Research shows that it takes 4-7 times of contact before people are ready to trust and purchase from you. How can you gain that trust if you can't follow up with your customer?

You have to develop that list. You must engage people who come to your site and encourage them to leave their name and email address so that you can contact them again and again. The money is in the follow up and you can't follow up without a list.

Here are 8 simple changes to make to your site that will increase the number and quality of people who willingly leave you their contact information and ask you to follow up!

1. Make the opt-in box to your ezine obvious. You'd be surprised at the number of people who complain about the lack of subscribers to their ezine and yet, when you visit the site the box is no-where to be found. Be sure to make the box obvious both on the page and either in the navigation side bar or in a pop up.

2. Audio and video components are becoming more and more popular. People no longer see this technology as exciting and new but expect it. Audio will help your customer to "see" the opt-in box. Conversion rates for sites with audio report an increase of 30% or more compared to when they didn't have audio directing the reader to the opt-in. Readers like to be connected to people. Audio makes you more real. Audio gives direction. If your reader doesn't take the time to read the directions or the benefits to your ezine they will most likely hear it.

3. Headlines are important in everything related to marketing and this is no exception. People skim what they read and the headline to your ezine might be the only thing they read about the ezine. Give them something to remember. Don't use "Free Newsletter! or worse Sign up for our mailing list." Boring! Instead list a benefit of your newsletter with some mystery: Finally! Keep the Weight Off For Good! or Insider Secrets to Blast Your Sales Off This Year!

4. A hearty description with powerful adjectives and adverbs will help to convince people that leaving their name and email is not a mistake. You will not spam. You will send content rich high-quality information to them to help them solve their problems. Aim for a description between 15 and 30 words. You can even include the description in your email signature line. Answer the question "What's" in it for me? Be sure to follow through on the promise!

5. In your opt-in box ask for their First Name and Primary Email Address. If you ask for just their name you may get first, last or a combination of both sometimes not in the right order. Since your autoresponder will use this information to personalize your email you want it to be right. is worse than addressing an email to Hi Smith, John! The second part of the puzzle is to ask for their primary email. You may even want to elaborate on that topic since many people have throw-away emails they use in Hotmail or Yahoo. Your ezine may never be seen or worse end up in the junk mail box. Just asking for the primary address often gets you the right information.

6. Be sure to have a "Subscribe Here" or "Send My Subscription" or "Send My Free Information!" button. CHANGE the common "Submit" button. To quote a famous marketer "people do not want to submit; they do want free information!"

7. Do you value your privacy? Have you been hit with too much spam? So have your subscribers. Assure them up front that you do not spam, do not sell their address and will not post it on the billboard along the highway. Don't make them click a link to read your privacy statement you will lose them right there. If they have to click through to read an entire page about how you will protect their privacy you probably have something to hide or so they'll think.

8. Do you like receiving more than you asked for? So do your subscribers! Give them a free report or a 5-week ecourse or even a free ebook within the topic of your niche. Give away some of your best stuff. You will catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Be sure that the information is within your niche though. People who are searching for information on dog health don't care about how to potty train a ferret.

You now have 8 of the most important and simplest steps you can take to increase the opt-in rate on your website. They won't do a bit of good unless you implement them. So go now and make a few tweaks and see how well you do!