Anybody in Internet business who is having any success at all will attest that a mailing list is VERY important. A well-maintained and ethically collected mailing list means you have a list of interested parties who signed themselves up to be contacted by you. That single act makes them a much better prospect for you in the future.

Often, however, I find that bloggers overlook this. They think that a mailing list is something that “those other people” do. But, if you are giving any thought at all of trying to generate some money with your blog, then a mailing list is something that YOU need to do.

How To Proceed

What you do with that mailing list is up to you. At the bare minimum, set it up so that they will get your latest posts sent to them via email. Not everybody knows how to use RSS. I have this problem at PCMech.com, where we have a pretty sizable audience but generally one that doesn’t know how to use an RSS feed. That’s fine – give them an email sign-up. Everybody knows how to use email, and you can have your latest posts sent automatically. Feedburner and FeedBlitz both do this for free.

Another option is, of course, to do a newsletter. As a blogger, this shouldn’t be very hard to do. You write all the time for your blog (hopefully). So, just write something else which is unique and send it to your email list on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. It is important that you maintain regularity in the frequency to which you send your newsletter. If you do not, your subscribers may forget who you are or begin to find you annoying.

Now, both Feedburner and Feedblitz will allow you to build a list for free, however if you can spring a little money up front, I HIGHLY recommend you sign up with Aweber. I have been using Aweber for quite some time and the deliverability of your email campaigns will be top notch with these guys. They also support blog broadcasts so you can send your latest posts automatically. Better yet, anybody who signs up for your updates via Aweber will be counted toward your subscriber count on Feedburner. BONUS!

But, the beauty of Aweber is that you can ALSO use the list to send out occasional promotions to your email list. This is something you cannot do on the free services. Also, if you start on a free service and later switch to Aweber, you will be forced to re-confirm all of your opt-ins. I learned from personal experience that you can lose half your list or more during that transition. So, starting out with Aweber is usually best.

So, bloggers, start a mailing list. That is, if you ever intend to make any money with your blog.