Turbo Charge Your Business With Email Opt-In Lists

Where do you find people interested in your opportunity or product? This is one of the biggest questions facing any online business.

One of your first objectives is to build a list of prospects. You need to build and cultivate this list so your prospects know who you are ... and will read email you send them.

You have to establish your credibility!

A great idea is to give your prospects something first, and then later ask them to invest in you ... your opportunity or product. What can you provide for free? You can start by sending a useful report or link to a favorite web site. You can also write articles for ezines. Or, the best idea yet, start your own ezine.

So, how do you build a warm-market list of prospects?

The number one way is to subscribe to one or opt-in or safe lists. These lists are composed a group of people who agree to receive email ads in exchange for being allowed to send their own opportunity ads to the list. Some of the lists use a listserver to which you send your ad and it is automatically distributed to the entire list. Other opt-in lists publish the email addresses of their members and you send your ads using your email or bulk email program.

If you are given a list of email addresses, you need to insure that the members understand you are a member of the list. Most opt-in lists provide a header that you must include on each of your email ads telling other members they are receiving your ad because you are both on the same list and also giving instructions to use if someone wishes to be removed from the list. It is extremely important that you use the appropriate header or you may be accused of spamming.

When you use an email program to send out your opportunity ads, be sure to use the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature of the email program. This hides the email addresses of the list. It is considered very bad ettiquette to send email to a list of people using the CC (carbon copy) feature. In addition to using the BCC, you should limit the number of BCC addresses to 10 or 20 at a time.

And be prepared to receive LOTS of emails a day. Because of the sheer volume of email you'll be receiving, you may want to set up a separate web-based email account with Yahoo or Hotmail or one of the other similar email services.

One of the downsides of opt-in lists is that most of the people on these lists are too busy promoting their own opportunities to take time to review yours. Don't expect to be instantly recognized and have people flock to join you. Over time, though, you'll get some responses, and then you can add these addresses to your private email list.

When you post ads, don't post the same ad day after day. Vary the ad by changing the headline and content. Test your ads to see which are working the best.

Here are some individual Listservers that have many hundreds of opt-in lists. Just browse around and find the ones that interest you or pertain to your product or opportunity.

Yahoo Groups

ListBot

Each list has a brief description. Most business opportunity lists allow you to post ads. Some lists do not let members post any ads. Abide by the list's rules! But ... you can sometimes get away with a short signature (one to four lines) that gets a short ad across promoting your web site or opportunity.

Each of the above listservers also lets you create your own list. This is a great way to start your own discussion list or ezine if you don't have access to a listserver on your site.

Other sources for prospects are the safe lists. These usually cost a yearly fee to join and provide many names or access to a 'secret' listserver available only to members. Some lists will pay you when you refer someone who signs up for the list.

Smart List - A True Safe List. Send your ad to over 1500 Members.

Rebnik Safe List - Join Rebnik Safe Email List and post 2 ads per week - over 1300 Members.

SuperPromoter - The Ultimate Safe List and Submission Service. Blast your ads to 3.75 MILLION websites FREE! Paid members can blast email ad to thousands 2 times weekly!

Biz Safe List - Over 1300 safe email addresses! Great referral program, make 50% on every referral!

Grizz's Safe Mail List - One time set up fee of $10. You can make $4 on each person who signs up using your affiliate link.

Email Network Marketing Club - The sole product is a targeted email list consisting of the email addresses of fresh business opportunity seekers and internet marketers. The list is 100% opt-in, which means that every single person has pre-approved you to send them your advertisement.

Targeted Email

Targeted email lists are different than safe lists. These are lists of people that have been harvested from the Internet and possibly newsgroups. The people don't always know that their email addresses have been extracted and may not welcome getting UCE (unsolicited commercial email), also known as SPAM.

Some companies sell targeted email lists. Because you do not know where these email addresses have come from, you must be especially careful if you decide to send them your opportunity or product ad.

Email List Club - Dedicated to ethical targeted direct e-mail, this club provides 20-25 new, fresh, cleaned and targeted lists every week. You get a free recruiting web page and tons of marketing tools, including several bulk email software programs. Be aware that these are targeted email lists, not safe lists.

If you decide to use this source, please be extremely careful. Some people may feel you are Spamming. Protect your email address by using an account at Yahoo or Hotmail and mail from that account, not your ISP. Also, do not include your site URL in any initial emailings you send.

It is wise to send a short introductory note requesting permission to send your opportunity to the recipient. When someone requests additional information, send the requestecd information and a link to a site you have set up at one of the many free web addresses ( Hypermart, FreeYellow, or Geocities). That site should include a form the person can fill out that will be emailed to you. (You can get a free form for this at Freedback.) Then you are almost certain to have found someone who is truly interested.

Always include a way that someone can request to be removed from your list and follow the Email List Club's strict guidelines and code of ethics.