Wither Sunflower Over the years, I’ve gained a lot of experience about what works…and what doesn’t.

These lessons don’t just come from my own experiences, they also come from those of members. So I will be sharing some of these experiences with you so that you can learn from them.

However, I warn you: I’m going to give you some tough, frank talk. After all, it’s my aim to help you succeed, so I’m not going to hold anything back.

Today, let’s talk about list building.

It’s very easy for me to tell whether a member will be successful. That thing is: how quickly is their list of contacts growing?

Members who are disappointed with their email newsletter results show a very typical pattern. It goes something like this. They join enthusiastically and upload their contact list. Usually that list is between 100 and 200 people. They then send their newsletters to that list for perhaps four to six months.

And that’s it. That list never grows. Indeed, what happens is that over time, the number of people on the list slowly goes down as emails bounce and people unsubscribe.

Their list withers. And so does their business.

The difference between these people and those who are successful is simple:  the successful people keep building that list – each month they add new names and email addresses.

Here’s something that’s super-important to grow your business (indeed, to stop it going backwards), you need to increase he number of people you are in touch with.

If you fail to grow your list of contacts, your business doesn’t just stay static, it goes backwards. Why? Because, over time, that number of contacts goes down. People change email addresses, they move home…and sometimes they simply die.

It’s not enough just to load your initial list into the system and then hope that’s going to fuel you for the future. Because it won’t.

Here’s what my successful members do.

1) They are always adding to their list. Every month they update their list with the new email addresses they have gained (and who have given their permission to contact them.)

2) They put forms on the website to collect new names. If you want to see how I do it, just look at the Ready to Go Newsletters website you joined at, and you will see a form right there on the home page. Remember the bonus reports I give you? The reason they’re there is so that you can use them as “bait” to attract people to join your list. You say something like: join my list and get this free, valuable information.

3) They remember that their number one job is to collect (high-quality) leads. So every time they meet someone in a business context, they ask if they can add their name to the list. And every  marketing piece they produce mentions the bonus report and encourages people to join up and get it.

Here’s the thing. A business is like a living organism. You need to feed it. If you don’t, it just withers away. Yes, it requires work. But it’s better than the alternative.

Picture credits here and here.

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