So you want to build a mailing list, but you don’t know where to start?

There are really two elements to building a decent-sized mailing list. Firstly, creating a sign-up process that convinces as many people as possible to submit their details to you, and secondly to driving as many visitors as possible to that page of your website.

Get a form that converts, and plenty of people going to it, and you’ll see your list grow by leaps and bounds.

One of the best possible way sot increase signup rates at your form is to offer a free bonus for signing up. Most commonly this is either an email course or an ebook which you have written and the only way to get it is to sign up.

Now the key here is to make sure that your bonus offers real value. You don’t want to just give away something flimsy - you want your readers to be genuinely impressed with the information you have given them. So much so, that they can’t believe they got it for free. You want your readers to be so impressed that they recommend your mailing list to other people.

So put some time into thinking about the niche market you have chosen. What information would they *love* to have. If you want to be smart, even consider actually setting up a survey on your website and *asking* people which of your ideas they would most like to know about. When you have a clear winner, create that product and start offering it for free.

The other key to a good signup rate is to then “sell” the benefits of your free bonus. Don’t just tell people they’ll get the bonus when they sign up - extoll the virtues of the bonus. Explain how great it is - what are the benefits to it? What will your readers learn? And so on.

When your product has a very high perceived value, far more people will be willing to change their name and email address for it.