I receive a wide range of questions from my subscribers, and while many of them seek specific help or advice, some emails come through as solitary cries for “help” with little to no context. If you’re reaching out for assistance, providing detailed information about your challenges can significantly enhance the support you receive.

To help you get the most out of this post, I want to share my journey of building a substantial email subscriber list of over 50,000 using Aweber. In this post, you’ll find insights and strategies instrumental to my success. Think of it as a roadmap you can follow to achieve similar results in your endeavors.

In marketing, achieving success often depends more on optimizing existing systems rather than trying to create something entirely new from scratch. Of course, there’s room for innovation if you’re a naturally creative genius. But for most of us, leveraging proven methods can be the key to success.

I’d love to hear from you if you believe you have innovative ideas or unique approaches! Feel free to reach out and share your thoughts—I’m always eager to connect with like-minded individuals and learn from new perspectives.

Step 1: Promote a Great Offer with a High-Converting Sales Funnel

Effective advertising is essential for building a successful business. Although costly, investing in well-planned advertising strategies is crucial for building and sustaining a successful business.

In my journey, the initial costs included driving traffic to this blog post, subscribing to Aweber for email services, and investing time in research and ad creation—all of which were funded by my resources.

My primary advertising strategy focused on list building through email marketing. While this method involves expenses—such as paying for every visitor to my page—it’s an investment in expanding my reach and engaging potential customers. The goal is to create a marketing funnel that covers these costs and generates a return on investment.

To achieve this, you must carefully choose the products you promote and design your sales funnel to ensure that each dollar spent on advertising yields at least a dollar in return. A well-crafted marketing funnel can result in returns ranging from $2 to even more than $100 for every dollar spent.

The effectiveness of your sales funnel relies on your ability to identify and promote offers that resonate with your audience and drive conversions. You can achieve significant financial success by focusing on high-quality offers and strategic marketing.

Of course, while it might sound like an exaggeration, the point stands: a well-structured marketing funnel can substantially enhance your returns. Do you have a funnel in place? If you possess a valuable skill that others are willing to pay for, then a funnel marketing system could be the perfect fit.

Let me explain the marketing funnel concept and share how I’ve built mine.

Before delving into this, it’s important to note that not everyone may agree with my approach. However, the method I’m about to share is based solely on my experience and the results I’ve achieved. I’ve explored various strategies, but what you’re about to read has proven to be the most lucrative approach for me thus far.

So, what’s the approach?

It’s pretty straightforward. It begins with collecting emails from carefully targeted potential prospects. These emails must be gathered by a third-party provider that complies with the Can-Spam Act. In this instance, I utilized Aweber as the email service provider.

Your marketing does not end after you purchase traffic and make sales through your sales funnel.

You build an email list every time you drive traffic to your website. You should segment your list into different levels of action.

I create one main list for the ones who opt-in for free and have an automation rule that sends my paying customers to a new list. This list is my VIP list. Paying customers are worth more to me as a marketer than those who are on the fence.

The email list is great because it gives you and your prospects a chance to get to know each other. You build trust, engage with them, and make commissions if all goes well.

Just a couple of weeks ago I released my first-ever product as a test. I decided to send an email to one of my lists and that email has generated close to $300. Isn’t that nice? That’s the equivalent of having your cell phone bill paid for 3 months ahead of time.

Cell phone bills can get really expensive, especially if you hold a family plan. I switched to Project Fi many years ago. It is owned by Google, and the phone plan rates are very economical.

I highly recommend you have a look if you’re interested in lowering your Cell phone bills.

You build a relationship with your list and provide value. People will buy from you if they know and trust you. It would be best if you did not take this for granted.

To build such a list I use Aweber. It’s a cost-effective way to store email lists with plenty of features. What I like the most about Aweber is that you can create an extensive email or newsletter sequence and deliver them over time.

You just need to create a good balance between providing value and sending promotions. I send my emails daily, and there’s nothing wrong with that. This is how your life is tailored now. For example, if you’re on Facebook, there is one person you always hear from or read about daily. Once a day is enough or you can do it every other day.

You should prepare yourself to receive loads of emails from raving customers to serial provocateurs. I’ve shared my success and tips and received emails from people who are happy about me sharing the information, but I also get emails that are not so friendly.

I get insults, threats, and even people asking for a refund, even when I’m not selling anything to them. You’ll have to deal with those “Debbie downers” or hire someone to do so on your behalf.

I even worked with some people who thought I was spamming and making false claims. I built funnels for them and gave them the basics to get started.

The results…

It turned out to be a complete waste of my time. They made false accusations, and I went out of my way to help them, but they did nothing with the help. So, let this be a warning to you when you go down this path.

There will be people who will waste your time; try to avoid them as politely as possible.

Step 3 – Your Webpages

To effectively build an email list, you need a strong foundation of virtual real estate where you can capture leads. This typically involves creating and managing various types of web pages. For example, my leads come from a combination of landing pages, thank you pages, email lists from other sources, and my own blog. Let’s explore each of these components in detail to help you build a successful email list.

**Landing Pages:** A landing page is a crucial element for collecting email addresses from potential subscribers. Creating an effective landing page involves a mix of art and science. Over time, I have refined my approach through extensive trial and error, resulting in conversion rates that have ranged from as low as 10% to as high as 60%. Your landing page’s performance depends on several factors, including the quality of traffic you attract, the design of the page, and the persuasive power of the content.

To see an example of a well-crafted landing page, you can click here. This example demonstrates the core elements of a successful landing page and provides a visual reference for your own efforts.

**My Journey with Landing Pages:** When I first started building landing pages, I used a WYSIWYG editor, which stands for “What You See Is What You Get.” This type of editor allowed me to create pages without needing advanced HTML skills. Back then, I used a free tool called NVU, which was a great starting point for beginners.

Over time, I transitioned to more advanced tools. Currently, I use Leadpages for creating landing pages. Leadpages offers a user-friendly interface and a variety of ready-made templates, which make it easy to design professional-looking landing pages quickly. What used to take me up to an hour to create now takes me less than 10 minutes thanks to Leadpages.

**Why Leadpages?** If you are serious about building an email list, I highly recommend trying out Leadpages. This tool provides everything you need to create effective landing pages, from customizable templates to built-in analytics. Here’s a screenshot of what the Leadpages interface looks like:

**Creating a High-Converting Landing Page:** A successful landing page is built on a few key elements:

1. **Attention-Grabbing Headline:** Your headline is the first thing visitors see. It needs to grab their attention immediately and convey the core benefit of your offer.

2. **Clear Value Proposition:** Clearly articulate what your prospect will gain by opting in. Whether you’re offering a free resource or a valuable discount, your message should highlight the benefits in a compelling and straightforward way.

3. **Simple Opt-In Form:** Include a straightforward opt-in form where visitors can enter their email address. Ensure the form is easy to find and use, with a clear call to action encouraging visitors to sign up.

4. **Effective Call to Action:** Your call to action (CTA) should be strong and persuasive. It needs to motivate visitors to take the desired action—signing up for your email list. Phrases like “Get Started Now” or “Download Your Free Guide” work well.

5. **Thank You Page:** After a visitor opts in, they should be redirected to a thank you page. In my approach, I use this page as an additional opportunity to promote my main offer. This strategy not only thanks the subscriber but also guides them to the next step in the sales funnel.

For instance, after entering their email, my visitors land on my sales page. This technique leverages the moment of interest created by the opt-in to present a relevant offer. While this method works for some funnels, there are many other strategies you can explore for your thank you page, such as offering a bonus or directing visitors to a relevant blog post.

**Practical Example:** To illustrate, let’s assume your goal is to capture leads for a new ebook. Your landing page would include a headline like “Discover the Secrets to Effective Email Marketing,” a brief description of the ebook’s benefits, and an opt-in form. After the visitor signs up, the thank you page could offer them a special discount on an email marketing course or direct them to a related blog post.

**Testing and Optimizing Your Landing Pages:** Once your landing page is live, the real work begins. You should continuously test different elements of your page to see what works best. This can include experimenting with different headlines, images, or call-to-action phrases to improve your conversion rates.

**Conclusion:** Building a successful email list requires more than just creating a landing page. It involves understanding the science of conversion, choosing the right tools, and continuously optimizing your approach. With the right strategies and tools like Leadpages, you can create high-converting landing pages that effectively grow your email list and drive your marketing success.

Step 4 – Track Everything

When it comes to spending money on advertising, it’s crucial to keep a close eye on every aspect of your campaign, from start to finish. Marketing, while not an exact science, involves a lot of experimentation and analysis to predict and achieve successful outcomes.

In the world of marketing, we can draw parallels to scientific research. Just as scientists work in controlled environments to eliminate errors and predict outcomes, marketers can manage their campaigns by analyzing data and refining their strategies to achieve better results.

Imagine a scientific lab where you control variables and test hypotheses to understand phenomena. Similarly, in marketing, you can control elements of your advertising campaigns, such as budget, target audience, and messaging. By closely monitoring these elements, you can experiment with different strategies and gauge their effectiveness.

I use ClickMagick to track my incoming traffic, opt-in conversion rates, exit traffic, and sales conversions among other metrics. ClickMagick helps me run detailed reports to see which traffic sources are the most effective and which campaigns need to be adjusted or stopped.

With ClickMagick, I can optimize my opt-in conversions using its split-testing feature, which has been instrumental in achieving my highest converting squeeze pages. If you’re looking to improve your tracking and optimization efforts, I highly recommend ClickMagick as a versatile and user-friendly tool for small business owners.

Step 5 – Getting Traffic

With effective tracking in place, the next critical step in your marketing journey is to focus on generating traffic to your offers. Traffic generation is a vital aspect of any marketing strategy, and there are various methods to drive potential customers to your landing pages and sales funnels.

Let’s explore some fundamental concepts and strategies for getting traffic:

1. Traffic Sources: Effective traffic generation involves exploring various methods such as paid advertising, organic search engine optimization, social media marketing, and partnerships. Each method has its own set of advantages and can be used to attract different types of visitors.

2. Developing a Traffic Plan: Creating a well-thought-out traffic generation plan is essential for success. This plan should include budgeting for ads, targeting specific audiences, and executing campaigns. Your plan will serve as a roadmap for how you will drive traffic to your offers and achieve your marketing goals.

3. Best Practices for Traffic Generation: To generate effective traffic, focus on creating compelling ads, optimizing landing pages, and utilizing various traffic sources. Implement strategies such as A/B testing to refine your approach and increase your chances of success.

In the upcoming sections, we will explore Step 5: Getting Traffic. You will learn about different traffic generation techniques, best practices for attracting visitors, and tips for creating successful advertising campaigns.

With effective tracking in place, the next critical step in your marketing journey is to focus on generating traffic to your offers. Traffic generation is a vital aspect of any marketing strategy, and there are various methods to drive potential customers to your landing pages and sales funnels.

Let’s explore some fundamental concepts and strategies for getting traffic:

1. Traffic Sources: Effective traffic generation involves exploring various methods, such as paid advertising, organic search engine optimization, social media marketing, and partnerships. Each method has its own advantages and can attract different types of visitors.

2. Developing a Traffic Plan: A well-thought-out traffic generation plan is essential for success. This plan should include budgeting for ads, targeting specific audiences, and executing campaigns. Your plan will serve as a roadmap for how you will drive traffic to your offers and achieve your marketing goals.

3. Best Practices for Traffic Generation: To generate effective traffic, focus on creating compelling ads, optimizing landing pages, and utilizing various traffic sources. Implement strategies such as A/B testing to refine your approach and increase your chances of success.

In the upcoming sections, we will explore Step 5: Getting Traffic. You will learn about different traffic generation techniques, best practices for attracting visitors, and tips for creating successful advertising campaigns.

When spending money on advertising, it’s crucial to monitor every aspect of your campaign from start to finish. While not an exact science, marketing involves much experimentation and analysis to predict and achieve successful outcomes.

In the world of marketing, we can draw parallels to scientific research. Just as scientists work in controlled environments to eliminate errors and predict outcomes, marketers can manage their campaigns by analyzing data and refining their strategies to achieve better results.

Imagine a scientific lab where you control variables and test hypotheses to understand phenomena. Similarly, in marketing, you can control elements of your advertising campaigns, such as budget, target audience, and messaging. By closely monitoring these elements, you can experiment with different strategies and gauge their effectiveness.

I use ClickMagick to track my incoming traffic, opt-in conversion rates, exit traffic, and sales conversions, among other metrics. ClickMagick helps me run detailed reports to see which traffic sources are the most effective and which campaigns need to be adjusted or stopped.

With ClickMagick, I can optimize my opt-in conversions using its split-testing feature, which has been instrumental in achieving my highest converting squeeze pages. If you want to improve your tracking and optimization efforts, I highly recommend ClickMagick as a versatile and user-friendly tool for small business owners.

Step 5 – Getting Traffic

With

At the time of writing this article, my favorite source of traffic is solo ads. Why? Well because I can get traffic whenever I need it and at a very fast rate.

All I have to do is go to one of my trusted solo ad vendors to purchase traffic and start receiving traffic to my offer page, sometimes within minutes. Not all solo ad sources are the same.

There are bad solo providers, which is exactly why a tool like Clickmagick is necessary. If you want to make a profit in your ad campaign, you need to do so in a predictable fashion. What better way to do this than by looking at a report from your favorite tracking tool?

Where do I get Solo ads?

Simple, I get them from Facebook groups. There are dedicated groups on Facebook where you will find reputable traffic vendors. You see them in a forum-like setting as they have reviews. Here are some links where you can find solo ad vendors.

1. 1. I’ll start with my own link here (Shameless plug hey… why not 😎 )

1. 1. Solo Ads Sales Testimonial

1. 1. Solo Ads Testimonial

You can get started with the links listed above. You’ll notice that a good seller receives plenty of testimonials, and the best ones are the ones that consistently provide sales with their service.

Browse for a few names. Once you select candidates, enter their names into the search box to look at even more testimonials. When you’re convinced this seller has a good overall performance, you can then choose to contact the seller to make a purchase.

I recommend still that you start small. You want to test out the traffic there with your offer. Try with orders between 100-300 clicks at first and let your tracker tell you if your results are satisfactory. So here is a sound fail-proof strategy for buying solo ads:

1. 1. Select a vendor

1. 1. Review testimonials

1. 1. Place a small test buy

1. 1. Grow email list

1. 1. Make Commissions

1. 1. Reinvest Profits – Scale up your campaign

It’s all that simple: Don’t make any emotional decisions. Let your tracker show you your numbers, and only invest where it makes sense. Split-test your landing pages to improve results.

This step is also very important. Don’t get complacent. This marketing system is all about a numbers game and to succeed you really need to know your numbers. I’ll dive into why this is important.

Your marketing system is a funnel. Your first page is what all incoming traffic sees before anything else. The first step is that you get highly targeted traffic. You should know your offer and who would be interested in your offer.

There’s no point in driving lots of traffic to your website if they are not targeted. Would you send everyone who is a basketball fan to your website that sells knives? No, you would not. Well, at least I sure hope not. So make sure you are targeting the right audience.

The next step is that you want to capture as many of your visitors as possible. Because the more people who opt in, the more people will see your offer.

The more people see your offer the higher the chances are that you make a commission. You want a landing page with a high opt-in rate. If you and I are promoting the same offer, your squeeze page converts at 60% and mine at 25%.

Who do you think will earn more commissions? The page with a 60% option of course! So this step is very important. I could have just brushed through it but this step can help you significantly improve your results.

I use clickmagick to split-test my squeeze pages. I recommend you use the same tool as well because it’s super easy to use. Here’s a screenshot to show you that I am always split-testing my pages

Step 6 – Leverage Your List For-Profits

Alright, now we’re at the point where things are starting to become easy. Hopefully, you’ve set up your funnel correctly and you are promoting an offer that converts well. Remember your goal is to at least break even with your advertising.

If you break even you are building an email list for free.

Step 6 is the easiest to implement in my honest opinion but it’s also a very powerful step. You see this is where you generate action-driven results on demand. Now that you have your email list you can communicate with them.

Share what you’re doing online, share your opinion on certain topics, share value share recommendations, and anything else you think your list will respond to.

In Step 6, I focus on three main actions that help both my business and my subscribers. These actions are designed to maximize the effectiveness of my marketing efforts and provide value to my audience.

1. 1. 1. 1. Swap Traffic: One of the most crucial aspects of running a successful business is continuously advertising and attracting new visitors. While you can buy solo ad traffic or explore other methods, a great way to get new eyes on your offers is by swapping traffic with other marketers. This involves agreeing to send a set number of visitors to another marketer’s offer in exchange for them doing the same for you.

      For example, you might reach out to a marketer named Bill and propose a traffic swap where you send 200 visitors to his site and he reciprocates by sending 200 visitors to your offer. You can schedule these promotions in advance through your autoresponder. If you want to track and verify the traffic exchange, I use ClickMagick for precise tracking and control over the traffic you send and receive.

      Additionally, you can charge for traffic swaps. For instance, I charge a minimum of $100 for 200 visitors. This money can be used for further traffic acquisition or reinvested into your business.

1. 1. 1. 1. Updates and Free Content: Regularly providing your subscribers with updates, case studies, and free content is a fantastic way to keep them engaged and offer additional value. You can address questions from your subscribers by creating informative articles or sharing helpful resources. This approach not only supports your audience but also helps build trust and credibility.

      For example, if you receive questions from your list about a particular topic, you can write a blog post or create content that addresses these questions. Providing valuable content reinforces your role as a helpful resource in your niche.

1. 1. 1. Promotions: I thoroughly enjoy sending out promotions. After building an email list and establishing trust, you can recommend products or services to your subscribers and earn commissions. Your subscribers benefit from your recommendations at no extra cost, while you earn a commission from the product owner.

   You can find products to promote on platforms like ClickBank, JVZoo, WarriorPlus, and through independent product owners. When you find a product that aligns with your list’s interests, you can create a promotional email with your affiliate link and earn a commission on sales.

   This strategy is not only effective for generating income but also a great way to cover expenses or fund new projects. It’s essentially a method for printing cash on demand through your email list.

Use this post as a roadmap for your success in email marketing. If you found the information useful, please share it with others who might benefit from it. Consider finding an accountability partner to get started together and challenge each other towards achieving your goals. Share this post on your favorite social media channels and bookmark this page for future reference. I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.