Tips on building an opt-in mailing list

Since I’ve been building my own list lately, it felt like a good time to share some tips I’ve gathered on list building. One of the most powerful tools you can have if you’re an internet marketer is an opt-in mailing list. An opt-in list is a database of people’s names and email addresses that they’ve provided to you on a web form, giving you permission to contact them by email periodically with news, offers, or helpful tips on a particular subject that they’re interested in. This type of “permission-based” list building is the foundation for the most successful and profitable internet businesses.

List building DO’s

• Put a subscription form prominently on your website to collect people’s information.
• Be clear on how people can benefit from subscribing and how often you will contact them. Make sure they know exactly what they’ll be receiving.
• Program your autoresponder to send a welcome note as soon as people subscribe, thanking them for subscribing and telling them again what they can expect.
• Only broadcast emails to your list that are related to the topic that you advertised at the time they subscribed. Sending emails that are not related is a form of spam.

List building DON’Ts

• Don’t add everyone that has ever emailed you to your list. Always be certain that you have their permission.
• Don’t abuse the trust of your subscriber. It means a lot when someone gives you their email address… abusing your subscribers will ruin your brand and may get you into trouble.
• Don’t send more messages than your subscribers can handle. People in todays world already suffer from information overload… if they can’t keep up with your messages, they’ll probably unsubscribe. Or even worse, they’ll condition themselves to ignore you, leaving you with a cold, unresponsive list.