Everyone involved with internet business will tell you how important list building is and why you cannot succeed without a good list. But it is when you try to understand what list building is that you face problems. A list is nothing more than a database of your potential customers; and list building is simply increasing the size of that list so that the number of people who may buy from you increases – and that is list building explained in its most basic form. To put it another way, your list is your market and list building is the activity of increasing it.

How people come to your site is a matter for another discussion, but they come because what you are offering is of interest to them. But the interest of a visitor does not automatically translate into a sale – as a matter of fact, the first contact almost never ends up with a sale. Sales will only come with building up your website (or building up your brand) and the only way to get this done is by keeping yourself in the front of people’s minds so that they are constantly reminded of what your business is and what products you are selling. To do this you will need to be in regular contact with them and keep sending them information that will excite their interest along with reasons why they can satisfy their need by buying form you.

Let’s face it, a website is a faceless entity in the cyber world and to get someone to pay money to it they will need to have trust and this can only be created by constantly offering information of value and reason why they should buy from you.

Many newcomers make the mistake of thinking that the bigger the list they have the better. Always remember that it is not the size of the list that matters but how focused it is – there is no point in having a list of 10,000 addresses for a business selling skis online if 9,900 of them are people who live in the tropics. A good list is one where there can be a good conversion rate, not one that is simply full of email addresses – a conversion rate of 20% with a focused list of 1,000 addresses will be far more profitable than a list of 10,000 that results in a conversion rate of just 1%.