List Building: Message Mania How to Make Friends with Your List	Visited: 1118 Not rated Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Tellman Knudson August 10, 2007

Many Internet marketers look at list building with dollar signs in their eyes. "The Money Is in the List." How many times have you heard that one? "Get a dollar a month from every person on your list." Yep. Another one equating the people on your list with money.

There's just one thing you forgot. Your list isn't made up of breathing leather wallets. It's comprised of people, just like you and me.

Some people complain that I send too much email because I send out to my list every single day, and the why of it is obvious. I'm trying to make money, just like everyone else, and I do enjoy a huge income from the messages I send. But I feel that I give more than just recommendations for great products out with that. Want to know what that is?

I tell a story.

I rarely send messages that people would consider to be boring. Every one tells a story or gives some tidbit about what's going on in my life. It's usually something very interesting, and even when I do give you links to go and buy something, the surrounding copy isnt' hype and selling, it's human.

This is where your list building efforts will soar. If you tell a story, if you do something to enthrall people with your writing, first and foremost, you'll have the opportunity to sell things simply because people like to receive your emails. They actually read them! How many messages have you sent out to your list that never even got opened? You probably don't want to know. But give them a crazy headline, like "Don't Squat with Yer Spurs On!" or "in search of The Wolf," and you'll get people reading because they want to find out what the message is all about.

Once they're in, you have to keep them reading. So, tell a story:

If you are a mom, then a big, giant Happy Mother's Day to you!

Jodi (my partner) is having her first Monther's Day today and so far it has been pretty cool...

we watched cartoons in the morning...

went out and had some mexican food for lunch

got a new car-seat for Torger and picked up a bunch of GeoCashing gear (you will hear more about that in the next few weeks)...

OK. What do you think? Will people click on the links in my email to find out what's going on? Trust me, a majority of them will. It's not the usual hype and crap that you see flooding your Inbox, day after day.

Does this take a talent? Of course it does! But you can study storytelling and become better at it. Or, write something about your own life that might get people interested. Whatever you do, it has to be interesting just to get people to respond. Otherwise, you'll end up in the "Junk Mail" file and be deleted with the rest.

List building can be automatic, but maintenance of your list shouldn't be. You need to fertilize a garden to see it grow and you'll have to find ways to make your list building efforts to take root. Communicate with your list members on a human level and watch your profits grow, too.