How do I build my email list?

As an Affiliate marketer, if you can build an engaged audience, you’re well on your way to being an effective player in the internet marketing game. Even if your audience is small, if readers or viewers genuinely resonate with your content they will enter into the buyers journey of knowing, liking and trusting – which is how you convert web traffic into meaningful customers. Email for a long time has been one of the best ways to reach out to people that are engaged in your audience.

Which brings us to the all-important question – how do you build that email list? Well, basically you need to offer value in return for that all important email address. You need to have something that is of genuine importance to your target market to attract their interest. For example, if you are promoting products that involve, say, online trading of shares, you may offer a free info product that describes how to master Fibonacci analysis of share trading charts, or maybe access to a spreadsheet that automatically calculates their profit and loss each day for day trading. It needs to be something that absolutely provides something they need, but is not too big such that it takes forever for you to produce.

If your content is already receiving some traffic, whether it be to a website, a youtube or vimeo, or a basic landing page, there’s no time like now to start doing this. Most successful affiliate and internet marketers cite their email list as one of the most profitable and successful parts of their business, and also state they wish they had started their list sooner.

Apart from having an engaged audience, an email list has several factors that make it an irresistible plus for any affiliate or internet marketer. One of these is the simple fact that once you have collected someone’s email, the cost in sending them out and engaging them with content is negligible. It’s as simple as writing a great email, pressing ‘send’ and either directing them back to your own content or to someone else’s offer. Costs are fairly minimal and usually the maintenance fee of an appropriate Autoresponder the only certain charge.

Just be a bit careful about about which Autoresponder (email marketing platform) you choose. This article lays out why use of one of the industries’ leading providers requires some vetting before being used for Affiliate or Internet marketing. Some platforms are friendly to affiliate marketing, others not – it’s worth checking the facts before losing your all-important mailing list. If you choose the wrong autoresponder, you run the risk of losing your email list, no questions asked or replied to, if you breach the terms of service of your chosen email marketing platform.

So, in summary, if you have traffic (or even if you are just starting out) now is the time to start building that list. You need to offer value in some form in exchange for a potential customer or audience members email details, and you can then keep them engaged through a series of carefully cultivated emails.