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I have a blog that I decided to setup a newsletter and mailing list for and over the last year I have gotten my subscriber numbers to over 1000 subscribers without having to spend any money on advertising. I think this is pretty good even though I know others may be doing lots better.

So here is how I built my list so far

First I decided that there had to be a good reason to have people sign up and so I made a 21 day how to type list that made it a no brainer to sign up, this is often not the case though and maybe I need to pump up the offer a bit.

Now that I had a reason for people to sign up I needed info and a place to have them get the autoresponder and the newsletters from. I setup the autoresponder series with past articles from the blog and every few weeks now I just send the newsletter to all of the inactives, that is the people that are no longer getting those messages. I had a fear that people would receive two emails from me in a day and that is a bit much for anyone to receive.

Using Popups to Capture Email Addresses

Next I setup a signup form on my site. This got a few signups but I have experimented a lot over the last year and no matter what I do I can never get the same response from a form on the page as I do from a popup on the page. I have never had a complaint about the popups and I have not been able to correlate any reduction in pageviews to the popup but it is probably about 300-400% more effective then a signup form anywhere on the page. I am keeping my popup.

There are other ways to utilize popups and that is obviously to sell people something directly from the popup. I beleive that this is short sighted and very ineffective, look no one kows who you are so how good would that popup need to be to sell them something that they are immediately going to be distrustful of. No, I believe that once you have built some credibility in the minds of your readers then you will have a much better chance of selling them.

Intro and Monetization

As for monetizing my newsletter and autoresponder traffic I have not done much. One thing that I do with the first three messages that I send is offer nothing of salesmanship and everything of content. I want my readers to love my content and trust me more before I offer them something to buy.

I currently have a couple of messages where I mention and send people to one of two affiliate programs but not much more. This needs to be a higher priority but really I want to lower the churn and keep my people on my list and trusting me.

All My Traffic is Organic…So Far

I have relied on Google for all of my traffic and by putting up a blog post every day I have been steadily building my traffic, this of course has it’s drawbacks, I am sure with some pay per click or some banner ads I could get more traffic and thus more signups but I really would need to know how much a signup is worth. Here is a simple way to figure out the value of a signup to your newsltter over a year:

Average number on list Divided by total revenue over the year from list equals revenue per list member

This is accurate but there are a few variables that we can look at that would change this. I will link to that article after I write it.

Also I have not used any coregistration programs. At this point I have not paid for traffic at all and just try to optimize posts and write posts that would be interesting and keyword rich and let Google do the rest of the heavy lifting for me.

Conclusion on the list building process

This process has worked for me to get up to 10 signups a day and over the last year gain over 1000 people on my list without having to worry about losing people to my marketing message. The real feeling that I have about my list and listbuilding in general is that a list is a real asset, traffic on the other hand can come and go and is fleeting. If you are not good at capitalizing on your list you can always learn more and experiment. But start to build that list now.

I think it really goes without saying that a newsletter is a powerful marketing tool. Any promotions that you send to your customers and subscribers in the future will be that much more successful because with your newsletter you will have…

• established your credibility,
• developed a reputation as an industry expert,
• cultivated a relationship with your subscribers,
• inspired customer loyalty,
• and maintained regular contact.

Regularly give your subscribers useful or entertaining information that they will benefit from, and they will come to trust you, respect you, and buy from you.

Sounds great, right? But now you’re probably left wondering, “How do I get people to subscribe?” After all, you can write hundreds of newsletters, but if you only have a handful of subscribers, it can be a lot of work for little reward.

The big mistake I see a lot of e-business owners making is thinking that simply posting a “subscribe today” box on their web sites — and then forgetting about it — is going to attract subscribers by the thousands. Even if your web site is highly trafficked, this is going to produce disappointing results.

You need to be prepared to actively promote your newsletter, much the same way you would promote any other product or service online.

Step #1:    Promote Your Newsletter On Your Web Site!
Yes. Definitely promote your newsletter on your web site. But the keyword here is “promote.” How motivating is it for a visitor to give you his or her name and e-mail address when presented with a subscribe box titled, “Subscribe to my free newsletter”?

Why? Why should I subscribe? How will I benefit from subscribing? What am I going to get? Just because your newsletter is “free,” doesn’t mean I want it. There are plenty of free newsletters out there I could subscribe to. What makes yours different or special?

You really need to “sell” your free newsletter to potential subscribers. In one or two short, exciting sentences clearly state the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter. For example, if your web site was golf related, you might say something like, “Subscribe to the Free ‘Golf Tips’ Newsletter and receive monthly tips and advice from Pro Golfers. Improve your swing, hear about world renowned golf courses, learn which clubs the experts prefer, plus much more!”
It sounds a lot more interesting than “Subscribe to my free newsletter,” don’t you think? Visitors to your web site will think so, too!

The other tip I’d like to share is about where you should place your newsletter subscription box on your web site. First of all, don’t hide it. Your goal should be to make sure that everyone who visits your web site is offered the opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter at least once, if not twice.

Your newsletter subscription box should appear “above the fold” (i.e., it should be immediately visible on the first screen) of your homepage. This is where you’ll get the best response — and the most subscribers!

Step #2:    Offer Existing Customers A Subscription
Have you offered your existing customers a subscription to your newsletter? If you haven’t, you should e-mail them an offer like this as soon as possible! This is an easy way to get a flood of new subscriptions.

And be sure to add a subscription offer to your “thank you for ordering” page or e-mail. If someone is interested enough in your product or service to purchase it, you can be sure they’ll want to subscribe to your newsletter. Don’t miss this opportunity to maintain contact with existing customers!

If you’ve offered a free subscription to your customers but received a poor response, consider making things a little more interesting by offering them a “special gift” like a free article or eBook when they subscribe. This extra incentive should dramatically boost the number of new subscriptions you receive.

Step #3:     Promote Your Newsletter In Your E-mail Signatures
An electronic signature – also referred to as a “sig file” – is a three to six line footer that you can attach to the bottom of your e-mail messages and public forum postings. And it’s a prime spot to advertise your newsletter!

Unlike a lot of other blatant advertisements, a sig file is universally accepted, so take advantage of this perfect opportunity to plug your newsletter! Anyone who receives an e-mail from you will also receive your invitation to subscribe to your newsletter.

Chances are, if you’re e-mailing them, they already have a direct interest in your industry or niche, so take advantage of this and offer them a free subscription right at the bottom of any e-mail you send!

Step #4:    Ad Swap With Other Newsletters & E-zines
A great trick for increasing your subscriber base involves contacting other newsletters that relate to your target market and offering to swap ads with them. Tell the newsletter owners that you’ll promote their newsletter to your subscriber base if they’ll return the favor. This is a great way for both of you to increase your readership!

Subscribers will appreciate the recommendation of another source of quality information, and as long as the sites you swap with are complementary and not competitive, it’s not going to hurt your business at all.

Step #5:    Promote Your Newsletter In Newsgroups, Discussion Lists, and Forum Postings
Another good place to promote your newsletter and locate targeted potential subscribers is in newsgroups, discussion lists, and forums that relate directly to your industry or niche. Simply post a brief description of your newsletter and a link to your subscription page.

Step #6:    Offer Subscribers The Opportunity To Give Gift Subscriptions
Offer or announce “gift subscriptions” in your newsletter that encourage your current subscribers to send gift subscriptions to friends. You can automate your web site to send the gift subscription with a little blurb stating whom the gift is from and what they will be receiving (and the opportunity to unsubscribe, of course!).

A friend of mine has built most of his mailing list doing this alone. He went from 5,000 subscribers to over 16,000 subscribers in less than a year just using this one technique.

Step #7:     Renting Opt-in E-mail Lists
Renting e-mail addresses from third-party list providers is a route that some new newsletter owners choose because you are given quick access to a list of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have “opted” to receive e-mail on topics that interest them.

You can usually expect to be charged 5 to 20 cents per deliverable message, and you should expect any e-mail addresses that are “bad” or that “bounce” to be replaced by addresses that are current.

If you decide to use a service like this, it’s absolutely critical that you find out how the e-mail addresses were obtained. You want e-mail addresses that have been collected ethically and responsibly, and this means that you want the e-mail addresses of people who (a) are directly interested in your product, industry, or field of expertise, and (b) have given their permission and “opted-in” to the list.

Important Note: If you buy lists of e-mail addresses that have been “harvested” from newsgroups, classified ad sites, online services, etc., you’ll be accused of spamming! These people have NOT given you permission to contact them, and you can get into a LOT of trouble this way. Again, I can’t overstate the importance of making sure that the e-mail addresses you rent have been collected ethically and responsibly!

Buying or renting e-mail addresses this way can get very expensive, so you need to be sure that your entire sales process (i.e., your web site, your sales copy, your ordering system) has been tested and tweaked before you roll out an e-mail campaign like this in full force. Do some tests using a few thousand addresses and you should get a fairly accurate picture of how successful you’re going to be.

Final Thoughts:
Ultimately, your goal should be to develop a relationship with your subscribers through quality articles in your newsletter before you even consider trying to sell them anything. Give them quality information that they will benefit from to establish your credibility and develop a rapport with them.
Remember that the true value lies in the relationship that you develop with the person who owns the e-mail address… not in the e-mail address itself. It will be the relationship that you develop with your subscribers that will result in big sales both now and in the future — an important point to keep in mind no matter how many new subscribers you attract.

Email marketing is labeled as a killer method when it comes to effective low-cost Internet marketing endeavors. This is because it is the most widely-used and has the best reputation in bringing targeted traffic to websites. It is used to stay in touch with your customers or prospective customers, send out invitations, or make special offers.

It’s as easy as writing an e-mail that may be in a form of a newsletter or a plain announcement, and sending that to as many targeted recipients as possible. However, there’s an ideal way of going about it. Email marketing is not just about writing any email that you will be sending to anybody. To clarify that, here are some simple tips in doing email marketing the best way possible.

1. Join the “Can Spam” campaign.
Email marketing is not at any rate tantamount to spamming. You are not supposed to send information that your email list will not have any valuable use for.

2. Make your email list open it.
Your email might get lost together with the hundreds of emails that inbox owners are confronted with everyday. Improve your subject line by using extra white space creatively, adding text symbols, starting each word with a capital letter, asking compelling questions, not making any unbelievable claims, and not using the word FREE.

3. Keep it real.
Not including any too good to be true statements is not only applicable to your subject line. Your email content must never embody any promise your business can’t keep. Make your offer genuinely of value to your recipients.

4. Don’t go too low.
If you inform your customers regarding discounts, minimal discounts are not that effective compared with substantial discounts. But never offer discounts that are lower than your profit. It will defeat the purpose of this email marketing effort.

5. Make it eventful.
It’s not about contradicting the advice that you should keep an email short and sweet. This tip is on including seminars, conferences and other events in your email. Businesses that require training benefit much from this method. With these RSVP-requiring emails, repetition is important. Just make sure that an ample interval is considered before sending out a reminder email.

6. Post news.
Sending newsletters and postcards provides useful information for your subscribers. These are the best forms of reaching out to your customers or prospects. You should keep the information short, simple and direct to the point for this feat to be effective.

With these simple ways of going about your email marketing endeavor, your business will prosper in no time.

When you decide to have an opt-in list, it is not just a matter of sending your subscribers your promotional newsletters or catalogs. There are many things to consider in avoiding many complications. While there are so many ways you can make people subscribe to your list, there are also some things you must do to avoid subscribers from wanting to get off from your list.

Aside from that, you also want to avoid any problems with the law and your internet service provider or ISP. There are now many laws and rules that are applied to help protect the privacy of the internet users from spamming and unwanted mails. With the popularity of the electronic mail as a medium for marketing because of the low cost, many company’s have seized the opportunity and have flooded many people’s e-mail accounts with promotional mail.

But, with an opt-in list, you avoid this annoyance because people subscribe to the list; they want to receive the newsletters and promotional materials. They have consented to being on the list by subscribing themselves, just don’t forget to put an unsubscribe feature everytime in your opt-in list so that you avoid any confusion. There may be times when an email account was provided when the real owner didn’t want to subscribe.

It is essential that you keep your list clean and manageable. Arrange it by using the many tools and technologies available for your opt-in list. Do not worry; your investment in this marketing strategy is well worth it with all the coverage you will get which will likely be converted into sales then to profit.

Keep yourself and your business out of trouble and potential run-ins with the law and the internet service providers. Keep your operation legit and clean. Your reputation as a legitimate businessman and a legitimate site depends on your being a straight and true marketing strategist. As a tip, here are three things to avoid when emailing your list.

1) Take notice of your unsuccessful sends. These are the e-mails that bounce. Bounced emails, also known as undeliverable messages, are those messages that, for whatever reason, were not successfully received by the intended recipient.

There are bounces that happen or occur because the server was busy at that time but can still be delivered in another time. There are also bounces because the inbox of the recipient is full at that time. There are those bounce messages that are simply undeliverable ever. The reason for this is that it may be an invalid email address, a misspelled email address, or an email address that was abandoned and erased already.

Manage your list by putting markings on those that bounce. Erase an email account from your list so that you have an accurate statistics and records as to how many are actually receiving your mail. You may also want to check the spellings of your email addresses in your list. One common mistake is when an N instead of an M is placed in the .com area.

2) Always provide an unsubscribe feature in your site and an unsubscribe link in your mails. When someone in your list files a request to be unsubscribed, always take that request seriously. If you don’t take them off your list and keep sending them your e-mails, you are now sending them spam mail.

When you are reported as a spammer, you and your business can get into a lot of trouble. You can be reported to the authorities and maybe blacklisted by many internet service providers. You will lose a lot of subscribers this way and many more in potential subscribers.

3) Do not provide pornographic or shocking and disturbing content in your newsletters. It is hard to decipher the age of the recipient and many complaints may stem from these. Controversial issues also are to be avoided to not be branded by your subscribers. Stick to the nature of your site and business.

Always remember these tips in this article so that you can have a healthy relationship with your subscribers as well as be kept within the boundaries of what is allowed in sending mails to an opt-in list.