Your email subscriber list is your most important asset as an online marketer. There is truth in the saying “The Money Is In The List”, however its important to know that not just any old email list would do.

Your main focus as an online marketer should be on building a list of “quality” subscribers – in other words, the people who come to your website and are interested in what you have to say. These “targeted” subscribers are the ones who will stay with you for a long time as long as you continue to give them VALUABLE information and products.

Building a targeted email subscriber list also helps in reducing your marketing costs and increase your traffic. For example, let’s say that you’ve found a valuable product that fits inline with your target audience, then all you need to do is (1) write a blog post/review about the product and (2) notify your subscribers about your blog post/review. Doing this will provide you with instant traffic and sales – at no marketing costs to you.

Now you can of course go to another list-owner and make a request to have your product featured in one of their mailings – but its always best to have your own list. So let’s look at some factors in creating your very own targeted email subscription list.

How Do You Start Building Your Own Email Subscription List?

As soon as you have your web site up and running, the first thing that you should do is to put up a subscription form in the most visible places on your site. Your goal is to collect email addresses. You can attract your visitors to subscribe to your newsletter by offering free information like a helpful article, report, or free ebook.

You can also offer a discount on your product if they sign up for your newsletter. The choice is yours – the most important factor is that you offer something of value to the visitor in exchange for their email address.

Why Opt-in Emails Are Most Important?

One of the factors of successful email marketing is in using the opt-in method. In other words, your email messages should have an “unsubscribe” link located at the bottom, so that your subscribers can stop receiving your messages when they want to by a simple click. If you don’t do this, your emails may be reported as spam.

You can increase your targeted subscriber list by using the double opt-in sign up method. That is, if someone subscribes to your newsletter, the e-mail is sent to their address. They would then have to answer the e-mail in order to be included in the list. The double opt-in method totally ensures that the subscriber is indeed interested in receiving your newsletter.

How Do You Keep In Contact With Your Subscribers?

Once you have collected a few emails, you have to decide how often you would broadcast your messages. You may send your messages daily, weekly, by-weekly or monthly. However, don’t exceed a monthly basis. Your subscribers should get a constant reminder that you’re still around to provide them with useful content – and not mistake your emails for spam.

Some list owners send out daily emails to their subscribers. If you intend to do this, then ensure that you are providing your subscribers with valuable free tips and advice about the topics related to your website. Your subscribers would be more receptive to free-daily-useful-content, than if you were to promote your product to them every day.

How To Send Personalized Messages?

If your messages start with “Dear Steve” or “Dear Susan” for example, it will “warm-up” your subscribers. People will be more receptive to information that you share with them when you personalize it. It also adds to your credibility and helps to increase your response rate. So send them personalized messages to increase connectivity with your readers.

Additional Email Marketing Tips.

One of the mistakes in email marketing is in using the “catch all email” feature. You must instead, use only the e-mail addresses that people have entered to receive your newsletter or ezine. Forget that “catch all email” stuff that comes with your web hosting package. If people didn’t subscribe to receive information from you, they wouldn’t read your e-mails – and you don’t want to be accused of spamming, which would put your reputation at risk.

When it comes time to promote your product, don’t be insistent – you should rather explain the benefits that your subscribers will get in a friendly fashion. Sometimes, you would get emails from list owners, that urge you to buy their stuff, almost demanding why you haven’t done it as yet. You don’t want to be like that – so be careful or it might hurt your credibility. Its all about showing respect to the subscribers on your list.

Well, now you know how to build your own subscriber list. Follow these suggestions and your success as an email marketer is guaranteed. Remember that you don’t need to get millions of subscribers – just a few thousand “targeted” subscribers can be a gold mine if used wisely.

Vahid Lancaster is a professional Internet Entrepreneur and has written multiple books in the fields of marketing, SEO and blogging. You can get tips and advice about all of these topics and more from the Vahid Lancaster Internet Marketing Blog

Vahid Lancaster is a professional Internet Entrepreneur and has written multiple books in the fields of internet marketing, SEO and blogging. You can get tips and advice about all of these topics and more from http://www.VahidLancaster.com

Author Bio: Vahid Lancaster is a professional Internet Entrepreneur and has written multiple books in the fields of marketing, SEO and blogging. You can get tips and advice about all of these topics and more from the Vahid Lancaster Internet Marketing Blog

Category: Internet
Keywords: internet marketing, list building, blogging, make money online