Rob Fraser here…
One of my first mentors told me that “We are in the lead generation business. Generating leads is what we do.” He shared that quote with me because his mentor shared it with him and this came after asking him about a particular affiliate program that he was in and learning how he was promoting it.
The point is when most people get into affiliate marketing, they want to promote “that thing” albeit a program, product, service, or information product. From my own experience, and learning from others, promoting the “thing” isn’t the way to go.
Generating leads, or in this blog post building an email list, is the ticket to earning online with affiliate marketing. The bigger your email list is, or other lists as I’m going to share below, is the more money you will end up making over time.
In other words, you promote your “thing” by building a large email list, and then emailing your list about your “thing!” The focus is always placed on “the list” over “the thing” and once your mindset changes on this, so will your results.
What Result I Want To Give You?
By the end of this post, I want you to get a basic understanding of building an email list and how you can utilize the same method I currently use, to build your email list for affiliate marketing.
How to Build an Email List for Affiliate Marketing – The Three C’s of List Building
Before I go on, I do want to share the three “C’s” of list building. These 3 C’s are the back bone of my marketing. They are clicks, content, and connections.
The whole purpose of clicks and content is to build connections with other people either on or offline. There isn’t anything outside of these 3 C’s to build an email list. Everything can be classified under one of these categories. If you can think of some new method that can’t be put into these three categories, then please let me know in the comments below!
I also want to share that all I do is follow these 3 C’s and what that being said, let’s get to it!
How to Build an Email List for Affiliate Marketing – Clicks
When I say clicks, I mean paid traffic. Paid traffic can be anything from solo ads, Bing Pay Per Click (PPC), Facebook ads (or something similar), or any form of media buying or banner ads.
I buy clicks every single week from different sources and send those clicks to my capture page or my free list building system. When people opt into my capture page, they are then put on my autoresponder email list.
Buying traffic is the simplest way to build an email list and doesn’t require a lot of time. The downside is when you stop buying clicks, then so does your traffic and list building as well.
I recommend setting a budget and developing this discipline on a weekly basis. Yes, this is a discipline! I take 25 – 40% of my gross profits and immediately roll it back into paid traffic. When I was first starting out, I would take 50% of money made from anything (job, monthly GI bill, etc) and buy traffic.
How to Build an Email List for Affiliate Marketing – Content
Content marketing is the second way to build an email list for affiliate marketing. Content is my back-bone method for building my own email list. Content marketing is anything from posting on social media, YouTube, blogging (hint hint), and podcasting.
The whole idea is to share valuable tips, tell your story and lessons learned, how to information, online reviews, and etc and direct that content to your capture page. The more clicks you have to your capture page from paid traffic or from your content equals more people on your email list.
You can see my personal example at the bottom of this post!
I love combining these two methods and have found that being consistent is the best way to go. This isn’t something to be done once and sit back and wait. This is something that’s ongoing and to be honest, I’ll probably buy clicks and create content for the rest of my life!
I’ve been doing this so long now, it’s just a habit and I share that because when your marketing becomes a habit, then so will you results (in the form of compensation, commissions, and cash!)
How is that for another set of 3 C’s?
Also check out How to do Affiliate Marketing With a Blog
How to Build an Email List for Affiliate Marketing – Connections
When I say connections, I simply mean building your contact list. Building your contact list can be on or offline. Nowadays with everything going on, this is more going on in social media.
You can build an email list or simply have a contact list with your social media. I consider my YouTube subscribers another form of an email list. I may not have their emails per se, some of my subscribers do get notified every time I upload a new video. I also go down my subscriber list and send out messages to new people I haven’t spoken to in a while from time to time.
One thing I will also share is that an email list doesn’t necessarily have to be emails in your autoresponder. Similarly to building your connections on and offline, your YouTube subscribers can be considered a list. The people who follow you on Facebook can be considered your list.
When people are subscribed to your YouTube channel or follow you on social media, that is a form of a list as well.
As I briefly alluded to, social media can be another way to build an email list. You can start a Facebook group and require people to share their email address before joining. Your Facebook followers, your YouTube subscribers, or people who follow your blog.
How to Build an Email List for Affiliate Marketing – My Thoughts
My biggest thing is to have a balanced approach to building an email list. The bigger your email list, the more money you can potentially make. List building is not an overnight thing.
Think of list building as a marathon and a way of life. This will change your thinking and give you the right mentality to find success in your own affiliate marketing.
I also like having a balanced approach because I don’t like relying on any one source to be the catch all end all. I like knowing that I don’t always have to be on social media or putting out YouTube videos and know that my list will still be growing.
Again, as I mentioned earlier, this is a lifestyle shift and once you understand my framework, then it becomes a habit, something you continuously develop, and a way of life! Once that happens, then so does the compensation, commissions, and cash!
If you are interested in working with me or checking out my perpetual traffic plan, then click here!
Until next time!
Rob Fraser