3 Listbuidling Myths to Avoid

1. If you build it, they will come. This is the number one myth about an email marketing list. It is probably fueled by the very true statement that “the money is in the list.”

Newbies to the field of internet marketing unfortunately often fall for the phrase, “if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” People especially fall for this when it comes to product creation, but they often have the same attitude towards a list.

Even if you’ve already got your autoresponder pre-loaded with a whole year’s worth of material and the best free report anybody could have, you won’t make any money if nobody knows about your list!

Fortunately, there are several routes to get around this. You can drive traffic to your opt-in page by using pay per click traffic (just make sure you spend a little time reading up on PPC first, otherwise you can really lose your shirt).

You can start a blog or submit articles to Ezinearticles.com. And don’t forget about the tried-and-true method of forum marketing. You should already be familiar with active forums if your niche has any (most of them do).

2. A list will make you instantly rich. Nothing will make you instantly rich. And to be honest, there are probably several methods that will start to bring in money faster for the new internet marketer.

A good list can however provide you with consistent profits over time. But you have to build a good relationship with that list if you want to see any money come out of it. How do you do this?

First, you need to speak the language of your niche–something you’ll already know if you’ve done the proper research.

You also want to give plenty of value–without asking for anything in return! Your prospects are there to serve their own best interests, not yours. (Keep this in mind not only with your list content, but with your sales pitches as well.)

Speak to your readers in their own language, give them what they want, and show them respect–these are the things that will keep you in the money with an email marketing list.

3. With a list, all you have to do is sit back and collect the cash. Sorry, but there is no free lunch in internet marketing (or anywhere else for that matter).

Sure, you can “set and forget” your list if you like. Pre-load it with a hundred days or so worth of content, make a few forum post–and scrape in fifty bucks or so a month.

Or, you can keep up with niche news and send out relevant email blasts in addition to your regular newsletter. You can spend a few hours every week answering questions on a forum, and a couple of more writing articles for article directories.

These are only a few ideas. The important thing is that you put time and effort into your lists.

You don’t have to slave away in front of your computer 8 hours a day to do this. But a little extra time spent can bring you a whole lot of reward.