The Money Is in the List. It's a Common Expression, But What Does It Mean?

It means that if you have a list of qualified customers, you can sell them many offers over time, and quite possibly for years to come. In the hands of an experienced marketer, such a list could be worth millions (or even more).

Having a responsive email list could change your financial destiny forever.

?But How Do You Get Started?

The first step is to create a mind map.

Here’s how it works. You get a sheet of paper and draw a small circle in the center and write down your name. Next, you draw six lines radiating outward from the center. After that, let you mind come up with ideas. Write each one at the top of each line. If you have similar ideas, you can stack them and if you have more topic ideas, add as many lines as necessary. The process takes only minutes.

Once you're done, pick the top three ideas and rank them in order of importance. You're going to use those for the next phase of your research, to see how well those items are selling on Udemy and Amazon. Assuming the product/service you picked is selling well (with, preferably, thousands of reviews), it will be a good candidate for building a list.

Here's an example. Digital photography on Udemy.

As you can see by the number of reviews and stars. This is a good item for list building.

Once you pick a product/service, you have two options, to become an affiliate of an existing product/service, or to create your own product/service.

?Option 1: Become an Affiliate

If you become an affiliate, you gain a commission on an existing product or service. The single biggest downside is finding a product which pays a decent commission. That said, at this stage of the game, commission is not the most important consideration.

Why?

Because you are building a list. Even if the prospects don't buy the affiliate offer, you will get their names on a list and from there, you can find better affiliate products (which pay a higher commission) or create your own, which will offer a higher rate of return.

Your task is to find an offer, then build a lead magnet an opt-in page and following that, an email series to market various products and services to your list.

Before you can do that, you need to sign up for some affiliate networks.

Some examples are Rakuten Advertising, Shareasale, JvZoo, Clickbank, or Warrior+

?The Number One Mistake Affiliate Marketers Make

One major mistake made by many affiliate marketers is to drive traffic directly to an offer. Here's why. If the prospect doesn't buy, you lose that prospect forever. Not only that, but the email address also gets captured by the product creator. You get nothing and you must start all over.

This is a great recipe for going broke.

Here's how to fix it.?

You create an offer, based on the product you represent, you create an opt-in page and drive traffic to that offer. When people sign up, you give them your offer. After that, you redirect them to the affiliate offer.

Do you see what happened here?

By creating an offer of your own, you get the prospect to sign up for your list. By doing so, even if the prospect doesn't buy, you still have them on a list and can send them many offers over time.

That's how you build your business. Do it right, and you could make a fortune.

Option 2: Create Your Own Product

The second option is to create your own product or service. If it’s a product, that could be a book, video, or course. You will learn how to do all three here.

?The main downside is the time it takes to create a product. The simplest, fastest way to overcome that problem is to use PLR (Private Label Rights). This is a product you buy which you repurpose and brand as your own.

?The Importance of Driving Traffic

Once you’ve solved the idea of what to sell, you need to get eyeballs on your offering, sometimes known as driving traffic. Here are three ways to drive traffic, by content creation, paid advertising, or joint ventures.

?Before You Get Started, Here Are Some Things You Must Know

If you don't have much money, your best bet is to make guest posts to blogs which match your niche.

The number one caveat is this - it can take time to build an audience, from 2-3 months or even longer.

Why?

Because you need to build trust. Over time, as more and more people see your posts, the more likely they will be to sign up for your list.

If you choose this approach, here are several things you need to watch out for. Look for high traffic blogs with A LOT of shares. Engagement is very important.

Also, it's essential to look for blogs which allow you to place a link in your article below the fold (below the viewing area on your monitor) AND you must be able to make use of an author's resource box, where you can make a pitch for your product/service and include a link.

If the blog does not allow for links or an author's resource box, don't write for them. You will be wasting your time.?

And while we're on the topic of links, DO NOT create a link to your domain. That's a huge mistake. Instead, you need to create a link to an existing offer, so you can build a list. That's the whole purpose of this approach.

?If You Use Facebook

If you use Facebook, the first thing to know is it doesn’t work well for list building, because in most cases, you cannot use a call to action or a link in your posts. If people like your content, they will reach out.

As with the methods above, it typically will take a month or more to build an audience. That said, if you hit on the right topic, you will get engagement quickly and, sometimes, a client. There have been times when I would make a post and get a client within two hours.

?Paid Advertising

Paid advertising, in the form of solo ads or Microsoft, Google, or LinkedIn ads is the fastest way to go. The main downside is once you stop paying for traffic, your marketing stops.

Based on what I have seen, the fastest, least expensive way to begin is by using solo ads. You would use these until you reach $10,000/month in revenue, then look for other options, such as Microsoft Ads or Google AdWords.

The downside is finding great ad providers who will treat you right. Fortunately, I have access to a list of trusted providers to get you started.

?Joint Ventures

Joint ventures are where you create a deal between yourself and a third party to sell your services. As an example, I did a joint venture between myself and the Corel Corporation. I wrote a software manual and branded it to their software. They used my book as a value-add to their software and paid me a flat fee every time they sold a software package. My manual was sent out to their list over a period of years, and I made money every time the offer went out.

I also had a call-to-action in my book. Every person who took advantage of that was given access to two hours of custom video tutorials. As a result, I was able to build a highly targeted list and sent out various offers.

Of the methods I used, Frank Kern's 4-Day Cash Machine created the best results. When I sent out the promotions, money appeared in my account as if by magic.

Note: While joint ventures can pay off handsomely, they often take a lot of work to set up.

?A Quick Recap

In this short report you’ve learned about the various list building methods, all designed to give you an overview of what to do. What was not listed are the various tools involved, such as hosting, domain names, websites, themes, nor what type of autoresponder to use. All of that will be in a future report.

Have I Piqued Your Curiosity? Do You Want to know how to build a profitable list of your own? Then sign up for a complimentary, 30-minute call where I answer all your questions. Here’s a link to sign up now. https://calendly.com/listbuilding