by: Kirsten Hawkins Here are some hot list-building tips for you to grow your list and your business.

1. Offer an outstanding gift or bonus for subscriptions. Not too long ago, any kind of a free gift or bonus was more than enough to get subscribers. In fact, in many cases, no 'bribe' was needed at all! But, as more and more marketers began to send emails and ezines, and as spam increased, prospects began to be more discerning about whom they gave their email address to.

To really be successful in your list-building efforts, you must offer an irresistible deal for subscribers. Sometimes, if people are interested enough in your topic, they will sign up for your ezine or course. But most of the time you must prove to subscribers that you are serious about creating a relationship with them. This means you must provide them with solid content at the beginning, not advertisements. In some cases, this may mean you must offer a free course AND a free report (or some other combination). But do whatever it takes to get that subscriber on your list.

2. Add more opt-in boxes in your sales letter or home page. The best case scenario would be to have your home page be dedicated to your opt-in list as a lead-capture page. But if you won't, or can't, do that, put your opt-in subscription box on your page as many times as you can. Ideally, you want it at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom. As your prospect reads your sales page, he or she may become more interested in your topic. Thus, the more times he or she sees your opt-in box, the greater the chance they will leave their email for you to communicate with them.

3. Build your list virally. Write a free report on a useful topic (making sure to put your website in the report), visit the forums, and offer to give your report to anyone who wants it. Marketers will take you up on your offer because good marketers are always looking for good content to share with their lists; they don't usually care where it comes from. When a marketer gives your report to their list, your website link will be viewed by many who read the report, and visited by many.

If you follow these tips, your list will grow and will become like gold for you.

About the author:
Kirsten Hawkins is an online marketing specialist from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.pageranksite.com/for more great online marketing tips and webmaster resources.