Posted on July 27, 2012 by Terry Telford

Building a prospect, subscriber or client list quickly -
is a rewarding experience. Since August, 2001, Ive built
lists that range from a few hundred highly targeted
prospects to lists of over 280,000 subscribers. In this
article, youll discover the secrets Ive used to quickly
build targeted, effective lists. At the end, youll get a
glimpse of an actual case study.

The basic principles of list building are pretty straight
forward.

- You need something of value to offer your prospects and
give them a reason to sign up to your list.

- You need to set up a form to capture your prospects
contact details and connect it to your autoresponder

- You need visitors to come to your website (Develop
traffic)

Basic Principle 1

Starting with the first basic principle, you need something
of value to offer your potential prospects.

You can offer

1. A newsletter

2. A product

3. A service

4. A special offer

Basic Principle 2

The second basic principle is setting up your lead capture
form. This is the box (form) on your website that your
prospects fill in with their contact details. As soon as
they press the send button, your autoresponder adds them to
your database and sends them your message. Presto, youre
starting to build your list.

Most autoresponders give you the HTML code for your form,
so you dont have to worry about any special programming.
All you have to do is cut and paste.

The details you can comfortably collect from a prospect
depends on your offer. If youre offering an online
newsletter, you only need your prospects first name and
email address. If youre sending them a CD by snail mail,
you can collect their postal address even phone and fax
numbers.

Quick Note:

Youll increase your response rate if you include the sign
up form at the top and bottom of your webpage as well as
use a popup / popunder or slide in box.

Once youve got the ground work done, youre ready to start
driving traffic to your website.

Basic Principle 3

Building your list is like building a city. You want to get
as many people into your city as possible, so you need to
build roads. You need an 8 lane highway and multiple
smaller roads to fill your city with people.

In list building terms, you need to focus on one main
technique to pull prospects into your list. You also want
to use secondary techniques to add to the momentum of your
traffic. The following list gives you the exact methods I
use to develop my lists. Choose one method as your main
focus and use the rest as your secondary traffic sources.

1. Advertise in print

Place advertising wherever your market is. Ask yourself
what you read personally, where do you get information?
Your market most likely does the same as you, so get in
front of them by using classified or display advertising
in:

a. magazines

b. trade journals

c. newspapers

d. direct mail

2. Advertise online

This is the least costly method of advertising. You can
reach a targeted audience through advertising in ezines,
online newsletters or pay per click services like Google
AdWords (TM).

3. Write articles

Writing articles gives you credibility. Write articles on a
regular basis and submit them to online and offline sources.
You should be submitting articles to the same sources youre
advertising with as well as all other publications you can
find in your market. Do a search on Google or your
favourite search engine for the keyword ezine directories
and youll find lists of potential places for your articles
and advertising.

4. Affiliate Program

One of the fastest ways to build your list exponentially is
to set up an affiliate program. Your affiliates will link to
your website, which means plenty of targeted traffic. This
helps your search engine rankings, which brings you more
traffic, which increases the number of affiliates you get
and helps you build your list at break neck speed. Its a
never-ending cycle.

5. Forums

Get involved in forums. When you post or answer a question
in a forum, youre generally allowed to have a signature
file attached to your post. Its just like the signature
file in your email. Your signature file should direct
people to your website where they can sign up for your
list.

6. Email signature file

The same as in forums, every email you send out should have
a signature file directing people to your website.

7. Joint Ventures

If youve got a unique, original product, a joint venture
may be an option for you. Contact some entrepreneurs who
have large lists and see if theyre interested in working
with you.

8. Referrals

This is very powerful. Include a referral or tell a
friend form on your website. This little form can help
build your list exponentially. When someone recommends your
site to a friend, that friend is most likely going to visit
and possibly tell another friend. And the snowball starts
rolling. Add this technique with an affiliate program and
youll soon have a nice fat, targeted list of prospects.

9. buy opt-in subscriptions

If you want to build a big list really fast, you can buy
opt-in subscribers for as low as a penny each from
https://www.tradebit.com. These leads have raised their
hand and said yes Im interested in receiving business
opportunity information. Theyve filled out a form and you
can contact them with your offers.

The upside of this process is you build a big list fast.

The downside is your list will be less responsive than one
you build on your own. It takes some time to cultivate a
relationship with these new subscribers, but if you send
them quality information, you can convert the list into an
asset for your business.

Regardless how you decide to build your list, the important
thing isyou build it. It will be your online companys
biggest asset and the easiest way for you to generate short
and long term sales. Your list is your companys lifeblood.
Start building today.

This mini report has been brought to you by Terry Telford.

Terry Telford helps ordinary people achieve extraordinary results on the internet. Discover how you can make your living online using one of his highly recommended business models. Terry Telford Blog