So you want to make money on-line…either selling your own products or someone else’s as an affiliate.

Who are you going to sell to?

Your website visitors?

Yes, you will get a few buyers, if you are advertising a product or resource they want.

A better way is to build up a customer email list whereby you email free advice and special offers.

(see my recent post on creating an Email Marketing Campaign that works by clicking here).

So, your task is to grow your email addresses list as fast as possible.

Are people queuing to see your products? (photo courtesy of avlxyz)

Now many people succumb to the mistake of ‘buying’ email-marketing lists.  Don’t make the same mistake.

You may have seen the ads that offer you millions of email addresses for a relatively low cost.

My advice – steer well clear.

If you fall for one of these ads, you will end up labelled as a ‘spammer’ almost as quickly as you send the email.  Many of the messages you send will end up in ‘junk/spam’ boxes and I guess a high percentage of the addresses you purchase are made up. In summary, you’ll reap zero benefit from your efforts and lose your money.

So what do you do?

Remember, your primary goal should be to send emails to people who actually want to hear from you.

The big question, “Where do you find these people?”

You need diverse marketing methods…

1. Your Website / blog. Ask individuals to sign up in return for something for free. Could be an audio, an e-book, your online magazine, your newsletter, a contest. Make sure you put this ‘sign-up’ functionality on every page of your web site.

How fast your email list builds up this way will depend upon the subject matter, what you are giving away and, of course, the number of visitors to your site.

You may just get one or two each day. I know of some very popular sites that get hundreds of sign-ups each day.

2. Your business cards. When you design your business cards, be sure to request that people visit your site and sign up to get valued free information.

3. Attend teleconferences. When you get an opportunity to speak, introduce yourself and your domain name and what you have to offer.

4. Consider hosting a Blog Carnival on your subject matter (see video here on blog carnivals). Blog Carnivals can bring a lot more relevant visitors to your site and many will sign-up if you have a great offer.

5. Consider hosting an online contest. Open contests are extremely effective way to obtain e-mail addresses.  On contest entry forms request e-mail addresses as method of approval for contest entry.

As you can see there is more than one way to build your customer email list…please do not resort to buying email marketing lists.