As you read every word of this article, you'll be stunned by how quickly and easily you can build a massive list of opt-in subscribers without spending a fortune. (The idea is to make money, not spend money. Right?)
I'll get right to the point...
It can be a real pain in the butt trying to build an opt-in list using the "old school" methods of list building that every Internet marketing guru out there is teaching these days.
They tell you... "Use pop ups and pop unders, delayed pops, and exit pops", "Put a subscription box on every page of your website", "Use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search engines to drive traffic to your opt-in page", etc. etc. etc.
Those methods are OK, in my opinion. If you're using them now and they are effective for you, continue using them. If you're not, I'd suggest that you at least experiment with them to see if they work for your situation.
THE BIG PROBLEM IS THIS...
The two biggest problems you'll face using the "old school" methods are... either it takes way too much of YOUR TIME or it costs way too much of YOUR MONEY to build a list of any respectable size.
(In the BizOp, MLM, and Internet marketing arenas, many potential joint venture partners won't even talk to you unless your list has at least 50,000 - 100,000 subscribers.)
WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?
Very simple...
Instead of waiting for customers to come to you (which you have to do even with PPC search engines)...
You can BUY subscribers.
That's right! There are companies out there that will sell you the names and email addresses of people that have REQUESTED information about business opportunities.
WARNING: NOT ALL LEAD SOURCES ARE CREATED EQUAL
There are 8 things you want to look for from any lead/subscriber source.
Here they are:
1. 100% Opt-In: You want to buy the contact information of people that have actively requested more information. There are various methods of capturing contact information. Some leads sources sell you names that came from CD-ROM that has 12 million names on it. Some lead sources pre-check the subscription box, so many of their leads didn't know that they were going to be sent any information from you. You want to make sure that all the names you buy have explicitly requested the information that you are going to send them.
2. Targeted: You want Business Opportunity Seekers ONLY! What good is it if the names you buy really just wanted to be on someone's joke list or recipe newsletter? I'll tell you... Absolutely NOTHING! Actually, less than nothing if you get a lot of SPAM complaints and your ISP bans you from sending emails or your email addresses ends up on blacklists all throughout the Internet.
3. Only "Fresh" Leads: Plain and simple... The older the list, the less responsive it will be to your offer. As time goes by, people become less and less interested in what they requested information on. The more time between their initial request and your first contact, the easier it is for them to forget that they even requested information. My personal recommendation is that you never buy leads that are over 30 days old, unless you can get them at a steep discount.
4. Quick Turn-around: You don't want to wait months for your leads source to fulfill your order. Many smaller sites aren’t able to keep up with the demand for leads so you could be waiting months if your order is large. You want a source that can fulfill large orders in a timely basis. Time really is money... especially when someone has yours, and you're left waiting months for your list.
5. Accessible & Effective Support: You want to be able to ask a question any time, day or night, and get a fast, courteous, and most importantly, effective solution to your concern. With some companies, you send them an email and it takes them days to get back to you, if they reply at all. And, speaking bluntly, many of them use incompetent people for their support because they're only after a quick buck. Their motto, "Grab the money and run... They should be able to figure it out."
6. CAN-SPAM Compliant: If you buy a list that has been harvested from websites, forums, newsgroups or any number of other places, you could get in serious trouble just for sending them your email. It's just not worth it! Please, only send your information and promotional material to people that want to hear from you.
7. Exclusivity: You don't want to compete for your leads attention any more than you have to. Spam filter, blacklist, and unexplainable Internet "glitches" cause email marketers enough grief. You want to know that your list is not going to be resold to a dozen or a hundred different marketers. My personal recommendation is that you NEVER purchase a lead that is sold to more than 5 marketers. The quality of response will be horrible if you're competing with that many people for your prospects' limited time and attention.
8. Alternate Means Of Communication: If you can get them, you also want their home address and home telephone number. If you're really serious about promoting your opportunity, you should be communicating with your prospects with more than just email. Postcards and short phone calls/message have be proven to increase response to almost any offer -especially offers where people are naturally skeptical at the outset.
BTW, some websites (I won't name any names.) make it sound like they're doing you a favor by "giving you their name at no additional cost". Give me a break! Names are MANDITORY!
ACTION STEP:Now that you have the criteria, you should evaluate your current lead sources and check out a few new ones.
