The Money is in The List, Or is IT?

If you have ever thought of starting an internet business you've heard,

the money is in the list, the money is in the list, the money is in

the list. You've heard it so often, like me you've probably gotten sick

of it.



After trying without success affiliate programs, gifting programs,

MLM programs and too many others to list here, I decided to get a

list. So I signed up for one of those co-registration services which

provide you with 100,000 email names for $350.00. I figured this was

the fastest way to become a list owner and make big bucks from my list.



I tried to bribe them with free e-books, free marketing advice, free

software yet nothing. To be honest I had so many unsubscribe that I

figured if I had that many sales I would've been a millionaire in four

weeks.



Since then I've learned that not just any list will work. I further

learned that for a list to be successful it must have the three

following qualities to it:



Targeted: The subscribers must have a common interest. They could be

internet marketers, model train hobbyists, bird watchers, dog

owners, not just any dog, but a specific dog, example Boxer owners,

Collie owners or German Sheppard owners. They have to be one

specific dog owner, because you will be speaking directly to

the needs of that specific dog which is different from another

breed of dog. The point is the more targeted your list the

greater your chances are at success with your list. A word

of caution, make sure your targeted group is big enough to be

able to produce a sizeable list. Anywhere from 1000 to 2000

subscribers should get you started making decent money.



To see if it is feasible to produce such a list use the

Overture Search Tool to do a search on your topic to see how

many searches were done the previous month on your topic.

Anywhere from 30,000 to 90,000 searches is a good indication

that the market is large enough to support a list of 1000 to

2000 subscribers. Fewer than 30,000 may indicate insufficient

demand to monetize your correspondence with that market;

however I have heard of smaller markets producing fantastic

results. Over 90,000 maybe getting too general for it to be

considered, targeted.



Qualified: Your subscribers must be qualified, by that I mean they must

have money to spend, and show a willingness to spend it. You

can test this by checking online for magazines published

specifically for that market. Example, birders have their magazine,

check in the back of that magazine and you will see ads aimed

squarely at birders. You will see these ads are repeated month

after month, which indicates that people are spending money on

those ads.



What also qualifies them is that they must be fanatical about

their activity. Golfers- enough said. Well not really, I don't

mean to pick on golfers but who else would spend $350.00 on a

new piece of equipment and then throw it in the water hazard

or break it over their knee if the results aren't what they

expected. Sorry golfers, but you do make yourselves such an

easy target. As a reformed golfer I think I have earned the

right to recoup a few moments of levity, after all the

frustration I felt in high school searching for a golf ball

with a mind of its own.



The point being made is that, your targeted market must be

qualified and two of the many things that qualify them are:

(1) money to spend

(2) being fanatical about their activity.



RESPONSIVE: Your list must do what you ask or tell them to do. No- not

all of them- but a sufficient number to make your marketing

efforts financially worth while. What causes them to respond

is that they can see that what you are offering them will make

their lives better, solve a problem they have or trust you

enough to know that they will gain financially or in some other

way from what you recommend. This trust is built up over time

and comes about from gains they've experienced from your

previous recommendations. This last point gets into the area of

relationship marketing, a subject I will speak to in the

future.



I finally learned that to get the money out of the list it must possess

the qualities of being: targeted, qualified and responsive.



To learn more about list building go to: http://tinyurl.com/rvhv4



About the author, Philip McDonald, has been marketing on the internet

for three years, in that time he sold laser printers for as much as

$3000.00 per printer.