Let me see if I've got it right...

"IF You Wanna Be Happy For The Rest Of Your Life...
Marry Yourself An Ugly Wife...."

Uh, no, wrong song...

IF You Wanna Make Money Online... You've Gotta Have A List!

Yeah, I believe that's the song we're looking for here...

While its become an established online truism that  the money is in your list, the more targeted your list, the more money you'll make!

Primarily because of the different, but targeted lists I've taken the time to built, I personally make money every single day.

For example, I have a list of people who want to solve marriage problems and build stronger relationships with their spouses/significant others.

I also have a list of people who are looking for methods to live a healthier life by using 'natural' solutions. I even have a list of people who are interested in maximizing their 'brain-power'!

The Process...

• I "discover" a group of people with common interests...

• I find products/services they're interested in...

• I then build a list of those people...

• I regularly contact them with snippets of useful information...

• And, I tell them about good deals to help them get what they want.

So how do I build my different lists? Better still, what's my "No-Cost Method To Build Laser-Targeted Email Lists?"

Actually, I use a lot of different list-building techniques.

One method, writing and submitting articles to publishers of publications my potential prospect would read, has consistently built responsive lists for years. The best thing about using articles is your ability to tailor articles so they get the attention of the very people who fit your ideal customer's profile.

The main trick to successfully using articles to build your lists, is knowing how human nature works...

You write your articles with this primary goal in mind: get interested readers to take action and put themselves into your marketing process.

Your secondary goal is to reveal valuable, useful information. Yet you never tell everything you know. Your article should be written so you leave readers with an immediate desire to enter your 'circle'. It's kinda like dating, you wanna leave them wanting another date.

Secondly, design your articles so they "suggest" you're approachable and you're a willing "giver"...

To stay with our dating example, it's usually more difficult to get the 1st date than it is to get the 2nd date. Often times you can't 'sell' the first date, but you can get them to set down with you for a public cuppa joe...

Likewise, your readers don't know you, they don't trust you, and they've been burned by other sweet talkers in the past. To get around this natural response of your readers, give readers a way to check you out without the reader making a commitment. 

They will contact you because your article's tone has positioned you as an expert who is a willing "giver" from whom your readers can anonymously and undetectably 'steal' more of your expertise. In other words, you're letting their greed overcome their security concerns...

Very important at this stage of pulling people into your marketing process. Done correctly, you'll be building lists made up of, uh... laser-targeted members.

You can't write? No problem...

Keep reading to learn how you can use articles to build different targeted lists, even if you don't think you can write your way out of bacon-grease-soaked brown paper bag...

Article writing:

1. Write informative articles dealing with the specific issues of concern to the people you want to subscribe to your list. 
    

2. It's best to keep your articles short and to the point. (400 to 850 words have worked well for me)
    

3. Don't "toot-your-own-horn" but you want the 'tone' of your article to suggest you're an expert with more knowledge to share.
    

4. The content of your article can solve a problem, be a review, or reveal details of something new in the market.
    

5. Don't do any self-promotion or selling in the content of your article. (Use your resource box to tell readers how and why they want to stay in contact with you...)
    

6. How To Come Up With Article Ideas:
   
   _ Research the subjects of books your target market is buying on Amazon.
   _ Get ideas from article titles in current & past ezines, magazines and newspapers.
   _ Get article ideas (and product/service ideas) from reading posts on discussion boards.
   _ Go to your favorite search engine, and do the following...
   
   Type the following information inside of quotation marks:
   
   1. the name of your target market
   2. colon
   3. enter a 'space'
   4. the word 'article'; and do a search.
   
   Depending on your target market, your search will return you many related articles to study and perhaps improve on... NO STEALING ALLOWED! 
   
   For example, I did a google.com search for the general relationship market: "relationship: articles" and got back 22,200 pages.
   
   Plus, you can narrow the search down to fit your needs. ("divorce: articles" returned 17,300 pages...) And, you can expand your search by removing the quotation marks.
   
   Side Bar: IF I'm searching for something related to online/Internet marketing, I use a search engine like askjeeves.com, or just about any search engine other than google. Why? Because most online marketers use google. I want different results!
    

7. Don't think you're an expert on a subject?
   
   You can quickly and easily learn more about any subject by doing an online search of your chosen subject's key words.
   
   For example, I did a quick search for 'spot welding' and got 657,000 pages of information about spot welding...A subject I have no interest in, but one which I could easily write an article about because of all the information from my search. 
    

8. The easiest way I know to write anything is using the 4-step writing formula I learned from a country preacher when I was a kid: (he used this method to write his sermons) (l.) Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. (2.) Tell 'em. (3.) Tell 'em what you told 'em. (4.) Leave 'em wanting more by "Shutting-Up"...
    

9. Read your finished article out loud so you can see if it makes sense. Edit as needed, and read it out loud until you have no questions about clarity.
    

10. Give the edited article to the list members who are already subscribed to the list you've written the article to build. (I dare you to read the previous sentence out loud!)
     

11. After a few days, (SO your list members have time to read the article first) submit your article to relevant publishers. Give them the right to use your article in their online newsletters, in their ebooks, on their web sites, and in their print publications...IF they include your resource blurb as written. To get a list of places to submit your articles... Click Here
     

12. Re-submit the same article 2 - 3 times per year. (I've had the same publishers run the same articles multiple times...)
     

13. "Touch-up" your article before you re-submit it. You'll be surprised how much more you know about the subject, and how much you've grown as a writer!
     

14. If you've convinced yourself you'll never be a writer, you can hire ghost writers at elance.com. Personally, I know anyone who can talk... can write... just write it down like you say it, and then edit...

Because you have the most critical step to go, you could follow the above steps until the cows come home, and never add a single subscriber to your email list.

Here's the rest of the story . . .

The key, to effectively using articles to build your targeted lists, is how well you don't sell yourself in your article, or in your "Resource/Author's Blurb/Box".

Yeah, I know the gurus tell you to sell hard when you write your resource box. In my experience, that's usually bad advice. The gurus' rep precedes them, and they can get away with a hard sell directed to other online marketers...

Your lack of reputation probably requires you get a 'shy yes', or a 'maybe' from your readers.

Specifically, you'll get more subscribers if you offer your readers something related to the content in your article. Even then, you want readers to understand they can't get "it" from anyone else, and they must send you an email to get it...

I don't advise you send readers directly to a subscription page, or to any web page other than a lead capture page. Personally, I've had much better response using an email link.

Naturally, your email link goes to an autoresponder with a message containing the a link for them to get the offer, or with the information already pre-loaded into the autoresponder's first message, which the reader gets immediately. For this, I use the same autoresponder I use for managing that particular list. 

You can also use this technique in the article itself, and in your resource box.

For example, in this article you're now reading, I could have made the link above, where you click to get a list of places to submit your articles, an email address to an autoresponder with the web page location of the list, in the autoresponder's message.

Also in this article you're now reading, where I've written: Here's the rest of the story . . . I could have had you send me an email if you wanted to get the 2nd part of this article. (Be careful with this one, used out of place, and you run the risk of ticking readers off.)

With this article, both techniques would work because both actions are a logical response for readers interested in building their lists via writing and submitting articles. Actually, that's the secret to getting readers to contact you...

Give readers an easy way to get more use from the article they're reading.

I like to use the information in my article's "Resource Box" in the same manner...

You want to give readers a logical reason to contact you by offering them an easy method to better use the content of your article. Help readers get more out of your article by giving them a related piece of software, some kind of personalized resource/service, or an in-depth report they only get access to by email.

A word of caution, when it comes to personal privacy, people don't like surprises. Therefore, don't use deceptive practices to get new people on your lists. It's just commonsense. If you use smoke and mirrors to get someone on your list, you'll have a devil of a time building a trusting relationship with them, won't you?

So why hide your intentions?

Make darn certain you clearly tell people they'll be receiving more related business messages from you. Include an un-subscribe link in each message you send out. (Including the first one!) You want to always comply with the 'Can Spam' act...

Make sure you set up a separate autoresponder, or a separate list manager, for each of the lists you're building.

I prefer the simplicity of using autoresponders. Because I find having more than 25,000 members on any one autoresponder, I monitor my individual autoresponders and move list members to another account when necessary. For years I've been using the autoresponder services of Aweber.com getresponse.com and A1ebiz.com.

Side Bar: Done correctly the following is a million dollar tip...

Before you send people to your autoresponder link, pre-write and pre-load a series of messages, you set up to automatically get emailed to your new list members.

Here's how I do it:
 

1. Because of the time and labor involved, I don't recommend you commit to publishing a formal newsletter/ezine. (This mainly depends on the target market, of course.)

2. Instead of the newsletter approach, for each list, pre-write a series of on-target messages. (I have some with only 1 message. I also have series set-up to go out once per week for an entire year.)

3. When you have a time-sensitive message for your list, simply email it without changing your pre-set sequence.

4. Regularly sending automatically-timed, short 'on-subject' messages, reminds list members you're the person to go to. (If you don't know how, your autoresponder's "Help" section will show you how to set up the scheduling.)

5. Depending on your list member's profile, you may want your messages to go out once per week, 7 times per week, or once per month.

6. How to figure out how often you contact your list members:
   
   Use commonsense thinking to 'guess' how often your list member would welcome an email. I start by putting myself into the routine of the list member's daily lives. How often do they come online? What do they do when they come online? How much time do they spend online?  Is the list subject one of passion, or problem based? etc, etc...  
   
   For example, I usually contact my 'general relationship' list members once a month.
   
   A sub-list of my 'relationship' list deals with a problem: stopping divorce.
   
   When the divorce sub-list members join the list, they get 7 emails, one every other day. The 7 emails give them tips taken from an eBook about stopping divorce. Each of the 7 messages includes a link to the sales page.
   
   After the 7 "how to stop your divorce" email messages go out, the member is moved to the general relationship list...And so on.  
   
   The members on my 'home-business' list get contacted more often. I especially like sending them messages 4 - 7 times per week in the winter when they spend more time at home. And, I send out fewer messages during summer.
   
   If you want to get scientific about it, you can check your autoresponder account and see which message members un-subscribe from the list. You can then test & track to figure out if they're un-subscribing because of the message's content, or if they're un-subscribing because of your message scheduling.
   
   Don't worry if this sounds hard, after you do it a few times you'll get the hang of it.
    

7. If your email messages have something to do with the theme of your list, you can pretty much get away with any

If this sounds like a lot of work, you're 100% right, it is. Plus, you probably won't be very good using any of these methods when you start. So what? That's how I started. You can do it too. In fact, I make you this personal, Lazy Dude, promise:

"IF you'll keep doing it badly, and slowly make adjustments based on your feedback...YOU will eventually become an expert!"

Do start now and build laser-targeted lists by using the steps in this eReport and get busy writing and submitting articles to publishers who publish publications your ideal customer would logically read!

OK, I'll answer the question you've been wanting to ask me... "Ed, does this article writing & article submitting, list building method really work, and is it worth the aggravation?"

To quote U.S. President George Bush... "Hell Yeah! It Works!"

Here's proof... To see a screen shot of new sign-ups for one autoresponder account I set up for an article I wrote over 2 years ago, and submitted just one time: Click Here.

Keep in mind, the content of article the autoresponder screenshot is linked to, was about making money online, a tough market. And, two years after submitting it, I'm still averaging 150 to 450 new subscribers every week... depending on the week.

It cost me nothing but time to write the article. It cost me nothing but time to submit the article. Other than sending the list members regular and relevant messages, I have no hands-on work involved... But the list just keeps getting bigger...

Is it worth it? You tell me...
 

About The Author: Edward "Mr Ed" Thorpe: publishes the 'Online Beginners Guide' (OBG) a generic business and life principles ezine. Readers agree 'OBG' is "Honest, funny, sincere and different." Subscribe: Send any email to: mailto:obg@aweber.com Visit: http://www.OnlineBeginnersGuide.Com Attention Publishers: You have permission to publish the above article in your opt-in ezine or in your ebook. Your 2 requirements are: changes permitted for formatting purposes and the resource box must be included.

Return To The Free Articles Directory: Click Here  

That's it for today...

My very best to you and yours. May you live in peace and may you have the respect of your enemies and the love of your friends. Me, I'm still here and the pleasingly plumb lady ain't sung her closing song, and...It ain't over till its over!  

Talk to you next time.