One of the most important things you can do on-line is build your own, personal list of contacts.

If you build this the correct way, and build a strong relationship with them, one that contains a lot of trust, that list can really be gold mine to you on down the road.

We read so much on-line about how to sell more, and how to make our sales pages convert, etc, but the one thing I think is missing is good, effective content on how to build a solid list.

Once you have a solid list, conversion rates are not really as important. You subscribers can purchase when they need your product, in their own time; you aren’t feeling pressure to get every dollar out of every visitor, because you know you can reach them again in the future.

So how do you build a quality list?

1) First you must determine your niche market. What are you promoting? Snowmobiles, deer hunting manuals, deep-sea fishing equipment?

Once you have determined your target market, you can begin to think about the best ways to send that type of targeted traffic to your site. Yahoo Overture and Google Adsense are both effective methods of sending targeted traffic to your site.

Writing targeted articles and send the readers to your site is also an effective method of sending targeted traffic to your site.

2) Second, you must have a place for that traffic to go to sign up for your list when they get to your site. I prefer a squeeze page. A squeeze page is basically a web page that is optimized for collecting a visitor’s name and email address. I will usually offer some highly-valued free gift for subscribing, such as a free e-book, free newsletter, or maybe a free report.

3) Third, you must begin to develop a relationship with your new subscribers. Building trust along the way. Think of them as real people, not just anonymous Internet names. They are real people.

Write real, personal emails to your subscribers. Write as though you were writing a friend. Write as if you are writing to one person and not hundreds.

The key here is that you want to develop a long-term relationship with your readers so they will be open to receiving communication from you for a long time to come.

4) Fourth,You must be offering fresh useful information. They must feel like, that by opening your emails week after week, they are receiving real value.

No one likes to read junk, and if you are sending them filler copy, you are sending them junk mail. Eventually, they will stop reading your emails, and certainly stop visiting your web site, and worse yet opt out of your e-mail list.

5) Fifth, once you have developed a relationship with your subscribers, then begin to recommend some of your favorite products to them. Be choosy about what you decide to promote.

The products should be valuable, usable, and worth more than the sales price for them. If you create your own product, the same thing holds. Build value into everything you create, and be sure you give them everything as promised in the sales script.

6) Sixth, continue to send useful information and great content to your list, even after you begin to send recommendations for products. Continue to build the relationship you developed in the first place. They must continue to see you as the expert, the one who has the answers.

Now you have it. Follow each of these steps, and you will find your list will grow on a daily basis, and you will have a productive, profitable list.