They make it sound so easy. Want to build a huge opt in list? No problem. Just give away something for free. You’ll have them opting in like crazy. Well, forget about the fact that it’s not quite that easy. Even if you do get a lot of opt ins by giving away something for free, you may not keep them. This article is going to clearly explain why with a true story that just happened to me. I hope you’re paying attention to this very important lesson.

I do a weekly review of products online. Some of them are actually free products. Well, today, I saw this site that was giving away a free report on how to get massive traffic. I thought to myself, okay, this might be of some use, if not for me, at least for my review site. Well, I had to opt in to get the report. That’s okay. I totally expected to have to do that. So I did. Anyway, I downloaded the report and went through it. Now, even though I was doing this solely for my review site, had the report had any worthwhile info in it, I would have stayed on this marketers list to see what else he had to offer. Well, the report was worthless and I opted out.

How many people do you think might have gone as far to download this report and do the same thing? I am going to guess that by the quality of the report, quite a few. So even though this person may be building a large opt in list, it is quite possible that he is losing a great number of them as quickly as he is getting them because of the quality, or lack thereof, of his free report.

I can’t stress this enough and I hope it sinks in. You can’t just give people something for free. You have to give them something for free that they can actually use. Otherwise, you’re not going to build a list that will last, or for that matter, even if they DO stay on your list (some people are too lazy to opt out) it’s unlikely that they will buy anything from you.

I hope that this story has sunk in and that you will take these words to heart. You need more than just a freebie to get people into your list.

You need something of some substance.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.