Newbie Guide to List Building

Building a list of subscribers using autoresponder software is the real secret to affiliate marketing. The top people in the internet marketing world continue to tell us that the ?money is in the list? and they are right. Once you have a list of prospective buyers to mail to, you can sell to them many times over. Once you have your mailing list, the rest is easy.

The biggest mistake that newbies make is trying the ?direct sell? approach with the generic affiliate website pages that the affiliate company provides for them. It is possible to get people to purchase from you but the response rate is actually very low. Especially as a lot of these emails tend to be scams that blind you with hype and cheat you out of your money.

Each time someone checks their email they are bombarded with messages trying to sell them something. People are so sick of receiving hundreds of email like this they tend to delete them without even looking at them. Most people follow a regular routine of scanning the subject lines and senders and only keeping the mail they are interested in.

BUILDING A LIST

In order to be successful in affiliate marketing you need to build a list of people who will actually read your email. To do this you need to ?brand yourself? which involves promoting yourself rather than your product. Once people know more about you they will start to trust you, meaning that they are more likely to buy from you than anyone else littering their inbox.

Building a mailing list simply involves collecting a list of the names and email addresses of people who are interested in a particular subject and providing them with information. If you concentrate on offering quality information rather than directly trying to sell your products then people will start to take more notice of you.

The most important thing to remember is that people are not actually looking for a product. They have a question and are looking for an answer to it. So your main focus is to communicate with them and help them find the answer they desire. To do this you need to ask them questions and then provide them with answers rather than directly offer them your product. Focus on building that trust first.

Here is a typical example. Someone wants to lose weight. They have tried different methods to fight the flab but got nowhere. They go online to search for an answer and get bombarded with hundreds of people offering to sell them some ?miracle? juice or tablet that will ?guarantee? to help them lose weight within a few short weeks.

What should that person do? Plough through all the hundreds of weight loss products in the hope they find one that lives up to its promises? If they did that they would certainly be losing pounds in money and not in weight. They may even give up trying before they get to you.

Therefore it is in your best interest to build that person?s trust in you to provide them with the solution to their problem. Get them on your list and communicate with them. Convince them that they should listen to you because you have the answers they seek. Don?t try to sell them a product yet. Offer them some free information first.

Compare these two statements below. The first one is the typical hyped up waffle that we see all the time.

?Trying to lose weight? New miracle product GUARANTEES instant weight loss within 2-3 weeks. Buy now and get your first order half price.?

There are hundreds of adverts like this all over the Internet. All promising guaranteed results within a short time for a low introductory price to reel in the buyers. Now look at this next statement which is asking a question and providing an answer.

?Are you having problems losing weight? I know how you feel and I want to help you. Enter your email address below and I?ll send you a free report with some helpful tips I personally use to fight the flab.?

This statement is more likely to get a response. A free report containing possible answers to this person?s weight loss problem. No product, just free information. Nothing to lose. So you send them the product and you have their name and email address. Now you can start promoting yourself and lead up to the sale of your product.

Once you have people on your list you can contain to email them with free information and offer to answer any questions they may have. After a while you can start to promote your product to your list. However I recommend you don?t use hype. Speak to your prospects as you would speak to your friends. Here is an example letter.

Hi (Prospect Name),

As you know I have been sending you some great tips on losing weight and I hope you have gained from them. But sometimes it?s great to have a little extra help to lose that weight a little quicker.

As you know from my previous emails I have been looking for other ways to lose weight to make life easier. So I got searching and I found this product called ?Lose-it Juice?. So I ordered some to try it out and I am pleased to say it works great. If you are interested in more information then click below to check out their site.

URL HERE

Another way of promoting your product is by writing a review. Try the product yourself and give your honest opinion. Don?t be tempted to hype things up to get more sales. Remember that you are promoting yourself as an honest person in order to build trust and respect.

USING AN AUTORESPONDER

There are many free List Builder websites on the Internet that will allow you to build a list and send mail to them. But you would be much better off using an autoresponder tool such as Get Response, Aweber or Trafficwave.

These tools allow you to capture a prospect?s details and send a series of pre-written emails to them. All you need to do is write the emails, load them into the autoresponder, set a delivery date for each email then do nothing else but promote your capture page.

Using an autoresponder you can set up unlimited campaigns. Each campaign can store and deliver its own set of letters on any given subject. You could set up five letters to be sent to each person who subscribes to your list. The first letter would be the welcome letter offering a free report and the remaining four letters could focus on communicating with the prospect and offering them more tips.

So in general, build a list using an autoresponder, set up some letters and put your whole business on autopilot. Spend some time looking for articles and products on your chosen subject and send the information to your list of subscribers. This way you have a way of generating guaranteed income each time you have a new product to promote.

Keep in regular contact with your list by offering them free stuff. Maybe a link to a good article you?ve just read or some free software you?ve found that you think might benefit your subscriptions. Keep your mailing regular and provide good quality content to your subscribers. This way they look forward to your emails and are more likely to buy from you.

Building a list allows you to sell to your list over and over again as I sent before. But don?t make most of your mails with stuff for sale. Keep a nice mix of free tips, articles and software in their so your prospects will believe you are genuinely interested in their needs.

OFFERING DEALS

A great way of getting a sale from your list is to offer them something at a discount if they buy within a short time period. Many marketers offer their new product at a much lower price as an exclusive deal to their subscribers and state that they have to pay full price if they wait too long. People love a bargain which is the reason that ?One Time Offers? are so popular.

FREE GIVEAWAYS

There are plenty of sites on the Internet that offer free giveaways of e-books and software. They can be a useful source if you want to give a gift to your list. You can also promise to give them to new subscribers as an incentive to subscribe to your list.

For more information on this subject check out my free guide ? the Complete Newbie Guide to Using Autoresponders