You need a list. That’s a given. This is the most important factor in your long-term success. Because you can market to your list whenever you want. It’s like a renewable resource that allows you to make money on demand.

OK, but how?

Here are the three components of list building:

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

Your Opt-in Page – The landing page is the page that has your opt-in form on it. It’s the page where you ask them for their email address. This page needs to look professional. And have an easy to understand opt-in form. 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. You opt-in rates will take a dramatic nose dive without it. The funny thing is that people just don’t know what to do unless you tell them.

If you want to add some extra juice to your opt-in page add a video to it. Adding video will help keep your visitors attention. 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. You can also find ready-made list building tools that have everything pre-built for you.

The Incentive – The second component is the reason they are opting into your list. People won’t give you their email for nothing. Email privacy is very important to most people. So make your “bribe” a good one!

The only way to make this work is to provide real value. It has to be something that people actually want. And can benefit from. It could be:

• An eBook
• Some useful software
• Training videos
• An email training series

You’ve got to create some great 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. You can just pay someone else to make it for you. Just give them a topic and they will write the content. One easy and effective bribe is a 5-part email training series. 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 critical aspects of using a follow up series. First, it must provide value to your subscribers. It also has to generate revenue for you! 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 make money right away from your list.

The Thank You Page – The last bit is the thank you page. This is where your visitor goes after opting into your list. It’s a great idea to give them some valuable information right on the thank you page. That way, they feel glad that they gave you their email address. It also sets the foundation for your relationship with them. So when they get your email, they’re happy to hear from you.

You can use a “done for you” email marketing system. Or you can do it yourself. And do your own writing for this content. Or hire ghost writers to write them for you.

Summing it up

It doesn’t matter if you do all of this yourself. Or if you hire people to do this for you. Or if sign up for a “complete package” solution. The important thing is that you build your own list starting now. Because as soon as you’ve got your own list . . . You’ve got a license to print money!

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