Using List Building Services

Extracting eye teeth sometimes seems like it might be easier than extracting names and addresses from your website visitors. In your effort to build your own opt-in list, you can easily get really frustrated. People are, after all, hesitant to give out their names and e-mail addresses on the Internet these days.

You offer a great incentive and only receive a few names and e-mail addresses. It is just frustrating and you get to thinking that maybe it would be better just to use one of those list building services that you see advertised. You think they are a bit pricey but maybe they are worth it.

Before you drag out your credit card, type in your information and hit the ‘buy now’ button, take a deep breath and rethink this situation. What do you think you will be buying? Will you actually be buying a list of potential customers or will you just be buying a list?

The odds are not in your favor. You will in all likelihood be buying nothing more than a list of e-mail addresses, many of which will not work. The emails that are sent to the addresses that do work will more than likely go straight to the recipient’s junk mail folder. What you will have is an impressively long list that won’t ever translate into sales.

There are a lot of ways to build your opt-in list. These many ways are not painless and they aren’t fast - but they do work in time. You can spend money on list building services or you can go ahead and spend time on building your own opt-in list.... this is time that you are going to have to spend anyway to get names and email addresses of REAL potential customers.

If you DO decide to use a service, make sure it’s one that displays YOUR ad for YOUR e-zine, and that every person on that list has double-opted-in to get info sent to them by YOU. Otherwise, you’re buying a dead list and could end up being charged as a spammer. Use common sense and do your due diligence before buying or using ANY e-mail address, and treat your recipients with the same respect you expect to receive online.