Starting Your Own Mailing List

It seems that many of the larger and more established blogs around the blogosphere all have a “mailing list” signup form on their blogs. The reasons are varied but in most cases they do this to provide another method of communication to their readers.

Mailing Lists

In some cases you will find people who are trying to provide information simply because they are a good person, or they are using the mailing list to build a readership or they might be using the mailing list because John Chow has a mailing list. In MOST cases, the purpose of this list is to generate Revenue.

I don’t think you could throw a rock in any direction and not find some dumbass that has said “the money is in the list” like he actually knew what it meant. All the while he isn’t even building a list himself so how the hell would he know?

Email marketing is as old as dirt and if done properly can be a great way to build trust and loyalty and yes make money if done properly. I caution you that it isn’t easy and it won’t happen overnight and it may not happen at all if you stink at it. This is no different than making money online via any method so be warned.

I have recently ventured into the list building world with a Niche Site Tips list but I am still very new at it so I don’t feel qualified to write on how to do it or how to be good at it yet. I started my Niche Site Tips list as a way to talk more about building niche sites without having that theme dominate my blog and quite frankly for the experience of building a list.

I’ve wanted to know how it works for quite some time so I decided (Like I often preach on here) to get off my derriere and do it. So I did.

Signing Up

If you have been considering starting your own list then I would highly recommend it. It was much easier to do than I thought it would be and it was up and running in just a few minutes. I spent more time researching list providers than anything else.

At the end of the day, there are dozens of competitors in this field but I am somebody who likes stuff that works right the first time. I freak out to no end when I pay for something and it doesn’t work. That definitely blows my skirt up and as such I decided to simply go with the King right out of the gate and not screw around.

The Mailing list company I recommend is Aweber. They are the largest and most widely known list provider in the world as far as I know and they have a record of being a quality company as well as being able to actually get your mailings delivered. In the world of Spam protection, a company that can get your email delivered is worth it’s weight in gold.

Training

Using an Aweber list form is a snap. It is very intuitive and not that difficult to understand without even reading the instructions but Aweber goes above and beyond and they not only provide tactical how to instruction but they also have a complete training series that shows you how to get the most out of your list.

I thought this was a nice feature that seperated them from their peers. Being a typical guy I didn’t bother reading much of it because I know it all (j/k) but it is there if you need it or if you want it.

I did go back and read through most of it after I had my list set up and running and I am still in the learning phase if truth be told.

Conclusion

If you have a need for a mailing list and have been considering adding this to your blog or website but were intimidated because it seemed complicated then forget that. It’s a snap and if I can figure it out anyone can, just ask my wife.

You can be up and running and building your own lists within an hour or less. The easy part is getting it set up, the difficult part is getting good at it and providing information that anyone would want to sign up to a mailing list for in the first place.

As I progress with my mailing list campaign I will share how it is going and provide a bit more help and guidance but I don’t feel comfortable doing that until I would consider myself pretty damn good at it. So like anything else, if you want a mailing list, get to it.

Thinking about it won’t get you anywhere. I can vouch for Aweber as a quality provider but it;s your call.