Almost everyone, from the all-star "guru", to the small guy promoting his humble website, says "The money is in the list". And, really, having an opt-in list you can call your own is crucial for succeeding online. This one little "secret", can make all the difference for you, between making a few sales here and there, to consistently making money out of thin air, literally. Here's an outline of some of the benefits you get from maintaining your own opt-in list.

- Ability to generate traffic (and sales!) on demand
- Leverage potential
- Advertising revenue

How to generate traffic and sales on demand:

Having an opt-in list, is like owning a “sales & traffic” button! You're literally a “send” button away from generating traffic & sales anytime you want to, because if your list is well-targeted, they *will* read and respond to your offers. Of course, this doesn't mean you can spam your list with ads every time you want, as they will probably unsubscribe, even get mad if you do. But if you keep your communications useful to your readers, you will see great responses!

Leveraging gold from your subscriber's contact network:

I like to think about my list as my joint venture partners. Think about it, it's very realistic to assume that some of your subscribers do have their own list and contacts. If you can get your subscribers promoting your products (even as second-tier affiliates), you're leveraging their resources to your benefit. That's working smarter, not harder.

Easily generating advertising revenue :

Do you think advertisers would be interested in running an ad on your targeted, highly-responsive opt-in list? You bet they do!

Running advertising inside your publications can be a great source of extra income, with almost no work involved from you!

Let's say you charge $5 for publishing a top sponsor ad in your bi-weekly newsletter. That makes you a maximum of $10 a week, or $40 a month, just for adding an ad to a message you were sending anyways. (I'm not even considering other type of ads here) Not bad for covering your business expenses, say, your web hosting and autoresponder account. You can make some good money from running ads on your publications, once your subscriber base reaches a decent size. And as your list grows, you can increase your prices, too! Just be sure not to turn your mailings into a classified board instead of a good read, or your subscribers might start opting-out.

There's plenty of reasons for building an opt-in list. It's so important, that many experts recommend you make list building your top priority when doing online business. Start building or growing your list today, so you can reap the rewards tomorrow!