One key tactic is to increase the perceived value of your freebie, or “ethical bribe”, by assigning a value to it. Take a hard look at what you are offering to entice prospects to subscribe to your list, and determine a value, whether it’s $10 or $300. Think to yourself, if you were to actually sell this as home study course or an e-book, how much would you sell it for? Once you have that figured out, be sure to add it to the copy on your sign up page.

Your e-mail list sign up page should sell the benefits of your list, just as a sales letter would sell the benefits of your product. So set it up the same way; use a headline, a subhead, and supporting text.

An essential point that shouldn’t be overlooked is having a way to take orders, because when you offer your products to your list, you need a way to collect the cash. There are many online companies that offer shopping carts to take orders, but to start out, PayPal is the easiest way to go.

Another key is to have reliable sources of traffic to build your opt-in list. Article marketing is the best way to start out, because it is easy to learn and it is free. There are tons of free sources online to learn about it. Once you have article marketing down, it’s time for another stream of traffic. One way is to use podcasting. The great thing about podcasting is that you don’t need to develop new content at all. All you need to do is read your articles into an audio program and you have a podcast. You can repeat this process for every article and have another stream of traffic with the same content. You can’t beat that for efficiency. YouTube can also be used in similar way by adding Power Point Slides or making a video of yourself reading the article.

In addition to knowing where your traffic comes from, you need to know what traffic source is converting into subscriptions the most. Once you determine which traffic source is giving you the best results, you need to focus more effort on that traffic source.

Growing a list also means you need a steady stream of permanent traffic. As you develop your traffic building skills watch your sign-ups and your business grow. Be sure the opt-in list you grow is targeted to the products and services that you’re selling and you’ll be well on your way to success.