Creating a Viral Opt In list

When trying to earn money online it takes time before you learn to understand the power of building an email list. After all your online strategy depends on your ability to gain new readers & expand your network of contacts. The more people you have the chance to reach, the more likely you are to make sales. Period.

As you grow your list, your marketing becomes much easier. Just like blogging, at the start whenever you have few readers it can seem difficult, however once you build up a dedicated readership it’s easier to attract more readers.

By far the best way to increase your opt-in mailing list is to make it viral. Here’s an Example:

A Marketing Website

1. People that are reading your marketing website are likely to be looking for more info on marketing or internet marketing.
2. Offer your visitors a free ebook with 20 marketing tips, this could be anything from better Adsense Positioning to Email Marketing.
3. Inside the ebook make sure you have a link to your newsletter subscription on each page. You could also have links to affiliate products in here too if you wish.
4. Have a disclaimer on the ebook saying that it can be redistributed provided all the information is left untouched.

You can even take it beyond this step by have varying levels of membership or having a members only part of the website.

Take a service like Listlotto for example. They have a free service that allows you to build your mailing list by referring other people to the website. Thus increasing the program virally. If you can somehow include this element into your site then your list would actually promote itself!

Here’s an example:

1. You run a website about recipes.
2. You create an opt in members section that is free, it’s got access to some extra recipes that aren’t on the main site.
3. You create a referral program, once a user refers 3 other users then they get their membership “upgraded” to another level of the members area.
4. You could then past this level have a final section of the members area that is pay only. The possibilities are endless. Especially if you have a good product or service.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. But if you build your list up to over 500 subscribers & do a mailout once a week promoting a particular product chances are you’ll make sales regularly.

Software that can manage your Mailing List:

1. Aweber - The Creme de la Creme of Mailing List Managers.
2. PHPlist - FREE
3. Zoodoka - FREE

Recommended Reading:

• List Secrets
• Targeted List Building