At last you finally realize that you need an opt-in list to make money on the Internet. (How many eBayers don’t have a list!) You’ve read hundreds of articles on the subject and sought expert advice. You’ve heard that all the guru’s talking about creating a profitable business using opt-in lists.

You finally decide to start a list of your own. How do you get started? Better still, how do you build a list big enough to provide an income from? First off you need a web site, with an opt-in form placed prominently on it. Next you need an autoresponder service or a script on your own site. Click here to test drive the most reliable service around. Always use double opt-in with your autoresponder.

Hosting your own script is an alternative, but requires knowledge of script language and is best left to those in the know.

How should your messages be formated? Well, keep your messages short and to the point, no more than 65 characters per line.

How many eMails should you send a week? That depends, once or twice per week, unless you have news to broadcast that can not wait until your next message. Any more and you could get a lot of unsubscribers.

These are just a few of the questions that you will need to answer if you want to give your Marketing business a chance to succeed.

Having your own web site is a necessity these days. Without one, you would only be able to promote via advertising, other people’s products through your affiliate links.

You don’t need to know HTML, if you can use standard MS Word, then you can use WYSIWYG editors to build your web pages, and to insert the code for an opt-in form will be the only time you need to look at the source code for your page.

To start building your opt-in list try these five ideas:

• Offer a free eBook or report, make it a requirement for your visitors to fill out your opt-in form before they can access the report. You can also include links back to other products or pages on your web site or even Affiliate links as an upsell.

• Join some of the Firesales and Giveaways that other marketers are running. Add your gift to the site and when visitors want to download your gift make them fill out your opt-in form first.

• Join some relevant forums and use a good three line signature/resource box, make sure to check first that this is allowed in the Terms of service.

• Write some articles and submit them to article directories with your resource box.

• Contact other list owners and exchange ads, you run an ad for them and they run an ad for you.

Building a large and profitable opt-in list isn’t going to happen by tomorrow or even next week. Consistency and some creative flair will help you build your opt-in list.

You can get a Free Six Part eCourse here.