The reason why all the well-known Internet marketers out there consistently make six, seven, even eight figures per year is because they all have highly responsive and really big email lists. Every single person on their lists has given their consent for these marketers to send them information and special offers. Having a solid list building system in place is what allows some people to make a few hundred or thousand dollars per email broadcast that they send and to not have to worry about the number of people who unsubscribe due to the bigger numbers that they’re bringing in.

If you don’t have a list yet, then do what everyone is telling you to do and start building one. The watered down version of list building is to offer something of value for free in return for a prospect’s name and email address. Then, once they’ve give you their contact information, you now have permission to market to them over and over again. Rinse and repeat, right?

Well, list building isn’t just about the size of one’s list. Sure, if you have a list numbering in the tens of thousands, it opens up many doors for you, but size alone won’t make you money. For instance, if, on average, only one out of every two hundred people on your list read your emails, then you’d obviously not be making much money from them. No, list building is about more than just size: it’s about your relationship with your subscribers, which affects their responsiveness levels.

The most common form of list building involves offering a gift for free in return for names and email addresses. In this case, you should set the tone and a good impression right from the beginning by offering a high value product for free. Right away, your new subscriber will be impressed and will think of you as an expert. However, what you’re doing here is building a list of people who have proven themselves to be mild action takers who are also interested in getting more information from you. What you probably haven’t done yet is make any money off of them yet.

Conditioning a list of subscribers who have never bought anything from you to become serial buyers of your products while still maintaining a strong relationship with them can be tricky. The topic of list relationship is a whole new subject that entire e-books could be written on, so we won’t go into much detail here.

However, one way to get around that is to build a list of buyers right from the get go. When going through the purchasing process, customers are usually required to submit their names and email addresses. If they’re not, then you should consider sticking an opt-in form on your download page so that customers have the option of signing up to your list. A list of buyers is much more valuable than a list of “unproven” potential buyers because people who have already bought a product from you are much more likely to buy from you again.

No matter what method of list building you choose, choose one quickly and get started right away, because contact lists are a marketer’s greatest asset and you’ll be sorry you didn’t get started sooner.