Honestly, everyone making money online has an email list. It’s the one thing above all else that matters most. After it’s built, it’s yours to use any time you want. It’s like a renewable resource that allows you to make money on demand.

So, how do you build a list?

Here are the three components of list building:

  • The Squeeze Page
  • Your Bribe
  • The Thank You Page

The Squeeze Page – Your opt-in page is the page you send visitors to to build your list. It’s the page where you ask them for their email address. So, obviously it has to be well designed. It’s also got to be free from distractions. You’ve also got to make a strong “close”.

Failure to include a great “call to action” will result in failure. This “close” tells your visitors what you want them to do. Without this your opt-in rate will plummet. It’s strange, but if you don’t tell people what to do, they won’t do it.

One way to really spice up your squeeze page is to make it a video squeeze page. This will grab your visitors attention and keep it. Plus it give you a chance to tell them to opt in multiple times. And after the video, you can make it just say “fill in the form now”.

If you don’t know how to make video, don’t worry. Hiring out-sourced help to do it for you only costs $150 – $250. Or you can get email list tools that give you squeeze page templates.

The Incentive – Next, you’ve got to figure out what your bribe is. People won’t give you their email for nothing. Nobody likes spam, so most people guard their email closely. So you have to give them a good reason to do it.

The only way to make this work is to provide real value. That means you make it something people would actually want to receive. And can benefit from. For example:

  • A free report
  • A piece of software
  • Training videos
  • A multi-part email series

It all boils down to content. And make it both helpful and informative. And of course it has to be free. If you make it good enough, they will give you their email in exchange.

If you’re worried about creating this content, don’t be. Here again, you can hire freelancers to create this for you. Simply tell them what the topic is and they can write the content. For example, you could have them write a 5-part email course. Each email will cost between $20 and $25. So, you’ll get the whole series written for under $150.

There are also list building products that include the follow up email series. Two things to keep in mind when writing (or buying) and email training series. First of all it has to give the subscriber what you promised – valuable information. And second, it needs to make you money. Mixing some affiliate products into your email series is a great way to do this. This is such a simple solution because you don’t have to create the product. And you can earn some commissions immediately from your emails.

Your Confirmation Page – The “thank you” page is the final piece of the puzzle. After subscribing to your list, your visitor is redirected to this page. A great thing to do here is provide some immediate value. Then they feel good about giving you their email address. It also helps to build the relationship. It also makes them more likely to open your emails.

You can use a “done for you” email marketing system. Or you can go the DIY route. And do your own writing for this content. Or pay a freelancer to write the content for you.

Summary

It doesn’t matter if you do all of this yourself. Or hire someone else to do it for you. Or if you get a ready-done package. The key is to start building your list. Once you’ve got it built. You’ve got a license to print money!