1. Choose your list topic carefully.

You must have a topic for your list. And if you want to make money
you need a topic that will be profitable. Your TOPIC is crucial to the
success of your list venture.

Perhaps your topic is a given, as it would be if you already have a sales
web site in place, or an online store.

But if you are starting from scratch, picking a profitable niche topic
is of the utmost importance to your success.

Consider these quick shortcuts to picking a profitable niche topic:

A. More than $20 per hundred clicks at Commission Junction.

http://cj.com

B. High gravity and popularity at ClickBank.

http://clickbank.com

C. High Adwords bids. Use the tool at iotaweb.

http://iotaweb.org

D. eBay Pulse

http://pulse.ebay.com

E. Google trends direction up.

http://google.com/trends

F. Searched for topic. Use the free Wordtracker tool.

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

This is perhaps the most important part of topic selection:

* Is your topic something you already know about?
* Is it a subject you are passionate about?
* Will it be easy for you to spend a lot of time on the topic?
* Can you imagine yourself becoming an expert in the topic?
* Are you an expert already?

If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, you’re lucky,
because your work on the topic will seem like play.

And I don’t care about all the “get rich quick miracle claims” you read, there is W-O-R-K
involved in the list building process.

2. Your Mission Statement

Start with a mission statement for your list, and put your Mission

Statement in writing. Write down at least 3 key bullet points which
tie into your list Mission Statement. Use those bullets to differentiate

your list in the marketplace.

Then list your subscribers’ benefits for each of those bullet points.

You can think of the bullet points as the “reasons why” a potential
subscriber would want to be on your list.

You can think of your benefits as the answer to the “what’s in
it for me” train of thought that is going through the mind of
every potential subscriber.

Don’t skip this important step. It is crucial to have a mission so
that you don’t stray from what got you subscribers in the first
place. Always stay true to your Mission Statement to keep your

efforts on track.

3. Use a subscriber bonus (ethical bribe.)

Unless the general public is clamoring to be on your list, you are
generally going to need an incentive, over and above the benefits
for joining your list that you developed in the previous step.

This will be additional motivation for potential subscribers to join.

Possibilities for your subscriber bonus include:

* Subscriber-only discount or coupon,

* Subscriber-only buying club or exclusive membership site.

* Mini course or “white paper,” delivered by email or pdf.

* Downloadables such as a reports or eBooks, audio MP3s,

Videos, or software products.

Use your creativity for a unique bonus item targeted to your List
Mission and benefits. Do I have to say it must be on your topic?

Here is the thing many miss: your subscriber bonus must be something
that anyone remotely interested in your list topic would like to have.
It should be something that they would be glad to pay good money for.

The ideal subscriber bonus is something they can only get from you,
by joining your list. You should be able to put a real dollar amount on

the value of the item, not an inflated value, but what it or something
just like it sells for in the real or virtual world.

We’re talking really over-delivering on the bonus.

4. Use a professionally hosted Autoresponder service.

This is crucial to your success with list marketing.

Such a service takes the big workload off you for email delivery issues,
SPAM complaints, server glitches etc.

Your Autoresponder service should allow you to send pre-loaded,

Scheduled sequential autoreponder messages, as well as one time
broadcasts. It should also allow you to schedule your broadcasts.

Here the current “big three” hosted Autoresponder companies.

http://www.aweber.com

http://www.getresponse

http://www.emailaces.com

My favorite is Aweber. I’ve noticed that many marketers have switched
their lists from self hosted or “swiss army knife” ecommerce solutions to

Aweber. There’s a reason for this. Switching providers is a pain, and you

will lose subscribers in the process. So start out right.

Don’t even think about using a free service….

5. Use a forced opt in page to increase subscribers
AND profits..

You’ve experienced an opt in page, also called a squeeze page, if you
ever went to a web page that asked for your name and email address
before you could access the information you were looking for. Even
the New York Times does this.

In its purest form, an opt in page is a mini sales letter with only one
function - get the viewer to fill in the form and join the list. There
should be no other purpose or way off the page. Prospects have to
either fill in the information or leave.

The essentials of an opt in page are:

· headline,

· bullet points,

· ethical bribe,

· call to action,

· subscribe form,

· “no spam” disclaimer.

You’ll often find audio or video on optin pages, but my advice is to start

with the basics above and then add the audio or video while tracking your
subscribe conversion rate.

Your bullet points can be your list benefits from Tip 2. Your subscribe
bonus can be included on the optin page with just a simple cover graphic
or product shot and a sales pitch for it in the bullets.

Then, add the call to action, the subscribe form, and voila - opt in page!

Your autoresponder host will provide a form designer for your optin
pages. I use mine just for the code for the signup box and then design
the rest of the page in Nvu or Dreamweaver etc, adding the subscribe box into
a table on the html opt in page I designed.

Your autoresponder host may have the ability for you to generate the

entire opt in page, and you can do it that way if it works for you.

Aweber’s form designer will output the proper code to include in your
optin form or page in either html or javascript. I make all of my sign up
forms in the Aweber control panel.

I’ve run across several programs for making optin pages. But it’s a
simple page to make, and the free NVu html editor makes designing
one a snap.

http://www.nvu.com

A big hint here, think about having multiple opt in pages targeted to

your different traffic sources.

6. After they opt in, tell them what to do.

You need to explain to your new subscriber exactly what your list
signup process is, so they know exactly what they need to do to
complete the list signup process.

This is usually done on the page they are redirected to after they click
the “submit” button on your list signup form, often called a “thank you”
page.

You should give them instructions on who and where your emails will
come from, ask them to whitelist your email address, to check their bulk
or spam folder for your confirmation email.

Tell them to click on that email to actually join your list and get their bonus….basically whatever
you can think of to explain to make your signup process clear.

You’ll get more CONFIRMED optins by doing this.