How To Start A Mailing List (yes, you need one!)

Earlier today, I tweeted and posted a link on Facebook to a free pdf download of 10 Ideas To Help You Grow Your Mailing List. And then I received a reply that asked how to start the mailing list… So here are my “quick and easy, down n’ dirty start your mailing list today” tips:

1. Sign Up For An Autorespoonder – You cannot handle your list yourself. Don’t even bother trying. You will be spending entirely too much time on adding people and deleting people who wish to be removed, that you won’t even have time to write your mailing list.

An autoresponder will take care of the subscription process for you – and you can even write messages in advance and schedule them to go out on a specific date and time. Which is pretty awesome, if you ask me. There are free ones out there, but they will put ads in your messages from other companies. I suggest going with a paid service. You don’t want to be sending out someone else’s ads do you??

You can start an account with Email Aces for under $10 per month, but you can only have one list. The autoresponder that I use is $40 per month – but it allows for unlimited mailing lists, and it also comes with a shopping cart, affiliate management tool, and more!  You can get a 2 week trial for just $1 by clicking here.

2. Create The List – Once you start your autoresponder service, you will need to create a list. The instructions will vary by which service you use, of course, so I can’t give you directions here. Check with your service and they will help you if you need help.

3. Put The Form On Your Site / Blog – After you have created the list, you will create subscription form that you can display on your blog and website. Studies show that placing the form on the top right will increase your subscriber rate (and if you notice, that’s where I have mine!)

4. Start Growing Your List – Encourage people to sign up for your mailing list. Tweet about it on Twitter, ask your tweeps to re-tweet it, proclaim it on your Facebook status update, let your current customers know about it, take a sign-up sheet to any in-person event you are participating in, etc.

5. Read this report for more ideas on how to grow a mailing list. Just click here to read it online or download it to your computer! (and feel free to pass it around!)