make sure that people are actively searching for the product, too. Make sure that people are typing "dog toys" into the search engines. If people don't want your product, you won't be able to sell it.

3) Make friends with people who already been list building and have big lists. Anyone who has spent time list building the right way and is making money with the list will have some good advice for you. After your list is grown, you can repay the favor by joint venturing. You promote for each other, making your friendship a real exchange. Smart marketers see that.

Smart marketers also know that you can make a million dollars overnight, when you've taken the time to build and develop a list of buyers. If the people on your list don't trust you, it can be totally enormous, and you still won't make next month's rent. Maintain the quality of your emails as your list grows, and be sure that the products you recommend are solid. If you can do that, your list will be the most important asset and list building the most important activity in your business for as long as you're online.

As CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., Tellman Knudson has become a list building ninja. Get his free list building CD, a month's membership in Tellman's List Building Club, and a one-hour consultation with an Overcome Everything list building expert when you visit http://listbuildingpower.net