A fundamental of success in your business is to keep the main thing the main thing…

And that main thing is building your list.

Your contact list is one of the most important assets you have in your business but building up a good list takes time. Unfortunately, for many desperate to make money fast, they overlook this most fundamental part of their business.

You could get a quick start in buying a list; however these are rarely focused enough. Out of the thousands of names, very few will be of people who are interested in what you have to offer and many of the addresses will be invalid.

While there are no quick ways to build a list, there are some list building techniques that can be used to reduce the time it takes:

One of the most basic that has worked for me over the years is SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Optimizing your website or blog means that it come high in search results and thus increases the amount of visitors you will have. But getting visitors is not getting business; that will come later after you start sending them sales emails.

A major feature on your website should be a lead capture form where your visitors can leave you their email address in return for a free download or information. What you offer is very important. The most common giveaway is an ebook that will be of interest to your target market – those who leave their email addresses are those who are interested in what you are selling.

President Obama used a splash page on his website during his campaign and this gave him a huge number of email addresses he used to send out his campaign messages. A splash page is simply a page where everyone arriving at your site is greeted with an enticing headline and an offer for news and updates on the product in general (not your specific product; it’s too soon for that). Once you have these addresses you can use them for sending out newsletters and articles that will indirectly sell your products as well as for direct selling mails.

GVO offers members a variety of splash pages ideally suited to building your list. There are numerous templates you can use including some really cool video lead capture templates that can be customized for a variety of target audiences. You can tie in your splash pages with the included GVO autoresponders for a complete turnkey lead capture and followup system.

List building techniques are not limited to online activities. Ask people you know for addresses of their friends and business contacts and mail these people giving the reference of the person who gave you the address. This will establish a reference and the person you are mailing will be more inclined to read the mail since he has received it because someone he knows thinks it may interest him.

There are other list building techniques you can try, but these are good starting points – just remember that building up a good list takes time and you will need to be patient.