List Building Part 1

Step-By-Step List Building - Part 1

Researched & Written by Karen Barnes

Q: I have read and heard quite a bit about needing an email list; how do I go about building one?

A: The first step in building your list is getting subscribers to add themselves to your opt-in mailing form on your Website.

There are two main ways to do this:

You can ask your prospects to send you an email requesting to be added to your list, OR


You can place a form on your Website for your prospects to fill out opting themselves into your list so that you can contact them later.
The most common and preferred way is to use a form on your Website. Using an opt-in form will be covered the most in this article.

For those of you who are new to using opt-in forms, here is a list of how opt-in forms work:

While someone is reading the content on your page on how to go about receiving your free information or offer, they will type in their name and e-mail address to receive it.


Then their information that you require will be added to your email list software and they will be sent a confirmation email stating that they have been added to your list for the information they requested.


Then they click the confirmation link that is sent to them stating that they are wanting to be added to your list. This last step enables them to start receiving your emails. This method is referred to as “double opt in” because the prospect has to indicate TWICE that he wants to get your information—once when he fills in the form and the second time when he responds to the confirmation e-mail.
Although this sounds like an easy project to do, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. This does take a bit of work for you to gain the prospect’s attention to actually sign up for the information that you are going to share with them. Not everyone is going to fill out your form. Don’t worry—there will still be those who want your information.

Free offers are good ways to get people to opt-in to your list. Let’s get into a few ideas of some things that you can offer your prospects:

Free e-courses on topics that you know something about. The course should tie into a product or service that you are promoting on your site. Let’s say you are promoting a cookbook, your e-course could be about helpful cooking tips. By having a form on your site, you then will be able to target your subscribers.


Free e-books are also great give-away incentive items. E-books on topics that help the prospect solve a problem or make more money are two great e-books topics that people would pay good money for, so giving it to them for free adds value to your offer.


Access to a money making opportunity is another great way to gain subscribers to your list. Even when a free introduction to a product or service or resell rights to a product such as an e-book requires them to eventually make a payment, it can still be a great offer if it gives them the chance to make money.
Now that you have your item that you are going to give away, you will need to think about your Web page for gathering your subscribers and start advertising it. This is also known as a capture or a splash page. These pages are built solely for the purpose of list building. You will need a powerful attention-grabbing headline, an eye-catching graphic, and sharp attention-grabbing content to gain your subscribers’ attention so they will sign up to your list.

There are several ways to use your capture page:

Pop-under windows that catch people leaving the site.


Pop-up windows that catch people as the come to the site.


Stand alone pages that have no kind of pop ups attached to themwhich many marketers prefer because pop-ups are unpopular and often blocked. There is a capture form in the right hand side of the page.


Driving traffic straight to your capture page should be your first priority for gaining subscribers to your list. Without a large list, you won’t make money very fast.
To build your own lead capture page, you will need to publish your Website to the Web. You will need a Web host and a domain name as well. Do some research on domain names and Web hosts. The more professional your page looks, the higher chance you will have of gaining more traffic and subscribers to your list.

In the next Marketing Tidbits, autoresponders and traffic generation will be discussed