So, whether we like it or not there’s no doubt that the gurus have list building down to a fine art. They can put up an offer and have thousands of folks signed up and ready to hand over their money within a few weeks. Meanwhile, the little guy (you)just starting out can’t seem to get his list into double figures no matter how hard he tries. So eventually, you either give up or go on to buy yet another training course (recommended by a guru of course) that promises to reveal the ‘real listbuilding secrets‘!
And guess what? That one doesn’t work either. 
But now, you’re on yet another list. Someone else is managing to build their list of subscribers and the only thing you’re building is a list of subscriptions that can clog up your inbox. Therein lies the difference.
While you’re busy building your list of subscriptions, gurus are busy building lists of subscribers. And as long as you continue doing what you’re doing, nothing is going to change.
I know it’s tough when you’re just starting out to not get sucked in by all the fancy capture pages, with all their promises of instant wealth. Even Mike Dillard is guilty of it with the Magnetic Sponsoring sales page.
That headline actually put me off buying Magnetic Sponsoring for quite a few months, which, in this particular case, was a bad thing. But in every other case, you should run a mile from anything that sounds remotely similar. So, how do they do it? And more importantly, how do you do it?
Capture page
Whether you know how to create your own or you have to pay someone to create one for you, there isn’t any way you can build a list without having a capture page. Note here, I absolutely don’t subscribe to the idea of buying leads, or joining list building programmes that allow you to mail thousands of folks who don’t know you. Leads that you buy have also been sold to at least a few hundred other folks, and the only people recieving emails in list building programmes are people looking to build their own list, not join someone else’s.
If you don’t know how to create your own capture page, check out this post. Jim’s capture page creator is really easy to use, free, and creates professional looking capture pages in literally just a few minutes.
Don’t think that just because you’re not asking for money you’re not selling something. You are. In fact, with the threat from spam and computer viruses, folks are becoming less and less inclined to hand over their email addresses. It’s a huge cost, so what you offer has got to be worth their while.
Selling the Signup
As you may have guessed, I’m not a huge fan of hype. But you do have to ‘sell’ whatever it is you’re giving away. If you don’t have a product of your own, then either create one or find one that you can use. Given the choice, you’re much better off creating your own. It’s not as hard as you might think. I created “The Insider Report” while still a total newbie and a technical dunce to boot. (and yeah, I’m still a technical dunce in a lot of areas, lol).
Now how do I sell that report? Simple! Despite the fact that Magnetic Sponsoring has been around for a number of years, that report was not only the first report of it’s kind, it’s still (as far as I know), the only report that gives you the secrets from folks who have since gone on to become some of Mike’s closest business partners. Do you think that if you were interested in Magnetic Sponsoring, you might want to hear about it from folks who’ve bought it and failed to do anything with it? Or would you prefer to find out about it from folks who bought it, and went on to create online fortunes by actually applying the secrets in there?
The Follow Up
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve said this, but to hell with the duplicate content penalty, I’ll say it again.
The secret to making money is not in the list. The secret to making money is in the relationship you build with that list.
Have you ever replied to any of the folks whose list you’re on? Try it. Next time you get an email from them, hit the reply button and see what happens. Note – DO NOT hit reply just so you can send them some crummy spam. At the end of the day, you signed up to their list, they didn’t sign up to yours!
But shoot them a mail, tell them what you’re up to, what value you got from their product, what help you’re looking for from that product… this is how you build relationships. If they know the secret of building a responsive, loyal subscriber base, you’ll get a personal reply. It might take a few days. Remember, they are running a business and contrary to what you might read about not needing to do any work, most folks actually put in a helluva lot more time than they would care to admit.
I’ve built up some really good friendships from people who signed up to my list and replied to my emails. Those friendships now mean that if any of us have a problem or want something doing, we can help each other out, or if we can’t, between us we probably know someone who does.
Do you really think that the gurus of this world know everything and everyone? Trust me, they don’t. Some of them probably know a lot less than you. But they know people who know people who know people…you get the picture.
Lead generation isn’t just about getting a list of subscribers who hopefully might join your business or buy your products. It’s about building relationships with people. People who will then go on to recommend you to their friends (lists) and this is what grows your business. Just like in the real world, a lot of it comes down to ‘who you know’ more so than ‘what you know’.
