Is there anything new to learn about list building from an Internet marketing blogger? If I told you this guy squeezed $3,500 in sales by pushing a button to a small targeted list of people, would you listen to him?

What this young guy knows about building lists that make money that others don’t?

Let’s find out in this brand-new interview with Tom @ BuildThatList.com

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Hey everyone! My name is Tom and I am a 23 year old Australia that is just recently married to the most amazing wife and expecting our first child.

I started in the whole ‘Internet Marketing’ and blogging scene about 3 years ago, but being the slow learner that I am it took me quite a while to get started.

In that time I have created quite a few blogs and started building my fair share of lists but do to lack of focus only a few of them escaped being sold or abandoned.

Currently aside from BuildThatList.com I have one other main blog in a different niche and a few micro niche blogs that are all helping to pay the bills.

When, how and why did you get started with blogging @ BuildThatList.com?

Well I bought the domain in September last year, but didn’t actually start blogging until January this year!

I decided to start BuildThatList because I wanted to prove that I could. I had built successful blogs before for me personally the launch phase is always the most exciting. But what I have learnt from BuildThatList is that if I want my blog and my list to have long term success then I need to keep that excitement and passion long past just the launch phase.

The reason that I chose list building as a topic is because it is something that I had done to a successfully with my other blogs but more importantly it was something I was looking to perfect myself. And for me, the easiest way to learn more is to start teaching – because as soon as you do, you realise that you do not know as much as your first though and you have to fight hard to keep in front of the pack!

What is your experience with list building so far?

As I mentioned, I had done quite a bit of list building with a few of my blogs, using the free gift model (or bribe as I tend to call it on my blog). I found that I was experiencing some success with my list building (now I am not building 10k lists quite yet – but I can see that happening), and I started helping my brother set up an email list for his ‘bricks and mortar’ business and we have had great success with that.

In fact in one of my posts I shared how that small list of targeted subscribers (targeted is the key) produced $3,500 is sales from just one email.

Now that was with high priced products, but it definitely proves that a small list can still equal big profits.

Now with the BuildThatList email list I currently have a few free squeeze pages as my bribe, or incentive for new subscribers – but am currently in the process of creating a 10 day e-course called ‘List Explosion’ that will show you the best strategies to quickly build your email list (and a couple of ways not too!)

What are the TOP areas I should concentrate on when building my list first time?

1. Quality Bribe
   Make sure that your free gift for subscribing is top notch! There are so many average bribes that list builders are trying to use to coerce visitors to become subscribers.

   I highly advice against using PLR or other peoples products to build your list. Your free gift is the first impression that each new subscriber has of you, so why would you want to promote someone else? Create a great product that answers the question that your visitors are looking for and you will see a very positive increase in your conversion rate.

   Oh, and make sure your product has a great ecover! You would be surprised how superficial people can be.

2. Nurture Your List
   Now you have subscribers, treat them like a human being. Now I know that may sound  like common sense but you would be surprised by the amount of lists that I have been on that is just one promotion after another.

   People don’t subscribe to be sold to – they subscribed because they trust you to provide them with quality information (and you had a great free gift).

3. Promote Great Products
   Always look at the product you are about to promote and ask yourself, ‘Would I recommend this to my family and friends?

   Now I know that your family and friends may not be interested in the topic of your list but promote with integrity because one commission from a dodgy product could ruin your reputation – which is worth much more!

Do you have a formula for writing subject lines that get opened?

Subject lines are one of the major things that can make or break an email. But even if you have a killer subject line if you do not have a targeted list you will not get a good open rate.

To be completely honest I am not the best at email subject lines because I am too honest.

Usually I just state exactly what I am trying to tell them or want them to do as my subject lines. Here are a couple of the subject lines I have used for email to my BuildThatList email subscribers that have all got a good open rate:

• Would You Be Willing To Give Me A Testimonial
• Bonus Unique Squeeze Page Just For Being My Subscriber
• An Update On The Aweber Code

As you can see, there is nothing special here, but I could possibly get an even better open rate if I was a bit more vague or enticing – but sometimes I find that a little bit off putting.

You will also notice that I do not collect the names of my subscribers. It is something that I have chosen to do because it increases your initial conversion rate and in all honesty I don’t know these people and they know it – so the majority see straight through all the email personisation.

What would you say is the one most important thing you’ve learned about getting clicks?

Clicks should be easy. If you are honest in your title then people know what they are in for before they even read your email. A lot of the times I am usually linking my emails back to one of my blog posts or product reviews so my email includes an overview of the post and at the end I just add  ‘Read my full review on BuildThatList.com’ and link it through.

I find that this builds trust because you are not just sending them through to a sales page, but instead your are providing an introduction to the product and allowing your subscribers trust in your transfer to the product that you are promoting.

If you do not want to have your review on your blog, then I advice installing a second copy of WordPress onto your domain, use the same theme but cut back the majority of advertising and subscribe boxes (because they are already subscribed) and write your reviews there.

You may not get as many hop counts, but you will definitely have a better change of converting them to a sale.

So how do you make money with your list[s]?

Well as I mentioned earlier, for my brothers business we have a physical product and a service component that we promote, but with my blogs it is always affiliate products.

I have not really done any promoting to my BuildThatList email list yet, but one strategy I will be implementing is ‘quality content with recommendations’.

With my new e-course that is currently under development, all 10 days of content is going to be exactly that pure, quality content – that you will not have to buy anything to take advantage of. However, I will have a recommended resource at the end of each day that I believe will help them improve the efficiency of that list building method.

Personally I believe that trust is the main reason that people buy products that we recommend as internet marketers, and if I can build peoples trust with free content then they are more likely going to purchase the products that I recommend.

Who are you learning from or getting inspiration when it comes to writing your emails?

Michael Dunlop from IncomeDiary.com is something that I admire. I subscribed to his email course a while back and a lot of the things that I am implementing are things that I learnt from how he structured his course.

That being said, I do not really have anyone else specifically. I learn something from everyone internet marketer that I talk to, visit their sales page, or subscribe to their list. Sometimes it is how to do something better, and other times it is more of a case of what not to do.

What are your list building plans for the future? And what do you expect others do once they finish reading your interview?

My plans are to explode the growth of my email list for my blog to create a platform where I can launch my own products and in the process help others to do the same with their lists.

I hope that everyone reading this interview starts to see the potential of having an email list (a group of raving fans) that are waiting to hear what you have to say next. I would encourage you that if you do not already have a list, start one. And if you have one, focus on growing it. But please do it the right way – don’t make it all about the money and forget that you are talking to people. When you help others, you will find that you start to succeed.

Thank you Codrut for the opportunity you have opened up for me to share with your readers!

Thank you for sharing your list building wisdom with us!

P.S. If you have any questions or suggestions on today’s interview, comment below [I want to hear from you]…

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