Newsletters have to be one of the best ways of getting opt-in subscribers.

There are a couple of ways to do this -

1. Using other people’s newsletters as a way of advertising your freebie or opt-in page

2. Offering your own newsletter which you write (and publish) monthly, weekly or daily (hard work) in return for an opt-in

Building your list with newsletters is effective if your focused niche has some connection to the newsletter you want to use to get traffic back to your site.

There’s hundreds of newsletters available online and, with a little searching you can find several that suit your purposes.

A Google search for “newsletter directories” will put more resources right in front of you than you can use. Finding lists of directories is easy. Your task will be to check out each one to see if your business will get any value from a subscription. An easy search with Google will find free newsletters for you to check out.

A very productive technique is offering an article of interest to newsletter publishers, with a link back to your opt-in page, of course. Most publishers would welcome a guest article that is well-written. Before you do that, read several issues of the newsletter to get familiar with the focus and the tone.

Most newsletters will have a central theme, so write an article to offer for publication that relates to that central theme. Make sure it is well-written with perfect spelling and good grammar. If you can, try to emulate the tone of his newsletter…the way he or she writes. If you cannot, just make your tone conversational by writing it like you were talking to a friend or next door neighbor.

Contact the newsletter publisher and offer your article for publication in his newsletter in exchange for a link back to your site. In your article offer a related free item, like an ebook with related information to the newsletter’s niche or a piece of software that will make the subscriber’s lives easier.

Of course, in order to download your free offer, they will have to give you their email address and double opt-in to make it legal.

One warning: Make sure your free gifts exchanged their opt-in have good value. Test them yourself to make sure every option works. Do not settle for testing just the most likely options or processes…test them all! If one of your new subscribers finds links in your ebook that are invalid or just no longer active, you will be the bad guy. How long do you think it will take to be published on the newsletter?

Some newsletters accept small ads for a reasonable price. Create yourself or have a small banner ad created for you that states your message and includes an active link to your site or squeeze page. Run it for as long as you can afford it and definitely for as long as you are getting new list opt-ins.

You might be able to negotiate a reduced ad rate or a free ad if you arrange a percentage for the publisher on any products purchased by his subscribers.

If you can complete that arrangement, make sure your link in the ad has his affiliate ID in it so you will know where the new sales came from. Keep impeccable records and send the publisher’s commissions rapidly to keep the arrangement a positive one.

Do not even think about playing around with the percentage owed to the newsletter publisher. Honesty will keep you in business, while your shady dealings will trash your online reputation and credibility in about 30 minutes.

Newsletter publishers can type pretty fast and it takes one click to send an email to a hundred other publishers or forums.

Another way to use other publisher’s newsletters to grow your list is to provide opportunities for that publisher to keep his content fresh and of some interest to his subscribers.

You could provide a wide range of free items for him to offer to his readers in exchange for a link to your squeeze page:

• A list of free resources related to his niche
• PLR software his readers can use in their own businesses
• Royalty-free graphics or clip art
• A collection of puzzles
• PLR headers or Web 2.0 graphics
• Lists of different sets of Web terminology that might help his newbies understand what is going on around them

When you make a newsletter publisher’s life easier and his list members happy, your own list will grow rapidly. When the publisher’s readers start looking for your free gifts, they will follow your link to see what else you have that might interest them. Have several interesting and valuable gifts waiting for them and your opt-in form.

While you are building your list from the newsletter’s readers, you might increase your sales if you offer a special discounted price to the members of that list. While they might not all buy your product, quite a few will follow your link to your page. Unless your page is a dedicated single product sales page, have other products for sale and some affiliate products prominently displayed. Make it easy for your browsers to find something to buy when they are finished looking for or downloading your free items.

Most, if not all, of the details of managing your new set of opt-ins can be handled by a good autoresponder service. That will be discussed in detail a few chapters down. Right now it is enough to know that you can automate the entire process, from double opt-in and email address verification to the actual download of the product. Set it up, let it run and go find another newsletter that needs your content.

Creating Your Own Newsletter:

If you are creating your own newsletter, the principles are much the same, with a different focus.

To get the word out about your newsletter, follow the same process we discussed at the start of this chapter. Send an inquiry to other newsletters in your niche and offer an article for publication after you’ve checked out their focus and tone.

Include a short bio at the end of your article with your link. In fact, do not do anything at all to promote your list-building activities without that critical link. Without it, you are not promoting anything at all, but just providing content.

Ask the readers of your newsletter to subscribe to it. The ones already subscribed will ignore it. But the readers getting it because someone forwarded it to them or because they searched for newsletters on your niche and found you, will already have an interest in your niche and might sign up.

That would be golden targeted traffic.

Submit your newsletter to every newsletter directory with a category for your niche. If you are publishing a recipe newsletter, submitting to a directory focused only on sports newsletters or Internet Marketing would be pointless. As mentioned before, a Google search for “newsletter directories” will get you a list several pages long.

List the benefits your readers will get with their subscription. Offering something free might not be a strong enough enticement to get their opt-in. Browsers are interested in WIIFM…What’s In It For Me…tell them and they will opt-in. Don’t exaggerate or hype your benefits past their actual value. Today’s browsers are more sophisticated than you might expect and will just click off your page if your benefits sound too good to be true.

Your father’s advice when you became a young adult, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!” still applies today.

Test every link, email address and all forms to make sure they work before you launch your newsletter. A bad link or corrupted form can turn a large amount of new subscribers into missed opt-ins before you even know about the problem on your site. Test! Test! Test again! Perfection is the bare minimum standard here.

Find other newsletter publishers who are interested in swapping referrals

with you. Members of newsletters are rabid about gathering more useful information or focused content on their passions than they already have stuffed on their hard drives. If you offer a different point of view or different resources on your newsletter, your list opt-ins will explode dramatically.

Contests are always great draws for opt-ins and are easily set up. They can be on any niche topic you are involved in. You can use simple contests to get your members more involved in your newsletter’s community. Pick a good prize that would appeal to your readership.

For example, you could ask your readers to submit their best golf story, favorite conversation with a 2-year-old or picture of the best craft they ever made. The possibilities are endless. Give them a timeline for submitting their entries and make them public. Have the community vote on the best one.

Make a big splash over the winner. Announce who won and print the winning story or photo with a large headline. Send announcements of the contest and the winner to the newsletters you are connected with. You want to attract a lot of attention.

If your contest is successful…happy and interested readers…some new

opt-ins or requests for subscriptions…you could ask other newsletter publishers if they would like to run contests together for all your members combined.

Newsletters reach a large audience and your opt-in list could grow quickly if you keep yours interesting and broadcast your link everywhere.

Download this ebook for FREE now.