You are a home business entrepreneur. You have just built a fantastic website, acquired a host of good products but your advertising budget is small. How do you go about enticing people to your website? I know exactly how you feel because, like lots of small home business entrepreneurs, I have been right where you are now.

Even if you've only been marketing on the Internet for a short time, I'm sure you've heard the saying, "the money is in the list". A good email opt-in list – a list you build yourself, is worth its weigh in gold. It is the difference between being wildly successful and falling into the deep black hole of cyberspace. So how you go about building an opt-in list without much money?

There are several ways to go about capturing leads cheaply or for free. The most common method is to offer a free newsletter on your site. People who surf the web surf do so mainly for information. Giving them what they want, works. Offer free information as an incentive to join your list. Free works! Don't' offer something that is available everywhere you turn on the Internet. Offer something of value – a mind-blowing free report, an e-book packed with great information or an awesome free gift.

There are numerous free list-building programs that offer ways you can build your list. The List Builder's Club, The List Machine, ListDotCom and Opportunity.com are just a few of the good ones available. Sign up with one or all of them and see if they are what you are looking for. If they are not, there is no need to waste time with them.

Because of the spam factor, buying leads does not work as well as it used to but it is still quite effective. It just takes more leads to get the desired response. Right now lead companies are falling over themselves to sell single opt-in leads cheaper than their competitors. Some companies are literally giving them away free for a limited time at the rate of 2,000 per day. Sign up with one of these companies and find an autoresponder service still willing to allow you to import purchased leads. It is a numbers game. Let's say you only get 50 – 100 sign-ups for your newsletter out of each 2,000, it is still not a bad deal. That is 1,500 – 3,000 additions to your list each month at a fraction of what it would cost to buy double opt-in leads. It is then up to you to build a relationship with the ones who have agreed to opt-in to your list.

Traffic Exchanges are great places for getting leads. Don't expect a huge number of direct signups for your programs from them. Most of the people surfing the Traffic Exchanges are advertising their products or sites. They are not looking for programs to join.
The best way I've found to work the Traffic Exchanges, is to join a few lead generation programs of your choice and advertise them on the Traffic Exchanges. The people surfing the Traffic Exchanges who are not getting results are open to offers from new recruiting programs.

Run contests on your website and have people subscribe to your newsletter as a requirement of entry. If your newsletter is any good they will continue to receive it even after the contest is over.

A fantastic list building method that requires no expenditure is writing articles. Write articles and submit them to web sites, e-zines and other places on the Internet. E-zine publishers are constantly looking for fresh content so articles will always be in demand. "I can't write"! Sure you can! If it means the difference between starvation and making money, you discover just how well you can write. Get out your notepad and sit at your computer with the TV and radio off and get something on the page. Everything improves with practice and your writing will too. Try it. You have nothing to loose and you may find you are a fantastic writer. Write about something you know are familiar with or are an expert on. If you blatantly advertise your products in your article, it will not be accepted. You can advertise your website or your expertise in your Home Business in the resource box at the end of your article.

I have found that it is best to implement several methods to build your list quickly. Whatever method you use, remember that for email marketing to be effective it must be targeted. Your prospective customers must be interested in your product or service.

List building is not a get rich quick method but it is still extremely effective. It takes time to build a responsive email list and it may be several months before it becomes the moneymaker you anticipate. With this in mind plan a really good lead building strategy from the outset and you should gradually see your profits soar. Your money is still in your list.

About the Author
Janice Sharman currently runs the Sure Profits Center.
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