Day 6: How To Build An Email List | Start an Online Business in 7 Days

If there is anything online business owners are more obsessed with, I don’t know what it is because your list is like the holy grail of your business in the online world.

Why? Primarily because being able to reach out to a group of people who have already shown an interest in your product is the most powerful money making tool you have. And for that reason it’s one of the first things you need to establish in your online business.

To start building your mailing list, you’ll need a mailing list service. I use and recommend Aweber because it’s easy to use, and they have incredible deliverability rates. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll go with a cheaper alternative and change later. It’s a gigantic pain in the butt and very hard to do. No matter how enticing those offers of “free” services up to 1000 members are, don’t fall for it. Get started on the right foot so you don’t regret it.

Once you sign up for Aweber, follow the step-by-step directions on the site to sign up and create your first mailing list. You’ll also need to create a web form to place on your site – Aweber has lots of pre-made templates available.

Just grab the code they give you, and plug it into a “text” widget in your sidebar. Now whenever someone puts her name and address in the form, she’ll be signed up for your mailing list!

When it comes to contacting your list, you have two options. You can send autoresponder messages and broadcast messages. An autoresponder is a message that is automatically scheduled to go out at a pre-defined interval whenever someone joins your list. So message number one goes out on day one, and message number two might go out on day three. A broadcast, on the other hand, goes out on a specific day and time to whomever is on the list at that moment. People who join after the broadcast goes out will never see it.

If all this sounds confusing, don’t worry. I know it’s a lot to take in all at once, but Aweber has an extensive knowledge base and a great support staff, so don’t hesitate to contact them if you have questions or need help getting started. And I’ve included some links from their site to help you that process too.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a big caveat to this whole building a list thing, and that is, you can’t just create a web form that says, “Hey, join my mailing list.” Just because you’ve built it doesn’t mean they’ll come. You’ve got to give them a reason to want to hear from you. You’ve got to show them why you’re worth listening to. And one of the best ways to do this is by helping them giving them a partial solution to their PND (click here to read about your PND if you’re lost).

Some of the best ways to do this are:
•Free eBooks and special reports that solve a specific problem
•An email series that teaches them a skill or shares tips and techniques
•Am exclusive newsletter with content not found online
•A Q & A webinar about a topic they’re interested in
•Checklists, workbooks, or spreadsheets that help them be more efficient or make more money

Basically you want to ask, “What does your market need and want?” That’s where to begin brainstorming what you’ll offer them in exchange for their email address.

For more insight on building an e-mail list, check out the description section for these video or come on over to marleeward.com where I’ve listed links to several other articles that will help you understand how to build a list the right way. It’s really easy to get off on the wrong foot with list building so get it right the first time and check out that other content right away.