List Building-Where Are Your People?

Sometimes we get all caught up in what we're doing. We spend a lot of time on just the right list building page to attract customers. We test our headline. We make sure the autoresponder is set up properly, and then... there's something we forget.

Our potential subscribers.

Who are these people?

List building for a specific audience--people interested in your niche is very important, even more important then all the testing and tracking, perhaps.

I mean, think about it. If you don't find the right people to target, where are you?

So, how do you find the finest list building audience? Easy. Do some research. Where do people with kids, for instance, hang out?

Well... how about newsgroups? You can go to Google Groups at http://groups.google.com, and come away with a bunch of groups that discuss parenting. There's alt.parenting, alt.parenting-solutions, misc.kids.health, and alt.mothers to name just a few. You'll be able to join these groups right from Google or via a stand-alone newsreader, which comes right along with Outlook Express.

Become a member of these groups. Then, after observing the atmosphere and reading the groups FAQs, make some interesting posts--not about your newsletter or whatever you're building your list about, but join in the discussions. Use the URL to your list building page in your signature file at the end of your post.

Or, what about blogs? Though Google isn't putting much stock in one-way links you get from posting to them anymore, you can still do some list building through them. Again, it' s important to make a post relating to the discussion in the blog, and then, only to use your URL in your signature line. You can find blogs with the theme of parenting at http://blogsearch.google.com.

Places where people shop, like Amazon.com? You can write reviews of books on parenting or rate products and use the URL to your list building page.

One thing you have to be when you're list building is creative. Find the people who want the information you have to give or what you're selling. Otherwise, you'll just be wasting your time and all your list building efforts will be down the tubes. List building the right way can make you rich. List building the wrong way can just frustrate you and leave you disillusioned.

Tellman Knudson is CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc. and a master of list building. Build a massive responsive list at MyFirstList.com.