The List Builder

  Don't Confuse Activity With Progress It's possible to be busy all day and still not accomplish what you set out to do. Online marketing makes this especially easy. There is always something else you can do. Check your traffic. Join another program. Change your landing page. Try a new tool. Post on social media. Read another article about how to build your business. Before you know it, the day is gone. And you may not have actually moved forward. Being Busy Feels Like Progress There's nothing wrong with staying busy. The problem comes when activity becomes a substitute for progress. You can spend hours working on your website without getting another subscriber. You can join ten traffic programs without knowing whether any of them are sending you interested visitors. You can spend all day changing your capture page when the one you already have is working just fine. Activity isn't necessarily bad. But it should have a purpose. Go Back to Your Goal Remember what we talke...

  Building a World-Class Team When You're a Team of One When you hear the words world-class team , you might picture a large company with offices full of employees. But you don't need a large company to have a great team. When you're building an online business, you may start out as a team of one. That doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself. Your Tools Can Become Part of Your Team Think about the different jobs involved in building a list. Someone needs to bring visitors to your offer. Someone needs to provide the capture page. Someone needs to collect the email address. Someone needs to deliver the free gift. Someone needs to send the follow-up emails. You could try to do all of those things manually. Or you can put tools to work for you. Your autoresponder can handle your email sequence. Your capture page builder can handle your signup page. Your traffic sources can help bring visitors. Each one has a job. Together, they become part of your system. Choose Peo...

  Build Your System Around Your Goal When you're getting started with online marketing, it's easy to begin with the tools. Which autoresponder should I use? Which traffic exchange should I join? Which page builder is best? Which social platform should I use? There's nothing wrong with asking those questions. But there's a better question to ask first: What am I trying to accomplish? Start With the Goal Suppose your goal is to build an email list. Once you know that, the rest of the system becomes easier to understand. You need something useful to offer. You need a way for people to request it. You need a way to collect their email address. You need a way to follow up with them. And you need a way to bring interested people to your offer. Now you can choose your tools based on what they need to accomplish. Give Every Tool a Job Your autoresponder has a job. Your capture page has a job. Your lead magnet has a job. Your traffic sources have a job. If you can't explain ...

  Why You Don't Need Every Marketing Tool When you're new to online marketing, it's easy to believe you need every new tool that comes along. A new page builder. A new autoresponder. A new traffic source. A new social platform. Before long, you're spending more time learning tools than building your business. More Tools Don't Guarantee Better Results Every tool promises to make things easier. Some really do. Others simply add another layer of complexity. The goal isn't to own the most tools. The goal is to use a few tools well. Learn One Thing at a Time One of the best decisions you can make is to slow down. Choose a simple system. Learn how it works. Use it consistently. Only after you're comfortable should you consider adding something new. You'll make faster progress by mastering one tool than by struggling with ten. Keep Your System Simple Ask yourself: Does this tool solve a real problem? Will I actually use it? Does it fit into my current system? I...

  Why Consistency Matters More Than Perfection One of the biggest mistakes new list builders make isn't choosing the wrong tool. It's giving up too soon. Many people begin with excitement. They build a landing page. Create a lead magnet. Write a few emails. Then life gets busy. Days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into months. Before long, their blog sits untouched and their subscribers haven't heard from them in a long time. Small Steps Add Up You don't have to publish every day. You don't have to write the perfect article. What you do need is consistency. One helpful blog post each week adds up to more than fifty articles in a year. One email each week keeps you connected with your subscribers. Small, steady progress is surprisingly powerful. Build Trust Over Time People rarely subscribe because of one article. They subscribe because they believe you'll continue providing helpful information. Every blog post... Every email... Every follow-up... Builds a little mor...