It looks like people are really going ga-ga over this “list building” thing.

A few days ago, I decided that I’d start making more posts on twitter. (I had opened a twitter account some months back but never got around to posting on it.) So as part of this I started following some people.

Almost immediately after I clicked on the “Follow” button on some members’ pages, I got a private messages offering a free “gift” for deciding to follow them.

And as you might have guessed, to get this gift I’d have to go through an opt-in form.

Let’s assume I entered my details and opted in, is there a guarantee I would make a “good” list member?

You see, I have 4 email accounts — 3 Gmail and 1 Yahoo account — set up just to receive these list emails.

And the thing is…

Gmail account 1 contains 1703 Unread emails
Gmail account 2 contains 1028 Unread emails
Gmail account 3 contains 485 Unread emails
Yahoo account contains 1106 Unread emails.

So that makes it 4342 Unopened emails in all accounts combined.

I don’t even open certain emails accounts for months together because I’m too busy. And when I do, I only read specific people’s emails.

That being the case, what is the use of making a person like me opt-in to your list forcibly?

What if you have a 1,000 people like me on your list. What if you have 10,000 like me on your list. You’d think you have a big list but that’s not the case in reality.

Hence, I think the time has come to re-think the strategy of doing forced opt-ins while offering freebies.

You can probably just give away the free report or video first(without an opt-in) and then give them the option to opt-in later. This way they will at least open your future emails because you’ve won their confidence.

What do you say?

Thanks,

Dean.

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If you’re really serious about making your online business successful, then the one question you should be asking is, “How can I build credibility fast?”

So why is building credibility so important?

Well, to understand that, you first need to understand the difference between running a local business and running on online business.

See…when you have a local business, people have the chance to interact with you, to know you, and then buy the product AFTER they feel confident that you will provide good service to them.

But that’s not the case when you run an online business. Now your buyer need not be from the same city, county and country anymore. In fact, he need not even be from the same continent.

This is when credibility becomes extremely important.

When you have credibility and track record of selling good products, people will have less hesitation about buying from you. It makes the potential buyer confident about your offer and shatters buyer resistance.

Great! So what can you do to build credibility fast on the internet?

Look, no matter what you’ve heard so far, promoting with free articles is STILL the best way to market yourself on the internet.

First off, since articles can be written by yourself also, it doesn’t need you to expend any money. (Unless if you wish to outsource them)

But more importantly…when you write a good article on a particular subject, people will instantly take you to be an expert on that subject. And since this method is different from the usual advertising methods, you successfully fly under their radar and increase your sales.

So those are a few reasons to rethink your decision about not using articles for promotion.

Until next time,

Dean.

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Richsage.com is a great website which offers valuable suggestions on how to make money online.

You can find the best of information here that can be of help to webmasters, small business owners, IMers, bloggers and many other people.

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