Everyone who's involved with Internet promotion will tell you that the cash is in the marketing e-mail list. Without having a list then you have no one to sell to. You have no one to sell to and then you will start to be like one of those poorer small church mice!!

The 1st question that I asked when I started on line marketing was "What is the best way for me to start building a list?" One of the simplest methods would be to subscribe to a mailing list provider. Many of these offer a free service. Invariably you'll encounter restrictions on the volume of messages you are able to send, with an option to upgrade to a full member's program. Other providers will only provide a paid for service. Perhaps the most significant difficulty that could occur with this method of promotion is finding out that your mailing for product "A" goes out at the same time that my mailing for product "A" goes out with the same list provider.

Having made the decision that you'll take your first steps on developing your own list, the next item to be considered is what contemplating offering in exchange for someones e-mail address. A lot of analysis has been carried out and it is generally agreed that on average it will take eight to ten communications before someone will buy an item off the net. Instead of providing something up for sale, why don't you provide a valuable zero cost gift. For instance, should you be in the "Health & Exercise" market offer a solution that may have a tie in to current interest, such as a totally free report which may be called "How to Obtain The Body You Crave For in 6 weeks" (After all summer is rapidly approaching!)

The important thing is that the title of what you will be offering MUST DEMAND ATTENTION. As well as the title stopping people in their tracks, what you are offering must deliver the goods. Keep in mind you are developing a list of people who will grow to trust you implicitly if you deliver top quality content each and every time you provide them something, be it free or chargeable.

Other areas for you to start to establish contacts, is to check out and comment on forums and discussion boards. A quick word of warning though before you start. Spend time studying the environment, read through a few of the posts and establish what is allowed. For example the forum might not want offers of free products being made. All decent forums have a Frequently Asked Questions section. Go through that to identify other areas that may be prohibited.

Marketing with articles is an area where you can create your reputation as an expert. Once more the secret is to provide high quality content that will be useful to those people who are looking for the answer to a problem, such as "How do I build my list?"

We're now living in the age of social bookmarking with products that include "Facebook", "Twitter", "My Space" etc. These give you a wonderful opportunity to feature the product you are either giving away or selling to the people who are linked through to you, (Followers, Friends etc.) A more detailed explanation on how to utilize these programs is beyond the scope of this article.

If you want to get as many subscribers in the shortest time possible you need to adopt a viral marketing strategy. When I was involved in the financial services industry when we had provided the client with a superb service we asked him or her for six referrals. This is essentially what viral marketing is about. Getting your client to pass on details of your product to their friends. A simple way to do this is to ask the client when he fills in the opt in form to provide you with names and emails of three to six of his friends. It is imperative that you make it clear to them that providing this information is completely voluntary.

Opt in form! Are you wondering what this has to do with building your list? Before you can send anything to a client they have to concur that they really want that information. So whatever method you use to put your information before of a customer, be it a mailing list provider, forum etc. they have to submit their name and email address to you, then they have to confirm that they requested the information before it is sent. This is called double opt in and is required as a result of the Can-Spam act which was introduced to restrict spamming. You will need an auto responder service to build up your mailing list. They all operate in this way.