You've heard it many times: quality over quantity. This is certainly true in the field of e-mail marketing.

Soliciting through e-mails is recognized as a successful marketing strategy that can provide a boost to your website traffic. However, many people handle e-mail campaigns in a manner that becomes detrimental to their Internet business. You see, many believe in growing their list by any means neccessary. They mistakenly think that the bigger the list, the bigger the profit. This is only true if you put in the work to grow a legitimate targeted e-mail list.

However, many fall into the trap of buying big opt-in lists. From the surface, this may seem like the easiest and fastest way to get contacts. Unfortunately, these lists often contain outdated information. Also, this form of e-mail advertising is nothing more than thinly disguised SPAM.

Other programs scour the web and record every e-mail address they find. Again, this is great if you simply want a list that doesn't target a specific audience. For example, if you want to sell a book on gardening, would you have more success marketing at a Farmer's Market or at the business district downtown? Yes, e-mail campaigning is more effective if you target your intended audience.

This is why building your own opt-in list is the best course. It may take more time and effort, but it allows you to target a specific audience that will more likely respond favorably to your product or service. Even if your list only ends up half the size of one you could purchase, your sales conversion rate will be higher.

How does one build their own targeted opt-in list? One effective way is purchasing solo ads in e-zines. Select e-zines with topics that pertain to your product or service. You can advertise with a link to a newsletter. Once they sign up for the newsletter you have their name and e-mail address. Once you have their e-mail address you can begin your campaign. The beauty of this strategy is they chose to sign up for your newsletter which means they already have an interest in your topic. This could eventually lead to a sale. Again, it's quality over quantity.

Another method is to have a newsletter sign-up link on your website. Again, once they subscribe to your newsletter, you've captured their name and e-mail. Then you can begin an e-mail advertising campaign to your targeted audience.

E-mail campaigns can be quite lucrative. In fact, many top Internet marketers employ this method. However, remember not to be fooled by companies that offer a large e-mail list for a small fee. These are just e-mails captured randomly off the Internet. It's far more fruitful to create a targeted list.

Put a little elbow grease into growing your opt-in list and it will reward you accordingly. Remember, it's qaulity over quantity.