Excuse #7: I Don’t Have a List (Or a Big Enough List)

Here’s a common excuse for not starting an online business that’s easily solved.  Take a look…

Excuse #7: I don’t have a list (or a big enough list)

Whose list are you on right now and why? 

Whose lists have you stayed on for awhile?  Why?

Answer those questions and then model their success (or avoid whatever they messed up). 

For me, I have a handful of people that I get emails from using my primary address.  The rest get sent to a different address I check about twice a month. 

The difference? 

Quality info, frequent contact, brevity and a reasonable level of pitching compared to content (people have to make a living after all and I don’t begrudge anybody making a buck). 

On the other hand, if I only hear from someone when they have something to pitch, I either unsubscribe or change the email address to that second one I mentioned.  I actually have a third one that I use as a swipe file and that one gets spammed to death, but makes for some good headlines from time to time.  Sometimes I’ll move them to that address or resubscribe using that one instead.

Use that as a rough guide or use your own criteria as a starting point, then deliver something that you would sign up for and stay subscribed to. 

That probably means giving away some sort of content for free…either a report, articles, mini course, videos, audio, etc.

If you’re serious about building your list, then I highly suggest you use AWeber to manage them.  I’m on a couple of lists that use some other popular services and nearly all of those get sent right into the SPAM folder for me to fish out later.  If they ever sent anything time-sensitive, I’d miss it because I don’t check the SPAM folder that often. 

Plus, AWeber’s blog offers some awesome content to help you with email marketing (like the post on "Reasons Why People Unsubscribe" which that last link points to).  In fact, whatever service you use, you should subscribe to their RSS feed or email broadcast just to get some great ideas to implement in your email marketing campaign (easier to do if you’re using their system obviously).

You can find out more here : Aweber 

P.S. - Yes, those are affiliate links (other than the blog link).  I have no qualms about promoting AWeber as an affiliate though.  I use it, I love it, it’s the best service by far.  In fact, it’s one of the few services that I pay for annually versus month-to-month.  It’s that important.

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