You have probably also read of online marketers making a small fortune from their own lists of eager subscribers. Sounds like it's simply a case of buying a list or building it through web traffic and then cash in through sending a series of emails. This is frankly not the case!

Building a profitable optin email list takes time and effort mainly in building trust with your subscribers, enough for them to feel comfortable adding their payment details to buy your product or service. This does not happen overnight.

Here are three ways that will help you build a profit pulling list of hungry subscribers:

1. Write and submit articles - There is no better way to build your reputation as an expert in your field than to write and submit articles to the article databases. The byline of the article is the perfect place to put a link to your optin form or straight to your product page where you will of course give your visitor an opportunity to subscribe to your list. Prospects are more likely to subscribe to your list if they see you as an expert and you have also begun to build trust aswel.

Many visitors to my site put my name in Google to see exactly who I am. When they finds 1000s of references to my name built over many years online, mostly through written articles, then they can feel a lot more comfortable dealing with me.

2. Know Your Product or Service - Following on from step one, it is extremely important that you know your product in order to inspire confidence in your subscribers and compel them to reach for their credit cards. It is also essential that you are confident in the quality of your product or service. Believe it or not, if you think you are selling crap it will come across in your emails even if you write top class copy your subscribers will sense that something is not quite right.

3. Only recommend quality products and services to your subscribers - I am referring to products besides yours. One great way to build more profit into your list is to recommend other products similar to your own. But beware, the quickest way to ruin your reputation and ensure the downfall of your email lists' ability to pull in profits is to recommend inferior products or services. I tend to stick to the maxim "If I don't use it myself and find it useful I won't recommend it to others". You can't really go wrong if you keep to this principle.

The idea of drafting an email within minutes, sending it to my list and watching orders flood into my email inbox has always appealed to the lazier side of my character and is a dream come true.

Email marketing truely is the lazy mans way to riches BUT it does take a lot of work, preparation and care in maintaining a quality list of subscribers. Following the points above can help you make this a reality.