As an Internet Marketer, building a list is absolutely vital to your overall success. This has been the case for as long as we have used the Internet, as a marketing tool. Having an opt in list, allows you to immediately contact your customers, when new products are available. It also allows you to continue to market products, later, which your list have not yet bought.

There are many ways to build an opt-in list, but there are also many mistakes, that can be made along the way. Here are some critical mistakes, that are too often made and some solutions, to avoid them.

A) Failure to build a relationship with your list. Many marketers fail to see the reasoning behind this. Building a list is one thing, but using it to your advantage is something completely different. You have got to keep in touch with your list. Mailings, at least once a week, are imperative. Twice weekly mailings, are much better. Daily mailings are best, but only if you have fresh content. Don’t send weak, boring mails, just because you have to. Once the list sees that you are not maintaining a high standard, they will soon unsubscribe. Relationship building goes a little further, in that you must answer questions, from your list and the mail you send to them, needs to be from a personal viewpoint and not solely an advertisement.

B) Failure to see that quality matters, over quantity. Having a big list is great, unless it’s totally unresponsive. When you build your list, remember that the number of list members you have, isn’t nearly as important, as their interest in your topic. A small list of very responsive people, will always do much better, than a large list, of mostly unresponsive people.

C) Failure to take advantage of list building opportunities. These days, it doesn’t take years, to build a healthy opt-in list. It can be done in a matter of a few weeks. You should follow all of the old techniques, but take advantage of the new techniques as well. Get involved in joint venture giveaways. Start doing some social networking. Use social bookmarks. Write articles and blogs. Try viral marketing. Try every method of building your list, in every way possible. You can’t make money until you have a good list.

D) Failure to use a good quality auto responder. This is another huge mistake, that people make every day. Auto responders of poor quality, do not deliver as well as they should. Many are automatically blocked, by spam filters, regardless of which words are used, in the message. Many don’t send the mails out, in a timely manner. Many malfunction and send out multiple mails, to each person on the list. Avoid these problems, by starting with a quality auto responder, from the very beginning. Your opt in list will thank you for it. Do not think, that you will develop your list first and then look at getting an auto responder. This piece of software, is where you should start off and is probably, the single most important investment, in your business.

E) Failure to catch a visitor’s address. This is a cardinal error. The whole internet marketing business is geared around a list. The single biggest task in your business is to capture names and e mail addresses. This is focal to your business. Never, ever have a visitor to your site and let them go, without getting the address. This is fatal. Use a signup form on all your pages. Use a gift, or a newsletter as a bribe if necessary, but get that address.

F) Failure to get exposure. If you are not prepared to try every single method possible, to get exposure, to distribute your links, to be recognized by the search engines, then you might as well give up right now. This is paramount to your success. You can’t make money without sales, you can’t make sales without a list, you can’t build a list without traffic and you can’t get traffic without exposure.

According to studies, the single biggest issue, for contemporary internet business marketers, is effective lead generation. Conversely, it has been pointed out, that 80 percent of marketing expenditures, on lead generation, are wasted, because the leads are lost, ignored, or discarded by the very same sales people, who need them. The eight critical factors for successful lead generation are:
     
A) Monetize and optimize your prospect database
B) Avoid lulls in the sales cycle
C) Create an ideal customer profile
D) Develop universal lead definition
E) Deploy multi-channel lead nurturing
F) Align sales and marketing efforts, to optimize the number of leads
G) Ready yourself for what’s next, new and promising tactics
H) Try, try, try, persevere and then try again

There are plenty of systems and plans on the market, all promising to build huge lists in no time. Two of the very best programs I have come across, actually do work. Check these products out and see how they can help you to build a great list, far quicker and without the pain of trying yourself. List Gold at http://dersalsites.com/listgold/   and List System at http://dersalsites.com/ls/   

Neither of these will let you down and you won’t believe the special prices being offered.

Derek Robson is an up and coming, South African internet marketer, with a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet. He and his wife Sally have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For daily postings and other articles on Internet marketing, South African business, listbuilding, law of attraction, rugby and general topics, check his blogsite, at: http://dersalsites.com/southafricanbusiness  

To remain informed of our progress, in trying to find satisfactory alternatives, by newsletter and mail and to get recommended tools and lessons and to start your journey to wealth, sign up here. It’s free. Click this link: http://www.dersalsites.com/newsletter/  We will even throw in some free software for you, when you join.

Make sure you get our course on Internet Marketing. This is a comprehensive course, comprising of over 243 pages, with pictures and videos, to help explain exactly what to do. This is a fantastic e-course and is broken into 13 lessons. To get your free course, click here  http://dersalsites.com/course/  

Sally has a passion for gardening. Visit her blog at http://dersalsites.com/sallysgardeningtips/  

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