Very soon after starting to learn Internet Marketing a beginner hears someone say that, “The Money is in the List“. This usually is met by interest and bafflement and not by the response we might expect…
After all if someone is told that there is some treasure buried in a field – you can expect to see them reaching for a shovel.
Somehow we don’t realise that the absolute priority for an online business is to focus all their activity, all of the marketing on building their subscriber and customer lists.
I think that the reason for this is that many of us looking online for ways of “making money” are new to business and along with learning the jargon of the Internet – a whole load of webmaster jargon about ftp, domains, RSS as well as learning about Marketing.
The “Internet newbie” is frequently overwhelmed and paralysed by this conflict.
And in this state our focus of attention narrows and we look for tips, shortcuts, loopholes etc.
And not “business models”, strategies or systems.
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And for as long as you stay in the state of mind of looking for “Tips, shortcuts and loopholes” – you will not make any progress and you will not make any substantial income.
And when you start to think about systems and models you start to build a real business and you start to build a list.
And that is the time you smack your forehead and curse that you did not start earlier.
The answer to that of course is that you were on your learning curve and the fact – sad or otherwise - is that what we call “list building” is part of all mature and stable business models.
The Internet Business Newbie does not have the background to understand the place and relevance of building an Opt-in list and simply has to work their way along a well worn path littered with failure and half baked attempts, learning as they go.
Provided they are persistent enough or stubborn enough they grow their subscriber base and their income rises substantially…
and the second Duh! moment occurs!
Anybody want to reveal their Duh! moments?
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Filed under list building by on Jan 17th, 2009. Comment. 
Fear of the technical problems is a big barrier to many people. We are not all comfortable with HTML. In fact I learned how to program computers many years before the World Wide Web was invented and I frankly used to avoid HTML like the plague.
It was not really a tech issue for me -it was DESIGN.
HTML is just a set of abbreviations showing where things go on a page – it is a so called mark up language rather than what I would call a proper computer language. Months went by with me tackling issues which were simply not in my skill set…
And in those month no money was being made and no list built.
If Tech Trauma or Design Delirium is facing you – escape it!
Find someone who is good at what you are useless at – either hire them or do a buddy swap, but deal with it. Trying to soldier on is daft – it wastes time and energy that could be spent building your business.
Has tech trauma faced you or delayed you?
I’d love to know
Alex
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Filed under list building by on Jan 18th, 2009. Comment.
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