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Eight Basic Opt-in List Building
Techniques To Grow Your Business
© Copyright 2002, Joe Reinbold
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.
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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:
mailto:ezinedirectories@123response.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.
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Joe Reinbold, owner of The Entrepreneur's Home Business
Link publishes a free weekly email newsletter dedicated to
assisting online marketers and home businesses. For a free
subscription just mailto:subscribe@homebizlink.com
or visit
his site at http://www.homebizlink.com/newslt.htm
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