If you do any of your marketing online - and these days most businesses do - you’ve probably heard people say that the ‘money is in the list’

However “broken-recordish” it may sound, it is true.

Fact is, if you know how to grow and profit from your own email lists, you can pretty much write your own ticket.

So this month’s MindPower Marketing Tip is from internet marketing expert Jimmy D. Brown.

Two things stand out about Jimmy.

Firstly he knows what works and he shares it - no hype, no nonsense.

Secondly, he believes strongly that we work to live rather than live to work. So he specialises in developing tactics that work easily over and over again.

And, if you’ll read the remainder of this article, he’ll pass that knowledge right on to you.

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For a free 20-page report from Jimmy D. Brown on how to grow your list, visit http://www.listprofitssystem.com.

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Building a profitable email list comes down to getting folks to do four things…

1. Request
First things first, you need to convince people to “opt-in” to your list. That is, get them to join your list of their own free will.

Usually, this involves giving away a mini-course, report or newsletter from your web site. All you need is..

• An Attention Grabbing Title.
• A Handful of Bulleted Benefits.
  (A short list of 4-6 desirable things subscribers will learn if they join your list. Think “what’s in it for me?”)
• An Opt-In Submission Form.

(Your autoresponder system will provide this for you.)

NOTE: The best way to get folks to join is to embed the above mentioned items directly in the most prominent place where you have your site visitors’ attention. Usually this is 3-5 paragraphs into your sales letter or 1/3 of the way into an ezine article.

2. Receive
After visitors to your site have “requested” information by joining your list, it’s critical that your emails be delivered successfully to their inbox. With all of the filters in place (among other hazards) this can be quite a chore.

One thing you’ll want to do for certain is check your SPAM rating to make certain it’s in an acceptable range. Again, most of the better autoresponder services offer this feature for you.

You can also do things like…

• Get your subscribers to “approve” mailings from you.
• Authenticate yourself as a legitimate mailer when you receive a “response challenge” from protection services such as Spam Arrest.
• Use alternative formats of your email messages such as “downloadable email messages” in PDF format.

3. Read
When your emails successfully arrive at the inboxes of your subscribers, another task awaits - getting them to actually open your message and read it.

This is going to depend upon your “subject line”. It is paramount that your subject line be intriguing enough to convince your readers to stop what they are doing and take a look inside.

One way to get this done is to create a swipe file of email subject lines that have convinced YOU to read the messages and then modify those subject lines for your own use.

Ex. I received an email that had the subject line of “This affiliate tip is almost too easy” that caught my attention and forced me to read the associated message.

This subject line could easily be used in a variety of different niches…

• This dieting tip is almost too easy
• This time management tip is almost too easy
• This marriage saving tip is almost too easy

4. Respond
When you have convinced your subscribers to open your email message and read its contents, the only remaining “task” is to get them to respond.

You want them to take action. Click a link. Go somewhere. Ultimately, spend money with you.

The only way you’ll be able to do this is follow a simple catch phrase I’ve been teaching for years: “useful, but incomplete”.

It simply means this: your messages must provide content that is useful to your subscribers (otherwise, they’ll unsubscribe faster than you can say “oops”!), but is also “incomplete” in that there is some additional offer that could enhance or maximize that content.

Ex. You might write an article that shares “7 Ways to Profit With Autoresponders” to send to your list. That’s “useful” information to those who are interested in that particular topic. It’s also “incomplete” because they need an autoresponder service to put the information into action. That’s your cue to promote your recommended autoresponder service.

See how it works?

If you want to pad your wallet with profits by using opt-in lists, this is how you do it:

Get people to do these four things

• Request
• Receive
• Read
• Respond

This is a system that has never failed, will never fail. I’ve used it. Others have used it.

Now, it’s your turn to use it.

Thanks to Jimmy for this month’s tip.

P.S. For the first time, ever, Jimmy D. Brown is sharing his simple, yet powerful 6-step system that will show you how to grow your list, provide your readers with the content they crave and start making more money than you ever expected from your list. Do I have your attention yet? Then visit http://www.listprofitssystem.com and download a free 20-page special report.