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List building is old, but it’s become a main revenue stream for many affiliates lately, especially with the PPV boom. I’m no expert on the subject, but through the lists I do maintain, they generate me atleast a few thousand, if not more, dollars per month. The thing about it though, is that it seems to be a never-ending pile of money. I can grow my list by maybe a few people per day, and still make just as much as I did last month.

The tough part, though, is getting the hook in your prospective opt-iner (I think I just made up a new word – your potential customer ready to give you their email). We won’t be talking about traffic here, but more about what you should be putting on your landing page. Just know you should be targeting somewhat relevently, and always track whatever sources/urls/demographics/wherever you are getting your traffic and kick out shitty converters.

1. Get your prospective customer interested, without spilling the beans. People love being teased. Once you get that hook in with a good tease, they’ll follow you anywhere. “Ever think losing 10 pounds in 1 week is impossible. Funny thing is I guess I know how to do the impossible… I could tell you here, but if you submit your email I’ll tell you my secret and give you my “Super Duper Food Diet Crap Ebook For Your Lazy Ass”.” Whatever – you get the point.

Get them interested, give them more incentive to sign up with some free stuff, and they’ll have to give you their email.

2. Steps. Half the people on the internet are, well, not the sharpest tools in the shed. That’s why you need to give them guidance. I use big ugly arrows and banners saying STEP 1: SUBMIT YOUR EMAIL. STEP 2 – CHECK EMAI & CLICK ACTIVATE.  It helps them move along and gives them incentive to finish up with OMG STEP 3 Download this shit, yo.

3. Split test ugly landing pages and weird layouts. Always split test. Half the time I fnd out some amazingly ridiculous landing page I pooped out in Dreamweaver with 2 colomns, no CSS, and no real design elements applied to it converts the best. Of course, half the time its something my designer cooked up for me. Always split test.

4. Bullet points. If you are gonna state something short, not in paragraph form, do it with bullet points. And don’t tell me you will show me how to increase my metabolic rate with cardiovascular activities. Refrase it in English by letting me know how a lazy person would want to hear it. “You Can eat more and still lose weight”. Shoemoney had a post about this, but I couldn’t find it. Something about listing benefits rather than facts or something of that nature.

If you’re still in a rut about design, feel free to check out my marketplace. Look at this one, this one and this one for some good layouts to build lists with. I use Aweber, which is fine for small lists. If you have a lot of records, you might need to look in to a custom solution or a list management team.

I’ll get back to more tips on emailing in another post. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions you’d like to ask me about emailing or affiliate marketing in general.