Email list-building: Terry Dean's top 3 tips

Email list-building is a subject that comes up again and again, either because some smart guru's going to sell you his "nowhere-else-on-the-web" list-building secrets, or because this or that widget is going to "build your list on auto-pilot for you in just 7 days".

After spending way too much time and money trying to learn what really works and what doesn't in Internet Marketing, I've narrowed my focus to a small handful of people that I personally trust to deliver honest, workable training and advice. My faith in their rock-solid integrity, their experience and their ability and willingness to share it helps me to write articles like this with complete confidence.

One of my most highly prized sources of information is Terry Dean. I'm always interested to read what Terry has to say. After all, here's a man who sat down in front of a live audience and generated $96,250 in sales in one weekend with a single email.

He claims that email marketing is still his number one means of driving sales, beating all other methods including the much vaunted web 2.0 social media methods.

Terry noticed early in his Internet Marketing career that his income grew in direct proportion to the number of subscribers to his newsletter - when he had 1000 subscribers he was making $1000 per month, when he had 3000 subscribers, he earned $3000 and so on.

Terry is quick to emphasize that nowadays methods such as blogging have their legitimate place in the Internet Marketer's arsenal, but they're still not his primary means of driving sales.

His own analysis of the most productive use of his time has yielded the following valuable insights:

His most productive time is spent writing emails directly to his lists of subscribers.

Time spent on optimizing his Adwords campaigns comes second.

In third place is time spent on product development and coaching.

Social media methods of promotion Terry places at the lower end of the scale. For this reason he suggests that these activities should be outsourced wherever possible.

To the well-known phrase "the money's in the list", Terry makes his own significant amendment - he asserts that "the money's in the relationship with the list", and he makes no secret of the fact that his record-breaking $96,250 sales achievement was only possible because of the relationship of trust he had developed with all of the individuals on his list of subscribers who actually bought his product during the live workshop.

But how does he go about adding new subscribers to his list in the first place? Here are Terry's top 3 tips for list-building.

1. Pay-per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising produces near-instant results. When you launch a successful campaign, you can see results within minutes of switching it on. You can switch it on and off to test various elements of your sales funnel - ads, landing pages, keywords, etc. You can even earn money while building your list. The trick here is to make enough back from immediate sales to more than cover the cost of adding each new subscriber to your list.

However, instant profit is not to be expected every time. Terry warns that it often takes a couple of months to profit from a campaign through follow-up and sales.

The self-reliance factor of pay-per-click advertising is another reason Terry gives for preferring it over affiliate programs or joint venture partnerships. Reciprocating with affiliates or JV partners can become awkward if for some reason you are not comfortable with the product you're obliged to promote.

2. Affiliates

A straight-forward affiliate program can certainly add members to your list. Affiliates who do not have their own website will promote links directly to your sales page, where a pop-over or opt-in form can be utilized. You can use an affiliate tracking system like Netofficetoolbox to automatically track affiliate referrals and pay them commissions. Although you are paying out a proportion of your profits from leads gained in this way, it's arguable that these are leads you would not have without the help of the affiliates who have rounded them up for you.

Terry observes that in his experience, leads gained through the endorsement or recommendation of others (i.e. affiliates) are often worth more in the long run than those gained through PPC campaigns, due to the trust factor inherent in "word-of-mouth" type recommendation.

3. Blogging

While blogging may not be among the most successful drivers of sales, it is a very powerful way to add to and build relationship with your subscriber list. Blogging is also an effective way to gain page-ranking with the search engines. A blog can be combined with pop-overs or opt-in forms in the same way as your sales page.

Terry Dean uses a variety of further list-building methods including youtube videos, article marketing, offline advertising and others, but he maintains that the three methods described here are the most effective.

Such is my trust in Terry's integrity that I'm completely confident to freely pass on his advice and to warmly recommend his excellent training and coaching products.