Mailing lists are extremely desirable things to have in the world of internet marketing. If you have a website which sells various products, you obviously want to sell as many units as possible because that is what will make you your money.

So why would you give something away for free?

It might sound odd but in reality it is the best way to make more sales later on. Most webmasters find that the website counter on their site will soon start to reflect more sales when they make it clear on their home page that they are going to offer people a freebie of some kind. That’s because many different people will go for the freebie with no intention of ever buying anything else from you… and yet many people will end up becoming future customers, provided the freebie you give them is worth having.

The key to building a good quality mailing list is to give your potential customers something of value that is closely related to the theme of your business. The easiest freebie to give away from your point of view (and also the one that is seen to have a high potential value) is a report or eBook of some kind.

Now you might be wondering whether your business is ideally suited for that type of product, but with some thought it is relatively easy to come up with something suitable. For example, let’s suppose you run a home wine making business that sells all the wine kits and necessary equipment for making your own wine at home.

That might not sound like the easiest business to create an eBook or free report around, but bear in mind that a lot of people visiting your website will probably be thinking about making wine for the first time. So why not provide them with an eBook about do’s and dont’s they will need to bear in mind?

Once they have downloaded the eBook directly from your website (using the double opt in method to protect you and your business) you can then send them an email once a month which lets them know about the latest products and deals your website has on offer. You know they are interested in wine making so there is every chance that you will receive a good response to every email you send out.

But let’s go back to that freebie for a moment. Should you stick to the same one all the time, or vary it occasionally to get the best response?

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on how your rate of sign ups is going, because if it does start to drop slightly you can swap your freebie for something different. Until that happens though it is usually best to stick with what’s working.

You should also think about striving to get more traffic to your site in the first place, since the higher your hit counter goes the more chance you have of attracting more sign ups for your mailing list in the first place.