How To Build An Email List From Scratch
As Seen On http://www.andrewdesilets.com
There really aren’t many legitimate ways to get your hands on an email list
without building one yourself.
Don’t be tempted by people offering to sell you huge lists,
They’re almost always garbage!
They are unfocused lists that probably have mostly inactive email addresses on them.
Once you start growing your list, you will be able to team up with other marketers and cross promote
offerings and build each others list.
I have seen the most success in building my list when I have paired up with other marketers.
Right now, I even have a job open on the WA boards looking to team up with others with lists.
How do you start building a list from scratch?
===> Use the articles you are writing to drive traffic to your opt in pages!
I’m surprised that more people do not do this… ?!?!?!?
Instead of writing and posting an article with an affiliate link, why not write and post an article with a link to your
opt in page?
Lets imagine this…
Each day 6 people land on your article and give it a good read…
Some read and leave.
Some read and click on your affiliate link too… 
And 1-2% actually buy (yup, those are the “normal conversion rates”) 
So if you have 6 people a day to your site and only 25% click on your merchant link,
IT’S GONNA TAKE UP TO 67 DAYS TO GET ONE SALE!
That’s a long time, never mind that… it’s can take you another 67 days to get a second!
UGGGG!
This is why it sometimes take people a long time get sales when they start out!
Or how about this Happier scenario?
You write an article and 6 people come by each day…
In this article, you were smart though..
You went and got your hands on some really helpful PLR
or
You did some research on what they were looking for and
have prepared an awesome video saving them time.
In your article, you tell them…
“click here and I will give you exactly what you are searching for FREE!!!!”
If it’s a good offer, 30-50% of people will click on it…
They then get to your landing page and give you their email in exchange for
the nifty info you promise.
And you DELIVER!
You give them something that really impresses them.
Each day, you grow your list by 2 or 3 people.
By the end of a week, you have 20 people on your list
By the end of a month… you have 80
AND IT KEEPS GROWING!!
(I like to think of my list as a garden lol)
Every few days you send your list
something good.
Something that make them like you more and more!
Then one day, you recommend an affiliate product that
would totally help them.
Something you believe in.
And They Buy!!!
Off of a 100 person list, maybe you get 1-3 sales.
Pretty Good after a month an a bit!
But here is where it gets better!
two weeks go by… you send them
more good stuff…
Then You send another Offer…
Another 3-4 sales!
As the days go by, your list gets bigger and bigger….
It will get to a point where your list is like your own personal ATM!
You need cash… send an offer to your list (but don’t abuse them… they will leave in a blink of the eye)
QUICK STORY:
This past summer my buddy was getting married at a really nice resort.
This was a place that would take a long time to drive to so me and my wife had to stay overnight.
We booked a standard room for two nights at the nicest hotel around.
But I wanted to spoil my wife, so I looked into upgrading to an suite.
But guess what? The rate on the suite was an extra $500 PER NIGHT!!! 
I couldn’t responsibly spend an extra $1000 dollars just for a bigger room with a nicer view.
Then I thought how happy my spouse would be when she saw the room….
Then I thought how unhappy she would be when she saw the bill 
So I came up with a plan…
If I could send out an email to my list… whatever money I made off that
blast would go towards our upgraded suite.
… so I sat down, wrote an email, made some corrections… took me about 40 minutes.
Then clicked send… and waited….
5 mins go by…
10 minutes go by…
15 minutes go by….
… then…
I get a message from ejunkie (the company that process the affiliate sales)
I made a sale, and a $27.00 commission!!!!
Then another comes in.. then another
SWEET!
Wouldn’t you know.. by the next day I had made enough money to
book the suite… and buy my buddy an even nicer gift (balloon sight-seeing tour for two in the napa valley WITH DINNER 
)
You should have seen the look on everyone’s face, Amanda my spouse, when she saw the room… and my buddy and his new wife when the opened the gift!
Enough of that….
Here is how I set up my articles:
Recent Comments
8
I loved this post. I'm new to online marketing as well as the terms. Could you please define PLR?
Thank you!
Interesting stuff, and easy to understand :-)
I'm still very new to IM, but I book-marked this b/c it makes complete sense and I look forward to implementing my own email list at some point! Gold for you!
Thanks :-)
Marlaine
That's a great post my man! I did exactly that with one of my niches that I'm messing with. I now am getting about 30 - 40 visits per day and am consistently getting 3-5 opt ins a day. Not too bad! I'm very much apart of it though. I've had personal correspondence with a lot of them so far in addition to my auto - follow ups. I now have 45 folks on there.
Not too shabby! I haven't sold them on anything yet. I'm waiting for the "perfect offer" and it has to be something that I believe int too!
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Hi Andrew,
I found this very helpful but am still waiting for the remainder of the article. I really want to work on this portion of my business and you were really simplifying it for me - and others - am sure. Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.