How to Build an Opt-In Email List

Affiliates often make a big mistake in building a short-term business wherein they are only concentrating upon one sale at a time. If these affiliates were to stop running ads today, their business would be over. It is possible for these affiliates to build a long-term business if they know what strategies to use to up sell visitors to more expensive items. This will also help you become recognized as an expert, and then making money will become even easier.

This strategy consists of building an opt-in mailing list. In doing so you will be building a customer base of small sales. You are able to continuously sell to a customer who has come to know and trust you and because they will then be loyal unto you.

The easiest way in which to do this is to start sending all of the traffic that you have paid for to an opt-in list that you have created. Once a person opts into your list, they should come to a "thank you" page where you can pre sell your affiliate product.

Your opt-in page should be small, short and directly to the point. You do not want to have a long sales letter here. In fact, the entire page should fit onto one screen without any scrolling. This page should have a strong headline and five or six bulleted benefits.

Once you have created this type of page, here are five ways to drive traffic to this page:

1. Submit articles about your niche to different directories. Use your biography to link to your opt-in page.

2. Purchase pay per click traffic to be sent directly to your opt-in page. You will need to keep an eye on this because conversions may look like they are going to fail but ultimately do well over the long term.

3. Purchase ad space in an ezine wherein you can promise free information and link to your opt-in page.

4. Take some time to work on a good viral marketing campaign so that others will spread the word about your opt-in list for you.

5. Spend time trading links with relevant web sites.

You really do need to work on building a long term affiliate business instead of just making a few hit or miss sales. If for some reason you would have to stop advertising you are going to still want to have a powerful business. Taking time to build a large opt-in list will do this for you while also establishing yourself as an expert in your niche.