How to Build an Opt-In List - the Tools You'll Need - Part 2

In the last part of the series How To Build An Opt-In List, we looked at a few frequently asked questions about building an opt-in list. In this part we will discuss the different tools that you will need and the expenses you can expect to incur in the process of building an opt-in list.

One of the first things that you will need is an opt-in list form where people can enter their information (such as name and e-mail address). You can make one yourself, but you will easily be able to get a pre-generated form with a good autoresponder which you will also need in the process of building a list.

This is form which can have a number of different fields. The most common opt-in list forms include email address, first and last names and less commonly address and phone number. Cost for this shold be included with the autoresponder, and as such comes to nothing. This is the page that you want to develop traffic to. When someone finds what you have to offer or say interesting, they will fill in their information and become a part of your opt-in list.

The second thing that you will need is webhosting. You can get hosting for different prices. A good review of different hosting options is available here. I prefer dot5hosting out of all of them. You need webhosting to put up your website, your opt-in list form, and anything else that you desire. Webhosting ranges from $5 per month (dot5hosting) to $15 or more with some other services. Another option is using free hosting available at many places. The downside of this is that your site will not look very professional, will have many other ads on there, and is very limited in nature. If this is just a casual list, then you can use a free service, though I definitely don't recommend it.

The next, and possibly the most important thing for your opt-in list building process is a good autoresponder service. An autoresponder is more or less like a secretary that performs designated tasks at the schedules times. In this case, the task is sending out e-mail. An autoresponder sends out pre-written e-mail to a list of people (your opt-in list). Since it takes more than one (generally 7 or more) contacts with the same person before they give serious thought to your offer or recommendation, this is an essential part. The best service in this area is provided by Trafficwave and Royal-responder. You can read a review of Trafficwave here. The reason I prefer trafficwave is because it is more than just an auto-responder, very effective, and much cheaper than most other services. Trafficwave costs $17.95 a month.

Some way to advertise. This is a variable cost, and though there are many ways today that you can use to advertise, you will have a tough time picking one that is the best and most cost effective. Again, trafficwave can be useful here because it provides you with leads, banner impressions, and adtracking. We'll look at some good ways to discuss advertising in the next part. For now, let's look at what to stay away from. First, stay away from safe-lists, FFA posting to FFA pages, and buying opt-in list members. These are not very effective, and with opt-in list purchases, you might even risk SPAM complaints. There are three important things to look for in an advertising source - How many other people are using it. As in, is it the same bunch of people receiving e-mails from thousands others? This is the case with most safe-lists and similar methods. Second, how many people will see the ad that you have placed and what will be the competition? This is where the FFA pages fail as hardly anyone goes there anymore, and your ad is one of the thousands of ads on the page. And the last is the cost per person visiting your site who actually fills in his/her information. Using these three criterion, you can judge what source of advertising you want to use.

In the next part we will look at the different advertising methods and some important tips on writing your e-zine (the series of emails that the opt-in list members receive). And we will tie it all together.