The first thing you need to have in order to begin building a list is an autoresponder.

An autoresponder is a service which allows you to automatically send out emails to a group (or to more than 1 group) of people who subscribe (via your website/blog) to receive emails from you. Once the emails inside your autoresponder are written, the sending process is automatic according to the schedule that you have set up.

The most important word (in my opinion) in the above description is "automatic". Using an autoresponder allows you to seamlessly communicate with any number of subscribers automatically, 24/7/365, without you actually having to do anything beyond the initial setup process. In addition, you have the ability to manually send out emails if you wish. This would be considered a "newsletter" feature.

Using a service like this is really the only possible way that you would ever be able to reach and communicate with any number of potential subscribers to your list. It simply would not be possible to do all of this manually.

There are numerous different autoresponder services to choose from.

Some of the most popular and well known ones are as follows -

• Aweber
  
• GetResponse
  
• ConvertKit
  
• Active Campaign
  
• MailChimp
  

They all differ in terms of pricing plans. If you're not familiar with any of these, then you need to do your own research and learn about each one and whether they would be a good fit for your specific type of business.

One thing that I would recommend NOT doing is choosing an autoresponder that is free or starting with a free plan. I personally would not choose a free service to run any aspect of my business, especially since I may need support help at some point and support with any free service or plan is usually minimal.