That is the list you make your money on in repeat sales and sales of your primary products and services.

But remember, it is also the list you must look after most assiduously. The subscribers on the list have learned to trust you and building trust online with your customers is the key.

If you are tempted to sell them short at this stage for a quick profit, you will soon find that you have succeeded in undermining your credibility and your hard work will have been wasted. Remember, you are seeking to build a long-term relationship of mutual benefit, so don't muff it by succumbing to short-term greed.

I have only described a couple of stages of this "permission marketing" model.

Moving your customers "up the permission-marketing ladder"* is the key to success. It does not have to be just a one-step move. You can implement several steps, each one moving the customer relationship to a higher and more personal level.

The role of sub-niches is also important here. As you talk to your list and invite a response, you should also be prepared to place different responses on different lists at the higher level.

With fewer subscribers on each niche list, you now have the opportunity to get to know each customer more personally and open up several lines of 1-on-1 dialogue with subscribers who are now repeat-buyers.

Because they have moved up several rungs of the permission-marketing ladder you know a lot more about them and are now in a position to offer them exactly what they need, and they are in a position, based on experience to trust your offers and enjoy your mailings.

They are customers who are eager to hear from you and willing to buy from you, so treat their trust like gold-dust.

== NOTE

*See Seth Godin's "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends Into Customers" (available on Amazon.com)

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