Module 3 of Dean Holland’s Quick Start Challenge is about email list building.

Once you get your blog set up and start to get visitors with the free traffic methods that Dean recommends in Module two ( How to get traffic to your blog) you need a way of capitalizing on that traffic. Dean calls it Push Button Income and Automation. If only!

To build an email list you have to have something of value ( aka a Lead Magnet) to give away to your visitors like an eBook, a short report, a video or audio. You can use PLR material but it’s best to rewrite it or get someone else to do it. You could of course outsource the whole thing.

Dean gives you the opportunity to purchase a “done for you package” when you sign up for the Quick Start Challenge.

You offer your free gift on your blog with the aim of enticing your visitors to part with their email address. Once they do that they will be on your email list.

You can then email them with good content, relevant to the topic of the item they signed up for of course,  interspersed with recommendations for an affiliate product. If they buy the product you recommend you will start to generate an income.

You have to have a few thousand on your list for this to happen though and you have to be careful to develop that all important relationship with them so they come to trust you and your recommendations. I know of marketers who “churn & burn” their lists because they just send out promo after promo.

I heard an internet marketer tell listeners to do this not so long ago on a Webinar. He bought solo ads and then bombarded those who subscribed with emails promoting affiliate product after affiliate product. He admitted that you would get some unsubscribes (quite a few I would think) but you were well rid of them as they were only freebie seekers. He just repeated this exercise and made money or so he said. I wonder how long he will last doing that?

Now, let’s get back to email list building. For this to happen you have to have an autoresponder service. Dean suggested Aweber or Get Response. I have only ever used Aweber and never found any good reason to change.

When I first started building a list in the health niche the guy who was helping me set up my site recommended Aweber and I have been using it ever since. They have a good range of video instructions and their support is excellent.

Get Started Today For Only $1! – AWeber Communications

Once you get signed up with a service you can create an optin form to put in the side bar of your blog. This is where you encourage your visitor to give you his/her email address in exchange for your free item. Aweber has a WordPress plugin to help you get your optin form created on your blog.

An alternative to this is to have a popup appear a few seconds after your visitor lands on your blog. I’m sure you have seen them. They can be very annoying but they do increase your optins.

I was using the PopUp Domination plugin on this blog but have disabled it while I get my new squeeze funnel finished.  My previous one did not do well in the tests I did using solo ads even though I tried a few different offers and had coaching. The new one was virtually ready last year  but I had some reservations about the information in it.  The perfectionist in me decided that I had to add some newer and more up to date information  for 2013 which I am working on now.

You can also of course have a squeeze page and there are videos showing you how to set this up in the members area with the done for you package. There are numerous videos online that show you this as well.

The challenge for this email list building week is to get signed up for an autoresponder service if you don’t already have one, get your free gift ready and add your optin form to your blog. All I have to do now is to finish my free report and the eBook that I am including in the squeeze/sales funnel.  Watch this space!