I was recently asked how to build a strong email list for marketing purposes. There are a variety of techniques out there. Here are the top 5 that I use on a regular basis to generate a large number of potential buyers for products and services:

1. Offer a Newsletter. You definitely want to provide your newsletter subscribers with added messages such as the ones I've identified above. (If you didn't read the sidebar above, go back and read it again - it can dramatically increase your profit by setting up your newsletter as an autoresponder and doing a combination of automated and broadcast mailings.)

2. Offer a Free Course. Most people have 5-7 lessons in their email mini-courses and when a subscriber finishes the lessons, they're done. What a waste! Add extra lessons and continue adding new ones to the sequence.

3. Leverage Your Customers. Do you follow-up with your customers? Not only should you make this a practice, but you should also regulary add "unadvertised bonuses" and other special mailings for your customers to an autoresponder database to be sent to them. I cannot tell you how many new orders come in every week (too many to count!) from follow-up mailings to my existing customers.

4. Use a Partner List. Got an affiliate program? Good for you - how often do you mail to them? Add new messages to your autoresponder sequence to go to all of your affiliate partners! Offer an incentive. Provide them with additional marketing materials. Give them new training ideas and so forth.

5. Co-Registration. Do you have some affiliates or know others who have websites? Offer to provide them access to your mini-course or ebook by placing registration on their website and sharing the list.

Make sure with any of your lists that subscribers know you plan on sending them additional mailings and they have the opportunity to unsubscribe should they choose to do so. This is "standard operating procedure", but it's worth reminding you about.