One of the most important aspects to your Internet marketing business should be - getting targeted traffic and list building. Little or no traffic to your website will result in a low opt-in list. There a various methods to generating traffic to your sites, like PPC, article marketing, Ad exchanges as well as joint ventures. Although these are excellent methods to building your opt-in list, many overlook the effectiveness of blogging.

Blogging is the Key

Generating traffic and building an opt-in list all rely on advertising in one form or another. Some may not call it advertising, and regardless of what label you give it, people HATE advertising. Nevertheless, it is the life source of Internet marketing and without it, your business won’t survive. The key is to disguise it so it doesn’t look like advertising, and that’s where blogging comes in.

For some reason, Internet surfers are attracted to blogs! The need for every human to feel validated, provides the Internet surfer with a way to give their opinion or their two cents worth on any topic they choose to discuss. People are naturally curious, and they love to post to blogs but they also like to read posts made by others as well. This is where you use blogging for the sole purpose of driving traffic and building your opt-in list.

Join Other Bloggers

Go join blogging communities like My Blog Log and Blog Catalog, and get to know other regular bloggers by visiting their sites. Take you time and post relevant and helpful information that pertains to the topic. Don’t forget to include your website URL, as well as your signature tag at the bottom of every post. If you make educated comments, other bloggers will click on your sig tag and visit your website where they then become part of the “traffic”. If you repeat this process enough times, this will provide your visitors with an opportunity to join your newsletter or RSS feed - thus building your opt-in list.

Conclusion

Starting a blog is not as difficult and technical as it once was. Today’s cPanel provide a simple push-button system to creating your blog through Fantastico. If you haven’t started your blog, your missing out on a grand opportunity to building your opt-in list through blogging.

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Building a profitable opt-in list is essential to the success of your Internet business. Opt-in lists will fall under two categories; a responsive opt-in list that brings in profits and a unresponsive opt-in list, which brings in little or no profits. Anybody who has been in Internet marketing game for any significant amount of time knows that. What many don’t know is that JUST an opt-in list can be nothing but a lot of work. What you really need is a profitable opt-in list. One that will produce sales and even better, repeated sales.

Basic Principles

Building a profitable opt-in list is based on several basic principles of selling in any medium. Long before the Internet was even a twinkle in Bill Gate’s eye, people were selling things to other people. This selling often took place, as it does today, in brick and mortar stores. There were (and maybe still are) door-to-door salesmen as well that sold everything from pots and pans and hair brushes to encyclopedias and burial insurance. These door-to-door salesmen went from city to city and house to house selling their wares.

Internet Marketing Like Door-to-Door Salesmen?

Internet marketing is very much like the door-to-door salesmen of old. We build our good and faithful customer base one customer at a time by collecting names and email addresses of those who are our best prospects. The door-to-door salesmen of old knew that they could waste a lot of time (not to mention shoe leather) trying to sell to those that would never be interested in their products so they concentrated on those that were their most likely customers. Encyclopedia salesmen concentrated on households that had school age children. Door-to-door salesmen who sold pots and pans concentrated on housewives.

Conclusion

Internet marketers need to take note of that bit of wisdom and make sure that they aren’t just collecting a long list of email addresses that will never produce any sales. Opt-in lists are built from your traffic – PROFITABLE opt-in lists are built from your TARGETED traffic. Never waste time trying to build your traffic – and your list – by any and all means. Stick to the proven methods of driving targeted traffic, like article marketing, blogging, etc. After all, it’s the only way to get the maximum return for all the hard work you’re putting into your online business – and the profits you so richly deserve!