Attention Mothers: In order to achieve the kind of freedom I have in mind, it's important to build your online business properly from the ground up. You want and you need a strong foundation. The way to build this foundation is by building up a strong, responsive opt-in email list. "Opt-in" is just another way of saying "permissission based", meaning you have requested permission to email someone and they have accepted.

I can't believe how long it took me to understand the importance of building my list. But better late than never I suppose. Now I realize how powerful it is to have a list of people that I can email offers to. You can make a lot of money this way!

So before I get into the "how-to" part of this report, I'd first like to de-bunk some myths associated with email marketing.

Myth # 1: People Don't Read Email

Cough, ahem. Beg to differ here. We all read emails, maybe not every single one of them, but definitely a percentage of them. Out of the ones we read, sometimes an offer is involved and we bite the bait and buy. Proving that email marketing is indeed a very effective method of online marketing. Virtually all people that go online use email.

Just think about filling out a form or buying something online. A person who is interacting online who doesn't have an email address is like a fish out of water.

Myth # 2 - Marketing to people by email can make people mad

It could be that your email will incite anger from a recipient. However, if they have opted in to your list, all they have to do is request to be removed from your list and he or she will stop receiving emails from you. It's unlikely that if they asked you or agreed for you to to email them, they will be angry when you do email them. That's an inherent beauty of opt-in email. It's advertising based on permission. After all, there is no harm in trying after receiving permission.

Myth # 3 - It's stupid to send email to people

That can depend. You need to have a sense of who is on your list, what their needs, wants and desires are, how you can help solve their problems. You must cultivate a discerning eye on who you should email and who you should not email. It would be wise for you to research metrics on which demographics will give you the highest ROI or return on investment on your email campaigns.

And Now...the Deal with Building an Opt-in List

Now that we've cleared up some common email marketing myths, the following discusses ways you can build your opt-in list and thus enjoy the benefits of employing fruitful email marketing campaigns.

1. Give away something of Value

Research your market and find out just what it is that they truly want in life. People go online to find answers to their problems. Find out what your market's problems are by doing keyword research (beyond the scope of this article but I promise I will post something about doing good keyword research soon).

Once you know their ills and pains, find an existing product like an ebook or create your own product (not recommended for those moms working with short time/budget)that helps them solve their problem. You can search in Google for "keyword + ebook giveaway rights" and see what comes up. This will be a bit of a journey, so give yourself a little bit of time to research and find the best product that you would be proud to send to your target market.

2. Create Your Offer Page

Once you've found the product you will give to your prospects, create a web page to advertise your offer. Check out http://bestdealever.smarteasyonlinemarketing.com for a free package that will help you set up and create your offer page, as well as give you a variety of ebooks you can giveaway!

Don't reinvent the wheel here. Web page creation is a simple process these days. Get a package that will do the hard parts for you.

Tip: Asking for too much information from your visitor is not a good idea. Only ask for their First name and Email address to opt-in.

3. Set up your autoresponder

Aweber is a great choice - check them out at http://aweber.smarteasyonlinemarketing.com, it costs $19 per month but it will be well worth it if you continue building your business online. You will build your offer forms in Aweber and paste the code into your web page below. Don't worry, as you go through the process, you will be prompted to provide the information at that time. Don't worry about not knowing how to do something because as you do it, you will learn.

4. Send Traffic to Your Offer Page

Ah, now for the challenging part. Bringing hordes of traffic to your new web page/site. The key is to make use of as many channels as possible. You can go offline, but it is not totally necessary. Online is probably going to be your highest ROI, so I would concentrate on gaining traffic on the internet first. Later on if you want, you can look into print ads, brochures, TV, radio and direct mail if it makes sense for your particular business model.

Check out http://traffichoopla.smarteasyonlinemarketing.com for an easy way to market your business on a shoe-string budget.

To learn more about marketing with safelists visit http://www.smarteasyonlinemarketing.com/clickmail

And that's all I have time for right now...but come back soon as I will expand out on ideas for building your opt-in list.

Thanks and good luck! Feel free to drop me a line if you need help :)

Aloha,

Joy